Dwell in the Word: Psalm 22
Dive into Psalm 22 as we explore the powerful words of lament that Jesus spoke from the cross. Discover the depth of David's anguish and the unwavering faith that shines through his words. Let's reflect on how we can find comfort and hope in God's promises, even in our darkest moments.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 21
We land in Psalm 21 today and we see an opening statement of praise. And it's important that we stop for a moment and we remember back to Psalm 20. That Psalm was a call for salvation. It started with, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble and then ends with the prayer for Yahweh to save the King. And the final words are, may he answer us when we call. Psalm 21 then is a companion to that previous chapter of the Psalter. And the idea is that this is a song of praise in Thanksgiving that God has provided victory for the King.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 20
Here we have more well-known statements from the Book of Psalms. Verse 7 is 1 of those phrases that when you read it you think, oh, that's where that is found in the book of Psalms. It's a popular verse to put in songs, or it's even just a verse that people quote. It's a statement that's important for the people of God regardless of time or place, and we'll get to that verse eventually, but first we need to take a moment and set up the context of it. We see that Psalm 20 is another Psalm of David, and it starts with a great statement. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 19
Here in Psalm 19 we see a few different phrases that you probably find to be familiar. And you know the kind of statements in the Psalms that I'm talking about here. You are reading through a passage and you come across some verses, and the words are something that is used often, say, in prayers or in worship, and your brain says to you, oh, that's where this phrase is found in the Psalms. In fact, when we got to the end of Psalm 19, you might have thought, hey, that's what Mark says at the end of the prayer for illumination each week. Well, several phrases here are memorable to us because they are powerful and they use language that really draws us in. This Psalm of David is filled with praise and prayer, and he starts out by speaking about the handiwork of God.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 18:33-50
As we have worked our way through Psalm 18, we've seen David speak of how God is his rock and his fortress and how God has rescued David even though he was in significant peril. The conflict that had such a deep impact on the life of David was King Saul pursuing him in jealousy. As we saw when we started this psalm, it's a psalm of praise to God for the deliverance that God gave him from this terrible situation. And as we close up this Psalm with verses 33 through 50, we're going to see a repetition of these ideas and we're going to see continued praise to God for the deliverance that he provides. When we wrapped up last time, David was making a statement by asking a question, Who is God but Yahweh and who is a rock except our God? The psalmist was making it very clear that God is in control and that God is faithful to keep the promises that he makes to his people.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 18:20-32
As I said, this is our third episode in Psalm 18. First, we took a look at David praising God for his rescue with the first 3 verses of the psalm. And then we dug into verses 4 to 19, and we saw a vivid description of the peril that David was in, and we saw that only God could rescue David from this.
As we move on down to verse 20 now, the psalm transitions to contrasting the faithful 1 versus those who are not faithful.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 18:4-19
We continue through Psalm 18 and what we read from verses 4 through 19 and what we see emphasized to us and what we read is the way in which David describes the desperate state of affairs that he's in. This is strong language that we see here. The opening of Psalm 18 used great imagery of fortresses and strongholds, and David told us that he was saved from his enemies, but as we continue, he paints a picture of how desperate that situation was.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 18:1-3
So, Psalm 18 is by far the longest Psalm we've come to since the beginning of the Psalter, and I labored a little on whether or not to break up the psalm, but in order to keep these videos a reasonable length, I decided to break this psalm down and look at it over a few videos. And in this video, we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 3. And as we start out, we see that the information that isn't given a verse number that we read there is important. Usually the headings that we find in our Bibles are not a part of the original text. They're just there to help us make it easier for us as modern readers.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 17
Here in Psalm 17, we find a prayer of David and we again see a psalm where the psalmist is in distress and this psalm is a psalm of lament. These tend to unfold in a very similar way when we come across them. These types of psalms generally open with crying out to God. This is then followed by the psalmist declaring innocence in that situation, the one that's causing this distress that is making them cry out to God
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 16
Psalm 16 starts out with a powerful prayer. The psalmist cries out asking for God to preserve him. This is a prayer that each of us has probably said at some point, we may not have used those exact words, but we have come to a point where we feel as though we can't make it on our own, and so we cry out to God. And we see why David is crying out to God in the circumstances that he is facing here in Psalm 16. It is because he understands that God is his refuge.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 15
In light of what we looked at last time in Psalm 14, we see an interesting question here at the beginning of Psalm 15. O Yahweh, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Well considering that we just saw in the previous Psalm that there is none who is righteous, not even one, This is an important question. Is anyone worthy?
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 14
All right, as I mentioned, we are reading Psalm 14 today. It's a very familiar Psalm. Hear the word of the Lord. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand who seek after God. They have all turned aside together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 13
Psalm 13 has us in another psalm of David and in this chapter of the psalter we find David asking some questions. Once again, the psalmist is clearly facing a difficult circumstance of some kind and here we see a pretty high level of desperation. The questions David is asking shows that he might be to a bit of a breaking point. When we read the first verse you have to not only appreciate the honesty of David but I also appreciate that these questions are in scripture. We know that God does not forget his people. We know that he is slow to anger and abounding with steadfast love.
