Category: Psalms
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Watching (for) God
O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress. (Psalm 59:9) In this psalm, David is under hostile surveillance. King Saul has sent men to watch David, to spy out an opportunity to kill him. He describes these men as evil, bloodthirsty, and fierce. This is no idle threat…
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Rejoicing In Who God Is
The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. (Psalm 58:10) This is not a popular sentiment. It strikes us as wrong somehow. Yet here it is, in scripture. The context of the entire psalm makes clear this is God’s vengeance against the wicked.…
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Awake the Dawn
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! (Psalm 57:7-8) Here’s a guy who intends to make so much noise praising God, as to “awake the dawn”. Notice he didn’t say he was going…
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Tears in a Bottle
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? (Psalm 56:8) David experienced some rough times. He was betrayed. He had enemies. He experienced a lot of unsettled time both before, and during, his kingship. In this psalm, he has enemies coming at him from…
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Being a Nobody
He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. (Psalm 78:70-72) I am a nobody, how about you? In God’s kingdom being a nobody…
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Joy in Trusting, Not Taking
Restore to me the joy of your salvation (Psalm 51:12) This is one of my favorite psalms. David wrote it after being confronted, and convicted, by the prophet Nathan. Nathan fingered David as “the man” in a plot that would make Hollywood drool. A king, a beautiful girl who happens to be another man’s wife,…
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Light and Truth
Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! (Psalm 43:3) We live in a land of shadows. There is a dark power which rules in the minds and hearts of all men who are not awakened to the light of…
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The Walking (Spiritually) Dead
To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. (Psalm 28:1) Those who are content to hear only their own voice in prayer, become like dead people spiritually. Spiritual zombies if you will. Prayer…
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Sight and Joy
I have set the Lord always before me; (Psalm 16:8) Psalm 16 is a prophetic psalm, speaking of Jesus’ future death and resurrection. Here in verse 8, this phrase caught my attention. What does it mean to “set the Lord always before” you? What did David mean? How did Christ fulfill this? What does it mean…
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How Majestic Is His Name!
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1, 9) David both begins and ends this psalm with that declaration. It’s not a question. It’s an exclamation! God’s name is majestic because God is majestic. He is beautiful beyond our reckoning. In the seven verses in between these twin…