PSALMS

PSALM 101

 

This psalm of David was probably written around the time he was anointed king of Israel. Although he had been anointed king in his youth by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:1-13) and again by his own tribe of Judah shortly after the death of Saul (2 Samuel 2:1-4), it was not until some time later that all Israel anointed David as their king (2 Samuel 5:1-5). Having so much time to think about the abuses of the failed reign of King Saul and about how he could rectify those wrongs and rule righteously, David penned these resolutions, which he was personally resolved to keep, as God’s viceroy and Israel’s monarch. For this reason, this psalm not only became known as “The Prince’s Psalm,” but also as recommended reading for all monarchs and magistrates. Unfortunately, it’s not required reading for all elected and appointed officials in modern-day America, who I’m sure, for the most part, have never read it nor know anything about it.

 

PSALM 101:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.” (Psalm 101:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was resolved to sing on his throne of the mercy and justice of God, for to be a godly king his judgments would not only have to be truly just, but also tempered with mercy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice is dissolution.” (Thomas Aquinas)

 

PSALM 101:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” (Psalm 101:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David, who was resolved to walk wisely, not wrongly, both publicly and privately, prayed for God to be with him, knowing that unless God accompanied and aided him, his resolve would soon dissolve.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not in public, but in the privacy of our own home, where our gait with God is best gauged.

 

PSALM 101:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” (Psalm 101:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was resolved that no wrong would ever catch his eye and that no wrongdoer would ever keep him company.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the hatred of vice that guards the gate of the heart of virtue.

 

PSALM 101:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.” (Psalm 101:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was not only resolved not to keep company with perverse people, but also to be so pious himself that no perverse person would ever want to keep company with him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: True Christians do not have to disassociate themselves with transgressing nonChristians, for no sinning sinner seeks to socialize with a sanctified saint. (1 Peter 4:3-4)

 

PSALM 101:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.” (Psalm 101:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was resolved to turn his back on all backstabbers and to rid his courts of the conceited, those who not only have their nose in the air, but also arrogantly look down their nose at others.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Political elitists, who perceive themselves as superior to the populace, pose a serious threat to any state, since they see their coercion of the citizenry as the best thing for their country.

 

PSALM 101:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.” (Psalm 101:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was resolved to find faithful people to fill his palace, not only to serve him on his throne, but also to sup with him at his table.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Any throne surrounded by the treacherous is surely to totter.

 

PSALM 101:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.” (Psalm 101:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was not only resolved to have no liar residing in his palace, but also to remove all liars from his sight. He would not even look upon them, much less live with them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God refuses to let liars enter into His Heaven, why should God’s people entertain them in their homes? (Revelation 22:14-15)

 

PSALM 101:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.” (Psalm 101:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was resolved to deal out swift and sure justice to the wicked, lest wickedness be unrestrained rather than repressed throughout his realm.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Justice delayed is justice denied.” (William Gladstone)

 

PSALM 102

 

This psalm is the prayer of a patriotic and suffering saint, who finds solace, despite his country’s sad state of affairs and his personal overwhelming sorrows, in God’s absolute sovereignty and approaching salvation. This psalm is also numbered among the book of Psalms Penitential Psalms, but, as Charles Spurgeon observes, is more of a mourning over one’s suffering than one’s sinning.

 

PSALM 102:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee.” (Psalm 102:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Prayer for prayer’s sake is a mere pretense of piety, for if God pays no attention to our prayers or gives no audience to our cries, it is of no avail for us to pray.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The true prayer warrior is not enamored with the sound of his own voice, but with entering within the veil and knowing that he or she has gained the ear of God and an audience with God.

 

PSALM 102:2

 

BIBLE TEXT:   “Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.” (Psalm 102:2 KJV)  

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is not the troubles of life or the anguish of troubling times that is unbearable, but the sense that God has turned away in times of trouble and will not answer when we pray.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we are permitted to pray for God to answer us swiftly, when we feel our need for His intervention most urgently, we must not permit our importunity to became petulance, by protesting either a delayed or denied answer to our prayer.

 

PSALM 102:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.” (Psalm 102:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The depths of human despair are well described in this verse, in which the psalmist speaks of his sorrows making his life as unsubstantial and insignificant as smoke, which quickly dissipates and disappears.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a distressed soul has sunk into such depression as to feel, as the psalmist did, that they are the last dying ember on the hearth, about to burn out into the darkness.

 

PSALM 102:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.” (Psalm 102:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As grass is smitten by the scythe and withered by the sun, the heart can be so smitten and withered by sorrow as to leave one reduced to skin and bones.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Happiness rarely keeps company with an empty stomach.” (Japanese Proverb)

 

PSALM 102:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.” (Psalm 102:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist compares himself to solitary birds, whose mournful cries are heard among the ruins or on rooftops, where they keep lonely vigils as lone sentries over perishing places.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “From yonder ivy-mantled tower  

       The moping owl does to the moon complain            

       Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,  

       Molest her ancient solitary reign.” (Thomas  Gray)

 

PSALM 102:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.” (Psalm 102:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist was sent reeling over his enraged rivals resolve to reproach him relentlessly.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.” (Tacitus)

 

PSALM 102:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.” (Psalm 102:9-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Having lost his appetite for bread and beverage; see verse 4, the psalmist was now dining on ashes and drinking tears, over his illusion that God had lifted him, only to lower him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To believe that a wrathful God is out to get you every time things get out of whack is to live your life spiritually out of sorts.

 

PSALM 102:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.” (Psalm 102:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Once again, the psalmist cries out from the depths of his despair, comparing himself to withering grass. However, this time he illustrates his feelings of the unsubstantial insignificance of his life with a disappearing shadow rather than dissipating smoke.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although one’s shadow may at first be lengthened by the setting sun, it will finally soften and fade as the sun sets further, only to vanish all together at twilight.

 

PSALM 102:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.” (Psalm 102:12 ESV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God, unlike man, is no disappearing shadow or dissipating smoke, soon to be forgotten, but the eternal Sovereign, who will reign forever and be remembered throughout all generations.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although our lives are fleeting and in a constant state of flux, our God lives forever and never changes!

 

ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION

 

PSALM 102:13-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.” (Psalm 102:13-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In the appointed time, God shall arise and mercifully show His favor to all who favor Zion.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one is under the favor of God who does not favor the dust of Zion over the desires of this world.

 

PSALM 102:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” (Psalm 102:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the Lord arises to erect Zion for His exaltation, not only will pagans fear His name, but all the glory of the kings of the earth will pale in comparison to His all-surpassing glory.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God will be glorified outside the church when His glory is seen inside the church. The reason God is not being glorified more in the world today is because His glory is not being seen more in the church today.

 

PSALM 102:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” (Psalm 102:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Unlike earthy kings, who are so engrossed in the expanding of their temporal earthly dominions, that they are indifferent to the pleas of the destitute, God, in the establishing of His eternal kingdom, does not despise the destitute’s prayers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God listens no less attentively to the prayers of the neediest than He does to the prayers of the wealthiest.

 

PSALM 102:18-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here, the psalmist writes for future generations, who are yet to be born, of how God lovingly looks down from the heights of Heaven upon those in the most humbling situations upon earth, such as prisoners in prison cells and the dying on deathbeds.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: By preserving for posterity the Most High’s past mercies on the most lowly and meanest upon earth, we prompt future generations to not only proclaim and praise the name of God, but to also gather together in the earth’s ultimate and universal service of God.

 

PSALM 102:23-24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.” (Psalm 102:23-24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Fearing the draining of his strength foreshadowed the shortening of his days, the psalmist prayed for his perennial God to prolong his life.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the dread of death should not shackle the Christian, the desire to live is no sin, especially if it is to continue in the service of God for the glory of God, prior to entering into the presence of God in Glory. (Hebrews 2:14-15: Philippians 1:21-24)

 

PSALM 102:25

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.” (Psalm 102:25 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God, who laid the foundation of the earth and fashioned the heavens, can be relied upon to fortify His people.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If He holds the whole world in His hand and flung from His hands the stars into space, what need do we, who are held in the palm of His hand, have to either fear or fret? (John 10:28)

 

PSALM 102:26

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.” (Psalm 102:26 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This fallen world, clad in the filthy rags of the righteousness of fallen man, shall someday perish like an old worn-out garment, only to be changed into a new heaven and a new earth, clad in the seamless robe of Christ perfect righteousness. (Isaiah 64:6; 2 Peter 3:13)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God, who made the heavens and the earth, will someday dissolve them by fire, so that He may refine them, ridding them forever of the unrighteousness of man and filling them forever with the righteousness of God. (2 Peter 3:10-13)

 

PSALM 102:27-28

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.” (Psalm 102:27-28 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though the old heavens and the old earth will not last, but be changed, God, who created them and will change them, is everlasting and never-changing.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We, the people of God, will not only endure, because our God endures, but will endure as long as God endures. (John 14:9)

 

PSALM 103

 

This psalm of praise, written by King David, has been most highly praised. G. Campbell Morgan called it “the most perfect song of pure praise to be found in the Bible.” Charles Spurgeon not only pointed to it as the loftiest peak in the book of Psalms’ mountain chain of praise, but also wrote that it is a Bible in itself and alone sufficient to serve as the hymn-book of the church. According to Sturgeon, there is too much in this sublime composition for a thousand pens to ever do justice to its exposition.

 

PSALM 103:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: True soul music is sung when all the soul sings to the Lord alone, in adoration of Him alone, and in acclamation of His name alone.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There’s a scarcity of singing souls in the church today, since so many singers sing to entertain the congregation and make a name for themselves rather than to exalt Christ and magnify His name.

 

PSALM 103:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Psalm 103:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David redoubles his resolve to praise the Lord, by repeating the refrain, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” However, this time he reminds himself of the reason for doing so, because it requires all that is within us to bless the Lord for all His blessings.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It takes our all to bless the Lord for all His blessings, anything less is insufferable to the Lord.

 

PSALM 103:3-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.” (Psalm 103:3-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In these verses, as Charles Spurgeon writes, David threads the choicest pearls of God’s benefits on the string of memory and hangs them around the neck of gratitude.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In his song, Bless His Holy Name, which he composed from the opening five verses of this psalm, the late Christian artist, Andraé Crouch, summed up these three verse most succinctly in the simple, but salient words: “He has done great things.” 

 

PSALM 103:3a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities…” (Psalm 103:3a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The first benefit of God we are to bless God for is His forgiving of us for all of our sins.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, God forgives us for all of our sins—past, present, and future. As the Scripture teaches, Christ died once and for all for all of our sins, so that our sins can all be forgiven when we come to Christ for forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:11-22, 24-28; 10:10)

 

PSALM 103:3b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…who healeth all thy diseases.” (Psalm 103:3b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The second benefit of God we are to bless God for is His healing of our diseases. Healing is second and forgiveness first for an obvious reason. Whereas healing is the temporal sparing of our mortal body, forgiveness is the eternal salvation of our immortal soul.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although Christ, by His death, has made the forgiveness of all sin and the healing of all diseases possible (Isaiah 53:4-6; Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24), not all sinners are forgiven nor all the sick healed. Instead, only those a sovereign God elects to forgive and heal in Christ are saved from sin and spared from diseases. Still, all who are saved and healed need to bless the Lord with all their soul for it, for without Christ, our Savior, there would have been no possibility of it.

 

PSALM 103:4a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction…” (Psalm 103:4a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The third benefit of God we are to bless God for is our redemption. Though we sold ourselves to sin, God has bought us back for Himself, redeeming us for Heaven and ransoming and rescuing us from Hell.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The cost of redemption cannot be overstated. The wonders of grace cannot be overemphasized. Christ took the Hell He didn't deserve so we could have the Heaven we don't deserve.” (Randy Alcorn)

 

PSALM 103:4b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” (Psalm 103:4b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The fourth benefit of God we are to bless God for is our crown. God has crowned us with a coronet studded with the most precious of all gems and jewels; namely, His “lovingkindess and tender mercies.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Though the Christian’s crown is far more valuable than the Crown Jewels of England, which have been kept safe in the Tower of London for centuries, it is meant to be laid, along with all other crowns, including the Crown Jewels of England, at the feet Christ, upon Christ’s return to earth for His coronation.

 

PSALM 103:5a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things…” (Psalm 103:5a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The fifth benefit of God we are to bless God for is soul-satisfaction. Since only God can satisfy our hungry soul, we are to bless Him with all our soul for our soul’s satisfaction. (Psalm 107:9)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No matter how satiated a worldly soul is with worldly things its insatiable appetite is never satisfied. For instance, no one is more unsatisfied with money than the greedy, with celebrity than celebrities, with power than the power-hungry, or with drink than the drunkard. No matter how much they get it never satisfies and they are never satisfied with how much they’ve got.

 

PSALM 103:5b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.” (Psalm 103:5b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The sixth benefit of God we are to bless God for is spiritual rejuvenation. Like a molting eagle who afterward mounts up to the heavens, God renews our strength from time to time so that we can spiritually soar.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This verse reminds us of Isaiah 40:31, which promises us that God will renew our strength, if we wait upon Him, so that we can mount up with wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, and walk and not faint. Notice, that the surprising climax of this verse is on the walking and not fainting rather than the mounting up with wings like eagles. The truth is; there will be a few times in our lives when we spiritually soar like an eagle, a few more perhaps, when we run and not grow weary, like Elijah did before the chariot of Ahab to Jezreel (1 Kings 18:46), but for the most part, we’ll live our Christian lives simply walking and not fainting.

 

PSALM 103:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” (Psalm 103:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should not only bless the Lord for His benefits to us, but also for His benevolence to all men, for He rights all wrongs and will bring all who wrong others to justice.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God doesn’t just do right by His own people, but by all people. He is just to all, not just to His own.

 

PSALM 103:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Both the person and purposes of God are made know to us by Him, never figured out by us ourselves.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one will ever know God by human reason, but only by divine revelation.

 

PSALM 103:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” (Psalm 103:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If God’s grace and mercy were not superfluous, and He Himself not slow to anger, humanity would have long since become an extinct species.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If you’ve ever been thankful for anything, you ought to be thankful for this, that God is not quick-tempered.

 

PSALM 103:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.” (Psalm 103:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Lord does not continuously chide His children nor is He always angry with them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The fact that we are not always being admonished by an aggravated God is not a testimony to our periodic perfection, but to God’s patience with all of our imperfections.

 

PSALM 103:10-11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.” (Psalm 103:10-11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is God’s great mercy that keeps Him from dealing out to us our just deserts.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God’s mercy wasn’t as high as the heavens, we would all be sunk on earth to the depths of our just desserts.

 

PSALM 103:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: For God to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west is for God to remove our sins from us forever.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If you start going north, you will eventually be going south, once you cross the North Pole. Likewise, if you start going south, you will eventually be going north, once you cross the South Pole. However, if you start going east you will always being going east and if you start going west you will always be going west.

 

PSALM 103:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” (Psalm 103:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: That God pities us should not only be a precious comfort to us, but also a check to our pride. A comfort, in that He pities us at our worst, but a check, in that He sees us as pitiful even at our best.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we want God to pity us as a feared father does his respectful children, then, we must fear God as His reverential children.

 

PSALM 103:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s patience with us, pity on us, and pardoning of us, are all predicated upon His recognition of our frail frame and His remembrance that we are but fallen flesh.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like the psalmist and the apostles Paul and Barnabas, we do well to remember that we are but flesh, lest we become conceited over our own achievements or the accolades of others. (Acts 14:11-15)

 

PSALM 103:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.” (Psalm 103:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here, David further elaborates on the insignificance of mortal man, by pointing out that we are not just dust, as he previously pointed out in the preceding verse, but that we also quickly return to dust, only to be blown away and seen no more.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Mortality (William Knox)

 

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 

Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 

A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 

He passes from life to his rest in the grave. 

 

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 

Be scattered around, and together be laid; 

And the young and the old, the low and the high, 

Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie. 

 

The infant a mother attended and loved; 

The mother that infant's affection who proved; 

The husband, that mother and infant who blessed; 

Each, all, are away to their dwelling of rest. 

 

The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye, 

Shone beauty and pleasure - her triumphs are by; 

And the memory of those who loved her and praised, 

Are alike from the minds of the living erased. 

 

The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne, 

The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn, 

The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave, 

Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 

 

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, 

The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep, 

The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread, 

Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 

 

The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven, 

The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven, 

The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, 

Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. 

 

So the multitude goes - like the flower or the weed 

That withers away to let others succeed; 

So the multitude comes - even those we behold, 

To repeat every tale that has often been told. 

 

For we are the same that our fathers have been; 

We see the same sights that our fathers have seen; 

We drink the same stream, we feel the same sun, 

And run the same course that our fathers have run. 

 

The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think; 

From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink; 

To the life we are clinging, they also would cling - 

But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. 

 

They loved - but the story we cannot unfold; 

They scorned - but the heart of the haughty is cold; 

They grieved - but no wail from their slumber will come; 

They joyed - but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 

 

They died - aye, they died - we things that are now, 

That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 

And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 

Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 

 

Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 

Are mingled together in sunshine and rain; 

And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 

Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 

 

'Tis the wink of an eye - 'tis the draught of a breath - 

From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 

From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud 

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

 

PSALM 103:17-18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.” (Psalm 103:17-18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In spite of man’s seeming insignificance, God’s everlasting mercy has provided a way for fleeting humanity to enter His eternity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we will observe God’s covenant and obey His commandments, we, and our posterity, in spite of our mortality, will be mercifully bequeathed eternity.

 

PSALM 103:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” (Psalm 103:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s throne is established in Heaven over all humanity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The sovereignty of God is universal and His scepter stretched out over all the universe.

 

PSALM 103:20-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.” (Psalm 103:20-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This magnificent psalm of praise reaches its concluding crescendo with a universal call for praise. Though David ends the psalm as he started, blessing the Lord with all his soul, he calls upon all the Heavenly hosts and works of Heaven to join the chorus!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Someday, when Christ comes, creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. When that glorious day finally comes, all the universe will erupt in the praise of God and David’s call to bless the Lord will be universally answered. (Romans 8:19-22)

 

PSALM 104

 

This psalm, which is a magnificent meditation on creation, could be called, “The Chorus of the Cosmos.” It is a song of praise to the Creator, not only for His original creative work, but also for His ongoing care of all He has created.

 

PSALM 104:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.” (Psalm 104:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm is untitled and anonymous; however, many attribute it, as the Septuagint and Vulgate do, to David, believing it is a sequel to his previous psalm, Psalm 103, since it begins and ends in the same way—“Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not the cosmos, but its Creator who is “very great.” Unlike the late atheistic astronomer Carl Sagan, who said that those who wanted to worship something greater than themselves should worship the cosmos, the psalmist says that we should all worship the Creator of the cosmos, who is far greater than it.

 

PSALM 104:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.” (Psalm 104:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No ancient king clothed in a regal robe or canopied by an elaborately decorated curtain is comparable to the God of creation, who is clothed with light and canopied by the heavens.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “O tell of his might and sing of his grace,

       Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.” (Robert Grant)

 

PSALM 104:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind.” (Psalm 104:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The crystalized clouds of the highest heavens are but the underlying beams of the lofty chamber of the God of creation, who rides the clouds like a chariot and walks wing-footed on the wind.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we are scared of being swept away by the windstorm, our God serenely strolls upon it, being in complete control over it.

 

PSALM 104:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.” (Psalm 104:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Having spoken of God’s royal robe of light and lofty throne room, the psalmist now turns his attention to God’s retinue, the angelic hosts, who constantly attend His throne.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As we learn here and in Hebrews 1:7, 14, God’s angels are not just ministering spirits, sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, but also flaming fire, like the mighty burning seraphim (2 Kings 2:11; 6:17; Ezekiel 1:4-24), who form a ring of fire around the throne of God, by circling it day and night crying out, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of host, the whole earth is full of His glory” and “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4:8).

 

PSALM 104:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.” (Psalm 104:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The stability of the earth, which hangs in immense space, as though it stood on some unmovable foundation, is inexplicable apart from the existence of an Almighty Architect.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If the rapidity of the earth’s orbit around the sun was slowed or speeded up in the least, if the tilt of the earth's axis was slightly changed in one direction or the other, or if the earth should suffer the slightest deviation in its course, it would spell the immediate demise of all life on this planet. In light of this, how beholden humanity should be to the omnipotent hand of divinity that holds this earth perfectly in its orbit without oscillation.

 

PSALM 104:6-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches. He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.” (Psalm 104:6-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: At God’s command the waters that originally covered the face of the earth descended to their appointed place, to follow their fixed course and to be confined within their fixed confines. (Genesis 1:1-2, 9)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In this passage, which reminds us of Genesis 1:9-13, the flow of God’s life-giving water is followed through the hills and the valleys, where it not only gives drink to God’s creatures, but also makes possible the boughs of the trees upon which the birds sing, the grass of the pastures upon which the cattle feed, the crops of the fields, from which man gets his bread, to strengthen his heart, the oil of the olive trees, with which man soothes his skin, and the grapes of the vine, from which man gets his wine, to make his heart glad.

 

PSALM 104:16-17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.” (Psalm 104:16-17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the trees of the Lord, those giants planted and cultivated by God alone, such as the ancient cedars and cypress of Lebanon, which are most filled with flourishing life, such as nourishing sap and the nests of songbirds and storks.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: That which is in the hand of God and totally under His care, always fairs far better than that which is in the hand of man and under his care.

 

PSALM 104:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.” (Psalm 104:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as uninhabited places upon God’s earth, for even the steepest slopes are populated by mountain goats and the rocky crags by rabbits or conies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even earth’s deserts are not empty, but full of life.

 

PSALM 104:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” (Psalm 104:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As Israel knew the seasons and the times to keep their religious festivals by the moon, the sun knows its time to set each day, and religiously keeps it as its Creator commands.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The sun and the moon, the two great lights God created to rule the day and the night, have been given to the earth by God to serve as a divine timepiece and timetable. (Genesis 1:14-19)

 

PSALM 104:20-23

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” (Psalm 104:20-23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As the beasts come out to prowl for their prey at night, only to hurry back to their dens at dawn, man comes out to work and labor at sunrise, only to retire to his rest at sunset.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Man must do God’s work in the light of day, before the night comes in which no man can work. (John 9:4)

 

PSALM 104:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.” (Psalm 104:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The manifold creative works of God, in both their staggering quantity and stupendous variety, which have been wisely wrought by God, have filled the earth with inestimable wealth, from its deep mines to its fertile fields.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no such thing as the wealth of a nation, for all the riches of the earth are the possession of the God of Creation.

 

PSALM 104:25-26

 

BIBLE TEXT: “So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.” (Psalm 104:25-26 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The seas, which men sail in ships, are teeming with tiny and titanic creatures, from little minnows to the largest of mammals, the mammoth whales.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” (Jacques Cousteau)

 

PSALM 104:27-30

 

BIBLE TEXT: “These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:27-30 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If God opens His hand, all His creatures are glad, but if He hides His face, all His creatures are troubled, for He not only gives or takes the breath of life, but also renews the earth or returns us to it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The power of life and death resides with God, which means until He bids us to die, we are invulnerable to death, but once He does, death is inescapable to us.

 

PSALM 104:31-32

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.” (Psalm 104:31-32 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should be thankful that the Lord, whose glory endures forever, still rejoices in His creative work, least this fallen vainglorious world of ours be shaken at His glance and go up in smoke at His touch.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We are reminded here of how Mount Sinai was enveloped in smoke and greatly quaked when the Lord descended upon it (Exodus 19:17-18). According to Hebrews 12:21, it was such a terrifying sight that it even caused Moses to tremble.

 

PSALM 104:33-34

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.” (Psalm 104:33-34 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only those who can say, “My God,” who can sing and praise God all their lives, whose meditation of God will be sweet, to both them and God, and who will always be glad in the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be merry in the Lord you must live your life meditating upon the Lord. The moment your thoughts stray from Him, your merriment will be stolen from you.

 

PSALM 104:35

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 104:35 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In a burst of righteous indignation toward all who are guilty of unrepentant insubordination, the psalmist ends this magnificent song in utter adoration of the Lord, for His coming elimination of all sin and wickedness from all creation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Neither sin nor wickedness can ever be eliminated without the elimination of sinners and the wicked.

 

PSALM 105

 

The first 15 verses of this psalm are also found in 1 Chronicles 16:8-22, where they are said to be part of a song of thanksgiving that King David gave to be sung by Asaph and his fellow Levites, when David brought the Ark of God to Jerusalem. For this reason, this psalm is attributed to David. 

 

It is believed that Psalm 105 and Psalm 106 are companions, with 105 telling of God’s historical faithfulness to Israel and 106 telling of Israel’s historical unfaithfulness to God. As Alexander Maclaren put it, Psalm 105 calls upon Israel to always remember God’s mighty deeds on their behalf, but Psalm 106 condemns Israel for always forgetting God’s mighty deeds on their behalf.

 

PSALM 105:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.” (Psalm 105:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is one’s praise of the Lord, prayers to the Lord, and preaching about the Lord, which proves one’s passion for the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If there is a shortage of praise, prayer, and preaching in your life, it proves that there is a scarcity of passion in your heart.

 

PSALM 105:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.” (Psalm 105:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our songs of praise to God should be sung to Him for the stupendous things He has done for us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is worthy of our wholehearted worship of Him, because of the wondrous works He has worked for us.

 

PSALM 105:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.” (Psalm 105:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who glory in God’s name are glad to be on a lifelong and all-out pursuit of God, not only for intimacy with Him, but also for His empowering of them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The pursuit of Christ is the paramount pursuit of the Christian life, in comparison to which all other pursuits pale.

 

PSALM 105:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.” (Psalm 105:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Both God’s Word and works are wondrous to His worshipers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The judgments of God’s mouth are as memorable as the marvels of His hands.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 105:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth.” (Psalm 105:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The people of God should have no sense of exclusivity, but of inclusivity, because our God is also the God of the whole world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we are God’s chosen people, we should act as God’s choice people, by being a mission-minded people on a divine mission to bring all men in this world to acknowledge our God as their God.

 

PSALM 105:8-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.” (Psalm 105:8-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s covenant with His people is unforgettable, unchangeable, and unending, for He has confirmed it with an unbreakable oath and codified into an unalterable law.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How appropriate and apropos it was for this song to be sung on the auspicious occasion of David’s transporting of the Ark, the symbol of God’s Covenant, to Jerusalem, the capital of God’s covenant people.

 

PSALM 105:11-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people.” (Psalm 105:11-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When God’s people were few in number and nothing more than nomads in Canaan, God, in His covenant, promised all of Canaan to them as their inheritance.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Though he owned nothing but a cave in Canaan to bury his dead, Abraham’s descendants, thanks to his faith in God’s covenant promise, inherited all of Canaan, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea in the east, and from the Negev desert in the south to Lebanon in the north. (Genesis 49:39; Numbers 34:1-15)

 

PSALM 105:14-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” (Psalm 105:14-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: These verses clearly point to God’s protection of both Abraham and Issac, when God rebuked and warned Egypt’s Pharaoh and Abimelech, the King of the Philistines, to neither harm nor touch this pair of God anointed patriarchs. (Genesis 12:10-20; 26:1-11)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In light of God’s prohibition against it, those who dare to lay hands on God’s anointed or to harm God’s prophets, do so at their own peril, for God will not hold those guiltless who persecute His people.

 

PSALM 105:16-24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.” (Psalm 105:16-24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Divine Providence used a famine and fetters to bring to pass Joseph’s governance over Egypt and the growth of the Jewish people in Egypt.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should perceive our problems as merely the means by which Divine Providence is paving the path to bring to pass God’s plans and purposes in our lives.

 

PSALM 105:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him.” (Psalm 105:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It was “the Word of the Lord” that tried Joseph, not the pit, the slave block, nor the prison cell, for faith’s greatest test comes when our problems appear to contradict God’s promises.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s easy to believe God’s Word when everything is going well, but it is truly a tried and tested faith that continues to believe God’s Word when everything is going wrong.

