Tag: jesus
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Find Strength in God
5Blessed are those whose strength is in you…–Psalm 84 I had the absolute honor to teach on Step 4 last night at our local Celebrate Recovery. Doing a fearless moral and spiritual inventory years ago absolutely changed my life and I am grateful for this pivotal ministry. The main verse for Celebrate Recovery is on…
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Your Name Is Near
1We give thanks to you, O God;we give thanks, for your name is near.We recount your wondrous deeds.–Psalm 75 The oddness of the expression grabbed ahold of me this morning. God’s name is near. Let’s look at Hebrew word usage and see if we can figure this out. For it was something that the psalmist Asaph…
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Do You Carry a Burden?
19Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation.–Psalm 68 David carried burdens. At one time, he ran from a tyrant king that wanted to kill him. David even had opportunities to kill this king and be free of the burden, but refused to touch the one God had made king.…
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Predestination, David Style
1Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,and to you shall vows be performed.2O you who hear prayer,to you shall all flesh come.3When iniquities prevail against me,you atone for our transgressions.4Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness…
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God, the Only Hope
7Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,8for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,9that he should live on forever and never see the pit.–Psalm 49 The general understanding was that after death, a person went to Sheol, the underworld, the grave, the place…
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For They Shall Be Comforted
11You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,12that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!–Psalm 30 We don’t know why David was mourning. This psalm was part of the dedication of the Temple that…
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The Satisfied Sheep
1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.–Psalm 23 One of the most famous chapters of the Bible. It’s a guaranteed read at a funeral graveside service, and it’s a fountain of theology. Yeah, you read that right. We just need this verse. A verse so famous, that you might be able to approach random people…
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Looking Back
18they divide my garments among them,and for my clothing they cast lots.–Psalm 22 Today’s reading is hard to digest. David was going through something tremendously difficult. And the psalm doesn’t tell us what it was. We know that for the first half of his adult life, David was chased like a vigilante around the country…
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Forever King
“…16The LORD is king forever and ever…”–Psalm 10 The person who wrote this psalm really struggled with the world. He saw society as full of people who treated others badly. The poor were taken advantage of by the powerful. The wicked people afflict others with injustice and do so as a means of renouncing God. And for…
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Cashing that Paycheck
20“The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.–Deuteronomy 28, part 2 The final chunk of this chapter is a depressing jolt of reality. Show covenant love to God…
