When last did you lament out loud? Anyone who knows me even just a medium amount will know, when they saw that cover pic verse, that there was a huge and loud BUT on the way. We love happy endings, hope-filled verses and to quote the promises of God to each other [even when we quote them out of context like Jeremiah 29.11 - i dare you to read the whole chapter and even just [...]
This is an interesting psalm: the heading in my bible says, 'Of Solomon' and yet verse 29 says 'this concludes the prayers of David, son of Jesse' so who actually wrote it? And if you read the psalm it is talking about the king and how great he is going to be, so if Solomon did write this himself then it seems to smack of a little bit of 'Look at me! Look how great [...]
This feels like a psalm for old people [like me]. So if you're not even partly old, maybe bookmark this and come back and read it in ten years or so... And seriously go and read the whole psalm - i am not going to go through all of it here, but it really is a good one to read all the way through: 1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be [...]
1 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him. 2 May you blow them away like smoke— as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God. i'm not going to lie, i often don't quite know what to do with some of the anger and violence of the Old Testament. When i was young it was as black and white as an old A-team episode [google it, kids!] [...]
This is such a short baby of a psalm that it is worth publishing the whole thing here: 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— 2 so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. 3 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. 4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity [...]
When you're weary... DAYS 23-24ish As we head into the weekend again i have combined today and tomorrow into one post. Please use accordingly. They say ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’ although i would say sometimes that ‘Familiarity breeds familiarity’ which means that sometimes things that are completely profound, can lose some of their depth and meaning [for us] simply because we see them so many times that we get used to them and possibly skim over them and [...]
Welcome to the Lent experience… it's not too late to join in... Each day for 40 days i will be posting a suggestion to give you an action or focus point or challenge for the day as we head towards Easter time and want to spend the time meaningfully by focusing more on who God is and what He did, learning to love people more deeply and slowing down from the busyness and caught-up-ness of [...]
as i read the first four lines of this psalm it felt like i was part of a liturgical choir speaking them out: 1 Praise awaits You, our God, in Zion; to You our vows will be fulfilled. 2 You who answer prayer, to You all people will come. the psalm is subtitled as being a song of David and so maybe that is why it conveys that fullness of message and delivery. i can imagine a congregation [...]
what an incredible psalm. we know it was 'To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks” which makes me wonder what type of genre song that was? is this David at his hip hop best? the title does have more of a country feel to it, or maybe a rock ballad? who knows, but it makes for interesting speculation. we also know this psalm is from 'when the Philistines seized him in Gath' so [...]
this is not a completely happy psalm. here we see David once again, who was the same guy who brought us this in Psalm 23: 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with [...]
