In the midst of our tangled earthly confusions, God sees all things clearly. As we are pressed with dangers on every hand, God remains unthreatened by them and unperturbed. This is why a right understanding of who God is must be considered the only rational basis of faith. “In the LORD put I my trust: …
Break Their Evil Arms/Psalm 10
As with so many of the psalms, this psalm shows one of God’s saints in great turmoil over the condition of the fat and sassy attitude of those who rebel against heaven. “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? . . .” (Ps. 10:1-18). In a world …
Poetic Justice/Psalm 9
In this psalm, David recounts his fight with the heathen who had invaded his nation. David writes during the course of a brief respite in the battle. He celebrates a great deliverance in the first part of the psalm (vv. 1-12), and calls for further deliverance in the remainder of the psalm (vv. 13-20). “I …
Under His Feet/Psalm 8
The eighth psalm is another psalm of David. The import of the psalm is glorious, and the Gittith probably refers somehow to the joyful aspect and nature of the psalm. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. . . .” (Ps. …
No Level Playing Field/Psalm 7
The psalm is by David. The occasion of it was a slander by a particular man named Cush, a man from the same tribe that David’s adversary Saul was from. The psalm is a shiggaion, a “wandering,” which probably refers to a very intense, dithyrambic poem (cf. Hab. 3:1). In his zeal for vindication, David …
Psalms and Culture War
Our worship here is the center of all our endeavors in the surrounding community. We look to God here, now, for His own sake. But at the same time, the right worship of God should inform, drive, and inspire all our efforts at local culture building. Our problem has been that because our worship has …
Transactions of Grace/Psalm 6
We come now to one of many penitential psalms — psalms expressing grief and sorrow over sin, with a cry for God to extend His mercy and grace. “O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger . . .” (Ps. 6:1-10). Again, this is a psalm of David. We are not given the occasion for …
The Hatred of God/Psalm 5
In this psalm, we find the psalmist crying out to God for deliverance, but also for more than deliverance. The desire is for God to vindicate His name and character as He destroys those who oppose His righteousness. “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, …
War Psalms
You have heard many times that our culture is disintegrating around us. You have seen for yourself that this is so. You have heard that all evangelical attempts at political lobbying are like putting a band-aid on cancer. What shall we then do? You know generally that the answer lies in reforming the worship of …
Faith Knows That God Hears/Psalm 4
Many believe that this fourth psalm was written on the same occasion as the one just before it. There are reasonable arguments against this, but at the very least, it was written in the same kind of situation. ” Hear me when I call O God of my righteousness; thou hast enlarged me when I …