PSALMS

 

 

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

 

Psalm 59:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me." (Psalm 59:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God must be my God to be called upon to deliver and defend me from my enemies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: I must know God if I am to pray to God to be rescued by Him from all who rise up against me.

 

Psalm 59:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men." (Psalm 59:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Prayer is a mighty bulwark against bad and bloodthirsty men.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our antagonists are more imperiled by our prayers than we are by their plots.

 

Psalm 59:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold." (Psalm 59:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the wicked lie in wait for us, for no wrongdoing of our own, we can assuredly appeal to God to awake and assist us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A clear conscience gives confidence to all who call upon God for the conferral of justice.

 

Psalm 59:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah." (Psalm 59:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If the unrepentant sinner goes unjudged, then, justice is undone and God is unjust. Therefore, it is proper to pray for God to withhold mercy from the impenitent.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should  beseech God to withhold His mercy from unrepentant sinners, lest justice be betrayed and God be unjust.

 

Psalm 59:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city." (Psalm 59:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who surrounded and staked out David’s house were to him like a pack of prowling and howling dogs in the night.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As it was with David, so it was with the Son of David, the dogs of the devil were sicced on Him in the night. (Luke 22:52-53)

 

Psalm 59:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?" (Psalm 59:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Men who believe themselves to be accountable to no one are liable to say or do anything to anyone.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nobody will have a proper regard for man who has no proper reverence for God.

 

Psalm 59:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision." (Psalm 59:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though our foes may appear formidable to us, they are farcical to God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who lambast the people of the Lord are laughable to the Lord.

 

Psalm 59:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence. The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies." (Psalm 59:9-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: With God, who is our strength and stronghold, standing with us, we need never be scared of anyone who comes against us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Winning with the Lord often requires waiting upon the Lord, without worrying that we will be left any weaker or worse off by doing so.

 

Psalm 59:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield." (Psalm 59:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although we may want to hurry and pray for God to scatter our enemies and to shield us from them, we may want to hold off on praying for their sudden destruction, especially if God is using them as a whetstone to sharpen us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The mighty Spartans cried when sparing an enemy city, “Destroy not the whetstone of our young men.”

 

Psalm 59:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak." (Psalms 59:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The proud doom themselves with the profane and perjurious words of their own mouths.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who are unreluctant to curse before God, will be unreluctant to speak cannily and contemptibly about men.

 

Psalm 59:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah." (Psalm 59:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s wrathful consuming of unrepentant revilers of God and man serves as a confirmation to man of God’s rule over all of the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Common humanity, not to mention genuine Christianity, both demand the unmitigated destruction of impenitent degenerates.

 

Psalm 59:14-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: "And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied." (Psalm 59:14-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David once again, as he did previously in verse 6, compares his foes to a pack of prowling and howling dogs who wander up and down for their prey in the night.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In the end, this fallen world’s camp of relentless profaners of God and persecutors of God’s people will be proven to have foolishly forfeited their souls for an exercise in futility.

 

Psalm 59:16-17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy." (Psalm 59:16-17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: In spite of being surrounded by the worrisome and snarling dogs of the devil, those secure in God’s divine keeping can still worship and sing.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even now, in our times of trouble, we may begin to tune our harps for the music of the coming eternal morning, in which we will sing forever to God, who is our merciful Savior and mighty Stronghold.

 

Psalm 60

This psalm is a prayer for military victory, apparently prayed when David was waging war against the Arameans and Israel was invaded by the Edomites. The title of the Psalm appears to present us with the third part of a three part contradiction. First, 2 Samuel 8:13 credits David with the slaying of 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Second, 1 Chronicles 18:12, credits Abisha with the slaying of the 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Finally, the title to this psalm credits Joab, not David or Abisha, with the slaying of 12,000, not 18,000, Edomites in the Valley of Salt. These apparent contradictions are easily explained. First, Israel’s total victory over Edom is properly attributed to both David, who was King of Israel, as well as to Abisha, who was the commander of Israel’s army. Second, Joab, who commanded a portion of Israel’s army under Abisha, is credited, along with the troops under his immediate command, with slaying 12,000 of the 18,000 Edomites (1 Kings 11:15-18). As it has been pointedly pointed out, there are no real contradictions on the pages of Scripture, only imagined contradictions in the minds of scoffers.

 

Psalm 60:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again. Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh." (Psalm 60:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We’re surely on shaky ground when our sins against God have caused us to be spurned by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The ship of state cannot be righted in a state not right with God.

 

Psalm 60:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment." (Psalm 60:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the cup of God’s wrath is put to the lips of His wayward people they will reel from so potent a wine.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God will use hardship to restore His people to fellowship.

 

Psalm 60:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me." (Psalm 60:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who fear God are the standard bearers of God, who alone display His truth and are delivered as His beloved by His saving right hand.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We live under the banner of God’s love when we live in obedience to God’s truth, which assures us not only of God’s protection, but also of His answers to our prayers. (Song of Solomon 2:4)

 

Psalm 60:6-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me." (Psalm 60:6-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Because of what God had said⏤His promise to make David Israel’s sovereign⏤David was sure that all Israel, from Shechem to Judah, would be subject to him, and all of Israel’s enemies, from Moab to Philistia, would be subdued by him.

 

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

 

Psalm 60:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?" (Psalm 60:9-10 KJV)

 

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

 

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

 

Psalm 60:11-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies." (Psalm 60:11-12 KJV)

 

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

 

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

 

Psalm 61:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer." (Psalm 61:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Prayer is not a mere devotional act, to be habitually done by us, but a divine audience, which requires us to be heard by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: For true prayer to be achieved, God must not only pay attention to our prayers, but also attend to our prayers.

 

Psalm 61:2a

 

BIBLE TEXT: "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee…" (Psalm 61:2a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There must be no end to our prayers, even if we must pray them from the ends of the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To make an end to prayer will prove to be the end of us.

 

Psalm 61:2b

 

BIBLE TEXT: "…when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." (Psalm 61:2b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The rock that is higher than the overwhelmed heart is scaled for safety on the stairs of prayer.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: You can overcome in your life whatever is overwhelming to your heart by looking up to the Most High!

 

Psalm 61:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy." (Psalm 61:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s past sheltering of us serves as assurance of His present safeguarding of us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Divine omnipotence provides the people of God with an impregnable defense.

 

Psalm 61:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah." (Psalm 61:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To abide in God’s presence and under His protective pinions is to be assured of perpetual peace.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To trust in the covert of God’s covering wings is to be free from care and worry.

 

Psalm 61:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name." (Psalm 61:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is upon our vow of faithfulness to Him that God grants us the heritage of those who fear Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our heritage is graciously handed down by a nail-scarred hand, not earned by us with callused hands.

 

Psalm 61:6-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou wilt prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows." (Psalm 61:6-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should praise forever and daily devote ourselves to Him who prolongs our lives by adding to our days.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not just David, but all of God’s kings and priests who are preserved by God’s truth and mercy.(Revelation 1:6; 5:10)

 

Psalm 62

This psalm, along with Psalms 39, 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 62:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation." (Psalm 62:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: True faith is proven by patience, for true faith waits upon God for salvation, knowing there is no other Savior.(Isaiah 43:11)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Waiting upon God for salvation is spiritual chastity, but refusing to do so and seeking salvation elsewhere is the sin of idolatry.

 

Psalm 62:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved." (Psalm 62:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To take a stand and to stake our eternal destiny on God, who is the only solid rock upon which we can forever stand, is to take a sturdy stand that saves us from ever being shaken.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No one is saved from slipping and falling who chooses to stand on earth’s slippery stones rather than on Heaven’s solid Rock of Ages.

 

Psalm 62:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence." (Psalm 62:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is a marvel that the malicious are muleheaded in their mischief, in spite of the fact that they are as sure to fall as an unsound wall or a sagging fence.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To persecute God’s people is to pound your head against a broken-down brick wall.

 

Psalm 62:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah." (Psalm 62:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The combatants of Christians, like the defamers of David, are libelers, liars, and lip servers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no better way for a foe to fatten you up for the kill than to feed you lots of flattery!

 

Psalm 62:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." (Psalm 62:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: He who does not trust his expectations to God alone has no real faith in God at all.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “True faith is never found alone; it is always accompanied by expectation. The man who believes the promises of God expects to see them fulfilled. Where there is no expectation, there is no faith.” (A. W. Tozer)

 

Psalm 62:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God." (Psalm 62:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Unmovable faith is a faith that not only finds all in God, but also gives all glory to God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: An unmovable stance necessitates an unmovable stand on an unmovable object.

 

Psalm 62:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah." (Psalm 62:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is a refuge to all who rely upon Him at all times.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The people of God are perfectly protected by perpetual prayer.

 

Psalm 62:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity." (Psalms 62:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only paupers and peons, but also presidents, prime ministers, and potentates, are mere peripheral pawns in the hands of Divine Providence.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The illustrious are an illusion who tilt the scale of true significance no more than the ignoble.

 

Psalm 62:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them." (Psalm 62:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: One robs in vain who acquires ill-gotten gain and imperils his soul over such pilfered riches.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To give your heart to money rather than your Maker is not only to rob God of His glory, but yourself of true gain.

 

Psalm 62:11-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work." (Psalm 62:11-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God is the mighty and merciful One whose might or mercy will be manifest to every man according to their works.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God has once and for all declared Himself almighty and all-merciful.

