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BIBLE READING: Psalms 132-138             G ratitude is a popular idea these days. Recent reports tell us about significant health benefits for the thankful-hearted, but that should not be the primary reason we express appreciation to God. Instead, we should be inspired by the Lord’s worthiness. When we consider who He is, all He has done, and all He will do, our natural response ought to be deep, heartfelt appreciation.              In Psalm 138, David expresses gratitude to God. We can read it whenever we need to meditate on specific aspects of the Lord’s goodness. In this psalm, David tells us that God: Is good (v. 2). Keeps His promises (v. 2). Listens (v. 3). Answered prayers (v. 3). Strengthened us (v. 3). Cares for the downtrodden (v. 6). Saves (v.7). Attends to our concerns (v. 8). Is everlasting (v.8).       ...

BIBLE READING: Psalms 120-131                 Doubt can be a very scary word.   Even as it begins to roll off your tongue when you say it out loud, your stomach begins to knot up.   Yet at some point in time we have all doubted, whether it was something as simple as “Is God really listening to me?” or as dangerous as “Is God even real?”.   I have always taught teenagers that they must be very careful as they continue their education, because sometimes we can become too smart for our own britches.   Although that may sound strange, I believe it to be 100% true.   We can be so analytically driven to find answers to some of life’s most difficult questions, when in reality those answers just cannot be found.   It is like seeking to find an answer to an equation that simply has no answer.   Let me rephrase that statement, it is like seeking to find a concrete logical answer to...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 116-118                 This is the shortest psalm and the shortest chapter in the Bible. It is interesting that it is also the middle chapter of the whole Bible. It, like so many other psalms, tells the reader to praise the LORD. The second verse contains 2 grand reasons of why we should praise God. First, we should praise Him for His merciful or redemptive or loving kindness toward us; and second, for His eternal truth. It is God’s inherent truthfulness that enables us to trust Him so completely. Truth is God’s character trait that moves Him to always deal or do business with humanity in reality, fact, and honesty. We have learned throughout the Old Testament that our God is the covenant-making Creator, who never breaks His promise. Whatever God promises, we can be assured that He will certainly provide that thing. It moves Him to extend love and mercy to all who come humbly to Him...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 109-115                 “Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”                                           -Psalms 109:1-5                              Commentators believe that as David writes this Psalm, there are a few specific names of enemies that he has in mind. ...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 106-108                 When you spend time with the Lord in prayer each day, it is good to begin your prayer with praises to God. Verses 1-5 of this Psalm would be excellent to pray as a prayer of praise. One of the great blessings of worshiping with other believers is having the opportunity to praise God together. How it lifts our hearts and gives us strength to go about our life through the next week when we've taken the opportunity to meet in praise with other Christians on the Lord's Day.             Man is praised in the world we live in today; many think of man as being at the highest pinnacle of potentiality of all creatures. If you need help, reach inside. You can do anything you want if you try. Is this really true?  Thank God it is NOT true. How miserable our life would be if the only help we could receive is from ...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 103-105                 The concept of the “blessing” in the Bible is a very interesting one.   The word essentially means “to kneel” but has also been known to be translated as a “present of gift”.   The first mention of the word is found in Genesis 1.22 when God “blessed” Adam and Eve and told then to “be fruitful and multiply”.   Then again in Genesis 5.2 with reference to Adam in the first record of the genealogy.   The word is also used of Noah in Genesis 9.1 of God “blessing Noah and his sons”.    Then in Genesis 12.2.   It is here that God is “blessing” Abraham with His promise that He would have a great name and every family of the earth would be blessed because of him.   Then from that moment on, we see this blessing being passed down to Isaac, then Jacob and so on.   Therefore, from the earliest of record in the Scripture the word ...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 96-102                 One of the things I miss the most about growing up in the church and Sunday School in the 1970’s and 1980’s are the memory verses.   I am sure I wasn’t very happy about it at the time, but as I grew older, I appreciated the fact that my Bible class teachers required that of me all those years ago.   I am sure that during my younger years I was trained to know verses like John 3.16 and Genesis 1.1, but my most vivid memory that I have of memory verse work came with Psalm 100.   “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 90-95                 Usually devotional songs are a part of my daily life.   If I am not singing them in chapel at Mars Hill Bible School, I sing them at church, while I work or even when I am driving.   There is just something about singing them and hearing them sung that just warms my heart a little bit.   There are even some days I will read something, see something or hear something that will call to mind a specific song.   Then for the rest of my day I just can’t shake it, it is my head and will probably stay there the rest of the day.   I am in no way suggesting that is a bad thing, in fact on the contrary there are a lot of worse things I could allow my mind to focus on.   It just so happens that two of those songs are found in the reading for today in Psalm 95.   In case you have forgotten, these psalms were intended to be songs that were to ...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 79-84                 This psalm addresses the injustice of earthly judges who were meant to protect and care for the weak and needy. God accused them of social injustices that violated His law. He called them gods not because they were divine, but because they had been put in a place to judge and to execute justice among His people. We can see this most clearly at the end of the psalm when God said, “I said, ‘You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes'” (Psalm 82:6–7). Modern day false prophets continue to misunderstand this verse and concept, and use it to lead others into great error. Wanting to be like God goes back to the Garden of Eden. It was there that Eve first believed the lie from Satan, and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in an effort to be like God (Gen. 3:5). She an...