I like to latch onto specific images in the psalms, which is why I really like verses 8-9:
8 But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.
Lord, make me like a green olive tree!
Racism is evil; Jesus died for the whole world, and he invites all people into his church.
Here’s the problem:
When I say that kind of thing in church, everyone nods and agrees. We want to believe that those nasty racists over there are the problem.
One of the problems with finger-pointing is that I always place myself in the company of the righteous and good while I tell other people they are the problem.
True confession, however, is only about me and only about us.
This is why the 51st Psalm is such a powerful psalm of confession. In the psalm, David makes it clear:
I am the problem!
Provided to YouTube by catapultdistribution Psalm 51 (Wisdom in the Secret Heart) · Shane & Shane Psalms, Vol. 2 ℗ 2015 WellHouse Records Released on: 2015-1...
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
The superscription gives us the background to this psalm: David’s adultery with Bathsheba. When the prophet Nathan confronts him, to his credit David immediately takes responsibility for his actions.
How can you and I take responsibility for our actions today?
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Note that David asks for “mercy.” Mercy—by definition—isn’t owed; rather, mercy is unmerited favor. But, David asks for it because he knows that God is merciful by nature.
We don’t deserve it, but we need it—pray for mercy today.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
David doesn’t just want to be forgiven, he wants to be CLEAN.
God doesn’t just forgive sinners, but he makes them into saints.
Too many of us accept the first part of the gospel—forgiveness—but reject the second—sanctification.
Pray for God to remake your character today.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
See, this is the truth about sin: all sin is ultimately against God.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
No excuses here, just the truth:
David admits that he has been sinful since the beginning.
Can you imagine if we admitted the same thing today? It’s not anyone else—I am the sinner.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
I love this verse and often pray it over my own life:
“Lord, make me truthful from the inside out, and make me wise.”
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Hyssop is a plant, and among its other uses, the Israelites used it to smear blood on their doorframes in preparation for the Passover. (See Exodus 12:21-23.)
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
David wants God to remake him from the inside out, and he desperately wants God to stay close. Hell is separation from God, and for God to remove his Spirit would be like dying before you die.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
God doesn’t want sacrifices but honesty from us, and honestly requires that we own our sin, confess it, and ask for mercy.
Don’t point the finger at someone else today.
YOU are the problem.
Or, to be more accurate:
I am.
Today we read Psalm 50.
Since Easter Monday, we’ve read one psalm a day, and now we’re 1/3 of the way through. (There are 150 psalms, and we’re scheduled to finish on September 9.)
Whether you’ve read every psalm so far or none of them:
It’s time to reset and restart.
I strongly believe that the most important thing you can do in your life is to develop the habit of spending the first 15 minutes of every day in silence, prayer, and scripture.
With our Psalms reading plan, this cannot be any easier:
Read one psalm every day.
Some days you’ll get a lot out of it, some days you won’t.
Guess what—it doesn’t matter.
Just read your psalm, pray a bit, and then sit in silence. That’s it.
The power of the First 15 is not about any particular day, but the culmination of many days.
Out of the last 7 days, how many have you begun in this way?
It’s time to reset.
It’s the habit that matters more than anything.
Don’t overthink it.
Remember: consistency is more important than intensity.
As Michael Scott would say, “JUST DO IT.”
Let’s claim the promise in v. 23:
“to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”
Order your life; commit your first few minutes of every day to the First 15.
Great things will happen!
Like Ecclesiastes, the 49th Psalm is a reminder that life is short and death is coming for us all, rich and poor, righteous and unrighteous alike.
“For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.”-Psalm 49:10
Life Is Short, So Therefore Be Grateful For Every Breath God Gives You Today.
But Psalm 49 “brings out into the open the assurance of victory over death which Ecclesiastes leaves concealed. The great But God… (15) is one of the mountaintops of Old Testament hope.”
Here’s the verse:
“But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.”
Psalm 49:15
Life Is Short and Death is Coming, But God Raises the Dead!
Be Hopeful Today.
This is victory psalm, a song of celebration because the Lord has delivered Jerusalem from his enemies.
One phrase in particular stuck out to me:
“As we have heard, so have we seen” [Psalm 48:8].
In other words, we’d heard about what you have done in the past, Lord, but now we’ve actually seen it with our own eyes.
I think we should pray the same thing for our lives.
“Lord, help us to see cool stuff in our own time.”
TODAY, LORD!
Let’s take the first line of Psalm 47 literally this Friday:
“Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!“
Seriously. Try it!
I’m teaching a 15 minute Bible study TODAY at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM on Psalm 46, today’s psalm.
2 ways to watch:
After the morning session, I’ll post the video here as well.
It’s a GREAT psalm—hope you’ll join me.
The 45th Psalm is a psalm composed for a royal wedding in Jerusalem. It’s fun to imagine what it must have been like to see one of the descendants of David take his bride and ascend to the throne.
Marriage is everything—we are who we are because of the marriages of the people who came before us. Some were happy and some were unhappy, but all shaped us.
Whose marriage can you pray for today?
I haven’t written any Psalms posts since Friday; I’ll resume again tomorrow. I just needed a break, and we celebrated my son’s 10th birthday—a fun weekend.
Today, we’re reading Psalm 44. Cut your losses and jump back in.
(By the way, be sure to check your junk folder if you don’t see an email from me on any particular day—unfortunately, some folks have said my stuff ends up there.)
Happy Tuesday, everyone.
The power of U2’s “40” comes from its refusal to neatly resolve. But life itself lacks neat resolution, and so the song mirrors life perfectly. Life has times for praise—”I will sing, sing a new song”—and times for perseverance—”How long, to sing this song?”—and these times follow after one another in this life until the Lord calls us home.