 

Psalm 63

This psalm, as the title states, was written by David in the wilderness of Judah. It was probably written during David’s flight from Jerusalem, during his son Absalom’s rebellion, not during his earlier flight from King Saul, since verse 11 shows that David was king at the time this psalm was written. According to Charles Spurgeon, John Chrysostom, an early Church Father, who served as Archbishop of Constantinople, said no day was ever permitted to pass without the public singing of this psalm by the primitive church. The psalm has long been used as an appropriate prayer for the critically ill or deeply distressed.

 

Psalm 63:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee…" (Psalm 63:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It’s one thing for you to know that God is, but quite another thing to know that God is yours and you are His.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who are sure that God is their God will always seek Him early as their first resort rather than later as a last resort.

 

Psalm 63:1b

 

BIBLE TEXT: "…my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is." (Psalm 63:1b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The soul that is truly saved by God will insatiably thirst for God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those acquainted with God are most athirst for God when they find themselves in the wilderness of this world’s most arid and abandoned places.

 

Psalm 63:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." (Psalm 63:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should desire to see God’s power and glory as much in calamitous situations as in church sanctuaries.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How miserably short-changed is the saint who seeks to see God’s glory only for a short time on Sunday rather than in every moment of every day.

 

Psalm 63:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee." (Psalm 63:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To truly praise God your heart must prize His love more than your life.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who love God more than their own life will live forever in the love of God.

 

Psalm 63:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name." (Psalm 63:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should practice lifelong praise and habitually lift our hands in God’s holy name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only the pure hands of praising hearts can be raised in honor of God’s holy name.

 

Psalm 63:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips." (Psalm 63:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Only divine dainties can provide the spiritual scrumptiousness to satisfy the hungry human soul.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is supping with Christ and He with us that fills our mouths with praise and leaves us licking the lips of our joyful souls. (Revelation 3:20)

 

Psalm 63:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches." (Psalm 63:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our memory of God and meditation upon Him is easier in the stillness of the night than in the hustle and bustle of the day.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not in the busy work of our days, but in the quiet watches of our nights that we find less mental distractions in our spiritual meditations.

 

Psalm 63:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me." (Psalms 63:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Since God, who has ever been our help, will ever be our help, we can ever rejoice in His unchanging and upholding hand.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is following God closely that keeps us securely under His safeguarding shadow.

 

Psalm 63:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth." (Psalm 63:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whether it is the persecutor of God's redeemed, the promoter of worldly riches, or the preacher of false religion, all who seek to destroy men’s immortal souls will end up in the deepest depths of a devil’s Hell.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To try to nail Christians is to nail shut your own coffin.

 

Psalm 63:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes." (Psalm 63:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Divine retribution is not just reserved for the destroyers of men’s souls in the hereafter, but may even befall them in the here-and-now.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many a combatant against God’s people has ended up as carrion on the battlefield of their own campaigns. Having taken up the sword to fight God’s people, they end up falling by the sword before God’s people.

 

Psalm 63:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped." (Psalm 63:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who swear allegiance to the truth glorify God, but all who speak lies shall be silenced by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Truth-tellers shall eventually triumph, but storytellers will be eternally silenced.

 

Psalm 64:1a

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer…" (Psalm 64:1a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God hears our voice in all of our prayers, whether our prayers are audible or silent.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Prayers which are unheard on earth may be among the best heard in Heaven.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

Psalms 64:1b

 

BIBLE TEXT: "…preserve my life from fear of the enemy." (Psalms 64:1b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We need God to not only protect and preserve us from our foes, but also from the fear of our foes.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “War is fear cloaked in courage.” (General William Westmoreland)

 

Psalm 64:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity." (Psalm 64:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray to be hidden by the invisible hand of Divine Providence from the secret intrigue and subsequent insurrection of the workers of iniquity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is a distinct difference between being hidden and hiding.

 

Psalm 64:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not." (Psalm 64:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Slanderers sharpen their tongues like swords and bend them like bows to shoot poisoned-tipped words at their targets.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the slanderer normally doesn’t shoot his mouth off openly in the face of the slandered, but secretly and suddenly behind the back of the slandered.

 

Psalm 64:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?" (Psalm 64:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Sinners spur one another on in the secret planning of their schemes and in the private laying of their snares.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Sinners, because of their ignorance of an all-knowing and all-seeing God, imagine their secret schemes are unknown and their hidden snares are unseen.

 

Psalm 64:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep." (Psalm 64:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Sinners, in their diligent and desperate search for the least little sins of the saints, will go to any length in their all-out investigations or their all-in inquisitions.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: You have little to worry about when slanderers are shooting blanks at you, but the moment you load their guns with real bullets, you’re in serious trouble.

 

Psalm 64:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded." (Psalm 64:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas the sinner’s arrow shot at the saint will miss the mark, God’s arrow shot at the sinner will surely and suddenly strike the bullseye, much to the sinner’s surprise.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The saints’ vengeance is in far more capable hands than their own. (Romans 12:19)

 

Psalm 64:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away." (Psalm 64:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The slanderer cuts his own throat with his own tongue.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who know slander to be suicidal will flee from slanderers, lest their minds be poisoned by them and their souls perish with them.

 

Psalm 64:9-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing. The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory." (Psalm 64:9-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas all men shall be forced to tremble at the work of God, those who’ve trusted in God shall be glad and forever glory in God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What the wicked anxiously fear, the upright await to cheer.

 

Psalm 65:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed." (Psalm 65:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Zion, the church, awaits, in anxious anticipation, to break out in adoration and to bow down in allegiance at the soon coming again and glorious appearing of its great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: At Christ’s Parousia—Second Coming—there will be no more procrastination in the performance of professed Christians’ promised vows.

 

Psalm 65:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." (Psalm 65:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is to the true God alone, who alone hears and answers prayers, not to deaf and dumb false gods, that all people should come to pray.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To pray to nonexistent gods is the epitome of imbecility.

 

Psalm 65:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away." (Psalm 65:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray to be purged from prevailing iniquities.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We need to beseech God to pardon and purge us from our besetting sins, which so easily beset us. (Hebrews 12:1)

 

Psalm 65:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." (Psalm 65:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only those chosen by God who can come into the courts of God and forever cohabitate with God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, it is only the chosen of God who will be cleansed by God (verse 3), consecrated to God, and forever contended with God.

 

Psalm 65:5-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea: Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice." (Psalm 65:5-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All people in all places should be awestruck by the Almighty, who made and maintains the mountains, who stills the storm-tossed seas, who silences the nations, and who orders sunrises and sunsets.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Many modern-day scientists are so obsessed with nature’s diverse upheavals that they overlook the Divine “Upheavaler.” Consequently, their natural explanations of natural disasters serve as bolts and bars to lock out the Lord—the Terror of the earth—from all earthly terrors.

 

Psalm 65:9-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." (Psalm 65:9-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas the earth is left awestruck by the terror of the Lord (verses 5-8), it is left shouting and singing for joy by the husbandry of the Lord, who alone crowns its fields with full harvests and its pastures with flocks and herds.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Neither our years nor our globe could continue if not crowned with God’s goodness.

 

Psalm 66:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious." (Psalm 66:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To gloriously praise God we must not only joyfully shout and sing unto God, but we must do so for the honor of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s not praise of God if it’s not honoring and glorifying to God, no matter how much we’re thrilled with it or how many chills we get from it.

 

Psalm 66:3-4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah." (Psalm 66:3-4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All the earth shall someday worship God, either voluntarily with all of their hearts, which have been won to God by His love, or mandatorily upon their knees, bowing in His presence before His terrible power.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Every knee will inevitably bow and every tongue will inevitably confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The only question is when will you do it, now, freely for your salvation, or later, when you’re forced to do so at your condemnation. The choice is yours! (Philippians 2:9-11; Romans 10:9-10)

 

Psalm 66:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men." (Psalm 66:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As coming and seeing the wagons proved to Jacob that his son Joseph was still alive, coming and seeing the works of God will prove to the children of men that Christ is still alive. (Genesis 45:25-28)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our Christian profession will be proven to those who personally come to see for themselves what God has wrought for us in Christ. (John 1:45-46)

 

Psalm 66:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him." (Psalm 66:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should rejoice at every remembrance of Israel’s miraculous crossings of the Red Sea and the Jordan River.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The miraculous crossings of the Red Sea and the Jordan River prove that no enemy shall prevail against us and that no obstacle shall prevent us from possessing God’s promises.

 

Psalm 66:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah." (Psalm 66:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who rise up in all-out rebellion against an all-powerful and all-seeing Ruler are not all there.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the height of hubris, not to mention the epitome of imbecility, to exalt oneself before eternal deity.

 

Psalm 66:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved." (Psalm 66:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The true praise of God can only be heard from God’s people, whose immortal souls He has saved and secured, and whose feet He has made steadfast and immovable.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Eternal security is not a matter of our soul’s hold on our saving God, but of God’s hold on our saved soul.

 

Psalm 66:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried." (Psalm 66:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s proving of us should precipitate our passionate praise of Him, for without being proven by God we will never be purified and prepared for His plans and purposes for us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To refine us as silver requires God to hold us in the fire until He sees His image in us; only then will He pull us out, knowing all the dross of self has been burned off.

 

Psalm 66:11-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." (Psalm 66:11-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The chosen people of God are intimately acquainted with inevitable affliction, for it is the divinely predestined path of tribulation alone that leads to the eternal land where sorrow is unknown. (Acts 4:22)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whether it is our enemy’s net, the afflictions we suffer, the burdens we bear, the oppression we’re under, or fiery and overwhelming trials, we must always see the sovereign hand of God behind it and the glorious destiny to which it leads us.

