Dwell in the Word: Psalm 5
When we think of the Psalms, what do we normally think of? We think of Psalms of praise, right? The idea of praising God because this is a Book of Praise. It's a Book of prayers. That's what we expect. But we really haven't seen much of that yet, have we? Sure, there is ascribing of glory and honor to God, but we have seen a lot of crying out to God, haven't we? We see that here in this Psalm as well. The Psalmist asks for God to hear and consider his groaning, to give attention to the sound of his cry. The Psalmist, and we see here that it is David, he is experiencing very negative things, and he is going to God each day, calling out to him and asking for help.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 4
Landing in the fourth chapter of the psalter, we once again see the psalmist calling out for help. He expects God to come and to rescue him. We see this right away in verse 1, Answer me when I call, O God, of my righteousness. He understands who God is. He calls out to him, understanding that this God is the God of his righteousness. He doesn't have this on his own. He needs God. And he also acknowledges what has happened in the past. You have given me relief. When I was in distress, you have answered me before, so I am trusting you to answer me again. And there is this cry here, Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. In other words, the Psalmist knows that it is a gracious act of God that he hears the prayers of his people. We don't deserve an Almighty, righteous God to hear us, but creatures of the dirt who were in rebellion against him, but we know that he is gracious and he will listen because he has listened in the past. And we see also in verse 3 that we can know that God has a particular people that he cares for, that he looks after, that he does something special with.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 3
As we come now to Psalm chapter three, we are getting a little bit different taste than we had in Psalm one and two. In the first Psalm, we saw that there was the blessed one, and we saw how that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we saw the futility of opposing the anointed one of God. Now we are seeing that David is experiencing some very difficult situations, and he is calling out to God. We see here in the notes that this Psalm is about when David fled from Absalom. Well, that was a terrible situation. There was a lot of bad things going on in the life of David there, but what is his strength? What is he looking to? He is not looking to himself. He is seeing all that is going on around him, and he is realizing his hope is in God. And in fact, as we read this chapter, we see that there are so many foes that are coming after him, and they're scoffing him. They're saying there's no salvation for him and God. The idea here is that God does not seem to be on his side, that there is an opposition to David, and so he must not be the anointed one of God.
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 2
As we come to Psalm 2 today, it's important that we remember Psalm 1, this idea of the blessed one. We understood that the blessed one spoken of there is ultimately pointing us to Jesus, and he unlocks the Psalms for us. We can see that not only in Psalm one, we see that theme continuing here as we come to Psalm two. This Psalm starts out with a question, and it's a great question.
Why do the nation's rage in the people's plot in vain? In other words, why would the people set themselves up against God, against the blessed one, against the Messiah. Why would they go against Him? Why would people go up against God?
Dwell in the Word: Psalm 1
We come to Psalm 1 today and begin our journey through the psalter, and we see this description of the blessed man, the one who walks not in the council of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners and doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. As we look at this and if we stopped at that first verse, our idea here would be that this blessed man is blessed because of what he avoids. Yes, that is absolutely true. We want to avoid the wicked and sinners, and we want to make sure that we are not those who scoff. But at the same time, there is an active element to this. The one who is blessed delights in the law of the Lord.