another psalm from David and again, it appears as if he hadn't committed his major facefall yet as he is still muttering about those who have "no fear of God before their eyes." [vs. 1] but once he has gotten over looking at "them" and "their awful sin" he has some useful things to say [so useful we turned them into songs... from songs into other songs that it] Your love, Lord, reaches to the [...]
so in trying to find a way to make the psalms more accessible to someone looking for a specific one i came up with the idea of this blog which can send you to any of the first 35 psalms you might want to check out - the idea was always to grab a thought or two from each psalm and comment and hope that others would jump in and do the same so please [...]
been great hearing some thoughts from my friends and may have some more at a later stage but back to me for now... with psalm 35: as i was reading this psalm [of david once again calling besmitement upon his enemies for all the nasty things they are doing or plotting against him] i had the thought that david's only reference was the old testament God... now one of the big contentions of the Bible [...]
i attended a workshop by Brian Mclaren entitled 'Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?' now anyone who knows my Brian Mclaren history knows it didn't start well - i read a book of his whose title i can't remember but who most fans of his writing have told me is not one of his greatest books and i wasn't that impressed - don't even know if i finished it - [...]
and let Him loose in my life... was end of grade 10 or 11 [or standard 8/9 as we used to call it in the days when we had to trudge 50 miles barefoot in the snow just to get a glass bottle of milk!] when that happened, but let me back track. i was five years old when i asked Jesus into my heart - looking back now i may have not understood the [...]
another one from my friend, Liam: 'I have really got the simplest of ideas for Psalm 34: What strikes me the most is how the Psalmist (David) really keeps on reminding us how much God really does protect us. It is a continual reminder (repetitive, but not boring) that a forgetting generation (such as ourselves) needs to hear. I love it, because I think that often I take on the responsibility for looking after myself [...]
one of my best friends, Rob Lloyd, wrote today's guest psalm for us - he is going for another round of cancer treatment today as he heads towards his 30th birthday celebrations so take a minute to say a prayer for him, for healing and protection from the nausea that has accompanied that, and then read his musings on psalm 33 and be challenged and encouraged: One of the most incredible things about God is [...]
i recently asked a bunch of my friends if they would consider guest posting a 'psalmthing to chew on' and some of them have taken up the challenge/offer and the first of them is my buddy Liam who really got into the psalm... [good thing we kept him away from 119] - so read his thoughts and feel free to add some of your own: Choice thoughts/musings: Verse 1: How scary is it that we [...]
this is from my good friends, Philippa [who i met online when i was overseas] and Emiel [who i met back home years ago] who somehow met each other and got happily married [which is a great story and i don't think i had anything to do with it]: "We are the family waiting (not so patiently) to adopt" My name is Philippa and I am married to my hero Emiel. We are the proud [...]
verse 23 jumped out at me: 'Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full.' my translation says, 'The Lord preserves the faithful...' and i found it an interesting contrast - faithful vs proud - because i don't think we would naturally see them as opposites... yet when i think of being faithful the immediate connection is the idea of [...]