The Belt of Truth : Recent Episodes
Rev. Andrew Belt
Take time to gird ourselves with God’s Word and find Jesus Christ in the Scriptures!
“The Belt of Truth” is part of the Armor of God that St. Paul lists in Ephesians 6:14. This describes the Scriptures themselves that holds us fast and equip us for a life of faith in Christ. The word “Belt” also happens to be a pun on my last name. So join me each time as we gaze into the Scriptures to find Jesus Christ our Lord!
Jesus heals two parallel accounts of two daughters who are unclean, dead or dying, to demonstrate that Jesus is bringing the new kingdom of God on earth that is located in his being and he can bring with just a touch.
Jesus teaches the disciples of John that he is not some patch to an old system or is to be regarded as an ongoing way of an old life. Jesus comes to bring something new and he can’t fit inside the methods of the old, but rather as their fulfillment.
Jesus calls surprising people to belong to him. When asked why Jesus calls the people he does, he notes that sick people need a doctor not people who feel good.
Jesus comes to call and heal sinners and to invite them into fellowship with God by trusting him and following him.
Jesus comes to the Gadarenes and is met by two demon possessed men. After their confrontation, the people of the city also come to meet Jesus in an eerie way that only unbelief can.
Jesus continues to heal and to bring about God’s kingdom. His authority is even over demons and the creation itself, showing him to be very God of very God himself.
People also respond to him and his claims. His disciples follow him but there are also those who do not understand the extent of his claim and Jesus will correct them so that they might know him and so he saved.
As Jesus comes down off the mountain, people begin to respond to him by faith. We hear of a Leper who was healed and also of a centurion asking for the health of his servant.
Both of these people are surprising people to respond to faith, and Jesus has much to say to both in regards to receiving him by faith.
By extension we are also exhorted to respond to Jesus’ call in the same way. God grant that by the power of his Spirit!
Jesus concludes the sermon on the Mount, encouraging those to hear and do and warning those who do not, since the final judgment is in view. Jesus’ words are truth and can save us in the final judgment.
The crowds are amazed by his authority, that being a key theme in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus now goes out to extend God’s reign on earth through his mercy and grace.
Jesus ends his sermon by exhorting and warning us about hearing a false Jesus and the consequences of not heeding his words.
Jesus wraps up his sermon’s main body with an encouragement that God is ever ready to give and therefore we are called to live in a world that depends on God’s generosity that enables us to be generous as well.
Our Lord wants us to be careful with judgment. None of us can go about it without sin, and so our attitude and direction with judging is for the restoring of a brother who has fallen into sin. But checking our motives for doing so.
Jesus calms worried hearts by pointing us to the fact that we live under the care of our Heavenly Father who sees all that we need. We are to seek for the more important matters of life. We are made to be in God’s eternal kingdom. And so we seek that and God will make sure to handle what we need.
Jesus gives the warning about idolatry and how possessions end up possessing us and capturing all our attention and worship.
Jesus tells his disciples how he desires for them to fast, not to gain favor with men, but to do so in honor of our Father in Heaven.
Jesus expands on the topic of prayer and how he wants his disciples to posture and approach prayer. Not as something to gain favor with God, but to approach in trust as beloved children and ask for those things that God desires to give.
Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount with the topic of piety. He focuses his last triad on three aspects of righteousness. Giving to the poor, prayer, and fasting.
His intent is to focus on the motivations for doing good works. He expects his people to do them but how they do them matters. How we do them shows that we are either faithful or self-serving.
Jesus notes that the Father will work it all out in the end and to spend our time serving him faithfully.
The 5th petition has us asking God for forgiveness.
We see that forgiveness with God is also tied with forgiving others. In effect, we ask God for the Gospel to impact how we relate and treat others.
Forgiveness is not something that humans can generate. It is a gift that God gives. Not because we deserve it, but because our Heavenly Father is gracious to us. So we also extend that gift to others.
Jesus gives us the attitude and action we should have toward our enemies. To love them and care for them as God our Father does.
We are called to be perfect, complete. This is rhetorical demand of the law and it is also the gift that Jesus comes to give to us by his life and atonement for us.
God is our Creator and cares for our daily needs. He gives and we don’t even realize it. But here we pray that we would and that give thanks for it!
Thy will be done! This is a battle cry as we enter the fray of the enemies of God who would seek to deter God’s kingdom from coming and from us being made holy!
As Jesus continues the discussion during his Sermon on the Mount, he moves into oaths and retaliation.
He fights ideas popular in his day about ranking oaths and getting even. Things still popular today . As salt and light Jesus wants to live in a way that doesn’t fit this age but does fit the age to come.
As we put our lives out in risk, we hope and pray for God’s vindication.
Jesus continues his authoritative sermon on those who are blessed to be his disciples.
In this part, Jesus gives us God’s intention for sexual purity and marriage. He pushes back on the legality of divorce in his day and gives God’s will for it. Jesus also shows us that sexual purity is not just something we have with our hands but first in our hearts.
By this Jesus calls us from the world’s ways and has us trust in him. For Jesus has paid for the sins he calls out here.
We pray for God’s kingdom to come. This means we want God’s kingdom to come to us when God sends his kingdom. And God’s kingdom comes now when we receive God’s Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word and the giving of the Sacraments.
This leads us to become holy, believe in Christ and to lead holy lives now and forever!
Jesus gives us God’s intention of the law as he aims at the 5th commandment which says, “you shall not murder.”
While Jesus does not give us case law, he gives us the intention of God’s law which does more than look at our actions but directs us to the sin which is born in our hearts.
Rather we seek to reconcile and make right, especially before The Day comes.
We pray for God’s name to be holy. But what does that mean? Isn’t God holy already? Of course!
But what does it mean that I should keep God holy? That is the question. Here we take a look at how we ask God to make us holy in all that we say and do.
Jesus, making us into new people, now encourages us to be salt and light.
Jesus also describes his relationship to God’s revealed Torah and how his people are to understand it as well.
Jesus begins his inaugural address concerning God’s reign in the sermon on the Mount.
He begins with the blessings of who is in God’s kingdom and speaks in the third person. But his 9th and final blessing is directed at you, those who hear and believe.
The Creed wraps up with the work of the Holy Spirit who makes a holy people using the Holy Word and Sacraments.
The Holy Spirit makes us holy by delivering to us the gifts that Jesus purchased by his death and resurrection.
This is leading God’s people to the day of the resurrection which will finish this task that he has begun in us.
Amen indeed!
Jesus, with authority as God’s Son and the Christ, has driven back Satan and that leaves room for God’s kingdom to come. Jesus announces that it is time to repent and come into God’s kingdom.
He calls Peter, Andrew, John and James to be his disciples and they immediately follow Jesus, even leaving their father behind.
Jesus spreads the effects of God’s kingdom by restoring and healing people of the effects of the devil’s reign.
This sets up Jesus’ inauguration speech that God’s Kingdom has come in the Sermon on the Mount
In the final movement of Matthew 1-4, Jesus positions himself to fulfill the Scripture to proclaim to his people in Gentile country that he is bringing God’s kingdom and he is the King.
The passage from Isaiah 9 connects to Immanuel and gives us a miniature Gospel summary, that Jesus is here to bring God’s Kingdom to Jew and Gentile alike.
The pieces are now set for Jesus to fulfill God’s mission. Jesus will now call people to follow him and give them a taste of God’s kingdom
The Second Article of the Creed describes the work of our redemption. Christ Jesus, who is true God and true man in one person has worked our salvation. He has made us right before God the Father through his work outlined in the Creed.
Jesus, as God’s Son, takes our place to save sinners by being tempted by the devil. The Spirit leads him on to this attack where he fulfills perfectly what God’s Son Israel had failed to do in the Old Testament.
Jesus does this for us. He suffers the sins, quotes the Word of God from Deuteronomy. He outlasts the devil and is now ready to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God. The only question is where that will begin to take place.
The Scriptures are fulfilled in order provide us with the location of that next time.
The Apostles Creed gives us the shape of God’s love and care in creating us, saving us, and making us holy.
The 1st article starts us off in creation. God has made us. But what does that mean? We dig into Luther’s Small Catechism to see the blessings that God gives.
Jesus comes to the Jordan River to submit to the plan to fulfill our salvation and save sinners. John is at first puzzled knowing that Jesus does not need this, but Jesus makes his stand with sinners and wanting their salvation.
The Holy Spirit descends on him and the Fsther declares him his beloved Son. The Triune God is revealed and is working together in this.
Jesus is now equipped and ready to be the faithful Son. His next step is going to prove that against the ancient foe in the wilderness. The place where God’s children had failed in Exodus.
As we finish up the 10 Commandments, we see that the law gets us to the heart of the matter. And the conclusion to the commandments shows us God’s intent for them.
We also cover the three uses of God’s law. The law functions as a curb to keep gross sin in check, the mirror shows us our sin and accuses us of rebellion against God. As Christians, the law works as a guide/GPS to show us the shape of love that the new life in Christ restores us into.
Now that the law has left us with empty hands and as a beggar, we will now look at the Apostles’ Creed which will not give us something to do but someone to believe in whose hands are filled with every blessing.
