two things about this short but delightful psalm 13: which begins with, 'How long, O Lord, Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?'[vs.1] but first a quick recap: 'O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!' [psalm 3.1] 'Give me relief from m distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.' [psalm 4.1] 'Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my [...]
another short psalm but a lot in it, although the part i want to pick up on is the last line: 'You, LORD, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked, who freely strut about when what is vile is honored by the human race.' [vs.7-8] this is quite a tricky one and i won't go deeply into specifics, but i see this line as a warning for us who [...]
psalm 11: 'In the LORD I take refuge. How then can you say to me: “Flee like a bird to your mountain."' [vs.1] i love it. i have spoken on this very topic on many occasions. i call it - "Trust God, but have a backup plan." and it is how i see so many christians living their lives... say you are trusting God but just in case God doesn't come through, make sure you [...]
'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 [...]
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 [...]