 

PSALM 105:25-38

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number, And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.” (Psalm 105:25-38 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Divine Providence used the Egyptians’ persecution of God’s people to bring down plagues on Egypt and to bring God’s freed, flourishing and feared people out of Egypt.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God can even use others’ hatred of His people to help His people, so much so that those who hate them will end up fearing them.

 

PSALM 105:39-42

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.” (Psalm 105:39-42 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Because of His promise to Abraham, God preserved Abraham’s posterity in the wilderness, by not only shading them in the day and shining upon them in the night, but also by giving them sustenance from Heaven, water from a rock, and streams in the desert.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is Christ who shields Christians, shines upon them, spiritually sustains them, and satisfies their thirsty souls in the wilderness of this world today. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)

 

PSALM 105:43-45

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness: And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 105:43-45 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God brought His people out of their enslavement in Egypt and out of their wandering in the wilderness to bring them in to His Promised Land.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God has given us Christ, for the same reasons He gave Israel Canaan, to make us both glad and godly, and to bring Him glory and praise.

 

PSALM 106

 

This psalm, like the previous psalm, may be attributed to David, not only because it is a companion to it, but also because verses in it, verses 1 and 47-48, are found, like the first 15 verses of Psalm 105, in the song King David gave to be sung by Asaph and his fellow Levites when the Ark of God was brought to Jerusalem. Whereas Psalm 105:1-15 is almost identical to 1 Chronicles 16:8-22, Psalm 106:1 and 47-48 are almost identical to 1 Chronicles 16:34-36.   

 

Notably, this psalm, which may be seen as a national confession of sin, begins and ends with “Hallelujah”—“Praise ye the Lord.” Undoubtedly, this is a most fitting start and finish to a psalm that not only tells of Israel’s sinful history and many provocations of God, but also of God’s mercy, patience, and long-suffering with Israel.

 

PSALM 106:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 106:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Hallelujahs should certainly fill our churches over Christ clothing us, the good-for-nothing, with His goodness, so that God can be continuously merciful to us, who certainly don’t merit His mercy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Oh how we should praise the Lord for His marvelous plan of salvation that has enabled Him to be merciful to a world of no-goods without compromising His good in anyway.

 

PSALM 106:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can shew forth all his praise?” (Psalm 106:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There are no adequate witnesses for God or worshipers of God, for it is utterly impossible to adequately proclaim His mighty acts or to praise His holy name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How fitting that the constant and continuous activity of Heaven is the praise of God, for it is an activity that we can never do enough or ever be done with doing.

 

PSALM 106:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.” (Psalm 106:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Prior to penning the wayward history of Israel, the psalmist pens what it proves; namely, that holiness always results in happiness and unholiness in unhappiness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Ironically, our fallen world seeks happiness through its disobedience to God’s Word and doing wrong, when happiness can only be found in obedience to God’s Word and doing right. If we truly understood happiness, we’d be true to God all the time.

 

PSALM 106:4a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people…” (Psalm 106:4a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should be content with no more or less of God’s favor than the least of His people, for the least of God’s born again children is greater than the greatest ever born of a woman. (Matthew 11:11)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Isaac Watts intimated, in his famous hymn, Am I a Soldier of the Cross, we must be as content with the bitters of being God’s people as with the sweets: “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”

 

PSALM 106:4b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…O visit me with thy salvation.” (Psalm 106:4b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There is no such thing as salvation apart from divine visitation!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It was Christ’s visitation of Zachaeus that brought salvation to Zachaeus’ house. If Christ had not been in the house, there would have been no salvation of the house. (Luke 19:9)

 

PSALM 106:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.” (Psalm 106:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray to see the good of God’s chosen, to rejoice in the gladness of God’s country, and to glory in being part of the inheritance of Christ, God’s Son.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints are Christ’s rich and glorious inheritance; that is, His most treasured eternal possession. (Ephesians 1:18)

 

PSALM 106:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.” (Psalm 106:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To confess the past sins of our fathers is insufficient for our salvation; only the confession of our own personal sins will suffice. It’s not enough to acknowledge that our fathers were wrongdoers, we must also be willing to admit that we ourselves are wicked.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Rather than placing the blame for their faults and failings at their own feet, so that they can be forgiven, many today pass the buck and blame others for their own faults and failings, forfeiting any possibility of ever being forgiven.

 

PSALM 106:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.” (Psalm 106:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Ignorance is no excuse for iniquity, but an incentive to immediately forget the mighty miracles of God and the multitude of His mercies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Israel, who turned right around at the Red Sea and doubted their God who had miraculously delivered them from slavery, many a Christian turns right around whenever their in a spot and doubts their Savor who has miraculously delivered them from sin.

 

PSALM 106:8-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.” (Psalm 106:8-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although Israel doubted God, who had just powerfully delivered them from Egypt, God, for His own name’s sake, powerfully delivered Israel again at the Red Sea, by drying up the sea and drowning the Egyptians.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not spoken to Israel’s credit, but to their shame, that they, like Thomas, did not believe God nor praise Him until all was proved to them and seen by them. After all, faith is not really faith once the facts are staring it in the face. (John 20:29)

 

PSALM 106:13-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” (Psalm 106:13-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Israel turned its nose up in the wilderness at angel’s food and lusted for other fare, which left their stomachs foundered and fattened and their souls famished and lean.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Contrary to popular belief, God giving you what you want is not necessarily proof of your great faith or of God’s favor, but may be God’s way of teaching you a lesson you’ll never forget. Which would you prefer, a soul made scrawny by answers to selfish prayers or a soul made strong by God’s refusal to answer such prayers?

 

PSALM 106:16-18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.” (Psalm 106:16-18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Israel envied God’s elect servants, wanting to get their hand on Moses’ scepter and to get Aaron’s mitre on their head, so God, who had opened the sea to deliver them, opened the earth to destroy them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To envy God’s elect servants is not just wrong, but not wise, since they have the greater judgment. For instance, striking a rock may not be a big sin for you, but it was for Moses, so much so that it kept him and Aaron out of the Promised Land. (James 3:1; Numbers 20:11-12)

 

PSALM 106:19-23

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.” (Psalm 106:19-23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: At Horeb, Israel exchanged their Glory—their Egyptian conquering and commandment giving God—for a golden calf, an undemanding god of their own making, which was much more to their own liking.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Had Moses not stood before God in the breach and turned back God’s wrath, Israel would have been blotted out of God’s book. (Exodus 32:31-33)

 

PSALM 106:24-27

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word: But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness: To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.” (Psalm 106:24-27 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Israel disbelieved and disobeyed God’s Word, by refusing to go in and take possession of the land God promised. Instead, they murmured in their tents and died in the desert over their false belief that they had to gain for themselves what God had given.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All today who believe that they have to gain for themselves the salvation God has given and promised to us in Christ, will miss God’s rest and die without ever stepping foot into all God has promised. (Hebrews 4:9-11)

 

PSALM 106:28-31

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.” (Psalm 106:28-31 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Israel adopted the idolatrous practices of Canaan’s pagans, and by doing so angered God against them, so much so that He sent a plague among them, which was only stayed when the righteous Phinehas struck a passionate blow against Israel’s paganization.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unfortunately, there is a paucity of righteous Phinehases in the world today, who are willing to bravely stand and strike a passionate blow against the increasing paganization of the contemporary church.

 

PSALM 106:32-33

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” (Psalm 106:32-33 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: At Meribah, Moses became outraged over Israel’s ongoing obstinacy, so much so that his spirit was provoked, he spoke precipitously, and was subsequently prohibited by God from entering into the Promised Land.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although this passage is called “one of the most terrible in the Bible” by Charles Spurgeon, over its sever punishment of Moses for so seemingly understandable and small an offense, it nonetheless teaches us a most important truth. No matter how much the greater sin of others provokes us, it does not provide us with a permission slip to sin ourselves!

 

PSALM 106:34-43

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.” (Psalm 106:34-43 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Because they spared and refused to separate themselves from the heathen nations of Canaan, Israel subsequently ended up soiled by them and sporadically subjugated to them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If Christians refuse to intuitively separate themselves from the world, they will inevitably be soiled by it and subjugated to it.

 

PSALM 106:36-38

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.” (Psalm 106:36-38 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Hiding behind every idol—anything you put before God or live for besides God—is a devil, who is deceptively receiving your worship. As Paul warned, the existing devils behind nonexistent idols are, unlike the unreal idols, very real. (1 Corinthians 10:19-22)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If Israel sacrificed their children to devils on altars in Canaan, who are we sacrificing our children to at abortion clinics in America?

 

PSALM 106:44-46

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry: And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.” (Psalm 106:44-46 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s patience with and pardon of His erring people, throughout the plethora of their provocations, proves that His covenant with us is unforgettable, His mercy towards us everlasting, and His pity upon us totally unmerited by us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is most unfortunate when the people of God are proven to be chosen by God, not by their faithful allegiance to God, but by the fact that they’ve not been annihilated by God.

 

PSALM 106:47

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.” (Psalm 106:47 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As God’s chosen people, we must continually call upon God to save us from sin and ourselves, as well as to separate us from the world, so that we can stand out in it as His peculiar people and persuade others to give thanks and praise to His holy name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, our triumph is in God’s praise, not in our own. Tragically, most Christians and churches today don’t understand that the more Christ is praised and the less we are paid attention to the more triumphant we’ve become!

 

PSALM 106:48

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 106:48 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: For God’s blessings of us, He should forever be blessed by us, and for His patience with us and pardoning of us, we will forever praise Him!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All of God’s people should say a hearty “Amen” to the call for a universal and eternal “Hallelujah“!

 

PSALM 107

 

The late Derek Kidner, a British Old Testament scholar, entitled this psalm, “God to the Rescue.” F. B. Meyer framed it into five successive vignettes: (1) God’s brooding over a weary caravan fainting in the desert (2) God’s visit of the prison-house with its captives (3) God’s watch by the beds of those suffering pain (4) God’s notice of each lurch of tempest-tossed vessels, and (5) God’s bringing of weary hosts from the wilderness into the fruitful soil.

 

PSALM 107:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 107:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Because of God’s goodness to us and mercy toward us there should never be an end to either our thanksgiving to Him or thanks-living for Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the psalmist intensifies the earnest of his exhortation to give thanks to the Lord with his preceding “O,” for in no exercise should we be more earnest than in giving thanks to God.

 

PSALM 107:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” (Psalm 107:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only was Jesus’ blood shed for the sins of all men, but by it all men have been redeemed, even those who deny Him. Yet, not all the redeemed are saved, but only those who believe and say so. (1 John 2:2; 2 Peter 2:1; Romans 10:9-10)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the glorious fact that all men have been redeemed, bought back as God’s possession, by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, that not only makes it possible for us to profess Christ and become God’s children, but also for us to pray that others will profess Christ and come into God’s family.

 

PSALM 107:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.” (Psalm 107:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: From the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, God gathers up from this world all who genuinely profess to be His people and possession.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When the Redeemed Are Gathered In (Johnson Oatman)

 

       I am thinking of the rapture in our blessed home on high.

       How we’ll raise the heavenly anthem in that city in the sky.

 

       There will be a great procession over on the streets of gold.

       O what music, O what singing, over the city will be rolled. 

 

       Saints will sing redemption’s story with their voices clear and strong. 

       Then the angels all will listen, for they cannot join that [happy] song.

 

       Then the Savior will give orders to prepare the banquet board,

       And we’ll hear His invitation, “Come, ye blessed of the Lord,”

 

       When the redeemed are gathering in,

       Washed like snow, and free from all sin;

       How we will shout, and how we will sing,

       When the redeemed are gathering in.

 

PSALM 107:4-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” (Psalm 107:4-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Men wander in spiritual destitution in the soul-starving and soul-parching wilderness of this world, until they cry out to the good Lord, who wonderfully fills and quenches their hungry and thirsty souls with His goodness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, men don’t cry out to God until their souls faint within them. Until we’ve exhausted our futile efforts to fill our empty existence, we won’t cry out to God, who alone can satisfy our starving souls, to deliver us from our spiritual distress.

 

PSALM 107:10-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.” (Psalm 107:10-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When men are disobedient to God’s Word, they not only sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, but they fall down and their hearts are brought down, but when they cry to the good Lord, He wonderfully brings them out of darkness and breaks their bands asunder.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not even gates of brass or bars of iron can imprison those made free by continuing to live in and live out the truths of God’s Word. (John 8:31-32)

 

PSALM 107:17-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.” (Psalm 107:17-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The symptoms of sin sickness are insatiable appetites that leave one nauseated when indulged; and its fatal prognosis leaves one but a breath away from possible death and destruction. Yet, its cure is only a prayer or cry to the Lord away. (Roman 10:13)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Men should not be more terrified of sickness than of sin, nor should the sick be more thankful to be healed than sinners are to be saved, since the former only temporarily spares man’s mortal body, but the later forever saves man’s immortal soul.

 

PSALM 107:23-32

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.” (Psalm 107:23-32 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Tempest tossed in the storms of life men are overwhelmed by worry and come to their wits end, but when they turn to the Lord and cry out to Him, He calms the seas, stills the storms, and bring them in to safe havens.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is at our wits end that God’s wondrous works begin.

 

PSALM 107:33-43

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” (Psalm 107:33-43 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The wise should observe the wondrous ways and works of God, for He turns deserts into springs and rivers, for the righteous to happily inhabit, but fruitful land into wastelands, for the wicked to wander in and waste away.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To understand the lovingkindness of the Lord one must look to the Lord and to His wondrous works, not only to how He lifts up the wanting, but also to how He brings low the wanton.

 

PSALM 108

 

Although we can be guilty of it in our prayers, there is no such thing as vain repetition on the pages of Scripture (Matthew 6:7). If the Holy Spirit sees fit to repeat it in Scripture, we must figure that the spiritual significance of the restated is worthy of reemphasis. 

 

This psalm of David is a divinely inspired compilation of two passages from previous psalms. Psalm 108:1-5 is very similar to Psalm 57:7-11, and Psalm 108:6-13 is almost identical to Psalm 60:5-12. Let us therefore retrace our steps through these previous passages in this present psalm, so we can remember and the Holy Spirit can refresh to our hearts these reiterated truths.

 

PSALM 108:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.” (Psalm 108:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our hearts should be continuously fixed on God’s praise, regardless of our circumstances.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Regardless of our present predicament, we should employ all we are and all we have in our perpetual praise of God.

 

PSALM 108:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.” (Psalm 108:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our praise of God should be neither ill done nor left undone.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should praise God not only the best we can, but also whenever, with whatever, with whomever, and wherever we can!

 

PSALM 108:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth.” (Psalm 108:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God, whose mercy, truth, and glory are as high as the heavens above the earth, is to be exalted above the heavens by all of the earth!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Greater words of prayer than these never came from human lips.” (Franz Delitzsch)

 

PSALM 108:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.” (Psalm 108:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s deliverance of His beloved, His saints, is the work of His right hand, His beloved Son.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s right hand, His beloved Son, is always revealed when He rescues, in response to their prayers, His beloved saints.

 

PSALM 108:7-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.” (Psalm 108:7-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David was sure, because of God’s holy Word, that all of Israel, from Shechem to Judah, would be divided up among God’s people, and that God’s people would triumph over all their enemies, from Moab to Philistia.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like David, we can be sure of every territory and triumph God has promised us, even prior to our prevailing over it or taking possession of it.

 

PSALM 108:10-11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?” (Psalm 108:10-11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Having been cast off and chastened by the Lord over its self-conceit, David was confident that Israel had learned its lesson and could now conquer Edom’s unconquerable city, Petra, by looking to the Lord and leaning upon the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No unconquerable Petra can be conquered by the self-reliant, but only by those who are totally reliant upon God.

 

PSALM 108:12-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.” (Psalm 108:12-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The help of man is vain, but all who trust the Lord for help will do valiantly.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although we must trust the Almighty to tread down our enemies, we must still play the man if we hope to triumph, for there is no cowering in the corner of the camp of God.

 

PSALM 109

 

This is a Psalm of David and the eighth of the book of Psalms’ ten Imprecatory Psalms. It is arguably the strongest and severest of all ten, and has therefore earned the distinction as the angriest of all The Angry Psalms.

 

Charles Spurgeon calls this psalm “one of the hard places of Scripture” and “a passage which the soul trembles to read,” but adds the following insightful elucidation on the occasional need for imprecatory prayers.

 

“We wish well to all mankind, and for that very reason we sometimes blaze with indignation against the inhuman wretches by whom every law which protects our fellow creatures is trampled down, and every dictate of humanity is set at nought.”

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IMPRECATORY PRAYERS READ OUR BOOKLET: THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS

 

PSALM 109:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.” (Psalm 109:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who honor God with their praise can pray that God will not hold His peace when they are dishonored by deceitful defamers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God opening His mouth for us, shuts every mouth opened against us.

 

PSALM 109:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.” (Psalm 109:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To be hated without a cause is to be hated as Christ was hated. (John 15:25)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be hated for Christ’s sake and for the cause of Christ alone is to fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, to partake of Christ’s sufferings, and to help complete Christ’s sufferings, as part of His body, the church. (Luke 21:17; Philippians 3:10; 1 Peter 4:13; Colossians 1:24)

 

PSALM 109:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.” (Psalm 109:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To be hated by this Christ-hating world for loving it with the love of Christ, which has been deposited in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, should not cause us to blow our top or to get bent out of shape, but to bow our head and bend our knee in prayer. (Romans 5:5)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is true courage for the Christian, who is hated without a cause, to carry his case into his prayer closet rather than into the public square, and to plead it privately to Christ rather than publicly to others.

 

PSALM 109:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.” (Psalm 109:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Man’s total depravity is definitely displayed by his rewarding of good with evil and of love with hate. There is simply no other explanation for such unnatural reciprocation than total reprobation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To return evil for evil is prohibited, but to suffer evil for good is praiseworthy. (Romans 12:17; 1 Peter 3:9, 14, 17)

 

PSALM 109:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.” (Psalm 109:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Without compromising his communion with God, David now resorts to imprecation in his prayer to God, calling for God to curse his enemies with both subjugation to the wicked and affiliation with Satan.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pity malice is malice to mankind, and to fail to pray imprecatory prayers against the incorrigibly malignant is a crime against humanity.

 

PSALM 109:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.” (Psalm 109:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In the dock before the Heavenly bar, the unjust who have condemned the innocent will be judged and condemned for their injustice, and any belated plea of theirs for pardon will prove to be an unpardonable offense in the ears of the Judge of all the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray for the impenitent to be judged and justly condemned is a just prayer, but to pray for them to escape justice, in spite of their impenitence, is to pray for injustice.

 

PSALM 109:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” (Psalm 109:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Since Peter saw the cursed sentence of this verse fulfilled in the speedy death of Judas Iscariot, our Lord’s betrayer, this psalm has been called by some, “Judas’s Psalm” or “Iscariot’s Psalm.” (Acts 1:15-21)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray for the days of cruel tyrants or traitors of Christ to be cut short, for either the sake of our fellowman or for the furtherance of the cause of Christ, is to pray a most proper prayer indeed.

 

PSALM 109:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.” (Psalm 109:9-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: What Samuel did with the sword, David endeavors to do here with prayer; namely, to make orphans and widows of the children and wives of those who have mercilessly made mothers childless and children fatherless themselves. (1 Samuel 15:33)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The progeny of villainy are inevitably vagabonds and beggars.

 

PSALM 109:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.” (Psalm 109:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for his persecutors to have their bones picked by profiteers and the spoils of their shifty labor stolen by strangers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Romans, to warn citizens not to be skinned alive by usurers, placed a statue in the Roman Forum of Marsyas, a satyr of Greek mythology who was flayed alive by Apollos.

 

PSALM 109:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.” (Psalm 109:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: For the unmerciful to be shown no mercy, inevitably leaves his children fatherless, infamous, and ill-favored.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Children suffer consequences from the sins of their parents; therefore, parents should shun sin not only for their own sakes, but also for the sakes of their children.

 

PSALM 109:13-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.” (Psalm 109:13-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To not only pray that there be no memory of those with no mercy, but also that the memory of their whole brood be blotted out, is to pray for God to rid humanity of all inhumanity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray for the memory of unmerciful sinners to be blotted out before men on earth is to simultaneously pray for the sin of unmercifulness not to be blotted out before God in Heaven.

 

PSALM 109:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.” (Psalm 109:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To not only pray for curses to fall on the cursed, but also for blessings to be far away from them, is to pray retributively. However, to pray otherwise, for the cursed to be beneficently blessed, is to pray ridiculously.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray for providential retribution is to pray aright, but to pray for personal retaliation or revenge is to pray amiss.

 

PSALM 109:18-19

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.” (Psalm 109:18-19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To pray that the curses brought against others by the cursed be bound to the cursed themselves, like a belt, as well as borne by the cursed, in their own bones, is to pray in perfect accordance with the scriptural law of reciprocity. (Galatians 6:7)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For all who reject redemption in Christ, there remains nothing but certain retribution and reciprocity.

 

PSALM 109:20

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul.” (Psalm 109:20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In this verse, David sums up, in this severest of all the Imprecatory Psalms, his imprecatory prayer against all his fierce adversaries and false accusers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Imprecatory Psalms are no less the product of divine inspiration than the rest of the Psalms. Neither are they prohibited from the present-day prayer closets of contemporary Christians. They may still be prayed today, as David prayed them, in the Spirit, according to God’s will, out of love for our fellowman, and for the glory of our God.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IMPRECATORY PRAYERS READ OUR BOOKLET: THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS

 

PSALM 109:21

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.” (Psalm 109:21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This prayer—“Do thou for me…for thy name’s sake”—is an unspecific petition for God to do for His own name’s sake whatever He sees fit with the petitioner. Surely, so selfless a prayer will never go unanswered by a sovereign God who staunchly safeguards His name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Prayers are most prevailing when prayed for God’s name’s sake, not our own sake, and prayed on the basis of God’s good mercy, not our good merits.

 

PSALM 109:22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.” (Psalm 109:22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To demand to be heard by God, because we deserve it, is to have Divinity turn a deaf ear to our prayers, but to desperately cry out for divine intervention, when we are destitute and disheartened, is to gain the ear of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The proper posture of prayer is to kneel in our neediness rather than stand in our smugness.

 

PSALM 109:23

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.” (Psalm 109:23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In his distress, David prays for divine pity, for he fears the sun is sinking, his shadow is shrinking, and he is as susceptible to the whims of louts as locusts are to the winds of a storm.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We are never more prompted to pray than when we perceive our persecutors to be more powerful and our predicament to be most perilous.

 

PSALM 109:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.” (Psalm 109:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Made weak by his fasting and lean by his ladened load, David found himself, as has many a saint of God, not only an object of reproach, but also one who others shook their heads at in scorn.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a powerful prayer is prayed on weak knees!

 

PSALM 109:24-25

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness. I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.” (Psalm 109:24-25 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Made weak by his fasting and lean by his ladened load, David found himself, as has many a saint of God, not only an object of reproach, but also one who others shook their heads at in scorn.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a powerful prayer is prayed on weak knees!

 

PSALM 109:26-27

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy: That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it.” (Psalm 109:26-27 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To pray for God to show off His mercy to those who malign us, by mercifully helping us, is to pray most masterfully.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For God to mercifully help His maligned people is for Him to not only manifest Himself to their maligners, but to mute them as well.

 

PSALM 109:28-29

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.” (Psalm 109:28-29 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To pray for God to bless His people, so that they may rejoice, and to curse those who curse them, so that they may be ashamed, clothed with their confusion, and cloaked with their shame, is not an inappropriate, but a most appropriate prayer to pray.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: With His precious blessings, God immunizes His people from the poisonous curses of their persecutors.

 

PSALM 109:30-31

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.” (Psalm 109:30-31 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Divine intervention demands public recognition, especially by all whom God has stood beside and saved from the condemnation of their souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our praise of God for standing with us and saving us should never be muted, but proclaimed in the midst of the multitude.

 

PSALM 110

 

This psalm of David is about Christ, our High Priest and King, which explains why it is quoted directly or indirectly, according to James Montgomery Boice, 27 times in the New Testament. That this psalm was written by David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is confirmed by the psalm’s subject, Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 22:41-45; Mark 12:35-37).

 

PSALM 110:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (Psalm 110:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here’s a precious peek into the sublime communion between God the Father and God the Son, in which the Son is told by the Father to sit at His right hand in expectancy of the final fruition of His finished work, when all His enemies will be made into His footstool.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In this verse, David, like Thomas, falls on his knees and confesses Jesus Christ as both his Lord and his God! (John 20:28)

 

PSALM 110:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” (Psalm 110:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The ruling rod or scepter of Christ is to be ultimately stretched out to bring everyone, even Christ’s enemies, into total subjugation to His Lordship.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas the ruling rod of Christ was formerly stretched out from Old Testament Zion, Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, by the conquering of others, by God’s chosen people, the Jews, it is currently stretched out from New Testament Zion, the New Jerusalem, Christ’s church, by the converting of others, by God’s elect people, the Christians.

 

PSALM 110:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.” (Psalm 110:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The willing soldiers of the cross, who are clad in the armor of holiness, are ever ready to march out in conquest under the conquering power of Christ, their Captain and Commander.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As the dew, which is renewed and resplendent every morning, the ever-regenerated and ever-radiant church—the army of God—will forever flourish, thanks to the ever-living Christ.

 

PSALM 110:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Like the mysterious priest and king of ancient Salem, Melchizedek, who was without predecessor or successor and who held both the scepter and the censor, Christ has been forever and immutably ordained as our Melchizedek; that is, our Priest and King. (Genesis 14:18)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since the mysterious Melchizedek had no recorded parentage, was a priest to whom a tithe was due from none other than Abraham, the father of the faith, and since he was both “the King of righteousness” and “the King of peace,” he serves as a tremendous Old Testament type of Christ, our Priest and King, who is without beginning or end and to whom we owe our all, since only He can make us right with God and give us peace with God. (Hebrews 7:1-28)

 

PSALM 110:5-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.” (Psalm 110:5-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When Christ finally rises from His Father’s right hand to come again in His power and glory, He will make a quick work of this fallen world, judging its heathenish nations and their haughty heads like a juggernaut. (Revelation 14:17-20)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: At Christ’s Second Coming, He will not stop for refreshment, but with His head lifted high in triumphant, will swiftly sip from a brook along the way, so as to expeditiously execute His fiery judgment on this fallen world. (Revelation 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20)

 

PSALM 111

 

This is an acrostic psalm, each line, with the exception of the first—its opening “Hallelujah”—begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic psalms were written to aid in their memorization, which is certainly the case with this particular psalm, since it calls upon us to ever remember the works of God so that we will never be remiss in our worship of God.

 

PSALM 111:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.” (Psalm 111:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All of God’s saints should praise Him harmoniously and wholeheartedly, not only in His house in the here and now, but also in His Heaven in the hereafter!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All true praise of God is wholehearted, for it is a definite impossibility for a divided heart to either solely or sincerely extol God exclusively.

 

PSALM 111:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” (Psalm 111:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who hunger for God not only seek out His great works, but search for God’s hidden glory in all of His works, knowing each one to be great and glorious.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All of God’s works are incredible and meaningful, none are inconsequential and meaningless.

 

PSALM 111:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.” (Psalm 111:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: That the ceaseless righteousness of God is never compromised in the work of God, makes God’s works even more honorable and glorious.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Here, it appears that the psalmist singles out God's work of salvation—His making of the unjust just in Christ, without compromising His justice—as the most spectacular of all of God’s stupendous works.

 

PSALM 111:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” (Psalm 111:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As is proven by penning them in the Holy Scripture and placing them in the hearts of His people by the Holy Spirit, God intends for His works not only to be remembered, but also to always remind us of His grace and compassion.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s amazing works are all reminders of His amazing grace.

 

PSALM 111:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.” (Psalm 111:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God spiritually sustains us with the sustenance of Scripture, wherein He has set down for us His irrevocable covenant with us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Being unable to forget anything He has promised and committed to us in Holy Writ, God can never forsake any part of His covenant with us, which He has written down for us.