 

“God, who took [Israel] into Egypt, also brought them into the land which flowed with milk and honey, [for] Egypt was in his purposes en route to Canaan…Like Joseph we shall rise from the prison to the palace, like Mordecai we shall escape the gallows prepared by malignity, and ride the white horse and wear the royal robe appointed by benignity. Instead of the net, liberty; instead of a burden on the loins, a crown on our heads; instead of men riding over us, we shall rule over the nations: fire shall no more try us, for we shall stand in glory on the sea of glass mingled with fire; and water shall not harm us, for there shall be no more sea. O the splendour of this brilliant conclusion to a gloomy history. Glory be unto him who saw in the apparent evil the true way to the real good. With patience we will endure the present gloom, for the morning cometh. Over the hills faith sees the daybreak, in whose light we shall enter into the wealthy place.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

Psalm 66:13-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows, Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah." (Psalm 66:13-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who have not been pardoned by God and who have neither promised themselves or presented their best to God can never truly praise God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no such thing as worship without sacrifice. Whereas Christ had to offer Himself as an atoning sacrifice for us, we must now offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him (Romans 12:1). Both sacrifices, Christ giving Himself for us and us giving ourselves to Him, are essential to worship.

 

Psalm 66:16

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." (Psalm 66:16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Before, the psalmist had beseeched us to come and see (verse 5), but now he beseeches us to come and hear, for once we’ve seen what God has done for us we cannot help but speak of it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we should declare all that God has done for us, physically, materially, and spiritually, we should declare what He has done for our soul most of all.

 

Psalm 66:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue." (Psalm 66:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our answered prayers promptly become ardent praise.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When our prayers to God are heeded our praise of God will happen.

 

Psalm 66:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If we have unconfessed and unrepented of sins in our heart, our prayers will be unheard in Heaven.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No sinner can pray to God with clinched fists rather than folded hands or with a stiff-neck rather than a bowed head. Unlike saved saints, the only prayer lost souls can pray is the sinner’s prayer.

 

Psalm 66:19-20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me." (Psalm 66:19-20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the penitent heart that may rest assured of its prayers being answered.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we turn from our sins to a merciful God, He will attend to our prayers and never turn them away.

 

Psalm 67:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations." (Psalm 67:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To bless us, God must first be merciful to us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is only when God’s face shines upon us that the earth can see His salvation of us, as well as God’s way of salvation for all the earth.

 

Psalm 67:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee." (Psalm 67:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The purpose of all people is to praise God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.” (The Westminster Confession)

 

Psalm 67:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah." (Psalms 67:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The rejoicing of the nations awaits the coming righteous rule of Christ upon the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No man-made form of government, such as democracy, can make earth’s nations glad, but only the Biblically foretold and forthcoming theocracy, which will occur when Christ returns to righteously rule over all of the earth.

 

Psalm 67:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee." (Psalm 67:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The purpose of all people is to praise God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.” (The Westminster Confession)

 

Psalm 67:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." (Psalm 67:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s curse on our fallen earth shall be replaced with His blessing when Christ returns. Then, the earth will flourish and the fear of God will be found everywhere, even to the ends of the earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the flourishing of the earth is contingent upon the earth’s fear of God. Likewise, the extent to which you’re in God’s favor is contingent upon the extend to which you fear God.

 

Psalm 68

Of this difficult psalm Adam Clark once wrote: “I know not how to undertake a comment on this psalm. It is the most difficult in the whole Psalter.” According to Charles Spurgeon, who readily admitted the utter failure of our slim scholarship to fully understand this psalm, as well as his own personal finding of the darkness in some of its stanzas to be utterly impenetrable, a German critic fittingly described this difficult psalm as “a Titan very hard to master.” 

 

Despite its difficulty, it is generally agreed upon that this psalm was written on the occasion of David bringing up the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:12-19). It has therefore been suitably called: The Victorious Procession of God to Zion.

 

Psalm 68:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him." (Psalm 68:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The people of God may rest assured of victoriously prevailing over their enemies whenever God rises up as their vanguard to precede them.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Moses, when Israel broke camp and took up in the Ark of the Covenant in the wilderness, David also, when the Ark of the Covenant was taken up at the house of Obed-Edom to be borne in victorious procession to Jerusalem, cried out for God to rise up, scatter His enemies, and make His foes flee before Him. (Numbers 10:35)

 

When Jehovah Nissi—the Lord our Banner—rises up over us, our foes will flee and our enemies will scatter before us. (Exodus 17:15)

 

Psalm 68:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God." (Psalm 68:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: At the mere sight of God’s presence His enemies are blown away like smoke.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: At the mere sight of God’s presence the wicked melt before Him like wax in a fire.

 

Psalm 68:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." (Psalm 68:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All courtiers in the presence of God are comely clad in the garments of gladness and the regalia of rejoicing.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It’s God’s presence that makes Heaven Heaven and God’s absence that makes Hell Hell.

 

Psalm 68:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him." (Psalm 68:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Praise must be sung to God; otherwise, we’re not extolling Christ, but entertaining the congregation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: JAH, which only occurs here in the King James Version of the Bible, is the abbreviation of the personal name of God, which was given by God to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:13-15). In order to prohibit the taking of God’s holy name in vain, the ancient Hebrews removed the vowels from it. This vowelless rendition of the name of God, YHWH or its transliteration JHVH, is known as the Tetragrammaton. JAH was a further abbreviation of the Tetragrammaton that denoted one’s utmost reverence in its pronunciation. Today, we’ve added guessed at vowels to the Tetragrammaton, enabling us to pronounce it as Yahweh or Jehovah. Still, the rampant irreverence shown toward God today in irreverent references to Him, such as “the man upstairs,” should cause all Christians to cringe.

 

Psalm 68:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land." (Psalm 68:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the glory of God’s presence graced His habitation—the tabernacle in the wilderness—none were over looked by His goodness, not even the most lowly or the most lonely.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Wherever God’s glorious presence resides His great glory is seen in His gracious goodness to all, but all who are without God dwell in a desert place, no matter how ideal a place it may appear to be.

 

Psalm 68:7-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor." (Psalm 68:7-10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As long as God is with us, we, like Israel of old, can wander through the wilderness of this world not only without want, but also witnessing divine wonders.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God must go before us and we must follow Him through the wilderness of this world, never getting ahead of Him, lest we end up in want and lose sight of His wonders.

 

Psalm 68:11-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil." (Psalm 68:11-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The Lord’s battle cry was carried throughout the camp by a great company, so that the army of the Almighty would arise and the lords of enemy hosts would flee before the Lord of Hosts.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: O that the Lord’s battle cry would be carried throughout the church today, so that all Christian soldiers would arise to spoil the strongman’s goods by winning lost souls to Christ. (Matthew 12:39)

 

Psalm 68:13-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon." (Psalm 68:13-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God had raised Israel from being soiled and common pots in Egypt to being His silver and chosen vessels in Canaan. No longer were they captives, but conquerors; no longer were they taken for granted, but now glistened like glimmering snow on the slopes of Salmon.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although these two verses definitely teach God’s lifting up of His people from the lowest pit to the loftiest peak, they are still difficult to translate and interpret; therefore, as Spurgeon says, they must be left to “rest among the unriddled things” of Scripture.

 

Psalm 68:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever." (Psalm 68:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Zion, though a lowly hill, was exalted above all the elevated peaks of Bashan, because it was elected by God as His divine dwelling place.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The chosen of God, within whom God dwells, are the highly exalted of the earth, no matter how lowly they may seem or overshadowed they may appear to be by the high-and-mighty.

 

Psalm 68:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place." (Psalm 68:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Like God’s throne in Heaven, both earth’s Sinai, where God gave the stone tablets, and Zion, where God’s tabernacle stood, were surrounded by thousands and thousands of angels. (Revelation 5:11)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Seraphim—the mighty burning ones—who constantly attend the throne of God, are the fiery chariots of God we read about here and elsewhere in Scripture. (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4:6-8; 2 Kings 2:11; 6:17)

 

Psalm 68:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." (Psalm 68:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As the Ark of the Covenant triumphantly ascended the hill of Zion, having vanquished Israel’s enemies, He whom the Ark symbolized, the Lord Jesus Christ, triumphantly ascended into Heaven, having vanquished our enemies—death and the grave.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When the resurrected Christ ascended triumphantly into Heaven, He not only led those righteous souls who had been captive in Sheol to Heaven with Him, but He also gave spiritual gifts to His church to both edify and equip it. (Ephesians 4:8-12)

 

TO LEARN MORE READ SHEOL: THE PLACE OF THE DEAD

 

Psalm 68:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah." (Psalm 68:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s benefits are not light nor little, but come in loads. Neither are they on-and-off, but day-to-day.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Another possible translation of this verse is that the Lord will bear for us the whole load of our daily burdens.

