Daily Devotions

Psalm 110 - Jesus and the Psalms To finish the year and our reflections in the Psalms it is worth considering Jesus and the Psalms. Jesus said: “What do you think of the Christ?” In guiding the Jerusalem leaders to contemplate this question of eternal weight, Jesus turned to the authority of what is written “in the book of Psalms,” specifically Psalm 110 (Matt 22:41–46; Mark 12:35–37; Luke 20:40–44), and asked a question childlike in both simplicity and profundity, the answer to which plunges one into the unfathomable wonder of the incarnation of God: How could David refer to his son as Lord? This probing question was but the application of what Jesus would later declare, that he himself is the object of all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, summarising their threefold division in Luke 24:44 as “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,” with the Psalms standing as the summary representative of the Writings. That much of the Psalms concerns “the Christ” was (and is) com...

Psalm 150 - With every breath Worship is a universal privilege. I could have said “obligation”, for worship is a duty we are commanded to fulfil. But I don’t want to give the impression that it is burdensome or oppressive. Exulting in the exaltation of God is an unparalleled privilege that is permeated by joy and satisfaction. All that have “breath” (Verse 6) should praise God with every breath until they are out of breath!   “We sing the greatness of our God that made the mountains rise,   That spread the flowing sea abroad and built the lofty skies.   We sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day,   The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey.” (Isaac Watts) The focus of such adoration is always and ever God alone for who he is and what he’s done. We do not worship the world or revere the reflection. We are to “praise him for his mighty deeds” and “according to his excellent greatness” (Verse 2). There is a limit to praise only if...

Psalm 149 - Kingdom praise This Psalm explains that the Lord’s purpose in Israel is to bring the whole world under his sway—therefore into the blessedness Israel enjoys. Within 146–150 only 149:2 describes the Lord as King to whom (v8) the kings submit. Thus the psalm takes the metaphor of kingship seriously, including the extension of the kingdom by force of arms.  But it is metaphor (cf. Is. 45:14-25; 60:1-22; Eph. 6:10-17; Rev. 1:16), just as militarism (Is. 9:4, 5, 7) is metaphorical of the extension of the kingdom of peace and as in Acts 15:14-18, Amos’s picture of Gentile subservience to David is metaphorical of the spreading gospel.  The prologue (v1) leads to joy in a saving King (v2-4); joy in world–dominion (the restfulness and conquests of a praising people) their objectives; and finally the epilogue (v5-9). Read Psalm 149 and praise God as your saviour king as you watch this 3 minute video clip of the famous sermon "Seven Way King" (aka That's My Ki...

Psalm 148 - Beyond Praise All five of the closing psalms begin with the single Hebrew word Hallelujah — “Praise the Lord.” This psalm (Psalm 148) is remarkable for its emphasis on the sheer range and comprehensiveness of beings and things in the universe that unite the whole creation in praise. Beyond the praise of the individual (Psalm 146) and the community (Psalm 147) there is a praise due to the Creator from the whole creation: heaven (v1) and earth (v7), introduced by identical commands. Each call to praise is grounded in an explanation (v5-6, 13-14), again with identical introductions. Heavenly praise is grounded in the fact of God the Creator who originated, maintains and controls all (v5-6). Earthly praise is grounded in this intrinsic glory of the Lord and the unique position of his people (v13-14). The order of praise in v1-6 is downward from the heavenly beings (v2) to the physical constituents of the heavens (v3-4); the order of praise in v7-14 is upward from the dept...

Psalm 147 - Pleasing God What kind of heart and faith pleases God? How can we be terrified of God and still find hope in him at the same time? The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and hope in him. But fear and hope do not ordinarily go together in our experience. How can this tension be resolved for the Christian? Psalm 147:11 reflects on how God befriends those who fear him, so fear and friendship go together with God. God delivers those who fear him, so fear and safety go together with God. God loves those who fear him, so fear and love go together with God. Fearing God means fearing the consequences of leaving him. God takes great pleasure in those who fear him and hope in him. If they start looking away to other things, to other gods, they should fear God and run back to him. Fear of God will drive us to trust in God’s steadfast love and not ourselves. Please now read Psalm 147 by clicking here or in your own bible now. This is one of the set readings for today accordi...

