“Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” -Psalm 5:1–3 In this preliminary invocation […]
A Model for Worship
“To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.” Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice […]
Peace and Safety are from the Lord
“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” -Psalm 4:8 What greater joy is there than to be free from all fear, from the torment of worrying about the instabilities of a nation and its economy, or from the vexation of caring about the […]
More Joy!
“You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” -Psalm 4:7 In contrast to his enemies who love vain words and seek after lies (4:2), David rejoiced more in the favor of God and had more satisfaction in having God’s countenance beam upon him than any earthly […]
The Light of His Countenance
“There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”” -Psalm 4:6 As is so often the case for a leader, there are dangerous enemies without (as we have been considering in these Psalms) and discontent, discouraged, and even disgruntled folks within. But […]
Be Angry and Sin Not!
“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.” -Psalm 4:4–5 The opening clause, “be angry, and do not sin” is familiar to the reader of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul draws from this passage […]
The Lord Hears the Godly
“O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.” -Psalm 4:2–3 In response to the men who turn honor into shame, […]
How Long?
“O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah” -Psalm 4:2 There is no end of men who turn honor into shame, love speaking vain words, and seek after lies! They exiled David, crucified Jesus, and will continue to persecute the […]
Confident Prayer
“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” -Psalm 4:1 In the first verse of this evening Psalm, David establishes reasons for his confidence to ask God to hear his prayer. He is confident in […]
God Gives Peace and Safety
“To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain […]
A Benediction
“Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah” -Psalm 3:8 Verse 7 is a prayer to God cried out in humility, but verse 8 is a doxology and benediction. David acknowledges that God is sovereign and salvation is the Lord’s to dispense or withhold as He pleases. But God is not […]
The Battle is the Lord’s
“Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.” -Psalm 3:7 The poetic devices of this verse are in play respective of verses 5-6. David laid down and slept in peace. He awoke in safety. Now it is up to […]
Bold as a Lion
“I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” -Psalm 3:6 The verse is to be taken in light of the previous verse: I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people […]
Untroubled Slumber
“I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” -Psalm 3:5 An experience like this is the high point in the faith walk of a believer. In the midst of grave circumstances in which David found himself displaced and hunted by his own son, he was, nevertheless, enabled by God to […]
A Bad Place to Stand
“I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah” -Psalm 3:4 Distance from Mount Zion, God’s holy hill, where the ark of the covenant resided, would not hinder David from praying. Though he had been unjustly exiled and was far (in physical proximity) from God’s holy hill, he “cried […]
Our Shield and Glory
“But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.” -Psalm 3:3 Amidst the blasphemies and taunting of his enemies, David was not fearful or faithless. He knew that with a shield as large and dependable as the Lord, his safety was not in question. And since it […]
What the Accuser Says
“O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah” -Psalm 3:1–2 The psalm opens with David, the psalmist, lamenting the many (repeated 3x) foes rising against him and speaking disparagingly of his spiritual condition. It seems the […]
Selah!
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah” -Psalm 3:1–2 Something else noteworthy is the event referenced in the title. This psalm was quite likely […]
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah” -Psalm 3:1–2 Of particular note, this is the first Psalm given a title. A “psalm” (Heb. mizmor) […]
A Sincere Kiss (of Homage)
“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” -Psalm 2:12 This passage has long been the subject of much controversy, primarily for reasons of textual ambiguity. Yet, regardless of where scholars have landed after wrestling with […]
One King to Rule Them All!
“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” -Psalm 2:11 We serve God by submitting to His chosen representative, the one He has “set” on Zion, His holy hill—the one who sits on the throne of David (cf. vs. 6 and Acts 3:30-39).
Be Wise and Be Warned!