I think “40” is my favorite artistic reworking of a psalm, or at least the one that has had the greatest influence on me.
The video below is from the legendary U2 show at Red Rocks on June 5, 1983, which almost didn’t happen.
Enjoy. Happy Friday, everyone.
A época q eu mais curto! Dos tempos q minha banda era, sem dúvida, a melhor banda da história do rock :P
40
I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay.
I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song.
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this song?
You set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm.
Many will see, many will see and hear.
I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
Psalm 39 is a mix of despair and hope and frustration. There are times in life when you just cannot understand what God is up to. Psalm 39 is for those sorts of times.
What emotions do you need to pray through today?
“The psalmist is in physical, emotional, and psychological pain and turns to God for help. He knows that his suffering is a result of his sin and so he turns to the only One who can help him, namely God. He also urgently asks God for help against his enemies who seek to take advantage of his weakened condition….”
“Even before the psalmist feels completely forgiven, he still calls on God to help him against his enemies who want to take advantage of him….”
“Psalm 38 provides a model prayer for those who feel deep sorrow over their sin, not just to express their pain, but also to repent and turn to God.”
Remember, the psalms teach us to pray through our emotions, regardless of what they are. You may not identify with Psalm 38 today, but what emotions do you need to pray through today?
Jack Tar used to get 8 letters tattooed across his knuckles:
H-O-L-D-F-A-S-T
It was a message that offered both instruction—hold fast to the rigging, lads, lest the storm carry you overboard—and defiance—if we hold fast and fight, we will make it through to victory.
I think Psalm 37 is essentially a perfect psalm; every line is worth repeating to yourself and underlining in your Bible.
“It reminds those hearing it to hold fast even in the face of a world where the wicked seem to do better than the faithful.”
Don’t be angry at the prosperity of the wicked, and don’t be fooled:
The Lord will vindicate those who trust in him, but the way of the wicked will perish.
It might seem that the wicked prosper, but that is only because you and I lack perspective: in the long run the Lord will bring the wicked to ruin—if you could see the end now, you’d know that the wisest course of action is to trust in the Lord, because his way is the only way that will last.
In the meantime, brothers and sisters, hold fast and don’t lose heart.
P.S. “The meek shall inherit the earth.” Who said that, and from what was he quoting?
Ever had to look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself of what you know to be true? Sometimes it’s good to say that kind of stuff aloud—I know I’ve had lots of those moments these past 2 months.
In Psalm 36, David sees that the wicked continue to act with impunity, believing they are untouchable:
1 Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
4 He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil.
In the face of that kind of arrogance, David reminds himself of what he knows to be true nevertheless:
5 Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O Lord.
Sometimes it’s good to say that kind of thing out loud.
What truth do you need to remind yourself of today?
Like so many psalms, the Thirty-Fifth Psalm is a prayer for the Lord to defeat David’s enemies.
Question: Praying against my enemies—is that even allowed?
Answer: Yes. More than allowed, it is required.
Remember, the psalms teach us to pray through our emotions, and sooner or later you will have the emotions that come with enemy opposition. Enemies are people who deliberately work to harm you or your loved ones in some way, and if you tell me that you’ve never had any enemies, I’ll tell you it’s only a matter of time: enemies are inevitable. When enemies attack, we have 2 choices:
Lie and pretend that we are so holy that enemy attacks don’t cause us pain;
Tell the truth and ask the Lord to defend us.
Honesty in prayer is essential, and asking the Lord to defeat your enemies does NOT mean you are hating them. To love is to will the good of the other, and if your enemies are wrong, then it is to their good that the Lord stop them from doing greater evil. In fact, the surest way to end up hating your enemies is to
refuse to pray honestly to the Lord (thereby letting your hurt fester into hate); and
have them do more evil to you (thereby fanning the flames of hurt into hate in your heart).
When we pray for the Lord to defeat our enemies we are doing a very important thing: we are giving a desire for vengeance over to the Lord and trusting him to judge justly.
Praying in this way is a way to remove the venom from the bite before it turns your heart black.
The psalms teach us to pray through our emotions.
Through what feelings do you need to be praying today?
The background to Psalm 34 is fascinating—no wonder it’s such a psalm of praise.
10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:
“‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands’?”
12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”
1 Samuel 21:10-15
I have been praying that somehow the Lord would use this crazy pandemic to bring about a spiritual awakening in our country. We are a wealthy country, but we are neither a wise nor good country. I think Psalm 33 offers a challenge and an opportunity to us:
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
All the wealth and military might in the world is not enough to save us if we are spiritually broken. It is from God that we can receive blessing and security, not from the work of our own hands. I like how Psalm 33 puts it:
16 The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
Are you putting your hope in the right place today?
It’s good to confess:
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
But David knows from personal experience how stubborn we can be in refusing to admit wrongdoing:
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
So, I like his warning to us:
9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.
Will you be man or mule today?
“Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Those are the last words of Jesus on the cross—he is directly quoting Psalm 31:5!
Remember, the psalms are there to teach us to pray through our emotions to God.
By the way, when you read the entire psalm, it really changes how you hear those last words on the cross. In some sense, it makes the words of Jesus more hopeful, I think.
What do you think?
The structure of the psalm is simple, its two outbursts of praise flanking the confession in verses 6-10 of overconfidence and its dire results. David’s unaffected delight at being restores shines through every word, quite undimmed by time.
A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the temple.
1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
“For you have drawn me up”—it’s the same word for drawing water from a well.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.8 To you, O Lord, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
O Lord, be my helper!”
David has been foolish because he boasted in good times that nothing bad would happen: “I shall never be moved.”
Then, when bad times came, he realized that he needed the Lord more than ever.
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
David is PUMPED! The Lord has been faithful, and he knows he didn’t deserve it.
What about you?