John the Baptist is brought into the narrative as “these days” continue to be fulfilled.
John comes to prepare people for God’s reign on earth that is now dawning. For John to comes means that Israel has gone astray. But now God is coming through on his promises.
Crowds come out to him and they confess their sins, which Jesus is coming to take away, as they await the fullness of the promise.
John rebukes the religious leaders who are perhaps coming out of pretense and not faith. God is able to make children for Abraham out of rocks, so they should not presume on their status. This unbelief will make them the principle characters of the human resistance against Christ.
John then notes the coming of the last day and the work that the Christ will do to Baptize his people with the Holy Spirit.
The table is now set and we await what God will do.
The 8th and 9th commandments aim at our tongues and our hearts.
Our tongues take aim at our neighbors’ reputation and name. We can use lies to attack the gift of our neighbor’s name. And we can even use the truth to further our own sinister agenda at the cost of our neighbor. We are called instead to be the one to defend our neighbor’s reputation.
Coveting is what we do with our hearts that leads to murder and lust and all other sins. The opposite of coveting is contentment. We are called to rejoice in what God has given to my neighbor. That means putting to death my pride.
Through this, we learn how to love God and our neighbor and to cry out to God for forgiveness and restoration.
Joseph is called back to Israel by the angel, showing us God’s continued care to complete the mission for our salvation.
The path back mirrors the people of Israel from the Old Testament. This shows us that as God’s Son, Jesus is here to do fulfill the people of Israel’s story faithfully.
Joseph goes to live further north on the fringes of the Promised Land of Israel, in Nazareth. By doing this, Jesus fulfills more words from the Prophets. This is a summary of the rejection Jesus will face as shown by the prophets and not a direct quote to any passage, especially since it says “prophets.”
The 6th and 7th Commandments point is to God’s gifts of marriage and private property/work.
Through marriage and work we see the blessing God wants for society and the shape of love that we can share.
Adultery is anything against the design that God has given for sex and marriage between a man and a woman. Stealing is that which we take from others what belongs to them or fail to help them keep what God has provided.
To these sins we are called to repent and trust in Christ to forgive and restore as he gladly does.
Matthew’s Gospel shows us how an infant Christ reigns and rules despite rejection and persecution.
God is directing all events in the narrative and we see how Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. Here we see what it means that Jesus is God’s Son. It is both who Jesus is by right and a function he carries out.
After the magi depart, an angel directs Joseph to flee with Mary and Jesus into Egypt. Jesus, like Moses, flees from the wrath of hostile rulers and is delivered by God’s providence.
Since Herod figures that the Magi saw the star proclaiming Jesus’ birth, he orders the death of the children of Bethlehem. A terrible evil that points us to how God knows man’s rejection and the evil it will cause.
But Christ escapes, the one who will save his people, even the children of Bethlehem from all their sins and the evil they suffered.
The second table of the law (4-10) show us how to love our neighbor. They also call us into a vocation. Whether that is as a spouse, child, brother, worker, etc. we see that God has ordered and structured life together in order that love and care be shared among all creatures. Love means service.
We then see how beautiful life is in the 4th and 5th commandments. We also take note of our sins and ask God for his mercy as we talk about parents and our very life as God gives.
The Magi come, and God reveals to them his Son. They respond with faith, but what will be the people of Israel along with King Herod’s reaction?
Matthew shows us more who this Jesus is and who his people are.
The law of God gives us the shape of love. Before God, the second and third commandments show us how we love God with our tongue and worship. This also gives witness to others who will properly love God as he reveals his name and preaches his word.
The commandments have a don’t and a do. This tells us there is much more to the commandments and that God’s claim on us is total.
The origin of Jesus Christ is discussed.
We see mankind’s first decoration of our Lord. It is rejection by Jesus by means of the law. Showing us that it must be by revelation that Christ is rightly known and the right response of faith is given.
We also learn the Old Testament points us to Christ by the quote of Isaiah 7:14, the first of many quotes in Matthew’s Gospel. This promise of Immanuel will form the book end in Matthew’s Gospel showing how Christ is with us always until the ending of the age.
We also see that the identity of Jesus is connecting with his purpose. Jesus means “YHWH saves.” And Jesus will “save his people from their sins.”
What is Luther’s Small Catechism, why do we use it and how should we use it?
This series will go through Luther’s Small Catechism as it teaches the faith that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us.
It will echo to us the faith we are called to confess and gives an answer for what it means to be Christian.
Welcome to the Belt of Truth!
In this Podcast we go through Matthew’s Gospel!
In Matthew 1:1-17 we cover the genealogy of Christ.
We find that its purpose is to establish who Jesus is. He is the Christ who comes through human ancestry and is directed by a threefold repetition of 14 by God himself who works through sinful humanity to redeem it.
A whole host of people that come from Genesis to Malachi and beyond and listed. This shows us that the purpose of the Old Testament was to bring us to Christ. He is the fulfillment of God’s special covenants made to David for a King to rule forever and also to Abraham who would bring a descendant to bless all nations.
We consider briefly the differences in Matthew and Luke’s Gospel concerning the genealogies listed as well as why the last section only list 13 generations.
Praise the Lord!
Where, why, how and who. Where do we praise God? Why do we praise God? How do we praise God? And who do we praise?
Psalm 150, the final psalm gives us a dramatic conclusion to the Psalter. In it we join everything thought and everything and swallow it up in a resounding Hallelujah!
In the penultimate Psalm, Psalm 149, continues the theme of praise of 146-150.
Here God’s people praise their Maker and their King. The idea of King has gone through a transformation and fulfillment in this book. With the rise and fall of David’s line to God himself combining the promise of David’s Son with himself. So that it is God and man who rule. This is Jesus Christ our Lord.
As a result of God’s triumph and gift, God’s people are free to praise God. They, as Paul puts it, will make every thought captive to Christ. Spiritual warfare has been in the background of nearly all these psalms and that continues here. God’s people will reign with Christ and Christ will raise up his lowly people. And our praise is the sword we wield in the present age.
And the day is coming, where Christ will come again in his glory and his people will sit and even judge the angels.
Psalm 148 continues the praise of the Lord! Two areas are focused in on. The heavens in verses 1-6 and all that is in them. And then the earth in verses 7-14.
This praise from the heavens is automatic and is styled like how God spoke and they came to be. As the heavens and the angels do their job, they praise God. They are well ordered because God’s Word is holy and true.
The earth and all that is down below praises God as well. But this praise originates in how God reveals himself on earth. He acts in human history. Primarily when he raised a horn of salvation for his people, which all nations can come to. This is the Lord Jesus, whose name is given that is above every name and exalted beyond the earth and heavens.
With this in mind, what our God has done for us, we cry out, “Praise the Lord!” Hallelujah!
Psalm 146 brings us back to two concepts we have seen a lot in these psalms: God’s care of creation and his care of the Church.
This gives us confidence to hope in God as we see him ordering the creation and the world around us. We join in the Hallelujah!
This causes us to marvel and be at odd. For though God is high, he uses it for the benefit of his people. He rules all on behalf of his people and also sends his Word to them to call us to faith and hope. Praise the Lord!
The final 5 psalms form a 5 part Hallelujah by beginning and ending with that very word: “Praise the Lord! One part for each book of the Psalter.
Psalm 146 reminds us that our life is precarious. And it is a praise to God. With that limited view of life in mind, where do we find hope to praise God forever?
Our help cannot be found with the powerful or any force on this earth. Only with the LORD who has made heaven and earth and who cares for those who are low. This psalm even makes clear the work of Jesus in Matthew 11 clear.
Indeed, blessed is the one who has the LORD as his helper. The final time in the Psalms that we hear the word Blessed.
David concludes the psalter in Psalm 145 with an acrostic Doxology to God.
David has come through cross and trial to the side of the resurrection. And we are promised much of the same through our Lord Jesus
David rounds through all the times God has saved or delivered him and this causes us to think back on God’s deeds toward us in Christ.
The psalm ends with a praise of God where on all flesh will praise God forever and ever.
Psalm 144 is David pulling from many of the prayers we have heard in the psalter to ties ideas and themes together.
We note that many of the psalms pull us into a conflict. We have enemies as Christians. Sin, death, and the power of the devil. And these are no joking matters. They seek to destroy us.
And so we call upon God to rescue and save us. To stoop down from on high and make his judgment apparent.
The psalm ends with blessing as we recognize and praise God for his gifts of children, cattle and land.
Psalm 143 is the last of the seven penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130).
In this psalm, we pray for God’s mercy. That he would answer us in his righteousness. We have no basis for him to answer, the psalms have all taught us this, and this psalm knows that God answers because of his mercy and righteousness.
Our soul, life is in trouble. We are hotly pursued and the grave is before us and our enemies desire to destroy us.
We are vexed and at the end of our rope.
But as we ponder God’s works and actions before, we find out that God will do what only God can do. Save and deliver. God’s Holy Spirit is given to us and leads us out. Jesus comments on this too in Luke 11 and John 4.
In the end, this psalm reminds us of Jesus in the grave, waiting for resurrection, and in so doing, we are reminded of our own in the morning on that new day.