 

PSALM 111:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He hath shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.” (Psalm 111:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In His great works for us, God has displayed His great power to us, as He did to Israel in Canaan, so that we, His church in the world today, may also be persuaded of His ability to either give the heathen to us as converts or their heritage to us in conquest.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To see God’s incredible power in His powerful works is to be incontrovertibly convinced that His people are inevitably certain to prevail.

 

PSALM 111:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” (Psalm 111:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s immutable Word, which is right for sure and forever, just like His incredible works, which are always righteous, is a testimony to His unfailing truth and justice.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the end, as the Apostle Paul predicts, God will be proven true, right, and just, and all who ever opposed Him liars, wrong, and unjust. (Romans 3:4)

 

PSALM 111:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.” (Psalm 111:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Of all God’s great works, His holy name should be most revered for the work of redemption, by which He sent us a Redeemer to secure for us an everlasting, covenantal, and irrevocable redemption.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The eternal security of the believer, set forth in our eternal, covenantal, and irrevocable redemption, should cause us to ever revere God’s holy name!

 

PSALM 111:110

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” (Psalm 111:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The reverential fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; that is, it is what leads us to obey God’s commandments and to praise His name, which, according to Solomon, is the essence of wisdom and the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our relationship with God commences with reverential fear, but should evolve from there into intimate fellowship and communion, without our original reverence for God ever being reduced by our ongoing relationship with God.

 

PSALM 112

 

This psalm is obviously a companion to the previous psalm, Psalm 111, something clearly confirmed by a comparison of the two. Both are written by an anonymous author. Both are acrostic psalms, with each line, apart from their opening “Hallelujahs,” beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Both psalms have the same number of lines, with identical or similar phrases occurring within them. Truly, these two songs are to be sung in two-part harmony, since they are a duet to be sung in praise of God, not only for His great works, but also for His greatest work of all, His own people.

 

PSALM 112:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.” (Psalm 112:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is truly to be praised by the God-fearing, those who once greatly dreaded God’s condemnation, but now greatly delight in God’s commandments.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is one thing to obey God out of a sense of fearful duty, but quite another to freely obey Him out of sheer delight.

 

PSALM 112:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.” (Psalm 112:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Consecration to Christ should be the chief cornerstone of every Christian home, not only for our sakes, but also for our offspring's.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The godly may be persecuted, but they will not be forsaken; the curses of men cannot deprive them of the blessings of God.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 112:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.” (Psalm 112:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No matter how dark the darkness, the light of day will always dawn on the upright.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s the upright, not the lowlife, who lives right.

 

PSALM 112:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.” (Psalm 112:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: A good man, though a guarded man, is always a generous man.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Generosity from the heart should be guided by the head.

 

PSALM 112:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” (Psalm 112:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The righteous are unmovable and unforgettable.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Though the wicked will be forgotten, the righteous will forever be remembered.

 

PSALM 112:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” (Psalm 112:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those with fixed reliance upon the Lord and who have fully resigned themselves to the Lord are not ever troubled by evil tidings.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Fear knocked, faith answered, and fear found no one home.

 

PSALM 112:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.” (Psalm 112:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: A wholehearted faith in God guards us from worry and guarantees us of winning.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: I’ve read the last chapter of the Bible, and in the end we win!

 

PSALM 112:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.” (Psalm 112:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only will the memory of the charitable and the righteous endure, but they will also be honored and exalted.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unlike charitableness, which expands and endures, selfishness shrinks down until it drops totally out of sight.

 

PSALM 112:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.” (Psalm 112:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In their grief over missing out on the eternal reward of the righteous, and over their diabolical desires and designs all coming to a dead end, the wicked will melt away like wax.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All the grandiose things the wicked envisioned will end up in them gnashing their teeth.

 

PSALM 113

 

This psalm is the first in the “Hallel,” which is a collection of psalms sung on Jewish holidays, such as the Feasts of Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles. The word “Hallel” is Hebrew for “praise,” and the collection is comprised of Psalms 113 through 118. On Passover, Psalm 113 and 114 are sung before the meal, and Psalms 115 through 118 are sung after the meal. It is believed that Christ and His disciples sang the Hallel on the night of His Last Supper (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26).

 

PSALM 113:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 113:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the servants of the Lord who truly praise the name of the Lord, for it is those who most passionately serve Him who most sincerely praise Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one can wholeheartedly sing God’s praises who halfheartedly serves His purposes.

 

PSALM 113:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised.” (Psalm 113:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: From morning till evening and forevermore the name of the Lord is to be perpetually praised.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is not only to be praised from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, but from the east, where the sun rises, to the west, where the sun sets. In other words, God should be praised at all times, in all places, and by all people.

 

PSALM 113:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.” (Psalm 113:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is definitely the first duty of all men to heartedly adore above all He who is high above all.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The clouds are the dust [beneath God’s] feet and the sun, moon, and stars twinkle far below His throne.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 113:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!” (Psalm 113:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Who is comparable to the Most High, who has to bend down and humble Himself to behold the heavens and the earth?

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God must stoop down to see the skies and stoop even farther to see this fallen earth.

 

PSALM 113:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.” (Psalm 113:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Nowhere is God’s grace greater seen than in His reaching down to the dust and into the dunghill to raise up paupers to be princes and to snatch them out of trash heaps to set them on heavenly thrones. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Is there any wonder that the Apostle Paul, who emptied his arms of all earthly things to embrace Christ, counted all he let go of to take hold of Christ nothing “but dung”? (Philippians 3:8)

 

PSALM 113:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 113:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s grace is greatly displayed by His bending down to bless the barren, those disgraced over the basest of embarrassments in Biblical times, with bountiful fertility.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s grace and glory are most conspicuous when He graciously bends down to do great things through the barren; that is, through those from whom nothing is expected. This not only assures that God will get the glory and the barren no credit, but that God’s use of the barren will be chalked up to His grace, not their greatness. (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

 

PSALM 114

 

This second psalm of the Hallel was highly praised by Charles Spurgeon, who referred to it as the “sublime Song of the Exodus.” According to Spurgeon, “True poetry has reached here its climax; no human mind has ever been able to equal, much less to exceed, the grandeur of this Psalm.”

 

PSALM 114:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.” (Psalm 114:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although Israel went into Egypt as a mere family—the house of Jacob—they came out miraculously as the sanctuary and dominion of God upon this earth; that is, as God’s chosen people with whom He dwelt.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Israel of old, the church, God’s “ekklesia,” God’s “called out ones,” have been called out of Egypt, this world, to miraculously become the sanctuary and dominion of God upon this earth; that is, God’s elect people within whom He dwells. (John 15:19; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Ephesians 2:19-22; Hebrews 3:6)

 

PSALM 114:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.” (Psalm 114:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It was God’s powerful presence with His people that divided the Red Sea, at the commencement of Israel’s journey to Canaan, and dried up the Jordan River, at the conclusion of Israel’s journey to Canaan.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God is with us, nothing can be against us, from our conversion, the commencement of our spiritual journey in the wilderness of this world, to our crossing over Jordan into Heaven, the conclusion of our spiritual journey in the wilderness of this world. (Romans 8:31)

 

PSALM 114:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.” (Psalm 114:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It was truly an earthshaking experience when God’s presence descended on Mount Sinai to confirm His covenant with His people by writing His Law on stone tablets.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is truly an earthshaking experience when God’s presence descends on us to confirm His covenant with us by writing His Law on the fleshly tablets of our hearts, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. (2 Corinthians 3:3)

 

PSALM 114:5-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” (Psalm 114:5-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the powerful presence of God that causes seas and rivers to flee, majestic mountains and all the earth to tremble in fear, and fountains of water to flow in the desert.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What a sad testimony to fallen humanity that of all of God’s creation we often prove to be the most insensitive to and the least impressed by the imposing presence of God.

 

PSALM 115

 

This psalm is a continuation of the Hallel, the psalms sung by the Jews at the Passover and by our Lord and His disciples on the night of His Last Supper (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26). It could be entitled, “The Idiocy of Idolatry,” since it speaks of the foolishness of worshiping false gods rather than the one and only true and living God.

 

PSALM 115:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?” (Psalm 115:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When insulted by the idolatrous, God’s people should pray, not for their sake, but for the sake of God’s name, that God’s truth will triumph, that His mercy will be manifested, and that God Himself will be proven, praised, and glorified.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Truly, there is no sadder fate the saints could ever suffer than to been seen by sinners as either deserted by God or as disproof of God. Therefore, may we ever pray, for the express purpose of God’s glory, that God’s presence ever be evident with us and that His existence ever be proven by us.

 

PSALM 115:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” (Psalm 115:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our God, who is high above us in the heavens, never comes down to prove Himself to human hecklers, but only does what He Himself pleases, plans, and proposes.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Nehemiah, who refused to come down from his noble work on the wall, at the bidding of his hecklers, or our Lord Himself, who refused to come down from His noble work on the cross, at the bidding of His hecklers, God will never come down from His noble work in the heavens, at the bidding of His hubristic human hecklers. (Nehemiah 6:3; Matthew 27:40; Mark 15:3)

 

PSALM 115:4-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.” (Psalm 115:4-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Idols are manmade with mouths that cannot speak, with eyes that cannot see, with ears that cannot hear, with noses that cannot smell, with hands that cannot work, and with feet that cannot walk.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only are Idolaters as impotent as their idols, but their faith is as false and futile as the idols they believe in and their worship is as worthless as the idols they bow before.

 

PSALM 115:9-11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.” (Psalm 115:9-11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To fear or to have faith in idols is to shield yourself with superstition, but to fear and have faith in the Lord is to surely secure for yourself strength and safety.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While all of God’s people, “Israel,” were to fear the Lord and trust in Him alone, the priests, “the house of Aaron,”were to do so particularly, since they served as exemplars of the people and examples to the people.

 

PSALM 115:12-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 115:12-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who fear the Lord, whether prosperous and princes or paupers and peasants, will be blessed, along with their posterity, by the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unlike those who fear manmade idols, those who fear the Lord, who made Heaven and earth, are bound, along with their brood, to be bountifully blessed.

 

PSALM 115:16-17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” (Psalm 115:16-17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though God has dominion in Heaven, where His will is perfectly carried out, He gave dominion over the earth to man, who unfortunately fell and is currently carrying out his will rather than God’s upon the earth, which explains why men die and don’t praise God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When Christ taught us, in His model prayer, to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven,” He wasn’t just teaching us to pray for God’s will to be perfectly done on earth, as it is in Heaven. He was also teaching us to pray for His return from Heaven to earth, when His dominion—“kingdom”—will be established upon earth and His will perfectly carried out here, just as it is in Heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

 

PSALM 115:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 115:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although the dead cannot, the idolatrous will not, and the worldly care not to praise our God, we, the people of God, who are presently living upon this earth, will do so henceforth and forever.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The instant a saint enters into the praise of God, he or she has entered into a perpetual and eternal service of God!

 

PSALM 116

 

This psalm is a continuation of the Hallel, the psalms sung by the Jews at the Passover and by our Lord and His disciples on the night of His Last Supper (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26). G. Campbell Morgan referred to this psalm as a “triumph song over death,” which makes it most fitting for our Lord, who was already under the shadow of the cross, to have sung it with His disciples on the night before His crucifixion.

 

PSALM 116:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To love the Lord is commanded by God, contingent upon our reception of the grace of God, and the motive behind our ongoing and lifelong communion with God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be given an audience with God and to have your prayers answered by God is to spend your life not only loving, praising, and adoring God, but also lifting up prayerful appeals to God.

 

PSALM 116:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” (Psalm 116:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Until we are seized by a real sense of danger to our souls, there will be no sincere prayer for the deliverance of our souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Until sinners are convicted by the Holy Spirit of their depravity and convinced by the Holy Spirit of Hell’s reality, they will never call upon the Lord for their souls’ eternal security.

 

PSALM 116:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” (Psalm 116:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God could be neither gracious nor merciful if He was not righteous. For instance, if Christ had not been sinless, He could not have died for our sins, so that we can be graciously and mercifully saved from our sins.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s grace and mercy never compromise, but always complement, His righteousness and justice.

 

PSALM 116:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.” (Psalm 116:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God sustains the simple and helps the helpless.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Contrary to popular belief, the Bible doesn’t teach that God helps those who help themselves. Instead, the Bible teaches the opposite, that God helps those who can’t help themselves.

 

PSALM 116:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” (Psalm 116:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The rest of our soul is found in our realization of and reveling in God’s bountiful blessing of us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All of God is in Christ, all of Christ is in us, and in Christ God has given us all things! (Romans 8:42; Colossians 1:19; 2:9-10; 2 Peter 1:3)

 

PSALM 116:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 116:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: These two verses parrot Psalm 56:13 and when paired together teach a tremendous truth; namely, that God’s deliverance of our soul from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling, should result in us walking before God as witnesses to men.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints, whose souls God has saved and who are safeguarded by God from tears and trip-ups, should live in the sight of God as shining lights in the land of the living.

 

PSALM 116:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted.” (Psalm 116:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is belief in Christ that causes one to profess Christ, to preach Christ, and to pray to Christ, even in the face of being persecuted for Christ.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The true believer cannot be silent and the silent are not true believers.

 

PSALM 116:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I said in my haste, All men are liars.” (Psalm 116:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Having unhesitatingly acknowledged his faith in the truthfulness of God, the psalmist confesses to having too hastily accused all men of being liars. Although no man is as trustworthy as God, some men are somewhat trustworthy nevertheless.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must always be careful not to paint all others with the broad brush of cynicism.

 

PSALM 116:12-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:12-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: “What can I give God,” not, “What can God give me,” is the right question. Yet, the answer is, “I will take the cup of salvation.” In other words, since God has done everything for me and needs nothing from me, I can only take His cup and call on His name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ did everything that needed to be done for our salvation. All that is left for us to do is accept by faith what He has done for us, which we could have never done for ourselves. When we do, by calling on the name of the Lord, we are saved by God and doing the work of God. (John 6:28-28; Romans 10:13)

 

PSALM 116:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.” (Psalm 116:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should presently and publicly pay our vows unto the Lord, to prove the validity of our confession of Him and our commitment to Him. (Psalm 116:18)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is a suspect faith that procrastinates to pay its vows and refuses to publicly profess its vows.

 

PSALM 116:15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The death of the saints is precious to God, since God, from His Heavenly perspective, sees it, unlike us, from our earthly perspective, as nothing more than the saints’ passage from this vale of tears into His very presence.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints do not die at the hand of cruel fate, but in the caring hand of Divine Providence, which holds as precious each dying saint.

 

PSALM 116:16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.” (Psalm 116:16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To be freed by the Lord from our bonds—from sin, Satan, and self—is to become the Lord’s voluntary bondservant for life.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the sons and daughters of handmaids of the Lord who are most likely to grow up and become servants of the Lord.

 

PSALM 116:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Since it is thanksgiving and praise that usher us into the presence of God, we should always offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving as a prerequisite to calling upon the name of the Lord in prayer. (Psalm 100:4)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be thankful to God in a delightful situation is one thing, but to be thankful to Him in a dire and desperate one is quite another. The former is sufficient thanksgiving, which Is expected, the latter a sacrifice of thanksgiving, which is extraordinary. (Jonah 2:9)

 

PSALM 116:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.” (Psalm 116:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should presently and publicly pay our vows unto the Lord, to prove the validity of both our confession of Him and commitment to Him. (Psalm 116:14)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is a suspect faith that procrastinates to pay its vows and refuses to publicly profess its vows.

 

PSALM 116:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: “In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 116:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In the courts of God’s house and in the capital of God’s people, the psalmist called upon all of God’s chosen to join him in his “Hallelujah” chorus.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is certainly fitting that the word “Hallelujah” is a universal word that needs no translation into any language, since its chorus should be sung in unison by all people in all places and at all times.

 

PSALM 117

 

This psalm is not only the shortest psalm in the book of Psalms, but also the shortest chapter in the Bible. Although it is very little in size, Charles Spurgeon says that it “is exceeding large in its spirit…bursting beyond all bounds of race or nationality [to] call upon all mankind to praise the name of the Lord.” Echoing Spurgeon, G Campbell Morgan wrote, “This is the shortest song in the whole collection, but there is none greater or grander in its expression of praise.” 

 

PSALM 117:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.” (Psalm 117:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All people in all places should praise the Lord, regardless of their race, nationality, or ethnicity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It makes no difference who you are, what you are, or where you are, your chief duty in this world is to worship God!

 

PSALM 117:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 117:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All people in all places should praise the Lord for His unconditional love and His unchangeable truth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: From All That Dwell Below the Skies

 

      From all that dwell below the skies,

      Let the Creator's praise arise;

      Let the Redeemer's name be sung

      Through every land by every tongue.

 

      Eternal are Thy mercies Lord;

      Eternal truth attends Thy Word;

      Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore

      Till suns shall rise and set no more. (Isaac Watts)

 

PSALM 118

 

The words sung by the returned exiles from the Babylonian Captivity at the laying of the foundation of the rebuilt temple in the days of Ezra are the same words of the opening and concluding sentences of this psalm (Ezra 3:11). Furthermore, since the festivities at the celebration of the laying of the foundation of the second temple were attributed to the ordinances of David (Ezra 3:10), it is safe to assume that this psalm, which was sung on the occasion of that glorious celebration, was also authored by King David.

 

In addition to the above, this psalm is also the last song of the Jewish Hallel, the psalms sung or recited on the Passover. Therefore, it is believed to be the final song sung by Jesus with His disciples on the night of His Last Supper (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26). If this is indeed the case, the psalm’s special messianic lyrics; such as, “The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner” (Psalm 118:22) and “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27), would have been most appropriate for that solemn hour on the night before Christ’s crucifixion. 

 

Psalm 118 is also the middle chapter of the entire Bible, which raises the following fascinating facts.  

1. The psalm before Psalm 118 is Psalm 117, which is the shortest chapter in the Bible.
2. The psalm after Psalm 118 is Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible?
3. There are 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and 594 chapters after Psalm 118. If you add up all the chapters, except Psalm 118, you get a total of 1,188 chapters, which is another fascinating fact, since Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse of the entire Bible.
4. Being the middle verse in the Bible, Psalm 118:8 has, as you would expect, a very important message: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” 

PSALM 118:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good…” (Psalm 118:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is not only good, but as Jesus taught us, He is the only good, apart from whom there is no good. In other words, if Jesus isn’t in you, there is nothing good about you. (Mark 10:18; Romans 3:12)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To believe in the possibility of man’s good apart from God is to deny man’s need of God.

 

PSALM 118:1b-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…because his mercy endureth for ever. Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever. Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 118:1b-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The forever security of God-forgiven sinners is found in the ever-flowing stream of God’s forever enduring mercy, for which all who fear God, like God’s people and priests, should forever praise God!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While all of creation can thank God for His goodness, only sinners who’ve come to Christ for their salvation from sin can thank God for His mercy.

 

PSALM 118:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.” (Psalm 118:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When backed and bowed into a corner of life, prayer provides us with an escape passage into wide-open spaces.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s answers to our prayers opens up our limited prospects into large places; that is, it turns binding obstruction and oppression into boundless opportunities.

 

PSALM 118:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” (Psalm 118:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is on the side of all who side with Him, so that they need never fear what man can do to them. (Romans 8:31)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln said to one of his advisors, who suggested that God was on the side of the Union, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

 

PSALM 118:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.” (Psalm 118:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If God takes your part as your helper, then, those who hate you can never prevail against you.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God is my helper, then, those who hate me must first get through Him to finally get to me.

 

PSALM 118:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” (Psalm 118:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas people and princes are prone to fail and forsake us, as well as to be unfaithful to us, God will never fail nor forsake us, but prove Himself, just as He has promised, to always be faithful to us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is better to trust in the Almighty, who is all-powerful, than in people, who are all puny.

 

PSALM 118:10-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They compassed me about like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.” (Psalm 118:10-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In the name of the Lord we can be saved from surrounding nemeses or nations, who, like bees, will be slain by their own stings, or like a crackling fire of thorns, will be quickly consumed by their own fury.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Jesus, the name high over all

        In hell or earth or sky

        Angels and men before it fall

        And devils fear and fly” (Charles Wesley)

 

PSALM 118:13-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.” (Psalm 118:13-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Lord delivers all who trust Him from all the deadly thrusts of their enemies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: With God to save us and strengthen us we can sing even when our enemies are trying to slay us.

 

PSALM 118:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.” (Psalm 118:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There is rejoicing in the tents of God’s army whenever His right hand is lifted to valiantly vanquish His, as well as His army’s adversaries.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: These verses are seen as prophetic of Christ, who is exalted at the right hand of God, because of His securing of our salvation and valiant vanquishing of our adversaries, such as sin, Satan, and spiritual death. (Hebrews 1:3; 1 Peter 3:22)

 

PSALM 118:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” (Psalm 118:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Regardless of life-threatening threats, either by devils, diseases, or other deadly dangers, the child of God is invulnerable within God’s protective hedge and until his or her final and God-ordained appointment with death. (Job 1:10; Hebrews 9:27)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This verse was clung to and cherished by both Martin Luther and John Wycliffe. Luther, who faced multiple threats against his life, wrote this verse on the wall of his study. When it came to Wycliffe, he, after suffering a stroke and being surrounded on his sick bed by friars exhorting him to recant his denunciations of their Catholic heresies, motioned for his servant to prop him up in bed, so that he could paraphrase this verse and proclaim to the friars, “I shall not die but live and proclaim once again the evil deeds of the friars.”

 

PSALM 118:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.” (Psalm 118:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God sorely chastens His children for their correction, but never fatally for their condemnation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is, as we learn in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, the possibility that an obstinate child of God who refuses to be corrected under divine chastening and continues to be an embarrassment to the cause of Christ over some impenitent and public sin, may end up in a premature grave, but not in perdition.

 

PSALM 118:19-21

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.” (Psalm 118:19-21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This gate of the Lord and of righteousness is the strait gate to the narrow way of salvation, which requires divine permission to enter and results in the righteous walk of its wayfarers and in the endless praise of their God. (Matthew 7:13-14)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We are made righteous by trusting, not by trying. We can never, in our own strength, make ourselves righteous. Instead, we must have faith and hope in God that He, through His Spirit, will make us righteous. (Galatians 5:5)

 

PSALM 118:22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” (Psalm 118:22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This verse, one of the Old Testament verses most quoted in the New Testament, is clearly prophetic of Christ, who despite being rejected by our world, is the Chief Cornerstone of it. (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10-11; Luke 20:17-18; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:6-7)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This world was founded upon Christ and will find its fulfillment in Christ. Therefore, to reject Christ as your Chief Cornerstone is to build your life without a proper foundation and with no prospect for fulfillment, since Christ is what life is all about.

 

Christ is the Chief Cornerstone of the church, which is eternally established upon the solid and sure foundation of God’s written Word—“the apostles and prophets”—and God’s Living Word—“Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone.” All who receive and profess Christ, the Rock upon which Christ’s church is built, become one of the living stones of which Christ’s church is comprised, but all who reject Christ, not only stumble over Him, the Chief Cornerstone, but will also be crushed to powder by Him when He falls on them from Heaven at His Second Coming. (Ephesians 2:20; Matthew 16:13-18; 1 Peter 2:4-8; Luke 20:17-18)

 

PSALM 118:23

 

BIBLE TEXT: “This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is God alone who is marvelously summing up all things in Christ and putting Christ over it all as All in All. (Ephesians 1:10, 19-23)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How marvelous it should be in the eyes of all men that God has raised the rejected Christ from Calvary’s tree to the throne of Heaven to reign over all creation.

 

PSALM 118:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Since every day is a gift from God we should not only be grateful for it, but also glad and rejoicing in it rather than grumbling and griping our way through it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This verse is believed to be prophetic, predicting the coming day—which has now come and we can now rejoice in—when Christ, who would be crucified, would afterward be made the Capstone or Cornerstone of God’s creation and our salvation.

 

PSALM 118:25-26

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.” (Psalm 118:25-26 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In Hebrew, the words “Save now” are “Hosanna,” which, along with the words, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” are the words cried out by the crowd at Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-19; John 12:13)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Truly, the prayer, “Save now, I beech thee, O Lord,” was answered when the Savior, “in the name of the Lord,” rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to be subsequently crucified, buried, and resurrected for the salvation of the world.

 

PSALM 118:27

 

BIBLE TEXT: “God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” (Psalm 118:27 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The light God has shined upon us is the light of the altar upon which He bound His Son with the cords of His love for a lost and dying world. Truly, it is only by kneeling at the cross that we can ever come to clearly see God and to really know God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To live our lives as living sacrifices to God, we must be bound to the altar by God not only all the days of our lives, but also all day long each day that we live. (Romans 12:1-2)

 

PSALM 118:28

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.” (Psalm 118:28 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To proclaim that there is a God is exemplary, but to profess God as your God is essential.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who have encountered God and who experientially know God will exclaim, extol, and exalt God!

 

PSALM 118:29

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 118:29 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm concludes as it commenced, with its curtain-raiser doubling as its climax, since no loftier pinnacle could be aspired to than the psalmist’s adoration of God, the world’s only good, and of God’s enduring mercy toward a world of no-goods.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: One can almost hear the crescendoing chorus of Christ and His disciples as they sang this, the final Hallelujah of the Hallel, at the Last Supper, before going out into the night to the Garden of Gethsemane. (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26)

 

PSALM 119

 

This Psalm, which is not only the longest psalm in the psalter, but also the longest chapter in the Bible, is anonymous, though popularly believed to have been authored by King David. It appears to have been written over a lifetime and therefore reminds me of a couple of famous artists. First, it reminds me of James McNeill Whistler, whose famous painting of his own mother is world renowned. When asked by a lawyer about the exuberant price of a painting that took only two days to paint, Whistler explained that the high price was not based on the two days it took to paint it, but on “the knowledge of a lifetime” that alone enabled him to do it. Likewise, Pablo Picasso once explained to a woman in a restaurant, who  requested a quick sketch from the famous artist, that the exuberant price he asked her to pay for it, $10,000, was justified, because it took him “a lifetime,” not just thirty seconds, “to draw it.”

 

This psalm is an acrostic poem, which is divided into 22 sections that correspond with the 22 sequential letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section contains 8 verses and each verse begins with the particular letter of the Hebrew alphabet assigned to that section. The closest parallel to this pattern in Scripture is found in the book of Lamentations. Not only do the 22 verses of chapters 1, 2, and 4 of Lamentations all begin with the sequential letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but chapter 3 of Lamentations, which has 66 verses rather than 22, is, like Psalm 119, comprised of 22 sections that correspond with the 22 sequential letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The only difference in the acrostic arrangement of Lamentations 3 from Psalm 119 is that each section is comprised of only 3 verses rather than 8 verses. 

 

The marvel of this psalm is not just found in its method, but also in its matter. It’s sublime subject is the Scripture, and there is scarcely a verse in it that does not refer to the sacred Scripture as either God’s word, law, judgments, testimonies, commandments, statutes, or precepts. For this reason, Psalm 119 has been called the “Multi-Faceted Diamond of God’s Word,” since it offers the reader so many brilliant and different reflections of Holy Writ. In this same vein, Charles Spurgeon called this magnificent psalm a “kaleidoscope of divine beauty,” since by simply rotating its repeated tributes to God’s Word it creates endless and beautiful patterns and perceptions through which the Word of God can be variously and valuably viewed.

 

Alef (א)

 

PSALM 119:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” (Psalm 119:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Happy and holy are those who make their way through this life walking in the law of the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The more we live by the Bible the more blessed we'll be blessed!

 

PSALM 119:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.” (Psalm 119:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Sin is an impossibility when we’re wholeheartedly seeking God and walking in His ways.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Keeping God’s testimonies keeps us from trespasses and transgressions.

 

PSALM 119:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.” (Psalm 119:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God demands our diligent devotion to His divine decrees and dictates.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God did not give us “Ten Suggestions,” but Ten Commandments.

 

PSALM 119:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” (Psalm 119:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only divine intervention that can direct us to keep, as well as keep us from deviating from, God’s divinely inspired statues.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We will never be directed in the ways of God’s divinely inspired statues by our own sense of self-direction.

