(credit: Varsha Salome)
David, Don’t Count Your Blessings!
Far be it from me to contradict Johnson Oatman Jr. whose timeless lyrics exhorting us to do exactly the opposite have lifted many a drooping soul- not excluding mine. But there are times when you are tempted to count your blessings for quite the wrong reasons: pride could be one, jealousy another and self-pity, a third and so on.
David succumbed to this particular temptation probably for reason number one. And who was behind it? The passage makes it clear it was satan. No surprises there! Joab sees through the issue and tries to restrain David, but fails; the people of Israel pay with their lives for David’s intransigence.
Why not simply thank God for all your blessings and enjoy them!

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*4 January, setting 1 Jan. 2023 as Day 1