Psalm 146 - Praise the Lord my Soul The Lord is the sovereign ruler over everything. Because of this, he is worthy of all praise and glory. God will redeem his people through the Messiah, and this should drive us toward worship. I think this is why the Psalms close with a crescendo that is an increasingly loud call to praise ( Pss. 146–50 ). We encounter an almost deafening cry to praise the Lord with trumpets, tambourines, dancing, shouting, and crashing cymbals. When we see God’s sovereign glory and salvation through the suffering of his Messiah, there is no other fitting response. The opening call in Psalm 146, like the concluding verse, is plural but at once it becomes singular (verse 2): the Lord is worthy of the praise in the soul. All human objects of trust, whether outstanding or ordinary, lack ability and reliability. But in contrast to this there is not just ‘God’ but a God proved as One able to save, known through his self–revelation as Saviour (the LORD, Ex. 6:6, 7), ...

Psalm 145 - In Awe of God What is the worldview of this psalm? Every human being has been hardwired by God to live in daily awe of him. This means the awe of God was designed to be the deepest, most life-shaping practical daily motivation of every human being. This is the calling of every person. This is the umbrella of protection over every person. This is the reality that defines and gives shape to every other reality. What does this functionally look like? Awe of God should in some way motivate everything I do and say. Awe of God should be the reason I do what I do with my thoughts. It should be the reason I desire what I desire. Awe of God should be the reason I treat my wife the way I do and parent my children in the manner I do. It should be the reason I function the way I do at my job or handle my finances the way I do. It should structure the way I think about possessions, positions, and power. Awe of God should shape and motivate my relationship with my extended family and n...

Psalm 144 - The people whose God is the LORD This Psalm pictures an idyllic situation in the land: sons and daughters multiplying and healthy, barns filled with produce, cattle filling the fields, trade flourishing, military defences secure, freedom from some regional superpower, basic prosperity and contentment in the streets. What will bring about these conditions? The answer is summarised in the last verse: “Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is YAHWEH” (Verse 15). This last line means more than that these people happen to have preferred a certain brand of religion. It means, rather, that if this God — the one true God — owns a people — a people who in confessing him as their God trust him and worship him and obey him — that people is blessed indeed. And because this last verse is a summarising verse, the unpacking of this notion is found in the rest of the psalm. The psalm opens in praise to “the LORD my Rock” — a symbol that is evocativ...

Psalm 143 - Hear our prayer The psalmist cries out, "hear our prayer". The deeper the need the more fervent the prayer. And the need has become deep indeed! Like a hunted beast he has been chased, grounded, caged and is in despair. Power to endure has gone. Could it be that the Lord has rejected him and that this really is the end? The psalm ‘pivots’ on the urgency of v 7: Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails.  Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. The solution is in God. David prays not for the removal, destruction etc. of foes, but just the lifting up of the Lord’s face in favour. That is all that is needed—just one look! The longing is for God himself rather than simply the end of trouble. Divine favour will make the life of obedience possible. As you watch this video - "Hear our prayer" reflect on God 's love and mercy to you in difficulties. Please now read Psalm 143 by clicking here or in your own bible ...

Psalm 142 - Crying out to God “The fact that God is a friend—and that he cares—makes all the difference in the world.” — Trip Lee Surrounded by enemies and misunderstood by friends David, lamenting that he is man–forsaken, finds that he is not God–forsaken. The three sections of the psalm (1-3a, 3b-5, 6-7) contain the same themes: (i) Personal distress: fainting; friendless; at the end of my tether; (ii) Prayer: describing; affirming; asking; (iii) The Lord: understanding; protecting, providing; delivering.  Though the Lord knows our needs (Mt. 6:32) he commands us to ask (Mt. 7:7-8). Please now read Psalm 142 by clicking here or in your own bible now. This is one of the set readings for today according to the Daily Bible Reading Plan

Psalm 141 - When you are provoked This psalm is, in effect, a sustained prayer for the true use of the believing tongue. David desires God to find in his prayer all the power and acceptability of the divine ordinances of the daily offerings (Ex. 29:38-42; 30:8). But pure prayer Godward (vertically) must be matched by controlled speech to people (horizontally). The prayer for the mouth must be backed by a prayer for the heart. There is a temptation to end the stress by compromise, by joining with the opposition. ‘Eating their delicacies’ may be taken literally, ‘join in table fellowship’, or metaphorically ‘delight in the things that delight them’. His humble and resolute spirit went further, accepting rebukes from people who might have been expected to understand. It would seem that the righteous were rebuking him possibly for his silent acquiescence and maybe urging reply. But this is not to be: only the voice of prayer will be heard until verse 6 ‘when their judges are thrown down ...