 

PSALM 119:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No one is ever ashamed for adhering to God’s commandments.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If you do not adhere to God’s commandments, but instead abhor them, or are even just apathetic about them, you won’t just end up ashamed, but anathematized. (Deuteronomy 28:15)

 

PSALM 119:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.” (Psalm 119:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To lift your heart in praise requires an upright heart, and to posses an upright heart requires you to both learn of and live up to God’s righteous judgments.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A heart not right with God cannot be raised in praise to God.

 

PSALM 119:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.” (Psalm 119:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those genuinely sincere about keeping God’s statutes need never fear being utterly severed and separated from God over their shortcomings.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although we will never live up to God’s perfect standard as imperfect sinners, we should ever strive to do so and never suspect that we’ve lost our salvation over any of our shortcomings.

 

READ THE BOOKLET: ETERNAL SECURITY

 

Bet (ב)

 

PSALM 119:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only by adopting the Bible as their compass and carefully following it as their map for life that our youth can chart for themselves a correct course through an uncertain future and into Heaven's sure and safe harbor.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only a young man, but all men, can cleanse their way by conforming themselves to God’s Word, for all men can be confident that their ways are pure, by keeping them confined within the parameters of God’s Word.

 

PSALM 119:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the wholehearted seeker of communion with God who God keeps from wandering from the commandments of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who have no heart for God will neither hear nor heed the commandments of God. Furthermore, if we are less than wholehearted in our seeking of God we will be no more than halfhearted in our service of God.

 

PSALM 119:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: By hiding God’s Word in your heart, you erect a high wall between you and sin that’s hard to hurdle.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s really hard to mount some sin over memorized Scripture.

 

PSALM 119:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word must be taught to us by God. We can only learn it by divine revelation, never by human reason.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We cannot figure out God’s Word for ourselves nor have it taught to us through mere human tutelage. Instead, we need to pray to its Author, the Holy Spirit, to illuminate its meaning and to enlighten our minds.

 

PSALM 119:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.” (Psalm 119:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All of God’s judgments are to be proclaimed, not just those cherry-picked by our personal preference, but also those we find particularly problematic. (Acts 20:27)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, having been taught God’s Word (v. 12), the psalmist had now become a teacher of God’s Word. Likewise, all Christians, even new converts, once they’ve studied and been taught the elementary truths of God’s Word, should be sharing God’s Word and teaching it to others. (Hebrews 5:12)

 

PSALM 119:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.” (Psalm 119:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The people of God should rejoice in the Word of God far more than in the riches of this world, since its value is eternal rather than temporal. (Matthew 24:35)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a spiritual pauper, who is spiritually impoverished by their Biblically illiteracy, is illustriously seen by this world as incredibly successful and inestimably prosperous.

 

PSALM 119:15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.” (Psalm 119:15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The more you meditate on God’s Word the more God’s Word and ways will mean to you.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To keep your focus on God’s precepts is to keep your feet on God’s paths.

 

PSALM 119:16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” (Psalm 119:16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There is no way that anyone who delights in God’s Word can ever disremember or disregard it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God’s Word is foremost to us, it will never be forgotten by us.

 

Gimel (ג)

 

PSALM 119:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.” (Psalm 119:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for God to bountifully bless us so that our lives will be extended and our obedience to God’s Word less encumbered.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should not pray selfishly for God to bountifully bless us, but selflessly so that we can better serve Him.

 

PSALM 119:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” (Psalm 119:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We will never see wondrous things in Holy Scripture, unless the Holy Spirit wonderfully opens the eyes of our hearts to see them. (Acts 16:14; Ephesians 1:18)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We will be in the dark when it comes to the Scripture, unless we study it in the light of the Spirit.

 

“Open my eyes, that I may see

Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free. 

 

Silently now I wait for Thee,

ready, my God, Thy will to see;

open my eyes, illumine me,

Spirit divine!” (Clara Scott)

 

PSALM 119:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.” (Psalm 119:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As pilgrims, merely passing through this world, we can ill afford to have God’s commandments, which serve as our compass, to be concealed from us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who cling to God’s commandments rather than conform to this world will be seen by this world as not only alien to it, but also as aliens in it.

 

PSALM 119:20

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.” (Psalm 119:120 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only those with an insatiable appetite for God’s Word and who can never get enough of it who will continuously feast upon it and never get foundered on it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who do not long for God’s Word will neither learn it nor live it.

 

PSALM 119:21-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:21-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The arrogant, who belittle God’s Word, because they think they know better than God, are accursed by God for straying from His commands and contemptuously scorning His obedient children.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whenever we are treated contemptuously for keeping the testimonies of our God, we should pray to God to either remove our reproach, or at least, to remove the sting of our slanderers’ scorn.

 

PSALM 119:23

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Nothing should deter us from meditating on and minding God’s Word, not even the mockery of a monarch.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” (Martin Luther’s famous response to being commanded by Emperor Charles V and church officials to recant of his writings at the Diet of Worms in 1521)

 

PSALM 119:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.” (Psalm 119:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The decrees of God should be our delight and God’s commands our counselors.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The word of God is our lamp by night and our light by day, but our delight at all times.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

Dalet (ד)

 

PSALM 119:25

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:25 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When we are down and out God’s Spirit can lift us up by making God’s Word come alive in our heart.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not just reading the Bible that lifts us up when we are down, but it’s when the Spirit personally speaks the Scripture to us, quickening it off the sacred page and making it come alive in our heart.

 

PSALM 119:26

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:26 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We not only need to live transparently before God, but we also need God to teach us how to live true to His statues.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We not only need to be willing to confess our ways to God, but also be willing to correct our ways by the Word of God.

 

PSALM 119:27

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.” (Psalm 119:27 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Before we can proclaim the wondrous works of God we must be pupils and practitioners of the Word of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The prerequisite to proclaiming God's works is to walk in the way of His precepts.

 

PSALM 119:28

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.” (Psalm 119:28 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word is strength to weary souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No soul can be strong that starves itself of the Scripture.

 

PSALM 119:29

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.” (Psalm 119:29 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only by the grace of God that we can live by God’s law rather than by man’s lies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All men either live by divine law or by human lies, the former being the product of infallible divine revelation and the latter a product of fallible human reason.

 

PSALM 119:30

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.” (Psalm 119:30 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To choose the way of truth in our lives we must ever lay the judgments of God before us, lest we lose our way and become wayward.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Men do not drop into the right way by chance; they must choose it, and continue to choose it, or they will soon wander from it.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:31

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.” (Psalm 119:31 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To stick with God’s Word is to never be put to shame.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All of God’s saints should be superglued to the Scripture.

 

PSALM 119:32

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.” (Psalm 119:32 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is those with enlarged hearts for God who will run and hasten to obey God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The faster we run to fulfill God’s commandments the further God’s commandments will be revealed to us. In other words, God gives us more light the more we run with the light we’ve already been given.

 

Hey (ה)

 

PSALM 119:33-35

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” (Psalm 119:133-35 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is those to whom God teaches His Word who will tenaciously keep God’s Word, because they alone will have a heart for it and delight in it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one ignorant of God’s Word or indifferent to God’s Word will ever obey God’s Word, but only those who are knowledgeable of it and passionate about it.

 

PSALM 119:35

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” (Psalm 119:35 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s commandments are not grievous to God’s children, but their delight. They don’t obey God out of duty, because they have to, but out of desire, because they want to. (1 John 5:3)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Love God and do as you please.” (Augustine)

 

PSALM 119:36-37

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” (Psalm 119:36-37 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God must turn your heart and eyes to His Word and away from wealth and worldly things if you are to walk in His ways.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: You cannot walk through this life according to the Word of God or aligned with the ways of God if you are all weighted down with worldly things.

 

PSALM 119:38

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.” (Psalm 119:38 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We most revere God when God's Word is made real to us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The proving of God’s Word always produces His praise among His people.

 

PSALM 119:39

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.” (Psalm 119:39 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If we faithfully do what God requires, we can fervently pray for God to deliver us from our fear of reproach.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: By doing good, according to the judgments of God, we need not fear either the reproach of sin or of sinners, since the former is eliminated and the latter is irrelevant.

 

PSALM 119:40

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.” (Psalm 119:40 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who long after God’s precepts will live in God’s righteousness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is those who long for and adore God’s Word who will live it out and adhere to it.

 

Waw (ו)

 

PSALM 119:41

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:41 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Make no mistake about it; God’s mercies and salvation come to us in strict conformity to His Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Salvation is mercifully and graciously given to us by God on His terms, never on our own terms.

 

PSALM 119:42

 

BIBLE TEXT: “So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.” (Psalm 119:42 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is those who trust in God’s Word who can contend for God’s Word against all who taunt them for trusting it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one who doubts or disobeys God’s Word can defend it. To be an apologist for it you must ardently adhere to it.

 

PSALM 119:43

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.” (Psalm 119:43 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only do those who find their hope in God’s Word herald God’s Word, but without these faithful heralds of the Scripture our fallen world has no hope of salvation. (Romans 10:14-15; 1 Corinthians 1:21)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God’s heralds of Christ’s Gospel are ever silenced, there will be no hope of salvation for any lost soul.

 

PSALM 119:44

 

BIBLE TEXT: “So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.” (Psalm 119:44 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word is not to be obeyed periodically, but perpetually.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even though God’s Word is to be obeyed constantly, even when it is arduous and exacting, many professed Christians today only obey it when it is convenient; that is, only when it is accommodating and easy.

 

PSALM 119:45

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:45 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To live within the tight limits of God’s Word is to live in true liberty.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is continuously living in God’s Word, as well as continuously living it out, that results in us not only coming to know God’s truth, but also in the truth setting us free. (John 8:31-32)

 

PSALM 119:46

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.” (Psalm 119:46 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Heralds of God’s Word should be no less hesitant to proclaim God’s Word to potentates than they are to peasants, for both are in equal need of it and neither can be eternally saved without it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should be as unhesitant and unashamed to declare the decrees of our God before a king on his throne with a scepter, as we are before a beggar on a street corner with a tin cup.

 

PSALM 119:47-48

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:47-48 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is those mesmerized by God’s Word who ever meditate upon God’s Word, as well as lift up their hands in admiration of it and live out their lives in accordance with it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It requires a lifetime love affair with God’s Word to live out our lives delighting in it, meditating upon it, and in obedience to it.

 

Zayin (ז)

 

PSALM 119:49

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.” (Psalm 119:49 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist does not pray for his works to be remembered, but for God’s Word to be remembered, knowing that his hope was not in his performance, but only in God’s promises.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We may rest assured that the hopes raised for us by God’s promises to us will be fully realized by our omniscient God’s sure remembrance of all He has promised.

 

PSALM 119:50

 

BIBLE TEXT: “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” (Psalm 119:50 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If God’s Word resurrected us from our death in trespasses and sins, then, it can certainly revive us in our dire and desperate straits.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only God’s Word is life-giving and soul-saving!

 

PSALM 119:51

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.” (Psalm 119:51 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although we who revere God’s Word will be held in derision by the proud—those who disdain God’s Word as irrelevant—we must not down-grade our view of God’s Word in the least or lessen our devotion to God’s Word at all.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God forbid that the taunts of  sacrilegious Bible-bashers ever cause any sincere Bible-believer to turn away from the truths of the sacred Scriptures.

 

PSALM 119:52

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.” (Psalm 119:52 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: While our modern-day world discards the Bible as an irrelevant and antiquated relic, Christians need to remember and be ever mindful of its ancient and immutable truths, so that we can find comfort and live confidently in these contemporary times. (Jeremiah 6:16)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Ancient Words (By: Lynn DeShazo)

 

Holy words long preserved

for our walk in this world,

They resound with God's own heart

Oh, let the Ancient words impart.

 

Words of Life, words of Hope

Give us strength, help us cope

In this world, wherever we roam

Ancient words will guide us Home.

 

Holy words of our Faith

Handed down to this age.

Came to us through sacrifice

Oh heed the faithful words of Christ.

 

Ancient words ever true

Changing me, and changing you.

We have come with open hearts

Oh let the ancient words impart.

 

PSALM 119:53

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” (Psalm 119:53 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the wicked turn up their nose at God’s law, it should not only cause us to scratch our heads, but also cause our hair to stand on end.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should be horrified, not only at the harebrained foolishness of those who forsake God’s law, but also at the horrible fate that awaits them, for making such a mad and mortal mistake.

 

PSALM 119:54

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.” (Psalm 119:54 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The statues of Scripture should be the song of the saints all along their spiritual pilgrimage and earthly sojourn.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Scripture should put a song in our heart, a spring in our step, and a smile on our face.

 

PSALM 119:55

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law.” (Psalm 119:55 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We must remember God’s name in the nights of our lives if we are to get safely through them by faithfully following God’s law in the thick of them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must keep God on our mind if we are to mind God’s Word both night and day.

 

PSALM 119:56

 

BIBLE TEXT: “This I had, because I kept thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:56 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The practice of all of God’s people should be to perpetually keep all of God’s precepts.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The psalmist gloriously professes that he has kept God’s precepts. Truly, every Christian should aspire to make this same glorious profession, by perpetually and particularly keeping God’s precepts.

 

Heth (ח)

 

PSALM 119:57

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words.” (Psalm 119:57 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To all who are satisfied with the Lord as their portion, submitting to His Word is no problem.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Thomas Brooks, a 17th century Puritan preacher, said he quoted this verse in the face of every temptation, since it reminded him that with the Lord as his portion he had to no need to ever forsake God’s Word for any fleshly pursuit.

 

PSALM 119:58

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:58 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who seek God’s face and His favor with all of their heart can pray for God’s promised mercy whenever they sin and fall short.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although we do not merit God’s mercy, God promises it to us if we are penitent of our sin and sincere in our pursuit of Him.

 

PSALM 119:59

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:59 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To study God’s Word is to simultaneously study our ways, something which should result in us squaring our ways with God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Blaise Pascal called this verse “the turning point of man’s character and destiny,” since it is by coming to God’s Word that men come to themselves.

 

PSALM 119:60

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:60 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Once we see what the Scripture surely says we shouldn’t shilly-shally, but swiftly set out to speedily submit to it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Speed in repentance and speed in obedience are two excellent things. We are too often in haste to sin; O that we may be in a greater hurry to obey.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:61-62

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.” (Psalm 119:61-62 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should not be in anyway obstructed from obeying God’s Word by the oppression of the wicked.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In no spiritual skirmish should we ever lose sight of the Scripture, for even in the midnights of our lives, we can rise and be thankful, because its righteous splendor shines through.

 

PSALM 119:63

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:63 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If a man is known by the company he keeps, then, a man of God will keep company with those who fear God and keep His commandments.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Consummate camaraderie is an impossibility between the reverent and the irreverent or the pious and the profane.

 

PSALM 119:64

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:64 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The fact that the earth is full of sinful men is proof positive that the earth is full of God’s mercy!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Knowing how merciful God is to mankind ought to motivate all men to know more about God.

 

Tet (ט)

 

PSALM 119:65

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word.” (Psalm 119:65 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There is no better treatment servants of God could possibly hope for than God’s treatment of them, which is always in perfect accordance with His Word to them and His good, acceptable, and perfect will for them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No servant of God has ever been or will ever be mistreated by God or ever have any cause to lodge any complaint against God.

 

PSALM 119:66

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:66 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No one will obey God’s laws or have good judgment in their lives who does not believe in God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one is smart or wise who does not believe in, submit to, and obey the commandments of God’s Word.

 

PSALM 119:67

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” (Psalm 119:67 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Affliction is often a woodshed used by God to chasten and correct His wayward children, so that they will be whipped back into line with His Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When used by God as a goad or as guardrails, affliction is a blessing in disguise, which either prods us back into compliance with God’s commandments or keeps us continuously confined within their clear parameters.

 

PSALM 119:68

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:68 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: A prerequisite to being a good pupil of the Bible and to having one’s prayers answered for a better understanding of the Bible is an unshakable belief in the goodness of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The goodness of God—not only the fact that He is altogether good, but also that all He does is good—serves as a spectacular sales pitch for the Good Book.

 

PSALM 119:69

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.” (Psalm 119:69 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Lies forged against pious saints by proud sinners are easily disproven by the saints’ wholehearted obedience to God’s precepts.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No saint should ever get out of step with the Holy Scriptures over the slander of haughty sinners.

 

PSALM 119:70

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.” (Psalm 119:70 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The spiritual man is not only distinguishable from the natural man by his actions, but also by his affections. His heart is lean, solely delighting in the Word of God, not fat, sensuously desiring all the things of the world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many an unregenerate heart becomes as fat as grease, because its insatiable appetite for the unsatisfying things of this world can never be gratified, no matter how gluttonous it grows and over-indulged it becomes.

 

PSALM 119:71

 

BIBLE TEXT: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:71 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Affliction can be the school of hard knocks in which we learn to live by God's laws.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This is the second time the psalmist points out how affliction can be a blessing in disguise, when used by God for our good, as either a woodshed or a schoolhouse.

 

PSALM 119:72

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.” (Psalm 119:72 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The value of Scripture to the soul is truly inestimable, since it is only by the preaching of the Scripture that the soul, which itself is worth more than the whole world, must be saved. (1 Corinthians 1:21; 15:1-2; James 1:21; Matthew 16:26)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The story is told of what was reportedly the largest Bible in the world at one time. It was a 320 pound manuscript housed in the Vatican library. A group attempted to buy it, offering the Vatican the Bible’s weight in gold. However, the pope at the time, Julius II, turned down the offer, as insufficient, even though the value of so much gold was enormous. Today, the largest Bible in the world is the Waynai Bible, which is housed on a rotating bases between the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. and Texas’ Abilene Christian University. The Waynai Bible weighs a whopping 1,094 pounds. Yet, even the cheapest Bible, purchased in a Dollar Store, or a free Bible, complimentary distributed by the Gideons throughout our world, is worth far more than the weight of the Waynai Bible in gold.

 

Yod (י)

 

PSALM 119:73

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:73 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To recognize God as our Creator is to realize our obligation to learn and live by His commandments.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We, who have been fashioned by God, as a work of God, should always be faithful to the Word of God. 

 

“Oh look upon the wounds of thine hands, and forget not the work of thine hands.” (Prayer of Queen Elizabeth I)

 

PSALM 119:74

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.” (Psalm 119:74 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who fear the name of God are happy to see others who hope in the Word of God, because they are uplifting rather than upsetting.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To stand on the promises of God is to spread gladness among the people of God, but to be skeptical of God’s promises is to sow gloom among God’s people.

 

PSALM 119:75

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” (Psalm 119:75 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To find solace in suffering we must be sure that God is always fair and faithful; that is, His judgments are surely just and our affliction is somehow spiritually advantageous.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Madame Guyon’s doctrine of abandonment was based on this profound premise: God’s eternal plan is perfectly contained within the present moment, no matter what it holds or what you’re going through within it.

 

PSALM 119:76

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.” (Psalm 119:76 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We can confidently pray to be comforted by God’s merciful kindness in all of our problems, because God has promised it to us in His immutable Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray for what God has clearly promised us in His Word is for us to pray confidently according to His will, so that we can not only be convinced that we’ve been heard, but that we also have what we’ve asked for. (1 John 5:14-15)

 

PSALM 119:77

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.” (Psalm 119:77 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: He who delights in God’s law, even in the midst of lamentable difficulties, will live in the thick of God’s tender mercies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Make no mistake about it; in all of life’s threatening miseries our lives are maintained by God’s tender mercies.

 

PSALM 119:78

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:78 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should never permit the proud, who deal with us perversely, to distract us from meditating on God’s precepts, lest we, rather than the proud, be put to shame.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To mediate on Scripture is to fathom its depths, not to skip a rock across its surface. It’s not to fast forward through it with a pocket-sized flashlight, but to pause and ponder each passage of it with a powerful searchlight.

 

PSALM 119:79

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:79 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To be friended by those who fear God and turned to by those who know the testimonies of God is a testimony to one’s own fear and knowledge of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “David has two descriptions for the saints, they are God-fearing and God-knowing.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:80

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.” (Psalm 119:80 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To be scripturally sound is to be safeguarded from shame!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To live Biblically is to live blamelessly, not to mention unblushingly.

 

Kaph (כ)

 

PSALM 119:81

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.” (Psalm 119:81 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Even in our distress, during what we deem to be God’s delayed deliverance, we need not despair, for we can always depend upon God sooner or later delivering on His sure and dependable promises.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even in seemingly hopeless and helpless situations, we can be heartened by hoping in God’s Word, for it assures us that help is surely on the way.

 

PSALM 119:82

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?” (Psalm 119:82 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though our eyes fail us, when strained in a diligent search of the Scripture for comfort, our faith must not falter, lest we fall prey to discomfort and despair.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should pray for the Spirit to show us what He wants us to see in the Scripture, not what we’re wanting and straining to see. For instance, we may need to be convicted rather than comforted.

 

PSALM 119:83

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:83 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This illustration of “a bottle in the smoke,” as Spurgeon points out, is a perfect illustration of the nature of our earthly trials, in that they “are smoke, but not fire”; that is, “they are very uncomfortable, but they do not consume us.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Echoing the psalmist resolve not to forget God’s statutes in his trials, a Christian martyr once fearlessly said: “No trouble must pull us from the love of the truth. You may pull my tongue out of my head, but not my faith out of my heart.”

 

PSALM 119:84

 

BIBLE TEXT: “How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?” (Psalm 119:84 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This verse is a rarity in this psalm, in that it contains no reference to God’s Word, it is as if the psalmist was so troubled by his persecutors that he momentarily paused his tribute to the Scripture.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our final appointment, with both death and judgment, is set by God. Therefore, He alone knows the exact number of our days and when judgment will be executed on our persecutors. (Hebrews 9:27)

 

PSALM 119:85-86

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law. All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.” (Psalm 119:85-86 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In defiance of God’s Word, the proud, those who disregard and discredit God’s Word, persecute and dig pits for all who are devoted to God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be faithful to God’s infallible Word is to inevitably make yourself a foe of this faithless fallen world and to set yourself squarely in its crosshairs.

 

PSALM 119:87-88

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts. Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.” (Psalm 119:87-88 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though almost consumed by this truth-hating world, the psalmist, who tenaciously clung to God’s Word, was subsequently spared by God as a living testimony to the truth of God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The words of the Bible are words spoken from the mouth of God. Therefore, to read the Bible is to read what God has said and to be spoken to by God.

 

Lamed (ל)

 

PSALM 119:89

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” (Psalm 119:89 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In all of this world of uncertainty and unsurety, there is one thing you can always be certain about and sure of—God’s Word! (Matthew 5:17-18; 24:35)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A popular saying, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it,” is unbiblical, since the Bible clearly teaches that if God said it that forever settles it, whether you believe it or not.

 

PSALM 119:90-91

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.” (Psalm 119:90-91 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The earth, which was created and established by the Word of God, as well as continues to exist by the Word of God, serves as proof positive of the utter reliability of God’s Word, not only to all of God’s servants, but also to all generations.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Both the survival of this earthly sphere, which has never spun out of its orbit to either meander into boundless space or to be burned up by the sun, as well as the survival of the Scripture, which has survived and thrived, despite droves of enemies dedicated to its eradication upon the earth, prove to us that God’s Word is indisputable, indissoluble, and indestructible.

 

PSALM 119:92-93

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.” (Psalm 119:92-93 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God rescues and revives those who so delight in His law that they refuse to be distracted from it, but not those who find His law a drudgery rather than a delight and disregard it rather than diligently delve into it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As manna from Heaven provided the daily sustenance for the survival of ancient Israel in the wilderness, the Word of God provides the daily sustenance for the survival of the new Israel of God in the world today. (Deuteronomy 8:3; Galatians 6:15-16)

 

PSALM 119:94

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am thine, save me: for I have sought thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:94 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is those who ardently seek God’s precepts or commandments, so that they can sincerely adhere to them, who may be assured that they are God’s and that salvation is theirs. (1 John 2:3)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Know so salvation is based on us knowing that we’ve done what the Scripture says; namely, believed in Jesus Christ. (1 John 5:9-13)

 

PSALM 119:95

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:95 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If the wicked, who lie in wait for us, cannot get us to withdraw from God’s Word to us, they can never win over us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “If the enemy cannot cause us to withdraw our thoughts from holy study, or our feet from holy walking, or our hearts from holy aspirations, he has met with poor success in his assaults.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:96

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.” (Psalm 119:96 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All the world is finite, even its perceived perfections are imperfect, but the Word of God is infinite, without either error or end.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This venerable verse, a spiraling pinnacle in this spectacular tribute to Scripture, reminds us of the conclusion of the wise King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. Having found the things valued in this fallen world to be vanities and all worldly pursuits profitless, Solomon sums up all that is worthwhile in this life in these succinct and divinely inspired words: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

 

Mem (מ)

 

PSALM 119:97

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” (Psalm 119:97 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If the Bible has captured our heart it will also have captured our mind, so that we will not only be madly in love with it, but always meditating upon it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who love the God of the book will also love the book of God.

 

PSALM 119:98-100

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:98-100 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: A man may be made more learned than his enemies, educators, and elders by learning the Scripture.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: You can become wiser in your prayer closet with a Bible than in any war room, classroom, or lecture hall in the world.

 

PSALM 119:101

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.” (Psalm 119:101 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To retain God’s Word in our hearts we must refrain our feet from every evil way.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To go our own way is to let go of God’s Word.

 

PSALM 119:102

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.” (Psalm 119:102 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Notice, it is only when God Himself teaches us His judgments that we ourselves will be true to them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While many a man has perused the Bible for himself, who never put its precepts into practice, when the Bible is personally opened up to us by God, we will painstakingly observe it in obedience to God.

 

PSALM 119:103

 

BIBLE TEXT: “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To one with a sweet tooth for truth, the Scripture is the consummate confectionery.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although bitter and unpalatable to all who hate the truth, the Bible is sweet and delectable to all who love the truth.

 

PSALM 119:104

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” (Psalm 119:104 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The more we learn about the truths of God’s Word the more we will loathe the false ways of this world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To hold to the truths of God’s Word is to hate the false ways of this world.

 

Nun (נ)

 

PSALM 119:105

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As a lamp for our feet and a light on our path the Bible not only shows us the right footprints to follow through today, but also the right footpath to follow into tomorrow.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like the lamps of the five wise virgins, we also need oil in our lamp if it is to light our way through this life until the Second Coming of Christ. In other words, if our lamp, the Holy Scripture, is to light our way, we must be filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit; otherwise, neither the Word of God will be illuminated to us nor our way through this world illuminated by it. (Matthew 25:1-13)

 

PSALM 119:106

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.” (Psalm 119:106 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Is it not true that everyone who professes Jesus Christ as their Lord takes and confirms an oath to faithfully follow His righteous judgments?

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Every sincere profession of Christ as Lord is also a simultaneous and solemn pledge to obey His laws!

 

PSALM 119:107

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word.” (Psalm 119:107 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is in many afflictions that we can learn to submit to God’s Word, but it is also in the midst of afflictions that we can look for solace in God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray in our griefs for what God has guaranteed in His Word is to kneel on solid scriptural ground.

 

PSALM 119:108

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments.” (Psalm 119:108 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All true praise of God is a freewill offering to God. If forced or faked rather than free and fervent it is odious to God rather than an offering to God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All sincere praisers of God are serious pupils of the judgments of God.

 

PSALM 119:109

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.” (Psalm 119:109 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Even if our lives seem to be slipping from our hands, God’s law still needs to be entrenched in our hearts.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no excuse for forgetting the Scripture, not even self-preservation.

 

PSALM 119:110

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:110 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should never sidestep the divinely inspired Scripture, not even to sidestep one of the devil’s deviously laid snares.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We need never err from God’s precepts to escape some pitfall or peril, since God has not only promised us to never tempt us above what we are able to bear, but also to provide us with an appropriate means of escape from every temptation. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

 

PSALM 119:111

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” (Psalm 119:111 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is no temporal worldly heritage, but the Word of God itself that the child of God should claim as his or her eternal heritage.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What could our progenitors have better bequeathed to us or us to our posterity than the Bible.

