David Powlison offers a wonderful pastoral article on Psalm 131 entitled “Peace, Be Still: Learning Psalm 131 by Heart”.
He points out that “most of it [Psalm 131] is holy eavesdropping. You have intimate access to the inner life of someone who has learned composure, and then he invites you to come along. Psalm 131 is [...]
Archive for the ‘psalms’ Category
Becoming peaceful inside
Posted in peace, psalms, tagged peace, psalms on December 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Is the church listening to God?
Posted in The church, psalms, tagged boice, psalms, The church on December 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In Psalm 81, God speaks directly to His people Israel but discovers that they are not listening to Him. Three times he laments, “Oh that my people would listen to me.” It’s fascinating that the very people who had been so blessed by God in the OT were the ones who weren’t listening to His [...]
Psalm 118:17 and famous Christians
Posted in psalms, tagged psalms on December 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
William Cowper loved the words of Psalm 118:17, “I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord.” Cowper was abused as a boy, spent time in a mental institution as a young man, but through the ministry of John Newton in his life, overcame years of despair and hopelessness [...]
What’s the middle verse in the Bible?
Posted in psalms on November 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The answer is: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” (Psalm 118:8-9). It may interest you that, according to those who have time to figure such things out, these verses are the middle verses [...]
What was Martin Luther’s favorite psalm?
Posted in psalms, tagged Luther, psalms on November 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The answer is Psalm 118, of which Luther wrote,
“This is my own beloved Psalm. Although the entire Psalter and all of Holy Scripture are dear to me as my only comfort and source of life, I fell in love with this psalm especially. Therefore I call it my own. When emperors and kings, the wise [...]
Psalm 74 and the Huguenots
Posted in persecution, psalms on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
James Boice (from his commentary on the Psalms) with an encouraging story about the ministry of Psalm 74 in the life of Christian refugees:
“Singing psalms was very important to the Huguenots, those persecuted Protestants who were driven out of France in the last seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The power of the psalms to bless [...]
Probing questions from Psalm 73
Posted in psalms on September 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Psalm 73 makes me consider my heart condition:
Do I envy the prosperity and possessions of others (especially the wicked)?
Do I ever doubt God’s goodness in my life?
Do I ever doubt the need for the pursuit of righteousness in my life?
Do I desire God above all earthly possessions?
(From Steve Lawson’s commentary on the Psalms)
From secure ground to slippery ground
Posted in psalms on September 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.” (Psalm 73:18-20, ESV).
“The wicked seem secure, but they are actually on slippery ground, [...]
Correcting our vision
Posted in psalms on September 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Worship puts God at the center of our vision. . . .It is vitally important because it is only when God is at the center of our vision that we see things as they really are.”–Roy Clements, Cambridge, England.
Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73 suffered from spiritual myopia. He looked at the world without the [...]
The blight of envy
Posted in psalms on September 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:2-3, ESV).
There is probably never a day goes by that we aren’t envious. Envy lurks in the corners of our hearts ready to erupt at [...]
