PSALMS
The Bible's Songbook
Introduction: The book of Psalms is the Bible's hymnbook. The psalmists are bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. We sympathize with their struggles and feel they are akin to us in ours. Of this magnificent book of the Bible, John Calvin once wrote: "I may truly call this book an anatomy of all parts of the soul, for no one can feel a movement of the spirit which is not reflected in this mirror. All the sorrows, troubles, fears, doubts, hopes, pains, perplexities and stormy outbreaks by which the hearts of men are tossed have been depicted here to the very life.” Calvin’s sentiment about Psalms, the Bible’s songbook, is shared by many, which explains why so many pick Psalms as their favorite book of the Bible.
Psalm 1:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." (Psalm 1:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The blessed or happy man is one who distances himself from sinners and delights in Scripture.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To truly meditate continually on God’s Word one must constantly repudiate the counsel, customs, and camaraderie of this world.
Psalm 1:3-4
BIBLE TEXT: "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." (Psalm 1:3-4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Whereas the godly are like a flourishing and fruitful tree planted by rivers of life-giving water, the ungodly are like worthless chaff swiftly swept away by the sweeping wind.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Here, the godly are promised the eternal prosperity of the soul, not temporal prosperity in this world. Likewise, the ungodly are warned of swift destruction in the hereafter, not necessarily in the here and now.
God’s blessings are often concealed in the Christian’s crosses, which are means employed by our Heavenly Husbandman to prune us for greater fruitfulness. On the other hand, God’s curses are often concealed in the nonChristian’s consolations, which merely serve to shroud the nonChristian’s dire and desperate straits and precarious condition.
Psalm 1:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." (Psalm 1:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The ungodly can neither stand confidently before God in judgment nor sit comfortably among the righteous in church.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If the ungodly are comfortable in your church, then, there is something critically wrong with your church!
Psalm 1:6
BIBLE TEXT: "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." (Psalm 1:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: While the Lord at all times watches over the way of the righteous, He will wipeout for all time the way of the wicked.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not just the wayward who will forever perish, but their ways as well.
Psalm 2:1-4
BIBLE TEXT: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." (Psalm 2:1-4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The coming rule of Christ on earth enrages the nations. Their preposterous plotting to prevent it and ridiculous resolve to resist it is not just ridiculed by the Almighty, but the only thing mentioned in the Bible that makes God laugh.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The vanity of humanity in deifying divinity is pure hilarity to the Deity!
Psalm 2:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." (Psalm 2:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s anointed is already appointed, making His eternal coronation an eternal vexation to all His would-be usurpers.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing incites God’s wrath like the attempted usurpation of His throne, which was the original sin of both fallen angels and fallen man. It was what got Lucifer thrown out of Heaven and Adam and Eve thrown out of the Garden of Eden.
Psalm 2:7
BIBLE TEXT: "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." (Psalm 2:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When did the Father say to the Son, “This day have I begotten thee”? According to the Apostle Paul, it was on the day of Christ’s resurrection. (Acts 13:13)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As the “first born from the dead”; that is, the first to be born again—made alive to God after having being dead to Him in trespasses and sins, our sins not His own—Christ was begotten by the Father on the day of His resurrection, so that the worst sinner in the world today can also be born again and made alive to God by faith in the resurrected Christ. (Colossians 1:18)
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 5: THE SALVATION OF MAN'S SOUL FROM OUR BOOK THE KING OF HEARTS: THE SIMPLICITY OF LIVING IN THE SPIRIT PROVIDES A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE DEEP AND PROFOUND TRUTH OF PSALM 2:7.
According to the Apostle Paul, the whole of our Christian faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “If Christ be not risen,” Paul writes, “then is our preaching vain, and our faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found to be false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up” (1 Corinthians 15:14-15). Paul goes on to add that without Christ’s resurrection we are still “in our sins,” our loved ones who have “fallen asleep in Christ are perished” and “we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).
When Christ died on the cross He did more than just die for our sins; according to the Scripture, He actually became our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). When Christ became our sin on the cross of Calvary God the Father poured out the full fury of His wrath on Christ for every sin that has been or ever will be committed. On the cross, Christ suffered the full punishment for all the sins of all time. This explains why Christ, already kneeling under the shadow of the cross, suffered such agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-45, Luke 22:39-46). It was not, as is commonly believed, the physical pain and suffering of the cross that caused Christ to shrink back and His sweat to become like “great drops of blood” in the garden. Instead, it was the fact that Christ was about to become the sin of the world and suffer the full brunt of His Father’s wrath. Although the physical death Christ died on the cross would be more than enough to cause most men to sweat blood, it was the spiritual death that He was facing that caused Christ’s anguish in Gethsemane.
The fact that Christ experienced spiritual death—separation from God the Father—is made abundantly clear by Christ’s bloodcurdling cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46). When Christ died on the cross, becoming the sin of the world, God the Father turned His back on His Son. Since God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13), He turned away from His Son as soon as His Son took upon Himself the sin of the world.
With “the Father of lights” (James 1:17) turning away and “the light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5) doused out by the sin of the world, is there any wonder that the Scripture says the earth was suddenly shrouded in an inexplicable darkness (Matthew 27:45)? Suspended between heaven and earth and forsaken by both, Christ hung that dark day on the cruel cross of Calvary. Alone and abandoned Christ died for you and me.
Following His death, Christ’s body was taken down from the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb. From the time of Christ’s interment until He arose on that first Easter Sunday morning the drama of all the ages was played out. Could Christ, ensepulchered in the stead of all the sinners of the world, ever come alive to God again? This question for the ages, posed by Christ’s occupied tomb, was resoundingly answered in the affirmative by His empty one!
In spite of being as spiritually dead to God the Father as all the sins of all time could make Him, Christ came back alive to the Father when He arose from the dead on that first Easter Sunday morning. This is why the Bible teaches that Christ was spiritually justified and made alive in the spirit when He arose from the dead (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18). If Christ, who was as spiritually dead as the trespasses and sins of all time could make Him, rose from the dead and came back alive spiritually, then so can the vilest sinner in all of the world who will “believe in his heart that God has raised [Christ] from the dead" (Romans 10:9). No matter how spiritually dead you are in your trespasses and sins, you too can rise from the dead and come alive to God through faith in the resurrected Christ. This hope of spiritual life is at the very heart of the gospel and the reason it all hinges upon Christ’s resurrection.
In Psalm 2:7, God the Father says to Christ, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Being eternal and without beginning or end, when was Christ ever begotten by the Father? According to the Apostle Paul, Christ was begotten by the Father when He was raised from the dead. In Acts 13:33, Paul says, “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
Did you know that Jesus Christ was the first person to ever be born again? He was the first person to come back alive to God after being spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. However, Christ’s spiritual death was not the result of His sin, but of Him becoming ours. When Christ arose, coming back alive to God the Father, the Father said to Him, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
As “the first born from the dead”; that is, as the first person to ever come back alive to God after being spiritually dead to Him, Christ has become “the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18). What is the church? It is simply all of those, like Christ, who have been born again. The church is made up of those who were once dead to God in their trespasses and sins, but now have come alive to God through faith in the resurrected Christ.
According to the Apostle Paul, everyone in the church has been foreknown and predestined by God “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). God wants many more children like His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. Born again children to whom God can say, on the day they place their faith in His firstborn Son, “Thou art my [child], this day have I begotten thee.” All of those begotten by the Father through faith in His risen Son become Christ’s “brethren” and members of Christ’s body, “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23).
READ THE KING OF HEARTS: THE SIMPLICITY OF LIVING IN THE SPIRIT
Psalm 2:8-9
BIBLE TEXT: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Psalm 2:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who spurn the nail-scarred hand of the saving Christ will be smashed to smithereens when the sovereign Christ returns to wield in His pierced hand the scepter of power.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The futility of the heathens’ hostility toward Christ is found in the fact that they are foredoomed to be handed over to Christ as part of His inheritance of all of the earth.
Psalm 2:10-12
BIBLE TEXT: "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." (Psalm 2:10-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: You can kiss the Son now or yourself goodbye later. The choice is yours.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is wise to freely bow to Christ for salvation in the here-and-now rather than to wait to be forced to bow to Him in condemnation in the hereafter.
Psalm 3
This psalm is believed to have been written by David when he was forced to flee for his life from his own son Absalom, who not only revolted against his father, but usurped his father’s God-given throne as well. Like our Lord, David too crossed over the brook Kedron in the darkness of night, with a feeble band of a few followers, when a life-threatening plot was hatched against him by his own people. (2 Samuel 15:23; John 18:1)
Psalm 3:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah." (Psalm 3:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Even more distressful than being attacked by an increasing number of adversaries, is their intolerable assertion that their antagonism against us proves that God has abandoned us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Christian can withstand any number of adversaries arrayed against him, as long as he is assured that the Almighty is with him.
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 here 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 3:3-4
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah." (Psalm 3:3-4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Amidst the hanging of our heads in shame, we can be assured of lifting up our heads in glory, if we glory in God as our all-around Guardian.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What peace is possessed in this perilous world by those who know the one and only prayer-answering God.
Psalm 3:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about." (Psalm 3:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Men may muster enough courage to stand when surrounded by insurmountable odds, but the calmness to sleep when encircled by hostile hordes is truly miraculous.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is Yahweh alone who can enable us to yawn at an amassing and adversarial army.
Psalm 3:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly." (Psalm 3:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When God arises, both the jaws and teeth of our adversaries are broken, so that they can no longer bark nor bite.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God saves His elect and silences their enemies.
Psalm 3:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah." (Psalm 3:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Salvation belongs to the Lord, who bestows it upon His elect.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Salvation is not a mere matter of the free will of man, to be had whenever man chooses, but a matter of the sovereign will of God, miraculously bestowed upon God’s chosen! (John 15:16)
Psalm 4:1a
BIBLE TEXT: "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness…" (Psalm 4:1a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This is the only place in Scripture where the expression “O God of my righteousness” is found. It speaks to us of the impossibility of either being righteousness before God or right with God apart from God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jesus Christ is our righteousness, which means our righteousness or right relationship with God has nothing to do with who we are and what we’ve done, but everything to do with who Jesus is and what He has done for us, which we could have never done for ourselves. (1 Corinthians 1:30)
Psalm 4:1b
BIBLE TEXT: "…thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer." (Psalm 4:1b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: A sovereign God can use our distress to enlarge our lives.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Joseph was a prisoner before a prince and wore a iron chain on his ankle before a gold chain around his neck.
Psalm 4:2-5
BIBLE TEXT: "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him. Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord." (Psalm 4:2-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The great men of our world are often found glorying in their shame and shaming the godly, as well as loving the world’s litter and living for its lies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All the sons of men should tremble over their sin, as well as turn from their sin, in order to turn to God and trust Him for their salvation.
Psalm 4:6
BIBLE TEXT: "There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." (Psalm 4:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As the Pharisees ask to see a miracle of Christ in the midst of a multitude of His miracles, many people ask to see the mercies of God in the midst of a multitude of His mercies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christians should pray for the light of God’s countenance to shine on them, in hopes that it will convince others of God’s goodness.
Psalm 4:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." (Psalm 4:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To have God without nothing in this world is far more gladdening to the heart than to have everything in this world without God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.
I'd rather be His than have riches untold.
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land.
I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand,
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin's dread sway.
Yes, I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today. (Rhea Miller)
Psalm 4:8
BIBLE TEXT: "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." (Psalm 4:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We may sleep just as soundly in God’s safety on a battlefield as in a feather bed.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to always be ready, no matter when it may overtake me.” (Stonewall Jackson)
This verse is the Scriptural source for this children’s bedtime prayer:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep:
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take.
Psalm 5:1-3
BIBLE TEXT: "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." (Psalm 5:1-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Prayers should be offered in thoughtful meditation and with hopeful expectation if they are to receive divine consideration.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: I MET GOD IN THE MORNING (Ralph Spaulding Cushman)
I met God in the morning,
When my day was at its best
And His presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.
All day long the Presence lingered;
All day long He stayed with me;
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O’er a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind.
When I too had loosed the moorings
With the Presence left behind.
So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.
Psalm 5:4-6
BIBLE TEXT: "For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man." (Psalm 5:4-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is not just utter evil that God hates, but unrepentant evildoers as well. God cannot abide either and neither will be allowed to abide with God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Oh how foolish are we if we attempt to entertain two guests so hostile to one another as Christ Jesus and the devil! Rest assured, Christ will not live in the parlor of our hearts if we entertain the devil in the cellar of our thoughts.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Psalm 5:7
BIBLE TEXT: "But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple." (Psalm 5:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Our entrance into God’s house is through the multitude of His mercy, not by the means of our own merit.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must worship God in the fear of God, not in the feelings and fervency of our flesh.
Psalm 5:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face." (Psalm 5:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for God to make the right way plain to us, so that by pursuing it we can prove God’s righteousness even to our enemies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only by doing what God clearly shows us to be right can we clearly show to others the righteousness of God.
Psalm 5:9
BIBLE TEXT: "For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue." (Psalm 5:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The opened mouth of a sinner exposes the rotten character within just as surely as an open sepulcher exposes the rotten corpse within.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Death can be found just as much in a flattering tongue as it can in a finely fashioned tomb.
Psalm 5:10
BIBLE TEXT: "Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee." (Psalm 5:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To pray for the foes of God to fall prey to their own counsel and crimes, is a fitting prayer to pray, especially when prayed to protect others from falling victim to their wiles and wrongdoing.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This is the first instance of an imprecatory prayer in the book of Psalms. An imprecatory prayer is one that imprecates (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 5:11-12
BIBLE TEXT: "But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." (Psalm 5:11-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All who trust in the Lord will forever shout for joy and be shielded by His favor.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s favor is a fortress to all who put their faith in Him, so that they need never have the jitters, but can have everlasting joy.
Psalm 6
This psalm is the first of the seven Penitential Psalms. These Psalms—6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143—contain the three unmistakable marks of a penitent sinner; namely, one’s sorrowful heartbreak and shameful humiliation over sin, and one’s subsequent hatred of sin.
It is only under the heavy hand of the Spirit’s conviction that true contrition is ever conceived in the broken heart of a penitent sinner.
“Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred of sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig.” (Charles Spurgeon)
What hope is there in the world today of true repentance when the troubling conviction of the Holy Spirit is condemned by bothered sinners as the intolerance of Bible-believing saints?
Psalm 6:1-2a
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak…" (Psalm 6:1-2a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray under the Spirit’s conviction that God will not be mad at us and condemn us, but be merciful to us and just chasten and correct us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We cannot appeal to God for mercy on the basis of our worthiness, but only on the basis of our weakness.
Psalm 6:2b-3
BIBLE TEXT: "…O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?" (Psalm 6:2b-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To be shaken by our sin to the bone is one thing, but to be shaken to the soul is quite another. It requires more than merciful remission; it requires a miraculous remedy!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: John Calvin’s favorite exclamation was, “O Lord, how long?” This same exclamation has been echoed through the ages by many a saint, including the martyred saints under Heaven’s altar. (Revelation 6:9-10)
Psalm 6:4-7
BIBLE TEXT: "Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies." (Psalm 6:4-7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Here is the moving voice of the weeping penitent sinner in a time of perceived divine desertion, when the soul’s greatest anguish is not its shrinking from divine anger, but its inescapable sense of divine abandonment.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The unbelieving sinner is not eventually to be cut off from God and condemned in the hereafter, but is already cut off from God and condemned in the here-and-now. (John 3:18)
Psalm 6:8--9
BIBLE TEXT: "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer." (Psalm 6:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Once persuaded that our penitent prayer has been heard, we will promptly part company with all of our previous profane pals.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Just as the repentant can no longer run with the unrepentant, the unrepentant can longer relate to the repentant. (1 Peter 1:4)
Psalm 6:10
BIBLE TEXT: "Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly." (Psalm 6:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The adversaries of God’s people will eventually and suddenly be abased and ashamed.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This is another of the imprecatory prayers found in the book of Psalms. An imprecatory prayer is one that imprecates (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 7
This is the first of the Imprecatory Psalms, which are in and of themselves imprecatory prayers. It was written by David in response to Cush the Benjaminite, who had apparently slandered David before Saul as a traitor to the crown.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IMPRECATORY PRAYERS READ OUR BOOKLET: THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS
Psalm 7:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." (Psalm 7:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Like David, we too should pray for God to acquit us from the accusations of our accuser, lest he rip our souls to shreds like a lion.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unlike David, our accuser is not Cush the Benjamite, but Satan, the accuser of the brethren, who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. (Revelation 12:10; 1 Peter 5:8)
Psalms 7:3-5
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord my God, If I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah." (Psalm 7:3-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is only with a clear conscience and a clean heart that we can confidently call on God to clear our name when we are falsely condemned by character assassins.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We have nothing to fear as long as our slanderers are shooting blanks at us, but much to fear if we ever load our persecutors’ pistols with live ammunition.
Psalm 7:6-9
BIBLE TEXT: "Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins." (Psalm 7:6-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When the Heavenly court is convened, when the Judge of all the earth is seated, all the people will assemble, and He who tries men’s hearts will vindicate the upright in heart and vanquish all the wicked.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Someday a raging God will rise in retribution against all who have raged against His redeemed.
Psalm 7:10
BIBLE TEXT: "My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart." (Psalms 7:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: On the day of judgment, Christ will either save you as your Advocate or sentence you as your Judge. What He does for you then will be determined by what you do with Him now.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ does not advocate for our acquittal on the basis of our perfection, but on the basis of His propitiation. (1 John 2:1-2)
Psalm 7:11
BIBLE TEXT: "God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:11 NKJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s judgment is always just and the wicked are always under His wrath.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Sinners are already rightfully judged by God, all that remains is the carrying out of God’s judgment.
NKJV - New King James Version
Psalm 7:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "If anyone does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has strung His bow and made it ready. He has prepared His deadly weapons; He tips His arrows with fire." (Psalm 7:12-13 HCSB)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s sword is sharpened and unsheathed, His bow is strung and bent, and His arrows are tipped with fire toward the unrepentant.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The life of the unrepentant sinner may appear serendipitous, but it is not safe, for he or she constantly lives in the crosshairs of divine condemnation.
HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 7:14
BIBLE TEXT: "Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood." (Psalm 7:14 NKJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked conceive the diabolical and then endeavor to bring forth its desolation and deception.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The soul that conceives evil cannot give birth to good.
NKJV - New King James Version
Psalm 7:15-16
BIBLE TEXT: "He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown." (Psalm 7:15-16 NKJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All the wicked, like Haman, who scheme to hang the righteous, will sooner or later end up swinging on their own gallows. (Esther 9:24-25)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The schemes of sinners to stamp out the saints are all Sisyphean.
Sisyphus was a legendary king in Greek mythology condemned eternally to repeatedly rolling a heavy rock up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down again as it nears the top. Therefore, a Sisyphean task is an exercise in futility that can never be accomplished or completed.
NKJV - New King James Version
Psalm 7:17
BIBLE TEXT: "I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high." (Psalm 7:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David ends this imprecatory prayer, prayed in the midst of his persecution, not on a low note of woe, but on a high note of praise and worship!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them; to bless Him for miseries is the way to remove them.
“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” - (Harry Ironside)
Psalm 8:1a
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is one thing to say, “O Lord,” but another thing altogether to say, “Our Lord.”
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no name so excellent in all the earth as the name that is above every name. (Philippians 2:9-11)
There is no name so excellent in all the earth than the one name under Heaven whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
Psalm 8:1b
BIBLE TEXT: "..who hast set thy glory above the heavens." (Psalm 8:1b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Not only does God’s name far excel every name on earth, but His glory is far exalted above all the stars of heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s Son has been forever exalted far above the starry heavens, so that all things can be put under His feet and so that He can be put over all things. (Ephesians 1:19-23; 4:10)
Psalm 8:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger." (Psalm 8:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God ordains praise for Himself from the mouths of the lowly rather than from the mouths of the lofty, for it is the praise of humble children, not of the haughty and conceited, which is perfectly presentable to Him. (Matthew 21:15-16)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The power of praise both silences and stills our enemies, for nothing is more intolerable to the devil—Heaven’s former praise leader—and to his demons—Heaven’s former praise chorus—than to be painfully reminded, by our praise, of how deep they have sunk from the sublime heights they once occupied as Heaven’s anointed cherub and morning stars, who sang and shouted together the praises of God. (Ezekiel 28:14; Job 38:7)
Psalm 8:3-8
BIBLE TEXT: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." (Psalm 8:3-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Here is the most quizzical of all questions: What is man that he should be given God’s universe as a residence, God’s Son for his redemption, and rule over all the works of God’s hands?
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is as profoundly perplexing to ponder why God should pay any more attention to man than a man should pay to a sand flea on a single grain of sand in the midst of the Sahara Desert?
Psalm 8:9
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s name far excels every name on earth, as the most excellent name on all the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whether you call upon “our Lord” or only cry out “O Lord,” while you’re here upon this earth in the here and now, will determine whether or not you’ll be granted entrance into Heaven in the hereafter.
Psalm 9
One possible interpretation of the enigmatic title of this psalm is: “Concerning the death of the Champion who went out between the camps.” If so, this psalm is a later recollection of David of his God-given conquest over Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, as well as Israel’s subsequent victory over the whole Philistine army. (1 Samuel 17:1-58)
Psalm 9:1
BIBLE TEXT: "I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works." (Psalm 9:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The true praise of God is always wholehearted. There is no such thing as halfhearted praise!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should testify to others of all of God’s wonderful works for us. Although others may argue with our theology, they can’t argue with our testimony, since we are the only expert on the subject.
Psalm 9:2
BIBLE TEXT: "I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High." (Psalm 9:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: One can be glad and rejoice all the time if his gladness and joy are dependent upon his unchanging God rather than his ever-changing circumstances.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: One can sing at all times if his song is about his unchanging God rather than his constantly changing situation.
Psalm 9:3-4
BIBLE TEXT: "When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right." (Psalm 9:3-4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The enemies of God’s people will be vanquished from His presence and the people of God will be vindicated and validated at His throne.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: From His throne, God will judge us to be wrong if we see ourselves as righteous, but to be right if we see Christ as our righteousness. (1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 3:9)
Psalm 9:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them." (Psalm 9:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Before God extinguishes men and erases their memory, He rebukes them, because He wants them to repent and not to perish. (2 Peter 3:9)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The unrepentant have to climb over many a roadblock on the road to Hell, such as their own conscience, the Holy Spirit’s conviction, the Holy Scriptures, and the prayers and preaching of Christians.
Psalm 9:7-8
BIBLE TEXT: "But the Lord shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness." (Psalm 9:7-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord’s throne will endure forever, for He has eternally established it. It is the Lord, and the Lord alone, who is the ultimate, unerring, and unimpeachable Judge of everything and everyone.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: On Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul urged the Athenians to turn from their inexcusable ignorant idolatry to faith in the resurrected Christ. In stressing the urgency with which they needed to do so, in order to prepare themselves for the definitely approaching and divinely appointed day of Judgment, Paul quoted these words of the psalmist, “He will judge the world in righteousness.” (Acts 17:31)
Psalm 9:9
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble." (Psalm 9:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As ships swiftly sail to the harbor for safety during terrible tempests, the saints should scurry to the steep stronghold of their God for safety during times of trouble.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is in the safety of our divine stronghold that we are safeguarded from succumbing to demonic oppression.