 

PSALM 119:112

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.” (Psalm 119:112 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should vow to the end, until our dying breath or Christ’s return, to always live according to the Word of our God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, it takes a heart inclined to perform the statutes of God’s Word to pledge lifetime submission to God’s Word. If your heart isn’t in it, you’ll never live up to it.

 

Samek (ס)

 

PSALM 119:113

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.” (Psalm 119:113 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who love the immutable truths of God’s infallible Word will hate the ever-changing thoughts of fallible men.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The double-minded, who are always torn between two opinions, unlike the Bible believer, who is always transfixed on God’s Word, never finds any sure footing in this wishy-washy world. (1 Kings 18:21)

 

PSALM 119:114

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.” (Psalm 119:114 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: By hoping in God’s Word, we make God our hiding place or safe room in our troubles, as well as our shield and protector in our tussles.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, it is not the Word of God, but God Himself who shelters and shields us when we stand on the Scripture in our struggles and skirmishes.

 

PSALM 119:115

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.” (Psalm 119:115 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To keep God’s commandments is to part company with evildoers, for neither you nor them will be able to abide each other’s company any longer.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Because most of their friends are unbelievers, new converts make the best soul-winners, but as they grow in God’s grace, get grounded in God’s Word, and become more committed to Christ, their unbelieving friends become distant from them and disparaging of them. (1 Peter 4:3-4)

 

PSALM 119:116-117

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.” (Psalm 119:116-117 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: For God to sustain us and keep us safe according to His statues, is for Him to divinely distribute us on this planet as persuasive handbills for hoping in His Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When we serve as proof of God’s promises, the profession and preaching of our faith in God’s promises is both unashamed and unassailable.

 

PSALM 119:118

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.” (Psalm 119:118 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who err from God’s Word, in order to traffic in lies and deceit, will be trodden down by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who step outside the parameters of God’s Word to peddled their own opinions, will inevitably find themselves eternally punished and put in their place.

 

PSALM 119:119

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:119 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Even though the wicked of this world may be valued within it as silver and gold, they will inevitably be exposed and discarded by God as valueless dross.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The promised purifying of the earth, by God purging from it all that is impure and preserving upon it all that is pure, is just one more reason for the people of God to love the Word of God.

 

PSALM 119:120

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.” (Psalm 119:120 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God trodding down all who err from His Word and tossing away like dross all the wicked of this world, should cause all men not only to tremble in fear of God, but also to be afraid to turn from the letter of His law in the least little way.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since God’s Word is the scales in which God will weigh us and the yardstick by which God will measure us, all men should be afraid to disregard or disobey God’s Word, since all who do it will be damned by God for it. (John 12:48; 2 Thessalonians 2:12)

 

Ain (ע)

 

PSALM 119:121-122

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors. Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.” (Psalm 119:121-122 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To justly judge others gets God in our corner when others are unjustly judging us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We never need God more as our surety than when we’re under the oppression of Satan, who is not only the accuser of the brethren, but also the one in whose heart pride was originally found.

 

PSALM 119:123

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.” (Psalm 119:123 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though our eyes may fail us, God will never fail us, but eventually come through for us, by always doing what is right and what He has promised.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the Kingdom of Heaven, unlike in the Show-Me State of Missouri, you don’t have to see it to believe it, but you have to believe it to ever see it.

 

PSALM 119:124-125

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes. I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:124-125 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The servant of God must be mercifully taught by God, if he or she is to ever understand the Word of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only in “Mary’s College,” at the feet of Jesus, where Christians can listen to and learn the words of Christ. (Luke 10:38-42)

 

PSALM 119:126

 

BIBLE TEXT: “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.” (Psalm 119:126 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is truly time for God to work when His Word is not only being tossed aside as a trivial thing, but also being carelessly trampled and callously transgressed.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not so much for our help, but more for God’s honor that we should pray for God to uphold His Word.

 

THE NULLIFYING OF GOD’S WORD

 

We nullify God’s Word when we twist it to our own destruction (2 Peter 3:16), replace it with our own traditions (Mark 7:5-12), or renounce it as antiquated superstition. When we do so, not only is sin seen as human liberty and virtue as inhibiting legalism, but vice and vanity are championed as progressivism and virtue condemned as old fashioned. Whenever God’s Word is nullified, God’s people need to drop to their knees and pray for either the fire of divine retribution to fall, bringing down the ramparts of the wicked, or for the fire of revival to fall, raising up the walls of the righteous. Only when the fire falls will sinners turn to God or the backslidden back to God (1 Kings 18:20-39). If God is to save us from the chaos caused by the nullification of His Word, He must either mightily wield His rod of Iron, by sending judgment, or send us revival, by sending a mighty move of His Spirit.

 

PSALM 119:127-128

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.” (Psalm 119:127-128 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although others see the Scripture as vain and void, we should value it above finest gold, realizing that it is utterly and undoubtedly right and reliable. (John 17:17)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While the world mines its pyrite—its fool’s gold and false ways—we should mine the Bible’s inexhaustible and inestimable veins of inerrant truths and teachings.

 

Pe (פ)

 

PSALM 119:129

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.” (Psalm 119:129 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word is wonderful, both His written Word, the Scripture, and His Living Word, His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 9:6)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The more we wonder over God’s Word the more wonderful to us the Word of God becomes.

 

PSALM 119:130

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” (Psalm 119:130 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is not the reading of the Scripture with the eyes or the hearing of the Scripture with the ears that enlightens a man; instead, it is the illumination of the Holy Scripture by the Holy Spirit in the human heart that transforms simple men into spiritual sages.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only the heart that has opened the door to sup with the knocking Jesus that the Spirit enters to enlighten with the illuminated Scriptures. (Revelation 3:20; John 16:12-15)

 

PSALM 119:131

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:131 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our passion and thirst for God’s Word should leave us panting for it like a chased and hunted stag pants for air and water.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints should have an insatiable appetite for the Scripture that drives them to ever feast upon it and to never get their fill of it.

 

PSALM 119:132

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.” (Psalm 119:132 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God looks mercifully upon all who love Him, for He would have no reason to pay any attention to us were it not for His merciful absolving of us and His unmerited affection for us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we pray that God will always see us and never lose sight of us, we must also pray that He will be forbearing with us and forgiving to us, because of all He sees wrong with us.

 

PSALM 119:133

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” (Psalm 119:133 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To firmly step on the solid footing of Scripture is to keep oneself from stumbling over sin, from slipping and sliding into it, or from ever being subjugated by it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All Christians should be careful to live persnickety lives within the safe parameters of Scripture so that no single sin can ever prey upon them or get any power over them. (1 Corinthians 6:12)

 

PSALM 119:134

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:134 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray that we never be obstructed from obeying God’s precepts by the opposition or oppression of our persecutors.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The reason the Apostle Paul exhorts us in the New Testament to pray for those in authority is so that they will keep our society orderly and opened, so that we will be free to practice our Christian faith and preach Christ’s Gospel within it, so that all men will have an opportunity “to come to the knowledge of the truth” and “be saved.” (1 Timothy 4:1-4)

 

READ PRAYING FOR THOSE IN AUTHORITY

 

PSALM 119:135

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:135 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The proof that God is smiling upon us and that His face is shining upon us is that He is opening up the Scriptures to us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Savior’s face is surely shining upon us whenever the Scripture is being quickened to us by the Spirit; that is, spoken personally to us by the Spirit’s still small voice and made to come alive in our hearts.

 

PSALM 119:136

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.” (Psalm 119:136 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Every saint’s eyes should fill with tears over God being dishonored and His Word disregarded by disbelieving sinners whose souls are all in danger of eternal damnation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There should be no such thing as a dry-eyed church in a Hell-bound world!

 

Zade (צ)

 

PSALM 119:137-138

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.” (Psalm 119:137-138 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word, like God Himself, is always right and reliable.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no way an upright God will not uphold His own just judgment and true testimony.

 

PSALM 119:139

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.” (Psalm 119:139 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Nothing should make a Bible believer more indignant than a Bible basher’s disregard and defiance of the Bible.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should be most zealous in our defense of the Bible, upon which our Christian Faith is based. After all, whenever the Bible, which is our standard for faith and practice; that is, our spiritual authority for our beliefs and behavior, is under attack, the fundamentals and foundation of our faith are also under attack.

 

PSALM 119:140

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.” (Psalm 119:140 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The infallible and inerrant Scripture should be passionately loved by the saints for its purity and perfection.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: "Inerrancy is nothing less than the affirmation that the Bible, as the Word of God written, is totally true and totally trustworthy. When the Bible speaks, God speaks. This is the Bible's own testimony about itself, and it is the historic faith of the Christian church." (Al Mohler)

 

PSALM 119:141

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:141 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We must cling to God’s Word, especially when we find ourselves diminutive in our own eyes and despised in the eyes of others, because God’s Word assures us that in the eyes of God we are neither diminutive nor despised, but loved and significant.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As long as we hold on to our Bible we can stand tall, even when we feel small, and withstand anything, even the scorn and scourge of the world.

 

PSALM 119:142

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” (Psalm 119:142 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is forever righteous and His Word is forever true.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no changing or variableness with God and no ifs, ands, or buts when it comes to His Word, neither now nor forever. (James 1:17; 2 Corinthians 1:18-20; Psalm 119:89)

 

PSALM 119:143

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.” (Psalm 119:143 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Thanks to the Scripture, the saints, even when downhearted by being overcome by difficulties in this world, can be overwhelmed with delight by the divine decrees in God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only those who hold on to God’s Word white-knuckled by faith when trouble and anguish take hold of them, can understand the enigma of being ecstatically delighted even in excruciating distress.

 

PSALM 119:144

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.” (Psalm 119:144 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In order to live as God intends us to live we must learn from His Word that He is always right, His Word is always true, and no complaint can ever be justly lodged nor any charge justly leveled against Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To live properly, as well as abundantly and eternally, we must learn and understand the Bible, which is the one and only God-given Playbook of Life.

 

Qoph (ק )

 

PSALM 119:145

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:145 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The object of this wholehearted prayer to God is for the petitioner to be wholeheartedly obedient to God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A wholehearted prayer is earnest, not necessarily eloquent; it’s far more concerned with being God-heard than silver-tongued.

 

PSALM 119:146

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:146 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No one should expect God to hear him and to answer his cry for salvation who is unwilling to hear God and obey the Scriptures.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God saves us for His service, so if we’re unwilling to serve God we need not pray for God to save us.

 

PSALM 119:147

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.” (Psalm 119:147 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the hope given to us in God’s Word that gets us on our knees to cry out for God’s help at the dawning of each day.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “He who is diligent in prayer will never be destitute of hope.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:148

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.” (Psalm 119:148 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We, like the psalmist, should meet with God in prayer each morning and mediate on God’s Word every night.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God should not be periodically glance at now and then, but perpetually gazed at night and day.

 

PSALM 119:149

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment.” (Psalm 119:149 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is God’s grace (lovingkindness) and justice (judgment); that is, His judging of Christ as our propitiation and pardoning of us through Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross, which makes it possible for God to hear our supplications and save our souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Thanks to the blood of Jesus, no sin is swept under the rug of divine justice by a just God’s justifying of a believing and unjust sinner. Truly, only the wisdom of divine omniscience could devise a plan of salvation that would solve the insoluble problem of justifying and purifying unjust and imperfect men without compromising in anyway the perfect justice of a just and perfect God. (Job 25:4; Romans 3:21-26)

 

PSALM 119:150-151

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law. Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.” (Psalm 119:150-151 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The closer our foes get to closing in on us, God’s people, the further away they get from God’s Word. However, we can find solace as we are surrounded by them, by knowing that God is with us and that His infallible Word forms an invincible fortress around us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No matter how far the majority of fallen humanity gets from God’s Word, the Word of God is no less true, for truth is objective and determined by the oracles of God, not subjective and determined by the opinion of the majority of men.

 

PSALM 119:152

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.” (Psalm 119:152 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Christian parents should instill in their children this sublime truth: Since God has always kept His Word and always will, God’s Word is the one and only sure and certain foundation upon which to build one’s life in a fallen, unsure, and uncertain world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is impossible to have eternally established saints without eternally established Scripture.

 

Resh (ר)

 

PSALM 119:153

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law.” (Psalm 119:153 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Affliction should never cause us to turn away from God in resentment, but to turn to God in reliance; neither should it ever shake our faith in God’s Word, causing us to forsake and forget it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the psalmist left it to God to assess (consider) his affliction and to prescribe the proper remedy or deliverance. Unfortunately, we often diagnose our own afflictions and prescribe for ourselves a remedy, which we then demand God to fill as we deem fit.

 

PSALM 119:154

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:154 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our only hope of salvation from sin and of being quickened from death in trespasses and sins is if our Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, pleads our case before the Heavenly Bar. (1 John 2:1-2)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only is it on the Biblical promise of salvation that we bow to pray for salvation, but It is also on the Biblical promise of salvation that we find the basis for our assurance of salvation. (1 John 5:9-13)

 

PSALM 119:155

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:155 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To not seek the statutes of God is to spurn the salvation of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The further the wicked get from Scripture the further they get from salvation, for the more their souls are hardened the less hope they have of ever being saved.

 

PSALM 119:156

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord: quicken me according to thy judgments.” (Psalm 119:156 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In this verse, we are once again reminded that it is only on the basis of God’s tender mercies, which are afforded in Christ, and God’s judgments, which are satisfied in Christ, that we can appeal to God to be revived by Him and reconciled to Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although this verse reminds us of others, such as 149, we may take it for granted, as Charles Spurgeon taught, that the inspired author was under no obligation to repeat himself. According to Spurgeon: “Each verse [of Scripture] is a distinct pearl. Each blade of grass in this field has its own drop of heavenly dew.”

 

PSALM 119:157

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:157 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As long as we cling to God’s Word we can never be conquered by our persecutors.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Faithfulness to the truth is victory over our enemies.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:158

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.” (Psalm 119:158 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: While we should rejoice with those in the presence of the angels over every sinner who repents, we should also be repelled by every impenitent sinner who refuses to do so. (Luke 15:10)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saint should be indignant toward the sinner who is insolent toward God.

 

PSALM 119:159

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness.” (Psalm 119:159 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Unlike verse 153, where the psalmist appeals to God to consider his affliction and loyalty to God’s Word, here, the psalmist appeals to God to consider his affection and love for God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It should be noted that the basis for the psalmist’s appeal for both his rescue and revival is God’s lovingkindness—God’s unfailing love for him—not his unfailing loyalty and love for God’s Word.

 

PSALM 119:160

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” (Psalm 119:160 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Word of God is entirely and eternally true!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Every verse in the Bible is equally inerrant and eternal, not a single one is any less inspired than any other. 

 

Shin (שׁ)

 

PSALM 119:161

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.” (Psalm 119:161 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should stand in such awe of God’s Word that we are not awestruck at all by the governors of this world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As long as they persecute us without cause, we have no cause to be petrified of persecuting princes, but if we give them cause, we load their blank shooting pistols with real cartridges and bullets.

 

PSALM 119:162

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.” (Psalm 119:162 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word, which tells us of our triumph in Christ, is our spoil, telling us of the treasures that are ours, thanks to Christ’s trouncing of our enemies—Satan, sin, and self.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As more than conquerors through Christ that loved us, we should cherish the promises of the Scripture as the immense and immeasurable spoil of our saved and immortal souls. (Romans 8:37)

 

PSALM 119:163

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.” (Psalm 119:163 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To love the truth of Scripture is to hate the lies of Satan.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas all truth comes from God, who cannot lie, all lies are children of the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies. (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18; John 8:44)

 

PSALM 119:164

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.” (Psalm 119:164 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To have set times to pray to God, to praise God, and to ponder His Word, is a good thing, but we must be careful not to become legalistic in our prayer lives, lest prayer become duty and drudgery rather than a delight.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Do we pray to God and praise God seven times in one day or only one time in seven days? (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 119:165

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” (Psalm 119:165 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Obedience to God’s law is contingent not only upon us loving God’s law, but also upon us loving God, the more we love them both, the less we’ll stumble, the clearer our conscience will be, and the greater our peace.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What great tranquility there is to all who know the stability of living their lives on the sturdy and solid basis of the infallibility and immutability of God’s divinely inspired Word—the Bible.

 

PSALM 119:166

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:166 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The more we are disobedient to the Holy Scriptures the more we diminish the hope of our salvation, for the truly saved are true to the Scriptures.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the hope of our salvation is not based on our performance, but on God’s promise, God promises to make all who’ve obtained salvation obedient to the Scriptures.

 

PSALM 119:167-168

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.” (Psalm 119:167-168 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Saved souls not only keep God’s Word because they love God’s Word, but also because they know God is looking on all their ways.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whatever you sneak to do behind the back of others is no secret to God, but done right in front of His all-seeing eye. (Job 34:21; Hebrews 4:13)

 

Taw (ת)

 

PSALM 119:169-170

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word. Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:169-170 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: What a high pinnacle of prayer is scaled here by the psalmist, when he rises not only to petition God to give him understanding of God’s Word, but also of how God’s dealings with him and deliverance of him are in perfect accordance with God’s Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To know God’s Word to us, to know God’s will for us, and to know that God is perfectly working out everything in our lives in perfect accordance with His perfect Word and perfect will, is to know perfect peace, regardless of our circumstances or situation.

 

PSALM 119:171-172

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.” (Psalm 119:171-172 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who are taught by God the perfect truths of God’s Word will trumpet the praise God and use their tongue to proclaim the Word of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is truly those who know God’s Word best who praise Him most for it and proclaim it most to others.

 

PSALM 119:173

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:173 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If we choose to heed God’s Word we can call on God to help us with His helping hand.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Peter, who heeded Christ’s word, “Come,” and was saved from the stormy sea by the stretched out helping hand of Christ, we too can cry out to Christ to save us with His helping hand, if we too heed the Word of Christ. (Matthew 14:24-32)

 

PSALM 119:174

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight.” (Psalm 119:174 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The salvation we desire and long for, we delight in and learn of in God’s law.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Bible teaches us we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. We are saved from the penalty of sin, which is justification, the past aspect of salvation. We are being saved from the power of sin, which is sanctification, the present aspect of salvation. And we will be saved from the presence of sin, which is glorification, the future aspect of salvation. (Philippians 1:6)

 

PSALM 119:175

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.” (Psalm 119:175 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All saints should live for the praise of God!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: James Montgomery Boice says that this verse is a good Biblical statement of what the Westminster Shorter Catechism calls “the chief end of man,” namely, “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

 

PSALM 119:176

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:176 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although every servant of God falls short of the glory of God, no true servant of God can ever forget the commandments of God, for he or she is either conforming to them or being convicted by them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The sheep of the Good Shepherd can go astray, but when they do, they will be sought and brought back to the fold by the Shepherd Himself, so that none of His sheep shall ever be lost. (John 10:1-16, 27-29; 17:12; Luke 15:3-7)

 

PSALM 120

 

This psalm is the first of the fifteen Psalms of Degrees or of Ascents, which commence here and conclude with Psalm 134. It is believed these psalms originated with the sacred music and singing that accompanied David’s bringing up of the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15). The Hebrew word used for “bring up” in 1 Chronicles 15:14 means “degrees” or “ascents.” Thus, this sacred music appears to have been performed and sung as David and his entourage ascended and grew ever closer to Jerusalem with the Ark of God.  

 

The four Psalms of Degrees which were written by David—Psalms 122, 124, 131, and 133—may have been among those performed and sung as David neared Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant. Others, such as Psalm 127, which was written by David’s son Solomon, appear to have been composed at a later time. All of these psalms, however, are believed to have eventually served as the Pilgrim Psalms or the “Songs of the Going Up,” songs sung by the Jews on their three annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem to observe the Jewish Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.

 

These Pilgrim Psalms teach us an important truth. We can only grow closer to God by degrees. Intimacy with Christ cannot be achieved over night, but must be cultivated over a lifetime of communion with Him.

 

READ THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

 

PSALM 120:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me.” (Psalm 120:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No matter how far down we have fallen into deepest and darkest distress, our prayers are never out of earshot of the Most High in Heaven.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It has been astutely observed that distress adds wings to our prayers, for as our Lord “prayed more earnestly” in His agony, so do we in ours. (Luke 22:44)

 

PSALM 120:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.” (Psalm 120:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Only God can deliver us from the lash of lying tongues, which not only slander and sting us, but are also set on fire of hell and by the father of lies himself. (James 3:6; John 8:44)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The tongue is a little piece of flesh, small in quantity, but mighty in quality: it is soft, but slippery; it goeth lightly, but falleth heavily; it striketh soft, but woundeth sore; it goeth out quickly; but burneth vehemently; it pierceth deep, and is therefore not healed speedily; it hath liberty granted easily to go forth, but it will find no means to easily return home; and being once enflamed with Satan’s bellows, it is like the fire of hell.” (Richard Greenham)

 

PSALM 120:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.” (Psalm 120:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Character assassins, whose tongues are stained red with the slain reputations of righteous men, will eventually find themselves under an inescapable volley of fiery arrows of divine retribution.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Arrows of judgment set on fire by long-burning coals made from the juniper—the desert shrub now called the white broom—remind us of the unquenchable flames of the lake of fire, where, according to Revelation 21:8, all liars, such as slanderers, will find their eternal fate.

 

PSALM 120:5-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.” (Psalm 120:5-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: These concluding verses of this first psalm in the Pilgrim’s Psalms are most apropos, since they are a peace-loving pilgrim’s lament of sojourning among warlike people on his or her way to either a peaceful place or a land of longed for and lasting peace.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: I can almost hear these words being sung by ancient Jewish pilgrims as they traveled through their often war-torn land on their way to attend their three annual Jewish Feasts—Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles—in the City of God, Jerusalem, which literally means the “City of Peace.”

 

PSALM 121

 

According to James Montgomery Boice, David Livingston, the famous missionary to Africa, read this psalm with his father and sister before departing from home for the mission field. Later, Livingston’s mother-in-law wrote to him in Africa that this psalm was always on her mind when she thought of him or prayed for him.

 

Charles Spurgeon, because of the reoccurring word “keep” in this psalm—the second of the psalter’s Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim Psalms—entitled it, “A Psalm to the Keeper of Israel.” 

 

PSALM 121:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will lift up mine eyes…” (Psalm 12:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Uplifted eyes are the remedy for a downcast spirit.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Two men looked out through prison bars, one saw mud the other stars. 

 

PSALM 121:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only must we look for help in the right direction, by lifting up our eyes, but we must also look for help from the right one, from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While others may look to the hills for help from surrounding military sentinels or from the high places of false gods, we must look for help from the strong arm of the Lord, not from the feeble arm of flesh, and from the one and only true God, who created us in His own image, not from false gods that we’ve created in our own imaginations. Truly, it is the height of all folly to look for help from our fellow creatures rather than from our Creator or from man-made gods rather than from the God who made all men.

 

Looking down and all around to simply glance at our problems, while mostly looking up to steadfastly gaze upon our God, will minimize our fretting and maximize our faith. 

 

PSALM 121:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Why should we ever slip or stumble when our God never slumbers nor sleeps?

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This is the first of six times the Hebrew word “Shamar,” which means “keeps” or preserves,” is used in this short psalm, emphasizing the fact that we are kept for God by God. The eternal security of our God-given salvation is not a matter of our vigilance and safekeeping, but of the vigilance and safekeeping of God.

 

The story is told of a woman who appealed to her king to restore her lost property. When the king asked how she lost it, she explained it was taken while she was sleeping. When the king asked, “Why did you fall asleep?” the woman answered, “Because I believed you were awake.” The king immediately restored his subject’s lost property.

 

READ ETERNAL SECURITY

 

PSALM 121:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” (Psalm 121:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here we see the identity —"the Lord is thy keeper"—and the proximity—"the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand"—of our soul’s Safekeeper!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing can harm us as long as God keeps guard over us, no visible peril in the day nor hidden peril at night. (James Montgomery Boice) 

 

PSALM 121:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The saved soul is kept eternally secure in everything—“thy going out and thy coming in”—and for evermore—“from this time forth, and even for evermore”—by the soul's sole SafeKeeper.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be preserved from all evil is not to be inoculated from it, but to be invulnerable to it. We're not promised trouble-free lives, but triumphant ones.

 

READ ETERNAL SECURITY

 

PSALM 122

 

This psalm is the third of the Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim Psalms, and the first of four attributed to David, Psalms 124, 131, and 133 being the other three.

 

PSALM 122:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” (Psalm 122:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David, who desired to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, was always glad to be invited on any occasion to go to God’s house, for there was no place he would rather be and no one he would rather be with than God and God’s people. (Psalm 27:4)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only when those gathered in God’s house are truly glad to go to God’s house that there is a true gathering of the house of God. (Hebrews 3:6)

 

PSALM 122:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.” (Psalm 122:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although these words were exuberantly sung by Jewish pilgrims, when they stepped through the gates of the earthly Jerusalem, how much more exuberantly will they be sung by Christian pilgrims, when we at long last step through the gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The celestial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but as an insignificant rill that may be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. The Sun of Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as He approached, and now He fills the whole hemisphere; pouring forth a flood of glory in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun; exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm…And now, my dear, DEAR sister, farewell. Hold on your Christian course but a few days longer, and we will meet, in heaven. (From a letter dictated from his death bed to his sister by Edward Payson, a Congregational minister)

 

PSALM 122:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 122:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is coming together in gratitude to God and for the glory of God that makes unity within diversity possible among the people of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As the earthly Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, was compact and communal, the city where Israel’s different tribes came to congregate and collaborate together for common cause; namely, to thank God and for the glory of God, which was symbolized by the Ark of God, referred to here by David as “the testimony of Israel,” so also the Heavenly Jerusalem, Immanuel’s church—the bride of Christ and the Lamb’s wife (Revelation 21:2, 9-10)—should be tight-nit and non-tribal in the common task divinely entrusted to it; namely, to thank Christ and to be a testimony to the glory of Christ.

 

PSALM 122:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” (Psalm 122:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Just as disputes between God’s chosen people, the Jews, were to be judged among themselves in Jerusalem, disputes between God’s elect people, Christians, are to be judged among themselves in the church. (1 Corinthians 6:1-11)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible does not forbid us from judging; in fact, it teaches us that the spiritual man judges all things and that Christians, who will one day judge the world, as well as angels, are to judge disputes between themselves in the church rather than going outside the church to civl court. (1 Corinthians 2:15; 6:1-6)

 

These “set thrones of judgment” and “of the house of David” may be seen as prophetic, as the thrones promised by our Savior to His disciples, which they will sit on and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, or as the thrones promised by the Scripture to the saints, which we will sit on and reign with Christ over the earth for a thousand years. (Matthew 19:28; Revelation 5:10; 20:4, 6)

 

PSALM 122:6a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem…” (Psalm 122:6a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To pray for the peace of Jerusalem is in essence to pray for the coming peaceful reign of the Prince of Peace, for until then, there will be no peace in Jerusalem, the cup of trembling God has put to the lips of this fallen war-torn world. (Zechariah 12:2)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.” (Golda Meir)

 

PSALM 122:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.” (Psalm 122:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David not only prayed for the peace and prosperity of those living in Jerusalem, but also for the peace and prosperity of all who loved Jerusalem.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In our world today, which is becoming increasingly antichrist and antisemitic, we should pray more than ever, not only for the peace and prosperity of Israel and the church, but also for the peace and prosperity of the ever-decreasing remnant of those who love Christians and Jews.

 

PSALM 122:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.” (Psalm 122:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prayed for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem not only for the sakes of the people of God, who lived there, but also for the sake of the house of God, which was located there.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like David, we should pray for the glory of our God and for the good of God’s people, our own brethren and companions, who make up the church of Christ, which is the house of God within the world today. (Hebrews 3:6)

 

PSALM 123

 

This is the fourth of the Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim Psalms. Its brevity is a testimony to the sufficiency of prayers and praise offered with fewer words, but with no less wholehearted fervency.