Psalm 140 - Justice A just law and just government will uphold the inherent equality of every human’s dignity and worth.  In a society of angels, this is easy to affirm and implement. It’s much harder in a society of sinners.  Think of the wise man versus the foolish man in Proverbs. One will make decisions throughout life that, in all likelihood, put his children at an advantage over the children of the foolish man. Then again, think of the natural-born citizen versus the immigrant, or the member of the majority versus the member of the minority. This time, through no merit or fault of the parents, their respective children will start at different points, at least by various social and economic measurements.  And yet the children of all of these individuals are equal in dignity and worth. What, then, does justice require toward the parents? What does it require of us in regard to the now differently situated children? What does the Bible say? Certainly Scripture calls ...

Psalm 139 - Search me O God What do you have going for you everything is against you? What will not fail you when what you thought was true and solid and real collapses beneath you? Who will stand by you when friends forsake you and enemies seize their opportunity? What works when everything is on the line but nothing else is working? This experience is inevitable. We don’t have to go looking for it. It will come find us. God himself has written it into our stories. But when this happens, we are forced to ask thebasic question: What can I count on, when I can’t count on anything else? Psalm 139 is where to go for the answer. When David found himself in that catastrophic place, he dug all the way down to the deepest foundations of his very existence. This is the unchanging bedrock he found there: God, you know me (verses 1-6). God, you are with me (verses 7-12). God, you made me (verses 13-18). The psalm then turns on the hinge of verse 18b: “I awake, and I am still with you....

Psalm 138 - Above all Earthly Powers Psalm 138 seems to be one of those occasions when a single experience opened up a whole new way of seeing the nature of the Lord, the future of the world and personal security. Of the experience itself we only know that prayer was answered in a way that gave David new vitality so that he wanted to sing the Lord’s praise into the face of every so–called ‘god'.  He felt he knew the Lord as never before. He knew that no trouble or foe could ever beat him or prevent the realisation of the Lord’s purpose. Maybe it all happened in 2 Samuel 5:17-21 when the Philistines challenged David’s infant kingdom, and in answer to enquiring of the Lord, a signal victory was won and the ‘gods’ of Philistia became the litter of battle. Maybe, but it all arose simply through prayer and answered prayer. The place of prayer is the place where the Lord’s revelation of himself takes on new dimensions, the place of renewal, world–vision and confidence in God. W...

Psalm 137 - Justice? This can be a very challenging Psalm for us.  To the grieving exiles, memories were bitter and joy was consigned to the past. Deliberately so—for the captors demanded songs and joy. But the Lord’s songs are statements of truth and acts of worship, not items in a concert. Furthermore, there is a proper time for weeping. Life is not ceaseless joy. Also, the invitation to sing was a veiled invitation to settle down—you’re Babylonians now! But they could not forget or conform. They were in a foreign land. All of us have to decide where our citizenship lies and live accordingly—in thought, in deed, and in heart. Babylon was the Psalmist's address, Jerusalem his home (Phil. 3:20). But there was a song they sang and, when they left an unscathed Babylon and returned to a shattered Jerusalem, they sang it again. The psalmist asks nothing about Babylon but notes (and who can contradict him?) that when Babylon is treated in the same manner as Babylon treated Jerusale...

