Our Summer in the Psalms series is the series I look forward to the most every year. This will be the fifth year we have devoted our summer series to studying through the Psalms and I am anticipating it to be one of the richest times yet!
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Psalm 36 is a confession of sin and faith with a prayer for God to continue pouring out his love on his people.2 In our culture, it is common to downplay the reality of our sin as we reconstruct God into a being who isn’t bothered by our rebellion. But David knows better. God is bothered by our sin and he calls us to trust in his steadfast love as we confess our sin to him.
Continue readingPsalm 35 is typically referred to as an imprecatory Psalm or a cursing Psalm.2 In this Psalm, King David literally curses his enemies, complains about his enemies, prays for God to annihilate his enemies, and then, he praises God for his promises of justice and judgment against wickedness and evil.3
Continue readingIn what ways have you experienced the goodness of God in your life? And, in what ways are you longing to experience the goodness of God? When I think about the ways that I have experienced the goodness of God, I think of how he called me to himself, revealed the work of Christ on behalf, and opened my heart to receive and believe the message of the gospel for salvation at the end of a 48mph SUV bumper.
Continue readingForgiveness is the heart of the gospel. The gospel is the good news that Jesus came to this earth to live the perfect life, to die a horrible death on a cross as the perfect substitute for filthy, rotten, rebellious, sinners just like you and me, to leave the tomb empty on the third day, and to leave us with the promise of eternity in Heaven, so that, by faith, you and I could receive full forgiveness (a full pardon) for our sins against God.
Continue readingPsalm 31 is a song about being strong and waiting for God to come through in the midst of the darkest of times.2 When all hell breaks loose in your life and you can’t see three feet in front of you because of the mushroom clouds of conflict and chaos, this is when David, the author of this Psalm, encourages us to be strong and wait for the Lord to show up.
Continue readingWhen I read Psalm 30, I get the picture of someone singing a praise song to God for his deliverance, his compassion, his help, and his restoration. I get the sense that David knew deep down in his bones that he did not deserve to have God deliver him and restore him so compassionately or so helpfully. Nevertheless, this is what God does. God is in the business of taking really messy and really broken people and restoring their lives as he delivers them from their self-inflicted graves.
Continue readingPsalm 29 is like watching the devastation of a raging storm from the safety of your front porch. Charles Spurgeon described Psalm 29 as a “Psalm that is meant to express the glory of God as heard in the pealing thunder, and seen in… [a] tornado…. These verses march to the tune of thunderbolts.”2
Continue readingOne of the commentaries I read on Psalm 24 this week grabbed ahold of the theme of the big questions we ask about God.2 From the moment we are able to articulate complete sentences, we begin asking big questions about life.
Continue readingThe twenty-third Psalm is perhaps one of the most well-known passages in the entire Bible. It is often recited at the bedside of loved ones who are in their final days of life on this earth, it is typically recited again during the funeral and sometimes it is recited before bedtime with children or memorized during extremely difficult seasons of life.
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