 

PSALM 123:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” (Psalm 123:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist is no longer lifting up his eyes to the hills, nor to Jerusalem, nor to the house of God on the Temple Mount, but higher to the utmost heights, to the Most High in the highest heavens.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To lift up our eyes to the God of Heaven is the very best way to lessen our griefs and hurts upon earth!

 

PSALM 123:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.” (Psalm 123:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As servants and maids look to the hands of their masters and mistresses, so should we patiently look to the hand of our merciful God for our direction, discipline, and deliverance.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It should require no more than the wave of the nail-scarred hand of Christ for the Christian to snap to attention, just as it requires no more than the wiggling of Christ’s finger for Him to cast out demons. (Luke 11:20)

 

PSALM 123:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.” (Psalm 123:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although the contempt of this world should roll off the Christian’s back like water, especially when we’re living under the commendation of Christ and with a clear conscience, it can still cut us deep and wound us sore.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s when we fail to shake off this world’s contempt and find ourselves saturated with it, that we, like the psalmist, need to cry to God to mercifully immunize us from its affects upon us.

 

PSALM 123:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.” (Psalm 123:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The contempt of this world is most contemptuous and hardest to handle when it is the highfalutin and high-and-mighty that are high hatting us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we’ll keep our eyes lifted up to God in Heaven, we’ll be little harassed by haughty men peering down their noses at us here on earth.

 

PSALM 124

 

This is the fifth of the Psalms of Ascents and the second of four of these Pilgrim Psalms attributed to David. Although it was sung, in thanksgiving to God for His past help and deliverance, by Jewish pilgrims on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to observe their annual feasts, it has been joyously sung by others at other times as well.

 

According to Horatius Bonar, this psalm was exuberantly sung in Edinburgh upon the release of an imprisoned minister, John Durie, in 1582. Although Durie was initially welcomed back into town by a crowd of 200, the crowd grew to 2,000, who sang this psalm in chorus, as they marched with Durie up the High Street. Both the sight and song so unnerved one of Durie’s prosecutors that he found it to be as frightening a sight as he had ever seen in Scotland.

 

PSALM 124:1-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.” (Psalm 124:1-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If the Lord were not on our side, then, our soul would be swallowed up by those who angrily rise up to overwhelm us, but because God is with us nothing or no one can ever overcome us. (Romans 8:32)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Did we in our own strength confide,

 our striving would be losing,

 were not the right Man on our side,

 the Man of God's own choosing.

 You ask who that may be?

 Christ Jesus, it is he;

 Lord Sabaoth his name,

 from age to age the same;

 and he must win the battle.” (Martin Luther)

 

PSALM 124:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” (Psalm 124:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Having already looked over his shoulder with 20/20 hindsight and seen how God delivered him from being swept away in a torrent, David now sees how God has also delivered him from being shredded in the teeth of his foes or trapped in the snares of fowlers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Christians, we also can look back over our shoulders and with 20/20 hindsight see all the times Christ has delivered us from being swept away in a torrent, on those occasions when our enemy swept in like a flood (Isaiah 59:19), from being shredded in the teeth of our adversary, the devil, who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8), and from the snares of the devil, who is always attempting to take us captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26).

 

PSALM 124:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Experienced deliverances from God breed unwavering and unshakable confidence in God!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While others may call upon and have confidence in other names, we will call upon the proven name that is above every name, Jesus, the name of Him who made heaven and earth. (Philippians 2:5-11; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16)

 

PSALM 125

 

This is the sixth of the Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim’s Psalms. It appears to have been sung by the Jewish pilgrims when they first caught their first glimpse of their longed for destination, Jerusalem, standing on a mountain and surrounded by mountains.

 

PSALM 125:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.” (Psalm 125:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Like Mount Zion, those who exclusively trust in the Lord are eternally established by the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not the quantity of one’s faith, the amount; after all, only a small amount—no more than a mustard seed—can move a mountain, but it’s the quality of one’s faith, the object, that makes one with faith in God like an unmovable mountain. (Matthew 17:20)

 

PSALM 125:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.” (Psalm 125:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As the high mountains that surround Jerusalem, the City of God, appear to serve as its sentinels, so the Most High, who surrounds us, the people of God, always serves as our sentinel.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is all around us, not just always abiding with us, so that nothing can get through to us, unless it first gets through Him.

 

PSALM 125:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.” (Psalm 125:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God will never allow the rod of the wicked to rule over the righteous outside of the parameters of His eternal plans and purposes. While God may use the rod of the wicked to refine or chasten the righteous, He will never allow it to ruin or corrupt the righteous.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We can neither blame the scepter of the wicked for our own sin and wrongdoing nor the iniquity committed with our own hands on God for putting a temporary rod in the hands of the wicked.

 

PSALM 125:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.” (Psalm 125:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Good is guaranteed by God to those who don’t just practice good, but who also possess an upright heart, for God wants pure desires and designs behind all of our pious deeds and devotions.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Good News of the Gospel is that Christ, who alone is good, has made us who believe in Him, though we are no good at all, good in the sight of God, by becoming what we are—our sin on the cross—so that we can become what He is—the righteousness of God. Furthermore, in making us right with God, Christ also gives us an upright heart, so that we will do good by God, guaranteeing that God will do good unto us. (Romans 3:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ezekiel 36:26-30)

 

PSALM 125:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.” (Psalm 125:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The crooked way is not the straight and narrow way, but the broad way which leads all workers of iniquity to destruction. Therefore, to take the least little twist or turn is all it takes to lose one’s way on the straight and narrow way to life. (Matthew 7:13-14)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There are no crooked paths to peace—to peace with God, peace with others, or peace with yourself.

 

PSALM 126

 

This is the seventh of the Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim’s Psalms and a fitting sequel to the sixth. Whereas the previous psalm promises that the rod of the wicked will neither rest nor remain on the righteous, this psalm praises God for its removal.

 

PSALM 126:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” (Psalm 126:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is truly like a dream come true when God delivers His people from captivity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In his book, All Your Need, J. Edwin Orr tells how J. Oswald Sanders described a revival in New Zealand. According to Sanders, the reality of it far exceeded the Spirit induced expectation of it, for “the great joy of sitting back and seeing God work [so mightily] in a sovereign way,” left him and others “as men that dreamed.”

 

PSALM 126:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.” (Psalm 126:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When God does great things for His people He not only fills their mouths with laughter and song, but also the heathen with such great wonder that even they herald His great works.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God always gives saints the last laugh on sinners, by the stupendous things He does for the saints!

 

PSALM 126:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” (Psalm 126:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although we should be grateful and glad for the great things God has done for us, we should be gladder still to see God glorified for the otherwise inexplicable great things He has done.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When the great things God has done for us defy explanation apart from being God’s doing, then, we not only glorify God, by becoming incontrovertible evidence of His existence, but begin, at long last, to gladly fulfill the express purpose for which God created us.

 

PSALM 126:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.” (Psalm 126:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray that as heaven-sent rain suddenly turned Israel’s arid south into flowing streams, that heaven-sent revival will suddenly turn our arid souls into Spirit-filled ones. (John 7:38-39)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When we find ourselves sitting in the dried-up riverbed of the Spirit and without a trickle of the Spirit flowing in our lives, we need to desperately pray for revival, for all revival is born in desperation. In others words, if we think we can do without it, we will, but if we know that we can’t, God may graciously grant it, so that the river of the Spirit can once again flow in our lives at flood tide.

 

PSALM 126:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” (Psalm 126:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Each seed of the Gospel that is sown should be steeped in the sower’s tears, for no dry-eyed soul winner has any hope of a joyous harvest of souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: One reason there is so little joyous reaping of souls in the contemporary church is that there are so few tearful sowers.

 

PSALM 126:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only after the precious seed of the Gospel is sown with much toil and tears that there will be rejoicing in Heaven over sheaves of souls brought into God’s eternal granary.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, we must go forth weeping with precious seed if we are to come again rejoicing and bringing in the sheaves. In others words, we can’t passively and prayerlessly set around on the church grounds, but must passionately and prayerfully go out and preach Christ’s Gospel!

 

Bringing in the Sheaves (Knowles Shaw)

 

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,

Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;

Waiting for the harvest and the time of reaping—

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

 

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,

Fearing neither clouds nor winter's chilling breeze;

By and by the harvest and the labor ended—

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

 

Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,

Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;

When our weeping's over He will bid us welcome—

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

 

Bringing in the sheaves,

Bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Bringing in the sheaves,

Bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

 

PSALM 127

 

This, the eighth of the Pilgrim’s Psalms, is entitled:  “A Song of Degrees for Solomon.” Although some assume, because of this title, that the psalm was written for Solomon by his father King David, it is my belief that Solomon actually authored this psalm. As I previously explained in my introduction to Psalm 72, which bears a similar title, I believe it too was penned by Solomon, not for him. 

 

The careful reader of Psalm 127 cannot help but see its similar theme to the book of Ecclesiastes, which we know to be the product of Solomon’s divinely inspired pen. Whereas Ecclesiastes teaches us the vanity of all things apart from God, here we learn that all we do apart from God is done in vain. Furthermore, this psalm, which has been called, “The Builder’s Psalm,” fittingly serves as the middle psalm of the Psalms of Ascents, by being authored by none other than the builder of the temple to which the singing pilgrims were on pilgrimage.

 

PSALM 127:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it…” (Psalm 127:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No matter how much we work on it or how much we put into it, if God isn’t in it, nothing of eternal consequence will ever come of it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All we can build with our own hands, whether it be for ourselves, others, or even for God, will prove to be nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble, which will not pass the test of time or eternity. However, what God builds, either with or without us, is gold, silver, and precious stones, which will pass the test of time and eternity, as well as prove to be of spiritual significance and of eternal consequence. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

 

PSALM 127:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it…” (Psalm 127:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: These words, which proceed the psalm’s following words about the family (verses 3-5), should be understood to teach us that only marriages made in Heaven have any hope of homes and houses built by the hand of God upon this earth. (Mark 10:9)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To build a house or home without the blessing or hand of God upon it, is to labor in vain in an exercise in futility.

 

PSALM 127:1b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No matter how vigilant we watch over our own safekeeping, we watch in vain if the Lord isn’t watching over us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No army, no matter how mighty, can protect a nation unprotected by the Almighty!

 

PSALM 127:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Why should we wake early and work late, because we’re worried over our daily bread, when God gives His beloved both sleep and sustenance?

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is both futile and foolish to rely on self rather than to rest in God.

 

PSALM 127:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” (Psalm 127:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Tragically, in our day of abortion on demand, children are often seen as a burden rather than a blessing, as a hardship rather than a heritage, and as a rigor rather than a reward. 

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The failure to cherish one’s own children and to callously sacrifice them on the altar of abortion is so unconscionable a crime that even an omniscient God finds it inconceivable. (Jeremiah 7:31)

 

If both the coming of Moses and the first coming of Christ were foreshadowed by the killing of newborn children, is abortion—the killing of millions of unborn children—not a present-day foreshadowing of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? (Exodus 1:15-22; Matthew 2:16-18)

 

PSALM 127:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.” (Psalm 127:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Children born in one’s youth are like arrows in the hands of a mighty man, in that they too must be carefully shaped, skillfully guided, and aimed in the right direction, if they are to fly straight and not miss the mark. 

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Both the primary Hebrew word used in the Old Testament and the primary Greek word used in the New Testament for “sin” means “to miss the mark.” It is, as Romans 3:23 teaches, to fall short of the glory of God or of God’s standard. Therefore, if we hope to bring our children up so that they don’t miss the mark and fall short of God’s glory, by living sinful lives, then, we must not only raise them up in the way that they should go, so that when they are old they will not depart from it, but also in the fear and admonition of the Lord, so that they will increase in wisdom and stature, as well as in favor with God and man. (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4; Luke 2:52)

 

PSALM 127:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” (Psalm 127:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: A godly man blessed by God with godly children is as happy in the face of his enemies as an archer with a quiver full of arrows or the falsely accused at the city gate surrounded by impeccable witnesses to his own incontrovertible innocence. 

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Joseph Hall, while serving as the curate of Holy Cross, the Abbey Church of Waltham, told the story of a wealthy visitor who visited his humble home. When the visitor saw Hall’s children lined up in a row, from the youngest to the oldest and from the shortest to the tallest, he said, “These are they who make rich men poor.” However, Hall quickly retorted, “Nay, my lord, these are they that make a poor man rich; for there is not one of these whom we would part with for all your wealth.”

 

PSALM 128

 

This psalm is the ninth of the Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim’s Psalms, and is, as Spurgeon says, “an evident ascent from the previous psalm.” Whereas Psalm 127 speaks of a house built by God, in this psalm we have a picture of the domestic bliss in a God-built house under God’s own benediction. For this reason, Spurgeon calls this psalm the “Family Hymn” and a song of “Home Sweet Home,” sung by Jewish pilgrims away from their homes and on pilgrimage to the house of God in Jerusalem.

 

PSALM 128:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.” (Psalm 128:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: One must not only walk in the fear of the Lord, but also in the ways of the Lord, if he or she is to be both blessed by the Lord and happy in the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The fear of the Lord is best understood as a reverential awe of the Lord that results in our outright obedience to the Lord.

 

Although imperfect and in no way meant to profane the Biblical concept of the fear of the Lord, the following story somewhat illustrates it. A member of a college championship football team was once asked by a sports reporter if there was anything he and his seemingly fearless teammates feared. The player quickly answered, “Yeah, our coach!”

 

PSALM 128:2-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.” (Psalm 128:2-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is not just he who fears the Lord, but His whole family who will be blessed by the Lord. Here, we are reminded of Paul’s words to the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Herein lies the reason for the breakdown of the family in the world today. With so many headless homes—families without God-fearing fathers—blessed homes have become uncommon and broken homes commonplace.

 

READ THE BREAKDOWN OF THE AMERICAN HOME

 

PSALM 128:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.” (Psalm 128:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Without God-blessed homes headed by God-fearing men, neither the church nor the country can prosper, since neither our children nor grandchildren can be raised to be good Christians or good citizens outside of a good home.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There are only three divinely ordained institutions in our world, the government, the church, and the oldest of the three, the home. As goes the home, so goes the government and the church, for it is the home alone that can produce the next generation of good citizens and good Christians. As the bedrock institution of the three divinely ordained institutions, as well as the God ordained bedrock of all orderly human society, the importance of the home cannot be overemphasized or exaggerated. 

 

Every civilization in the history of the world has been built upon the home. If the home flourished, the civilization flourished. If the home decayed, the civilization decayed. And whenever the home collapsed, the collapse of the civilization quickly ensued.

 

READ THE BREAKDOWN OF THE AMERICAN HOME

 

PSALM 129

 

This, the tenth of the Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim’s Psalms, reminds us of the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. Whereas the great apostle wrote of being “troubled on every side, yet not distressed…perplexed, but not in despair…persecuted, but not forsaken…cast down, but not destroyed,” the psalmist writes here of Israel never being “prevailed against,” even though she had been “afflicted…from [her] youth.”

 

PSALM 129:1-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.” (Psalm 129:1-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No place has had more enemies dedicated to its eradication than Israel and no people have had more enemies dedicated to their extermination than the Jews. Therefore, Divine Providence is the only explanation for the continuing and current existence of both!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although Israel and the Jews have suffered affliction all through their 3,500 year history, from such formidable and ferocious foes as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, Nazis, and Mohammedans, their survival to our present-day is proof positive of their protection from permanent destruction by the invisible hand of Divine Providence.

 

“The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of Divine Providence." (Thomas Newton)

 

PSALM 129:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” (Psalm 129:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Lord will do right by His people, a promise proven by His eventual and inevitable retribution on all who dare to do them wrong.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The shortest way to ruin is to meddle with a saint.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 129:5-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up: Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.” (Psalm 129:5-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist prays that all plotters against Israel be put to shame and that all of their plots be short-lived and swiftly spoiled, like shriveled up grass atop the aired and flat housetops of ancient Middle Eastern clay houses.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To hate Zion was to hate God, just as to hate the church is to hate Christ, since Christ, who is the Head of the church, and the church itself, which is Christ’s body, are inseparable from one another. (Colossians 1:18)

 

PSALM 129:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 129:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No blessing can be pronounced from Zion on passersby who neither bless Zion nor believe in Zion’s God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It would be blasphemous for God’s people to pray for God to bless and prosper those who hate both them and God.

 

PSALM 130

 

This psalm is not only the eleventh of the fifteen Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrim’s Psalms, which commence with Psalm 120 and conclude with Psalm 134, but it is also the sixth of the seven Penitential Psalms, which are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143. Each Penitential Psalm expresses some of the unmistakable marks of a penitent sinner; such as, deep sorrow for sin, confession of guilt, prayer for forgiveness, and true repentance.

 

It is said that Martin Luther, when greatly afflicted by the buffeting of the devil at Coburg, Germany, would call upon others to join him in singing this psalm “out of the depths,” in derision of the devil. Undoubtedly, this psalm has been a source of great comfort, as it was to Luther, to many other saints in great distress. According to James Montgomery Boice, this psalm also played a part in the conversion of John Wesley, when, on the afternoon of the day of his salvation, his heart was strangely warmed when he heard this psalm sung at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, where a statue of Wesley was later erected and stands to this day.

 

PSALM 130:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” (Psalm 130:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Perhaps, no prayers rise higher than those prayed from the depths, for it is truly prayers from the depths of the soul that soar highest.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The pearl of salvation, or of great price, as Jesus called it (Matthew 13:45-46), like all precious pearls, is only found in the depths. Until we are cast into the depths of sin’s distress by the conviction of the Spirit we will never be convinced of our dire and desperate need to cry out from the deep to God for our salvation.

 

PSALM 130:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.” (Psalm 130:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We need to plead from our deep distress that God will hear our prayed SOS.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “It is better for our prayer to be heard than answered. If the Lord were to make an absolute promise to answer all our requests, it might be rather a curse than a blessing, for it would be casting the responsibility of our lives upon ourselves, and we should be placed in a very anxious position: but now the Lord hears our desires and that is enough; we only wish Him to grant them if His infinite wisdom sees that it would be for our good and for His glory.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 130:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If sin left an indelible mark upon all sinners, no man could ever stand before God, but since there is forgiveness with God—the washing away of all of our sins in Christ’s atoning blood—men are not exasperated with God, but esteem and extol Him. (1 John 1:7)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no more blessed “but” in all of the Bible than this one—“But with you there is forgiveness.”

 

PSALM 130:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.” (Psalm 130:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist waited longingly for God, hoping in His Word, more than a watchman waited longing for the morning, hoping for the dawn.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who hope in God’s Word, will confidently wait on God to fulfill His promises through the nights of their lives, assured that the day will dawn and that the Day Star will arise in their hearts, just as a watchman hopes and confidently waits through the night for the morning, assured that the day will dawn and that the sun will rise. (2 Peter 1:19)

 

PSALM 130:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” (Psalm 130:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our hope is not to be in the mercy and redemption of the Lord, but in the Lord Himself, in whom we find mercy and redemption.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The redemption of the Lord was not only plenteous enough to redeem Israel of all of its iniquities, but is also plenteous enough to redeem you of all of your iniquities, regardless of their multitude or monstrousness.

 

PSALM 131

 

Since this psalm is the twelfth of the book of Psalms’ Songs of Degrees—psalms that teach us we grow closer to God step by step over time—we may assume that the lesson it teaches us is also learned over time in our Christian walk. The marvelous lesson to be learned from this magnificent psalm is the majesty of calmness; that is, how to calm one’s soul in the midst of a chaotic and confusing world. Make no mistake about it; the tranquility of one’s spirit and the calmness of one’s soul is no short hop, skip, and jump away. Instead, it should be viewed as a lifelong climb to the summit of a spiritual Mount Everest that only spiritual Edmund Hillarys will ever scale. Still, it is well worth the ascent to reach the pinnacle of this Psalm of Ascent, as was attested to by John Wesley, who once vowed that he would do nothing that he could not do “with perfect calmness of spirit.”

 

Although this psalm, which was written by David, is one of the shortest psalms to read, its valuable lesson is one of the longest to learn. According to Charles Spurgeon, the valuable lesson of this psalm makes it a gem among the Psalms, and not just a gem, but a most precious pearl of inestimable price.

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 131:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lord, my heart is not haughty…” (Psalm 131:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The spiritual journey to the calmness of the soul begins in the heart, with a heart that is not haughty; that is, no longer has a conceited opinion of itself or contemptuous opinions of others.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A humble view of oneself and a charitable view of others are necessary prerequisites to the calming and quieting of the human soul, for no one stuck on himself or scornful of others will ever scale the spiritual summit of soul serenity.

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 131:1b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” (Psalm 131:1b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: A calm soul does not have lofty eyes; that is, it neither has unrealistic aspirations and expectations nor seeks to figure out infinite things with a finite mind.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The calm soul has a lowly rather than lofty view of its aptitude and astuteness, so much so that it is content and grateful rather than discontent and disgruntled with its God-given unction for ministry and understanding of mysteries.

 

To calm the soul one must leave the problems of virtue in rags and vice in velvet, as well as ignorance at a premium and knowledge at a discount, to divine Omniscience to solve!

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 131:2a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself…” (Psalm 131:2a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David does not say that he is trying to quiet his soul, but that his soul has been quieted, which leads us to believe that it must be possible for our soul to be quieted as well, if we too can say, like David, that our heart is not haughty nor our eyes lofty.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Serenity of the soul requires a stupendous work of God’s grace, for only the grace of God can strip our hearts of pride, make us content in lowly service, and give us an unshakable faith in the midst of the most bothersome and baffling circumstances. Truly, if our soul is to ever be calmed and quieted, it will be accomplished by the supernatural, soul-soothing work of the grace of God.

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 131:2b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…as a child that is weaned of his mother…” (Psalm 131:2b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David’s depiction of the quieted soul as a weaned soul serves as additional proof that the calming of the soul is a miraculous work of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Just as no child ever weans itself, no child of God ever weans their own soul. It is the mother who must wean her child. Likewise, it is the Heavenly Father who must wean the souls of His children.

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 131:2c

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…my soul is even as a weaned child.” (Psalm 131:2c KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The calm soul is one weaned from the world and ever-growing weary of it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The weaned soul glories only in the cross of Christ and is consequently crucified unto the world and the world unto it (Galatians 6:14). To the weaned soul the things of the world have lost their luster, being no longer lusted after (2 Peter 1:4). And the weaned soul, unlike other souls, who set their affections on things below or earthly things, sets its affections on things above or heavenly things, as the Apostle Paul teaches us to do in Colossians 3:1-2.

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 131:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.” (Psalm 131:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There is no serenity of the soul apart from hope in the Lord, which is the soul’s only sure, secure and eternal hope.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Christian’s hope is a living hope in the resurrected Christ, which will live and last as long as Christ, who lives forevermore, is alive! (1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:18)

 

READ THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS

 

PSALM 132

 

This psalm is the thirteenth of the fifteen Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrims Psalms. Although its author is not named, many believe it was written by Solomon, since verses 8-10 are almost identical to 2 Chronicles 6:41-42, which are the concluding words of Solomon’s prayer of dedication at the temple. Whereas Solomon’s prayer of dedication was prayed when the Ark was brought into the temple and put in its place, behind the veil in the Holy of Holies, this psalm may be said to somewhat allude to this glorious occasion by specifically commemorating when the Ark was brought to Jerusalem from Kirjath-jearim by Solomon’s father, David.

 

READ THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

 

PSALM 132:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions.” (Psalm 132:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Contrary to popular opinion, God’s anointed are not guaranteed affliction-free lives, but often given affliction-filled lives. Still, they may take consolation in the fact that God will never forget, but always remember their afflictions.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the psalmist prayed for God to remember all of David’s afflictions, we should pray for God to remember all of the afflictions of the Son of David, which alone atone for our sins and give us access to God. (Matthew 1:1; 12:23; 21:9)

 

PSALM 132:2-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “How he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” (Psalm 132:2-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David, unlike churchgoers today, vowed to prioritize God’s house and exaltation over his own house and personal ease.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although David wanted to build the house of God, he was prohibited by God from doing so, because he was a man of war. Instead, God permitted David’s son and successor, Solomon, whose name means “peace,” to build His house. The moral of this scriptural story is obvious, it takes a man of peace to build a house of God. (1 Chronicles 22:6-10)

 

PSALM 132:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.” (Psalm 132:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Ark, having been hid away in Kirjath-jearim, as an object of dread rather than delight, had to be “found in the fields of the wood.” Yet, what “a blessed Eureka,” as Spurgeon puts it, is “embedded” in this verse—“we found it.” (1 Samuel 6:19-21)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we may be surprised where we find it, we must persistently pursue the presence of God and the place where we can daily meet with Him.

 

READ THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

 

PSALM 132:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.” (Psalm 132:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the Ark, which symbolized the presence of God, was found, brought, and placed in the Tabernacle of David in Jerusalem, the people flocked to fervently worship God at the tent David had pitched, which was nothing more than God’s “footstool.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All earthly houses of God, regardless of whether they are the Tabernacle of David in Jerusalem or the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, are merely God’s footstools, as both the ancient prophet Isaiah, who tradition says was sawn in two, and the first Christian martyr, Stephen, who was stoned to death, fearlessly taught. (Isaiah 66:1-2; Acts 7:48-50)

 

READ THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

 

PSALM 132:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.” (Psalm 132:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here we have a scriptural silhouette of what every house of God should be, a place with God’s presence resting upon it and residing within it, with God’s priests clothed in righteousness, and with God’s people faithful to Him and rejoicing in Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It was not enough for David to set out with the Ark to Jerusalem or for it to simply reside in the Tabernacle of David or subsequently in the Temple of Solomon. Instead, God must also rise up over it and rest upon it, so that His enemies would be scattered and flee from before Him, just as Moses prayed they would each time the Hebrews set out with the Ark in the wilderness. (Numbers 10:35)

 

READ THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

 

PSALM 132:10-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine anointed. The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.” (Psalm 132:10-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Davidic Covenant, in which God promised David an everlasting dynasty, was conditional in that it was contingent upon David’s sons and successors never turning their faces away from God, who would in turn anoint and enthrone them just as He had David.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The dynasty of David was discontinued and his descendants were driven from his throne, because of their disobedience to God. However, when the promised Son of David, Jesus Christ, who will never turn His face from God, finally came, He was forever enthroned, David’s dynasty eternally established, and God’s promise to David explicitly fulfilled!

 

PSALM 132:13-18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.” (Psalm 132:13-18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The chosen place of God, the earthly Jerusalem, which is atop the physical Mount Zion, is but a type of the chosen people of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is atop the spiritual Mount Zion. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the holy city, new Jerusalem—the church or the Lamb’s wife—which the earthly Jerusalem only symbolizes, that Christ desires and will forever dwell in as His eternal habitation. It is its inhabitants, the saints, who will be so abundantly blessed as to be eternally delivered from all tears, sorrows, and pains. It is its priests who shall reign with Christ, robed in righteousness and salvation. It is its people who shall rejoice in Christ and forever shout for joy. Its lamp or light shall be the Lamb who sits on its throne and illuminates it with His glory, so that it has no need of neither the sun nor the moon to shine in it. And its enemies, whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, shall be left without and forever clothed with shame. (Revelation 21:1-27; 5:10)

 

PSALM 133

 

This psalm is the fourteenth of the fifteen Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrims Psalms. It is also the last of the four attributed to David. It has been called the Song of Unity and entitled by translators, “The  benefit of the communion of the saints.”

 

King David definitely knew the bitterness of division, not only in his own kingdom, but also in his own family. When David initially ascended the throne, Israel was divided between himself and Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, Israel’s first king. Later, David’s kingdom was again divided, when Absalom, his own son, usurped the throne, forcing David not only to flee for his life, but also to drink the bitterest of bile from the ghastly goblet of division. 

 

David was no less acquainted with the bitterness of division in his own house than he was in his kingdom. As God warned him, when he sinned against God by taking Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, the sword never departed from David’s house (2 Samuel 12:10). Not only was there conflict between David’s sons Absalom and Amon, over Amon’s rape of their sister Tamar, but there was also conflict between David’s sons Solomon and Adonijah, over which one would succeed their father on the throne.