Psalm 9:10
BIBLE TEXT: "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." (Psalm 9:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To know God’s name is to know His nature, and to know His nature is to know He should never be doubted, but always trusted.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To seek God with all your heart not only assures you of finding Him, but also of Him never forsaking you. (Jeremiah 28:13)
Psalm 9:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings." (Psalm 9:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Praises should be sung about who God is and sermons should be preached about what God has done.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I’m use to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrived!” (Mahalia Jackson)
Psalm 9:12
BIBLE TEXT: "When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble." (Psalm 9:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: For every drop of innocent blood ever shed, which cries out to God from either the murdered or the martyred, God will make an intensive inquisition.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What a solemn verse of Scripture this verse is to all abortionists and abortion advocates.
Psalm 9:13-14
BIBLE TEXT: "Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation." (Psalm 9:13-14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Notice, it is when we find ourselves at “the gates of death” that we drop to our knees to pray, and when we find ourselves at “the…gates of Zion” that we lift up our hands in praise.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our prayers for God’s rescue from all of our haters and hardships must rely upon God’s mercy and result in God’s praise.
Psalm 9:15-16
BIBLE TEXT: "The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah." (Psalm 9:15-16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God is known to justly judge evildoers by sentencing them to serve as their own executioners.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What possible judgment of the wicked could be more just than for the work of their own hands to eventually prove to be their own undoing?
An excellent example of this Scriptural certainty is found in the fact that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor only to have two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Psalm 9:17
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psalm 9:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: There is no surer way for a nation to assure itself of hell on earth than for it to forget the God of Heaven!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Without God, there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” (Ronald Reagan)
Psalm 9:18-20
BIBLE TEXT: "For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah." (Psalm 9:18-20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although the oppressors of the poor and needy may appear to prevail, they will inevitably be put in their place and made to tremble with fear when God rises to judge the nations.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whether we wear a crown or sackcloth, sit on a throne or a trash heap, live in a mansion or a lean-to, or hold a scepter or a beggar’s cup, we should never forget that we are “but men.”
PSALM 10
This psalm is a lament over the apparent aloofness of God and affluence of the ungodly. The great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther said of this psalm: "There is not, in my judgment, a psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the feelings, and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety, fullness, and light, as this psalm." Some believe this psalm is a continuation of Psalm 9, since it continues the same acrostic pattern, starting each stanza with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 10:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Whether we overcome trouble or it overcomes us is determined by whether we succumb to our perception that God is far off and hidden in times of trouble or stand on God’s promise that He is our refuge and a very present help in times of trouble. (Psalm 9:9; 46:1)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing is more troubling than the thought that God is truant in times of trouble.
Psalm 10:2
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined." (Psalm 10:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Persecution is produced by pride, for to put others under your heel you must first put your nose in the air.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God will pitch the foes of His Daniels into their own lion’s den and hang the haters of His Mordecais upon their own gallows. (Daniel 6:3-24; Esther 7:10)
Psalm 10:3
BIBLE TEXT: "For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." (Psalm 10:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked do not just boast of their bad deeds, but also of their bad desires. Furthermore, they admire the covetous, especially if they are affluent, despite God’s abhorrence of covetousness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Is there any sin that flies more successfully under the radar of the contemporary church than covetousness?
What better example of boasting in one’s bad deeds and desires is there than present-day Gay Pride Parades?
Psalm 10:4
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." (Psalm 10:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The proud, who believe they have no need of God, never seek God. Instead, they turn their nose up at God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only place an omnipresent God cannot be found is in the thoughts of the wicked.
Psalm 10:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity." (Psalm 10:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The sinner is puffed up and puffs at all adversaries and adversities, unmindful of the fact that God could snuff out his life like a puff of smoke at any second.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The judgment of Heaven hangs unnoticeably over the heads of every earthling whose downturned eyes are fixated on this fallen world.
Psalm 10:7
BIBLE TEXT: "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity." (Psalm 10:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Many people’s minds are poisoned by others’ poisonous mouths.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As we need to keep ourselves beyond the striking distance of poisonous vipers, we also need to keep ourselves beyond the earshot of poisonous voices.
Psalm 10:8-10
BIBLE TEXT: "He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones." (Psalm 10:8-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Though conceited, the wicked are cowardly in their cruelty, always committing their crimes covertly against those most easily captured and crushed.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The reason the wicked pick on the weak is because the weak are vulnerable prey and the wicked villainous poltroons.
Psalm 10:11
BIBLE TEXT: "He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it." (Psalm 10:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The sinner is foolishly figuring on the forgetfulness of an all-knowing God and brazenly banking on the blindness of an all-seeing God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is scarcely a greater barrier to sin than one’s belief in an omniscience and omnipresent God.
Psalm 10:12
BIBLE TEXT: "Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble." (Psalm 10:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist, having prosecuted his case against the wicked, now proceeds to appeal to God to arise in judgment on behalf of the afflicted.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When God lifts up His hand to punish the wicked, those preyed upon by the wicked will lift up their hands in praise to God.
Psalm 10:13
BIBLE TEXT: "Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it." (Psalm 10:13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is only those who dismiss the possibility of the judgment of God who dare to be contemptuous toward God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is those who are convinced that they’re unaccountable to God who are most irreverent toward God and unrestrained in their sin against God.
Psalm 10:14-15
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none." (Psalm 10:14-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God will not only eventually breakout against the wicked, but also break the arms of the wicked, bringing an end to all their wickedness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not just one’s confidence that increases, the more one walks out on the thin ice of a frozen pond, but also one’s peril. Likewise, the sinner does not understand that the more complacent he gets in his sin against God the closer he gets to the judgment of his sin by God.
Psalms 10:16-18
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress." (Psalm 10:16-18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This psalm ends in an eruption of praise over God’s eternal throne and eventual tranquility on earth, when all sinners will have perished and all the prayers of the saints will have been answered.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Remember, God is always in control, no matter how out of control things may appear to be.
Psalm 11:1
BIBLE TEXT: "In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" (Psalm 11:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In every danger, the enemy tries to frighten us into a display of personal cowardice rather than a demonstration of courageous and unconquerable confidence in God. If he succeeds in scaring us into hiding, our faith in the Most High will seem spurious to others.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This verse reminds us of the devilish designs of Sandballat and Tobiah against Nehemiah, when they tried to trick him into hiding in the temple, so they could taunt him for being terrified for his life rather than trusting in his Lord. Their treachery was thwarted, however, by the faithful Nehemiah’s fearless declaration: “Shall such a man as I flee?” (Nehemiah 6:10-14)
Psalm 11:2
BIBLE TEXT: "For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart." (Psalm 11:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: From the shadows, the wicked, with their strung bows and shot arrows, target the hearts of the upright.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Every heart that truly belongs to God has a bullseye drawn around it by the devil, as a target for his devilish archers to take aim at.
Psalm 11:3
BIBLE TEXT: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Once the foundations are destroyed, there is nothing the righteous can do, for the structure is beyond repair and its inevitable collapse assured.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: America, which was founded upon our government’s acknowledgment of God, has now outlawed our government’s acknowledgment of God. Therefore, with our foundation destroyed, there is nothing we can do, for our country is beyond repair and its inevitable collapse assured.
READ AMERICA'S DESTROYED FOUNDATIONS
Psalm 11:4
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." (Psalm 11:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Assurance of the divine presence—knowing “the Lord is in his holy temple”—and of divine providence—knowing “the Lord’s throne is in heaven”—is all we ever need to know, in order to know that we never need to panic.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Lord squints His all-seeing eyes to sees us all so intricately that He even has the hairs on our heads number. (Matthew 10:30)
Psalm 11:5-7
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright." (Psalm 11:5-7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Though a righteous Lord tries the righteous, who He loves and smiles upon, the righteous are never caught, like the wicked, whose wickedness the Lord hates, in the horrible tempest of the Lord’s wrath. (1 Thessalonians 5:9)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas it is under the smile of God that the righteous are tried, it is under the frown of God that the wicked are tempest-tossed.
Psalm 12:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men." (Psalm 12:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: “Help, Lord” is both an adequate and appropriate prayer when the godly are almost all gone and the faithful are almost all finished off.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A pastor called upon an old prayer warrior to lead the church in a “word of prayer.” As the congregation bowed their heads, the old prayer warrior bellowed out, “Help!”
Psalm 12:2
BIBLE TEXT: "They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." (Psalm 12:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It’s more dangerous to find oneself in a pack of liars than in a pack of lions, for flattering lips and double hearts are more perilous to the soul than predatory beasts of prey.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It makes no sense to loosen your tongue to speak nonsense to your neighbors nor to lend your ear to listen to your neighbors speak nonsense to you.
Psalm 12:3
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things." (Psalm 12:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Flattering lips—buttering up others—and a proud tongue—boasting about oneself—are both self-serving. The flatterer feeds others’ egos for his own ends and the boaster brags about himself for his own exaltation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Both the cajoler and the conceited will be cut off by the Lord.
Psalm 12:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" (Psalm 12:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Many mistakingly believe that they can prevail and triumphant in life by the power of their tongue. In other words, they trust themselves to be able to talk their way into or out of anything.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A slick tongue is a slippery slope that sooner or later slides one into trouble rather than triumphant.
Psalm 12:5
BIBLE TEXT: "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." (Psalm 12:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To God, the slightest sigh of His abused saints is a stirring scream for Him to arise.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The people of God need neither be perturbed nor petrified when puffed at by puffed up persecutors.
Psalm 12:6-7
BIBLE TEXT: "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." (Psalm 12:6-7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Word of the Lord is pure from error and will be preserved forever.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “This is the Word of God. Come, search, ye critics, and find a flaw; examine it from its Genesis to its Revelation and find error. This is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz or any earthly substance. This is a star without a speck; a sun without a blot; a light without darkness; a moon without paleness; a glory without dimness. O Bible! It cannot be said of any other book, that it is perfect and pure; but of [the Bible] we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in you, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends the strife, where wit and reason fail. This is the Book untainted by error, pure, unalloyed, and perfect truth.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Psalm 12:8
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked wander everywhere, and what is worthless is exalted by the human race." (Psalm 12:8 HCSB)
BIBLE TWEET: To worship vain things is to vainly wander through life. In the end, you will have lived your life for nothing and have nothing to show for the life you’ve lived.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who lift up worthless things wander through life witlessly.
HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 13:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?" (Psalm 13:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This song is called the “How Long Psalm,” for four times in its opening two verses David asks the question we are all prone to ask in life’s prolonged times of trouble—“How long?”
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not only when we fear God has forgotten us and hidden His face from us, but also when we fear anguish is overwhelming us and our adversary overcoming us, that we holler to Heaven, “How long?”
Psalm 13:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." (Psalm 13:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the dark and fear of death, we must pray for God to lighten the eyes of our faith.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Overcoming faith is always easily discernible in the dark by its shining face and sparkling eyes.
Psalm 13:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved." (Psalm 13:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The saints should not only pray to be spared from a shameful death, but also from a Satan straddled and spit on grave.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The graves of the godly should glorify God, not be gloated over by the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Psalm 13:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." (Psalm 13:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Our sighing is turned into singing when we stop our moaning and mumbling and seek the Lord’s mercy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the joy of our salvation, our heavy burdens are eclipsed by Heaven’s bounty.
Psalm 14:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." (Psalm 14:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Atheism is not the conclusion of a clever mind, but of a corrupt heart. It is not spawned by scholarship nor science, but by sin. (Psalm 53:1; Romans 1:18-22)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Atheism is not born in the intelligent mind of a brilliant genius, but in the iniquitous heart of a blasphemous fool.
It’s iniquitous ignoramuses, not intelligent intellectuals, who say, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1-3
BIBLE TEXT: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Psalm 14:1-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To foolishly deny God is to be flat-out devoid of good.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the practical atheism of fallen humanity that sinks it to the depths of total depravity.
As Jesus taught, God alone is good (Mark 10:18). Therefore, apart from God, who is the only good, there is no good. This means that if God isn’t in it, there is nothing good about it. Although the saying, “There’s good in everyone,” is popular, it is not Biblical. The truth is; if Jesus isn’t in you, there is nothing good about you (Romans 7:18).
Psalm 14:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord." (Psalm 14:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To prey upon God’s people rather than to pray to God is to prove oneself a spiritual nincompoop.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All iniquity is insanity, since it inevitably leads to accountability to God in eternity.
Psalm 14:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge." (Psalm 14:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is a foolish exercise in futility to war against those whom God is with and to oppress those God oversees.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the evil Simon Legree rides away cursing Tom’s God, because his back-lacing whip can never touch Tom’s unconquerable soul.
Psalm 14:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." (Psalm 14:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: These words of King David remind us of the words of the Apostle John: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20). For both the psalmist and the revelator were calling for the same thing, the ending of the saints’ captivity by the coming of God’s salvation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is coming a day
When no heartaches shall come
No more clouds in the sky
No more tears to dim the eye
All is peace forevermore
On that happy golden shore
What a day, glorious day that will be
They’ll be no sorrow there
No more burdens to bear
No more sickness and no more pain
No more parting over there.
And forever I will be
With the One who died for me
Oh what a day, glorious day that will be
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
When I look upon His face
The One who saved me by His grace
Then He’ll take me by the hand
And lead me through the Promise Land
Oh what a day, glorious day that will be
Psalm 15:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" (Psalm 15:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The question asked by this psalm is not who may approach God’s tabernacle, but who may abide in it; it’s not who may climb up God’s holy hill, but who may dwell on it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s one thing to come into God’s presence, but another thing altogether to continue in it.
Psalm 15:2
BIBLE TEXT: "He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." (Psalm 15:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To inhabit God’s holy hill one must be holy in their walk, work and word.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To stay on God’s holy hill you must continuously speak the truth to your heart, for the instant you entertained a lie in your heart, you will be ejected from God’s holy hill.
Psalm 15:3
BIBLE TEXT: "He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour." (Psalm 15:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Evicted from God’s tabernacle and ejected from God’s holy hill are all backbiters, backstabbers, and busybodies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not the sharp point of the backbiter’s tongue to your face that wounds, but the long blade of the backbiter’s tongue behind your back.
Psalm 15:4a
BIBLE TEXT: "In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord." (Psalm 15:4a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who abide in God’s tabernacle and atop God’s holy hill give all men their dues—contempt to whom contempt is due and honor to whom honor is due.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In God’s tabernacle and on God’s holy hill the God-forsaking are appalling and the God-fearing are appealing.
Psalm 15:4b
BIBLE TEXT: "He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." (Psalm 15:4b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who abide in God’s tabernacle and atop God’s holy hill must be as good as their word, even if keeping it is more hurtful than helpful.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Among the things you can give and still keep is your word.” (Zig Ziglar)
Psalm 15:5
BIBLE TEXT: "He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved." (Psalm 15:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To never be moved out of God’s tabernacle or off of God’s holy hill one must put away both usury and bribery.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Charity reverts to chiseling when benevolent largesse is replaced with interest bearing loans.
Psalm 16
According to the Apostle Peter, in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-31), and the Apostle Paul, in his sermon in Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:35-38), David is speaking about Christ in Psalm 16, which has been called both a "Jewell of the Psalms" and a "Golden Psalm."
The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. What the Bible says in one place it explains in other places.
Psalm 16:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust." (Psalm 16:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In his mortal body, Jesus had to trust His Heavenly Father to protect His life and preserve Him until He could carry out and achieve our salvation by His atoning death upon the cross.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the Father did not spare His Son from the cross, but delivered Him up for our salvation (Romans 8:32), He did preserve Him until then, by sparing Him from premature death at the hands of His enemies (Matthew 2:13-22; 12:14-15; Mark 12:12; Luke 4:28-30; 19:45-48; John 5:16-18; 8:59; 10:31-39; 11:47-54).
Psalm 16:2-5
BIBLE TEXT: "O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot." (Psalm 16:2-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: During His earthly sojourn, our Lord lived under the Lordship of His Father, even to the point of drinking the full cup of His Father’s wrath upon all the sins of all the sinners of all time. Yet, He did not do so for His or His Father’s good, but for ours.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ's obedience to His Father, even to the point of death on the cross, was so that He could gain an inheritance, not one comprised of sinners, who hasten to other gods for their salvation, but one comprised of saints, who hasten only to Him for their salvation.
Like their Lord, in His earthly sojourn, the true saints of God are those who say “Lord, Lord” with their lives and in their souls, not just with their lips and in their speech. (Matthew 7:21)
Psalm 16:6
BIBLE TEXT: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." (Psalm 16:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Despite being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, Christ gladly lived His earthly life in “pleasant places”; that is, always where He most delighted to be—smack dab in the center of His Father’s will. (Psalm 40:7; Hebrews 10:5-7)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If I may be permitted to paraphrase Jesus’ words in John 4:32-34 with a phrase from our present-day vernacular, Jesus is telling His disciples here that He would rather do the will of His Father than eat.
The true disciple of Christ should know no discontentment in the will of God, regardless of whether he or she is in a prison or a palace.
Psalm 16:7
BIBLE TEXT: "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons." (Psalm 16:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ lived out His earthly life in complete conformity to the counsel of His Father, as all Christians should live out their earthly lives in complete conformity to the counsel of Christ.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we handover the reins of our lives to Christ, our Counselor, we will be safely steered through all of life’s night seasons.
Psalm 16:8-11
BIBLE TEXT: "I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:8-11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ lived unmoved by the cross, thanks to His Father being ever before and beside Him, undaunted by the cross, thanks to the hope of His glorious resurrection to gladden Him, and undeterred from the cross, thanks to the eternal joys and pleasures awaiting Him.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ, who endured the cross and its shame to forever sit down at His Father’s right hand, is—through His death, burial, and resurrection—our Trailblazer, who has blazed the path of eternal life for us all.
Since Jesus is mine, I’ll not fear undressing,
But gladly put off these garments of clay;
For to die in the Lord is actually a blessing,
Since Jesus to glory through death has led for me the way!
Psalm 17
This psalm is simply entitled: A Prayer of David. According to Charles Spurgeon, “David would not have been a man after God’s own heart, if he had not been a man of prayer…[and] a master in the sacred art of supplication.”
Psalm 17:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips." (Psalm 17:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God hears and heeds the scrupulous and sincere prayers of His saints.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray incorrectly or insincerely is to pray ineffectively, if not inauthentically.
Psalm 17:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal." (Psalm 17:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is before the divine bar that all men will be justly and equitably sentenced.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints can confidently await the day of judgment, because they will appear before the heavenly bar in the righteousness of Christ and with Christ as their Advocate. On the other hand, sinners have every reason to anticipate the day of judgment with great trepidation, because they will be forced to appear before the heavenly bar as their own advocate and in the filthy rags of their own righteousness. (1 John 4:17; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 3:9; 1 John 2:1; Isaiah 64:6)
Psalm 17:3a
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing…" (Psalm 17:3a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It takes the confidence of a clean conscience to call upon an omniscient God to search your heart and an omnipresent God to search your home. (1 John 3:21)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Every saint should not only be able to pray, like David, “Lord, prove my heart,” but also to proclaim, like Peter, “Lord, you know that I love you.” (John 21:15-17)
Psalm 17:3b
BIBLE TEXT: "…I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." (Psalm 17:3b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To resolve to bridle your tongue is a far more formidable task than to take up lion-taming or snake-charming.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we could keep our tongue from transgressing, we would eliminate the lion’s share of our sins and transgressions.
Psalm 17:4-5
BIBLE TEXT: "Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." (Psalm 17:4-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is the Word of God that keeps us on the paths of God and off the paths of the destroyer, which are all paved with the works of men.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is taking a sure stand on Scripture that keeps our steps from slipping.
Psalm 17:6
BIBLE TEXT: "I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech." (Psalm 17:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s hearing of past prayers proves God hears present prayers.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We’re not just heard because we pray, but we pray because we’re heard.
Psalm 17:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them." (Psalm 17:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In His marvelous lovingkindness toward all who trust Him to save them, God backhands with His mighty right hand all who lift up their hand against Him or His.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Lovingkindness is an Old Testament word for grace. However, it not only speaks of God’s unmerited favor, but also of His unconditional love, which not only explains why David calls it “marvelous,” but also why some modern translations translate it “steadfast love.”
Psalm 17:8-9
BIBLE TEXT: "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about." (Psalm 17:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God protects the apples of His eye under the shadow of His wings from all who oppress and compass them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The apples of God’s eye are always guarded against their adversaries in the arms of the Almighty.
Psalm 17:10
BIBLE TEXT: "They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly." (Psalm 17:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked imprison themselves in their own prosperity and pomposity.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: You don’t really have things, but things have you, since you have to live your life protecting and preserving them.
Psalm 17:11-12
BIBLE TEXT: "They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places." (Psalm 17:11-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The persecutors of God’s people not only block us and put their heads down, like a bull, to charge us, but they also lurk, like a lion, to pounce from their secret places on our every step.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It just takes a single misstep for the saint to be maligned by malicious sinners.
Psalm 17:13-14a
BIBLE TEXT: "Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand…" (Psalm 17:13-14a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Psalmist prays for God to rise up and deliver him, by casting down and disappointing his enemies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although most modern translations translate David’s prayer to be for God to deliver him from the wicked by both God’s sword and hand, I find the King James translation of the prayer, as being for David’s deliverance from the wicked who are God’s sword and hand, most illuminating. After all, the wicked cannot do anything outside the parameters of Divine Providence. God uses them, just like He does everyone and everything, to bring to pass His divine plans and purposes. For instance, as the Bible clearly teaches, the hand of God wields the wicked like a sword to both chasten and judge His people.
Psalm 17:14b
BIBLE TEXT: "…O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." (Psalm 17:14b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Worldly people not only live for this world’s momentary pleasures, but also for its temporary possessions, all of which are transferred at their passing into the possession of their posterity.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Passion in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the worldly demand their goods now and revel in their brief earthly moment.
Psalm 17:15
BIBLE TEXT: "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." (Psalm 17:15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The saints, unlike sinners, who are satisfied with fleeting worldly things, will never be satisfied until they finally look into their Lord’s face and are forever formed and fashioned into His likeness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Christian’s blessed hope is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, when we shall at long last behold Him and become like Him! (Titus 2:13; 1 John 3:2)
Psalm 18
This is a long psalm, only three psalms are longer, Psalms 78, 89, and 119. It also has a long title; only the title of Psalm 60 is longer. Its length is understandable, however, as well as its divinely inspired duplication in Scripture, if one takes to heart its lengthy title. According to its title, this Davidic psalm is both a declaration of love for God and a song of praise to God, for God’s lifelong deliverance of David from all of his enemies. David did not just sing this love song to God early in his life (2 Samuel 22), but throughout his life, and right up till the end of his life, as is attested to by his singing of it here in Scripture’s songbook.
Psalm 18:1
BIBLE TEXT: "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength." (Psalm 18:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Like David, the supreme love of our life should be for Him who is the strength of our life.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, and mind, is disobeying this commandment not the greatest sin? (Matthew 22:35-38)
Although absent from 2 Samuel 22, this verse serves as the pinnacle and apex of Psalm 18.
Psalm 18:2
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." (Psalm 18:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To trust God for your safety and salvation is to triumphant in God’s strength..
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not the measure of our faith, but the might of its object, which determines the strength of our faith.
Psalm 18:3
BIBLE TEXT: "I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies." (Psalm 18:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is praying to God and the praising of God that enables the people of God to prevail over their enemies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There are no better ways to battle the devil than to bow in prayer and to breakout in praise.
Psalm 18:4-6
BIBLE TEXT: "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears." (Psalm 18:4-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the scariest and most worrisome perils the saint can resort to the wings and song of prayer.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.” (Victor Hugo)
Psalm 18:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth." (Psalm 18:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Prayer has earthshaking power.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whenever you’re shaken up, remember you can pray to an earthshaking God.