 

Psalm 68:20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death." (Psalm 68:20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To our God, who is our Salvation, belongs both the entrance and exit to death. When He closes its entrance the living are prevented from entering it and when He opens its exit the dead are permitted to escape it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As Christians, we need not fear death, since we know the resurrected Christ, who holds the keys to death and the grave. The grave can’t hold us, for Christ, who holds its keys, will let us out the instant we go in. (Revelation 1:17-18)

 

Psalm 68:21

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses." (Psalm 68:21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God will not only strike the heads of headstrong sinners with mortal wounds, but take their scalps as well.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All stiff-necked sinners, like Absalom, who glory in their gorgeous hair will end up hung by it. (2 Samuel 15:25-26; 18:9-10)

 

Psalm 68:22-23

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea: That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." (Psalm 68:22-23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No enemy of God can escape from God, and all evil will be eradicated by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, “thy people” is italicized in verse 23, showing that it was added by the translators and not in the original text. It is therefore the enemies of God’s people, not God’s people themselves, that God will bring down from Bashan and up from the depths of the sea. As is taught elsewhere in Scripture, this verse solemnly teaches us that the enemies of God will find His judgment both inescapable and inevitable. (Amos 9:1-4; Revelation 19:11-21)

 

Psalm 68:24-27

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They have seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali." (Psalm 68:24-27 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Not only do these verses describe the arrival of the Ark of God and its triumphal procession, which was led by a parade of singers, musicians and tambourinists, at Jerusalem’s Tabernacle of David, but also the Ark’s welcome by all of Israel’s awaiting worshipers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The goings of God should always be accompanied by our glorifying of God.

 

Psalm 68:28-31

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee. Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people that delight in war. Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." (Psalm 68:28-31 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: These verses are a prayer for God to so powerfully manifest His presence in the midst of His people that all of their enemies would put down their weapons and come to Jerusalem to join in God’s worship.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Powerful manifestations of God’s presence with us is the best way to prevail against all who have arrayed themselves against us.

 

Psalm 68:32

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah." (Psalm 68:32 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The whole earth should break out in songs of praise to God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The playing and singing of secular songs will be seen as sacrilege once one truly sees the praiseworthiness of God.

 

Psalm 68:33

 

BIBLE TEXT: "To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice." (Psalm 68:33 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God mounts the highest heavens and mightily thunders down His voice to us miserable earthly lowlanders.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God may not speak to you in an audible voice, but in a voice much louder than that.

 

Psalm 68:34

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds." (Psalm 68:34 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s strength is higher than the clouds and hangs over His chosen people like a canopy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Why should we be perturbed about anything when God is over us to protect us from everything.

 

Psalm 68:35

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God." (Psalm 68:35 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When the terror of the Lord comes forth from His tabernacle the enemies of the Lord are terrified and the people of the Lord triumphant.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: How can we help but praise God from whom our power is derived and to whom we owe our prevailing?

 

Psalm 69

Of this sorrowful psalm, G. Campbell Morgan once wrote: “Perhaps in no psalm in the whole psalter is the sense of sorrow profounder or more intense than in this. The soul of the singer pours itself out in unrestrained abandonment to the overwhelming and terrible grief which consumes it.” The psalm is definitely a desperate cry by David for divine deliverance from the depths of this fallen world’s disapproval and pitiless persecution. However, as the Holy Spirit points out in the New Testament (Matthew 26:34; John 2:17; 15:25: Acts 1:16-20; Romans 11:9), the nail-scared footprints of the Man of Sorrows, the Lord Jesus Christ, can be found throughout this psalm as well. 

 

Although this psalm is the sixth of the Imprecatory Psalms, which are psalms consisting of an imprecatory prayer that imprecates or invokes damnation, judgment, calamity, or curses upon the enemies of God and God’s people, it presents us with quite a contrast between David, who is a type of Christ, and Christ Himself, who is the Son of David. Whereas David mercilessly imprecates his enemies, Christ mercifully prayed for His enemies (Luke 23:34).

 

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

 

Psalm 69:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul." (Psalm 69:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There are no deeper nor more dangerous depths that we can sink to, nor stand in more desperate need to be delivered from, than those that drown the soul. Like a ship unthreatened by the depths around it, the danger comes when the deep begins to dribble into it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We hear in the beginning salvo of this psalm—“Save me, O God”—the faint echo of Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane, when His soul was in such anguish that His sweat became great drops of blood. (Matthew 26:36-39; Luke 22:44; Hebrews 5:7)

 

Psalm 69:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me." (Psalm 69:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Worse than finding the floodwaters of this fallen world flowing over our heads is finding ourselves sinking into this world’s deep mire, for the more we struggle to deliver ourselves from it the deeper we descend into it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like Jeremiah of old, no true prophet of God is ever spared from being pitched into the miry pit of this fallen world. (Jeremiah 38:6)

 

Psalm 69:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God." (Psalm 69:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When answers to our prayers are divinely deferred in our dire and desperate straits, we, like David, should persevere in prayer until our throats are dry, our eyes are dim, and we are drained and dreary.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No matter how dire our situation, nor how silent the heavens, we should never stop praying, since God’s answer to our prayer may be no more than a single prayer away. (Luke 18:1)

 

Psalm 69:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away." (Psalm 69:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As it was with David, so it was with the sinless Son of David, many men, as well as mighty men, hated him without a cause. (John 15:25)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: There is no greater picture of the innocent being unjustly called upon to make restitution for personally uncommitted iniquities than the portrait painted in Scripture of the torn and bloody figure of the sinless Christ hanging upon the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world!

 

Psalm 69:5-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face." (Psalm 69:5-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray, as David did, that our fellow saints will never stumble nor suffer shame over our foolish sins or shamefacedness over this world’s ongoing reproach of us.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: By bearing the reproach of this world for Christ’s sake, as He bore it for our sake, we enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. (Philippians 3:10)

 

Psalm 69:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." (Psalm 69:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Zeal for God’s house can estrange one from his own house, for those who loath God will loath everyone who loves God, even if it is one of their own loved ones.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those consumed with zeal for God’s house are far more concerned with its purity than they are with either their own or their church’s popularity. (John 2:13-17)

 

Psalm 69:10-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards." (Psalm 69:10-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Piety is pilloried by the profane to the point that the pious are even derided in the ditties of drunkards.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our Lord Himself not only taught us the impossibility of the pious pleasing the profane, but He also illustrated it for us by the fact that the people of His day condemned Him as a winebibber and a glutton, because He ate and drank with them, and John the Baptist as demon possessed, because he refused to do so. (Matthew 11:16-19)

 

Psalm 69:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation." (Psalm 69:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Prayer should be our personal occupation, practiced at the appropriate time, and predicated on both the multitude of God’s mercy and the surety of our personal salvation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: This should be the motto of every child of God: Come what will, come what may, I’ll always pray!

 

Psalm 69:14-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me." (Psalm 69:14-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though we will be hated for Christ’s sake, we should pray to never sink into it or to be swallowed up by it, lest those who hate us should ever get the upper hand over us. (Matthew 10:22)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although the world will scorn us its scorn should never sink us.

 

Psalm 69:16

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies." (Psalm 69:16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: He prays most confidently who is convinced of God’s unfailing love and unfathomable mercy.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s lovingkindness is a ladder stretching from earth to Heaven.

 

Psalm 69:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily." (Psalm 69:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When trouble comes our way we can ill afford for our God to turn away. Instead, we need His split-second attention to our problems and speedy answers to our prayers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God can answer our prayers faster than we can pray them. (Isaiah 65:24)

 

Psalm 69:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies." (Psalm 69:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our troubles dissipate and we are delivered from our enemies the moment God draws near.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is the soul that is reconciled to God that is both drawn near to and redeemed by God.

 

Psalm 69:19-20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." (Psalm 69:19-20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here, Scripture presents us with a divinely inspired silhouette of the suffering Savior upon the cross of Calvary, dying not only of a broken heart under the heavy burden of the sin of the world, but also at the hands of a hostile and heartless humanity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Never was the blackness of the human heart more indubitably displayed than when Christ died of a broken heart upon the cross of Calvary for the sins of His own contemptuous crucifiers. Remember, it was our sins, as well as the sins of the whole world, that crucified Christ and nailed Him to the tree.

 

Psalm 69:21

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." (Psalm 69:21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It was not just the soldiers at the cross, but all of us sinners for whom Christ took up the cross, who filled the Crucified’s cup with gall. (Matthew 27:34)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It was neither an accident nor a coincidence, but divine providence that caused Christ to refuse sour wine mixed with myrrh, a pain suppressant, upon the cross, for Christ had to fully suffer all the death throes of all sinners in all of time to save us all from all of our sins. (Mark 15:23)

 

Psalm 69:22-25

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents." (Psalm 69:22-25 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: While these verses are an imprecatory prayer invoking God’s wrath upon the castigators of David, they are also prophetic, in that they predict the coming wrath of God upon the crucifiers of the Son of David. (Matthew 23:38; Romans 11:9-10)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The horrible plight of the Jewish people throughout their painful history can be traced back to their bloodthirsty cry, “Crucify him, crucify him” and to their bloodcurdling call, “His blood be in us, and on our children.” (Luke 23:21; Matthew 27:25)

 

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

 

Psalm 69:26-28

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." (Psalm 69:26-28 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although the sins of those who persecute Christ, our only propitiation, will never be blotted out by the blood of the Lord, their names will be blotted out of the book of the living. (1 John 2:2; 4:10; Acts 3:18; Revelation 3:5; 22:19)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While Christ died for the despicable crowd around the cross, the crowd derided the dying Christ upon the cross, scorning Him who was stricken by God for their salvation.

 

Psalm 69:29

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high." (Psalm 69:29 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is not worldly success, but God’s salvation that truly sets us on high.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Here, as in our Lord’s Beatitudes, the pinnacle of blessedness is presented as possessable by both the poor in spirit and those who mourn. (Matthew 5:3-4)

 

Psalm 69:30-32

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God." (Psalm 69:30-32 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is not the offering of horns and hoofs, but the oblation of the heart that really pleases God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is our real praise and thanksgiving, not the ritualistic practices and trappings of our religion, that will recruit others to seek our God.

