'Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?' [vs.1] that is how this psalm starts and it reminds me of that old - 'if there is a huge distance between you and God, guess who moved?' - which in some dimensions might be a cheesy christian car bumper sticker, but actually there is a lot of truth to it and i am reminded of a couple of [...]
the danger of this, for me, much like for a preacher to be planning a preach, is that the reading becomes preparation for blogging as in reading to find my blog point... and so i am doing my best to ensure that doesn't happen by trying to read the psalm a number of times, where a later one of those will be to draw out the point i am wanting to share, but the first [...]
ah psalm 8, what a beautiful psalm, this is a classic... this is a sunset psalm, a lightning storm psalm, this is table mountain or niagra falls psalm... it starts and ends with this sense of this person who has just caught a glimpse of this amazing, powerful, awesome, holy, just plain BIG God and as a result he bursts forth in praise: 'LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! [...]
i know it's early days, but already this is proving to be an exciting exercise for me and one of the benefits of working through the psalms is discovering 'new' ones... i am not saying someone has been sneaking into my bible and adding in new psalms when i haven't been looking but often when we read the bible we stick to the passages we know well and like and avoid the harder ones or [...]
this feels like a tired and weary cry from someone who is simply begging God, with his last ounce of energy to "please, just give me a break" or to "go easy on me" the beginning of the psalm sets the tone which carries throughout the piece. it says 'for the director of music' but you can't see Hillsongs or Jesus Culture turning this into a fan favourite. It feels really a lot more like [...]
and on to Psalm 5: this is an interesting one. powerful line in verse 5 - 'You hate all who do wrong.' is that true? of course it is. it is true to where david is at the moment of writing and what he is feeling [and maybe secretly wanting] but is it Truth? absolutely not. we know from reading the rest of scripture that God does not hate anyone - His desire is that [...]
continuing my journey of reading through the psalms at a leisurely pace, making some observations as i go along, inviting you to jump in to the comments section with a verse or idea or question or wrestle that possibly jumped out at you as you were reading this particular psalm: which is Psalm 4 vs 4 jumped out at me in this one: 'in your anger, do not sin; when you are on your beds, [...]
continuing my journey of reading through the psalms at a leisurely pace, making some observations as i go along, inviting you to jump in to the comments section with a verse or idea or question or wrestle that possibly jumped out at you as you were reading this particular psalm: PSALM 3 'Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." But...' [verse 2] i think this stood out for me and possibly not [...]
continuing my journey of reading through the psalms at a leisurely pace, making some observations as i go along, inviting you to jump in to the comments section with a verse or idea or question or wrestle that possibly jumped out at you as you were reading this particular psalm: for me it was verse 4 which immediately jumped out at me: 'The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.' i remember [...]
If you have not yet seen the start of this series of now four videos of educational warnings about Dangerous Things You Can Least Expect then click here or here [but not here cos this will just lead you to pictures of giant squid] but if you have been introduced then please take a look at episode four where I respond to an international letter requesting the topic for the latest video which you can [...]