Psalm 18:8
BIBLE TEXT: "There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it." (Psalm 18:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When God is beseeched by His persecuted people, He breaths fire against their persecutors.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Smoke from His heated nostrils came,
And from his mouth devouring flame;
Hot burning coals announced His ire,
And flashes of careering fire.” (Richard Mant)
Psalm 18:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind." (Psalm 18:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s persecuted people can pray up a storm against their persecutors.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” (Mary, Queen of Scott’s)
Psalm 18:11
BIBLE TEXT: "He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies." (Psalm 18:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Though sometimes shrouded in darkness, God is never at a distance.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The eyes of faith, unlike the eyes of doubt, which loose sight of God in the dark, can see God as clearly at dusk as at dawn.
Psalm 18:12-14
BIBLE TEXT: "At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them." (Psalm 18:12-14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: At the prayers of His people, God storms out against their persecutors.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To tangle with those whose Defender throws thunderbolts is to take on those you can never triumphant over.
Psalm 18:15
BIBLE TEXT: "Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils." (Psalm 18:15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If the blast of the breath from God’s nostrils shakes the earth to its very foundations and exposes the floor of the sea beneath its fathomless depths, what will the full brunt of His furious wrath be like on the forthcoming day of the Lord?(Zephaniah 1:14-18)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we waste life, which God breathed into our nostrils, God’s nostrils will breath out His wrath upon us.(Genesis 2:7)
Psalm 18:16-19
BIBLE TEXT: "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me." (Psalm 18:16-19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Heaven not only reached down and rescued David from Saul, his strong enemy, but also sustained David in the cave of Adullam and finally seated David on the throne of Israel. (1 Samuel 22:1)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the children of God may presently find themselves in earthly caves, they may rest assured that it’s just Heaven’s way of getting them an eternal crown. (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 5:10; 20:4)
Psalm 18:20-22
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me." (Psalm 18:20-22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is repeatedly keeping God’s Word that keeps us right with God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Dusty Bibles are never found in clean hands.
Psalm 18:23
BIBLE TEXT: "I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity." (Psalm 18:23 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To keep yourself upright with God you must keep yourself outright from sin.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is on “mine iniquity,” the besetting sin of your life (Hebrews 12:1), that the biggest “Keep Out” sign you have should be hung.
Psalm 18:24
BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight." (Psalm 18:24 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God does not recompense those who see themselves righteous in their own eyes, but only those who He sees as righteous in His eyes.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only God can see whether or not your hands are truly clean and sanitized from sin.
Psalm 18:25-26
BIBLE TEXT: "With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward." (Psalm 18:25-26 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God shows His mercy to the merciful, His uprightness to the upright, and His purity to the pure, but God shows His canniness to the crooked.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The more godly you are the more clearly you’ll see God.
Psalm 18:27
BIBLE TEXT: "For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks." (Psalm 18:27 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord lifts up the downtrodden and brings down the highfalutin.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What right do lowly humans have to “high looks”?
Psalm 18:28
BIBLE TEXT: "For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness." (Psalm 18:28 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord is our Lamplighter, who enlightens our way through encroaching and enveloping darkness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A lone lamp can light the safest way through the scariest darkness.
Psalm 18:29
BIBLE TEXT: "For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall." (Psalm 18:29 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David did not credit his military victories to himself nor to his army, but to the glory of His God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I know too well my weakness, that our only hope is in God.” (General Robert E. Lee)
Psalm 18:30
BIBLE TEXT: "As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him." (Psalm 18:30 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is within the safe parameters of God’s perfect Word and will that the people of God find perfect and impregnable protection.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is a Buckler to all who believe and obey the Bible.
Psalm 18:31
BIBLE TEXT: "For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?" (Psalm 18:31 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The only existent God is the Lord; all other gods are imaginary and nonexistent.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Lord is a “nonesuch”; that is, incomparable and without equal.
Psalm 18:32
BIBLE TEXT: "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect." (Psalm 18:32 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is God who girds the garments of His army, so they are arrayed for absolute action.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “So let it be in God’s own might that we are girded for the coming fight.” (John Greenleaf Whittier)
Psalm 18:33
BIBLE TEXT: "He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places." (Psalm 18:33 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The feet of God’s army are shod with Scripture, to provide sure footing for scaling the steepest summits. (Ephesians 6:15)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To stand its ground, God’s army must take its stand on the sure footing of Scripture.
Psalm 18:34
BIBLE TEXT: "He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms." (Psalm 18:34 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The army of God should always attribute its prevailing strategy, military prowess, and strength in battle to its Almighty Commander-in-Chief.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: David never signed his name G.G.K.—Great Giant Killer—but always attributed his great military victories to the glory of his great God.
Psalm 18:35a
BIBLE TEXT: "You have given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand upholds me…" (Psalm 18:35a HCSB)
BIBLE TWEET: We are eternally safe and secure beneath the shield of God’s salvation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Lord always upholds His own in all of lives upheavals.
HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 18:35b
BIBLE TEXT: "…and Your humility exalts me." (Psalm 18:35b HCSB)
BIBLE TWEET: God must lower Himself to reach down to raise and lift us up; therefore, for God to honor us He must humble Himself.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Thanks to God’s amazing grace, Jesus became poor so that we could become rich; that is, the Son of God became a man so that men could become sons of God. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 18:36
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip." (Psalm 18:36 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Confident in Christ, the Christian need not cower in cubbyholes, but may take a courageous stand in wide-open spaces.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Christian soldier should always be found courageously holding the battle line, never cowardly hiding in a bunker.
Psalm 18:37
BIBLE TEXT: "I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed." (Psalm 18:37 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The army of God should never be hunkering down against the enemy in defense, but always heroically charging the enemy on offense.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not the gates of Hell that attack Christ’s prevailing church, but Christ’s prevailing church that attacks the gates of Hell. (Matthew 16:17)
Psalm 18:38-40
BIBLE TEXT: "I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me." (Psalm 18:38-40 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The soldier of God is to put his foot on his enemy’s neck, never to permit his own back to be turned into a smooth highway by his enemy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Why should we ever be treaded on by the devil, who our Lord has forever trodden down and trodden under? (Hebrews 2:13; 1 John 3:8)
Psalm 18:41
BIBLE TEXT: "They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not." (Psalm 18:41 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The prayers of the enemies of God’s people are neither heard nor heeded..
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Prayer is the privileged possession of the people of God alone. The only exception is the sinner’s prayer for salvation, which God always attends to and answers. (Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:2; Romans 10:13)
Psalm 18:42
BIBLE TEXT: "Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets." (Psalm 18:42 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The enemies of God’s people are destined and doomed to be like dust swept away in the wind and like dirt trampled on in the street.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All quarrelers with God and His people will be shown no quarter.
Psalm 18:43-45
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places." (Psalm 18:43-45 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As those who strived with David eventually became subservient to David, a fallen world that joust with the saints shall someday be judged by the saints. (1 Corinthians 6:2)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Jesus told His twelve apostles that they would someday judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28), the Apostle Paul tells the saints that someday we will judge angels and the world (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).
Psalm 18:46
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted." (Psalm 18:46 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The God of our salvation, who is both immortal and invincible, is to be ever extolled and exalted.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “A firm faith in the universal providence of [an imperishable] God is the solution of all earthly troubles.” (B. B. Warfield)
Psalm 18:47
BIBLE TEXT: "It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me." (Psalm 18:47 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God will avenge His people if they will leave all vengeance to Him. (Romans 12:19)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Living for revenge is a good way to ruin your life.
Psalms 18:48
BIBLE TEXT: "He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man." (Psalms 18:48 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God rescues His people and raises them up over their enemies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The “violent man” David refers to in this verse was undoubtedly Saul, whose threats God spared David from and whose throne God seated David on.
Psalm 18:49
BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name." (Psalm 18:49 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: That David is to be seen in this psalm as a type-of-Christ and that our Savior is to be seen in this song of David is proven by Paul’s depiction of David’s singing here to the heathen as a foreshadowing of Christ bringing salvation to the Gentiles. (Romans 15:9)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The Bible is a hologram and Jesus is on every page.” (R. A. Delmonico)
Psalm 18:50
BIBLE TEXT: "Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore." (Psalm 18:50 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This magnificent psalm concludes as it commenced, with loving praise to our and King David’s merciful and mighty Deliverer.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Thomas Playfere, an English theologian, once wrote that he admired David more in the choir than in the camp, more as a warbler than as a warrior, for when David soldiered he overcame his enemies, but when he sang he overcame himself.
Psalm 19:1-4a
BIBLE TEXT: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." (Psalm 19:1-4a HCSB)
BIBLE TWEET: The sky, without saying a word, speaks, to everyone under its worldwide expanse, both day in and day out, as well as night after night, of the Creator’s wondrous work and great glory.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I cannot imagine anyone looking at the sky and denying God.” (Abraham Lincoln)
“An undevout astronomer is mad.” (Edward Young)
HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 19:4b-6
BIBLE TEXT: "In [the heavens] He has set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat." (Psalm 19:4b-6 NKJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The divinely inspired Scripture declared the sun to be the tabernacle (center) of our solar system centuries before human discovery ever detected it. Contrary to popular opinion, true science never contradicts the truth of Scripture, but always confirms it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: "My experience with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God, but must we really light a candle to see the sun?" (Wernher von Braun)
NKJV - New King James Version
Psalm 19:7-10
BIBLE TEXT: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." (Psalm 19:7-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word is infallible, soul-saving, life-giving, trustworthy, enlightening, inerrant, gratifying, unadulterated, illuminating, eye-opening, immaculate, eternal, immutable, and irrefutable. Therefore, it's to be more prized than gold and found more palatable than honey.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: "This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy.
It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s character. Here paradise is restored, Heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object, our good is its design, and the glory of God its end.
It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is given you in life and will be opened in the judgement and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labour, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents."
Psalm 19:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward." (Psalm 19:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s Word warns us not to flout it, but promises great rewards to all who follow it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many who foolishly brush aside God’s commands falsely blame God for their bad circumstances.
Psalm 19:12
BIBLE TEXT: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults." (Psalm 19:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: On fallen feet of clay we all daily stumble short of God's glory, in both conscious and unconscious ways. Still, we can be sure that our sins will be pointed out by God's Spirit and pardoned by God's Son.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The closer we get to the light the more conspicuous our sins become.
Psalm 19:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." (Psalm 19:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Unperceived and presumptuous sins, wrongs presumed to be right, are neither guiltless nor innocuous. If committed, whether moronically or mistakenly, they will inevitably lead to greater iniquity.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Being ignorant of God’s law is no excuse for the infringement of God’s law, but a sure path to even greater infractions of God’s law.
Psalm 19:13
BIBLE TEXT: "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." (Psalm 19:13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To presume that the grace and mercy of God grants you a license to sin is to grant sin lordship over yourself and to guarantee that you will become a most loathsome sinner.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If you give sin an inch it will take a mile and the least little sin can lead to the most loathsome of sins.
Psalm 19:14
BIBLE TEXT: "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." (Psalm 19:14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should daily pray that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart are both acceptable to our God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The meditation of our heart, what we contemplate, controls the words of our mouth, what we articulate; therefore, we must never deviate in what we deliberate from any divine mandate.
Psalm 20:1a
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble…" (Psalm 20:1a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Neither the drumbeat of the approaching day of trouble nor the drumroll on the actual day of trouble can drown out our prayers to our Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Neither his crown from God nor consecration to God kept David from days of trouble in his turbulent time.
Psalm 20:1b
BIBLE TEXT: "…the name of the God of Jacob defend thee." (Psalm 20:1a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The people of God, unlike the Athenians on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-23), do not depend upon a false and unknown god for their deliverance, but upon the one and only true God, who they personally know by name.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s good to know that you need to call upon the name of God for deliverance, but even better when you know the name of the one and only true God upon whom you call.
Psalm 20:2-3
BIBLE TEXT: "Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah." (Psalm 20:2-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is those who have offered themselves as a living sacrifice at God’s earthly sanctuary who may be sure of help and strength from God’s heavenly sanctuary. (Romans 12:1)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We cannot be sure of God’s helping hand in our life until we’ve handed over our life to God.
Psalm 20:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel." (Psalm 20:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Prerequisites to answered prayer are to pray for God to have His heart’s desire, not for you to have yours, and to pray according to God’s counsel, not according to your own.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Prayer is not bringing God over to your side—persuading Him to do what you want and what you think—but you going over to God’s side—partnering with Him in what He wants and in what He thinks.
Psalm 20:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand." (Psalm 20:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We know we shall prevail before the battle begins and that our prayers shall be answered before we bow our heads.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In faith and without fear, the army of God not only unfurls its banners in the name of God, but also in the face of its foes.
Psalm 20:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." (Psalm 20:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Sinners trust in their numbered legions, such as a political movement or a parading military, but the saints trust in the name of their Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The most impressive assembly or intimidating army is no match for the invisible Almighty.
Psalm 20:8
BIBLE TEXT: "They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright." (Psalm 20:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The fighting forces of this world will one day be forever vanquished, but those who fight for the faith will one day be forever victorious. (Jude 1:3)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The first thing I have to say is this: True Christianity is a fight.” (J. C. Ryle)
Psalm 20:9
BIBLE TEXT: "Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call." (Psalm 20:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This psalm, like the British national anthem, is a song for God to save the King. Though sung by Israel for King David, it will be sung forever by the New Israel of God for the King of Kings. (Galatians 6:16; Revelation 17:14)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: During the coronation service of the King or Queen of England, when the crown is placed on the sovereign’s head, the Archbishop of Canterbury stipulates that it is his or hers to wear until He, to whom it rightfully and eternally belongs, comes back to claim it.
Psalm 21:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!" (Psalm 21:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The greatest of all genuine joy is found in the Lord’s salvation and strengthening of our immortal souls.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no strengthening of the soul apart from the salvation of the soul, and there is the possibility of neither apart from the Lord, who is our soul’s sole Savior. (Isaiah 43:11)
Psalm 21:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah." (Psalm 21:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God literally gives us the desires of our hearts; that is, the desires themselves, so that we will desire what He desires and He can answer our prayers, because they are in perfect accordance with His will. (1 John 5:14-15)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Selfish prayers—praying for our own heart’s desires rather than God's—are prayers that are prayed amiss and never answered. (James 4:3)
Psalm 21:3
BIBLE TEXT: "For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head." (Psalm 21:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s preordained blessings both precede us and go before us, thanks to His grace and mercy, not to our goodness and merit.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When others saw David as a shepherd boy with a crook, God already saw Him as a king wearing a crown.
Psalm 21:4
BIBLE TEXT: "He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." (Psalm 21:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Here is the consummate example of God giving more than one asks for or imagines; David asked for long life, but was given eternal life. (Ephesians 3:20)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: King David, like ourselves, could have never possessed the jewel of eternal life, if the stone that covered it had not been rolled away, when the King of Kings rose from the dead to live forevermore.
Psalm 21:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance." (Psalm 21:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David’s gladness and glory were great, thanks to God’s salvation of him and grinning upon him, not because of David’s own exploits and exemplariness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although God’s gracious salvation of David brought him great gladness and glory, God’s gracious salvation of humanity has brought far greater glory to Jesus Christ, the heir to David’s throne, as well as far greater gladness to Christians, those, like David, who have also been saved and smiled upon by God.
Psalm 21:7
BIBLE TEXT: "For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved." (Psalm 21:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is those who trust in the mercy of the Most High, not in their own might nor in the might of other men, who shall not be moved.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like David’s unmovable throne, our Lord’s mediatorial throne is also forever established on the eternal mercy of God. (Hebrews 7:25)
Psalm 21:8-10
BIBLE TEXT: "Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men." (Psalm 21:8-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All the foes of our Lord shall not only be found out, but they and theirs shall also be devoured in His fiery wrath.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although not as popular a subject as the mercy of God, the wrath of God is every bit as prevalent, if not more so, in Scripture.
Psalm 21:11
BIBLE TEXT: "For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform." (Psalm 21:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Malice aforethought toward the Almighty is a madcap absurdity that leads to the ultimate exercise in utter futility.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How can impotent men destroy the indestructible Christ? If they try to drown Him, He’ll just walk on the water. If they try to burn Him, He’ll just walk around in the fire. And even if they could kill Him, He’ll just rise from the dead.
Psalm 21:12
BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them." (Psalm 21:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The sacrilegious will stop their scoffing and be scared to death as soon as God strings His bow in their faces and the shafts of His wrath begin to fly.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Stay with me, for God’s sake; I cannot bear to be left alone , O Lord, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them, that The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! No, don’t leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.” (The dying words of Thomas Payne, the famous atheist and author of The Age of Reason)
Psalm 21:13
BIBLE TEXT: "Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power." (Psalm 21:13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When God exalts Himself in His own power, we cannot help but employ ourselves in the singing and praising of His power.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This psalm, Psalm 21, has taken us to the steps of Christ’s throne, the next, Psalm 22, will take us to the foot of Christ’s cross.
Psalm 22
This psalm has been fittingly entitled, The Psalm of the Cross. It is truly phenomenal in that it reads like an eyewitness account of Christ’s crucifixion, despite the fact that David, its divinely inspired penman, wrote it a thousand years before Christ was crucified. Before we proceed, we should pause to slip off our shoes, for we are stepping here onto some of Scripture's most sacred holy ground.
Psalm 22:1a
BIBLE TEXT: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The depths of these words, especially when they were cried out by Christ on the cross of Calvary, are as profound and fathomless as any found in all of Scripture. (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The “why” of this bloodcurdlingly cry of Christ on the cross of Calvary is you and I, for it was for our forgiveness that Christ was forsaken; indeed, if He had not been forsaken, you and I could have never been forgiven!
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 5: THE SALVATION OF MAN'S SOUL FROM OUR BOOK THE KING OF HEARTS: THE SIMPLICITY OF LIVING IN THE SPIRIT PROVIDES A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE DEEP AND PROFOUND TRUTH OF PSALM 22:1.
Before our sins against God can be forgiven our sin debt must be paid. God, being just, can never wink at our sins or just simply overlook them. He must demand payment in full, lest He cease to be just. His justice demands that our sin debt be paid off before any pardon can be offered.
What is the debt of sin? According to the Bible, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Wages are something you earn. Every sinner in the world is sentenced to death, because we’ve earned it. It is not just physical death that is our just deserts; it is spiritual death as well. Our rebellion against God has not only earned us an end to our earthly life, but also the forfeiture of eternal life. Our sins against God have earned us an eternal separation from Him.
For every sin that has ever been committed someone must surely die. Not one sin can go unpunished; all must be paid for. This is why Hebrews 9:22 says, “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without the shedding of blood is no remission.” Since “life is in the blood” (see Leviticus 17:11), blood must be shed and life poured out before any sin can be forgiven. In other words, the only hope we have of being forgiven of our sins and escaping death is if someone should shed their blood in place of ours and dare to die in our place.
Since you and I cannot pay the sin debt we owe God, Christ came into the world to pay it for us on the cross. By shedding His blood in place of ours and dying in our place Christ has made it possible for you and I to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. That Christ paid our sin debt, as well as that of the whole world (1 John 2:2), is proven by His triumphant shout from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). This Greek word, “telelestai,” literally means “paid in full.” Papyri receipts from the time of Christ have been recovered with the word “telelestai” written across them. Before Christ “bowed His head [on the cross], and gave up the ghost,” He shouted, “Paid in full!” across the sin debt of the world.
Since “Jesus paid it all,” as the title of a beloved old hymn attests, all we need to do to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God is accept by faith Christ’s substitutionary death upon the cross. When we do, our sin is forever pardoned and our sin debt paid in full. It is as though Christ gives us from His own nail-scarred hand a receipt for our sin debt signed in His own blood “Paid in full!”
When Christ died on the cross He did more than just die for our sins; according to the Scripture, He actually became our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). When Christ became our sin on the cross of Calvary God the Father poured out the full fury of His wrath on Christ for every sin that has been or ever will be committed. On the cross, Christ suffered the full punishment for all the sins of all time. This explains why Christ, already kneeling under the shadow of the cross, suffered such agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-45, Luke 22:39-46). It was not, as is commonly believed, the physical pain and suffering of the cross that caused Christ to shrink back and His sweat to become like “great drops of blood” in the garden. Instead, it was the fact that Christ was about to become the sin of the world and suffer the full brunt of His Father’s wrath. Although the physical death Christ died on the cross would be more than enough to cause most men to sweat blood, it was the spiritual death that He was facing that caused Christ’s anguish in Gethsemane.
The fact that Christ experienced spiritual death—separation from God the Father—is made abundantly clear by Christ’s bloodcurdling cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46). When Christ died on the cross, becoming the sin of the world, God the Father turned His back on His Son. Since God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13), He turned away from His Son as soon as His Son took upon Himself the sin of the world.
With “the Father of lights” (James 1:17) turning away and “the light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5) doused out by the sin of the world, is there any wonder that the Scripture says the earth was suddenly shrouded in an inexplicable darkness (Matthew 27:45)? Suspended between heaven and earth and forsaken by both, Christ hung that dark day on the cruel cross of Calvary. Alone and abandoned Christ died for you and me.
READ THE KING OF HEARTS: THE SIMPLICITY OF LIVING IN THE SPIRIT
Psalm 22:1b
BIBLE TEXT: "Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" (Psalm 22:1b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The reason God the Father was “far from helping” God the Son on the cross of Calvary was so that He could help sinners. If the Father had saved His Son from death on the tree, He could have never saved you and me from our death in trespasses and sins.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We owe our salvation and redemption to God’s refusal to spare or rescue His own Son from the cross.(Romans 8:32)
Psalm 22:2
BIBLE TEXT: "O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent." (Psalm 22:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ practiced what He preached, for He neither fainted in prayer in the night of His crying in Gethsemane nor on the day of His crucifixion on Golgotha. (Luke 18:1)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No night is too dark nor day too nightmarish to pray in.
Psalm 22:3
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." (Psalm 22:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Since God inhabits the praise of His people, there’s no better way to assure yourself of His presence than your adoration of His person.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To praise God sincerely in hardship and heartache we must see Him as holy, in spite of all of life’s hard to understand and horrendous hornets’ nests.
Psalm 22:4-5
BIBLE TEXT: "Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded." (Psalm 22:4-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Ours is the triumphant heritage of the saints, who have always trusted the Lord for deliverance through all the difficult trials of their lives.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who trust the Lord for their deliverance will never be stumped or shamed.
Psalm 22:6
BIBLE TEXT: "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." (Psalm 22:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In this startling and stunning verse of Scripture, we see how Christ emptied Himself of His glory on the cross to the last granule, in that the great “I AM” groans, “I am a worm, and no man,” but “a reproach of men.”
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Christ died for sinners, sinners despised the dying Christ. Truly, sin has never reared its ugly head more contemptibly than it did at Calvary!
Psalm 22:7-8
BIBLE TEXT: "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." (Psalm 22:7-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: At the cross, the creature held his Creator in contempt, the sinner scoffed at his Savior, and lowly men mocked their Lord and Master.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Irony of all ironies, if Christ had come down from the cross, as foul sinners taunted Him to do (Mark 15:29-32) and as He could have easily done (Matthew 26:53), it would have been the forever undoing of every sinner.
He could have called ten thousand angels,
To destroy the world and set Him free.