Psalm 142 has its context in David hiding from trouble in a cave. Like Psalm 57 David turns to God. But unlike Psalm 57 where David was steadfast and strong here he is at his wits end.
He goes between low points and high points. He does not see a path forward but he knows God knows the way.
So when David finds himself in trouble with no one to help, he knows that God is his refuge and strength. He cries out to God, asking to be set free from his prison. And the end of the psalm pictures David set free and with the righteous with God dealing bountifully with him.
These beautiful words are also on the lips of Christ, who cries to his Father when abandoned in order to set us free.
Psalm 141 finds us in the desire to have pure speech before God.
God hears pure speech and prayer, and so we ask that God would grant that to us.
To that end we need God to cleanse us from sin and to also overthrow those in our world to hinder the cause of truth and purity.
We know that this is quite a challenge then. And evil won’t take that lying down. And so we ask God for those who plot evil to fall into their own trap.
Indeed, death did this when it killed Christ and was destroyed by Christ. In this way, Jesus leads the way and clears the path for us to find God and praise him.
David is confronted with his enemies in psalm 140 and describes them. They love violence and evil and want war. They are not just misunderstood. They delight in evil.
Against them, David does not respond as they do. He goes to God in prayer for God to sort it out. Evil is self destructive and so David knows that their cause will fail in the end. And so he asks God for deliverance.
In the end, David focuses solely on the fact that God will come through and he will go from being surrounded by his enemies to being in the Lord’s presence.
In this psalm we can see the life of Jesus against those who were violent to him and this prayer on his lips is one given to us in our trial as well.
The last half of Psalm 139 turns to contemplating God’s marvel of creating us in the womb. How he fashioned us and sees us intimately even there in the depths of our mother’s womb. Here we even have an image of our graves being a womb of sorts as we wait to come out on the day of resurrection.
God’s knowledge plans out our lives and knows them all even as we are not aware. Such knowledge is very deep to contemplate. The Psalmist even falls asleep trying to meditate on the vast sum of them.
In the end, the Psalmist then shifts from this wonderful contemplation to a cry against the enemies of God. Almost as if they are an intrusion into God’s beauty, opposing it and destroying it. So the psalmist opposes them, seeing that they are an enemy of God and out of zeal implores God to search him and know him. After all, the enemy also exists within us and we wish to have that purged to follow God on the ancient paths.
God’s knowledge of us is complete and Psalm 139 spells out that in as many verses as it has. This thought is wonderful and glorious as it is terrifying. This puts us in our place, boxes us in, and makes us realize that God is God and we are not.
We also find out that God’s knowledge of the future is as known in the distant past. That before he made us he knew us. We find that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Finally this psalm leads us to a shocking turn. There are enemies that the psalm asks God to slay. Given the context of the psalm it causes us to realize the depth of the treachery of sin and its evil that it could arrogantly think to plot against God.
Confident of the Lord’s knowledge of his himself, the psalmist prays for vindication on the sight of God.
Psalm 138-145 is the final set of psalms attributed to David before the final Doxology of psalms 146-150
In this psalm, David debases himself in the sight of all before God, thanking him, and praising his glory through his name and Word that God has exalted above all.
And what is this glory? How is it defined? That God’s glory saves the lowly, but does not know those who consider themselves high. This is Christ on the cross. The one lifted high is so lifted on the cross. The one ascended to heaven is the one brought low. And therefore knows the lowly. That is God’s glory that we come to know and experience through his Word. The Word made flesh.
As a result, David trusts in God’s promises as most of trouble, knowing God will preserve him on the basis of his steadfast love.
Psalm 137 is one of the imprecatory psalms. Or a psalm that prays against the enemies.
The image is of God’s people who have seen their homeland destroyed, their loved ones killed and who still have their captors and tormentors mocking them to sing songs of happiness.
It is a bitter psalm. The prayer then turns into a longing for home again and to not forget their home in a foreign land.
And finally for the Edomites and Babylonians to be repaid in kind for what they did.
We see in this psalm that no emotion and feeling is to be left out before God and that we dare not try to wax piety and facades before God.
Neither do we take vengeance into our own hands but rather leave it up to God who has taken out wrath upon his Son. For us all, that is enough and we can indeed pray for our enemies as our Lord now instructs.
The Steadfast Love of the Lord endures forever!
We have heard Steadfast Love often enough in the psalms. But Psalm 136 underpins God’s steadfast love with everything he does. From creation to the present moment.
This psalm invites us to see all of God’s actions as being done according to God’s mercy.
This psalm is creedal then in its prayer. It gives us a summary of God’s work in creation and also in God’s work to save his people.
Psalm 135 is the beginning of the end of the Psalter. The joy and the challenges of the psalter are all brought together in the rest of the psalms before the climatic shout of praise of Psalm 146-150.
This psalm names God in all his actions and deeds in creation and salvation for his people Israel
God is listed in this way as his name locates his presence with his people where he has placed his name.
So indeed we all gather together to bless God.
We have come to the end of our journey for the Songs of Ascent (120-134).
We started off in a distant land amid strange people who spoke violence and war but now we end in God’s place with God’s people, blessing him day and night in his temple, which is his body, the church.
And the psalm ends with God’s blessing being extended to us. And with the language of creation applied, we remember God’s blessing to his creation. And so we indeed come to a restored paradise with God, and Revelation reminds us that night will be no more, meaning that there is no threat to God’s people where God is present.
Psalm 133 describes how God’s blessings flow down. They originate in the high priest and flow down to his people and into the creation.
Psalm 133 also shows the beauty of God’s command to locate his presence where people can find it. God being everywhere is not comforting. Where God is for you is where the Gospel can be held onto.
For us, that is God’s Word and Sacraments. That is where Jesus’ command and promise are located.
These pilgrim ascent songs have been about going to God’s place of rest.
Here in psalm 132 we get the story of how God is the first one to make pilgrimage to this location. David is the one who picked the spot, but from the view of God, Zion is the place that he chose.
Still today, God has chosen Zion, which is his body the Church. And Jesus Christ, the head has founded her.
This psalm is rich in the language of the worship and promises which God has made to David’s line. Especially from 2 Samuel 6-7. Promises all fulfilled in Jesus.
This psalm presents David as one who does not see the things of this faith as below him. But as one who submits himself to the words and promises of the Lord.
This humility inspires hope and begs for vindication to come from God. This is the true sense of the first verse of this psalm which desires us to not run into speculation but to rather trust as a child does who quietly is content with mother.
We can hear Jesus talk of children being the greatest in God’s kingdom in verse two and can even remember how our Lord himself humbled himself in this way by becoming an infant dependent on his mother to be cared for.
Finally we are exhorted to hope in the LORD.
Psalm 130, the 6th of the penitential psalms is a cry from the depths of death and hell itself to God.
This psalm teaches us to cry to God because he is the source of our salvation. He keeps steadfast and mercy.
And so we wait for God’s Word. His word gives what it promises. He speaks and it happens.
This psalm gives us the image of the thief of the cross waiting to hear Christ make him a promise and how he gives us a promise.
For Jesus is God who redeems us and is also our brother in the flesh and can redeem his kin.
And so we too are guaranteed that word from Jesus as we wait.
This psalm shows the persistence of God’s people through eras of persecution. We can think in the Scriptures of all the times that God’s people have been hounded and been treated like their Lord.
We can even see this psalm in the life of the church and how still God’s Church is maligned and mistreated. Just as our Lord said.
And we can see how this all zeroes in on Jesus. It is Jesus that is mistreated in his people new and old.
Here we also see God’s deliverance and the warning of what the wicked will receive. They will be forgotten and cast aside, those who despise the Church of God.
Psalm 128 describes the good life, a happy life that is blessed by God.
This is shown in work and labor and enjoying fruit of what our labor brings. Work is a good thing, a God given thing. Even though the curse infects it, and frustrates it, God still gives it.
Family life is also described as the chief blessing. Husbands and wives, parents and children are seen to be the bedrock in receiving blessing from the Lord on those who fear him. Children being the chief fruit of the marriage bed.
This is tied to the people of Israel as a whole. Here the psalm ends with the idea that when families are blessed the nation as a whole will experience God’s blessing and abundance.
We learn in psalm 127 that God is the one who gives success and growth and defense to his people. It is not the work of man, it is the gift of God.
In the church, God is the one who grants growth to his people. This keeps us from boasting.
Likewise, God grants us rest. We find here then that it is in rest that God grants even the fruit of the womb. Children are then seen to be a blessing from God and that man will be blessed who has many.
Children are then used to shape the future and create culture.
In the end, it is through the Blessed Man, Jesus Christ, and his people who will shape eternity.
Psalm 126 calls back to God’s actions in the past that cause a complete reversal of present circumstances.
These moments of God’s actions turn tragedies into triumphs. From sorrow to joy. It is no wonder then that this psalm brings to mind the Apostles in the upper room who stared at Jesus in dreamlike disbelief.
This psalm is also one of comfort, or the Holy Spirit.
Also present here is the work of repentance. When we come to Jesus with sorrow and contrition over our sins, we can come home from the experience with shouts of joy because the Lord is gracious and forgiving. And Jesus loves and forgives you.
Psalm 125 compares God’s people who trust in the Lord to the fortress of Zion and the Temple Mount of Jerusalem.
