Psalm 52
The title of today’s blog is a quote from the beginning of today’s psalm from The Message version of the Bible: “Why do you brag of evil, ‘Big Man’? God’s mercy carries the day.” (vs 1) Other versions render it differently—God’s love will continue forever; God can be trusted day after day; Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever?—but I thought none of them captured it as well as Eugene Petersen. God’s mercy carries the day.
Psalm 50
I love the different perspective you start to have on God once you have kids. All of a sudden, you see things in the Bible from an angle you never noticed before. For instance, the end of this psalm: “Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you.” (vs 22) Do you know what I heard when I read those words?
If you don’t obey me, I’m going to spank you.
Psalm 49
There is a familiar refrain in this psalm: “Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me—those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—so that they should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.” (vs 5-12)
Psalm 48
In your life, can you identify the things that are permanent and the things that are perishable? Can you distinguish between the two? If not, you may be in for a rough ride. When we start treating perishable things as if they’re permanent, it becomes very difficult to part with them when a crisis arises. But the author of this psalm gives us a clue as to what is permanent: “For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.” (vs 14)
Psalm 47
In this psalm, David says, “He chooses our inheritance for us.” (vs 4) When I read this, I remembered how, after the birth of our first child, my husband and I suddenly realized we didn’t have a will and that we needed to get one put together. Of course, we wanted to make sure that if something happened to us and we weren’t around, our children would be taken care of (without too much red tape!).
Psalm 46
This psalm contains one of my favorite texts in the Bible: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (vs 10) This, after a vivid picture of utter chaos: “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (vs 2-3)
Psalm 45
There are different ideas about this psalm. Some suggest that it is simply a song written for the wedding of a king. Others suggest it is totally Messianic and refers to Jesus (groom) and the church (His bride). Regardless of which it is (or maybe it’s both), this verse remains the same: “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.” (vs 6)
Psalm 44
There is nothing else in the world like being a parent. Especially when you have a baby, you realize how children are constantly changing. Nothing much stays the same. They are always growing, learning, and maturing. It’s an amazing process. In our view, maturity has a lot to do with age. While this isn’t always the case, the older a person is, usually the more mature he is. So, the job of parents is to raise their children from infancy to adulthood, guiding them through the process of maturity.
Psalm 43
God has an agenda. It’s a simple one—to draw us ever closer to Him in relationship. I believe He does this even with His perfect creatures—those who have never fallen into sin. Why? Because no creature—even a perfect one—can ever fully understand the mind of the Creator. There will always be more to learn, more to be revealed. And so God is in the business of personal revelation.
Psalm 41
Here was, to me, one of the most interesting parts of this chapter: “Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.” (vs 9)
Does that remind you of anything? It’s pretty much what Jesus said to Judas during the Last Supper (Matt 26:23). And that wasn’t the first time this happened to God. A long time ago, a former friend of His in heaven betrayed Him and started a war (Rev 12:7-9). It seems that God is no stranger to betrayal.
Psalm 40
There is something in the nature of love that makes it everlasting. It never ends, but keeps going on and on forever. By contrast, there is something in the nature of sin that makes it self-destruct. It cannot last, but quickly spirals down to nothing. In this chapter of Psalms, we get a glimpse of God’s nature, the nature of love:
Psalm 39
It seems as though David was going through a time of suffering, and that’s what prompted this psalm. At one point, it got so bad that David asked God how much longer he had left in this world: “O Lord, let me know my end and how many days I have to live. Let me know that I do not have long to stay here. You have made each of my days as long as a hand is wide. My whole life is nothing in your eyes. Every man at his best is only a breath.” (vs 4-5)
Psalm 38
In this psalm, it appears that David is crying out to God over an illness—one that was apparently caused by some sin in his life (vs 5). Although I don’t know exactly what David was referring to, I must say that I can sympathize with his emotional plight. He almost sounds depressed, relating how he feels feeble (vs 8), weak (vs 10), and helpless (vs 13-14).
Psalm 37
Do you remember the Occupy Wall Street movement? If it seems like a distant memory, that might be because it happened nearly 10 years ago now, and there have been a lot of news cycles since then! But for a time, in 2011, the Occupy movement was just about the only thing people were talking about.
People were angry. They were upset and frustrated about the dismal state of the U.S. (and global) economy and the bankers and big corporations who contributed to the financial mess of those times. Calling themselves the “ninety-nine percent,” they accused the “one percent” of greed and corruption, claiming that they had unjustly and unfairly enriched themselves at the expense of others.
Psalm 36
I recently read a quote (and I will have to apologize because I don’t remember who said it) that went something like this: God gives the world everything it needs. He just doesn’t distribute it. That’s up to us.
What do you think? Do you agree? At the risk of being misunderstood (which I hope I will not be), I have to say that I don’t. For this would either mean that God is incapable of providing for the needs of His creatures or that He prefers to let us direct and control His generosity. I don’t believe either is true.
Psalm 34
Okay, so this isn’t a blog about jumping off a building or overdosing on pills. This is a blog about sin and how God doesn’t want you to use it to kill yourself. This is about Psalm 34:21.
There is a battle raging in the Christian church (and the world, in fact) over the character of God. Sometimes this battle is unassuming, on the down-low. Other times, it’s center stage. But the central question in this battle is, What will God do to those who disobey Him, disagree with Him, rebel against Him, etc.? In other words, what will God ultimately do to His enemies?
Psalm 33
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.” (vs 6-9)