He could have called ten thousand angels,
But He died alone for you and me. (Ray Overholt)
Psalm 22:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly." (Psalm 22:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: During His mutilation on the cross, Christ thought of His miraculous Incarnation, for He was born to die and given a mortal body so that He could do so, by offering it on the cross as a sacrifice for the salvation of the world. (Hebrews 10:5)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God takes us from the womb into His arms at our birth, how monstrous of a sin is abortion, which rips the unborn from the hands and arms of God?
Psalm 22:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help." (Psalm 22:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Never is the need for God’s presence, who is our present help in time of trouble, more needed than when trouble is near.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When we read the woeful words “there is none to help,” how can we help but not think of our Lord being forsaken on the cross, by both Heaven—His Father—and earth—His followers?
Psalm 22:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion." (Psalm 22:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Like the powerful bulls of Bashan, it was the powerful men of Christ’s day, both the civil rulers and religious leaders, who beset and belittled Him on the cross.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our adversary, who walketh about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, often uses the gaping mouths of the mighty, his secondhand lions, to gobble up the godly. (1 Peter 5:8)
Psalm 22:14-17
BIBLE TEXT: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me." (Psalm 22:14-17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The physical suffering Christ endured for us during His crucifixion, which is the most cruel means of execution ever dreamed up in the demented mind of fallen man, is vividly described for us here in these most disturbing verses.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To not only see here the bloody, bruised, and battered figure of Christ dying on the cross, but also His disjointed and protruding bones, His trembling and feverish body, His dried and parched lips, His surrounding scoffers, and His pierced hands and feet, should surely tear at every heart and tear up every eye.
Psalm 22:16b
BIBLE TEXT: "…they pierced my hands and my feet." (Psalm 22:16b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: These words of David clearly speak of the crucified Christ, whose hands and feet were not only pierced for our pardon, but to make propitiation for the sins of our whole world. (1 John 2:2)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only manmade things in Heaven are the nail prints in the hands and feet of Jesus and the spear mark in His side. (Luke 24:39; John 20:27)
Psalm 22:18
BIBLE TEXT: "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." (Psalm 22:18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Once again, this phenomenal psalm proves itself to be prewritten history, by precisely predicting the soldiers’ casting of lots at the foot of the cross for the seamless robe of our sinless Redeemer. (John 19:23-24)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unfortunately, many gamble with their souls at the foot of the cross today, by wagering on whether or not to wrap themselves in the seamless robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness, which alone can make them pleasing and acceptable to God.
Psalm 22:19
BIBLE TEXT: "But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me." (Psalm 22:19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In times of distress, we can ill afford any distance between ourselves and our God, or any sinful hindrances that hinder Him from swiftly hastening to us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The best way to be close to God and strengthened by Him in trying times is to commune with Him and be strong in Him all the time.
Psalm 22:20
BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog." (Psalm 22:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This is a prayer for the soul’s salvation from the hound of Hell and his hellish pack of curs, both human and demonic, such as those who circled the cross of Christ.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Tragically, most people call their mortal body rather than their immortal soul “my darling” today, a fact proven by the inordinate time they spend focused on their healthcare, while totally forsaking their soul-care.
Psalm 22:21
BIBLE TEXT: "Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns." (Psalm 22:21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This verse, like the previous one, is a prayer for deliverance from the devil, the roaring lion, who walks about seeking whom he may devour, and his beastly band, both human and demonic, who do his bidding by goring the godly.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Hebrew word translated “unicorn” by the King James translators is translated “wild oxen” by modern-day translators. The archaic word is obviously enigmatic and the creature to which it once referred extinct.
Psalm 22:22
BIBLE TEXT: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee." (Psalm 22:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In this verse, we step away from the cross and into the church of the Firstborn with Christ, the Firstborn from the Dead, so that all of His born again brethren can bless His name and breakout in His praise. (Hebrews 12:23; Colossians 1:18; Romans 8:29)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ no longer occupies the cross or the tomb, but His church, where He is no longer impaled nor entombed, but exalted and extolled.
Psalm 22:23
BIBLE TEXT: "Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel." (Psalm 22:23 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Both the chosen and elect children of God—the physical and spiritual seed of Israel—are to fear, praise, and glorify the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God has united both His chosen people—Jews—and His elect people—Christians—together in His church for the glory and praise of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Psalm 22:24
BIBLE TEXT: "For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard." (Psalm 22:24 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The earthly afflictions of God’s children should never be misunderstood as their Heavenly Father’s abhorrence of them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the prayers of the afflicted are not immediately answered, the afflicted should not impetuously assume that God has turned His face from them or a deaf ear to them.
Psalm 22:25
BIBLE TEXT: "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him." (Psalm 22:25 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Unfortunately, many a churchgoer today praises the “great congregation,” his or her megachurch, rather than his or her great Lord and Master.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If people leave your church saying, “What a building,” “What a crowd,” “What a preacher,” “What a choir,” or “What a service,” instead of “What a Savior,” your church is a failure, if not a fraud.
Psalm 22:26
BIBLE TEXT: "The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever." (Psalm 22:26 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The meek, who come to church seeking Christ; that is, to eat the Bread of Life and to drink the Living Water, will leave with their souls satisfied and their hearts forever alive.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christians should come to church with the words of the Greeks ringing in their ears and resounding in their hearts, “We would see Jesus!” (John 12:20-21)
Psalm 22:27
BIBLE TEXT: "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." (Psalm 22:27 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The cross of Christ not only cleaved time in two—B.C. and A.D.—but will be remembered throughout time to the ends of the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: From every nation and nationality, men will remember the cross, repent and turn to Christ, and revere and worship Him.
Psalm 22:28
BIBLE TEXT: "For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations." (Psalm 22:28 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ came the first time for a cross, in order to be crucified, but He is coming the second time for a crown, in order to be coronated.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When Christ returns He will reign and rule over the nations with a rod of iron. There will be no democracy—the rule of the majority—but a theocracy—the rule of Christ. (Revelation 12:5; 19:15)
Psalm 22:29
BIBLE TEXT: "All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul." (Psalm 22:29 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All men, both the prosperous and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, the dead and the living, as well as saved and lost souls, will bow before Christ and worship Him.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only question is when and how you will bow before Christ, now, voluntarily for salvation, or later, mandatorily in condemnation.
Psalm 22:30-31
BIBLE TEXT: "A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." (Psalm 22:30-31 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Here, we see the born again seed—the church—of the Promised Seed of Abraham and the First Born from the Dead—Jesus Christ—not only dedicated to His service, but also declaring and dressed in His righteousness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Of the miracle and mystery of the church, which is the eternal purpose of God, we can definitely say, “He [Christ] hath done this.” Thus, in these final words of “The Psalm of the Cross,” we are reminded of Christ’s words on the cross, “It is finished” or “It is done.”
THE ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GOD
The church is the eternal purpose of God. It is what God has been up to all along and why He has done all He has done. For instance, God created the universe so that He would have space to hang the world in. He created the world so that He would have a place to put man. He created man so that He could choose for Himself a chosen people. He chose for Himself a chosen people so that through them His Son could come into the world. And His Son came into the world to secure for Himself a bride, an eternal companion and forever lover—the church. (Ephesians 3:2-13)
Psalm 23
This psalm is the most famous of all the psalms, not only the favorite of most people, but to many the most beloved passage in all of the Bible. It is “The Shepherd’s Psalm,” in which David lovingly likens his former life as a shepherd, as well as his care for his flock, to the love and care given by the Good Shepherd to His beloved sheep (John 10:1-18).
Charles Spurgeon calls this psalm “a surpassing ode, which none of the daughters of music can excel,” as well as “the pearl of psalms.” He likens it to a nightingale, because, like this nocturnal songbird, it has been gloriously sung by many a saint in the darkest of nights.
John Bunyan, in his Christian classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, pictures the shepherd-boy David sitting by himself in the Valley of Humiliation, where he is found in very mean clothes, but of a well-favored countenance. According to Bunyan, “this boy lives a merrier life and [has] more of…hearts-ease in his bosom, than he that is clad in silk and velvet.” Step now into this pastural song and listen to the melodious tune of impregnable peace stirringly played on the shepherd-boy’s pipe.
Psalm 23:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psalm 23:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The most important word in Psalm 23 is the little word “my”—“The Lord is my Shepherd.”
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While it is important for you to know the Shepherd's Psalm, it is imperative for you to know the Shepherd!
Psalm 23:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Psalm 23:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: For Christians, Christ, “the Good Shepherd” and “the Chief Shepherd” of our souls, is JEHOVAH-RAAH, “the Lord our Shepherd,” with whom we have no want. (Psalm 23:1, John 10:11; 1 Peter 2:25; 5:4)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jesus, our Good Shepherd, should be all we want, because He is all we need.
Psalm 23:2a
BIBLE TEXT: "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." (Psalm 23:2a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Being both wanderers and wakeful, sheep must sometimes be forced by their shepherd to both remain and rest in green pastures.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Sometimes, for our own sakes, the Good Shepherd forces us to stay put and to stay still, so we can slow down and sit down under His safekeeping.
Psalm 23:2b
BIBLE TEXT: "He leadeth me beside the still waters." (Psalm 23:2b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Wooly sheep can easily drown, so they’re skittish around running water. Therefore, the shepherd leads them to still waters to quench their thirst and to quieten their fears.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Good Shepherd stills the fears and satisfies the thirsty souls of all of His panicked and parched sheep.
Psalm 23:3a
BIBLE TEXT: "He restoreth my soul." (Psalm 23:3a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The shepherd breaks the perpetually wandering sheep’s leg, in order to restore it to the fold and to keep it at His side under His safekeeping.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Good Shepherd not only restores His wandering sheep to the fold, but also restores their souls, so as to keep them from straying any longer from His side.
Psalm 23:3b
BIBLE TEXT: "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." (Psalm 23:3b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Rustlers often made phony paths, on which they would hide to steal a Shepherd’s sheep. Any shepherd who fell prey to rustlers, ended up with a ruined reputation, for having led his flock down a wrong path.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not only for the sake of His sheep, but also for the sake of His own name, that the Good Shepherd will never lead His sheep down any wrong paths, but always down the right paths.
Psalm 23:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the valley of the shadow of death, the flock of the Good Shepherd is neither frozen with the fear of evil nor found fleeing in freight, but able to calmly walk through completely comforted by the accompanying Christ!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the light of Christ, death, the substance of which was removed by Christ’s resurrection, is cast as a mere shadow, which the saint need never fear.
Psalm 23:5a
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." (Psalm 23:5a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The shepherd prepares the pasture for his sheep to graze by first inspecting it for predators.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The flock of the Good Shepherd is never without foes in this fallen world. Still, it does not frantically grab a quick bite to eat in a foxhole, but sups tranquilly at a table set by its safeguarding Shepherd.
Psalm 23:5b
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou anointest my head with oil." (Psalm 23:5b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The shepherd anoints the heads of his flock with oil, as a repellant to poisonous serpents, which are averse to the oil’s aroma.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Good Shepherd anoints the heads of His flock with the oil of the Holy Spirit, as a repellant to that old serpent the devil, who is averse to the Spirit’s anointing!
Psalm 23:5c
BIBLE TEXT: "My cup runneth over." (Psalm 23:5c KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: An overflowing cup is more a state of mind than of surplus means. It is more a matter of spiritual contentment than of the accumulation of material abundance. While an overflowing cup may be found in a pauper’s shack, an empty one may be found in an opulent palace.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A subject once asked his sovereign the secret of happiness. The king answered by advising the questioner to find the kingdom’s happiest man and to walk in his shoes. However, upon the man’s return, he informed his king that he was unable to follow his advice, since the happiest man in the kingdom didn’t own any shoes.
Psalm 23:6a
BIBLE TEXT: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." (Psalm 23:6a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As Ben Franklin opined, there are two things in life that all people can be sure of, death and taxes. However, the Bible adds two other sure things, which all of God’s people can be sure of in life, the goodness and mercy of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The fact that God’s goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives suggest that they are always in pursuit of us and will never lose sight of us.
Psalm 23:6b
BIBLE TEXT: "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." (Psalm 23:6b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who live for God throughout their time on earth will live with God throughout eternity in Heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whether we’re dwelling in Christ in the here-and-now or with Christ in the hereafter, we’re dwelling in a safe habitation.
Psalm 24
This psalm has been called The Psalm of the Ascension. It is believed to have been written by David when he ascended the hill of Zion bringing the Ark of God into Jerusalem from the house of Obed-edom (2 Samuel 6:12-15). It was later sung by the Hebrews as they ascended the hill of Zion and entered the city of Jerusalem to attend their annual Jewish feasts. However, this psalm reaches its most sublime height when understood as a foreshadowing of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, picturing for us His royal reception upon His glorious and triumphant return to Heaven!
It is unfortunate that Psalm 23—The Shepherd’s Psalm—overshadows and eclipses Psalm 24—The Psalm of the Ascension—which follows it, as well as Psalm 22—The Psalm of the Cross—which precedes it. It is not that Psalm 23 is undeserving of such special attention, but that the two psalms that bookend it are deserving of so much more attention than they normally receive.
Psalm 24:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." (Psalm 24:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The earth does not belong to us nor do we belong to the earth, but the earth, as well as everything and everyone within it, belongs to God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All things, having originated with the Lord, are owned by the Lord. Being His creation, makes everything and everyone His possession.
Psalm 24:2
BIBLE TEXT: "For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods." (Psalm 24:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is the Lord’s founding and establishing of the earth that serve as the two affixed legal seals on His title deed to the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As the earth’s sole Creator and Sustainer, the Lord alone is its Owner.
Psalm 24:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?" (Psalm 24:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The question is not only who can come—“ascend”—into God’s presence—“the hill of the Lord”—but who can continue—“stand”—in God’s presence.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, it is definitely a lofty ascent to enter the presence of the high and lofty One who dwells in the high and holy place (Isaiah 57:15). Therefore, no spiritual acrophobe need attempt to scale this steep slope.
Psalm 24:4a
BIBLE TEXT: "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart…" (Psalm 24:4a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To be able not only to have access to the presence of the Lord, but to also abide in the Lord’s presence, you must live for the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To come into and to continue in God’s presence you must do the right things—have “clean hands”—and do the right things for the right reasons—have “a pure heart.”
Psalm 24:4b
BIBLE TEXT: "…who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity…" (Psalm 24:4b KJV)\
BIBLE TWEET: To be able not only to have access to the presence of the Lord, but to also abide in the Lord’s presence, you must look to the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To come into and continue in God’s presence you must seek God and the things of God, not the world and the vain things of the world.
Psalm 24:4c
BIBLE TEXT: "…nor sworn deceitfully." (Psalm 24:4c KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To be able not only to have access to the presence of the Lord, but to also abide in the Lord’s presence, you must lean upon the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To come into and continue in God’s presence you must not depend on deceitful things, such as false idols or man-made gods, but only on the one and only true God.
Psalm 24:5a
BIBLE TEXT: "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord…" (Psalm 24:5a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the presence of the Lord there is satisfaction.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The word “blessing” in Scripture always carries with it the meaning of happiness. All over the world today mankind is seeking happiness; however, happiness is only found in the presence of the Lord, who alone can satisfy man’s longing soul. (Psalm 107:9)
Psalm 24:5b
BIBLE TEXT: "…and righteousness…" (Psalm 24:5b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the presence of the Lord there is standing.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Righteousness is not just right living before God and doing the right things for God, but also a right standing and relationship with God.
Psalm 24:5c
BIBLE TEXT: "…from the God of his salvation." (Psalm 24:5c KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the presence of the Lord there is salvation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is not just our Savior, but our salvation. We’re not saved by consenting and cleaving to the plan of salvation, but by confessing and coming to the man of salvation—Jesus Christ. (Acts 4:12)
Psalm 24:6
BIBLE TEXT: "This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah." (Psalm 24:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is regeneration that makes generations of seekers of God, for there are none among the ranks of the unregenerate who seek God, though God does seek them. (Romans 3:11; Luke 19:10)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the true seeker of God seeks His face, not just His favors, wanting His presence more than His presents.
Psalm 24:7-10
BIBLE TEXT: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah." (Psalm 24:7-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: These verses draw for us one of the most spectacular scenes in all of Scripture; namely, the glorious reception of the ascended Christ upon His triumphant return to the heavenly Jerusalem!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is believed that David wrote this psalm when he ascended the hill of Zion and brought the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God, to Jerusalem. In ancient cities, like Jerusalem, city gates did not just open inwardly, but also had an upper part that lifted up as well. Anytime something grand or glorious entered a city, such as a king, the gates were not just opened, but the upper part lifted up as well, so as to open the gates to their widest, in order to make room for the entrance of royalty. Obviously, the entrance of the “King of glory”—the Ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah glory of God—warranted the widest opening of the gates of ancient Jerusalem. How much more so, however, did the triumphant return of the ascended Christ—“the King of glory”—warrant the widest opening of the pearly gates of the heavenly Jerusalem? Can you imagine the cry coming from Heaven’s jasper walls at the first sight of the ascended and returning Christ, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates” and be lifted up “ye everlasting doors,” for the “King of glory” has come home. Then, in response to the question, “Who is this King of glory,” Christ’s entourage, the souls led to Heaven in His triumphant train (Ephesians 4:8), victoriously shouts out, “It is the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, He is the King of glory!” We are certainly hard pressed to find a more soul stirring scene in all of Scripture than the one foreshadowed here by these prophetic words of King David, Israel’s beloved psalmist.
It is believed that this psalm was later used as a processional psalm at the Temple of God in Jerusalem. According to the Bible, believers in the Lord Jesus—“the King of glory”—are the temple of God today (1 Corinthians 3:16). In order to become God’s temple, believers must open wide the door of their hearts for “the King of glory” to come in (Revelation 3:20).
Psalm 24:10
BIBLE TEXT: "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah" (Psalm 24:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: JEHOVAH-SABAOTH means “the Lord of the hosts.” Heaven’s host are under the command of Him who holds them in the palm of His nail-scarred hand. (Revelation 1:16, 20)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
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:
Dost ask who that might 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 25:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." (Psalm 25:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Supplication without soul to Heaven never goes.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Prayer is more than lifting up your voice. It is the lifting up of your soul. Indeed, if your soul isn’t in it, there is really nothing to it nor will anything come of it.
Psalm 25:2
BIBLE TEXT: "O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me." (Psalm 25:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is only those who can say “my God,” because they “trust in [God],” who can pray to God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who trust in God should not only pray that their faith in God be proven by God, but also that they themselves will never be an embarrassment to God or an encumbrance to others coming to God.
Psalm 25:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause." (Psalm 25:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: There is no shame in waiting on God, for which there is good cause, but great shame in wronging God, for which there is no cause at all.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since sin is inexcusable all sinners are ignominious.
Psalm 25:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths." (Psalm 25:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Too many pray for God to make their own way smooth rather than for God to show them His way instead.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We not only need God to tell us the right paths, but also to teach us how to walk them in the right way.
Psalm 25:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day." (Psalm 25:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The right way is always the way of truth; therefore, to live our lives in it we must spend our lives learning of it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Until clearly shown the truth by God, we should stand still and wait on God, never guess and go.
Psalm 25:6
BIBLE TEXT: "Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old." (Psalm 25:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As human judges are bound by their precedents, so is Divine Providence. Thus, it behooves us to beseech our unchanging God to deal with us according to His tender mercies and loving-kindness, which are from of old.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In loving-kindness Jesus came
My soul in mercy to reclaim,
And from the depths of sin and shame
Through grace He lifted me.
From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me,
From shades of night to plains of light,
Oh, praise His name, He lifted me! (Chas H. Gabriel)
Psalm 25:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord." (Psalm 25:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s mercy not only allows Him to forgive our sins for good, as well as for our sakes, but also to forget our sins for the sake of His own goodness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Old age is often poisoned by the presumptuous sins of youth, for though they may be long forgiven, their consequences can still be lingering.
Psalm 25:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way." (Psalm 25:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Since God is good and upright, He teaches sinners to do what is good and right.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unfortunately, in the school of Christ, the student body is small, truancy is widespread, expulsions are frequent, and dropouts common among the school’s ragged enrollment.
Psalm 25:9
BIBLE TEXT: "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way." (Psalm 25:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is the humble confessed kindergartener, not the haughty conceited know-it-all, who is both teachable and savable.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: On the day of judgment, all who feel they’ve figured it all out, will be finally found out.
Psalm 25:10
BIBLE TEXT: "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies." (Psalm 25:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To keep God’s covenant and testimonies is to be kept true to God by the mercy of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is by God’s mercy, not by our own might, that we are kept true to God. Therefore, we must never tout ourselves, but always thank our God for our faithfulness to Him.
Psalm 25:11
BIBLE TEXT: "For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great." (Psalm 25:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Since God has magnified His Word above His own name (Psalm 138:2), and since His Word promises He will forgive our sins if we will confess our sins (1 John 1:9), He must keep His Word and forgive our sins for His own name’s sake.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our sins are forgiven us for Jesus’ name’s sake; that is, not because of who we are or because of anything we’ve done, but only because of who Jesus is and all He has done for us, which we could have never done for ourselves. (1 John 2:12)
Psalm 25:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth." (Psalms 25:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who fear the Lord put their souls at ease, ridding themselves of all other fears, such as the fear of choosing the wrong way or of their children ever being in want.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” (Oswald Chambers)
Psalm 25:14
BIBLE TEXT: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant." (Psalm 25:14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The reverential fear of the Lord opens the door to relational intimacy with the Lord, so the Lord can share with you His secret and show you His covenant.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To gain God’s confidence you must communion with God, the closer your relationship gets to Him the more He’ll reveal Himself to you.
Psalm 25:15
BIBLE TEXT: "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net." (Psalm 25:15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Notice, the best way to escape worldly entanglements is to keep your eyes on the God of Heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no better way to firm footing on earth than to keep your focus fixed on Heaven.
Psalm 25:16
BIBLE TEXT: "Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted." (Psalm 25:16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We often mistake our trials as God’s turning away from us and withholding of His mercy from us, when they are often God’s turning mercifully to us, in order to make something more of us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Psalm 25:17
BIBLE TEXT: "The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses." (Psalm 25:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When the heart is troubled trouble is truly enlarged, for any trouble of life is mightily magnified when it makes its way to the heart.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be delivered from the distress of a troubled heart, you need to pray for divine help.
Psalm 25:18
BIBLE TEXT: "Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins." (Psalm 25:18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Rather than being compelled to advise God about our affliction, we should be contend to know that God is aware of our affliction.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To know our sins are pardoned and our pain is seen by God, should be enough for us to have peace in our perils.
Psalm 25:19
BIBLE TEXT: "Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred." (Psalm 25:19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for our enemies, both human and demonic, who are not only many, but also malicious and malignant, to ever be kept under divine surveillance.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should call upon God to keep His all-seeing eye on our enemies at all times, because they, in their cruel hatred of us and hostility toward us, are always crouching to hop on us.
Psalm 25:20
BIBLE TEXT: "O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee." (Psalm 25:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David prays, as Christ taught us to pray, to be delivered from evil, lest his trust in God be discredited and God dishonored over evil’s apparent defeat of him. (Matthew 6:13)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a non-Christian, like Mahatma Gandhi, have confessed not to be a Christian, because of confessed Christians.
Psalm 25:21
BIBLE TEXT: "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee." (Psalm 25:21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Only by being preserved by a clear conscience, which requires both integrity and uprightness, can we patiently and positively wait for the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If you don’t have a clear conscience, how can you be certain Christ will come through for you in a crisis?
