INTRODUCTION The twenty-fifth psalm is a sustained plea for help, although it contains some things that we might have trouble reconciling. This again is one of the reasons why we need to be trained to pray as the psalmist prays. This is the second penitential psalm, and it is the first that is composed as …
Ingratitude and Health
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 18 When it comes to health issues, we are not mindful enough of optical illusions. One of the basic illusions proceeds from the progress that God has given to us, and the reason we fall for the illusion is our …
Three Books/Psalm 19
During the French Revolution, one revolutionary said to a peasant: “I will have all your steeples pulled down, that you may no longer have any object by which you may be reminded of your old superstitions.” “But,” replied the peasant, “you cannot help leaving us the stars.” It is not possible, by any device, to …
Sabbath Rest
The Puritan John Owen once remarked that through various controversies the Sabbath itself had been given very little rest. We should pray that this will not be the case in our treatment of it. In this installment, we will outline some of the basic principles concerning the Lord’s Day, and in the next we will …
The Pure in Heart
We must continue to remember the progression of the Beatitudes. We do not come now to a person who is pure in his own authority and power, rather, we come to someone who realized the impurity of his heart, cried out for forgiveness, and through Christ was heard. But even when we have come to …
Covenant Father
Morbid introspection can work with virtually any doctrinal material. In a traditional Reformed pietistic setting, it tries to pry into the decrees of election to find out the names of the chosen. In the view that a person in conversion does not undergo a change of nature, the guessing would have to involve the inscrutable …
Change of Heart
What are we to say to the view that the Bible does not teach that some people are individually ‘regenerated’? A view that locates perseverance in an ongoing and mysterious wrestling of the Spirit, rather than in a change of nature of those elected to heaven? If the Spirit wrestles with all baptized believers, but …
Sticky for Weeks
“May I please come in?” the new wine said. The old wineskin looked at the new wine with eyes kind of squinty. “I am not sure that would be entirely wise.” “Nevertheless, that is my request.” “Would you promise to be good?” “I can promise to act according to my nature.” “That is what I …
The Health Hobby
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 17 We do not often think of ourselves as rich, but we are. We tend to grade on a curve, and since most of the people around us do not live in third world conditions, we do not factor that …
The Warrior God/Psalm 18
This psalm is also found with some variations in 2 Samuel 22, and appears to have been written near the end of David’s life. In this form, it is likely a composite, and refers to different occasions of deliverance over the course of David’s life, but most notably to those times when God delivered David …