 

Psalm 69:33

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners." (Psalm 69:33 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though the lords of the earth pay no mind to the world’s poor or prisoners, the Lord of Heaven hears their prayers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It was for the purpose of preaching good news to the poor and setting prisoners free that our Lord Himself came into this world. (Luke 4:18)

 

Psalm 69:34

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein." (Psalm 69:34 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There is no one or nothing nowhere, either in Heaven nor on earth, that is not called upon to praise God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

       Praise Him, all creatures here below! 

       Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! 

       Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”  (Thomas Ken)

 

Psalm 69:35-36

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein." (Psalm 69:35-36 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm ends with a glorious promise, the future possession of Zion by the people of God and all their posterity who love His name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “We’re marching to Zion,

       Beautiful, beautiful Zion;

       We’re marching upward to Zion, 

       The beautiful city of God.” (Isaac Watts)

 

Psalm 70

This psalm of David “brings to remembrance,” as its title indicates, the concluding verses of a previous psalm. The closing prayer of Psalm 40, which is found in its final five verses, is almost identical to the five verses that make up the totality of this psalm. We may learn from this a valuable lesson in prayer. Whereas our prayers are not to consist of vain repetition, like the prayers of pagans (Matthew 6:7), we may properly pray passionately as we’ve prayed effectually and successfully before. After all, our Lord Himself prayed the same prayer thrice in His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39-44).

 

Psalm 70:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord." (Psalm 70:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is interesting that this plea for divine deliverance differs from the one in Psalm 40:13, in that David omits, “Be pleased, O Lord,” and instead more urgently prays, according to the translators, “Make hast, O God, to deliver me.”

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Is the explanation for this difference to be found in David’s sense of greater urgency in the predicament that prompted this present prayer, over the one that prompted his previous prayer, or is it that David was fully persuaded that God was pleased to deliver him in his present predicament, but not so fully persuaded in his previous one?

 

Psalm 70:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt." (Psalm 70:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No one does more harm to humanity nor is a greater hazard to men’s souls than the heralds of heresy or the fosterers of false religions, which explains why the Apostle Paul, just like the Psalmist David, prayed for them to be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is most appropriate to appeal to God to turn back and confound all who turn men from God and confuse men about God.

 

Psalm 70:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha." (Psalm 70:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The ungodly who seek to shame the godly shall be put to shame by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The “aha, ahas” of the adversaries of Christ and Christians will soon be turned by Christ into the “hoorays” of Christians!

 

Psalm 70:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified." (Psalm 70:4 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 70:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying." (Psalm 70:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is the pleading of our poverty and neediness that prompts God’s haste to help us, not the presumptuous beckoning of God to immediately do our bidding as though He was our universal bellhop.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If you want God to hasten to help you, then, you must humbly pray to God on your knees, not haughtily strut into His presence with your nose in the air.

 

Psalm 71

This precious Psalm is believed to have been authored by David in his old age. It appears to have been penned when he was weakened by age and wearied by years. It is a plea for God not to forsake us in the frailty and infirmities of old age, but to strengthen us so that we, as seniors, can still serve as effective witnesses, even to our juniors. For this reason, I’ve dubbed this Psalm, which I, as an old geezer myself, can surely sympathize with, “The Old-Timer’s Psalm.” 

 

There is no time in life when the words of Jesus to His sleeping disciples in Gethsemane—“the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”—are more apropos than in old age (Matthew 26:41). The spirit of the hoary-headed saint, thanks to years of strengthening in God’s grace (2 Timothy 2:1), should be stronger than ever. However,  the fallen body, the hoary-headed saint’s earth suit, in which his or her more than ever-willing spirit is housed, is weaker than ever. 

 

In old age, we are forced to face the hard and harsh fact that we can no longer do what we once did, as well as few things, if any, as well as we use to do them. Although our spirit, more than ever before, longs to soar celestially, our flesh, more than ever before, limits us to stumbling around terrestrially. Truly, there is no time in life when we need to pray more for God’s strengthening than in our old age, as David did, lest we become, as David feared he would, an old worn-out witness no longer instrumental to God nor influential in the world.

 

Martin Luther said, “It would be a good thing if young people were wise and old people were strong.” I too have wondered why we have so much strength to exert in the witlessness of our youth, but so little left to employ in the wisdom of our old age. Nevertheless, let us pray, like David, for sufficient strength to live out our twilight years smarter and shrewder, since we can ill afford to waste our scanty strength and short time on superficial things.

 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OLD-TIMER’S PSALM READ ABOUT ITS TELLING TITLE IN THE GREEK SEPTUAGINT AND LATIN VULGATE

 

Psalm 71:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion." (Psalm 71:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To escape being put to confusion we must put our confidence in God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If we are confused, because of our reliance upon the world, our witness for God will be rendered counterproductive in the world.

 

Psalm 71:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me." (Psalm 71:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We can assuredly pray for God to do right by us, as He has promised to do, even in the afflictions of our old age.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God hears the faint whispers of the feeble and infirm just as loudly as He does the robust voices of youthful vim and vigor, for God, who has been our stay in youth, will also be our staff in old-age.

 

Psalm 71:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress." (Psalm 71:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God serves continually as a strong habitation and safe fortress for all of His people.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Divine Providence has decreed divine protection for God’s people, so that all things are divinely employed as their guardians.

 

Psalm 71:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man." (Psalm 71:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is only those who can truly profess the Lord as “My God” who will be delivered by God from the Wicked One and his wicked ones.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only in Jesus Christ our Lord are we delivered from the clutches of Lucifer and his legions, who hate the truth of God and are at enmity with all of God’s truth-tellers.

 

Psalm 71:5-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee." (Psalm 71:5-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: From the cradle to the grave, God constantly cares for His children who continuously revere Him and rely upon Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The people of God’s lifelong praise of Him leads to His lifelong provisions for them and protection of them.

 

Psalm 71:7-8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day." (Psalm 71:7-8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The true Christian is such a wonder to the worldly, in that he or she is so otherworldly

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The so-called wonders of the world lose all their wonder to all who profess and praise Christ as the wonder of it all!

 

Psalm 71:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth." (Psalm 71:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All senior citizens should pray not to become spiritual castaways, but to remain God’s faithful servants, in spite of their failing strength.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Like the Apostle Paul, our greatest fear should be becoming a spiritual castaway; that is, being shelved by Christ, because we’re no longer useful to Him. Truly, no worse fate could ever befall a Christian? (1 Corinthians 9:27)

 

Psalm 71:10-11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him." (Psalm 71:10-11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As a pack of mangy dogs will bark at a mighty dying lion, David fretted that his foes, who once feared him, would now come out in full forced against him, mistaking his failing fallen body as God’s forsaking of him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: According to Charles Spurgeon, there is no more “bitter taunt” or “worse arrow in all the quivers of hell” than for the children of God to be derided as divinely forsaken by the children of the devil.

 

Psalm 71:12-13

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help. Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt." (Psalm 71:12-13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should pray that all who hold us in contempt will be confounded and consumed by God’s confirming of His manifest closeness to us and His miraculous care of us!

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should pray for God to hasten to help us so that He will be honored and all who are against us will be ashamed.

 

Psalm 71:14

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more." (Psalm 71:14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The hope of the saints springs eternal, even that of the most senior saint, which is why the praise of the saints is ever-sprouting.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Old age may rob us of our health, but it cannot rob us of our hope; it may lessen our potentialities, but never our praise.

 

Psalm 71:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: "My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only." (Psalm 71:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To trust in and testify of our own righteousness is to live in the flesh and go in our own strength, but to trust in and testify of Christ’s righteousness alone is to live by faith and go in His strength.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God have mercy on the wretched soul who boast of the filthy rags of his own righteousness rather than in the incalculable and imputed righteousness of Christ. (Isaiah 64:6; Philippians 3:8-9; James 2:23)

 

Psalm 71:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works." (Psalm 71:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To have been taught by God and to have testified for God in our youth will serve as great solace to us in our old age.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A truly misspent youth is one in which the young are stupid about the Word of God and silent about the wondrous works of God.

 

Psalm 71:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come." (Psalm 71:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The gray-headed saint should pray that God’s strength will shine through him, even as his own strength slips away, so that he can still serve as proof of God’s power to all posterity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: WITH YEARS OPPRESSED, AND SORROWS WORN (Robert Grant)

 

With years oppressed, with sorrow worn,

Dejected, harassed, sick, forlorn,

To Thee, O God, I pray:

To Thee my withered hands arise,

To Thee I left these failing eyes;

O cast me not away!

 

Thy mercy heard my infant prayer:

Thy Love, with all a mother's care,

Sustained my childish days:

Thy goodness watched my ripening youth,

And formed my heart to love Thy truth,

And filled my lips with praise.

 

O Saviour, has Thy grace declined?

Can years affect the eternal Mind,

Or time its Love decay?

A thousand ages in Thy sight,

And all their long and weary flight,

Are gone like yesterday.

 

Then, even in age and grief, Thy Name

Shall still my languid heart inflame,

And bow my faltering knee:

O yet this bosom feels the fire;

This trembling hand and drooping lyre

Have yet a strain for Thee!

 

Yes, broken, tuneless, still, O Lord,

This voice, transported, shall record

Thy goodness, tried so long;

Till, sinking slow with calm decay,

Its feeble murmurs melt away

Into a seraph's song.