Psalm 25:22
BIBLE TEXT: "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles." (Psalm 25:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As David did not just pray for himself, but also for all of Israel, Christians should not just pray for themselves personally, but also for the whole church corporately.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What we pray for ourselves should be no less fervently prayed for our fellows, if we truly love them as we love ourselves. (Matthew 22:39)
Psalm 26:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide." (Psalm 26:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: For those who truly trust in the Lord, integrity is not just a principle, but a practice. It is steady and sturdy shoe leather that keeps them from slipping and sliding.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s impossible to slide into sin whenever you’re trusting in the Lord, for all disobedience is simply disbelief in action. For instance, why would anyone steal unless they doubt that God can supply and satisfy?
Psalm 26:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." (Psalm 26:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Only the clearest conscience, one genuinely guiltless, can courageously call for the searchlight of such divine scrutiny.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To live confidently in Christ, which is critical for every Christian, especially in these chaotic times, we must live with an uncondemning heart. (1 John 3:21)
Psalm 26:3
BIBLE TEXT: "For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth." (Psalm 26:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To keep God’s lovingkindness ever before our eyes is to keep ourselves ever walking in His truth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is God’s unfailing love for us that keeps us from being unfaithful to Him, since we’ll never wish to let down someone who loves us so much.
Psalm 26:4-5
BIBLE TEXT: "I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked." (Psalm 26:4-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We, like David, should be circumspect in choosing our company, being careful to never chum with worldlings, hypocrites, heretics, or the heinous.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To heartedly love good is to so intensely hate evil that you will part company with all of its practitioners.
Psalm 26:6
BIBLE TEXT: "I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord." (Psalm 26:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is not just the priests of God who are required to have clean hands at the altar of God, but the praisers of God as well.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is holy hands that are to be lifted up in your praise of God and in your prayers to God. (1 Timothy 2:8)
Psalm 26:7
BIBLE TEXT: "That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works." (Psalm 26:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: No saint of God should ever be tongue-tied when it comes to their thanksgiving to God or their testimony for God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How can God’s people help but publish God’s wondrous works to the people of this world? (Acts 4:20)
Psalm 26:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth." (Psalm 26:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If it is not inhabited by God nor honoring to God, it is no house of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The less Holy Spirit we have, the more cake and coffee we need to keep the church going.” (Reinhard Bonnke)
Psalm 26:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes." (Psalm 26:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who gather with sinners in the here-and-now will be gathered up with them by God in the hereafter.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What a contrast is found here between the Koran and the Bible. Whereas the Koran teaches its adherents to be bloody men, the Bible not only bans its adherents from being bloody men, but also from having anything to do with them.
Psalm 26:11
BIBLE TEXT: "But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me." (Psalm 26:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Not only must we vow to be saints among men, but we must at the same time bow as sinners before God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although we must be resolved to walk in integrity, we must also realize that our integrity is a result of our redemption and made possible by God’s mercy.
Psalm 26:12
BIBLE TEXT: "My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord." (Psalm 26:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The song in our hearts is made possible by the sure footing of Scripture’s promises and sound doctrine.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is on the solid ground of Scripture that the saints stand and sing their songs of praise to God.
Psalm 27:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If I can say, the Lord is “my” light, I need never fear darkness; if I can say, the Lord is “my” salvation, I need never fear damnation, and if I can say, the Lord is “my” strength, I need never fear debilitation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the Lord does not just give us light, but is our light; He does not just give us salvation, but is our salvation; and He does not just give us strength, but is our strength. Therefore, if we have Him, we not only have everything we will ever need, but no need to ever fear anything or anybody.
Psalm 27:2
BIBLE TEXT: "When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell." (Psalm 27:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As David’s adversaries stumbled and fell, so did our Lord’s when He rose from His knees in Gethsemane. (John 18:6)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The army of God is the only army that advances on its knees.
Psalm 27:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident." (Psalm 27:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The army of God can always be confident, even when surrounded by the most fearsome and formidable of foes.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To the timorous, the thought of trouble is often more terrifying than the trouble itself. As it has been astutely observed, many “feel a thousand deaths in fearing one.”
Psalm 27:4
BIBLE TEXT: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple." (Psalm 27:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Christian should share David's sole desire, to daily dwell in God’s presence. Instead of wanting things from God, we should just want to be with God!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A man after God’s own heart daily lives leering at the beauty of God and longing for intimacy with God. He refuses to be distracted from the sacred—the beauty of the Lord—by the profane—the base things of this life. (Acts 13:22)
MORE ABOUT JESUS (Eliza Edmunds Hewitt)
More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fulness see,
More of His love who died for me.
More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.
More about Jesus; in His Word,
Holding communion with my Lord;
Hearing His voice in every line,
Making each faithful saying mine.
More about Jesus; on His throne,
Riches in glory all His own;
More of His kingdom’s sure increase;
More of His coming, Prince of Peace.
More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus;
More of His saving fulness see,
More of His love who died for me.
Psalm 27:5a
BIBLE TEXT: "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion…" (Psalm 27:5a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: He who lives in intimacy with God will be protected in the pavilion of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the royal pavilion, which was located in the center of the camp, as well as surrounded and safeguarded by the mighty host, the king and His confidants were kept safe and secure.
Psalm 27:5b
BIBLE TEXT: "For in the time of trouble…in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me." (Psalm 27:5b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: He who lives in intimacy with God will be safe in the secret place of the tabernacle of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one dared to enter, at the risk of their own life, the tabernacle’s Holy of Holies. Therefore, no enemy of God’s saints would ever dare to venture into His Shekinah to molest His intimates.
Psalm 27:5c
BIBLE TEXT: "For in the time of trouble…he shall set me up upon a rock." (Psalm 27:5c KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: He who lives in intimacy with God is refuged upon the rock of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is an unscalable and impregnable rock that no enemy of His intimates can ever scale nor storm.
Psalm 27:6
BIBLE TEXT: "And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." (Psalm 27:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David is confident that he shall live to lift up his head over his encircling enemies, as well as to praise God once again in His tabernacle, with sacrifices and in song.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even in the scariest fight day, the army of God can be sure of V-Day.
Psalm 27:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me." (Psalm 27:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Like the prayers of the Pharisees, many a present-day prayer is prayed to be heard by men (Matthew 6:5), but true prayer is always prayed to be heard by God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only by appealing to God’s mercy, never by praying on the basis of our merits, that we can ask God to answer our prayers.
Psalm 27:8
BIBLE TEXT: "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." (Psalm 27:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Prayer is not about seeking God’s favors, but His face. It’s more about being with God than getting things from God. To approach prayer with an earthly wish list in hand rather than in hopes of a Heavenly welcome mat being rolled out is to surely pray amiss. (James 4:3)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only those who seek God's face and not His favors who will ever know the power of prayer or the fullness of God!
Psalm 27:9
BIBLE TEXT: "Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." (Psalm 27:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We may anger God, but God will not abandon us, for those God saves He never forsakes. (Hebrews 13:5)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s former help is always a harbinger of His future help.
Psalm 27:10
BIBLE TEXT: "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." (Psalm 27:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When the upright are let down, even by their earthly father and mother, God, their Heavenly Father, will lift them up.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is when all men abandon us that we’ll be most aware of God standing with us and strengthening us. (2 Timothy 4:16-18)
Psalm 27:11-12
BIBLE TEXT: "Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty." (Psalm 27:11-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We need to pray that God will truly teach us His way and plainly point out to us His path, so that no adversary can snatch us nor any accusation stick to us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only when we choose our way over God’s way and the wrong path over the right path that our enemies can exploit us and false witnesses can shoot bullets rather than blanks at us.
Psalm 27:13
BIBLE TEXT: "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." (Psalm 27:13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Unless you believe you'll behold the Lord's good favor in the future, you'll be utterly undone by the gathering misfortunes of the present.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unless I had believed,
I had fainted long ago
So buffeted by whelming seas,
With treacherous undertow,
I dare not think, what might have been,
Unless I had believed.
Unless I had believed,
I could not have won the fight,
Too many and too fierce my foes,
To have withstood their might:
They would have torn me limb from limb,
Unless I had believed.
Now that I believed,
Are my feet upon the rock.
My soul is established, strong, secure,
To brave the earthquake shock,
What tragic loss, what black despair—
Unless I had believed.
Psalm 27:14
BIBLE TEXT: "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm 27:13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Waiting on the Lord requires the courage of one's convictions and results in the cementing of one's constitution.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: One never loses heart, neither time nor opportunity by waiting on the Lord.
Psalm 28:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle." (Psalm 28:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The supplications of the saints should always be for God to speak, for when the still small voice of the Spirit is quiet, the saints are left in a quandary.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If the voice of God is hushed to the saints on earth, are they not, at least in this regard, like souls in Hell, where the voice of God is never heard?
Psalm 28:3-5
BIBLE TEXT: "Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up." (Psalm 28:3-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David prays to be built up by God not bundled up by God with the wicked to receive their just deserts.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To deceive others with your words and to disregard the works of God is to doom yourself to well-deserved destruction.
Psalm 28:6
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications." (Psalm 28:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Answered prayer should elicit ardent praise.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Praise is not just how we enter God’s presence to ask our prayers (Psalm 100:2, 4), but also how we extol God afterwards for answering our prayers.
Psalm 28:7
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him." (Psalm 28:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To have a heart that trust in God is to be helped by God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the strength of the Lord and under the shield of the Lord the soul gleefully sings praise to the Lord and the heart greatly rejoices in the Lord.
Psalm 28:8
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed." (Psalm 28:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s strengthening is not just needed for the individual saint personally, but for all the saints corporately. For just like Christ—“the anointed One”—Christians—“the anointed ones”—are strengthened for God’s service by God’s Spirit.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s omnipotent power is not in the least diminished nor our personal needed portion the least depleted by its overall distribution.
Psalm 28:9
BIBLE TEXT: "Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever." (Psalm 28:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Here we find a concise, but comprehensive prayer for the church, that God’s elect, who are the inheritance of Christ, be saved, sustained, supplied, supported and shepherded forever.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: From his or her personal prayer closet, the Christian should pray for the whole church, for all Christians in all the world.
Psalm 29:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." (Psalm 29:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All men, even great men, should keep their nose out of the air and their head bowed to the glory of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Just as the most brilliant earthly light dissipates in the brightness of the sun, the glittering greatness of men dissipates in the glowing glory of God!
Psalm 29:3-10
BIBLE TEXT: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever." (Psalm 29:3-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Just as man’s greatness evaporates in God’s glory, earthly tempests are but tiny examples of the terror of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:11)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When God storms out, "Glory" is shouted out, by men who quickly find out how swiftly they're shut up by God's rising up.
Psalm 29:11
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace." (Psalm 29:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This psalm is to be sung by the saints in a storm, for the power displayed in a storm is but an inkling of the power that strengthens and safeguards the saints.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints, unlike sinners, who are petrified by a storm, may weather a storm in peace, since they know that they are in the care of Him who controls the storm. (Matthew 8:27)
Psalm 30
This psalm, at first glance, appears to have been written by David for the dedication of his own house (2 Samuel 5:11; 7:1-2). That it was the custom of the Jews to dedicate their houses to God is seen in Deuteronomy 20:5. Just as a house of God is to be dedicated as a habitation of God, every Christian’s house should be dedicated as a habitation of Christ. Furthermore, just as it was known that Jesus was in the house in Capernaum (Mark 2:1), so it should be known that Jesus is in the house of every Christian.
Most scholars believe, because of the content of this psalm, that David actually wrote it to consecrate the ground at the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, which would prove to be the future site of the temple, God’s house, not David’s. It was on this sacred ground, where Abraham offered Isaac and where Solomon would later build the temple, that David refused to offer God a costless sacrifice to stay a deadly plague in Israel (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21).
Psalm 30:1
BIBLE TEXT: "I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me." (Psalm 30:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David extolled the Lord, because the Lord had exalted him and elevated him over all of his enemies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christians should extol the Lord, because the Lord has exalted us and elevated us over all of our enemies. (Ephesians 1:19-23; 2:6)
Psalm 30:2-3
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." (Psalm 30:2-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David praises the Lord his God because He “hast” saved him from the plague, the pyre, and the pit.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The salvation of God is a surety, whether it is from sickness or from sin. In the end, it’s know-so salvation, not hope-so, think-so, or even believe-so.
Psalm 30:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." (Psalm 30:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In nothing is our inadequacy more pronounced than in our personal praise of God. Therefore, though it is still insufficient, we must solicit the help of all of God’s saints.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Interestingly, by calling upon the saints to remember God’s holiness, David appears not only to be soliciting the help of all of the saints in his praise of God, but also of the mighty seraphim, who constantly circle the throne of God day and night singing, “Holy, holy, holy!” (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4:6-8)
Psalm 30:5
BIBLE TEXT: "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." (Psalm 30:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s anger with those who have His favor for life is only momentary, since they are not eternally condemned, but only temporarily chastened.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christians may weep in the night of their chastening, but they will joyfully arise corrected and more Christlike in the morning.
Psalm 30:6
BIBLE TEXT: "And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved." (Psalm 30:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We are never nearer trouble than when tempted by terrestrial tranquility.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a man falls from the pinnacle of prosperity when he attempts to plant the flag of pride upon it.
Psalm 30:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." (Psalm 30:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We can be quickly brought down from the mountaintop of God’s favor to the deep valley of trouble by the hidden face of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How strong a stand can any man take atop the world without God?
Psalm 30:8-10
BIBLE TEXT: "I cried to thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper." (Psalm 30:8-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To pray to God to preserve our life, we must propose to live our life for the praise of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Christian who fails to inspire others to praise God is no more profitable to God than a corpse.
Psalm 30:11-12
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever." (Psalm 30:11-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God turns mourning into dancing, sackcloth into gladness, and silence into singing, so that He might be eternally glorified by the forever grateful.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, “Thank you”? (William Arthur Ward)
Psalm 31:1
BIBLE TEXT: "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness." (Psalm 31:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who depend on the Lord will be delivered and never disgraced.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is Christ’s imputed righteousness, which is ours through faith in Christ alone, not our individual righteousness, which a righteous God sees as filthy rags, that guarantees us God’s deliverance. (Isaiah 64:6)
Psalm 31:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me." (Psalm 31:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God bows down to them who bow down to Him, to be their speedy Rescuer, their strong Rock, and their saving Refuge!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Most High leans down low to hear the lowly prayers of those low in spirit.
Psalm 31:3
BIBLE TEXT: "For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me." (Psalm 31:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God can be trusted to guard and guide us, since, as a tenacious guardian of His own glory (name), He will not allow it to be tarnished by failing to deliver on His promise to defend and direct us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since we are not deserving of God’s guidance on the basis of our own goodness, we should ask God to graciously grant it in defense of His own glory. We should not just pray for God to meet our need, but also for God to protect His name, by proving to us His promise.
Psalm 31:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength." (Psalm 31:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those God strengthens He snatches from secret schemes hatched against them by hostile schemers.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God turned the plotters’ lions into the prophet’s watchdogs to thwart the plot of the Persian presidents and princes to throw the Prophet Daniel into the lion’s den. (Daniel 6:1-24)
Psalm 31:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." (Psalm 31:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: These divinely inspired words of David, as well as dying words of our Master, Jesus Christ, and of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, should be spoken in daily prayer by every living Christian. (Luke 23:46, Acts 7:59)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The repose of our spirits is a result of the redemption of our souls.
Psalm 31:6
BIBLE TEXT: "I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the Lord." (Psalm 31:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All who trust in the one true God are ticked off by all that is untrustworthy and untrue.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Far from respecting other religions, those who worship the one true God hate the worship of all false gods.
Psalm 31:7
BIBLE TEXT: "I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities." (Psalm 31:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In our troubles, we must not think God to be unaware or uncaring, but must trust God to be merciful and magnanimous.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even in the midst of life's messes we can be merry, because God is merciful.
Psalm 31:8
BIBLE TEXT: "And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room." (Psalm 31:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ’s saints are never in Satan’s clutches. Even in the direst of straits their souls can range in roomy and unrestrained realms.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints can never be cornered by Satan, because Christ protects them from so precarious a pickle.
Psalm 31:9-14
BIBLE TEXT: "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God." (Psalm 31:9-14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist was the first and foremost singer of the blues, nullifying the popular notion that every praise song must be a giddy ditty.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christians are not to see life through rose-colored glasses nor to suggest to others that the Christian life is a bed full of roses. Instead, Christians are to be honest about it and to trust the Lord to mercifully see them through it.
Don't be a fair-weather believer, but one whose confession of God and confidence in God is as constant in the storm as in the sunshine.
Psalm 31:15
BIBLE TEXT: "My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me." (Psalm 31:15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The realization that our lives are in God’s hands, not in the hands of others, especially not in the hands of our opponents or oppressors, turns Divine Providence into a soft pillow for anxious heads.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Ignorance of providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness.” (John Calvin)
Psalm 31:16
BIBLE TEXT: "Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake." (Psalm 31:16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: For the sake of His mercy, not their merits, God saves those who live by faith under the shining face of His favor.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God proves His mercy by maintaining His people.
Psalm 31:17
BIBLE TEXT: "Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave." (Psalm 31:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The prayer closet of the Christian, unlike the cemetery plot of the wicked, should never be a place of silence and shame.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: "We should pray that God “put not [our] prayers to the blush!” (Charles Spurgeon)
Psalm 31:18
BIBLE TEXT: "Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous." (Psalm 31:18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although short-lived slanderers may temporarily wound the reputation of saints, the saints can be assured that all libelous lips shall eventually be silenced for all eternity.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The great indignity of the wicked contemptuously indicting the righteous is certainly infuriating to the Almighty.
Psalm 31:19
BIBLE TEXT: "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!" (Psalm 31:19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To trust in God amidst fallen humanity is to lay up inestimable and irrevocable treasure in Heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What better proof can we offer to fallen humanity of the sincerity and surety of our Christian faith than to live our earthly lives heavenly minded?
Psalm 31:20
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." (Psalm 31:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In the secret pavilion of God’s presence, pride cannot step foot nor can a slanderous tongue get in a word.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We are delivered from both the disdainful and the defamer by ducking behind the Divine.
Psalm 31:21
BIBLE TEXT: "May the Lord be praised, for He has wonderfully shown His faithful love to me in a city under siege." (Psalm 31:21 HCSB)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s stedfast love is a shelter to the saint under siege in this sin-cursed world.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christians can be calm under the cover of Christ’s compassion even when their country is confronted with calamity.
HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 31:22
BIBLE TEXT: "For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee." (Psalm 31:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In our haste we may feel that God has shut His eyes to our plight, but in time we will find that He has opened His ears to our prayers.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No matter how deep down we sink beneath our load, we are never out of sight of our Lord.
Psalm 31:23
BIBLE TEXT: "O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer." (Psalm 31:23 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The faithful, who love the Lord, are protected by Him, but the prideful, who love and look to themselves, will be punished by Him.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There will be no strutting down Heaven’s streets of gold.
Psalm 31:24
BIBLE TEXT: "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." (Psalm 31:24 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The heart sinks in the cowardice of despair, but is strengthened by the courage of hope.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who hope in the Lord will be helped by the Lord to be both Herculean and heroic.
Psalm 32:1a
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven…" (Psalm 32:1a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This psalm begins with the beatitudes of a blessed or happy man. The first beatitude of a blessed or happy man is that his transgression is forgiven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the psalmist does not say, “Happy is the perfect and sinless man.” Instead, he says, “Happy is the imperfect pardoned sinner.” Otherwise, there would be no possibility of happiness for the imperfect and sinful inhabitants of this fallen planet.
Psalm 32:1b
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is he whose…sin is covered." (Psalm 32:1b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The second beatitude of a blessed or happy man is that along with him being acquitted and his sin remitted, his sin has also been atoned for and removed.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Men can try to cover their own sin by concealing or condoning it, or they can confess their sin and trust Christ to take it away. (Proverbs 28:13; John 1:29)
Psalm 32:2a
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity…" (Psalm 32:2a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The third beatitude of a blessed or happy man is that his sin is not only acquitted and atoned for, but no longer even accredited to his account.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When God justifies the sinner in Christ, the sinner is seen afterward by God just as if he had never sinned!
Psalm 32:2b
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is the man…in whose spirit there is no guile." (Psalm 32:2b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The fourth and final beatitude of a blessed or happy man is that he is not only a sinner free from guilt, but also a sinner free from guile.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be truly happy with God you must always be honest with God, there can be no hypocrisy, only transparency.
Psalm 32:3-4
BIBLE TEXT: "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah." (Psalm 32:3-4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Unlike the blessed or happy man, the unhappy man is a tormented soul, because he resists the Spirit’s conviction of sin by refusing to confess his sin.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no greater misery on earth than that of an unconfessed sinner under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Yet, there is no other way to Heaven but through the Spirit’s conviction and by the sinner’s confession.
Psalm 32:5
BIBLE TEXT: "I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah." (Psalm 32:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The pangs of the Spirit’s conviction are instantaneously gone and a pardon for the sinner’s crimes against God is instantaneously given, the instant the sinner confesses his or her sins to God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only sin God will not forgive is the one you will not confess. (1 John 1:9)
Psalm 32:6
BIBLE TEXT: "For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him." (Psalm 32:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Confession of sin must take place under the Spirit’s conviction of sin, for it is then alone that God can be found and sin forgiven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This explains why Scripture teaches us not to harden our hearts to the Spirit’s conviction, but to immediately call upon God for our salvation the instant God calls upon us to be saved (Psalm 95:7-8; Hebrews 3:7-8, 15). Contrary to popular opinion, you cannot be saved whenever you say so, but only when God says so!
Psalm 32:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah." (Psalm 32:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God becomes a safe refuge to the repentant sinner, in spite of the sinner’s former rebellion against God and resistance to God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No longer troubled under God’s conviction, the forgiven sinner is now preserved from trouble under God’s protection. No longer sighing at the approaching damnation of God, the forgiven sinner goes to singing all around about the deliverance of God.
Psalm 32:8-9
BIBLE TEXT: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee." (Psalm 32:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As pupils under the tutelage of the Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit, God’s people should never need a bit and bridle to make them obey divine directions, but only a wink and a nod from God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As students in the school of Christ, the saints should always learn the easy way, willingly, never the hard way, the woodshed. Granted, we will learn either way, but the easier way is always preferable and a lot less painful.
Psalm 32:10
BIBLE TEXT: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." (Psalm 32:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To trust in God is to be encompassed by His mercy, but to fail to do so is to be surrounded by many sorrows.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This is a magnificent verse to be marked, for it teaches us a tremendous truth. Even amidst the miseries of this woe-filled fallen world, those who trust in God are always in the midst of His mercy.
Psalm 32:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." (Psalm 32:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: True and forever gladness is found in God, all other is fleeting and transitory.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What real reason to rejoice does any man have who is not right with Jesus?
Psalm 33:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright." (Psalm 33:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The righteous are most comely clad with the garment of praise, but praise becomes nothing but ugly garb when worn by the wicked.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “To rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Psalm 33:2-3
BIBLE TEXT: "Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise." (Psalm 33:2-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although true worship may be accompanied on harp strings, it actually occurs on heartstrings!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.” (Walter Savage Landor)
Psalm 33:4
BIBLE TEXT: "For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth." (Psalm 33:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Truth is declared by God’s Word and demonstrated by God’s works.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The works of God and the Word of God is the divine version of show-and-tell. (Acts 1:1)
Psalm 33:5
BIBLE TEXT: "He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." (Psalm 33:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If God loves righteousness and justice, He must loath unrighteousness and injustice, since you can’t do one without the other.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The earth is not full of goodness because man is good, but only because God is good. Make no mistake about it; all the goodness on this globe is attributable to the goodness of its God.