Psalm 136 - Praying thanks Dear heavenly Father, it almost sounds trite to refer to you as “good,” for you are quintessential, archetypal goodness. All goodness finds its source and meaning in you. Nothing can compare with the goodness of your steadfast love for us in Jesus. Because of Jesus’ finished work, your love for us is immeasurable, unwavering, and inexhaustible. O what peace, joy, and freedom this gives us. You are the God of gods, because there is no God like you, and there is no God but you. There are only wannabe-gods and demigods, handmade idols and cultural currencies, empty nothings and broken cisterns. You are the thrice-holy God—eternal and glorious, and you love us more than we can possibly imagine or grasp. Father, having given Jesus to be the Lamb of God on our behalf, you raised and installed him as the Lord of lords and King of kings. Jesus has the hearts of every other king in his hands. He rules over and in all things, for our good and your glory. No...

Psalm 135 - Praise the Lord As John Piper argues, one of the great, and unfathomable implications of the Biblical truth of God as three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is that God is overflowingly happy in the fellowship between the Father and the Son through the Spirit. "This is my loved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). God is and always has been an exuberantly happy God. He has never been lonely. The Father has always rejoiced with overflowing satisfaction in the glory of his Son, and vise versa. Therefore, God is not constrained by anything outside himself to do anything he does not want to do. If God were unhappy, if he were in some way deficient, then he might indeed be constrained from outside in some way to do what he is not pleased to do in order to make up his deficiency and finally to be happy. But, because he is complete and exuberantly happy and overflowing with satisfaction in the fellowship of the Trinity, all he does is free and uncoe...

Psalm 134 - Praise the Lord This psalm completes the ‘Song of Ascents’ cycle. The worshippers have now arrived in the temple on the top of Mount Zion, and they are now fully engaged in the worship of the Lord. And that’s what they are called to do: Praise the Lord, as they serve him in the sanctuary – the holy place in which the people gather. The temple, if you recall, was the place in which they gathered to make atonement for their sins – and so their praise is filled with the delight of knowing that the holy God has made them holy, despite everything. And that he, the creator of heaven and earth, in all his glory, blesses them. We, the New Testament people of God, gather at our temple – Jesus Christ. Because it is in him that we have the atonement of our sins, and in him that we know the depths of God’s love and his mercy. And so, we should spend time, and find the words, to praise him. To praise someone is to use our language to specifically recall what they have done. Praise ...

Psalm 133 - Sweet Unity from God When God’s people live together in unity, it is a sweet thing. But unity can take different forms. That can be an imposed conformity, in which there is a unity because those in power have commanded it to be so. Or there can be a unity because disagreements are simply suppressed. There can be the attempt to impose an organisational or institutional unity upon the people of God. But this unity is different. The psalmist pulls out two quite striking images to explain it: the dew on Mount Hermon, falling now on Zion, and the oil flowing on Aaron’s beard. They are both liquid images – this unity flows, and it flows in a particular direction. It comes from above and it flows down. The anointing of the Aaronic priesthood with oil was a sign of God’s spirit coming down. The dew of Mount Hermon in Lebanon was famous for being heavy – what if it now flows down on Zion, to bless it and make it flourish? The unity of God’s people is not imposed by people but co...

Psalm 132 - Keeping Promises We’ve just had a couple of really personal and quiet psalms – so it is possible we might have forgotten that these psalms are supposed to be for the people to sing as they ascend the hill to the temple. They are walking up, up to meet God in his chosen place, there to receive his mercy and forgiveness and blessing. And in this psalm, they remember what it is all about. On Zion, David promised to build the temple. It was Solomon, his son who eventually did build it. But God promised to David that his son would always occupy the throne – everlastingly. For ever and ever. It’s a big promise. And of course, it depends on the sons of David, the kings in Jerusalem, keeping the covenant themselves. The prayer of the pilgrims to God is that the king will keep his promises so that God will keep his. The promise of God is to dwell with his people and to make his throne secure; and to bless them with mercy and forgiveness. But this picture runs up against what ac...

Psalm 131 - Humble hope Just like Psalm 130, this little Psalm ends by calling Israel to ‘put your hope in the Lord’. It’s something for all the people of God in whatever circumstances. Hope in nothing else, because nothing or no-one else can give the kind of hope we long for. This Psalm opens with humility. The writer is not parading his or her humility – that would make no sense. Rather he or she is saying ‘I really don’t pretend to know the ways of God.’ There’s no pretention here, to be able to gaze into the weighty matters of history and philosophy and science and make sense of them, or to pronounce authoritatively on the world. Instead, the writer ‘calms’ him/herself. He or she just sits quietly, humbly, with no arrogance, no pride. There is only one way to approach the Lord, and it is with a quiet and humble spirit, knowing that we are in utter dependence on him, and sustained in all things by his kindness. That’s the key to the striking image at the heart of the Psalm: the ...