These are spiritual protections, not political or ethnic ones. Here God’s protection surrounds them and guards them.
This gives confidence that wicked rulers will not be over God’s people forever. Their reign is fleeting and they will not find rest in the places where God’s glory people are.
Paul quotes the end of this psalm in Galatians 6. God’s peace will always abide among his people.
Psalm 124 recounts the relief one feels after a close call with death.
David, who knows more than most what it is like to rescued in the nick of time, has all Israel, which is all believers in Jesus join in on the praise of God.
Four scenarios are given of rescues that give us words to speak of our own close calls. Of being devoured, of being swept away, or being mauled and finally of escape from a trap that we were caught in.
Through it all, we see the rescue that we have been given in Jesus. Like St. Paul, we can recount how God has delivered is from every evil plan and how he will deliver us into his heavenly kingdom.
Psalm 123 puts us at the edge of our seat, waiting for our Father in heaven to act.
Like a dog watching his master with food in his hand, so too does our gaze focus in on our God who is in heaven.
We implore him to show us mercy, especially since the Lord’s enemies mock and mistreat those who focus in on God.
This psalm, while furious and brief, leaves us with only a sense of longing and waiting. The master has not yet acted, and so we wait for our resolution to come. It is coming, that is guaranteed , but it is not the time yet.
Psalm 122, finds a journey’s end that began in Psalm 120 in the Psalms of Ascent.
Psalm 120 depicting leaving the places of war to journey to God. Psalm 121 put us on the road with our eyes to God’s aid during the trip.
Psalm 122 finds us within the gates of the city of Jerusalem. For us, Jerusalem is not the city on the map, nor any city of man.
This is the city of Jerusalem that Paul calls the Jerusalem above in Galatians 4 and the heavenly Jerusalem that descends from heaven at the end of Revelation.
This is the Church that we pray for, where we find the people of God, and for which we pray for peace. We pray for unity of confession and doctrine, and as Jesus prayed in John 17, to be joined together as one in faith and love.
Psalm 121, one of the Songs of Ascent, is a psalm that puts us on the journey to God. God is pictured as our Keeper, and similar language to Shepherds keeping sheep.
We are given peace knowing that God will protect us and doesn’t sleep. Attention here is brought to Israel, and those who belong to Israel.
Who is Israel then? Those who hold to faith in Jesus Christ. That includes both Jew and Gentile as belonging to God’s Israel.
And in the God of Israel, we have our home which we come in and go out in security.
Psalm 120-134 begins a series of psalms known as the Belt of Truth.
Today when we get in our cars for a road trip, we turn on our radio, throw in the CD and play our top 40 songs.
In ancient Israel, when the time came to go to Jerusalem for Passover. The family did the same, but as they traveled they sang these hymns.
Psalm 120 depicts realizing that we dwell among those who hate God and his Word. This causes us to say, “let’s go.” And to travel to the place of God’s abode. There we leave those who hate peace and will be destroyed, to finding those who also gather to be with the Lord, who speaks true and living words.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
Psalm 119 is the great Psalm on God’s Word. We could say it is the Psalm of Psalms.
It is an acrostic poem, meaning each line of text goes through the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter in the alphabet gets 8 verses before the next letter is used. In this extreme way, this Psalm is about God’s Word from A-Z.
God’s Word is also expressed in 8 ways in the psalm with different words and meanings. Law,, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, rules, word, and promises.
Through the Psalm, the composer shows a desire to walk through this life living on God’s path. So much imagery in this psalm depicts a winding round and garden jungle that we must navigate. Each word for “Word” helps gets after how God’s Word helps us go through this life and how God goes with us.
As the psalmist desires to live God’s truth, he petitions God to help him. The psalm begins by stating the blessing of walking on God’s ways, and ends with asking God to save him for he has wandered away like a sheep.
This psalm, which praises the Word of God, is praise to Jesus. The Word made flesh.
The final Egyptian Hallel Psalm, Psalm 118, is a landmark Psalm in the Church.
This Psalm is used by Jesus during Holy Week to point to himself as the subject of the psalm, especially the stone that the builders rejected.
But in Psalm 118, an exhortation to praise God for his steadfast love is given. Then a lone voice speaks of affliction and suffering, but leans upon the LORD alone for his help.
As the Psalm moves ahead, we hear many lines that are used in the liturgy or the church, such as, “this is the day which the Lord has made.” This shows that this psalm points to the victory of Christ by his cross and death.
The steadfast love of the Lord is experienced by Jesus when his Father delivers him from death. And like Jesus, we join with him in his suffering and victory on this day.
The final Egyptian Hallel Psalm, Psalm 118, is a landmark Psalm in the Church.
This Psalm is used by Jesus during Holy Week to point to himself as the subject of the psalm, especially the stone that the builders rejected.
But in Psalm 118, an exhortation to praise God for his steadfast love is given. Then a lone voice speaks of affliction and suffering, but leans upon the LORD alone for his help.
As the Psalm moves ahead, we hear many lines that are used in the liturgy or the church, such as, “this is the day which the Lord has made.” This shows that this psalm points to the victory of Christ by his cross and death.
The steadfast love of the Lord is experienced by Jesus when his Father delivers him from death. And like Jesus, we join with him in his suffering and victory on this day.
While it is the shortest Psalm, Psalm 117 is packed with tons of terms.
It is used by St. Paul in Romans 15:11 as a way to show how the Old Testament was looking forward to the day when the Gentiles would be grafted into Israel and so we are all grafted into him.
It also shows what has come to us, namely God’s steadfast love and mercy. They are great, or they have “prevailed.” The same word here is used on the waters over the flood of Noah. The steadfast love of the Lord overflows in the baptism flood and in the institution of the Sacrament.
This psalm is a great one to memorize and also rejoice in as well! We are members of Christ through faith in his promise!
Psalm 116 can be summarized by two declarative statements in verse 1 and verse 10: “I love!” And “I believe!”
The I love section is the voice of Christ calling out how much he loves his Father. Indeed in John 14, Jesus states to his disciples that his obedience on the cross will showcase his love for his Father.
Because of this love, the Father responds, rescuing the psalmist from death and Sheol, which is a quote of psalm 18. The psalmist was brought low, but God rescued him.
Then when he turns his attention to faith, the psalmist vows to pay his vows, which is Christ promising to offer himself up. This is what he calls the cup of salvation. This cup is what Christ gave to his disciples at the Last Supper and what he gives to us. We too share in Christ and his suffering and drink the cup which our Lord drank.
But again the Lord looses the bonds of this sacrifice, he frees from death and the psalmist, Christ, declares that he will give what he vows to the Lord to the people. Showing that the worship of the Lord is the place where Christ is received in Word and Sacrament.
Psalm 115 compares who does what. God is the maker and the doer of the heavens. Mankind is apportioned the earth, and very often turns its attention to idols that it makes/does with its own hands.
The folly of this is compared. The LORD is the living God who does what he pleases. The idols are made and cannot do anything but are described as dead bodies. And sadly those who worship them become like them. They too die. So the taunt taken up from the nations asking where our God is at falls on hard times for those who do not turn to the LORD who created the heavens and the earth.
The final comparison is between those who trust in the LORD and those who trust idols. The dead go into silence. But the one who trusts the LORD will live forever and praise God. Such is the inheritance of the believer in Christ.
Psalm 114 thunders on the scene as we see Israel among the nations, small, exiles. But they are brought home and delivered from the nations and are made into God’s sanctuary and people.
We see through the lens of Hebrew poetry the Red Sea parting and the Jordan River spreading apart, which is how the Exodus began and ended.
Before God the sea and the mountains tremble and quail because of him, in Elijah mocking the Prophets of Baal fashion.
They tremble because God is present with his people and leading them. But while the earth trembles, God makes springs and water appear where there is none, recounting the provision of God in the wilderness.
But this psalm hints at a greater exodus that is to come, which The Lord Jesus has come to bring to us his people as he gathers us from the nations and brings us into his promised land.
Psalm 113 is part of the Egyptian Hallel, which are psalms 113-118. These Psalms were most likely sung before the Passover Meal (113-114) and after the meal (115-118). So these hymns were what Christ sang with his disciples before the start of his passion.
Psalm 113 considers the glory and exaltation of God. It is above the heavens, it is not something easily grasped though it is spread over all the heavens.
And yet, this glory notes and sees only those on bondage and suffering. This glory and exaltation of God gives him the joy to flipping the tables. He gives the barren children and home and lifts the needy from the dust.
This Psalm could easily be used to summarize the entire Gospel of Luke, since so many of those themes are played out in Psalm 113.
Psalm 112 continues the theme of Psalm 111 both as an acrostic poem and also the theme of pursuing wisdom which is where the last psalm left off.
Who is the model for pursuing wisdom? The Blessed Man of Psalm 1. He is a source of wisdom and practices wisdom. This is Jesus Christ who fears God and lives rightly and is the source of righteous for all who trust in him.
As the psalm continues, people are blessed by the Blessed Man and share in his bounty, which Christ does for us his people, by sharing the fruit of his victory over sin and death.
Finally, wickedness is refusing to share in faith what the blessed man has won for us and the psalm ends quickly by describing how they melt away.