Psalm 33:6
BIBLE TEXT: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." (Psalm 33:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The universe did not evolve out of nothing over eons, but was instantly spoken into existence by God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only does God measure the universe by the span of His hand (Isaiah 40:12), but He created it with the breath of His mouth.
Psalm 33:7
BIBLE TEXT: "He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses." (Psalm 33:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is God who halts the deluge of the earth by heaping up the depths of the sea.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The seas are not only cupped, but also corralled in the hollow of God’s hand. (Isaiah 40:12)
Psalm 33:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him." (Psalm 33:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The reverential awe of Divinity should be universal to all humanity.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Those know enough who know to fear God, who are careful in everything to please Him and fearful of offending Him in anything; this is the Alpha and Omega of knowledge.” (Matthew Henry)
Psalm 33:9
BIBLE TEXT: "For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." (Psalm 33:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Whatever God says is so and whatever is made so by what He says shall stand fast forever.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Contrary to a popular saying—“God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.”—if God said it that settles it, whether you believe it or not.
Psalm 33:10
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect." (Psalm 33:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord causes the counsel and cunning of the heathen to be ineffectual.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The preordained plans and purposes of Divine Providence cannot in anyway be impeded nor prevented by people’s designs and devices.
Psalm 33:11
BIBLE TEXT: "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." (Psalm 33:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Whatever God counsels or conceives is both immutable and immortal.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Contrary to popular opinion, the counsel of God is never outdated, but agelessly applicable.
Psalm 33:12
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." (Psalm 33:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The blessed nation, whose God is the Lord, is one populated by a people chosen by God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How can God bless America if God is no longer the Lord of Americans?
Psalm 33:13-15
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works." (Psalm 33:13-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord looks from Heaven upon all humanity, watching all the works of His earthly workmanship.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Everyone on this earth is always under Heaven’s all-seeing eye.
Psalm 33:16-17
BIBLE TEXT: "There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength." (Psalm 33:16-17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is Heaven, not military hosts or mighty horses that establish and ensure the thrones of Kings.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How presumptuous it is for an earthly potentate, whose next breath is totally dependent upon God, to pompously pride himself in his earthy pomp and power.
Psalm 33:18-19
BIBLE TEXT: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." (Psalm 33:18-19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To fear God and to hope in His mercy is to assure yourself that God will always be looking upon you and looking out for you.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no hope for men in their own merits, but only in God’s mercy!
Psalm 33:20
BIBLE TEXT: "Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield." (Psalms 33:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The soul that can wait on the Lord must be wholeheartedly secure in the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: ”You can save a lot of time waiting on God.” (Adrian Rogers)
Psalm 33:21
BIBLE TEXT: "For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name." (Psalm 33:21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is the heart that is resolved to trust in God that can rejoice in God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who depend on God are eventually delighted with God, because in the end they’re never disappointed by God.
Psalm 33:22
BIBLE TEXT: "Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee." (Psalm 33:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The more hope you have in God the more mercy you’ll have from God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The measure of God’s mercy toward us is meted out to us according to how much we hope in God.
Psalm 34
This psalm was written by David when he feigned insanity to escape from the Philistine King of Gath, Achish or Abimelech. You can read the story of this event, which occurred during David’s flight for his life from Israel’s jealous King Saul, in 1 Samuel 21. This psalm is also the second, Psalm 25 being the first, of the fully acrostic or alphabetical psalms, which are psalms in which each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 34:1
BIBLE TEXT: "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." (Psalm 34:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Notice, the psalmist says, “I will,” not, “I might,” “bless the Lord at all times,” both in good times and in bad times. Regardless of his circumstances, David was committed to continuously praising his Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: True praise is a constant in the life of a true Christian. Since we praise God for who He is and since God is immutable, our praise of God should be invariable.
Psalm 34:2
BIBLE TEXT: "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad." (Psalm 34:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The sole boast of a saved soul is in her or his Lord and Savior!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas the humble are put down and grieved when they hear pompous sinners boast about themselves, they are lifted up and made glad when they hear praising saints boast in the Lord.
Psalm 34:3
BIBLE TEXT: "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." (Psalm 34:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is only the humble who will join together to truly magnify the Lord and exalt His name, because only those with a lowly opinion of themselves will ever so highly extol the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who care not to spend their time highly extolling God on earth, will certainly not care for Heaven, where the first and foremost activity is the forever praise of God.
Psalm 34:4
BIBLE TEXT: "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." (Psalm 34:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To be delivered from your fears, you need to seek the Deliverer, not deliverance.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” (Rudyard Kipling)
Psalm 34:5
BIBLE TEXT: "They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed." (Psalm 34:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: No one will ever blush who looks to God to be brightened up!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who look to the Lord will be uplifted and unashamed.
Psalm 34:6
BIBLE TEXT: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." (Psalm 34:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord not only hears the lowly, but the lowly are most likely to be heard by the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unlike the prosperous, who tend to dig into their deep pockets to save themselves from trouble, the poor are far more likely to turn to prayer when they find themselves in trouble.
Psalm 34:7
BIBLE TEXT: "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." (Psalm 34:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who fear the Almighty will be fenced all around by His angels, who will fend off all of their adversaries.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.” (Augustine)
Psalm 34:8
BIBLE TEXT: "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." (Psalm 34:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To trust the Lord is not only to taste and see for yourself that He is good, but also to be blessed forever.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is shut eyes and closed mouths that will never see nor savor the goodness of God.
Psalm 34:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." (Psalm 34:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To fear and seek the Lord is to be guarded from any want of good things.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who fear and seek the Lord are not promised everything they could ever want. Instead, they are promised that they won’t want for any good thing they will ever need.
Psalm 34:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord." (Psalm 34:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: There is no way to exaggerate the importance of teaching children to fear the Lord, for if we fail to do so, our children will grow up to be forsaken by the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Today’s America is God-forsaken because Americans have failed to teach their children to be God-fearing!
Psalm 34:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." (Psalm 34:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If you hope for both quantity and quality of life, you should keep your tongue from gossip and your lips from guile.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The lives of slanderers and schemers may be reduced, and their days definitely ruined, by their talebearing tongues and their lying lips.
Psalm 34:12, 14a
BIBLE TEXT: "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?…Depart from evil, and do good…" (Psalm 34:12, 14a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If you hope for both quantity and quality of life, you should depart from evil and do good.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: True religion is not just a religion of negatives—doing no evil—but also of positives—doing good.
Psalm 34:12, 14b
BIBLE TEXT: "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?…seek peace, and pursue it." (Psalm 34:12, 14b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If you hope for both quantity and quality of life, you should not only prefer peace, but passionately promote and pursue it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Peace—peace with God, peace with others, and peace of mind—is what makes a long, happy, and healthy life possible.
Psalm 34:15
BIBLE TEXT: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." (Psalm 34:15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The eyes and ears of the Lord belong to the righteous.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Why should the saints care if the world is apathetic or antagonistic towards them, as long as the Lord is attentive to them?
Psalm 34:16
BIBLE TEXT: "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." (Psalm 34:16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Whereas the eyes of the Lord are trained on the righteous, and His ears tuned in to them, the Lord turns His face away from all evildoers.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God does not just turn away from evildoers, but will eventually wipe out all memory of them from the earth. What a frightful fate, to be forever forgotten.
Psalm 34:17
BIBLE TEXT: "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles." (Psalm 34:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord is not deaf to the cry of the righteous, but hears and delivers them from all of their calamities.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No man is desolate, except he whom God has deserted.
Psalm 34:18
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Not only is God nigh to the heart under conviction, but the contrite spirit of the convicted heart is nigh unto salvation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God is close to those whose hearts are crushed and whose spirits are contrite over all of their committed sins.
Psalm 34:19
BIBLE TEXT: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." (Psalm 34:19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Notice, the Bible does not promise the righteous “not any” afflictions, but “many” afflictions. However, it adds the blessed but—“but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.”
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s people are not promised no difficulties in life, but deliverance from life’s difficulties, both in the here-and-now and ultimately in the hereafter!
Psalm 34:20
BIBLE TEXT: "He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken." (Psalm 34:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As it was with Christ’s physical body on the cross, so it is with Christ’s spiritual body the church, no bones are broken, only outward wounds suffered. (John 19:31-36)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Though the world’s lash may lacerate the saints’ backs, it can never stripe their souls!
Psalm 34:21
BIBLE TEXT: "Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate." (Psalm 34:21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Evil is its own executioner and sin is rope enough to hang every sinner.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Having hated the best company on earth, the damned will be desolate of any good company in Hell.
Psalm 34:22
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate." (Psalm 34:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: A blood bought soul can never be disowned nor doomed to desolation.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child, and forever, I am.” (Fanny Crosby)
Psalm 35
This psalm is the second of the Imprecatory Psalms. These Psalms—7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137, and 139—are psalms consisting of an imprecatory prayer, which 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 35:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me." (Psalm 35:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for the Lord to plead our cause rather than to serve as our own public defender.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Christians, we should always leave it to our Advocate with the Father to argue our case against the accuser of the brethren. (1 John 2:1; Revelation 12:9-10)
Psalm 35:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help." (Psalm 35:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Why should we worry about anyone getting to us, if God is standing up and warring for us?
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only way a combatant can get through to a Christian is to first get through Christ.
Psalm 35:3, 6
BIBLE TEXT: "Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation…Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the Lord persecute them." (Psalm 35:3, 6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray that our persecutors be held at bay at the point of God’s pike.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Sinners surely step on a slippery slope the second they start persecuting the saints.
Psalm 35:4-5
BIBLE TEXT: "Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them." (Psalm 35:4-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should not be too squeamish to pray for the jeopardizers of men’s souls to be jettisoned away like chaff in the wind.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How can a winner of souls be a well-wisher of one who wars against souls?
Psalm 35:7-8
BIBLE TEXT: "For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall." (Psalm 35:7-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although we should never pray for revenge, we can, as David did, pray for retributive or reciprocal justice; that is, that God will ensnare our enemies in their own snares.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The law of “lex talionis,” which is Latin for “the law of exact retaliation” or “of retribution in kind,” is found in Scripture. It is declared by Moses in the Mosaic Law (Exodus 21:23-25; Deuteronomy 19:21) and demonstrated in Scripture by stories like the cutting off of Adoni-bezek’s thumbs and big toes and the hanging of Haman on his own gallows (Judges 1:5-7; Esther 7:9-10).
Psalm 35:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?" (Psalm 35:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is not over the destruction of the spoilers of men’s souls, but over the salvation of men’s souls, that we, like the angels in Heaven, should rejoice. (Luke 15:7, 10)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Apart from our own salvation, nothing should bring us greater joy than the salvation of others.
Psalm 35:11
BIBLE TEXT: "False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not." (Psalm 35:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s people should not just be innocent of the charges of false witnesses, but should never have even imagined committing such crimes.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not enough that accusations against the saints for being untoward are untrue, but to the saints themselves they should also be unthinkable.
Psalm 35:12-14
BIBLE TEXT: "They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother." (Psalm 35:12-14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The true test of the saved soul is whether or not evil can be both responded to and reacted to with good. (Matthew 5:43-48)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, prayer for one’s own enemies returns to one’s “own bosom”; that is, it may not result in your enemies being blessed by God, but it will definitely result in you being blessed by God.
Psalm 35:15-16
BIBLE TEXT: "But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not: With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth." (Psalm 35:15-16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When bad things happen to good people, bad people hold banquets behind the goods’ backs to chew them up and spit them out.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Affectless sinners gather together like buzzards around the adversities of saints.
Psalm 35:17-18
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people." (Psalm 35:17-18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: A den of liars is no less a threat to our darling soul than a den of lions, neither is our soul’s need of divine deliverance any less urgent in either of the two.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: After patiently waiting and painstakingly winning out, we will passionately worship God, to whom we owe our vindication and victory.
Psalm 35:19
BIBLE TEXT: "Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause." (Psalm 35:19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray that those who hate us for Christ’s sake never get the upper hand over us or are able to wink and nod at each other about us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be hated without cause is for the Christian to be hated as Christ was hated. (John 15:25)
Psalm 35:20
BIBLE TEXT: "For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land." (Psalm 35:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Even the quiet in the land can be led into quarrels by the devious devises of the devilishly divisive.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a man is not only willing to fight at the drop of a khat, but even willing to drop the hat.
Psalm 35:21
BIBLE TEXT: "Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it." (Psalm 35:21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: One must have a gaping mouth and a goggling eye to tell great lies over others’ gnat-like sins. (Matthew 23:24)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “He who rejoices in another’s fall rejoices in the devil’s victory.” (Ambrose)
Psalm 35:22-23
BIBLE TEXT: "This thou hast seen, O Lord: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord." (Psalm 35:22-23 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray that the Lord be stirred up to stand up with us and to speak out for us in the dock of this fallen world.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ is not just the Christian’s Advocate, but the Christian’s Judge as well (1 John 2:1; 2 Corinthians 5:10). He not only argues our case for us, but He also adjudicates it in favor of us.
Psalm 35:24-26
BIBLE TEXT: "Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me." (Psalm 35:22-23 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The persecuting of God’s people will not result in the rejoicing of this fallen planet’s prejudiced prosecutors, but in their ridicule, when Christ dons His judicial robe and robes the saints in His perfect righteousness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What chance is there of the Christian’s condemnation if he or she will appear before the righteous Judge of all the earth clad in the Judge’s own seamless robe of perfect righteousness? (Genesis 18:25; John 19:23-24; Isaiah 61:10)
Psalm 35:27
BIBLE TEXT: "Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant." (Psalm 35:27 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: How fitting to pray for those who fervently pray for you!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To enlist on the winning side one must champion the cause of Christ, magnify the Most High, and pray for the success of God’s servants.
Psalm 35:28
BIBLE TEXT: "And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." (Psalm 35:28 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As it is in Heaven, so should it be on earth, praise should be perpetual.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should never tire of telling others about the righteousness of our God nor ever peter out in our praising of Him.
Psalm 36:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes." (Psalm 36:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Godly eyes clearly see the sins of the wicked as the wicked’s complete want of any faith in God or any fear of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The practicing sinner is a practical atheist.
Psalm 36:2
BIBLE TEXT: "For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful." (Psalm 36:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The self-exalting sinner, who flatters himself as his own god, can never see his own ungodliness, in spite of the fact that it will eventually and inevitably be found out.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To smooth over one’s conscience with one’s conceit is to make certain one’s condemnation.
Psalm 36:3
BIBLE TEXT: "The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good." (Psalm 36:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If one’s lips speak what is wrong and guileful, then one’s life is void of what is wise and good.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only does one’s actions speak louder than one’s words, but one’s words also speak loudly about one’s heart. (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45)
Psalm 36:4
BIBLE TEXT: "He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil." (Psalm 36:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When our nights are used for plotting evil our days will be used for practicing evil.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To have the devil for your bed-fellow in the night is to have him as your bosom buddy during the day.
Psalm 36:5a
BIBLE TEXT: "Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens…" (Psalm 36:5a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s mercy, like the heavens, encompasses the earth, so that all of earth’s creatures are under its canopy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The expanse of the mercy of God is as great as the firmament of the earth.
Psalm 36:5b
BIBLE TEXT: "…and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." (Psalm 36:5b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The faithfulness of God is as high above the faithfulness of all others as the clouds are above the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas men may deceive or disappoint you, God never will, since He can neither fail you nor lie to you.(Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2)
Psalm 36:6a
BIBLE TEXT: "Thy righteousness is like the great mountains…" (Psalm 36:6a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As Mount Everest towers above all other mountain peaks, the righteousness of God towers above the righteousness of men, so much so that it cannot be shaken by anything nor scaled by anyone.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The highest peak of the righteousness of God is found on Mount Calvary, where the Son of God was sacrificed to satisfy the justice of God, so that God could justly justify unjust sinners, like you and me.
Psalm 36:6b
BIBLE TEXT: "…thy judgments are a great deep…" (Psalm 36:6b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The judgments of God are as fathomless as the deepest depths of the sea, being just as unexplorable and unsearchable by mortal man.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While God’s infinite ways in our lives may be hidden beneath tranquil or tempest tossed seas, they are often unfathomable to our finite minds.
Psalm 36:6c
BIBLE TEXT: "…O Lord, thou preservest man and beast." (Psalm 36:6c KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All creatures great and small owe their preservation to the Providence of their Creator.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How debase is a man who denies the Lord upon whom the duration of his life depends?
Psalm 36:7
BIBLE TEXT: "How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." (Psalm 36:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The most precious pearl possessed by the people of God is their Lord’s lovingkindness, for it promises them His perpetual provision and protection.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We know we can count on Christ to take care of us, since we know from the cross how much He cares for us.
Psalm 36:8
BIBLE TEXT: "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures." (Psalm 36:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All who put their faith in the Lord will not just be adequately, but also abundantly, provided for and pleased.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The pleasures of Heavenly paradise are presently implausible to the earthbound people of God. (1 Corinthians 2:8)
Psalm 36:9a
BIBLE TEXT: "For with thee is the fountain of life…" (Psalm 36:9a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God is the fountain of life, He alone is its source and its sustainer, without Him no life commences nor continues.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christ is not just a philosopher explaining life, but He is life (John 14:6). He is not just the One for whom we are to live our life, but He is our life (Colossians 3:4).
Psalm 36:9b
BIBLE TEXT: "…in thy light shall we see light." (Psalm 36:9b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Just as we do not see the sun with a light of our own, but with the sun’s own light, so it is with the Son of God. It’s only in His own light that He can ever been seen!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one ever comes to know Christ or believe in the Gospel through religious tutelage or human reasoning, but only by divine revelation (Matthew 16:16-17; Galatians 1:11-12). Neither can we ever see Christ for ourselves, unless He shows Himself to us.
Psalm 36:10a
BIBLE TEXT: "O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee…" (Psalm 36:10a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The more you know God experientially the more you will experience God’s lovingkindness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The more you learn of God, the more you will love God, and the more you love God, the more you will live for God.
Psalm 36:10b
BIBLE TEXT: "O continue thy…righteousness to the upright in heart." (Psalm 36:10b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When we’re made right with God, we’re given an upright heart, and our upright heart should lead to upright living.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The New Covenant does not promise us a heart torn between two natures, as is preached in today’s church, but a heart transplant, performed for us by the Great Physician, as is taught in Scripture.
TO LEAR MORE, READ CHAPTER ONE: THE HEART OF MAN FROM OUR BOOK THE KING OF HEARTS: THE SIMPLICITY OF LIVING IN THE SPIRIT.
Psalm 36:11-12
BIBLE TEXT: "Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise" (Psalm 36:11-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray to neither be trampled under the feet of the proud nor taken over by the hands of the wicked, lest we become a stumbling block rather than a springboard to others coming to Christ.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should not pray primarily for our deliverance and our enemies’ demise for our own sake, but for Christ’s sake, not primarily for our good, but for God’s glory.
Psalm 37:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb." (Psalm 37:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: "Fret not" is as much a divine commandment as "sin not."
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should neither be exasperated by evil-doers nor envious of them, anymore than we are of cows being fattened for the slaughter.
Psalm 37:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." (Psalm 37:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Faith cures fretting and is confirmed by doing good.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Genuine faith fosters good works, is found in God’s will, and fares quite well.
Psalm 37:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (Psalm 37:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It's not whatever we desire, but the desires themselves, that God promises to give us if we delight in Him. In other words, God promises to make us desire what He desires.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God takes no delight in it, then, those who delight in God will have no desire for it.
Psalm 37:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." (Psalm 37:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If we have confidence enough in God to commit our lives to God, we can always count on God coming through for us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Your life in your hands can only bring to pass what you can do, but your life in God’s hands can bring to pass what He can do!
Psalm 37:6
BIBLE TEXT: "And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." (Psalm 37:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christians should keep their composure in calumny, knowing that God will clear them of all the charges and accusations of character assassins.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we seek God’s honor, God will see to ours!
Psalm 37:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." (Psalm 37:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To wait in reliance upon the Lord is to rest in the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should never prejudge the prosperity of the wicked prior to the closing curtain being brought down on the final scene of their lives by Divine Providence.
Psalm 37:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." (Psalm 37:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Don’t let your anger or wrath whip up any wrongdoing in your life.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This verse is the Old Testament equivalent of Ephesians 4:26–“Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
Psalm 37:9
BIBLE TEXT: "For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." (Psalm 37:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Wrongdoers shall be cut off from the earth, but those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To impatiently look to yourself to get all you can in the here-and-now, is to lose all you’ve got in the hereafter. On the other hand, to patiently look to God to give you all He can in the hereafter, is to have forever all that God gives.
Psalm 37:10
BIBLE TEXT: "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." (Psalm 37:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked fatefully dash through this fallen world to their forever disappearance.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Though the wicked may be viewed today in a vaunted place, they will vanish and their place will be vacated tomorrow.
Psalm 37:11
BIBLE TEXT: "But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." (Psalm 37:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is the meek of the earth, those who don’t mind being overlooked by it, rather than earth’s movers and shakers, those obsessed with receiving ovations from it, who will inherit the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the abundance of peace, not the abundance of possessions, that will delight the meek inheritors of the earth.
Psalm 37:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming." (Psalm 37:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked, who scheme and snarl, are scoffed at and scorned by the Lord, who sees their sentencing soon coming.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What could be more fool hearty than sinners in the hands of an angry God foolishly plotting against the people of God?
Psalm 37:14-15
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken." (Psalm 37:14-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked unsheathe their swords and bend their bows against the downtrodden and upright, only to have God break their bows and stab them in the heart with their own swords.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Just as Saul, who sought to slay David, ended up falling on his own sword, so shall all sinners who seek to slay the downtrodden and devout.
Psalm 37:16-17
BIBLE TEXT: "A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous." (Psalm 37:16-17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The paltry provisions of the righteous are preferable to the prolific prosperity of the wicked, because the wellbeing of the righteous is forever assured by God, but the fleeting wealth of the wicked will soon slip away.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is better to be upheld by God with a little than to be an upstart in this world with a lot.
Psalm 37:18-19
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied." (Psalm 37:18-19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Nothing can ever happen to the upright that catches the Almighty unawares or that can ever leave the upright ashamed or unattended.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our great comfort is found in the fact that our lives are not governed by coincidence, but by Providence.
Psalm 37:20
BIBLE TEXT: "But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." (Psalm 37:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked, having spurned the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lamb of God, shall pay for their own sins by being consumed by the fire of God’s wrath and going up in the smoke of God’s judgment.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As stubble will go up in flames if it dares to fight fire, so will all the enemies of Christ who dare to contend with Him.
Psalm 37:21-22
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off." (Psalm 37:21-22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous are benevolent and want nothing in return.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The generous, who donate to the disadvantaged, are blessed by the Lord and bequeathed the earth, but the greedy, who default on their debts, are cursed by God and cut off.
Psalm 37:23-24
BIBLE TEXT: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." (Psalm 37:23-24 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In order to be able to delight in good men, God orders their steps, but even when good men are not kept from going down, God, who upholds them, will keep them from staying down.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whatever wrong the Christian has done, he or she can never be undone, because he or she can never fall below the reach of the upholding, uplifting and nail-scarred hand of Christ.
Psalm 37:25a
BIBLE TEXT: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken…" (Psalm 37:25a KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: David is not just stating a personal observation, but also a divine promise and absolute truth, found elsewhere in Scripture, when he says he has never seen the righteous forsaken.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No saint of God is ever forsaken by God, not even in the most dire and desperate straits. While it may appear to be true, it is never actually true.