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 76-78                 Someone once said that “those who do not listen to the lessons that history has taught us, are doomed to repeat it.” This psalm serves as a warning concerning this very idea.   Godly people must impress upon their children and grandchildren the stories that are provided within the Scriptures.   Paul would later write in the book of Romans, “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4).   Paul’s point is the same one that David is trying to impress upon the people of his day.   The British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once had a discussion with a man who firmly believed that children should not be given formal religious instruction but should be free to choose their own religious faith when they reached maturity. Cole...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 72-75                 When you were a new Christian, were you troubled by the feeling that becoming a child of God ought to make life easier for you because you had become the object of a heavenly Father's love and care, but instead you found things became worse? You finally found yourself frustrated and depressed, especially when you saw that the ungodly around you were often enjoying life to the full. There are many Christians who struggle with such a problem. It is this very problem that is brought before us in Psalm 73.   The problem is stated for us in the opening verses. What was bothering the psalmist was the apparent contradiction between what he had been taught in the Scriptures--that God was good to the upright and to those who were pure in heart--and his experience in life. He was envious, he said, of the arrogant and disturbed by the prosperity of the wicked. That pros...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 68-71                 “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.                                                                                                       ...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 61-67                 Several years ago, during one of my sermon illustrations, I used the word “awesome” to describe something or someone.   After my lesson, one of our sweet older ladies came up to me after my sermon and said this. “I really enjoyed your lesson this morning, but you really need to be careful of the words you use to describe things.”   I appreciated the compliment, but I didn’t quite understand what she was referring too. She could tell by the look on my face that I had no clue what she was talking about, so she continued to explain.   “Young man, you need to be careful how you use the word “awesome”.   That word should only be used to describe God, He alone is awesome and nothing else comes close.”   I knew she wasn’t scolding me, because that wasn’t her demeanor.   However, she did make a fantastic point.   Although the word isn’t ...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 55-60                 There are many controversial things about the paper and coinage our country uses for money.   Whose face will be on the bill or coin? Are there any hidden masonic messages include? And of course, the most controversial of all is why do we have “In God we Trust’ printed and minted on all our money? The phrase was first introduced on coins in 1864 due to the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War.   It later made its way onto our paper money during World War II, as a means of reiterating that we were a country that was founded upon religious principles which was the exact opposite of our neighboring communist enemies.   In 1956 the nation’s motto was changed from “E Plurbius Unum” (meaning “out of many, one) to “In God we Trust”.    The phrase in not unique to the United States, in fact its origin in found within the boo...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 42-48                 Psalms 42 and 43 go together to form a song of lament, and, in the end, of hope. The song begins with the psalmist in deep despair, crying out for God in the midst of trouble. His enemies mock him asking “Where is your God?” And the psalmist has no answer, since it seems his God has abandoned him. But in Psalm 43, the psalmist turns to prayer, confident that the Lord will hear him. The Lord will deliver him and lead him rejoicing back to the place of worship, where he will be vindicated for his reliance upon the Lord. The psalmist uses the picture of a deer searching the valley for a deep water channel to quench its thirst. This is how his soul feels: parched, dry, and in need of spiritual refreshment. It is this state of dryness that brings about the hopelessness he feels. Because his soul is lacking the life-giving water of God’s word and His presence, he lack...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 38-42                 Average life expectancy continues to climb thanks to the advances in medicine, hygiene, nutrition, and improved working conditions. Yet life is still relatively short compared to eternity. David writes this Psalm asking God to make him aware of the fleeting nature of life in order to be focused and make the most out of every day. David wants to be reminded what the measure of his days really looks like. He does not want to live in the fantasy that this physical life will go on forever, unchanging. He does not want to live in denial. Rather he wants to know that every moment matters and is precious. It is not easy to think about the end of our lives. Partly that is because this is all we know. But David also knows that there is something beyond this life. Living this life in the same way the wicked do is not an answer to the shortness of life. Living life in de...

BIBLE READING: Psalm 35-37                 Psalm 37 is perhaps best known for this promise: “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” But there’s a lot more going on here, all of which expands on the theme of delighting in the Lord.   Let’s take a closer look at this psalm and glean some valuable wisdom.             Do not fret (verse 1). Evil and those who carry it out will be with us until the end. But this is no reason to worry because God is sovereign and has supreme authority over all things. Trust in the Lord (verse 3). The Lord is in control of your future and the destiny of all men, good and evil. You can trust in Him. Take delight in the Lord (verse 4). Be sure your desires are in line with God’s. Find delight in Him, and He will give you what your heart longs for. Commit your way to the Lord (verse 5)....