Tag: Psalms

Morning Musings: Psalm 102:12

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“But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

In last Friday’s Morning Musing we saw the psalmist here pouring out his heart to God from out of a place of utter desperation.  His world was falling to pieces and it felt like even God Himself had abandoned him.  Now, while there are a couple of psalms that end there in the darkness, most of them make a turn at some point.  Here we find the turn for this one.  Everything was falling apart and it seemed life itself might be ending, but…   Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Psalm 101:2-8

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I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;

I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.

A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.

Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an
arrogant heart
I will not endure.

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.

No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.

Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all evildoers
from the city of the Lord.

(ESV – Read the chapter)

These are powerful words.  David was writing this from his position as king of Israel.  He was laying out his commitment to God of how he was going to manage his kingdom in such a way that would keep it on the path of righteousness.  He was talking about how he was going to set guardrails to keep it from teetering into evil.  Drawing from v. 2, he was committing himself to walking in the way that is blameless and then going on to describe how he was going to do that.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 102:1

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“Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you!”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Sometimes our circumstances are hard enough that we just need to cry out to the Lord and tell Him how awful we feel.  This psalm is good for that.  When you feel completely broken and like God Himself has abandoned you, these are words you can cry out to Him.  Even if they feel a little uncomfortable, still, you can pray them with confidence because the psalmist already did and they were included in the Scriptures.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 99:8

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“O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the things that can be so frustrating about the Scriptures is that over and over they take two ideas which seem to be contradictory, declare them both to be true, and, rather than resolving the tension, simply leave it in place.

Some examples of this would be divine sovereignty and human responsibility, Jesus’ full humanity and full divinity, and the three-persons and one-person nature of the Trinity.  Right here we see another tension.  The psalmist declares God to be both a forgiver of sins, but also an avenger of wrongdoings.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 97:1-5

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“The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!  Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.  Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.  His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.  The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

We work very hard to make the Lord relatable for people.  We talk about Jesus and how God wants to be our friend.  We delight in His coming near and giving us the gift of His presence.  All of this is right and good and true.

But, we cannot forget along the way that God is also holy.  He is mighty.  He is powerful beyond our imagination.  He is glorious, and not in the loudly-singing-angels kind of way.  He is glorious in the shine-you-out-of-existence kind of way.  His glory is fearsome and terrible.  Were we to behold it we would come to an end.   Read the rest…