Psalm 111 and 112 are acrostic poems, each psalm verse having a letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
111-118 form a set of psalms called the Great Hallel and 113-118 being the Egyptian Hallel hymns which were most likely sung during Passover, as Jesus sang on Maundy Thursday.
The Psalm itself focuses on the work of God and references the Exodus, manna from heaven, and the promised land are mentioned as a way to show us the coming eternal new covenant that God is making through Christ.
Christians in the earliest years gathered to sing psalm 111 during Sunday night and during the Lord’s Supper, showing us that God has given us the true food in the Lord Jesus Christ and that he remembers us when we partake of him.
This beautiful psalm prepares us for Communion with God and with the congregation.
Psalm 110 gives us a beautiful description of everything the New Testament will reveal about the Lord Jesus Christ who in this psalm is called David’s Lord.
Psalm 110 is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, quoted directly at least 17 times and alluded to many more. This tells us that not the first Christians, psalm 110 was a favorite psalm.
In it, David’s Lord, Jesus Christ, is crowned with dominion and honor being placed at God’s right hand. This enthronement is not the end but the beginning of everything.
As the reigning Lord, God and his Messiah set out to set things right and to rule over all the earth admist God’s enemies and to create a people who belong to this King.
God even swears that this King will be a priest forever after Melchizedek, a mysterious figure from Genesis who was priest to God and who blessed Abraham, Jesus is a priest like him and not a Levitical priest, which the book of Hebrews loves to tell us.
This psalm ends with the King routing his enemies but pausing to refresh himself, suggesting that it is an opportunity to join with him and find rest with this king before he resumes the final conquest of his scattered enemies.
The back half of Psalm 109 continues David’s prayer to God against the enemies that seek his death. He labels them accusers who breathe out violence against him.
Of course, these accusers ultimately take the shape of the accuser, Satan. Against them we pray in all of these psalms for their evil to come back on them.
Then we pray to God for him to deliver us and save us for his own name’s sake. Counting on God’s character and desire to save the lowly.
The psalm then ends just as it began. A word of praise to God. Trusting that his salvation is granted and has the final word.
Along with Psalm 137, Psalm 109 employs some of the harshest language for the enemies of God that is used in the Psalter.
Language of the destruction of life and the suffering even of the wicked’s family has caused many Christians to shy away from this psalm altogether.
Yet it is this psalm that the church in Acts 1 saw as fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Judas. He is the one who lied and betrayed the Lord. The apostles even saying that the Holy Spirit is the one who inspired David’s words for Pslam 109.
We must always remember then that these psalms are not some personal vendetta, but the response to evil that threatens God’s love and action in the world.
And it is also a warning for us, that we would not fall into the same rebellion and sin against God’s mercy and grace through his Son. May the Lord indeed have mercy!
Psalm 108 stitches together two psalms. Psalm 57 and psalm 60 which both come from low points in David’s life. Yet surprisingly Psalm 108 only takes from the certainly of victory because of God’s rescue.
Being that this is the first psalm with David in Book 5 and the themes used in the psalm, we see here a victory of resurrection and triumph. This psalm is used for Christ’s resurrection and ascension and sets the tone for Book 5.
As the psalm declares victory it turns to us asking for that certainty of victory to now be given to us. Reminding us that we are in a battle and need to be equipped for our deliverance and being made holy which comes to us through the sacrament.
Also in Psalm 108 is God’s rule over the nations and a hint given of all the nations being gathered to God.
Psalm 107 brings us to the 5th and final book of the Psalter that covers 107-150.
This psalms gives us a resounding praise the Lord to the tragedy of Book 4 of the Psalter. Where Psalm 106 spoke of the plea for God to gather his people. Psalm 107 shows how Hod goes about gathering and saving people from the four directions of the world.
The psalms then breaks into four ways that the Lord saves his people from their own evil and death and wandering and brings them home. So many themes and images from the Bible are woven into this psalm. Joseph, Judges, Exodus. Paul, Hezekiah, Mary and Simeon and more all have voices that stem from this psalm.
This psalm gives us a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes from him.
Psalm 107 brings us to the 5th and final book of the Psalter that covers 107-150.
This psalms gives us a resounding praise the Lord to the tragedy of Book 4 of the Psalter. Where Psalm 106 spoke of the plea for God to gather his people. Psalm 107 shows how Hod goes about gathering and saving people from the four directions of the world.
The psalms then breaks into four ways that the Lord saves his people from their own evil and death and wandering and brings them home. So many themes and images from the Bible are woven into this psalm. Joseph, Judges, Exodus. Paul, Hezekiah, Mary and Simeon and more all have voices that stem from this psalm.
This psalm gives us a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes from him.
Psalm 106, the final psalm in Book IV of the Psalter, is the flip side of the coin of Psalm 105.
Whereas Psalm 105 showed God’s faithfulness in all his doings with his people in history. Psalm 106 is a confession of all the failings of God’s people in response.
The person praying Psalm 106 takes all these sins for his own, which means the person praying this psalm is none other than Jesus Christ.
He has taken the sins of all his people upon himself.
This is why the psalm ends with a word of blessing and salvation. For when God’s faithfulness is matched with our unfaithfulness, The Lord triumphs over them.
A feature of this psalm is to also not take God’s grace in vain. We are not called to embrace sin because God forgives, but are warned to not be like the people this psalm details. Paul does this as well in 1 Corinthians 10.
Psalm 106, the final psalm in Book IV of the Psalter, is the flip side of the coin of Psalm 105.
Whereas Psalm 105 showed God’s faithfulness in all his doings with his people in history. Psalm 106 is a confession of all the failings of God’s people in response.
The person praying Psalm 106 takes all these sins for his own, which means the person praying this psalm is none other than Jesus Christ.
He has taken the sins of all his people upon himself.
This is why the psalm ends with a word of blessing and salvation. For when God’s faithfulness is matched with our unfaithfulness, The Lord triumphs over them.
A feature of this psalm is to also not take God’s grace in vain. We are not called to embrace sin because God forgives, but are warned to not be like the people this psalm details. Paul does this as well in 1 Corinthians 10.
Psalm 105 and 106 form another set of twin psalms which bring to an end Book IV of the Psalms (90-106). Each psalm begins and ends the same way with an “Alleluia!”
And these two psalms are like both sides of the same coin. Both psalms cover Holy History. Psalm 105 covers it from the perspective of God’s faithfulness and Psalm 106 covers it from the perspective of Israel’s rejection of their Lord.
The first 15 verses of Psalm 105 are very similar in topic to 1 Chronicles 16 as David has the ark of the covenant brought into Jerusalem, setting some of the framework for this psalm. The patriarchs and the promises of God’s covenant with them are established.
Then from there Psalm 105 talks about Joseph, Moses. And the Exodus. God’s faithfulness and promises are extolled and praised and God’s people are called to join in on it.
Psalm 105 and 106 form another set of twin psalms which bring to an end Book IV of the Psalms (90-106). Each psalm begins and ends the same way with an “Alleluia!”
And these two psalms are like both sides of the same coin. Both psalms cover Holy History. Psalm 105 covers it from the perspective of God’s faithfulness and Psalm 106 covers it from the perspective of Israel’s rejection of their Lord.
The first 15 verses of Psalm 105 are very similar in topic to 1 Chronicles 16 as David has the ark of the covenant brought into Jerusalem, setting some of the framework for this psalm. The patriarchs and the promises of God’s covenant with them are established.
Then from there Psalm 105 talks about Joseph, Moses. And the Exodus. God’s faithfulness and promises are extolled and praised and God’s people are called to join in on it.
Psalm 104 is the other twin psalm to Psalm 103 with the same opening and closing line.
While Psalm 103 focused on God’s work of salvation. Psalm 104 picks up God’s work of creation.
The verses wind their way through as a commentary on the days of creation. We see in this psalm God’s care and order of his creation. He is the King of creation.
As the Psalm goes on, it begins to anticipate the back half of creation. Showing us that the creation was made to serve the living creatures in it.
Also each creature has a dwelling place. God makes animals fit in their respective area.
Finally the psalm has the entire creation looking at the hand of God to satisfy every need.
Psalm 104 is the other twin psalm to Psalm 103 with the same opening and closing line.
While Psalm 103 focused on God’s work of salvation. Psalm 104 picks up God’s work of creation.
The verses wind their way through as a commentary on the days of creation. We see in this psalm God’s care and order of his creation. He is the King of creation.
As the Psalm goes on, it begins to anticipate the back half of creation. Showing us that the creation was made to serve the living creatures in it.
Also each creature has a dwelling place. God makes animals fit in their respective area.
Finally the psalm has the entire creation looking at the hand of God to satisfy every need.
Psalm 103 and 104 are a pair of twin psalms that have the refrain of “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”
We see here that the psalm is plumbing the depths of our hearts. The Spirit is searching within us as Paul would put it and we learn through these twin psalms for what to pray and discern in our prayers.
Namely, God work of creation (psalm 104) and his work of redemption (psalm 103).
