August 10, 2024
“Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!” (Psalm 31:16 ESV). David requested God’s help based on God’s attributes rather than on his own worthiness. He didn’t negotiate with God, offering to make a sacrifice or some other payment. No, he based his supplications on God’s ability and willingness to
August 8, 2024
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness” (Psalm 30:11 ESV). David knew what it meant to mourn a loss or grieve a disappointment. He had sat weeping in sackcloth to express his repentance for sin, crying out to God for forgiveness. David knew
July 30, 2024
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalms 23:1 ESV). When he wrote this psalm, King David must have been reflecting on his youth when he shepherded his father’s flock. As he remembered how the sheep trusted and depended on him as their shepherd, he wrote of his determination to depend on the
July 28, 2024
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1 ESV). David wrote this Messianic psalm that prophesied not only what Christ would say on the cross but the manner of His death as well. For centuries before the Romans had devised the torture of crucifixion, David described it some detail in this psalm.
July 21, 2024
“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15 ESV). David’s psalm anticipated the reality of going to sleep in this world and awaking to the righteous face of the Lord in the next. The Spirit inspired him with expectation of a
July 14, 2024 | Psalm 99
Why is it important for us to consider God’s holiness? Indeed, the word “holy” might be taken negatively by some. If someone calls you a “Holy Joe,” or refers to you as “holier than thou,” you might take it to mean that they think you are judgmental, that you think you’re better than them or that you’re really a hypocrite. So, we have a little trouble with the word “holy.” Yet, God says to His people, “Be holy, for I am holy”
But before we try to understand what it might mean for us to be holy, we first need to get a grasp on what it means that “God Is… Holy.” In Psalm 99, the Psalmist called worshipers to praise God for His holiness. We can praise God for His holiness.
July 13, 2024
“…to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless” (Psalms 10:14b ESV). The psalmist began by questioning where God is when the wicked persecute the poor. For the wicked appear to prosper and take advantage of the widow and the fatherless. Like a lion they lay in wait to attack
July 7, 2024
“O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch” (Psalm 5:3 ESV). David wrote this psalm describing his habit of seeking the Lord in prayer in the morning. He spoke of how he cried out to the Lord and then watched and waited for
July 7, 2024 | Psalm 107:1-3
“Is God really good?” You ask. Sometimes you may have doubted God’s goodness. For if any of us has had a trauma, a bad diagnosis, lost a job, or suffered a failed relationship… then we’ve asked the age-old question: “If God is good, then why are these bad things happening to me?” Most of us affirm God’s goodness until something bad happens to us.
Perhaps it is our understanding of God and our understanding of what is truly good that is lacking. For who are we to approve of what is good or not? In Psalm 107, the Psalmist encouraged his hearers to give thanks to the LORD for His goodness. We can give thanks to the LORD for His great goodness towards us.
July 4, 2024
“The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalm 2:7-8 ESV). The book of Acts attributes this psalm to David. Yet David did not, nor did any other Jewish king,