Psalm 130 - A cry for mercy "Out of the depths, I cry" - In Psalm 130 the psalmist’s heart-rending plea is to the Lord in his feeling of being overwhelmed. He feels swamped. Not just surrounded by enemies, but sinking in his own failings. Perhaps he is well thought of by other human beings, but he cannot hold his head up in front of God. If God kept an account of his sins, then he knows too well: what hope would there be? His one hope is that God will be merciful. And by verse 4, this is what he knows – God is indeed the God who brings forgiveness. And with forgiveness comes the freedom to serve God. With that hope in his heart, he waits with eager longing for God, like the watchman waits for the dawn. It’s a longing that should be our longing, too: for the Lord to come and bring with him our restoration. The ‘chorus’ of the Psalm moves from individual experience to Israel. What are we the people of God to do? Put our hope not in anything else, but in the Lord. Why? Because...

Psalm 129 - Salvation from our Enemies The people of God meet with hostility. That much seems to be a given throughout the Bible. The New Testament people of God, the Christians, know this doubly because we follow a crucified Messiah. He tells to expect rejection and persecution. But we are assailed also by the temptation to sin, even when we’ve been forgiven. In Psalm 129, the complaint of Israel is that they have been sorely oppressed. We know that this is true from their history. They could recall their experience of slavery in Egypt, and they knew it once more when they were exiled to Babylon. But even in the midst of their subjection, they could sing of the righteousness, or justice, of the Lord, who freed them from their captivity. And they call down a curse, too, on those that oppose them. May they be shamed! How does this fit with Jesus’ teaching that we are to love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us? For Christians, this Psalm is less about the human enemy and ...

Psalm 128 - Fear of the Lord The fear of the Lord is a principle of human life. It is the beginning of wisdom, as Proverbs says. And in ordinary circumstances, following it leads to a more healthy and more prosperous life. The studies continue to bear out that devout religious faith and regular church attendance make for healthier and wealthier living, as a general rule. How come? The godly lifestyle is likely to be more careful, more generous, less risky, more communal, and based on relationships of trust. A person who fears God can be trusted, since they know that they will answer to God, even if human beings never uncover what they’ve done. But though this Psalm declares that fear of the Lord leads to blessing, it only tells half the tale. We live in a world marred by sin and evil. The principle only holds in general circumstances. Christians still get sick. They still suffer misfortune. They still suffer infertility. How does this Psalm work then? Even Jesus, the one righteous ma...

Psalm 127 - Unless the Lord builds the house Human beings can kid themselves that we are self-made and self-reliant. And yet, says the Psalmist in Psalm 127: no endeavour we conceive succeeds without God. All our frenetic activity – our early rising, our plotting and planning, our stressing about the day – can be a sign of our failure to rest in God. God grants good sleep to those he loves, because they know his peace! So: how well are you sleeping? Do you have that deep inner sense that the good God has things in his keeping, and is protecting you? Do you commit all your endeavours to God in prayer? The second part of the Psalm turns to a different subject: the blessing of children. It is unusual to not see children as a good thing, although our modern technological society has not seen its wealth as an opportunity to have more children but rather fewer. Children after all cramp our style – or, too many do. That’s not the Psalmist’s perspective, though. For him, children are a ble...

Psalm 126 - God answers prayer Instead of a cry for help, Psalm 126 imagines what it is like when God answers the prayers of his people and restores their fortunes. It’s a great feeling of elation. ‘We are filled with joy’, they sing. Their reputation amongst the nations is that this is the people for whom God has done extraordinary things. They are a blessed people, truly. But today, this is their prayer: "Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev".  Zion’s city, we know, was sacked and ransacked in 587 BC, and the temple destroyed, and the people taken to Babylon. The fortunes of the people were at a low ebb. And their expectation of joy was not being realised. They also experienced the contempt of the foreign nations for them and for their God, who had not prevented their shattering defeat. But the Psalm is hopeful. The last verse is a beautifully comforting image: those who mourn will be comforted (as in the Sermon on the Mount). Those who weep, especi...