Psalm 103 highlights God’s work in our salvation. And how deep his steadfast love goes. One has to wonder if St. Paul had psalm 103 in the back of his mind as he wrote Romans 8 or Ephesians 4 when he describes the height and depth of God’s love for us and how that love cannot be interfered with in all creation.
Using language of the Exodus, we are colored to see how God brings about his steadfast love to each and every generation.
Psalm 102 is a psalm of complaint uttered by one who is suffering and is near death.
It begins by lamenting the suffering of their life and how brief we are in comparison to the eternal God.
This teaches us that God is unlike us. But it is this unlike ness that causes us to hope because God can rescue us from it.
And even more, God has become one of us in the person of his Son. He knows our fallen ness and has triumphed over it showing us he is able to save.
This psalm is quoted in Hebrews 1 to make it clear that this Psalm is referring to Jesus as God. And the hope we find is that the people of God, the church, will be redeemed and made eternal and to stand forever.
Psalm 101 brings David back to our minds, who hasn’t been heard since Psalm 86.
He is in his house, and we can picture him pacing his house desiring to make things right and for his house/kingdom to be ruled well with justice and steadfast love.
David in the Old Testament is also a key for the Messiah. Jesus then, goes about his church and his rule in the creation to make things right.
He despises, in fact, hates evil. He will destroy it but will have faithfulness be extended to dwell with him. Jesus will cleanse his house.
And so now we struggle, desiring to be faithful to God and pleading with him to make us holy. For without his grace, we would have no hope. God grant that than to us!
Psalm 100 is a psalm that is a Doxology to God and wraps up nicely the group go psalms 93-100:
In this Psalm, God is praised for his revelation and salvation. God’s two great works, creation and salvation, are both in this psalm. We belong to God because he has made us and has also saved us.
Jesus uses many of the ideas in John 10 from psalm 100. Such as “Good” “Shepherd” and even “Know.”
Finally, the word pairing of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness are used here and confirmed by God. These promises are still on, which they were in worried confidence back in Psalm 89. A resurrection has happened. Hope is still on because Christ is risen, the good shepherd of the sheep!
Psalm 99 moves us from the sheer awesome and terror of God’s holiness as God’s holiness comes to us.
We are given certainty that holiness is nothing to mess with and that God’s making us holy is a gracious thing.
A lot of thoughts in this psalm are described in the book of Hebrews. God reigns and we are priests in his kingdom.
Ultimately, it is the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us holy and carries us into the presence of God and the holy of holies
Psalm 98 depicts God’s salvation and righteousness. He has not forgot his steadfast love and faithfulness, something that was called into question back in psalms 88-89. Here this Psalm speaks of triumph.
God’s people then sing a psalm and join in on the victory that God their King has won for them. Worship then, is always an anticipation of the victory of Christ.
Even the whole creation joined in the praise as the hope of the psalm is made clear. The Lord comes. The Lord will come to judge. This is the victory that we sing. God’s judgment will prevail and God will act in history to achieve this. And God has through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Psalm 96 picks up with a new song being sung which denotes a change. The old song was Moses in Exodus 15 when the people were saved from Egypt.
This new song is sung by all the world. This is because a new salvation has occurred. A salvation for all people at the reign of God as King over the nations and as judge. Even the creation signals this change as Paul notes in Romans 8 that when the creation is restored it too will sing for joy.
This Psalm also has its context in 1 Chronicles 16 when David brings in the ark to Jerusalem.
Behind this Psalm stands the incarnation of Jesus Christ and his victory over death and sin and his enthronement as King and Judge.
Psalm 95 is an admonish to sing to the Lord, praise him, and cry out to him. Popular in the church in the singing of the Venite in the service of Matins. Christians have always sung this psalm in the morning.
Why? For he is our Maker and Creator. He is the Lord and God of all creation and all the gods answer to him. Even the sea, often seen as a place that not even the pagan gods had control over is the possession of the God of Israel.
But more than that, God is praised because he is the God of his people, whom he has chosen as his own, like the sheep of a pasture picked by the shepherd himself. Here John 10 is in the background as Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
Finally, knowing that God is our Creator and Savior comes with a warning for when God brings his reign and his creative word to us. Today when we hear his voice and have opportunity to hear the Word of God, we should not refuse the summons or deny its effect on us. This is what happened to the people in the Exodus wandering. The consequence was not being saved. Now that this is turned to us, we too must heed the call of God.
Psalm 94 cries out to God who is king and asks him how long evil will endure.
God is a God of vengeance, meaning his will set things right. The psalmist, knowing that, asks God how long that will be.
Then the arrogant are given a voice in the psalm. They murder and kill and think that God does not see or hear.
But their pride and arrogance are misplaced. God has made the eye and the ear, he hears and sees all, and even knows the thoughts of man.
in comparison, the Psalmist trusts God, he hopes in him to be justified and for evil to be rectified by God. The psalm is assured of God triumph and vindication and leaves himself in God’s refuge.
Psalm 94 cries out to God who is king and asks him how long evil will endure.
God is a God of vengeance, meaning his will set things right. The psalmist, knowing that, asks God how long that will be.
Then the arrogant are given a voice in the psalm. They murder and kill and think that God does not see or hear.
But their pride and arrogance are misplaced. God has made the eye and the ear, he hears and sees all, and even knows the thoughts of man.
in comparison, the Psalmist trusts God, he hopes in him to be justified and for evil to be rectified by God. The psalm is assured of God triumph and vindication and leaves himself in God’s refuge.
Psalm 93 begins a unit of psalms 93-100 that detail God as King and a response of singing as a result.
The image here is God enthroned secure above all terror and threats. Indeed the Lord walks on the water and can save those who suffer from evil.
We can trust the Word of God which created the heavens and earth
Psalm 92 is a psalm for the Sabbath. It contemplates the work of God. A communal receiving of God’s work.
Reminiscent of Psalm 1, we recount the joy of what God has done. While the wicked are like dumb beast which results in their bad end.
We recount that we are planted in God’s house and he grows us up in Christ our Lord.
Psalm 91 follows up on the words of Moses from Psalm 90 as we go back to the source: God.
He is our refuge and with him he will protect us. We need not fear any tactic or timing or surprise of the enemy because God will turn the tables.
The irony and subtlety of these attacks is made all the more apparent when we consider that the devil quoted Psalm 91 to Jesus to tempt him. But yet the Lord Jesus trusts in his Father and allows. The Father to save him in his good timing, which is at the resurrection which Jesus gets satisfied.
Indeed, the voice in this psalm is Jesus, who extends to us the honor of praying this psalm and to find favor and help from God as well.
Moses begins our journey through Book IV of the Psalms (90-106) by stepping in the breach between God and his people like he did of old in Exodus 32-34.
Here Moses pleads for God to relent of the disaster of Book III and the fall of the Davidic King and the people in exile.
Moses’ prayer is echoed in the rest of the psalms in Book IV and finally God will relent in Psalm 106.
But these psalms, most of which are anonymous except for psalms 101 and 103, praise God as the true King of his people.
It is no small chance then that God combines his promises to David as King with that of Himself as the true King of Israel in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This psalms also reflects on Genesis 1-8 and also gives us a promise of restoration and resurrection. Here God’s eternal nature is the answer to mankind’s homelessness and brevity in the world.
The final psalm in Boom 3, Psalm 89, reads like an epitaph/eulogy after the grave was sealed in darkness from Psalm 88.
It is a song that recalls all that God has done in history. From creation, to the Exodus, to even the days of Deborah, God has worked his salvation for his people. The key event in this psalm is mirrored in the opening and the end. The promise to David from 2 Samuel 7. But considering the death of the king and the exile of God’s people. We are left to wonder: will he continue?
There is no bitterness here, but rather somber praise in God. Steadfast love and faithfulness ring out together like a gong 7 times in this psalm to drive home the hope that God will reverse the present disaster.
From praising God for his steadfast love, to ending on a sorrowful note that God seems done with his promises. This psalm is like walking away from the tomb of Jesus at on Good Friday to the tune of the Emmaus disciples who said to the hidden risen Christ. “We had hoped…”
Psalm 89 is the final note of death that has us hope for the resurrection of Christ to come.
The final psalm in Boom 3, Psalm 89, reads like an epitaph/eulogy after the grave was sealed in darkness from Psalm 88.
It is a song that recalls all that God has done in history. From creation, to the Exodus, to even the days of Deborah, God has worked his salvation for his people. The key event in this psalm is mirrored in the opening and the end. The promise to David from 2 Samuel 7. But considering the death of the king and the exile of God’s people. We are left to wonder: will he continue?
There is no bitterness here, but rather somber praise in God. Steadfast love and faithfulness ring out together like a gong 7 times in this psalm to drive home the hope that God will reverse the present disaster.
From praising God for his steadfast love, to ending on a sorrowful note that God seems done with his promises. This psalm is like walking away from the tomb of Jesus at on Good Friday to the tune of the Emmaus disciples who said to the hidden risen Christ. “We had hoped…”
Psalm 89 is the final note of death that has us hope for the resurrection of Christ to come.
The final psalm in Boom 3, Psalm 89, reads like an epitaph/eulogy after the grave was sealed in darkness from Psalm 88.