Psalm 37:25b
BIBLE TEXT: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen…[the] seed [of the righteous] begging bread." (Psalm 37:25b KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When David says he has never seen the seed of the righteous begging bread, he is stating a personal observation, not a divine oracle.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although it may be a rarity, and one David never saw, it is certainly not an impossibility, that the seed of the righteous may be seen begging bread.
Psalm 37:26
BIBLE TEXT: "He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed." (Psalm 37:26 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The posterity of the righteous will be blessed by God over the mercifulness and magnanimity of their parents.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although it may be spiritual rather than tangible, the charitableness of Christians to others will be a blessing to their own children.
Psalm 37:27
BIBLE TEXT: "Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore." (Psalm 37:27 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: True repentance, which alone leads to eternal life, is turning from evil to good for good!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To truly repent or to turn from evil to good is not a once in a lifetime experience, but a lifelong process.
Psalm 37:28-29
BIBLE TEXT: "For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." (Psalm 37:28-29 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord loves to right wrongs, by not only preserving and compensating the righteous, but also by punishing and cutting off the wicked.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Make no mistake about it; God’s love of those to be judged does not negate His love of judgment.
Psalm 37:30-31
BIBLE TEXT: "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." (Psalm 37:30-31 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Because God’s Word is in their hearts, the righteous are wise in their speech and sure in their walk.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no way for one to have loose lips or to live a loose life if he has the law of God in his heart.
Psalm 37:32-33
BIBLE TEXT: "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged." (Psalm 37:32-33 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The wicked long to lay their hands on the righteous, but the Lord will never leave the righteous in the hands of the wicked.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Lord will never allow either the lies of the wicked or of the wicked one, who is the father of lies, to stand forever against the righteous, but will eternally exonerate the righteous. (Matthew 13:38; John 8:44)
Psalm 37:34
BIBLE TEXT: "Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it." (Psalm 37:34 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who keep waiting on the Lord and keep themselves in the way of the Lord, will eventually and eternally be exalted by the Lord.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is our blessed hope, as the heirs of Christ, that enables us to wait on Christ. (Titus 2:13; Romans 8:17)
Psalm 37:35-36
BIBLE TEXT: "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." (Psalm 37:35-36 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although the power of the wicked springs up and the possessions of the wicked spread out, like a well-rooted tree, the wicked themselves are soon uprooted and removed from sight.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The wicked are never gone, but not forgotten, but soon forgotten once they’re gone.
Psalm 37:37-38
BIBLE TEXT: "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off." (Psalms 37:37-38 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: One must live well to die well, but to live wickedly is to definitely die wretchedly.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Mark the pious man, for he shall come to a peaceful end, but not the pagan, for his end shall be precipitous.
Psalms 37:39-40
BIBLE TEXT: "But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him." (Psalm 37:39-40 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The Lord is the salvation of all who trust in Him, as well as their strength in time of trouble.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we always depend upon the Lord, we will always be delivered by the Lord!
Psalm 38:1
BIBLE TEXT: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure." (Psalm 38:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When the children of God sin grievously, they should pray for God to chasten them gently with the rod rather than condemn them angrily with the sword.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we should pray that God will not chasten us in His wrath, we should never pray that God will not chasten us, since to be without God’s chastisement is to be an illegitimate rather than genuine child of God. (Hebrews 12:7-8)
Psalm 38:2
BIBLE TEXT: "For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore." (Psalm 38:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Nothing pierces and presses the soul like the conviction of the Spirit over committed sins.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Holy Spirit swiftly pierces and sorely presses the saints the instant they sin.
Psalm 38:3
BIBLE TEXT: "There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin." (Psalm 38:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Soul sickness, which can cause both physical and mental illness, is contracted when we enrage God by engaging in sin.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To have soundness of soul, we must be assured that God is no longer angry at us, because our sin has been both admitted and quitted.
Psalm 38:4
BIBLE TEXT: "For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me." (Psalm 38:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Under the Spirit’s conviction, our guilt becomes like waves breaking over our head and like an unbearable burden weighing us down.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When the Hound of Heaven, the Holy Spirit of God, is hot on our heels, His conviction becomes like a swelling tide in our soul and an unbearable burden on our back.
Psalm 38:5
BIBLE TEXT: "My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness." (Psalm 38:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If we continue in our foolishness, by being stiff-necked in our sin, then, our stripes from the Spirit’s conviction will become festered and foul.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The only reasonable thing for foolish sinners to do is to come to their senses, by coming to God for salvation from their sins. (Isaiah 1:18)
Psalm 38:6
BIBLE TEXT: "I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long." (Psalm 38:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Under the Spirit’s conviction, unbowed sinners are bent over and brought low.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The convicted sinner is no longer a merrymaker, but a mourner; he is no longer made glad by his sin, but grieved over it.
Psalm 38:7
BIBLE TEXT: "For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh." (Psalm 38:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The sinner’s thorough examination by the Holy Spirit, which results in the Great Physician’s diagnosis of sin, results in the sinner being faced with his fatal condition.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No physician’s diagnosis of the sick should be as disturbing as the Great Physician’s diagnosis of the sinner, since the latter is not only fatal to the sinner’s mortal body, but also to his or her immortal soul.
Psalm 38:8
BIBLE TEXT: "I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." (Psalm 38:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The true sinner’s prayer cannot be rhetorically repeated after some well-intended saint, but only desperately roared from a heart dealt with and disquieted by the Holy Spirit.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one will ever call upon the name of the Lord for their salvation who has never been convinced by the Spirit of the Lord of their condemnation.
Psalm 38:9
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee." (Psalm 38:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God knows all about us, what we want, as well as what makes us wail.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To maintain you can fool God is to make a fool of yourself.
Psalm 38:10
BIBLE TEXT: "My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me." (Psalm 38:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: In this verse, David appears to begin a second story of woe. It is more about the throes of personal affliction than the Spirit’s conviction.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: David deemed the defibrillation of his heart, the debilitation of his body, and the dimming of his eyes to be the dreaded doormen at death’s door.
Psalm 38:11
BIBLE TEXT: "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off." (Psalm 38:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To be forsaken by family and friends is a most heartbreaking betrayal.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “A real friend is one who walks in, when the rest of the world walks out.” (Walter Winchell)
Psalm 38:12
BIBLE TEXT: "They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long." (Psalm 38:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray to sidestep the snares, slanders, and skulduggery of our nefarious nemeses.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If fair means cannot be successfully employed against the people of God, then, foul ones will be resorted to by the snare-laying poachers of Apollyon.
Psalm 38:13-15
BIBLE TEXT: "But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God." (Psalm 38:13-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We can be deaf to false accusations and dumb in giving any answer to them, if we depend upon the Almighty for our defense and deliverance.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To rush to one’s own defense is to deny one’s reliance upon God for deliverance.
Psalm 38:16
BIBLE TEXT: "For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me." (Psalm 38:16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for the Lord to make us sure-footed, lest we slip and give our adversaries an advantage over us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The least little misstep of the saint will be magnified by the sinner into a malicious and scathing excoriation.
Psalm 38:17
BIBLE TEXT: "For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me." (Psalm 38:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although we may be briefly halted when hurt, we should never allow any hurt to halt us between two opinions. (1 Kings 18:21)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If our trials turn us to God in reliance, we shall be made strong in God’s grace, but if our trials turn us away from God in resentfulness, we shall fail the grace of God and end up profane like Esau. (2 Timothy 2:1; Hebrews 12:15-16)
Psalm 38:18
BIBLE TEXT: "For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin." (Psalm 38:18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Although we may repudiate the false accusations of our enemies, we must sorrowfully confess the sins we’re convicted of by the Holy Spirit and charged with by a guilty conscience.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We are near to the end of sorrows over our sins when we tearfully come to the end of our sins.
Psalm 38:19
BIBLE TEXT: "But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied." (Psalm 38:19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The enemies of God’s people are always lively and never lethargic, nether are they ever feeble and few, but always mighty and multiplying.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While our enemies may be many, none are equal to or a match for our God. (Romans 8:31)
Psalm 38:20
BIBLE TEXT: "They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is." (Psalm 38:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who repay good with evil, not only recoil at good, but are also repulsed by and resistant to all good doers.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should be happy to be hated by the haters of good, but horrified if we are not.
Psalm 38:21
BIBLE TEXT: "Forsake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far from me." (Psalm 38:21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To pray for God not to forsake us and to never be far from us is to pray for protection from fear, for we need never fear if God is ever near and never far.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we are assured that God is with us, anxiety can never overwhelm us.
Psalm 38:22
BIBLE TEXT: "Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation." (Psalm 38:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The most harrowing of hardships can prove helpful to us if they hastens us to our knees to pray for the Lord to hurry and help us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Lord is not only our Savior, by whom we are saved, but also our salvation, in whom we are safe.
Psalm 39
This psalm, along with Psalms 62, 77, and 89, are all entrusted by David to Jeduthun or Ethan, who, along with Asaph and Herman, as well as all three of their descendants, were special workmen appointed to the sacred service of putting God’s message to His people through His prophets to music (1 Chronicles 25:1; 2 Chronicles 5:12). In 2 Chronicles 35:15, Jeduthun is singled out from Asaph and Herman, as “the king’s seer.” Also, David left the Ark of the Covenant in the house and care of Jeduthun’s son Obed-edom (2 Samuel 6:10-12; 1 Chronicles 13:5-14; 16:38).
Psalm 39:1
BIBLE TEXT: "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me." (Psalm 39:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To not heed one’s ways is a sure way to unholiness, and nothing makes one more susceptible to sin than an unbridled tongue.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must constantly watch our every step and carefully select our every word to ward off our every sin.
Psalm 39:2
BIBLE TEXT: "I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred." (Psalm 39:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To be silent in the face of the wicked, especially when it comes to speaking up for what is good, is to buttress the wicked and betray the good.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Psalm 39:3
BIBLE TEXT: "My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." (Psalm 39:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Hot tempers explode into howling tongues.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The mouth is the crater from which smoldering volcanic emotions eventually erupt.
Psalm 39:4-6
BIBLE TEXT: "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." (Psalm 39:4-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We are mere mortals on a meaningless march through a momentary mirage mustering mundane things to be someday managed by somebody else.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only when confronted with life’s brevity and human mortality that men come to consider the possibility of eternal realities, which alone give meaning to their otherwise meaningless existence.
Psalm 39:7
BIBLE TEXT: "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee." (Psalm 39:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Once one realizes the transience and hollowness of this life, he will put his trust and hope in the Lord, who alone gives rhyme and reason to this otherwise short and senseless existence.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “The nature of Christ’s existence is mysterious; I admit, but this mystery meets the wants of man. Reject it and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactory explained.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)
Psalm 39:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish." (Psalm 39:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Only God can remit our sins and rescue us from the reproach of sinners.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Sin must not only be forgiven, but forsaken, if faithful saints are not to be made fun of by foolish sinners.
Psalm 39:9-11
BIBLE TEXT: "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah." (Psalm 39:9-11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The mouths of the stiff-necked can be swiftly hushed by the hard blow of God’s hand.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Unlike the silence of a sulking flesh, the silence of submission to the Spirit is praiseworthy, not pitiable. Whereas the former is unsightly, the latter is seemly.
Psalm 39:12
BIBLE TEXT: "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." (Psalm 39:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When sojourners with God find themselves estranged from God, because of their sins against God, there is no surer way of reconciliation to God that to cry the tears of repentance before God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The ear of God is more attuned to the tears of a repentant sinner than to the eloquence of ten thousand tongues.
Psalm 39:13
BIBLE TEXT: "O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more." (Psalm 39:12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God forbid that we should die under the frown of our Lord and without a smile on our own lips.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should pray not only to live in God’s good graces, but to die in them as well.
Psalm 40:1
BIBLE TEXT: "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry." (Psalm 40:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Patiently waiting on our knees is the key to unlocking the door of prevailing prayer.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the prayers of the patient and persevering that gain the ear of God, as well as a hearing in Heaven.
Psalm 40:2
BIBLE TEXT: "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." (Psalm 40:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When sinking down into a deep pit or some miry clay, we can cry to the Lord to lift us up and set our feet on a solid rock, from which we can step forward sure-footed into our future.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Neither pits of despair nor sloughs of despond are below the reach of our Lord’s uplifting hand.
Psalm 40:3
BIBLE TEXT: "And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." (Psalm 40:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When the saint emerges from the pit exuberantly singing praise to God, sinners are persuaded to profess both fear of God and faith in God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To trust in the Lord is not just essential to salvation, but both the evidence and essence of salvation.
Psalm 40:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies." (Psalm 40:4)
BIBLE TWEET: True blessedness or happiness is possessed by those who look to the Lord and live by His truths, never by those who look to men and live by their lies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: True happiness is not to be had by the humanist, who sees men as supreme and the source of all knowledge.
Psalms 40:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." (Psalm 40:5)
BIBLE TWEET: The multitude of God’s marvelous miracles for all of mankind are innumerable and incomprehensible.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although it is truly astounding that God has done so much for us, what is even more astonishing is that He should think so much of us!
Psalm 40:6-8
BIBLE TEXT: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:6-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: According to the New Testament, this stupendous Old Testament statement was spoken by our Savior when He left the splendor of Heaven to step onto this sinful earthly sphere. (Hebrews10:5-12)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Knowing that the Old Covenant’s sacrifices and offerings were insufficient for the salvation of a sinful world, Jesus Christ came into this world to not only establish a New Covenant, but also to fulfill God’s Word and God’s will, by offering Himself as a sufficient and satisfactory sacrifice for the world’s salvation!
Psalm 40:8
BIBLE TEXT: "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Fulfilling God's will and obeying God's law is not drudgery, but sheer delight to those within whose hearts God's law is enshrined and upon whose hearts God’s law is inscribed!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those with a heart for God don’t obey God because they have to or ought to, but because they wholeheartedly want to.
Psalm 40:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation." (Psalm 40:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ, regardless of cost and consequence to Himself, refused to refrain from publicly preaching the unadulterated truth of the Gospel—salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. (John 18:20)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All preachers of Christ should follow Christ’s example by fearlessly and faithfully preaching Him to a Christ-hating world, regardless of cost and consequence to themselves.
Psalm 40:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me." (Psalm 40:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who sincerely preach the tender mercies and truths of God are sure to be preserved by the truths and tender mercies of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We can forever lean upon our Lord’s unfailing lovingkindness.
Psalm 40:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me." (Psalm 40:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To count all of our troubles and trespasses is to doom ourselves to being downcast and disheartened, but to cry to the Lord to hasten to help us can deliver us from the doldrums in a hurry.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is a hair-raising and head-lowering thought to think that the sins in your life outnumber the hairs on your head.
Psalm 40:14-15
BIBLE TEXT: "Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha." (Psalm 40:14-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As the devil ended up ashamed over his failed attempt to destroy Christ, the children of the devil will also end up ashamed over their futile attempts to destroy Christians.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The “aha, ahas” of the adversaries of Christ and Christians will soon be turned by Christ into the “hoorays” of Christians!
Psalm 40:16
BIBLE TEXT: "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified." (Psalm 40:16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is only seekers of God who are satisfied with God and saved by God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To truly praise God you must pursue God, for only those who’ve met Him can truly magnify Him.
Psalm 40:17
BIBLE TEXT: "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God." (Psalm 40:17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Nothing more amazing is to be found in all of the Bible than that the Lord loves us, thinks of us, and is therefore attentive to us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Wonderful things in the Bible I see, but this is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.” (Philip Bliss)
Psalm 41:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." (Psalm 41:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: If we are charitable to the poor in times of need, God will deliver us in times of trouble.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To think of the poor is to be thought of by God.
Psalm 41:2
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies." (Psalm 41:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who sincerely preserve the poor by being benevolent toward them, will surely be preserved and blessed by God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The doctrine of reciprocity—what you do unto others will be done unto you—is not only taught here, but elsewhere throughout Scripture.
Psalm 41:3
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness." (Psalm 41:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The saint is not immune from sickness, but assured that his or her sick bed will be made by God and turned from physical affliction into spiritual advantage.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Oft have I sat in secret sighs
To feel my flesh decay;
Then, groaned aloud with frightened eyes
To view the tottering clay.
But I forbid my sorrow now,
Nor dare my flesh complain:
Diseases bring their profits too—
The joy overcomes the pain. (Isaac Watts)
Psalm 41:4
BIBLE TEXT: "I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee." (Psalm 41:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The first and foremost prayer for you to pray is for the healing of your sin sick soul by a merciful God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The healing of our immortal soul from sin is far more critical than the healing of our mortal body from sickness.
Psalm 41:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?" (Psalm 41:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The lights of the world are no delight to the world, but so disdained by the world that it hopes to rid itself of them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The irony of all ironies is seen in the saints wanting to see the salvation of sinners and sinners wanting to see the elimination of saints.
Psalm 41:6
BIBLE TEXT: "And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it." (Psalm 41:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Fake friends, who feign to feel for us, only come around to forage around for gossip to spread all around about us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All gossips tell things they love to tell about those they don’t love at all!
Psalm 41:7
BIBLE TEXT: "All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt." (Psalm 41:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The coconspirators of hate are always whisperers, lest their hidden devices against those they despise be divulged before hatched.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Love for others is a child of the light, but hate always colludes and connives in the dark.
Psalm 41:8
BIBLE TEXT: "An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." (Psalm 41:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When saints are chastened by Providence, sinners are quick to champion and celebrate it as capital punishment.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Before his 60th birthday, John Wycliffe suffered the first of three strokes. The friars rejoiced at the news and rushed to Wycliffe’s bedside believing he would repent of the “evil” he had done to them and the church, by violently attacking the Catholic Church’s practice of indulgences. Gathered about the supposed dying man’s bedside, the friars said to him, “You have death on your lips, be touched by your faults, and retract in our presence all that you have said to our injury.” However, motioning to his attendant to set him up in the bed, Wycliffe responded in a clear and strong voice, “I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars.” Astonished and embarrassed, the monks all hurried from the room.
Psalm 41:9
BIBLE TEXT: "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." (Psalm 41:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: There is no blow more brutal than to be backstabbed by a bosom buddy with whom we’ve often broke bread.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The epitome of betrayal, by one who dips his hand in the bowl alongside us and eats bread at the table with us, only to betray us and lift up his heel against us, is Judas Iscariot, who will ever be remembered as the traitor of our Lord. (Matthew 26:23; John 13:18)
Psalm 41:10
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them." (Psalm 41:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To requite our malicious enemies requires us being raised up by our merciful Redeemer.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To triumph over those who mercilessly put us down we need to pray that the Lord will mercifully lift us up!
Psalm 41:11
BIBLE TEXT: "By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me." (Psalm 41:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We know we’re in God’s favor when our enemies can’t get us in their grip.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not so much for our name’s sake, but for Christ’s name’s sake, that we should pray for our enemies to never prevail over us.
Psalm 41:12-13
BIBLE TEXT: "And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen." (Psalm 41:12-13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should praise God for upholding us, in spite of our iniquities, and uplifting us, in spite of our deficiencies.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For mere clods of clay to become perpetual courtiers in the throne room of the universe, where they will forever find themselves before the face of God, is certainly reason enough for their eternal exultation of their eternal King!
Psalms 42:1
BIBLE TEXT: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." (Psalm 42:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: A heart for God is not proven by a recited sinner’s prayer, but by a perpetual panting for the presence of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those without a foremost desire for God in the here and now will not be forever dwelling with Him in the hereafter.
Psalm 42:2
BIBLE TEXT: "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalm 42:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Thirst for the living God cannot be quenched at the arid altar of a false and nonexistent deity or by observing the lifeless formality of a dried up and dead religion.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who truly desire God are anxious to appear before God!
Psalm 42:3
BIBLE TEXT: "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?" (Psalm 42:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The bitterest dregs of the saint’s cup of sorrow is that his free-flowing tears oftentimes trigger the skeptic’s blasphemous taunt that faith in God is futile.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Where is God amidst your sorrow,
The skeptics continually say.
Where is God amidst the darkness,
Blotting out the light of day?
I must not allow my soul to languish,
Nor to be cast down and shamed,
Lest my severe anguish,
Lead to the Divine being defamed!
Where is God when sorrow assails me?
Oh, Lord of mercy, will you not reply?
Prove now that you are ever with me,
And that your outstretched arm is ever nigh.
Help me thus to emerge victorious,
As the shield of faith I rise to take.
Oh, Lord, appear and show thyself glorious,
Help me now for thy own name’s sake!
Psalm 42:4
BIBLE TEXT: "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday." (Psalm 42:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When God is hidden and foes harangue, the tears of one’s presently perceived divine abandonment and human accosting precipitate heartfelt prayers, especially when one remembers past participation with the people of God in the praise of God at the house of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Remembering God's past mercies and our past praise should not compound present problems and make present miseries more miserable. Instead, it should persuade us to pour out our souls in prayer to God that He may soon have us praising Him again for His mercies to us.
Psalm 42:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." (Psalm 42:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The cure for a short-lived frown of despair is the hope that God will soon smile upon us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The smiling countenance of God delivers the cast down soul from all disquietude, discouragement, and despair.
Psalm 42:6
BIBLE TEXT: "O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar." (Psalm 42:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To lift up a cast down soul one should cast their mind back to previous divine interventions!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To lift up a cast down soul one should stop looking within himself and start looking upward to Heaven.
Psalm 42:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." (Psalm 42:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The depths of God are fathomed by those who’ve called out to Him beneath His deep billows, but all who’ve not sounded sovereignty’s surging swells simply splash through life in the spiritual shallows.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The depths of deepest prayer are fathomed in troubling and trying tempests that overwhelm the soul like a waterspout above, a whirlpool below, and billowing waves all around.
Psalm 42:8
BIBLE TEXT: "Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." (Psalm 42:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The songs and prayers of a soul overshadowed by God’s sovereign lovingkindness can neither be silenced by the toils of the day nor by the terrors of the night.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s lovingkindness is graciously commanded, not conditionally given; in other words, it’s ours because He mercifully mandates it, not because we merit or maintain it.
Psalm 42:9-10
BIBLE TEXT: "I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?" (Psalm 42:9-10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To ask for and receive God’s explanation of His apparent abandoning of us will assuredly aid us to endure our adversaries’ attacks and aspersions upon us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Persecutions should prompt us to pray, especially when our soul is cut to the quick by the sword of our persecutors over the inconspicuousness of God in our lives.
Psalm 42:9-11
BIBLE TEXT: "I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." (Psalm 42:9-11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To make God our rock does not rid our lives of rocky times, but reassures us of divine relief within them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is never any cause for a soul whose hope is in the Lord to be disquieted nor to have a down cast countenance!
Psalm 43:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man." (Psalm 43:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s vindication of us renders irrelevant the ungodly’s vilification of us.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should concern ourselves with the just judgment of God, not with the unjust judgment of the ungodly.
I’d rather be thought more of by Christ and less of by my ungodly country and countrymen than more of by my ungodly country and countrymen and less of by Christ.
Psalm 43:2
BIBLE TEXT: "For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" (Psalm 43:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Prayer may be inquiry, but not inquisition. We may ask God why He appears at times to abandon us, as well as sometimes allows the enemy to oppress us, but we must never be an affront to God by making accusations against God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain. (William Cowper)
Psalm 43:3
BIBLE TEXT: "O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles." (Psalm 43:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is only in the light of God and by the truth of God that we are personally led into the presence of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s holy hill can’t be climbed in the dark, but only in the light, and the only ticket into God’s tabernacle is the truth.
