Complex Devotion

self, church

Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
1	2	3	4	5
2	4	6	8	10
3	6	9	12	15
4	8	12	16	20
5	10	15	20	25
6	12	18	24	30
7	14	21	28	35
8	16	24	32	40
9	18	27	36	45
10	20	30	40	50
11	22	33	44	55
12	24	36	48	60
13	26	39	52	65
14	28	42	56	70
15	30	45	60	75
16	32	48	64	80
17	34	51	68	85
18	36	54	72	90
19	38	57	76	95
20	40	60	80	100
21	42	63	84	105
22	44	66	88	110
23	46	69	92	115
24	48	72	96	120
25	50	75	100	125
26	52	78	104	130
27	54	81	108	135
28	56	84	112	140
29	58	87	116	145
30	60	90	120	150
31	62	93	124	155

My wife and I have been in the habit of using Tabletalk during the past few months, since it is offered for free on racks throughout the sunday school building at our church. The first Sunday in June, however, all the copies of the June issue of Tabletalk had been snapped up and the July issues were already out.

We went about a week without any kind of devotionals, and Rachel suggested that I just read passages out of the Bible. While i was growing up, when my dad wasn't sure what to read, he just read the chapter out of Proverbs corresponding to the day of the month. This works out well, because there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Though this is a fine approach, I personally was bored with it, so this past Monday, I came up with a variation on this on the fly. It works like this:

• Determine the date of the month,
• Determine what number workday it is. (i.e. Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, etc.)
• Multiply these two numbers together and read the corresponding chapter in the Psalms.

So the way this system worked out this week was that we read Psalm 14 on Monday (14 x 1 = 14), Psalm 30 on Tuesday (15 x 2 = 30), Psalm 48 on Wednesday (16 x 3 = 48), Psalm 68 on Thursday (17 x 4 = 68), and Psalm 90 on Friday (18 x 5 = 90). A nice survey of a diverse set of Psalms without boring anyone to tears with linearity. It works out pretty well, because there are about 30 days in a month, 5 days in a work week, and 150 Psalms, and having no Psalm to read because it's Friday the 31st happens pretty rarely (The next one is the last day of 2004, and the next one after that is March 2006). A chart of the Psalms covered is shown to the right. Psalms with a chance of repetition are shown in yellow.

As can be seen on the chart, only 92 out of 150 Psalms could be read under this system. Also, there is a chance that any of 39 particular psalms may be repeated within one month. So there's no one-to-one correspondence as in the monthly Proverbs system. But a convenient thing about this system is that it misses Psalm 119, which is quite a long passage.

Use it if you need it. Don't forget to feed it.

  Posted by Ben at 6/18/2004 07:51:00 PM