 

Is there any wonder that David, who was so well acquainted with the bitterness of division, is the inspired writer of this sonnet on the blessedness of unity? Can you not hear in your heart the psalmist of Israel sighingly singing, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”?

 

PSALM 133:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Behold…” (Psalm 133:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David begins this Song of Unity by admonishing us to “behold,” which means to “pause and gaze upon,” the rare and precious subject of this psalm, for it is well worth our time and attention to do so.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Years ago, I took my family to see an exhibit of rare Chinese pandas. However, I was greatly disappointed, after standing in a long line for a considerable amount of time, to be zipped through the exhibit on a conveyor belt so fast that we hardly got a glimpse of the critters. Well, here, like everywhere else in Scripture, we need to step off the conveyor belt and stop and stare at what the Scripture is showing us.

 

PSALM 133:1b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…how good and how pleasant it is…” (Psalm 133:1b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The subject of this psalm is proven precious by the fact that it is not just good or just pleasant, but both good and pleasant.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While many things are good, they are not pleasant. Take for example a shot of penicillin. On the other hand, somethings may be pleasant, but not good. Take for example the pleasures of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25).

 

PSALM 133:1c

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1c KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The good and pleasant subject of this psalm, which we need to steadfastly stare at, is brethren dwelling together in unity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, it’s not brethren occasionally getting together, but dwelling together, and not just dwelling together, but dwelling together in unity, not just in togetherness.

 

PSALM 133:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.” (Psalm 133:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The precious ointment, the holy anointing oil, that ran down upon Aaron’s beard and down to the skirts of his garments, symbolized the Holy Spirit, with whom the whole priesthood of believers, the church, should be anointed today.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christian unity comes from the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is under the Holy Spirit’s unction that the church is united in the unity of the Spirit. (Ephesians 4:3)

 

PSALM 133:3a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion…” (Psalm 133:3a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Moisture from the snow atop lofty Hermon was raised by the sun and carried by the wind to the lesser elevations of Zion, where it then fell as a heavy dew to make Zion fruitful.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the rushing mighty wind of the Holy Spirit that carries unity to the church and makes it fruitful. (Acts 2:1-4, 41-47)

 

PSALM 133:3b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” (Psalm 133:3b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is when and where the church is united under the unction of the Holy Spirit that God commands the blessing life forevermore; that is, it is there and then that sinners will be converted and given eternal life in Christ.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only is it our love for one another that convinces sinners that we are disciples of Christ, but without it we have little or no hope of convincing sinners to become Christ’s disciples themselves. After all, why would they believe we love them or Christ loves them if they do not see us loving one another? (John 13:35)

 

PSALM 134

 

This is the last of the fifteen Psalms of Ascents or Pilgrims Psalms. Spurgeon suggests that the pilgrims sang this song at the conclusion of their pilgrimage, as they departed Jerusalem in the dark before dawn at the commencement of their long trip home. Turning, as they passed the temple, to the Levites and priests who kept watch over it through the night, the Pilgrims implored them to continually bless the Lord. In response, the priest prayed for God to bless the pilgrims on their way back home from Zion.

 

PSALM 134:1-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.” (Psalm 134:1-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm not only calls for God’s people to pray for God’s priests, so that the priests will continually bless God, but also for God’s priests to pray for God’s people, so that God will continually bless the people.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To stand by night in the house of the Lord—to worship in worrisome times—and to lift up your hands in the sanctuary, even when they hang down in sorrow, is to truly bless the Lord and offer to Him the sacrifice of praise. (Hebrews 13:15)

 

PSALM 135

 

This psalm, which is both untitled and anonymous, is unique, in that every verse in it appears to be either quoted in or quoted from some other verse or passage of Scripture. For this reason it has been called both a mosaic and tessellated or checkered pavement.

 

PSALM 135:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise him, O ye servants of the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.” (Psalm 135:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The chief end of man is to worship, not to work. It is to stand still in God's presence, not scurry about in His service.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If more saints stood in praise of God there would be far less problems in the house of God, for praising hearts cannot sin.

 

PSALM 135:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant.” (Psalm 135:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is good to praise the Lord alone, for the Lord alone is good. (Mark 10:18; Romans 3:10-12)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing should give more pleasure to the people of God than to praise God.

 

PSALM 135:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.” (Psalm 135:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As ancient kings, who owned everything within their realm, chose for themselves a particular treasure to cherish, God, who owns all of creation, chose for Himself a particular people to be His peculiar treasured possession.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As God’s peculiar treasure, God’s sanctified and set apart saints should separate themselves from the world and prove themselves to be a peculiar people within it. (Deuteronomy 14:2; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9)

 

PSALM 135:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.” (Psalm 135:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Lord is not only the great and Almighty God, but He alone is God, making Him not only above all other gods, but all other gods mere illusions.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What greater folly is there but for one to forfeit his or her immortal soul, by forsaking the one and only true God, in order to follow some false god?

 

PSALM 135:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.” (Psalm 135:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God does as He pleases, and no man on earth, devil in Hell, or angel in Heaven can prevent Him from doing so.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Make no mistake about it, the dominion of Divine Providence extends to the highest heavens, to the ends of the earth, and to the depths of the sea.

 

PSALM 135:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.” (Psalm 135:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The celestial artillery is all under the command of “El Sabaoth,” the “Lord of the Hosts” or of “Heaven’s Armies.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Here we have, in the overlooked but ongoing natural phenomenon of evaporation, a most illustrious illustration of the invisible hand of God. Vapor rises from the earth, condenses into clouds in the sky, descends back upon the earth as rain, and, by doing so, keeps the earth alive.

 

PSALM 135:8-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants. Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings; Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan: And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people.” (Psalm 135:8-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It was God who delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, by the plagues He sent upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and it was God who gave Israel possession of Canaan, by smiting the Canaanites and slaying their kings, like Sihon and Og.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since God had promised Canaan to Israel, it was a foregone conclusion that Israel would possess Canaan as its heritage, because God always protects His honor by fulfilling His promises.

 

PSALM 135:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Thy name, O Lord, endureth for ever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.” (Psalm 135:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The name of God and the fame of God are both immutable and infinite.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Men’s claims to fame and memorials to themselves will all be inevitably swept into the dustbin of eternal oblivion. However, the name of Jesus, which is the name above every name and the one name under heaven whereby we must be saved, shall be forever memorialized, bowed to, and confessed. (Philippians 2:9-11; Acts 4:12)

 

PSALM 135:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For the Lord will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.” (Psalm 135:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s people, whether they are suffering His chastisement or committed to His service, can be certain that He is always compassionate towards them and dealing justly with them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “It is remarkable that the nations by which God afflicted Israel have all been destroyed as if the tender Father hated the instruments of His children’s correction.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 135:15-18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.” (Psalm 135:15-18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Manmade and breathless idols have mouths that cannot speak, eyes that cannot see, and ears that cannot hear.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only are Idolaters as impotent as their idols, but their faith is as false and futile as the idols they believe in and their worship is as worthless as the idols they bow before.

 

PSALM 135:19-21

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron: Bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 135:19-21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All of God’s people and priests in God’s holy places, as well as all who fear God everywhere in all places, should bless and praise the Lord.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This patchwork psalm, at the end of its tessellated pavement, leads us to this beautiful tapestry of praise, which should be hung wherever those who fear the Lord may be found.

 

PSALM 136

 

In Jewish tradition, this psalm is called the “Great Hallel” or “Great Psalm of Praise,” because of its repeated refrain, “For His mercy endures forever.” The refrain appears to be liturgical, a repeated and recited response of the people to the reasons given by the priests for the praise of God. Although it is repeated in each of this psalm’s 26 verses, it is also repeated 5 times in Psalm 118, as well as found elsewhere in Scripture, where it always appears to be sung by the people in response to whoever is leading them in public worship. For instance, it is found in David’s public psalm of praise (1 Chronicles 16:7-36), in David’s public assignments of the priests (1 Chronicles 16:41), in Solomon’s public psalm of praise at the dedication of the temple (2 Chronicles 5:13, 7:3, 7:6), in Ezra’s public psalm of praise at the laying of the rebuilt temple’s foundation (Ezra 3:11), and in the prophet Jeremiah’s predicted public psalm of praise to be sung by the people following their return and restoration from the Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 33:10-11).

 

PSALM 136:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Nothing makes God more deserving of the thanksgiving of His people than His immutable goodness and His inexhaustible mercy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: That God is always good to His people is something, but that He is ever merciful to His people, who are not always good to Him, is something else. Oh, how wholeheartedly we should thank God for His exhaustless and everlasting mercy.

 

PSALM 136:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be thanked for being the true God over all false gods and the Divine and Heavenly Sovereign over all human and earthly sovereigns.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even the followers of false deities and of earthly dictators can find the mercy of the Lord if they will turn to Him as the God of gods and the Lord of lords.

 

PSALM 136:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be worshiped for being our great and wonder-working God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whether viewed through the microscope or the telescope, God’s mighty works are wondrous to behold and manifestations of His enduring mercy.

 

PSALM 136:5-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever: The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever: The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:5-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be thanked because all of the celestial machinery of His magnificent creation is a manifestation of His enduring mercy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Anthropic Principle, which teaches us how the earth was specifically created to support and sustain human life, serves as a sure testimony to how merciful God is to mankind. For instance, consider the following.

 

(1) If you raise or lower the universe's rate of expansion by one part in a million, it would rule out the possibility of human life.

 

(2) If the average distance between stars was any smaller, the planetary orbits necessary for life would not have occurred.

 

(3) If the ratio of carbon to oxygen had been slightly different than it is, none of us would have been around to breathe the air.

 

(4) If you changed the tilt of the earth's axis slightly in one direction, we would freeze. If you changed it slightly in the other direction, we would burn up.

 

PSALM 136:10-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever: And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever: With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever: And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever: But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for ever: And slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth for ever: Sihon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth for ever: And Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth for ever: And gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy endureth for ever: Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:10-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be thanked for all He has done for His people throughout history, since every miracle He has worked for them is a manifestation of His enduring mercy to them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s enduring mercy toward His people was manifested by His miraculous deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt, by His miraculous dividing of the Red Sea, by His miraculous defeat of Pharaoh and His drowning of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, by His miraculous steering and sustaining of Israel in the wilderness, by His miraculous giving of the Canaanites and their kings into Israel’s hands, and by His miraculous giving of the land of Canaan to Israel as their heritage.

 

PSALM 136:23

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be thanked for remembering us His people in our low estate, since we merited neither His compassion nor consideration.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We are not chosen by God on the basis of our merit, but on the basis of His mercy, for we were all formerly the lowliest of people—Israel, God’s chosen people, in their slavery to their cruel Egyptian taskmasters, and the church, God’s elect people, in our slavery to our trespasses and sin. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

 

PSALM 136:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be thanked for mercifully and miraculously saving His people from their enemies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As God once mercifully and miraculously saved the Israelites from their enemies, the Egyptians and the Canaanites, God mercifully and miraculously saves us today from our enemies, Satan, sin, and self.

 

PSALM 136:25

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:25 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our merciful God should be thanked for His universal goodness and mercy; that is, for the fact that He is not only good and merciful to His own people, but to all people.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God does not just feed His own, but all flesh. He does not just cause His sun to rise and His rain to fall upon the just, but also upon the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)

 

PSALM 136:26

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 136:26 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Truly, the God of Heaven should be thanked for being merciful to all men upon the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As the God of Heaven, God is undeniably distinguished as the one and only true God over all of the earth!

 

PSALM 137

 

This psalm, which Spurgeon calls both a “plaintive ode” and “the most charming composition in the whole Book of Psalms,” appears to have been written during the Babylonian Captivity, when the barbarous Babylonians demanded that their Jewish captives sing to them in Babylon some of the sweet songs of Zion.

 

PSALM 137:1-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:1-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The songs of Zion cannot be sung in exile or for the entertainment of the world, but only in God’s presence and for His praise.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We cannot sing of our salvation if we are slaves to our sin or exuberantly praise our God if we are exiled from His presence.

 

PSALM 137:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” (Psalm 137:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: True praise is impossible, both its music muted and songs silenced, outside "Jerusalem”; that is, any place where the presence of God is neither man’s chief pursuit nor greatest joy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As the Jewish captives would never again make music or sing songs to their God, if they forgot Jerusalem in favor of Babylon, neither will you and I ever worship again if we forget the things of God in favor of the things of this world.

 

PSALM 137:7-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” (Psalm 137:7-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Divine retribution awaits all who either delight in or attempt to disallow the true praise of God by driving God’s people from His presence.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This psalm is one of the book of Psalms Imprecatory Psalms, psalms which are in and of themselves imprecatory prayers; that is, a prayer that imprecates or invokes damnation, judgment, calamity, or curses upon the enemies of God and God’s people.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IMPRECATORY PRAYERS READ OUR BOOKLET: THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS

 

PSALM 138

 

This psalm, which is simply entitled a Psalm of David, is a fitting follow-up to the previous psalm. Whereas the harps of God’s people were hung in the willows by the rivers of Babylon, probably the Tigris and Euphrates, in Psalm 137, David takes them down in this psalm to strum them in wholehearted praise to God. 

 

“This Psalm is wisely placed. Whoever edited and arranged these sacred poems, he had an eye to apposition and contrast; for if in Psalm 137 we see the need of silence before revilers, here we see the excellence of a brave confession. There is a time to be silent, lest we cast pearls before swine; and there is a time to speak openly, lest we be found guilty of cowardly not confessing.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 138:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.” (Psalm 138:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All true praise of God is wholehearted and lionhearted, for there is no such thing as a halfhearted or chickenhearted worshiper of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must praise God utterly and unashamedly, not only with our whole being, but also before the whole world, even before its foolish idolaters and all of their false idols.

 

PSALM 138:2a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “ I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth…” (Psalm 138:2a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: True worship is toward the holy temple of the one and only true God, not toward the temples, mosques, or shrines of false gods.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We cannot help but to truly worship God if our hearts are transfixed on the temple of God and the truth about God, such as His unconditional love for us and His unfailing promises to us.

 

PSALM 138:2b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” (Psalm 138:2a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is so serious about His Word that He has magnified it above His own name, which means He has forever staked His good name on making good on everything He has ever said.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We can be sure that God’s Word is trustworthy, because God will never allow His holy name to be tarnished in the least by failing to prove every little jot and tittle of His holy Word to be true! (Matthew 5:18)

 

PSALM 138:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” (Psalm 138:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David knew that God was trustworthy, not only because God had magnified His Word above His own name, but also because God had always answered David’s prayers by either lifting off of him his burdens or giving him the strength to bear up under them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the day of distress, God will answer our prayers, not necessarily by delivering us from life’s burdens, but by strengthening our souls so that we can bear up under their load.

 

PSALM 138:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.” (Psalm 138:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The reason world leaders fail to laud the Lord is they refuse to listen to His words; if they did, they would be glad in His ways and glory in His worthiness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The day is coming when all of the earth, including its kings, will hear God’s Word, see His ways, know His glory, and praise His name. When that day comes, all earthly thrones will be vacated by earthly kings, who will lay their earthly crowns at the feet of Christ, whose glory shall permeate the whole earth and who alone the whole earth shall praise. (Habakkuk 2:14; Revelation 15:4)

 

PSALM 138:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” (Psalm 138:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although God is high and lifted up, He keenly looks down on the humble and lowly, while keeping the haughty and lordly at arms length.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Most High is mindful of the lowly, but He knows the proud from afar; that is, He knows all about them, but He has no relationship with them.

 

PSALM 138:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.” (Psalm 138:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In troubled times, God can be trusted to revive and restore us, to protect and preserve us, to perfect His plans and purposes concerning us, and to forgive and not forsake us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “If we receive reviving, we need not regret affliction. When God revives us, trouble will never harm us.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

David’s concluding words in this psalm, in which he assures us—the product of God’s creative hand and the purchase of His nail-scared redemptive hand—that God never forsake us, but is always fulfilling His perfect plan for us, reminds us of Madame Guyon’s doctrine of Abandonment to Divine Providence, which she succinctly summed up in the following famous quote: “Abandonment is being satisfied with the present moment, no matter what that moment contains. You are satisfied because you know that whatever that moment has, it contains—in that instant—God's eternal plan for you.”

 

PSALM 139 

 

It is fitting that this song of David was entrusted to the Chief Musician to set to music, since it is, as Charles Spurgeon claims, one of Psalm’s most notable sacred hymns. It is also the last of the book of Psalm’s Imprecatory Psalms.

 

READ OUR BOOKLET: THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS

 

PSALM 139:1-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” (Psalm 139:1-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our omniscient God not only knows all about us, but He also knows all of our days before we live them, all of our deeds before we do them, all of our thoughts before we think them, and all of our words before we speak them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Such infinite knowledge of us by our omniscient God is obviously incomprehensible to our finite minds.

 

PSALM 139:7-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” (Psalm 139:7-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our omnipresent God is everywhere present at once, so nothing is hid from His all-seeing eye, nothing above the earth, in the earth, or under the earth, regardless of whether it is in the light of day or the darkness of night.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one can hightail it or hide from an omnipresent God, who is ever-present and inescapable.

 

PSALM 139:13-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God not only knows us intimately from conception, but intricately forms us in our mother’s womb and writes out His incredible plan for our lives even before we are ever born.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No Bible believing Christian can be prochoice! The sanctity of human life is a nonnegotiable tenet of Scripture. Every abortion is not only a violation of this nonnegotiable truth, but also the termination of a sacred and divinely planned human life. 

 

To claim to be against abortion, but for a woman's right to choose is an absolute absurdity that will not withstand the scrutiny of Scripture. It is like claiming to be against arson, but for the arsonist right to play with matches and make molotov cocktails.

 

PSALM 139:17-18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” (Psalm 139:17-18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: That we should ever be on God’s mind or that God should ever bother to think of us at all is precious enough, but that we are always on God’s mind and that God thinks so much of us is precious indeed.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A man who was once told by King George IV to “Get out of the road,” spent the rest of his life bragging to others that he had not only once been noticed by the king, but also personally spoken to by the king.

 

PSALM 139:19-20

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.” (Psalm 139:19-20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here, David’s prayer of wonderment over an omniscient and omnipresent God turns on a dime into a warlike prayer against all of those who speak wickedly against God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God’s enemies obstinately refuse His offered salvation, they leave God with no other option but their condemnation and elimination.

 

PSALM 139:21-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.” (Psalm 139:21-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No one truly loves God who does not hate all hatred of God. Indeed, it is with a perfect hatred that lovers of God hate any and all hatred of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who truly love God do not just hate all hatred of God, but also all the things that God hates, which are enumerated for us throughout the Scripture. (Proverbs 6:16-19; 8:13, Psalm 5:5; 11:5, Isaiah 61:8, Malachi 2:16, Romans 9:13, Revelation 2:6)

 

PSALM 139:23-24

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: True self-knowledge does not come under the flickering flashlight of personal introspection, but only under the sheering searchlight of God’s Spirit. Unfortunately, most men shrink from divine scrutiny, lest their supposed halo be tarnished.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The prerequisite for God leading us in our lives in the everlasting way is for Him to first search our hearts for any wicked way.

 

PSALM 140

 

Charles Spurgeon calls this psalm, “The Cry of a Hunted Soul,” because of his belief that David wrote it while being hunted by King Saul. Though certainly written under persecution, this psalm of David is, as Spurgeon also writes, one of the richest of the “short psalms…in the jewelry of precious faith.”

 

PSALM 140:1-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The good man is spitefully vilified by venomous slander so that the vile at heart can vindicate their vicious schemes to violently strike him. What other recourse does so persecuted a soul have but to pray to God to save him from such virulent villains.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Apostle Paul not only quotes verse 3 in Romans 3:13, in his description of the total depravity of fallen humanity, but also puts the sharp tongues of serpents in the mouths and the poison of asps or adders under the lips of all mankind. Truly, as James teaches, no man has ever tamed the tongue, which is an unruly evil, filled with deadly poison, and often set on fire of hell. (James 3:6-8)

 

PSALM 140:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.” (Psalm 140:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The pious are the targeted prey of the profane, who persistently persecute the pious and attempt to snare them in their service of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the net spread by the proud for the pious is by the wayside, which poses no peril to the pious unless he or she wanders from the way onto the wayside.

 

PSALM 140:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.” (Psalm 140:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only those who say the Lord is their God whose supplications are answered by God and who are saved and suited up in the strong armor of God in the day of battle.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Of what should we ever be scared in all of the struggles of life if we are always clad in the strength of our salvation and under the cover of God’s sovereignty?

 

PSALM 140:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.” (Psalm 140:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Despite their defiance of God, the wicked are still in the hands of God, so we can pray for God to deny them their desires and to defeat their designs and devices, lest they become even more disdainful.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray for the wicked to fail and to be abased rather than to flourish and to be exalted is to pray for wickedness to never be pedestaled. Therefore, Tiny Tim prayers, “God bless everyone,” are not necessarily Biblical.

 

PSALM 140:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.” (Psalm 140:9-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for the slanderers who surrounded him to go up in the flames of their own incendiary and defamatory words.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Hell’s unquenchable fire awaits all whose untamed tongues are set on fire of Hell. (James 3:6-10)

 

PSALM 140:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.” (Psalm 140:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays that no one who speaks evil will be established in the earth, but that they will be both hunted down and run out of town by the evil they speak.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: John Trapp, the English Puritan, has an interesting interpretation of this verse. He suggests that it teaches that God’s arrow of judgment on each sinner is feathered with the sinner’s own words, like a fowl fatally wounded with an arrow feathered with one of its own feathers. (Matthew 12:37)

 

PSALM 140:12-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.” (Psalm 140:12-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only will God ultimately prove Himself to be the champion of justice for the persecuted and the poor, but He will also see to it that the righteous ultimately praise and celebrate Him in His presence forever.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This psalm, which began with an urgent supplication, by the persecuted and troubled David, ends with David singing praise to God for the ultimate triumphant of the righteous over all of their oppressors and persecutors.

 

PSALM 141

 

According to Charles Spurgeon, despite the fact that the “meaning” of this Psalm of David “lies so deep as to be in places exceedingly obscure,” because of its enigmatic Hebrew passages, there is still, “upon its surface,” the glittering glow of “the dust of gold.” The gold dust to be gathered from this psalm is not only found in David’s Imprecatory prayer for his enemies to get their comeuppance, but also in his prayer to not be compromised by his enemies, but for God to use them to chasten and correct him.

 

PSALM 141:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.” (Psalm 141:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is an urgent prayer of last resort that David prays, a prayer for God to hear him and make haste to help him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since a resort is a place of rest, isn’t it too bad that prayer is all too often our last resort rather than our first resort? Oh, how much more restful and tranquil our lives would be, as well as less restless and troublesome, if prayer was our first resort rather than our last one.

 

PSALM 141:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” (Psalm 141:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should seek, by lifting up our hands to God in self-sacrificing supplication, to offer up to God satisfying prayers that are savored by the Spirit with the sweetest-smelling of all perfumed incenses.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As sweet-smelling incense went up from the fire of the Holy Place’s golden altar to God both morning and evening, so also should sweet-smelling prayers go up from the fire of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to God both day and night.

 

PSALM 141:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God should be the watchman over our words and the doorkeeper of our mouths, both opening our mouths when we should speak up and closing our mouths when we should shut up.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should say what God says and then shut up, never adding anything to it or subtracting anything from it. (1 Peter 4:11; Revelation 22:18-19)

 

PSALM 141:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.” (Psalm 141:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It was not just wrong words, but also the wrong way and wicked works that David prayed for God to ward off and wall off from his heart.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like David, we, Christ’s otherworldly disciples, should pray not only for God to make this fallen world appalling to us rather than appealing, but also to make the dainties and delicacies of fallen men disgusting to us rather than desirable.

 

PSALM 141:5a

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head…” (Psalm 141:5a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The correction of constructive criticism from fellow Christians should be coveted by us as a means by which God not only chastens us, but also covers us with a fresh anointing of the choice oil of the Holy Spirit.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “When the ungodly smile upon us their flattery is cruel; when the righteous smite us their faithfulness is kind.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 141:5b

 

BIBLE TEXT: “…for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.” (Psalm 141:5b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Abruptly, David turns his attention here away from the welcomed correction of the righteous and back to the unwelcome connivances of the wicked.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Alexander Maclaren points out, it is here, at the end of verse 5 and in the following two verses, verses 6-7, that the enigmatic wording of the Hebrew text makes this psalm “a great challenge for the translator and the interpreter.”

 

PSALM 141:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “When their judges are thrown over the cliff, then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant. As when one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.” (Psalm 141:6-7 ESV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although the meaning of the Hebrew in this passage is unsure, it appears to allude to the sweet revenge to be reaped on unjust judges or rulers who leave victims of their injustice spread around like unburied bones and as numerous as clods in a plowed field.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Truly, all who hold a gavel or a scepter should take heed to the fact that there is a God in Heaven who will hold them accountable for all of their injustices.

 

ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION

 

PSALM 141:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.” (Psalm 141:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To look to the Lord rather than to yourself or to others for your refuge is to never be left desolate nor defenseless.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is a fortress to all who focus on God and fix their faith in God, so much so that they are made invulnerable by God.

 

PSALM 141:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.” (Psalm 141:9-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for his enemies to end up snared in their own nets, but for him to be kept safe from ever being entangled in them or entrapped by them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although we are to walk circumspectly—carefully watching everywhere we step foot—it is still God who must “keep” us safely from the snares of the devil, which are strewn on our pathway, lest we be taken captive by the devil to do his will. (Ephesians 5:15; 2 Timothy 2:26; Hosea 9:8)

 

PSALM 142

 

Whether the cave of Adullam or the cave of En Gedi, in which David hid from King Saul (1 Samuel 22:1-2; 24:1-22), this psalm, as the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry contends, teaches us the invaluable lessons David learned in the cave and on his knees.

 

PSALM 142:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.” (Psalm 142:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We must never stop crying out to God for deliverance in our dire and desperate straits, lest we end up seized by crushing despair.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Dark caves make dandy prayer closets!

 

PSALM 142:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.” (Psalm 142:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We do not lodge our complaints to God in prayer to inform Him about them, but so that He can resolve them, by either dealing with those who have wronged us or dealing with us for wrongly complaining.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should not only keep our complaint box in our prayer closet, but also our complaints between ourselves and God, who alone can properly deal with them or with us, in the event we’re just being crotchety.

 

PSALM 142:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.” (Psalm 142:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When our spirit faints within us, we must not forget that our Savor knows the path before us and all the secret snares strewn upon it by those seeking to ensnare us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even David, who overcame Goliath, was overwhelmed, though he had courageously brought down the giant, he could not lift up his own spirit.

 

PSALM 142:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” (Psalm 142:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This, the cry of an inconspicuous and uncared for soul, is not only as mournful a moan as any to be found in all of Scripture, but also as damning an indictment of the people of God as any that could ever be lodged against them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: ONE MAN DOWN

 

       One man was drifting,

       One man alone,

       One sole heartbeat

       From eternity’s home.

 

       No man seemed burdened

       That one man was scared,

       Though one man was lonely,

       No man much cared.

 

       All men were busy.

       They’ve too much to do.

       You who are hurting,

       There’s no time for you.

 

       One life just ended.

       It cannot be found.

       One life is over.

       One man’s gone down.

 

       One man’s forgotten.

       One man’s no more.

       No man yet burdened.

       All’s like before.

 

       Another is drifting.

       Another’s alone,

       Only a heartbeat

       From eternity’s home…

 

PSALM 142:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” (Psalm 142:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To cry out to God for your protection is a good thing, but to claim Him as your portion is a greater thing, for the walls of divine protection surely surround all who seek God alone as their portion.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the cave, David certainly considered himself bereft of all fleeting and earthy possessions. However, this didn’t bother him a bit, since he believed God to be his forever bequest and eternal portion.