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.” -Psalm 2:10 Verse 10 is a chiastic parallelism with “be wise; be warned” as the central message. But it’s the two wings that remind us who is being addressed—kings and rulers. If, in verse 9, the subjects are as fragile in their […]
Resisting His Reign
“You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” -Psalm 2:9 Derek Kidner notes the book of Revelation quotes these words, once concerning the victorious Christian (2:27) and twice concerning his Lord (12:5; 19:15). King David, and by messianic extension, Jesus Christ, will rule his inheritance […]
The King’s Inheritance
“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” –Psalm 2:8 The covenant of sonship made to the king in this passage includes an inheritance. The scope of the Lord’s inheritance is not small; It includes “the nations,” and “the ends of the earth.” As […]
The Divine Right to Rule
“I will tell of the decree: 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. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a […]
A Terror to Wicked Men
“He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”” -Psalm 2:4–6 In their rebellion, the kings of the city of man set […]
When the Lord Scoffs
“He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” -Psalm 2:4 Here we have a poetic device called parallelism. Parallelism can function in a few different ways. Sometimes it repeats the same idea in a slightly different way to add clarity. Sometimes it contrasts the first idea with its opposite for […]
Why Plot in Vain?
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’” -Psalm 2:1–3 In Acts 4:25-28, the Apostle’s interpret this passage […]
No Three Ways About It
“for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” -Psalm 1:6 To catch the significance of the passage, definitions are in order. First, “the way” refers to one’s complete manner of life, including the thinking that shapes and directs it and the fruit such a life produces […]
Everyone Chooses Where He Sits
“Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;” –Psalm 1:5 When that day comes, there will be nothing arbitrary or ambiguous about the end of the wicked. It will not be arbitrary because his was a conscious, intentional choice executed in degrees. First, he chose to […]
Like the Chaff
“The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.” –Psalm 1:4 Verse four is what is sometimes called “the turn” in poetry. The Psalmist creates an image that contrasts the blessedness we’ve been observing in order to drive home the point and demonstrate the quality and fate of the damned. […]
The Condition of our Hidden Life
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” –Psalm 1:3 Is there any more beautiful picture of blessedness than an abundance of delectable fruit produced at just the right time by a healthy […]
The Word We Heed
“but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” –Psalm 1:2 The word meditate is interesting. The various entries for the definition of the word in the OED share in common the idea of “focusing one’s mind for a period of time.” The etymology of […]
Delight or Drudgery
“but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” –Psalm 1:2 There is a stark contrast here. The conjunction “but” turns us to the reverse. Not only should this one avoid the inevitable digression of taking the advice of ungodly people to complete collusion with […]
Shaping the Direction of our Life
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;” –Psalm 1:1 The blessed or happy man is the one who intentionally walks in a certain direction. But here that direction is emphasized by denoting its opposite, that […]
Blessedness Starts with Right Worship
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;” –Psalm 1:1 Psalm 1 introduces us to the Psalter, the book of Hebrew worship songs. The first verse leads off the introduction with the word, Blessed. The word […]
The Wiser
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 22:3, ESV) Those who learn from their mistakes are wise; those who learn from the mistakes of others are wiser. In Education of a Wandering Man, Louis L’Amour explains I saved myself much hardship by learning from the […]
Though Shoeless
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud […]
An Admonition to Christian Men
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy […]
An Admonition to Christian Ladies
“It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.” (Proverbs 21:9, ESV) “It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.” (Proverbs 21:19, ESV) “It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in […]
An Admonition to Christian Children
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”” (Ephesians 6:1–3, ESV) “There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their […]
Before the Rain Starts
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And […]
The Cost of Right Priorities
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. – Proverbs 16:8 At the end of the day, it’s better to sleep in a humble bed with a clear conscience.
Getting the Tangles Out
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the […]
The Law of the Harvest
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7, ESV) There is a law in nature—in God’s cosmos—that says you reap what you sow. Paul reminded the Galatians of this law when he told them: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Reaping […]
Just Like Their Father
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on […]
The Christian Life is Supernatural
“And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:40–42, ESV) Supernatural is […]
There is a Difference
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on […]
The Right to Not Retaliate
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your […]
Our Word is Our Bond
“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it […]