It is a song that recalls all that God has done in history. From creation, to the Exodus, to even the days of Deborah, God has worked his salvation for his people. The key event in this psalm is mirrored in the opening and the end. The promise to David from 2 Samuel 7. But considering the death of the king and the exile of God’s people. We are left to wonder: will he continue?
There is no bitterness here, but rather somber praise in God. Steadfast love and faithfulness ring out together like a gong 7 times in this psalm to drive home the hope that God will reverse the present disaster.
From praising God for his steadfast love, to ending on a sorrowful note that God seems done with his promises. This psalm is like walking away from the tomb of Jesus at on Good Friday to the tune of the Emmaus disciples who said to the hidden risen Christ. “We had hoped…”
Psalm 89 is the final note of death that has us hope for the resurrection of Christ to come.
Psalm 88, the penultimate psalm of Book 3 (73-89) is the darkest psalm in the Psalter. It is the equivalent to being at the grave when the tomb closes shut, with the final word of the psalm being “darkness.”
While there is no hope in this psalm, hope pervades and defies what is said in this psalm, and for good reason seeing that Jesus has died and is now alive forevermore.
Being unique in the Psalter, Psalm 88 does not end with hope but with the finality of death, something that the Holy Spirit desires us to ponder in order to rightly view on life here and keep it into perspective. This is good, so that the finality of this psalm is not the end but we come to the hope of the resurrection.
Psalm 87 is dripping with baptismal language as the Sons of Korah give us a beautiful psalm detailing how those born and scattered across the nations still belong to the God of Israel and also belong to the Church.
Both Jew and Gentile alike God keeps track of and records in his book. Though we might be born in places of exile in this world, God marks and records in his book as belonging to his Church, his Israel, of which great glory will be revealed through us.
This psalm is used by Paul in Galatians 4, Ezekiel 47 brings up this imagery of springs of water coming out of us and John 7 and Revelation 21 also are places where this psalm can easily be applied.
Psalm 86 hears a voice we haven’t heard in Book 3 of the Psalter (73-89): David.
The theme of this book is the fall of David’s line and the death of the kingdom, and the sorrow and laments that follow.
This psalm, we get to hear of the King himself, David. Or better yet, we hear Jesus Christ himself speaking through David.
And we hear that the King is suffering. He is dying and is facing ridicule and mocking. And though his enemies surround him, Jesus cries out to his Father to do what only God can do: save in a way that is unique: to bring resurrection from the grave.
Twice the psalm echoes and directly quotes Exodus 34, where God had spoken of his eternal qualities.
Here we come to see that Jesus gives us these words in Psalm 86 to pray in order to teach us the way and the truth and the life.
Psalm 85 starts by giving us the perspective of God’s action to turn and revive his people in the past. God has been counted on in disaster before.
And now the psalm pushes ahead by asking for God to turn us back again. To dwell among us and reveal his glory and to speak peace to his people.
This psalm calls forth images of the birth of Jesus and his resurrection. Through Jesus, we are raised up, and through Jesus, God brings restoration.
Psalm 84 describes a longing for where God is at and the pilgrim way that leads to him in this life.
It is a life marked both by being alone but also joined to the people of God now and in the past and still yet to be.
Through the psalm, there are three beatitudes spoken. Blessing for those who are with God, those who are on the path of tears to God and those who put their trust in God.
Ultimately, the desire to enter and be with God is a favor and honor extended to us by him through the Messiah, our Lord Jesus, whom God looks upon so we can enter into his courts which is better than anywhere else, and a place where all find an eternal home.
Psalm 83 is a prayer asking for the full might of God to destroy the enemy’s that fight against his claim to sole kingship of the earth.
These enemies are listed in a group of ten, which suggests all of God’s enemies of all times and places that fight against God by destroying his people. The reference to the enemies lifting up their heads and being crafty brings to mind that these enemies are demonically inspired and will meet the fate of the serpent in Genesis 3.
In fact, Sisera who is mentioned, had his head crushed back in Judges 4.
At one moment there seems to be a moment of relenting where they are being asked to seek the Lord, but the moment passes with God’s victory over them and for his dominion to come. This psalm captures the thoughts of “Thy Kingdom Come” and “Deliver us from Evil.”
Psalm 82 is a curious Psalm. The reference to God sitting on the divine council reminds of Job and 2 Kings where God has his angelic council cooperate with his will.
Some take Psalm 82 as referring to that. And it certainly might be.
Others see Psalm 82 talking to those who have divine authority and act in the place of God. So rulers and governments. God tells Moses that he shall make Moses god to Pharaoh. Romans 13 says that all authority is created by God. And Jesus in John 10:35 quotes psalm 82 to refer to the leaders of his day being “gods” and so shouldn’t be surprised that the Father has sent his Divine Son to earth.
With it leaning in this direction, we see that these authorities have abused their places by taking advantage of people they were supposed to serve. So God promises to act and judge by darkness and earthquake.
The final verse asks God to arise and judge the earth.
So in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God is judging the earth. As Jesus says in John 12 and as Paul makes note of in Colossians 1.
This psalm is a psalm that is also read on the Great Vigil of Easter.
Psalm 81 echoes Deuteronomy 32 and the Song of Moses.
Calling to mind the theme ode God desiring to do good for his people while his people continue to backslide away from God, embodies much of what Book 3 of the Psalter has come to teach us to pray.
Here it is perhaps surprising that God himself speaks most of this psalm, with verses 1-5 being the call to gather for worship and festival.
God calls to mind the need to hear the Word. During the Feast of Booths, the Book of Deuteronomy was often read, which perhaps give a context for why this psalm is patterned as it is.
God is teaching us how to pray. To pray to hear God’s Word, to turn from our idols, and to receive good things from his loving hand.
Psalm 80 are the words of the remnants of the Northern Tribes surviving the disaster of the Assyrian Empire destroying their kingdom.
Fitting in with the theme of Book III of the Psalter, asking God why this tragedy has happened as well as reflecting on God’s actions toward them in the past, this psalm petitions three times for God to restore, or, turn them back so they can have life.
Psalm 80 also describes Israel as a vine, words that Jesus will use for himself. This psalm also reveals Jesus with terms like, “The Son of Man” and “the right hand of God.”
Psalm 79 depicts the destruction of the temple and the aftermath of God’s people lamenting the ruins and asking for God’s intervention.
This psalm brings to mind the cry of God’s people in the book of Revelation when God’s saints ask for God to take vengeance for the sake of his name.
The vendetta is not a personal one; the psalm makes clear that this is an attack on God himself.
The voice at the end though, assumes a strong character of faith by saying that the people will praise God for every generation. From death, God brings resurrection.
Psalm 78 is a psalm that looks over and describes all the wondrous deeds that God has done and also combines the sorrows of God’s people not being faithful.
A command is given in the beginning to come and listen and to pass on these wondrous acts of God to the next generation that they might set their hope in God and not be like their fathers.
We see this point coming from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and also being used in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 and Hebrews 3-4.
This summary of God’s events for his people then takes us through Exodus all the way to 1st Kings. Each deed of God is compared to the failure or the people in the end to believe and trust in God but to walk away.
In the end, they miss out who walk away and try things their own way, for God chose the tribe of Judah and David to be the heir for the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 78 is a psalm that looks over and describes all the wondrous deeds that God has done and also combines the sorrows of God’s people not being faithful.
A command is given in the beginning to come and listen and to pass on these wondrous acts of God to the next generation that they might set their hope in God and not be like their fathers.
We see this point coming from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and also being used in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 and Hebrews 3-4.
This summary of God’s events for his people then takes us through Exodus all the way to 1st Kings. Each deed of God is compared to the failure or the people in the end to believe and trust in God but to walk away.
In the end, they miss out who walk away and try things their own way, for God chose the tribe of Judah and David to be the heir for the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 78 is a psalm that looks over and describes all the wondrous deeds that God has done and also combines the sorrows of God’s people not being faithful.
A command is given in the beginning to come and listen and to pass on these wondrous acts of God to the next generation that they might set their hope in God and not be like their fathers.
We see this point coming from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and also being used in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 and Hebrews 3-4.
This summary of God’s events for his people then takes us through Exodus all the way to 1st Kings. Each deed of God is compared to the failure or the people in the end to believe and trust in God but to walk away.
In the end, they miss out who walk away and try things their own way, for God chose the tribe of Judah and David to be the heir for the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 78 is a psalm that looks over and describes all the wondrous deeds that God has done and also combines the sorrows of God’s people not being faithful.
A command is given in the beginning to come and listen and to pass on these wondrous acts of God to the next generation that they might set their hope in God and not be like their fathers.
We see this point coming from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and also being used in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 and Hebrews 3-4.
This summary of God’s events for his people then takes us through Exodus all the way to 1st Kings. Each deed of God is compared to the failure or the people in the end to believe and trust in God but to walk away.
In the end, they miss out who walk away and try things their own way, for God chose the tribe of Judah and David to be the heir for the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 77 weaves together a tapestry of places in Scripture. We can see this psalm echo the Exodus account and also quote the praise that they give to God in Exodus 15:11 in verse 13.
We also see Genesis 47-50 referred to when Jacob and Joseph are looking forward to the exodus just as we should.
We also meet Peter in Acts 12 who is given his own exodus rescue on the night of the Passover.