Psalm 125 - Trust in the Lord Psalm 125 is about what faith does. Trust is an extremely powerful thing. Not because it is anything in and of itself, but because of its object in this instance: the Lord. Trust in the Lord God of Israel is a solid as the rocks. The Lord provides a protective shield to those who trust in him. Faith is the ultimate in insurance and security, because we place ourselves, by our faith, in the hands of the one who can really protect us, and who loves us. We overestimate the security that our material possessions and earthly relationships give us. These things can be taken from us in a moment. We can trust in people who betray us. We can find our confidence is placed in things that are not solid at all. The Lord on the other hand is proven: he raised Christ from the dead! He created the world! He forgives your sins! Those who trust in the Lord, then, are ‘the righteous’ – not in this case the morally righteous, but those who are in right relationship with God...

Psalm 124 - Hope without pride You could read Psalm 124 in a partisan way, like a victorious sport’s team: if God hadn’t been on our side, we wouldn’t have had victory. That’s, in a way, how Israel would have read this. The Lord God saved them from disaster, because he was on their side. That’s a big claim, and it can sound like moral and spiritual superiority. But nothing could be further from the truth in Israel’s own understanding of themselves. They were favoured by God not because they were somehow better than everyone else but quite the reverse. He choose them precisely to prove his glory and power, since they were not only weak but also stubborn and rebellious. If he could make this people his people he would certainly be something! So there’s a humility here: we would have been destroyed if God had not been for us. We would have been erased from the pages of history had God not stood in between us and our attackers. Christians can say the same, but with a new aspect, since w...

Psalm 123 - Looking to the Merciful God The pilgrims journey up the hill to Zion is always reflected in the upwards motion of their gaze in these psalms of ascents. They are approaching the throne of the Son of David; and they are approaching too the one who is enthroned in heaven. Then follows a somewhat jarring image for us, because we are not used to a world with slaves in it – least of all thinking of ourselves as slaves. But that’s the kind of gaze that the psalmist imagines here. We look to the Lord God with a mixture of awe and fear, knowing how much we depend on him. We have what we have from his hand. Or, we should… It is true of course that he is our Father, and that we know him more tenderly (and he us) than a slave-master knows his slave. But that note of respectful fear, or willing obedience, of utter dependence, that we get in this image is one we should not lose. God is not trivial. He’s our master. We belong to him, as we can never belong to a human being. And we a...

Psalm 122 - Real peace Imagine the worshippers approaching the city of Jerusalem and singing to each other as they make their way. At the top of the hill is the citadel of King David, and also the temple. There’s the great symbol of God’s rule and the great place of God’s mercy and holiness. The tribes of Israel gather there and find in it the peace which God brings, as they praise the name of their Lord. It’s a place of security, but also a place for judgement. And that’s not as much a contradiction as we might think. The people come for the cleansing of their sin, to experience forgiveness and peace primarily of God. This ‘city of peace’ (the meaning of ‘Jerusalem’) is called that because in it is declared peace with God. Those who gather in its walls know the peace of God because they have peace with God. The prayer for the peace of Jerusalem is not then to be understood by us as a prayer for the peace of the contemporary city of Jerusalem – good though that might be to pray for!...

Psalm 121 - A Song of Hope in a world without hope Christians should be characterised by hope, and as a result, should live in such a way that brings up questions in other’s minds. The question is, how do we obtain such a hope and how do we live in the good of it? Hope requires a biblical outlook — You will not find real hope anywhere else, other than in the Bible, where we find help to live, help to rescue us, help to have hope. So in Psalm 121 the Psalmist asks the question: I lift up my eyes to the hills, and where does my help come from? And the answer is: from the Lord maker of heaven and earth. In the first half of the Psalm two supreme descriptions are given of God. Who is the LORD? He is the maker of heaven and earth, God the creator. Fundamental to knowing who you are. Secondly he watches of his people and that is the story of the bible. Both titles imply preservation. The creator not only creates the world but sustains the world moment by moment. And God doesn’t let ...