 

Psalm 71:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!" (Psalm 71:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The lofty righteousness of God is unscalable, the miraculous deeds of God are unsurpassable, and God Himself is uncomparable.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only the righteousness of God can raise the sinner from the gates of Hell to the glory of Heaven.

 

Psalm 71:20-21

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side." (Psalm 71:20-21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The same sovereign hand that smites us saves us and that holds our sore troubles will hoists us to sublime heights of triumphant and tranquility.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No matter how low our Divine Sovereign allows us to sink down in our griefs, we can rest assured that He will soon graciously raise us up to great heights.

 

Psalm 71:22

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel." (Psalm 71:22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The tradition of a cappella singing known as Sacred Harp is based on the belief that the sacred harp of the soul is the human voice, the God-given instrument given to each of us to employ in our praise of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas traditional Sacred Harp singing, which originated in New England and spread throughout the south in the late 19th century, actually got its name from a historic shape notes songbook by the same name, one could call the Scripture’s Book of Psalms its Sacred Harp songbook.

 

Psalm 71:23

 

BIBLE TEXT: "My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed." (Psalm 71:23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All churchgoers can sing to God in church services, but only Christians can sing to Him in their souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Real soul music is found in the souls of the Redeemed!

 

Psalm 71:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: "My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt." (Psalm 71:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: While others may ridicule the old saint’s faith in God over his or her frail and failing condition, the old saint must be resolved to tenaciously testify of the faithfulness of God to the consternation and mortification of his or her ridiculers.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: HIS BEING THE VICTOR’S NAME (Samuel Gandy)

 

Sin, Satan, Death appear

To harass and appal;

Yet since the gracious Lord is near,

Backward they go, and fall.

 

We meet them face to face,

Through Jesus’ conquest blest;

March in the triumph of His grace,

Right onward to our rest.

 

Psalm 72

This psalm, according to its concluding verse, concludes the prayers of David. Although its enigmatic title suggest it was written for David’s son Solomon, it was more likely written by Solomon, making it a Psalm of Solomon rather than a Psalm for Solomon. Being subsequent to Psalm 71, which David wrote in his old age, it is believed that this psalm is the prayer of the dying David, which was penned by his son Solomon, which serves as an adequate explanation for the apparent contradiction found in its enigmatic title and ending verse.

 

Psalm 72:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment." (Psalm 72:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: David prayed that his throne would not only be given by divine right to his son Solomon, but that his son Solomon would also be given divine righteousness, so that he might rightly judge and righteously rule and reign over all of God’s people.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jesus, the King of Kings, who shall justly judge all men and righteously rule and reign forever, is like King Solomon, who was an Old Testament type of Christ, in that He too has been given by His Father all judgment and authority (John 5:22, 27)

 

Psalm 72:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness." (Psalm 72:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Peace permeates any kingdom, from hill to hollow and from mountain to glen, when its subjects are assured of always being done right by their righteous king.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: What peace and tranquility we will know when Christ returns to earth to reign upon the throne of David, removing all possibility of us ever being wronged or mistreated again.

 

Psalm 72:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor." (Psalm 72:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The righteous king both protects and benevolently provides for the oppressed, as well as breaks to pieces the oppressor.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The scepter of Christ is long enough to reach down to His lowliest subject and to rescue him or her from their most loathsome oppressors.

 

Psalm 72:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations." (Psalm 72:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though the thrones of earth’s present Kings are fleeting and of earth’s past kings but faint memories, the throne of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, is forever.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although men once feared the Caesars, they will forever fear Christ.

 

Psalm 72:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." (Psalm 72:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The people are not only refreshed under the reign of a righteous king, like mowed grass under falling rain, but peace and prosperity are as permanent in the righteous king’s realm, as the moon is in the nighttime sky.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Only when peace is predicated on righteousness is there any possibility of it proving to be permanent.

 

Psalm 72:8-11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him." (Psalm 72:8-11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: As David’s reign paled in comparison to the glorious reign of his son Solomon, both their reigns will pale in comparison to the glorious reign of the coming Son of David, Jesus Christ.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not only will the dominion of Christ extend to the ends of the earth, but everyone upon the earth will pay homage to Him, bow before Him, and come together to serve Him.

 

Psalm 72:12-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight." (Psalm 72:12-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There has never been a king like the coming King of Kings, who will be the Helper of the helpless, the Savior who spares and saves needy souls, and the Redeemer to whom the redeemed are cherished as precious possessions.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The old adage, “God helps those who help themselves,” is not scriptural. Instead, the Scripture teaches us that God helps those who can’t help themselves.

 

Psalm 72:15

 

BIBLE TEXT: "And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised." (Psalm 72:15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This prayer of King David for his successor, his son Solomon, was specifically and spectacularly answered by God. (1 Kings 3:5–14; 10:1-21; 1 Chronicles 29:21-25)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although Solomon’s temporal reign on his father David’s throne was the greatest and most glorious of all of Israel’s former kings, one far greater than Solomon has now come to reign on David’s throne forever. (Matthew 12:42)

 

Psalm 72:16

 

BIBLE TEXT: "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." (Psalm 72:16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The small inception, but swift increase of the Kingdom of God, is illustrated here by a “handful of corn” that is fast to flourish and become fruitful, in spite of the fact it was sown on a fallow mountain crest.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed teaches us how the Kingdom of God is born in our heart with a seemingly insignificant sinner’s prayer, but then supernaturally grows in our life to become something stupendously immense. (Mark 4:30-32)

 

Psalm 72:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed." (Psalm 72:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Only the enduring name of the eternal King of Kings will be blessed forever by those He has forever blessed.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Great names come and go, but the name of Jesus remains. The devil still hates it, the world still opposes it, but God still blesses it and we can still claim it!” (Warren Wiersbe)

 

Psalm 72:18-19

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen." (Psalm 72:18-19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God, who only does wondrous things, should be worshipped and glorified the whole world over.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: These two verses are better suited to be sung in praise than to be preached in a sermon.

 

Psalm 72:20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." (Psalm 72:20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This is not the final psalm penned by David in the book of Psalms, but the final prayer prayed by David in his life, which explains why it was recorded for posterity by David’s son Solomon.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Notice, the absence of hubris and the absolute humility of David, in identifying himself as the simple son of Jesse, not the seated sovereign of Jerusalem. We should learn from this not to proudly prance into God’s presence at death or in prayer pompously, but to only do so humbly and without pretense.

 

Psalm 73

A total of twelve psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to Asaph. The first of the twelve is Psalm 50. The other eleven, which commence with this psalm, Psalm 73, are consecutive, ending with Psalm 83.

 

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 the Scripture (1 Chronicles 16:7; 2 Chronicles 29:30). 

 

This particular psalm of Asaph deals with the age-old questions of why the wicked prosper and why the righteous suffer. Its most informative and transformative conclusion is that a clear view of God clears it all up!

 

Psalm 73:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." (Psalm 73:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Deep down in our heart, it must be settled for good that God is good, lest our heart for God be hardened against God in hard times.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Clean hearts are hearts confident of God’s goodness. On the other hand, a heart that challenges the goodness of God is no good at all.

 

Psalm 73:2-3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (Psalm 73:2-3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To envy the flourishing fools of this wicked world is to start one’s feet to slipping and to set oneself up for a fall.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To envy the prosperity of the wicked is to fall prey to the folly of shortsightedness, seeing only their current ease and not their coming end.

 

Psalm 73:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." (Psalm 73:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whereas we may be tempted to see the wicked as untroubled in life or death, we must remember that their real trouble comes on the other side of death—in the hereafter—not on this side of death—in the here-and-now.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In spite of all the treasure and tranquility of the wicked in the temporal here-and-now, they will have nothing but torment and trouble in the eternal hereafter.

 

Psalm 73:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment." (Psalm 73:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The conceit of the wicked, which they wear like a medallion, leads them to be both contemptuous and cruel to others.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Perpetrated violence is often the product of vaingloriousness, for those who think of themselves as indispensable often see others as disposable.

 

Psalm 73:7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish." (Psalm 73:7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although their eyes bulge from obesity and their hoard is more than their heart’s desire, the wicked should not be envied, but pitied.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Neither fatness nor opulence are proof of current divine favor or upcoming eternal euphoria.

 

Psalm 73:8-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth." (Psalm 73:8-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The wicked walk through the world boasting about themselves, berating their fellow man, and blaspheming the God of Heaven.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All men, the whole world over, should watch out for the wicked when they take out their tongues for a walk.

 

Psalm 73:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them." (Psalm 73:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Being forced to drink the last drop of the wrung out bitter dregs of the diatribes of the wicked, God’s people dash to God for their deliverance.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The wicked are often used by God to turn unbelievers to Him, as well as backsliders back to Him.

 

Psalm 73:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?" (Psalm 73:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The wicked essentially believe God to be either imaginary or ignorant and indifferent.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: One cannot sin with impunity if he or she believes in the reality of divine accountability.

 

Psalm 73:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches." (Psalm 73:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When viewed from the erroneous perception of the world rather than from the exacting perspective of Heaven, the state of the wicked may very well appear to be prosperous rather than precarious.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If a soul is worth more than the world, then, of what real worth is all the wealth of the world to a lost soul? (Mark 8:36-37)

 

Psalm 73:13-14

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." (Psalm 73:13-14 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Like Asaph, most saints, if not all, have at some point in their lives shamefully fallen prey to self-pity; pouting over their perceived piety not paying off in worldly prosperity, but in a plethora of plaguing personal problems.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To invest one’s earthly life in the accumulation of eternal treasures in Heaven does not necessarily translate into temporal worldly dividends (Matthew 6:19-20). Many a wealthy Heavenly depositor appears to be down-and-out upon this earth.

