Daily Study with Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Of all the wonderful plans to read through the Bible in a year (and there are ample varieties from which to choose), perhaps none is as enduring and well known around the world as the calendar published by the late, great Scottish minister, Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813–1843), who served as pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Dundee, Scotland, until his death at the age of 29. His plan averages about four chapters a day, but it rewards the follower with reading through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and the Psalms twice in one calendar year. M’Cheyne envisioned two chapters to be read as part of a daily family time of devotion and two chapters were designated for private reading.

This year we have enlisted the help of several friends of reformation21 throughout the English-speaking world to provide brief, daily, devotional reflections and comments that mirror M’Cheyne’s reading schedule. The authors include:

Gerald Bray
Iain D. Campbell
Chris Donato
Martin Downes
Ligon Duncan
Ron Grossman
Chris Larson
Mark Johnston
Burk Parsons
Phil Ryken
Steve Nichols
Jeremy Smith
Derek Thomas
Carl Trueman

These daily reflections are posted Monday through Friday and are accessible through the ref21 homepage or can be found directly here.

The authors have taken different approaches in their comments. Some have focused on one or two verses at a time from one of M’Cheyne’s suggested daily readings; others have traced the week chapter by chapter through a particular book of the Bible; still others have weaved a narrative of some theme that has appeared in all of the daily readings. But they are provided as an encouragement to those following the reading plan and as a daily devotional aid aimed at the edification of believers and the glorification of God.

Jeremy Smith is executive minister at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and is managing editor of reformation21.