Psalm 43:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God." (Psalm 43:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To know God in your life as your exceeding joy you must first offer yourself to God upon His altar.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It takes more than a harp to praise God; it also takes a heart that knows God. True praise is not sung to “O God,” but to “my God.”
Psalm 43:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." (Psalm 43:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: As long as there is hope of soon praising God for lifting us up, no problem in the world should ever get us down.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No Christian should ever be downcast or disquieted over his or her difficulties or discouragements.
Psalm 44:1
BIBLE TEXT: "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old." (Psalm 44:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: No one can take the role of a father in the religious education of his children.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A child is more influenced by his father than by a hundred schoolmasters.
Psalm 44:2-3
BIBLE TEXT: "How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them." (Psalm 44:2-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: History is His story. It is not a record of what men have done, but a record of what God has done, not only for men, but through men.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our salvation, like Israel’s, is altogether God’s doing, while we may have been active in it, we had nothing to do with the accomplishing of it!
It is God’s favor toward His elect, not the efforts of our flesh, that is to be credited for our conquest of Canaan; that is, for our possession of all of God’s promises.
Psalm 44:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob." (Psalm 44:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God commands deliverances for those who confess Him as their God and obey Him as their King.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God is not your King, He is neither your God, for no one can say “no” to his or her Lord!
Psalms 44:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me." (Psalms 44:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is not taking up our bow and sword, but looking up to our Lord, that puts down our raised up enemy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s army is the only army that advances on its knees.
Psalm 44:7-8
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah." (Psalm 44:7-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When our enemy is beaten and put to shame we should boast in and praise our Lord’s name!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since our daily battles are the Lord’s our boast should be in Him all day long.
Psalm 44:9-11
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen." (Psalm 44:9-11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: An army abandoned by the Almighty is sure to be shamed, spoiled, and scattered.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I want my army to be an army of the living God.” (Stonewall Jackson)
Psalm 44:12-16
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger." (Psalm 44:12-16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Nothing is more confusing or chagrinning to the saints than to be shamefully scorned by sacrilegious sinners.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The world, which put Christ on the cross, should never be expected to put crowns on Christians’ heads.
Psalm 44:17-19
BIBLE TEXT: "All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death." (Psalm 44:17-19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We must not turn away from our allegiance to the Lord amidst all the adversities of our lives.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No trouble or hardship should ever turn our heart from God.
Psalm 44:20-21
BIBLE TEXT: "If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart." (Psalm 44:20-21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: No strange god can be secretly enshrined in human hearts without being searched out and seen by divine omniscience.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Divided loyalty is not loyalty at all. If God doesn’t have all of your heart, He doesn’t have your heart at all.
Psalm 44:22
BIBLE TEXT: "Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." (Psalm 44:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist’s woe becomes the Apostle Paul’s wonder, when he paints up all who are counted for Christ’s sake as sheep for the slaughter as more than conquerors through Him who is inseparable from them and who unfailingly loves them. (Romans 8:35-39)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All people suffer in this world, but only God’s people have the privilege of suffering for His sake.
Psalm 44:23-25
BIBLE TEXT: "Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth." (Psalm 44:23-25 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Upon the presumption that they’ve been abandoned by God in their afflictions, especially those suffered at the hands of their adversaries, the people of God always pray for God to awake, arise, and avenge them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A bowed down soul can sink one down into the dust of the earth.
Psalm 44:26
BIBLE TEXT: "Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake." (Psalm 44:26 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All appeals for God’s help and our redemption must be made to God’s mercy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Help” is often a long enough prayer!
Psalm 45
As the title of this psalm makes plain, it is a royal wedding or love song to be sung in celebration of the king’s marriage to his chosen queen. Many believe it is to be understood allegorically, as a love song between Christ, the King of Kings, and His chosen bride, the church. It is for this reason that this psalm has been called the Nuptial or Wedding Song of Christ and His Church.
Psalm 45:1
BIBLE TEXT: "My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer." (Psalm 45:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The pen in the inspired prophet’s hand is moved to write by the ignited passion in the prophet’s heart!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God has no heartless hymn writers or passionless penmen.
Psalm 45:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever." (Psalm 45:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Christ is incomparable to the children of men, in that He is not only the fairest on earth, but also the most favored of Heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Grace, as well as truth, pours forth from the lips of our Lord, who is not only full of grace and truth, but altogether lovely. (John 1:14; Song of Solomon 5:16)
Psalm 45:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty." (Psalm 45:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for our mighty and majestic God to gird His sword for His glory upon this earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)
Psalm 45:4
BIBLE TEXT: "And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things." (Psalm 45:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We should pray for men to tremble at the terror of our God triumphantly riding through the earth in defense of truth, meekness, and righteousness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It often takes the perpetration of terrible things by the right hand of the Lord to teach the terror and fear of the Lord to the fallen human race.
Psalm 45:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee." (Psalm 45:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All fall and none can stand when their heart is struck with the sharp arrows of the Almighty.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Men will fall either under conviction or in condemnation when their heart is cut one way or the other by the two-edged sword of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:12)
Psalm 45:6
BIBLE TEXT: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre." (Psalm 45:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God, whose throne is everlasting, will never yield His sovereignty nor wield His scepter unjustly.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God reigns forever and is forever right!
Psalm 45:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." (Psalm 45:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The anointed of God both adore righteousness and abhor wickedness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Messiah—the Anointed One—was, unlike His fellows, given the Spirit without measure, for He more than anyone loved righteousness and loathed wickedness. (John 3:34)
Psalm 45:8-9
BIBLE TEXT: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir." (Psalm 45:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Doused in the holy anointing oil, all of Christ’s garments—His prophet’s mantle, His priestly tunic, and His kingly robe—are fragrant beyond compare.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The King, Christ, is poetically presented here, perfumed and prepared to wed, in His ivory palaces, the mansions of Heaven, His bride, the church, who is beautifully adorned in purest gold.
Psalm 45:10-12
BIBLE TEXT: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour." (Psalm 45:10-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The church—the bride—is wholeheartedly desired by her Bridegroom—Christ—when she is wholly devoted to Him.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When Christ alone has the church’s attention, allegiance, and adoration, she is not only seen as most fair to Him, but more favorably in this world as well.
Psalm 45:13-15
BIBLE TEXT: "The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace." (Psalm 45:13-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: These verses gloriously depict the glorification of the King’s sons and daughters. Having been justified and sanctified, we will ultimately be glorified!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although we are already the children of God and glorious within, our inner glory will be outwardly manifested when Christ returns in His glory, and we behold Him as He is and become like Him. (John 17:22; 2 Corinthians 4:6-7; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; 1 John 3:2)
Psalm 45:16-17
BIBLE TEXT: "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever." (Psalm 45:16-17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Jesus, the King of Kings, will be eternally praised for His perennial progeny of royal princes and princesses upon the earth!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The line of God’s elect is unending upon the earth, for when the fathers pass off the scene God replaces them with their children so that the name of Jesus will be remembered in the world.
Psalm 46
This psalm has been called “The Song of Holy Confidence,” as well as “Luther’s Psalm,” since the famous Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, based his famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, upon it.
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper he, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Does seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
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.
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God has willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him.
That Word above all earthly powers
No thanks to them abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever!
Psalm 46:1
BIBLE TEXT: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God is ever-present with us to presently help us with every pressing problem.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God, who is our safeguard and strength, is not only a present help in need, but a help indeed, who is never more than a short and swift prayer away.
Psalm 46:2-3
BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah." (Psalm 46:2-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Faith in God fortifies us from fear, even in the most terrifying trials and troubling times.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Faith in God supplies the saint with sure footing on solid ground even when earthquakes are shaking, mountainsides are sliding, and the swelling sea is surging!
Psalm 46:4-5
BIBLE TEXT: "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early." (Psalm 46:4-5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The city of God is the universal church of God—all Christians collectively. God dwells in it by indwelling its tabernacles—all Christians individually. Consequently, the river of eternal life flows through it and its inhabitants are forever glad and guarded within it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is a river, a never-ending supply of life, that fills the city of God with forever rejoicing, by making it invincible and its inhabitants immortal!
Psalm 46:7
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." (Psalm 46:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s presence is our protection. If He is with us, nothing can withstand us nor whip us!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jehovah Sabaoth, the Head of Heaven’s host, is our sure Helper and safe Haven, who is forever with us!
Psalm 46:8-9
BIBLE TEXT: "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire." (Psalm 46:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The desolations of the world and the dissolution of war are the work of God. His sovereign fingerprints are on them both.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing can be without the Almighty’s decree.
Psalm 46:10
BIBLE TEXT: "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is in stillness and silence that divine activity is sensed in our lives most keenly and that the still small voice of the Spirit is heard in our hearts most clearly.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must be still for God to be exalted, lest our superfluous movements be mistakenly credited for God’s supernatural miracles.
To live in intimacy with God, you must live in stillness before God, for to continuously frail away in your flesh is to forfeit close fellowship with God's Spirit.
Psalm 46:11
BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." (Psalm 46:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s presence is our protection. If He is with us, nothing can withstand us nor whip us!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jehovah Sabaoth, the Head of Heaven’s host, is our sure Helper and safe Haven, who is forever with us!
Psalm 47
This psalm, along with ten others—42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 84, 85, 87, and 88—were given to the sons of Korah to be sung at the house of God. King David appointed these descendants of the infamous leader of Korah’s Rebellion (Numbers 16), who were graciously spared by God from being swallowed up or consumed in His judgment (Numbers 26:8-11), to be both singers and gatekeepers at the Tabernacle of David (1 Chronicles 6:31-33; 9:19; 26:19). Like the spared sons of the sinful gainsayer Korah, all recipients of God’s sovereign and amazing grace should serve as doorkeepers to God’s house and singers of God’s praise.
Psalm 47:1-2
BIBLE TEXT: "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth." (Psalm 47:1-2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The throne of God causes saints to clap and shout in triumphant and sinners to cringe and shake in terror.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While there is no shortage of clapping and shouting by fans in stadiums and theaters, there is a scarcity of it by worshippers in churches.
Psalm 47:3
BIBLE TEXT: "He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet." (Psalm 47:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: You can presently choose to freely lay your life down at Christ’s feet in submission or wait to be forcefully subdued beneath Christ’s feet later. The choice is yours!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the saints often find themselves beneath the feet of sinners in the here-and-now, sinners will soon find themselves beneath the feet of the saints in the hereafter.
Psalm 47:4
BIBLE TEXT: "He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah." (Psalm 47:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Hands grasping for their own inheritance cannot ever be employed in the service of God, but only empty hands that are glad with whatever inheritance God hands them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not immaculate vessels that God uses for His glory, but empty ones!
Psalm 47:5
BIBLE TEXT: "God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet." (Psalm 47:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: This verse is applicable to Christ’s Ascension, when He ascended from earth back into Heaven, where He was undoubtedly greeted upon His return with shouts of triumphant and the sound of trumpets.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This verse is also applicable to Christ’s Second Coming, when He will descend from Heaven back to earth, returning with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
Psalm 47:6-7
BIBLE TEXT: "Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding." (Psalm 47:6-7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All the earth should sing praise to the King of all of the earth all of the time.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who have an understanding of the sovereign power of God are unending in their songs of praise to God.
Psalm 47:8
BIBLE TEXT: "God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness." (Psalm 47:8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Only through the eyes of faith can we see from this fallen earth that the God of Heaven reigns over the heathen on a throne of holiness.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Though the heathen may rage against it, they can do nothing about it, God reigns over them and roaringly laughs at them. (Psalm 2:1-4)
Psalm 47:9
BIBLE TEXT: "The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted." (Psalm 47:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All the earth will inevitably exalt the God of Heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When the shield of God is forever lifted over the earth every earthly shield shall be forever lowered.
Psalm 48
Zion is first mentioned in the Bible as a Jebusite fortress, which David captured in his conquest of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6-10; 1 Chronicles 11:4-9). Afterward, Jerusalem became known as the “city of David.” The perimeters of the fortress of Zion, located atop Mount Zion, as well as within the city of Jerusalem, were extended by King Solomon to include the threshing floor of Aranauh the Jebusite (2 Samuel 18-25; 1 Chronicles 21:18-28). It was on this enlarged site that Solomon built the temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). It is of no little significance that the place of worship was built on the very site where Abraham was willing to offer God a most costly sacrifice and where David was unwilling to offer God a costless one. After the temple was built atop Mount Zion both it and the city of Jerusalem itself became known as Zion, since both the temple—the house of God—and Jerusalem—the city of God—were believed to be the habitation of Jehovah.
The Songs or Psalms of Zion, which the Jewish captives refused to sing by the rivers of Babylon at the request of their Chaldean captors during their Babylonian Captivity (Psalm 137:1-6), were psalms that exalted Jerusalem as the abode of Almighty Jehovah. This psalm, Psalm 48, is arguably the first and foremost of the Psalms of Zion.
Psalm 48:1
BIBLE TEXT: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness." (Psalm 48:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Our great God should be greatly praised, especially by His people who are in His presence.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The pennant of great praise can only be planted on the lofty pinnacle of God’s holy mountain.
Psalm 48:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." (Psalm 48:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The higher the house of God gets above the world, the more beautiful it becomes to God in the world.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The more the house of God is looked up to on the earth, the more it becomes the joy of the earth.
Psalm 48:3-6
BIBLE TEXT: "God is known in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail." (Psalm 48:3-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The predators and plunderers of God’s people are pained to see the people of God in the palaces of God’s protection.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those hostile to us will hasten away from us as soon as they realize God is with us.
Psalm 48:7-8
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah." (Psalm 48:7-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Many believe that “the ships of Tarshish” mentioned in verse 7 is a reference to the breaking up of King Jehoshaphat’s ill-fated fleet. (1 Kings 22:48-49; 2 Chronicles 20:36)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Being able to celebrate what God has done in the past, as well as what we see Him doing in the present, enables us to be forever confident about the future.
Psalm 48:9
BIBLE TEXT: "We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple." (Psalm 48:9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Nowhere should the people of God think more of God’s lovingkindness than when they are gathered together in the midst of His temple.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is no coincidence that the Tabernacle’s Table of Shewbread, which commemorated God’s gracious bounty, was adjacent to the Altar of Incense, which symbolized the praise of God’s people.
Psalm 48:10
BIBLE TEXT: "According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness." (Psalm 48:10 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s name, which is by far the most excellent on earth, should be the most exalted and extolled to the far ends of the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is through Jesus Christ the righteous, who is seated at God’s right hand, that God will justly judge the world, by justifying the unjust who look to Christ for righteousness and condemning the self-righteous who refuse to do so. (1 John 2:1; Colossians 3:1; Acts 17:31, Romans 3:21-26; 4:5; 1 Corinthians 1:30)
Psalm 48:11
BIBLE TEXT: "Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments." (Psalm 48:11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: On Mount Zion there is jubilation over God’s judgments, since there is no fear of God’s judgments by those who are under God’s favor.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Christians we’ll never be judged for our sins, since God has already judged Christ for our sins. Although we may be chastened and corrected, we’ll never be condemned, since our condemnation has already been suffered by Christ who substituted Himself for us on the cross. (Galatians 3:13)
Psalm 48:12-14
BIBLE TEXT: "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death." (Psalm 48:12-14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Like Old Testament Zion, the more carefully and closely the New Testament church is surveyed, the more sure it will be of its earthly invulnerability and eternal security.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The church has all her foes defied
And laughed to scorn their rage.
She shall forever more abide,
Secure from age to age.
Psalm 49:1-4
BIBLE TEXT: "Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: Both low and high, rich and poor, together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp." (Psalm 49:1-4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The preface to this psalm could serve as a proper preface to all of Scripture, since all of Scripture, like this psalm, should have the ear of all the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This psalm is an inspired and insightful parable that addresses the age-old and perplexing problem of the prosperity of the ungodly under the providence of God.
Psalm 49:5-12
BIBLE TEXT: "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:5-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Wealth cannot ransom one from death. While the poor may find themselves under the heel of the prosperous in life, the bank accounts and belongings of the prosperous will be pried from their hands in death.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “You can’t take it with you. There are no pockets in a shroud.” (Elsie de Wolfe)
Psalm 49:13-15
BIBLE TEXT: "This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah." (Psalm 49:13-15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The fate of self-made men and their mimickers is to move out of their earthly mansions into mausoleums, but God-made men will prevail over self-made men in the morning of the resurrection, when they move out of mausoleums into heavenly mansions. (Psalm 49:5-12; John 14:2)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: On the resurrection morning the redeemed will rise from the grave and be received by God to reign with Him as His regents.
THE RESURRECTION MORN (Arthur S. Baring-Gould)
On the resurrection morning
Soul and body meet again;
No more sorrow, no more weeping,
No more pain.
Here awhile they must be parted,
And the flesh its sabbath keep,
Waiting in a holy stillness,
Wrapt in sleep.
For a space that tired body
Lies with feet toward the dawn;
Till there breaks the last and brightest
Easter morn.
But the soul in contemplation
Utters earnest prayers and strong;
Breaking at the resurrection
Into song.
Soul and body reunited,
Thenceforth nothing will divide,
Waking up in Christ's own likeness,
Satisfied.
Oh, the beauty, oh, the gladness
Of that resurrection-day!
Which shall not through endless ages,
Pass away!
On that happy Easter morning
All the graves their dead restore,
Father, sister, child and mother,
Meet once more.
To that brightest of all meetings,
Bring us, Jesus Christ, at last;
To Thy cross, through death and judgment,
Holding fast.
Psalm 49:16-19
BIBLE TEXT: "Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light." (Psalm 49:16-19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: You should not be perplexed over the prosperity of the wicked. Although they exalt themselves over it and others envy them for it, it is ephemeral and ends in the grave.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” (Thomas Gray)
Psalm 49:20
BIBLE TEXT: "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those who boast in their wealth are like witless beasts, impervious to their impermanence.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The true measure of one’s fortune is seen in the face of one’s mortality.
Psalm 50
This is the first of the twelve Psalms of Asaph. Asaph, along with his sons, were appointed by King David as chief musicians, who were to proclaim God’s Word to God’s people through psalms (1 Chronicles 25:1-2). That Asaph was the author of some psalms and the musician to which others were entrusted can be clearly gleaned from Scripture (1 Chronicles 16:7; 2 Chronicles 29:30). The Psalms of Asaph are Psalm 50 and Psalms 73-83.
Psalm 50:1
BIBLE TEXT: "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." (Psalm 50:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All the earth, the whole world over, from where the sun has risen to where the sun has set, is called to hear El—the Mighty One—Elohim—the Three in One—and Jehovah—the Self-existent One.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This awe-inspiring amalgamation of numinous names is only found one other place in all of Scripture, where it is translated, “the God of gods.” (Joshua 22:22)
Psalm 50:2
BIBLE TEXT: "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." (Psalm 50:2 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God’s shines in the earth through His people on the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The resplendence of God’s redeemed relies on their reflection of God’s glory. The more God is beheld in them the more beautiful they are to God.
Psalm 50:3
BIBLE TEXT: "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him." (Psalm 50:3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God will someday come as a consuming fire and raging storm to call all men to judgment.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although men today may suppose that God is silent and that they are safe from judgment, they will someday see the whole world shaken, when the Judge of all the earth comes with a shout. (Genesis 18:25; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Hebrews 12:26-27)
Psalm 50:4
BIBLE TEXT: "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people." (Psalm 50:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Contrary to popular opinion, the people of God will not be secretly snatched into Heaven before judgment begins, but judgment will begin with the people of God. (1 Peter 4:17-18)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God’s people are not spared from God’s judgment and God’s judgment begins with them, how much more sure and severe will God’s judgment be of the ungodly?
Psalm 50:5
BIBLE TEXT: "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." (Psalm 50:5 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Those received as consecrated to God are those who have a covenant relationship with God. In other words, it is their personal acceptance of the propitiatory sacrifice of God’s Son that sets them apart as one of God’s saints.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not just the acceptance of our Lord’s substitutionary sacrifice for us, but also our offering of ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him, which allows us to be gathered together with all of God’s saints unto God. (Romans 12:1)
Psalm 50:6
BIBLE TEXT: "And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah." (Psalm 50:6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God, who in the wisdom of His divine omniscience, devised a plan of salvation to solve an insoluble problem—how to justify and purify unjust and imperfect men without compromising His perfect justice—is declared the righteous Judge of the earth by all of Heaven.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Thanks to the shed blood of Jesus, no sin is swept under the rug of divine justice by a just God’s justifying of unjust sinners. (Romans 3:21-26)
Psalm 50:7
BIBLE TEXT: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God." (Psalms 50:7 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When God speaks, His people should always listen, even when what He says is hard to hear.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should hear God as willingly and readily when He testifies against us as when He testifies for us.
Psalm 50:8-9
BIBLE TEXT: "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds." (Psalm 50:8-9 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God expects real obedience from His people, not mere religious oblations.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not the religious habit you wear, but what’s really in your heart that matters to God.
Psalm 50:10-12
BIBLE TEXT: "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof." (Psalm 50:10-12 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Not only is God’s brand on the cattle of a thousand hills, but He holds the copyright to the birds’ songs and the title deed to the earth.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine; He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills, The sun and stars that shine. Wonderful riches, more than tongues can tell— He is my Father, so they’re mine as well; He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, I know that He will care for me.” (John W. Peterson)
Psalm 50:13
BIBLE TEXT: "Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" (Psalm 50:13 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is sacrilege to suppose that our religious sacrifices or sacraments are sustenance to God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the height of human hubris to imagine that God is in need of religious handouts from us.
Psalm 50:14
BIBLE TEXT: "Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High." (Psalm 50:14 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We are to offer God more than the showy outward trappings of religion; we are to offer Him the sincere inward thanksgiving of the heart.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should pay our vows to God readily, not reluctantly, not just out of a sense of duty, but with heartfelt delight.
Psalm 50:15
BIBLE TEXT: "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." (Psalm 50:15 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God promises us that our deliverance in the day of trouble is just a prayer away.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we call upon God in the day of trouble rather than complain to God, we’ll soon be glorifying God rather grumbling and gripping to God.
Psalm 50:16-17
BIBLE TEXT: "But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee." (Psalm 50:16-17 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To declare God’s Word with your lips, while discarding and disobeying it in your life, is denounced by God as most despicable.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For you to profess the Christian Faith, without really possessing it or practicing it, is no less wicked than for you to profane the Christian Faith, for it is no less an offense to God nor an obstacle to others.
Does both the profession and practice of your Christian faith pave the way for others to come to Christ or impede others from ever doing so?
Psalm 50:18
BIBLE TEXT: "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers." (Psalm 50:18 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: To consent to sin is as condemnable as committing sin and to partake of it is as punishable as the perpetration of it.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Psalm 50:19-20
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son." (Psalm 50:19-20 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Many supposed saints prove themselves shams by spewing and spreading slander against their fellows, as well as against members of their own families.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Slanderous tongues are wagged by wicked and sinful hearts.
Psalm 50:21-22
BIBLE TEXT: "These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." (Psalm 50:21-22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The sanctimonious sinner should never mistake God’s long-suffering as indifference toward or identification with his iniquity, for divine indignation will surely be seen someday before the eyes of every sinner.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Neither church attendance nor religious practices will protect Christian pretenders from being ultimately prosecuted and torn to pieces by God.
Psalm 50:23
BIBLE TEXT: "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God." (Psalm 50:23 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is those whose praise is genuinely glorifying to God and whose conversation and conduct is commended by God that are the true recipients of the salvation of God.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas true salvation is always smiled on by God, phony sanctimony is always frowned on by God.