 

Psalm 73:15-16

 

BIBLE TEXT: "If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me." (Psalm 73:15-16 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To falsely perceive divine injustice, in the seeming success of sinners and the sad sufferings of the saints, is not only perplexing to our own faith, but also imperiling to the faith of others, if we should fail to keep it to ourselves and speak of it openly.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To personally and secretly doubt the justice and fairness of God is spiritually detrimental to ourselves, but to publicly speak of it is spiritually dangerous to others.

 

Psalm 73:17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end." (Psalm 73:17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Only from inside the sanctuary of God can we see the sinner’s plight and the saint’s privileged position clearly and plainly.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: As long as we have our eyes on others and ourselves, we will never see God clearly, but the instant we get our eyes on God, we will see others and ourselves clearly.

 

Psalm 73:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction." (Psalm 73:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Far from being a sign of God’s favor, worldly success can be a slippery slope to one’s destruction.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Whereas the needy more readily realize their need of God, the prosperous are more prone to be self-reliant and Christ-rejecting. (Mark 10:23)

 

Psalm 73:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: "How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors." (Psalm 73:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The fall from the glorious heights of earthly fame and fortune to the grave is not just sure, but also steep and swift.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The trapdoor of perdition is ever beneath the well heeled feet of the transgressor, and may open at any moment.

 

Psalm 73:20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image." (Psalm 73:20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although the wicked may appear to be living the dream, it will quickly turn into a nightmare the moment God awakes to call them to account.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The earthly good fortune of the ungodly is due to the long-suffering of God. The instant God’s forbearance runs out, the good fortune of the ungodly will immediately be gone.

 

Psalm 73:21-22

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee." (Psalm 73:21-22 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All who become bitter in their heart toward God, over what they falsely believe to be divine injustice, are both balmy and beastly.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To judge things by sight rather than by Scripture is to live by our figuring and feelings rather than by our faith. It is to live in ignorance like a witless fool and by instinct like a wild animal.

 

Psalm 73:23

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand." (Psalm 73:23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If we are continually confessing our sin to God, we can be continually in communion with God, in spite of our sins against God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although God’s children may not always hold on to Him, God will always uphold His children.

 

Psalm 73:24

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." (Psalm 73:24 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God shall ever guide us until He takes us up to glory.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: On our way to Heaven we have no great calls to make, only God’s counsel to follow.

 

Psalm 73:25

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." (Psalm 73:25 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God should not only be the One we depend upon in Heaven, but also the One we should desire upon earth.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In Heaven, God will be our sublime delight. On earth, God should be our supreme desire.

 

"Faith means wanting God and wanting to want nothing else." (Brenna Manning)

 

Psalm 73:26

 

BIBLE TEXT: "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." (Psalm 73:26 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though our flesh is frail and our heart may fail, God, who is our strength, can be counted on to faithfully sustain us forever.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Despite our frail flesh and failing heart, we can put our faith in God to fortify us forever.

 

Psalm 73:27

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee." (Psalm 73:27 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To go whoring from God after worldly things is to end up far from God and finished off by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not a chaste heart for Christ that craves worldly things and covets the wicked’s accumulation of them.

 

Psalm 73:28

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works." (Psalm 73:28 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The closer we draw to God the more we will trust Him and testify of His works; and the less we will treasure and tout the things of the world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The nearer one draws to the Lord the less desire one will have for the things of the world.

 

Psalm 74:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?" (Psalm 74:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To feel forsaken by God is bad enough, but to fear He has cast you off forever is unbearable.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is not the troubles, trials or even tragedies of life that are intolerable, but those times when the still small voice of the Spirit is deathly silent and the wind of the Spirit is deathly still.

 

Psalm 74:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt." (Psalm 74:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is on the predicate of being redeemed by God that we can most powerfully pray to be remembered by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God will remember His people, those He rules with His scepter and resides in by His Spirit.

 

Psalm 74:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary." (Psalm 74:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Asaph prays for God to stomp His feet in anger and to stomp the adversaries of Israel, who had not only desolated God’s holy land, but also defiled His holy sanctuary.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing got Christ hotter than the profaning of God’s house, those who came to it for their personal profit rather than to praise God and pray to Him. (Matthew 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-17)

 

Psalm 74:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs." (Psalm 74:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Many a clergyman and churchgoer sets up a personal ensign in the house of God today, not only in self-adoration, but also in hopes of making themselves the church’s object of attention.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.” (A. W. Tozer)

 

Psalm 74:5-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground." (Psalm 74:5-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is an evil day when men are renowned for breaking down and burning up the house of God rather than for building it up and beautifying it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A sure sign that the sun is setting on America is that those Americans who adorn and adore the true house of God are now outnumbered by those who assail and abhor it.

 

Psalm 74:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." (Psalm 74:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To wipe out all of the people’s worship of God in the Old Testament, you had to wipe out all of their places of worship.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Now that God no longer lives in a house, to which His people must come to worship, but lives in His people, we can worship God anywhere, because God is with us everywhere. (John 4:19-24)

 

Psalm 74:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long." (Psalm 74:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It is truly the darkest of days when divine signs are no longer seen, God’s seers are all silent, and there is no spiritual surety, not even for our posterity.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: When we hold God’s Word in contempt, God withholds His Word from us, leaving us adrift without a divine compass on the stormy sea of this fallen world.

 

Psalm 74:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?" (Psalm 74:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: There are few dilemmas in life more disconcerting than God’s delay in delivering His people and defending His honor, due to His long-suffering with sinners and the sacrilegious. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Apart from regeneration, death alone serves as cessation of the sinner’s sin. As long as the sinner lives, he or she will continue to sin and his or her sin will wax worse and worse. (2 Timothy 3:13)

 

Psalm 74:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom." (Psalm 74:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Whenever it appears God has folded His arms in passivity, we need to fold our hands in prayer.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: I suspect that if prayers on earth were prayed with more agony, it would appear that Heaven had less apathy.

 

Psalm 74:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." (Psalm 74:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: If God is our Sovereign we can count on Him to work for us His salvation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is one thing to be driven to profess God as your King at the moment, but quite another to have delighted to profess Him as your King all along.

 

Psalm 74:13-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers." (Psalm 74:13-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here we are reminded of two momentous examples of God’s salvation of His people in the midst of the earth; namely, Israel’s miraculous crossings of the Red Sea and the River Jordan.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: At the Red Sea, God destroyed Israel’s monstrous menace, Pharaoh (Leviathan) and his army (the dragons). Afterward, He gave His people victory over “the people inhabiting the wilderness.” Then, He enabled His people to miraculously cross Jordan on dry ground to conquer and take possession of Canaan.

 

Psalm 74:16-17

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter." (Psalm 74:16-17 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God, who rules the day and the night, the times and the seasons, and who sets the boundaries of the earth, is bound by neither time nor space.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We must tincture the “ologies” of the natural sciences with theology if we are ever to truly understand them. 

 

“Science without religion is lame.” (Albert Eisenstein)

 

Psalm 74:18

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name." (Psalm 74:18 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To reproach God’s people is to also reproach and blaspheme God’s name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Instead of praying so much for God to avenge us against those who reproach us, we should pray more for God to avenge Himself against those, who by reproaching us, are foolishly blaspheming Him. 

 

Psalm 74:19

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever." (Psalm 74:19 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Though harmless as a dove, God’s people cannot fall into the hands of the wicked unless they are handed over by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While the church may be poor, she can never be forgotten by God nor touched by her adversaries without God’s permission.

 

Psalm 74:20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." (Psalm 74:20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Truly, to call upon God to keep His covenant is the key to the gates of Heaven, for God is not a man that He should lie or change His mind, or that He should not do what He says and make good on His promises. (Numbers 23:19)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: We should pray for God to always remember and respect His covenant with us, because cruelty lurks all around us in the dark places of the earth.

 

Psalm 74:21

 

BIBLE TEXT: "O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name." (Psalm 74:21 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who turn to the Lord will not be turned away by the Lord, far from being ashamed, they will end up praising God’s name.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All who trust in the Lord will never be embarrassed nor impoverished for doing so.

 

Psalm 74:22-23

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually." (Psalm 74:22-23 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Until God arises to champion His own cause, His foolish enemies will continuously clamor against Him.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Tragically, God’s forbearance frequently serves to embolden foolish and tumultuous blasphemers.

 

Psalm 75:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare." (Psalm 75:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We should doubly glorify our gracious God by doubling our thanksgiving to Him for His wondrous works.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” (G. K. Chesterton)

 

Psalm 75:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly." (Psalm 75:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The scales of justice will be forever balanced when the church is finally gathered before God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The final appeal for all earthly injustices is to the Heavenly bar, where all earthly wrongs will be eternally righted.

 

Psalm 75:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah." (Psalm 75:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Although this fallen earth will someday be dissolved by God, it will not forever disappear by having its pillars divinely knocked out from under it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our fallen world, though beyond reform, will not be forever removed, but refined by fire and forever redeemed and renewed. (2 Peter 3:10-13)

 

Psalm 75:4-5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck." (Psalm 75:4-5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: No sinner is sillier than the stiff-necked and sacrilegious, whose vainglorious blasphemies await divine vengeance.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Those who hold their heads high with stiff necks will eventually have their necks stretched on God’s gallows.

