Psalm 112
Here is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life: When we fear God, we won’t be afraid of anything. When we don’t fear God, we will be afraid of everything. Of course, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, “fearing” God doesn’t have anything to do with being terrified of Him. It means to respect Him, to stand in awe of Him, to understand that He is over all and above all.
Psalm 111
Recently, I read this maxim on Facebook: Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in your fruit salad. Knowledge and wisdom are definitely not the same thing. We live in a world where there is a lot of knowledge, but not much wisdom. In fact, in today’s culture, many people jettison wisdom (which begins with reverent awe for God) because of their so-called knowledge (ignoring God in the name of “reason”).
Psalm 110
This is one of the most well-known and well-quoted Old Testament passages—referred to in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament passage. Jesus Himself referenced this psalm to confound the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 22. Of course, Jesus is the subject of this psalm, and it has much to teach us about His mission both on earth and in heaven at present.
Psalm 109
God blesses us, even when we curse Him. This is something that is far too often ignored—or not even realized—in Christianity today. As a collective group, we Christians don’t seem comfortable with or cognizant of the fact that God repays evil with good. He is a friend to His enemies. He forgives those who hurt Him. He blesses while we curse.
Psalm 108
At the end of this psalm, David says he is confident that, with God, they will prevail: “With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.” (vs 13) This was very important to David, and in many ways, it was important to God. In David’s day, the worth of a god was determined by his nation’s success on the battlefield. Thus, the more success Israel had, the better God looked—not only to the Israelites, but also to the surrounding heathen nations.
Psalm 107
At a Bible study I attended recently, someone remarked that we sinful human beings have a pretty distorted view of love. I totally agree. I feel like there is a recent trend within Christianity to paint Jesus as a “nice” guy and call it love. Whether that takes into account the whole of Jesus’ interactions with people is another question. (Some might not think calling people snakes and frauds qualifies as “nice”.)
Psalm 105
If you read this psalm in your Bible today, you discovered that it is a recitation of the history of God’s acts in Israel—including a long passage about the ten plagues of Egypt. So, even though this is Psalms, I decided to reiterate a great lesson about God that we learn from the Egyptian plagues: God is a light. Just imagine what it must have been like to be Pharaoh. He was “the” god in a land of gods. The ancient Egyptians had a god for everything—and I do mean everything. They worshiped over 2,000 gods that they believed controlled everything—from the sky to the River Nile to childbirth.
Psalm 104
Ha! I love the simple title of this blog. I know what you must be thinking—duh! But it’s really the only thing that came to mind after reading Psalm 104. This verse summed it up well: “Lord, you have made many things; with your wisdom you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.” (vs 24)
Psalm 103
Do you doubt the title of this blog? It’s straight out of Psalm 103: “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (vs 2-5)
Psalm 102
I have been preparing church services out of the Old Testament for the last few weeks, so I currently have my head filled with thoughts of Pharaoh and the ten plagues. And that may be why this verse from today’s psalm jumped out at me: “My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.” (vs 11)
Psalm 100
This has always been one of my most favorite psalms. I think I used to hear it on a recording as the introduction to a song when I was a child. In my mind, I can still hear a conglomeration of different children’s voices reciting the verses of this psalm. It is succinct and simple. It’s my kind of psalm.
Psalm 99
Shortly before giving birth to our first daughter, I watched an episode of the Supernanny television show, where the family being chronicled included a dad who “spanked” his children. I put that word in scare quotes because his “spanking” really amounted to nothing more than hitting the kids when he was angry or frustrated. Sometimes the blows would fall on their bottoms; other times, he hit their arms, legs, or back.
Psalm 98
I read a lot of commentaries on this chapter. Most agree that the psalmist had Christ’s second coming in mind when writing this psalm. Commentator William D. Barrick wrote, “In 1719 Isaac Watts published ‘Joy to the World’ from the text of Psalm 98. His carol speaks far more about Christ’s return as King than it does about His coming as a baby in Bethlehem.” And to that, I say, as if He wasn’t a King in Bethlehem?
Psalm 97
In this psalm, we find a very famous, very traditional description of God’s throne: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” (vs 2) We may hear that a lot, but what does it mean? What is righteousness? What is justice? And what does it mean to say that they are the foundation of God’s throne?
Psalm 94
And once again, we encounter an uber-familiar theme in this psalm—God’s dealings with the wicked: “The LORD is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth.” (vs 1) Immediately, we must recognize that the word used here is “avenge” and not “revenge.” In the Hebrew language, to avenge means to set right; to get revenge means, well, to get revenge.
Psalm 93
To the Hebrew mind, the sea was associated with evil. In Isaiah 57, Isaiah wrote that the wicked were like the sea. In Psalm 89, the psalmist wrote that the raging sea was akin to the opponents of the Lord. In Revelation, the sea is pictured as the birthplace of the Satanic beast (Rev 13) and the place of the dead (Rev 20). No wonder, when John pictured the earth made new, he wrote that the sea had disappeared (Rev 21).