 

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” (Jim Elliot)

 

PSALM 142:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.” (Psalm 142:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David neither denied his pitiful state nor the strength of his persecutors, for prevailing faith is not, as is popularly believed today, presumptive, but pragmatic and positive, ever persuaded that prevailing is possible with God, despite our problems and puniness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To acknowledge one’s weakness is not an encumbrance, but an essentiality, for we will never depend upon God to strengthen and save us, as long as we believe we are strong enough to save ourselves.

 

PSALM 142:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” (Psalm 142:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although David felt imprisoned hiding in a cave surrounded by Saul’s legions, he breaks out in praise at the conclusion of this psalm remembering the promise of God that he will soon be sitting on a throne surrounded by loyal subjects. (1 Samuel 16:1-13)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should always pray to be sprung by God from life’s imprisoning caves so that we can praise Christ, in the congregation of the righteous, for breaking us out of our imprisonment, setting our souls free, and so bountifully blessing us.

 

PSALM 143

 

This psalm is the last of the seven Penitential Psalms, though it is certainly questionable why it was included among them, since it is, as Spurgeon notes, more of “a supplication for deliverance from trouble than a weeping acknowledgment of transgression.” Apart from verse 2, where David admits the impossibility of any man justifying himself before God, this psalm is far more militant than penitent.

 

PSALM 143:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.” (Psalm 143:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays that his prayer will be both heard and answered by God in perfect accordance with God’s faithfulness and righteousness; in other words, only if God could remain true to Himself in hearing and answering David’s request.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God will never compromise His character to take care of our concerns. Therefore, our prayers must always be first and foremost concerned with God’s glory, not with our gripes and grumbles.

 

PSALM 143:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” (Psalm 143:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: While David understood that all prayer is heard and answered according to God’s righteousness, he also understood that no petitioner’s prayer was ever heard or answered because of his or her righteousness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No man’s pathway of access to God is paved with his own righteousness, but with the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to us, making it possible for God to justify us—the unjustifiable—without compromising in the least His own righteousness or justice. (Roman 3:21-26; 4:1-25; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

 

PSALM 143:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.” (Psalm 143:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: What John of the Cross called the “dark nights of the soul” and Martin Luther dubbed “Anfechtungen,” is here vividly described by the disheartened and dismayed David as a soul struck down to the ground and sunk into the darkness of the grave by the enemy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, who during His earthly sojourn went through all that we do, but unlike us, did so sinlessly, so that He can sympathize with us and intercede for us, also went through a dark night of the soul, when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, as David does here, that His soul too was overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death. (Hebrews 4:14-15; 7:25; Matthew 26:36-39)

 

PSALM 143:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.” (Psalm 143:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To look back at the past works of God in our lives is a good way to free ourselves from our present worries.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The more we consider the power of God, the less we shall fear the face or force of man.” (Matthew Henry)

 

PSALM 143:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.” (Psalm 143:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To remember the work of God’s hands wrought for us will result in us raising up our hands in worship to God, as well as in us thirsting for Him rather than turning from Him in all of our troubles.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This is the last time the word “Selah” is seen in Psalms. Therefore, we will repeat here our brief explanation of the word, which we originally offered when we first encountered it in Psalm 3:2.

 

The word “Selah” appears to be derived from two root words. One, “salah,” which means “to pause,” and the other “salal,” which means to “lift up.” Although commonly believed to be some sort of musical notation or instruction, the word may be better understood as a term of subject-matter rather than music, or of truth rather than tunes. It calls for the singer or reader to pause and reflect on what has just been sung or read, as well as to lift up their heart over the psalm’s preceding precious truth.

 

The word appears 74 times in the Bible. It first appears in Psalm 3:2. Afterward, it appears 70 other times in Psalms, as well as 3 times in Habakkuk. In the book of Psalms, the term appears in 39 of the book’s 150 psalms, once in Psalms 7, 20, 21, 44, 47, 48, 50, 54, 60, 61, 75, 81, 82, 83, 85, and 143, twice in Psalms 4, 9, 24, 39, 49, 52, 55, 57, 59, 62, 67, 76, 84, 87, and 88, three times in Psalms 3, 32, 46, 66, 68, 77, and 140, and four times in Psalm 89.

 

PSALM 143:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.” (Psalm 143:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To lose sight of God is to swiftly sink into a spiritual grave, but to be swiftly lifted from such a spiritual pit, we need only to pray to God to show us His face.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A fainting spirit is surely in need of swiftly seeing the face of God, for nothing lifts the spirit faster than God showing His face to a forlorn soul.

 

PSALM 143:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.” (Psalm 143:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for God to assure us of His lovingkindness in the morning and to keep us assured of it throughout the day, by keeping us walking through our day in His ways, His will, and His Word.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Lovingkindness is one of the sweetest words in our language. Kindness has much in it that is most precious, but lovingkindness is doubly dear; it is the cream of kindness.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

PSALM 143:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.” (Psalm 143:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To flee to God for our fortitude is to free ourselves from fear of our foes.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those knowingly hid by God are kept from being haunted by any and all horrors.

 

PSALM 143:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” (Psalm 143:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the good Spirit of God, who is the only good (Mark 10:18), who teaches us to do the good will of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only by being accompanied by God’s good Spirit and enabled by Him to follow God’s good will can you and I arrive and abide in the land of uprightness.

 

PSALM 143:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.” (Psalm 143:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray, as David did, to be revived and rescued by God for the sake of His name, for every effective prayer must be prayed first and foremost for God’s glory, not for our own good.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God will prove His righteousness by rightly answering prayers for revival prayed by the repentant or prayers for rescue prayed by those who rely upon Him. However, He will not wrongly answer the prayers of the unrepentant for revival or of the self-reliant for rescue.

 

PSALM 143:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.” (Psalm 143:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This verse serves as a strange, but scriptural twist, on God’s mercy, since it alludes to the cutting off of David’s, God’s servant’s, enemies, as a manifestation of God’s mercy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While God’s mercy is confirmed by the fact that God’s saints go to Heaven, it is not contradicted by the fact that sinners go to Hell, for without the latter God’s mercy would be turned into license.

 

PSALM 144

 

Like Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, this psalm of David has also been entitled, by many a Bible expositor and commentator, “War and Peace.”

 

PSALM 144:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.” (Psalm 144:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible does not teach pacifism, but, because of the reality of evil, the essentiality and inevitability of war, since evil must be warred against, lest evil win the world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As important as it was for David to be divinely trained for military warfare in his day, it is even more important for us to be divinely trained for spiritual warfare in our day, for we “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

 

READ WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT WAR

 

PSALM 144:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.” (Psalm 144:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Notice, David sees the goodness of God behind both his shielding as a soldier and his subjects’ submission to him as their sovereign.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A man is a fool who credits his own prowess or power for his military triumphs and mighty throne, for it is God alone who gives him success on the battlefield and a seat in the throne room.

 

PSALM 144:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” (Psalm 144:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is truly incredible and incomprehensible that God, who is not only everything, but also “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28), stoops down so low as to take notice of lowly man, who appears, at least in comparison to God, to be nothing at all.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is infinite condescension that causes our infinite Creator to condescend enough to care for the likes of us, His finite creatures, who are, along with our children, seemingly insignificant and short-lived.

 

PSALM 144:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.” (Psalm 144:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for God to frightfully come down out of Heaven and touch the mountains in the midst of His enemies, as God once came down out of Heaven and touched Mount Sinai in the midst of His own people.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Just as Jesus taught that devils flee when God wiggles His finger (Luke 11:20), David taught that mountains smoke and are set on fire at the touch of God.

 

PSALM 144:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.” (Psalm 144:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for God to use the artillery of Heaven to scatter and destroy his adversaries.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To tangle with those whose God not only strings His bow with lightening, but also throws thunderbolts, is to take on those you can never triumphant over.

 

PSALM 144:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children; Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” (Psalm 144:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for God to reach down His hand from Heaven and rid him of foreign foes who have rushed in like a flood firing off a flurry of falsehoods.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is neither xenophobia nor a sin, to pray for God to deliver us from a foreign foe who falsely accuses us and fiercely assails us, in hopes of finishing us off and annihilating us.

 

PSALM 144:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.” (Psalm 144:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: For each new God-given victory, we should, to the utmost of our ability, offer to God a new song of praise.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we may not have the skill to praise God with a ten-stringed harp, like David, we can still praise Him with the sacred harp—our human voice. After all, there is no true praise of God without the sacred harp, no matter how many ten-stringed harps are skillfully played.

 

PSALM 144:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.” (Psalm 144:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Tragically, unlike Israel’s ancient King David, world leaders today, don’t praise and glorify God for their God-given victories, but praise and glorify themselves instead, unaware that God’s praise and glory will never be shared and cannot be stolen. (Isaiah 42:8)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Beggars sitting on street corners with tin cups are no more in need of God than kings sitting on thrones wearing crowns. While the beggar may be more conscious of his need for God, the king, despite being less cognizant of it, is no less in need of God than the beggar.

 

PSALM 144:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” (Psalm 144:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David repeats his prayer for God to rid him of foreign foes who deal in treachery and are devoid of truth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: By repeating his request for God to rid him of dubious and deceitful foreign foes, David makes this request both the refrain of this psalm and the burden of his prayer.

 

PSALM 144:12-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.” (Psalm 144:12-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prays for God to bless Israel with the benefits of proper policing within and a secured peace without; namely, with stately youth, stores of grain, sheep in its fields, strong oxen to bring in its harvest, and streets that are calm and free of unrest.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unfortunately, present-day America knows little of these prayed for and God-given blessings, since we’ve opted to appease felonious criminals, foreign adversaries, and those who foment unrest in our streets.

 

PSALM 144:15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 144:15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Truly, it is a happy people whose God is the Lord and whose land is properly policed within and at peace without.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Herein lies the absence of happiness in present-day America. We are no longer a people whose God is the Lord or who live in a land properly policed within or at peace without. Instead, we have abandoned God and become appeasers of our adversaries, both foreign and domestic.

 

PSALM 145

 

This psalm is uniquely entitled, “David’s Psalm of Praise.” It is also the last psalm in the book of Psalms to identify David as its author, as well as the last psalm to be written in an acrostic pattern. Of the nine psalms written in an acrostic pattern—Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 144, five are attributed to David, this one, along with Psalms 9, 25, 34, and 37. 

 

Undoubtedly, this alphabetical psalm, which has been called, “David’s Crown Jewel of Praise,” was written in an acrostic pattern to aid worshipers in the memorization and recitation of it. Orthodox Jews recite this psalm, which is known to them as the “Ashrei,” three times a day—twice in the morning and once in the afternoon—because the Jewish Talmud promises all who repeat it three times a day a share in the world to come.

 

PSALM 145:1-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” (Psalm 145:1-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David will extol and exalt God everyday and for all eternity, because God’s infinite greatest is far beyond the grasp of man’s finite mind.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, David, the king of Israel, calls God his King, having no doubt about who really wears the crown and who is really in control. As the Archbishop of Canterbury used to say, when coronating a King or Queen of England, “I give you this crown to wear until Him to whom it rightly belongs returns again to claim it.”

 

PSALM 145:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” (Psalm 145:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Both our prayers and our praise should be a deep dive into the fathomless depths of God’s greatness, otherwise, our praise will be shallow and our prayers skimpy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Prayer is but a narrow exercise in exacting expediency to all who fail to grasp the expansive and ungraspable expanse of the greatness of God. It is like a beggar who pleads for but tuppence, when bottomless treasure is available.

 

PSALM 145:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” (Psalm 145:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas the older generation inspires the younger to praise God for His past mighty works, the younger generation inspires the older to praise God for His present mighty works.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is of paramount importance that parents pass down to their posterity their praise of God, so that God’s praise may be preserved and perpetuated upon the earth.

 

PSALM 145:5-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: “I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.” (Psalm 145:5-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is to be praised not only for the glorious, great, and good things He has performed, but also for His personal glory, greatness, and goodness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All God has done is praiseworthy, but even more praiseworthy is all that He is, which explains all He has done.

 

PSALM 145:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” (Psalm 145:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s grace to us and love for us is manifested by how slow He is to get mad at us and how swift He is to be merciful to us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we should certainly be enthralled by the majesty of God, we should be far more enthralled with the mercy of God.

 

PSALM 145:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” (Psalm 145:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is good to all and His tender mercies are extended to all; therefore, there is no foundation for any accusation against God. Any perceived divine injustice is a product of human imagination.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: David speaks here of what is known as the doctrine of common grace; that is, of God’s graciousness in bestowing His non-salvific goodness upon all men. As Jesus put it in Matthew 5:45, “[God] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

 

PSALM 145:10-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” (Psalm 145:10-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The creation of God praises Him and the children of God bless Him, so that all men shall know of the glory of God’s everlasting kingdom and the greatness of God’s enduring power.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the acrostic arrangement of this psalm, one letter of the Hebrew alphabet (nun) is missing from the Masoretic Text, which was used by the King James translators. However, it is believed to have been a scribal error, since it is included in a medieval Hebrew manuscript, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible—and the Syriac translation, which was a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and the Apostles. Consequently, the letter (nun), along with its accompanying verse—“The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds”—is added in the Revised Standard Version, as well as in subsequent modern-day translations, at the end of verse 13.

 

READ THE BIBLE: THE BOOK OF BOOKS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS, THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, BIBLE TRANSLATIONS, AND SCRIBAL ERRORS

 

PSALM 145:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.” (Psalm 145:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Unlike men, who look down on the bowed down and fallen, God will straighten their bent backs and lift them up, if they will bow down and look up to Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If the fallen are humbled and grieved by their failings, God will graciously uphold them.

 

PSALM 145:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In God’s time and from His open hand, He sustains and satisfies the needs, not necessarily the greeds, of every longing human eye and every living thing on earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Jesus taught in His famous Sermon on the Mount, God cares not only for us, but also for every bird of the air and lily of the field. (Matthew 6:26-30)

 

PSALM 145:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” (Psalm 145:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s ways are righteous and His works are holy; in other words, being altogether righteous, God can never do anything but what is right and holy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All God does is a reflection of all He is; consequently, He can never conduct Himself in any way that is contradictory to His character.

 

PSALM 145:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is only a prayer away.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, God is not near to those who simply go through the motion of prayer, but only near to those who truly pray, for God is not only far away from all false prayers, but also far away from all who feign to pray.

 

PSALM 145:19-20

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Psalm 145:19-20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God not only fulfills the desires of all who fear Him, but He also saves and safeguards all who love Him, as well as destroys all the wicked who flout and spurn Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since those who fear God desire the will of God to be fulfilled, God can and will fulfill their desire.

 

PSALM 145:21

 

BIBLE TEXT: “My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.” (Psalm 145:21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David ends his contribution to the Psalter on this soaring high note of praise, in which he calls upon all mankind to join him forever in his everlasting praise of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In this, his last words in the book of Psalms, David’s praise, as pointed out by Derek Kidner, the late British Old Testament scholar, stretches out as “wide as mankind” and becomes “as unfading as eternity.”

 

PSALM 146

 

This psalm is the first of the “Hallelujah Psalms,” the final five psalms of the Psalter. In The Treasury of David, his classic multi-volume commentary on Psalms, Charles Spurgeon waxes eloquent in his introduction of these five concluding and celebrated psalms of praise.

 

“We are now among the Hallelujahs. The rest of our journey lies through the Delectable Mountains. All is praise to the close of the book. The key is high-pitched: the music is upon the high sounding cymbals. O for a heart full of joyful gratitude, that we may run, and leap, and glorify God, even as these Psalms do.”

 

PSALM 146:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.” (Psalm 146:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here we have both a declaration of praise and an exhortation to praise.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The word Hallelujah comes from two Hebrew words. The word “hallel” means “praise” and the word “Jah” is a contraction of “Jehovah.” Therefore, “Hallelujah,” which is pronounced similarly in almost every language, means “praise Jehovah” or “praise the Lord.”

 

PSALM 146:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: “While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.” (Psalm 146:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All men should praise the Lord with all of their being and for as long as they have breath.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

 

PSALM 146:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (Psalm 146:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All men, including princes, are but dust, who are only one breath away from returning to the earth and being buried beneath it, along with all of their plans and promises. No wonder Shakespeare said, “O how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favor.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What folly it is to put our faith in the favor of feeble and fleeting men, who, like us, are, along with all of their desires and designs, dying every moment. It is like a beggar looking for alms from another beggar or a cripple looking to be carried by another cripple. Instead of looking for help from those who cannot help us, because they are like us, in that they too are but a breath away from perishing, we should look for help from God alone, who is, like His plans for us and promises to us, everlasting and eternal.

 

PSALM 146:3-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” (Psalm 146:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas there is no hope of happiness for those who trust in princes, all who look to the Lord for their help and hope will live their lives with legitimate and lasting happiness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Are we not Judases, thieves who steal what belongs to Christ, whenever we put our faith and our hopes, which belong to Christ alone, in anything else or anyone else besides Christ? (John 12:6)

 

PSALM 146:6-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous: The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.” (Psalm 146:6-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here is a trio of reasons to trust in the Lord. He is our Creator, not one of our fellow creatures. He is ever-true; therefore, always trustworthy. And although He is compassionate and just to all, especially those in want, He will still justly condemn the wicked.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Father, like Son, is clearly seen in this powerful passage, for it is a foretelling of the mission of the forthcoming Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. (Isaiah 61:1-3; Matthew 11:2-5; Luke 4:16-21)

1. Christ created all things and by Him all things were created. (John 1:1-3)
2. Christ came not just to keep the truth, but as the Truth. (Matthew 5:17-18; John 1:14, 17; 14:6; 1 John 5:20)
3. Christ came to set free the oppressed. (Luke 4:18 ESV)
4. Christ came to feed the hungry. (Matthew 14:15-21; Matthew 15:32-38)
5. Christ came to preach liberty to captives. (Luke 4:18)
6. Christ came to give sight to the blind. (Matthew 11:5)
7. Christ came to raise up the bowed down. (Luke 13:11-13)
8. Christ came to love the righteous and to fulfill all righteousness. (Matthew 5:17-18; 6:33)
9. Christ came to watch over foreigners. (Matthew 8:5-10; 15:21-28)
10. Christ came to help orphans and widows. (Luke 7:12-15; John 14:16-18)
11. Christ came to frustrate the ways of the wicked. (Matthew 21:23-27; 22:23-40; 27:62-28:7; Luke 4:28-30; 20:20-26; John 8:3-11, 59)

PSALM 146:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 146:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Since the Lord, the King of Kings, not only reigns throughout all generations, but will also reign throughout all eternity, He is to be praised now and forever.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: That nothing ever happens outside the parameters of Divine Providence and God’s sovereignty may give pause to the sinner, but should surely solicit praise from the saint.

 

PSALM 147

 

This is the second of the Hallelujah Psalms, the last five psalms of the Psalter, and is, as Charles Spurgeon says, “a specially remarkable song” of praise.

 

PSALM 147:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.” (Psalm 147:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only is it good for men to praise God, because God alone is praiseworthy, but also because praising God is the good and proper thing for all men to do.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one who does not enjoy praising God on earth will enjoy eternity in Heaven, where the chief activity is the continuous praise of God.

 

PSALM 147:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God not only rebuilds broken walls and restores broken hearts, but He brings back backsliders and binds up their bruises.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As we learned in an earlier psalm, if the Lord doesn’t build and watch over the city, its builders labor in vain and its lookouts watch over it in vain. (Psalm 127:1)

 

PSALM 147:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.” (Psalm 147:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The understanding of our omniscient God is infinite, as is proven by His numbering and naming of all of the stars.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Modern-day astronomers estimate that there are 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe.

 

PSALM 147:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.” (Psalm 147:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Neither the meek, who need to be lifted up, nor the wicked, who need to be cast down to the ground, escape the notice of God, who also has His all-seeing eye on all the stars of the cosmos.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God not only has such intricate knowledge of the vast universe that He has the stars in space numbered, but He also has such intricate knowledge of our small affairs that He has the very hairs on our heads numbered. (Matthew 10:30)

 

PSALM 147:7-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.” (Psalm 147:7-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should not only sing praise and thanksgiving to God for His care of the highest stars in the heavens, but also for His care of the lowest creatures upon earth, both its beasts and its birds.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Behold! and look away your low despair -

See the light tenants of the barren air: 

To them, not stores, nor granaries, belong;

Nought, but the woodland, and the pleasing song; 

Yet, your kind heav'nly Father bends his eye

On the least wing that flits along the sky.

To him they sing, when spring renews the plain;

To him they cry, in winter's pinching reign;

Nor is their music, nor their plaint in vain;

He hears the gay, and the distressful call; 

And with unsparing bounty fills them all.

Will he not care for you, ye faithless, say?
Is he unwise? or, are ye less than they?” (James Thomson)

 

PSALM 147:10-11

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” (Psalm 147:10-11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Lord does not delight in the fastest horse or the feats of swift-footed athletes, but in them that simply fear Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not racehorses hailed in winner’s circles or athletes hailed on Olympic podiums that really please God, but humble sinners who hope for His mercy.

 

PSALM 147:12-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion. For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee. He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.” (Psalm 147:12-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God should be praised for blessing the posterity—“children”—of His people, as well as for blessing His people with protection—“strengthening the bars of their gates”—with peace—“within their borders”—and with provision—“filling them with the finest wheat.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The more we understand God’s gracious protection of us and provisions for us, as well as for our posterity, the more we will gladly utter praise to God.

 

PSALM 147:15

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.” (Psalm 147:15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: What God commands will surely come to pass and God’s Word is the swift messenger of His will that is divinely dispatched to declare it without delay from pole to pole.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We see the swiftness of God’s Word clearly illustrated in the Gospels, when Jesus speaks and lepers are immediately cleansed (Mark 1:40-42), cripples immediately walk (John 5:1-9), the sick are immediately healed (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 13:11-13), and even the dead are immediately raised (Mark 5:32-42).

 

PSALM 147:16-18

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.” (Psalm 147:16-18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God not only commands the cold weather, with its snow, sleet, and frost, but also the warm winds that melt it all away making moving waters to flow.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When the Spanish armada was defeated, thanks to a strong contrary wind that blew, which resulted in the loss of most of the fleet, the English minted a new coin to memorialize their great victory at sea. The coin’s Latin inscription, taken from verse 18, read, “Affavit Deus,” which means, “God blew.”

 

PSALM 147:19-20

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 147:19-20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s people are the sole stewards of God’s Word, to whom alone He has entrusted His laws and judgments. Therefore, they should greatly praise God for it and gladly proclaim God’s Word to all other people, so that they too may come to know God!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jonas Salk, the man who discovered the polio vaccine, was advised by a friend to keep it secret for a while. According to Salk’s friend, Salk’s vaccine would be far more valuable if more and more people contracted polio. Salk rejected his friend’s cold-hearted suggestion and explained to his friend that a man who has what the whole world needs is debtor to the whole world. As the sole stewards of what the whole world needs—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—we Christians are debtors to the whole world. Therefore, we, like the Apostle Paul, should never be ashamed and always ready to preach the Gospel to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. (Romans 1:14-16)

 

PSALM 148

 

This third of the Hallelujah Psalms, the last five psalms of the Psalter, is creation’s universal chorus of praise. It is to be gloriously realized in the future, as the book of Revelation predicts, when the whole universe erupts in praise to God (Revelation 5:11-13).

 

PSALM 148:1-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.” (Psalm 148:1-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All the heavenly bodies and heavenly beings are to praise the Lord, for by His command they were created and by His power they are preserved.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The angels in Heaven, the stars in space, the sun and the moon, and even the clouds in the sky were all created for the praise of God, so the psalmist calls upon them all, the celestial, the astronomical, and the atmospheric, to join in unison in the uninterrupted praise of God.

 

PSALM 148:7–12

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children.” (Psalm 148:7-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only are the heavens to praise the Lord, but also all of the earth, from atop its highest mountains to the depths of its deepest seas, God is to be praised by everything and everyone on earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is not only to be praised by all of creation, as well as by every creature on earth, the most mammoth and the most minuscule, those that crawl upon the earth and those that fly above it, but also by the crowning act of God’s creation, all of mankind, by both rulers and subjects, judges and litigants, men and women, the young and the old.

 

PSALM 148:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.” (Psalm 148:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is to be praised by all, because He is so far exalted above all. There is no such thing as the exorbitant or excessive praise of God, for no praise, no matter how earnest and elaborate, is equal to the excellency of God!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our English word “worship” is derived from the Old English word “worthship”; therefore, it is completely understandable why all of creation, everything and everybody, is to worship God, because God alone is worth it!

 

PSALM 148:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: “He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 148:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although good to all creation, the Lord is God to His own people, who should praise Him most of all, for having exalted and empowered them, as well as endeared them to Himself!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Oh, how we, the people of God, should praise God for delegating to us His power and for drawing us into His presence.

 

PSALM 149

 

This psalm, like all of the Hallelujah Psalms, the final five psalms of the Psalter, begins and ends with Hallelujah or Praise the Lord.

 

PSALM 149:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.” (Psalm 149:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Spurgeon says that this psalm is a new song that could be appropriately sung at the Second Coming, when Christ, at the jubilation of all saints and in judgment of all sinners, comes in inauguration of the new dispensation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints’ song of praise to God, whether sung individually or corporately, should never be sung by note, but by ear; that is, it should not be sung by rote, in the rut of stale repetition, but always fresh from a heart renewed by recent divine revelations.

 

PSALM 149:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.” (Psalm 149:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The people of God should rejoice in God and praise His name, not only because He has made us, but also because whatever we are we owe to His choosing of us and His grace shown to us. (Psalm 100:3; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Corinthians 15:10)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The people of God should also rejoice in God and praise His name because He is our King. We, unlike all others, do not rejoice in the gaudy pomp and circumstance of earth’s pompous potentates, but in the glorious majesty of the Almighty, who really rules and reigns over all creation.

 

PSALM 149:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: “For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: That God is pleased with us, His people, and beholds us as beautiful, is truly a glorious testimony to God’s saving grace, which clothes us in Christ, who alone is pleasing to God and altogether lovely! (Galatians 3:27; Matthew 3:17; Song of Solomon 5:16)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only beauty God sees in us, His saints, is the reflection of His Son, our Savior. Therefore, the more Christ is seen in us, the saved, the prettier and more pleasing we’ll be to God!

 

PSALM 149:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.” (Psalm 149:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The saints should so bask and bath in God’s glory that they can even sing upon their sickbeds.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How can those who delight in the glory of the Master, which has been given to them and dwells within them, ever be down in the mouth? (John 17:22; 2 Corinthians 4:6-7; Colossians 1:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:14)

 

PSALM 149:6-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 149:6-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our war cry, as God’s warriors, is our worship of God—the high praises of God in our mouths—and our weapon is the Word of God—the twoedged sword in our hand. Thus armed, we form God’s vanguard to vanquish His enemies and to execute His vengeance upon the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is by the power of praise and with the sharp double-edged sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, that the army of God triumphantly marches out to triumph. However, saints with no song in their hearts or sword in their hands are easily defeated by the devil, being both disarmed and defenseless. Remember, it was not only by the power of praise that Jehoshaphat defeated his enemies (2 Chronicles 20), but also with the Word of God—the only offensive weapon, apart from prayer, listed by the Apostle Paul in the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18)—that Jesus defeated the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).

 

PSALM 150

 

We’ve not only come to the final psalm of the Hallelujah Psalms, the final five psalms of the Psalter, but also to the final psalm of the book of Psalms. It is the doxology of Scripture’s songbook and its concluding Hallelujah. It is, as Charles Spurgeon describes it, “the last summit of the mountain chain of Psalms,” which “rises high into the clear azure,” with “its brow bathed in the sunlight of the eternal world of worship.” “It is,” again, as Spurgeon eloquently articulates, “a rapture”!

 

PSALM 150:1-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: “Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.” (Psalm 150:1-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm answers for us where God should be praised (verse 1), why God should be praised (verse 2), with what God should be praised (verses 3-5), and by whom God should be praised (verse 6).

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For everything He is and for everything He has done, God should be praised by everyone, everywhere, and in every way.

 

“If there is breath in your lungs, there is still purpose in your life. Every inhale is mercy. Every exhale is grace. You were not just created to breathe—you were created to worship.” (Anonymous)