 

Psalm 75:6-7

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another." (Psalm 75:6-7 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: All people are pawns in the hands of Divine Providence, making everyone’s station in life subject to God’s sovereignty.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Although those on the pedestals of this world may pat themselves on the back and be applauded by others, it is the hand of Divine Providence that has placed them there, in perfect accordance with God’s preordained plans and purposes.

 

Psalm 75:8

 

BIBLE TEXT: "For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them." (Psalm 75:8 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The cup of God’s wrath shall be drunk by the wicked down to the dregs of deepest damnation.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Every drop of divinely concocted woes in the chalice of God’s wrath shall be drunk by the wicked when they are wrung out on the day of judgment.

 

Psalm 75:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob." (Psalm 75:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Once God has been proven forever just and true, and all who opposed Him unjust and liars, God’s people will forever praise Him. (Romans 3:4)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If praise is the eternal occupation of Heaven, should it not be the main occupation on earth?

 

Psalm 75:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted." (Psalm 75:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The proud and pompous will be abased, but the unpretentious and pious will be exalted.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Heaven will be inhabited by the humble and the holy, not by the haughty and the unholy.

 

Psalm 76

This psalm is a glorious war song to be sung by worshippers of God—the Captain of the Heavenly Host—who miraculously protects His people from formidable foes with His mighty power. It is either divinely inspired prophesy, written by the Asaph of David and Solomon’s day, which foretells God’s destruction of the Assyrian army (2 Chronicles 32:1-23; Isaiah 36:1-37:37), or it is a divinely inspired recording of history, written by a later chief Musician named Asaph, in commemoration of God’s silencing of Sennacherib’s haughty host.

 

Psalm 76:1-2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion." (Psalm 76:1-2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Unlike the Athenians on Mars Hill, the Israelites on Mount Zion did not worship an unknown God. (Acts 17:23-24)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To know God is to know His name is great, but to be ignorant of the greatness of God’s name is to prove oneself both unacquainted with God and unaccompanied by God.

 

Psalm 76:3-9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah. Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah." (Psalm 76:3-9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Here we have a divinely inspired war song to be heartily sung by worshipers of the Most High, who swiftly and supernaturally slew and silenced Sennacherib’s haughty host. (2 Chronicles 32:1-23; Isaiah 36:1-37:37)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The Destruction of Sennacherib (Lord Byron)

 

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

 

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

 

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

 

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

 

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

 

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

 

Psalm 76:8-10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to establish judgment, to save all the humble of the earth. Selah Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt." (Psalm 76:1-2 ESV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: When God rises up in judgment, His overcoming of all wrathful human opposition will be an ornament worn by Him to obtain human praise.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The wrath of man against God, once wiped out in the judgment of God, turns into the worldwide worship of God.

 

ESV - English Standard Version

 

Psalm 76:11

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared." (Psalm 76:11 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To God we should pay all of our vows and present and offer all that we have.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To be around and about God one must first fear God.

 

Psalm 76:12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth." (Psalm 76:12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: While the whole earth trembles at its commanding princes and kings, its princes and kings should tremble at the God of Heaven, for they are not only under His control, but can also be cut off by Him at any time.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The breath of both Caesars and Napoleons is continuously dependent upon divine benevolence.

 

Psalm 77:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me." (Psalm 77:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Unlike the self-righteous Pharisee, we should not pray with ourselves, but unto God, like Asaph, if we hope to gain God’s ear. (Luke 18:11-12)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Not all prayers are prayed to God or paid attention to by God, some are prayed for show and to Heaven never go. (Matthew 6:5)

 

Psalm 77:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted." (Psalm 77:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Those who seek the Lord for comfort will refuse all lesser consolations.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Nothing will satisfy the troubled seeker of God but the one true God who he or she seeks.

 

Psalm 77:3

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah." (Psalm 77:3 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Nothing is more troubling to the children of God than to fondly remember their past fellowship with God, especially when presently feeling forsaken and forgotten by God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: To complain about being on the outs with God, instead of confessing our sins to God, is overwhelming to our spirit and offensive to God’s Spirit.

 

Psalm 77:4

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak." (Psalm 77:4 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The saints often find themselves sleepless and speechless in this sin-cursed fallen world.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Even when we cannot sleep at night nor speak to others, we can still pray to God.

 

Psalm 77:5

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times." (Psalm 77:5 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We may borrow a light from the past to brighten the darkness of the present.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Recalling God’s faithfulness to us yesterday or to others in days of yore reassure us of God’s reliable faithfulness today.

 

Psalm 77:6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search." (Psalm 77:6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The saints should diligently search their hearts and their spirits whenever their songs in the night have been stolen from their souls.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: In these dark days, there are too many hoot owls and too few nightingales in the contemporary church!

 

Psalm 77:7a

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Will the Lord cast off for ever?" (Psalm 77:7a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Asaph’s foremost fear, like that of the Apostle Paul, was to be cast off by the Lord, as one of the Lord’s castaways. (1 Corinthians 9:27)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No worse fate could ever befall a Christian than to become a castaway; that is, to be shelved by God in the service of Christ.

 

Psalm 77:7b

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Will the Lord…be favourable no more?" (Psalm 77:7b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We are delivered from the fear of losing God’s favor by our faith in God’s grace, for what we’ve received as a gift is not retained by our goodness.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: While we can lose fellowship with God, we cannot lose the favor of God, having never earned it, we cannot lose it, unless God, whose gifts are irrevocable, arbitrarily revokes it. (Romans 11:29)

 

Psalm 77:8a

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Is his mercy clean gone for ever?" (Psalm 77:8a KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: God’s mercy, which is good forever, can never be gone forever. (Psalm 100:5)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The bottomless pond of God’s everlasting mercy can never run dry.

 

Psalm 77:8b

 

BIBLE TEXT: "… doth his promise fail for evermore?" (Psalm 77:8b KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Since God’s Word is forever fixed in Heaven, His promises can never fail on earth. (Psalm 119:88)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Divine promises delayed are not promises denied, though human doubt often deems them so.

 

Psalm 77:9

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah." (Psalm 77:9 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The absurd questions asked in this verse, as well as in the preceding two verses, are obviously intended to be answered in the negative, so as to assure the questioner of the trustworthiness, truthfulness, and tender mercies of God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Truly, no more ridiculous question could ever be asked than this: “Can God forget and forsake His chosen people, who He has favored with His grace and mercifully forgiven of their sins?”

 

Psalm 77:10

 

BIBLE TEXT: "And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High." (Psalm 77:10 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: To not only accept our infirmity as God’s will, but also the fact that we, in spite of our infirmity, are still in God’s hand, is to insulate ourselves from worrying or harping about it.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “We should now begin to abandon and give up our whole existence unto God, from the strong and positive conviction, that the occurrence of every moment is agreeable to His immediate will and permission, and just such as our state requires.” (Madame Guyon)

 

Psalm 77:11-12

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings." (Psalm 77:11-12 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: We can rid ourselves of worry, as well as triumph over our troubles, by remembering God’s wondrous works and testifying of them to others.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Memory is a fit handmaid to faith, for when faith has it’s famine, memory opens its granaries. (Charles Spurgeon)

 

Psalm 77:13

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?" (Psalm 77:13 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Nowhere on earth should God’s ways, as well as His unrivaled greatness, be more clearly seen and shared than in God’s sanctuary.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Tragically, the contemporary church, instead of showing the world the ways of God, succumbs itself to the ways of the world.

 

Psalm 77:14-15

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah." (Psalm 77:14-15 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: It would be a great wonder for us not to be in wonder of the supernatural strength of our wonder-working God.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Of all of God’s wonders, the most remarkable of all is the redemption of His people, which His arm alone is able to accomplish and achieve.

 

Psalm 77:16-20

 

BIBLE TEXT: "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." (Psalm 77:16-20 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist, who began this psalm speechless (verse 4), ends it by bursting out in song, over God’s miraculous salvation of Israel at the Red Sea, where God showed Himself to be sovereign over the sea, the Savior of His people, and the Smiter of their enemies.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: At the Red Sea, God not only used Pharaoh to slay the forces of Egypt in the sea, but also used Moses and Aaron to save and safely shepherd the flock of Israel through the sea.

 

Psalm 78

Although this psalm is a short summary of the history of Israel from their Exodus from Egypt to the time of King David, it is still the second longest psalm in the book of Psalms.

 

Psalm 78:1

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth." (Psalm 78:1 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm calls for us to lend our ear to it, for it is, like all Scripture, to be listened to as God’s law for our lives.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: It is to our own spiritual detriment that we disregard and disobey any part or portion of divinely inspired Scripture.

 

Psalm 78:2

 

BIBLE TEXT: "I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old." (Psalm 78:2 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: This psalm consists of parables—earthly stories with Heavenly meanings—and allegories—physical illustrations or examples of spiritual truths. (1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Galatians 4:24)

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Asaph, the parable-teaching psalmist, prophesies in this verse of the coming Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, whose favorite form of teaching would prove to be the parable. (Matthew 13:34-35)

 

Psalm 78:3-6

 

BIBLE TEXT: "Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children." (Psalm 78:3-6 KJV)

 

BIBLE TWEET: Our faith must not only be firmly held by us, but also faithfully passed on to our children, lest it be lost to them and all future generations.

 

BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Christianity is only one generation away from extinction.