Dwell in the World: Psalm 12
We find ourselves in Psalm 12 and once again we see the psalmist feeling overwhelmed with the state of the world around him. Right away with the first three words here in this chapter we have David asking for rescue from Yahweh. In this instance it isn’t David calling out to have his health restored in a sickness and he isn’t asking to be saved from a military attack or coup. Instead, the concern that we see being expressed here is that the godly one is gone. David says that those who are faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 11
We come to the eleventh chapter of the Psalter and we have another psalm that is attributed to David. Here we see some strong imagery about how David understands his relationship to Yahweh.
As we have seen many times so far in the first ten chapters and will continue to see as we move through the Psalms, the occasion for the writing of this psalm is a time of turmoil and where the psalmist is under attack of some kind. And we start out here without any indication that anything is wrong.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 10
We come to Psalm 10 and we see a question that many of us have most likely asked. God, why do you seem so far away and why are you hiding yourself in the worst of times? You may have asked this question in time of personal difficulty or when someone you know was experiencing hardship. You may have also had this question come to mind when there was something going on in the world that you were deeply troubled about. This is something all of us have considered and it is a blessing that we see these things talked about openly in the pages of scripture because there is an answer to these thoughts that can plague our minds.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 9
As we continue our way through the Psalms we once again see the connection between the praises offered to God and what God has done for his people.
We see this right away in verse one when the Psalmist says that he will recount all of the LORD’s wonderful deeds. As we continue through this Psalm we see a list of things that God has done for David and it is an impressive list. You can easily understand why David has sat down to write this song. As I said, the stuff that David mentions that God has done for him is pretty impressive and it is all stuff that is related to David as king. This list of the deeds of God here isn’t that something small has happened and David is happy. He didn’t pray for a new bike for his birthday and he got one. It is also important that we understand that this faithfulness to David is also a faithfulness to the people of God. David is more than just an ordinary earthly power. He is the anointed of God and that anointing is not just that he has the authority as a king over a particular plot of land in the middle east. The faithfulness of God to David points to the faithfulness of God that will come in the one who will one day descend from David. When we talk about God being faithful it encompasses all these things and that is important as we consider how the Psalm applies to us, but we will get to that a little later. Let’s consider this list of things that David is recounting.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 8
Of the psalms we have looked at so far it is likely that Psalm 8 is the one that we are most familiar with. It is one of the psalms that you come to and you read through it and discover that several phrases that are used in prayers and songs come from this Psalm. And of course we do, this is a psalm of praise with majestic language not only about the glory of God but it also sets out how amazing it is that the maker of heaven and earth cares for us.
Right away with the first verse we see a statement that we say in praise along with the Psalmist: O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. As we read this you may have notice that in the original language this isn’t repetitive like it is in the English. As you’ve heard me mention before in our English bibles we get an indication of when the proper name of God is being used in the Old Testament. When we see all caps used for the word Lord it means that in the Hebrew it is the proper name of God, Yahweh, being used. You may have also noticed that the second time the word lord is used in English it isn’t in all caps. There in the original language it is not the proper name of God but the Hebrew word for lord, which is adonai.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 7
Here in the seventh Psalm we find David proclaiming that he takes refuge in the LORD. We have seen so far that David’s life is anything but ordinary. As the anointed one of God he is pursued by those who would do him harm in order to take his position of authority. As we think about these circumstances that the King of Israel might get himself in it would be easy to find the solution in building up earthly armies and resting on the military strength and strategy that you can come up with. Despite our natural human tendency to find our strength within ourselves we find that David finds his refuge in God. Yahweh is the one who will save him from these assorted difficulties that he encounters. We see this trust that David has in the LORD in verse one when he says O Lord, my God, in you do I take my refuge. His refuge isn’t in bows or swords. His trust is in God. The LORD is the fortress that he will use to remain safe and as it continues we get the idea of how serious the situation is for David. If God does not shelter him from this storm he is experiencing he believes they may tear apart his soul like a lion and he will be torn to pieces.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 6
We see once again that the Psalmist is in a very desperate state of affairs. We see, as verse 1 comes about, that he is begging God, Rebuke me not in your anger nor discipline me in your wrath. He is asking for mercy. In fact, in verse 2, we see that he's asked God to be gracious to him because he is languishing. He's in a desperate state of affairs to the point that his bones are troubled. In fact, verse three, My soul is greatly troubled, but you, O Lord, how long... In other words, he is wondering how long is God going to allow this to happen? How long is this state of affairs going to be the way that His life is because this is getting deep down into Him? Notice, My bones are troubled. Now, I don't know if you've ever had something go wrong where you were grieving or you felt it down within your bones physically, but we know what this phrase means, and there are ways in which we grieve and things that we feel that affect parts of us that have nothing to do with what we've experienced, right? We can feel it deep down in our bones.