Day 141: March 4, 2026 – Philippians 1-4, Psalm 42, and Proverbs 20

I was going to speak about the Gospel of Joy, which Philippians is described as, even though it is a letter from Paul. I was going to speak about the second chapter and the kenosis witnessed in Jesus emptying himself for our sake, allowing himself to suffer, even to the point of death on a cross. I was going to speak about Psalm 42 and the very well known psalm of lament that asks God where he is in the midst of suffering. But then Proverbs 20:30 caught my attention and distracted me. All of those other Scriptures are much more significant, they are words from God to live by, but vs.30 didn’t make any sense to me, in fact it was a bit of a bummer for me: “Blows that wound cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost parts.”

I know that we are in the Old Testament and everything has to be taken within context, but it is still disturbing and not something that I would ever recommend that we pass on from generation to generation. How I make sense of it is this Proverb is all about discipline and how those who are undisciplined, and even disobedient, are not able to glean from what is harvested. There are repercussions to disobedience. This author reminds us that sometimes those repercussions reveal themselves in the physical. Let’s go with that.