And of course, Jesus Christ and his work are the shape that fills this psalm. In it we also pray that we would experience our own exodus and not fall asleep on the day when God acts.
Psalm 77 is a psalm that finds its echo in Jesus in Gethsemane as his disciples slept as he prayed agonizingly.
It can also remind us of Acts 12 when Peter is arrested and is waiting execution and the church stays up all night to pray for him.
We find that deliverance works the same in both accounts. Both Jesus and Peter slip through guarded areas into life and freedom.
Psalm 77, is the prayer then of not wanting to rest until prayers have been spoken to God and meditation on God’s Word has been made.
But the restlessness of verses 1-9 puts the prayer on a knife edge with the meditation succeeding or failing being also about the person’s salvation who prays.
Verses 10-20 then utter beautiful words that bring back to remembrance the salvation of the Exodus and for us, new life in Christ. In these verses, God works in a manner that escapes us and how we think we can be saved and brings about deliverance through his promises.
The Lord God comes to do battle for the sake of his people!
Psalm 76 gives us a warrior’s perspective on the salvation that God has wrought for us.
We should see this with Jesus on the cross which is alluded to here in the text. Christ is not only a victim on the cross. He is also the Victor of a conquest. His cry at the end when he dies is a warrior’s cry.
The soldiers fall asleep like dead men when Jesus arises, like what happens in this psalm. And the stouthearted strong man is despoiled of his goods, just like Jesus describes.
This describes for us that God is not to be messed with or trifled with. He is to be feared. But for those who trust in him, God is a refuge and a place where peace reigns.
Psalm 75 is the response of God to Psalm 74’s cry of him to come and judge.
The picture is of the people gathered for worship. God’s name is near to them and they gather to thank him and praise him.
Verses 2-5 give us God’s response. He will come and set things right. He will judge the earth with equity. He will make sure the boastful know that salvation is from him.
Verses 6-8 give the response of the congregation. They echo what God has said, noting that to God alone belongs judgment and salvation. Echoes also of Luke 1 and many themes in Luke’s gospel can be picked from this psalm.
Verses 9-10 then form a conclusion. The congregation rejoices and praises God and looks to the horn of God’s righteous one, Jesus Christ.
With the enemy roaring line wild beasts in the destroyed temple of God, Psalm 74:12-23 turns to God and praises him that he has worked greater salvation before.
Using the Exodus and describing Pharaoh and his princes as great dragons and Leviathan, God has crushed those wild beasts before and has delivered his people. The physical battle also describing a spiritual warfare at play as well. God is also described as the Creator who can create order from the present chaos of the psalm.
Then the Psalmist turns to God to act and remember. To remember how the foolish foes scoff and chaff at God and his promises and for that reason that God should remember his covenant, the promises he has made to his people, who are now lowly and poor.
Psalm 74 continues the theme of Book III of the Psalms (73-89) of the fall of the Davidic monarchy and the promises of God.
But even in its destruction, the Psalmist knows that God can act and change even death and destruction. The question becomes “how long?” Verses 1 and 10-11 bracket this first part of the psalm with 2-9 detailing the very painful destruction of the temple in 587 BC.
the center of this carnage is the loss of God’s promised dwelling place. The temple was a foreshadow to Christ dwelling in our midst. Picture here the death of Christ and the loss that brought to those who followed Christ. We hope therefore in the resurrection and to be joined with Christ in victory.
Asaph, having come to his senses in verses 13-15 on the foolishness of thinking the wicked will prosper realizes why when he considers and comes to God in his holy abode. That God is a greater treasure than all that could be given because God is eternal.
So he realizes that God will receive and into glory even as he counsels him now in this life.
He comes to realize that God is the strength of his heart and not himself and therefore we are brought back to verse one, knowing that God is good to those who are pure in heart.
We are pure because we have been brought near to God by the very blood of Christ our a Lord as St. Paul writes in Ephesians 1.
For this we thank and praise and serve and obey him as we confess his name and his promise through Jesus Christ.
As we begin Book III of the Psalms (73-89) we turn from how the monarchy was established and the rise of the Davidic King to how it will now collapse and die. Book IV (90-106) will tell us of God’s action to resurrect it and Book V will cause a Halleujah chorus over God’s eternal promises kept.
Psalm 73 is the prayer noting the righteous being tempted to be like the world. Verse one tells us of what we know, that God is good to his people and near to the pure in heart, an important theme in this psalm. Verses 2-12 then describe the righteous eyeing the wicked and seeing how they prosper despite their boasting.
Verses 13-15 form the crisis moment. Would it be better to betray our stance? To forsake being upright in heart? It is a thought that shocks the prayer back to his senses as the rest of the Psalm, verses 16-28, confidently grace the end result for those who are wicked.
Psalm 72, a Messianic Coronation Psalm sees David writing a psalm for his son Solomon. He sees Solomon as the beginning of the promises made to his house being fulfilled. But as the Psalm goes on, David sees someone greater than Solomon.
David sees Jesus Christ. Indeed, through Jesus wisdom and righteousness would abound, Jesus would have compassion, and all the ends of the earth could come to serve him.
This psalm, which concludes Book II of the Psalms, wraps up the theme that Psalms 42-72 have wanted us to see: the establishment of the throne and of the Son of David.
The fate of the Son of David reaches catastrophic defeat and death as Book III tells now its tale…
David, in his old age, turns to God as he approaches his end. Picking lines from key psalms like Psalm 22, 31, 35, and 70, David pulls together strands of his life where God came through in the hardest moments.
Now he knows that God will do it again and so praises God for his steadfast love. He even goes to say that he knows that God will revive him and bring him up from the grave.
With this he foreshadows his resurrection on the last day, but also through David, Christ is praying. And we know that Christ, our righteousness, has gone to the highest heaven.
David knows then that all his enemies will be put to shame as the final verses seem to speak of him post resurrection, when even the last great enemy, death, is destroyed.
In Psalm 71, David is beginning to fade from the scene. His age makes him the target for those who would seek to destroy him, seeing his weaknesses as an opportunity to take advantage of and his faith being in vain.
But David knows that God is a greater refuge for him and reflects on other times that he was helpless like when he was an infant and baby and God provided for him then before he was even aware so now will God do now.
David uses prayers that he has prayed before, often in what is done in old age. Psalms 22 and 31 are quoted and alluded to in great detail. God’s faithfulness and promise concerning the promise of his Son, which is why Psalm 72 is from the hand of Solomon his Son. The enemies’ plan to destroy God’s promise of Christ is thwarted and will always be thwarted.
Psalm 70 is nearly word for word from Psalm 40:13-17. The reason being perhaps that David had multiple prayers or that those who collected them drew from a very loved and memorable psalm.
Whatever the reason, this psalm is designated for worship during the memorial offering. An offering that was burnt to God and which Leviticus tells us that God would remember the worshipper as this was offered, think of Noah when God made the covenant.
This psalm is also urgent. It wastes no words to tell us of the need for God to act quickly.
But yet in the urgency, David prays for others, that they would also know God’s salvation and rejoice in it.
We also then learn that prayer is offered by beggars who petition the King for everything they need.
Psalm 69 continues the cry of Jesus Christ on the cross. As he bears our sin and agony, he asks for God’s steadfast love to be shown to him.
Moments of Christ’s passion of being forsaken by his disciples, being offered sour wine are all mentioned in this psalm. Even of Judas’ betrayal that is referenced in Acts 1 is quoted here showing that Psalm 69 spoke well in the Christian Church in the days following Christ.
And then he turns to his enemies and prays to the Father that he deal with those that dishonor him. He speaks of having them be excluded. It could very well be that the thief on the cross, aware of these words and seeing the events unfold before him in real time begged for Christ’s mercy having seen from this psalm the result.
Indeed after this, Christ praying this psalm is sure of the vindication, of resurrection and ascension. And those who are reckoned righteous by Christ will inherit the land, for the meek shall inherit the earth with Christ with whom they praise his name.
Psalm 69 shows us how much our Lord Jesus has suffered for us. Picture in this psalm Jesus dying on the cross but also all the images of passion week.
The person speaking in this psalm is Jesus himself. He speaks as carrying the judgment of God. That the judgment is described like the flood, and that he is paying not for his own, but for the foolishness of us all.
Echoes of Jonah, Romans, John 2, and more fit into this psalm.
Indeed the thrust of this psalm is that Jesus is baptized with a baptism from God of carrying and bearing God’s wrath over sin.
Psalm 68, which began as a procession psalm of God to his throne which is typified in the ark as a sign pointing to Christ now turns into the consequences of that seating on his throne.
First all of God’s enemies will be defeated. Soundly. Even a way out of death is granted by the King. God’s salvation is granted daily and repeatedly.
Next Israel worships God in the security of this reign of God. Then all the nations are gathered together to receive from God as well.
The psalm then has a concluding fanfare where God reveals that he will be glorified in his saints, the people whom he has called.
Psalm 68 is a victory psalm that details God’s journey with his people.
David perhaps crafted this psalm for the occasion of 2 Samuel 6 when the ark comes to its final spot at Jerusalem. A journey that began in Numbers 10 when the ark first left Sinai.
Psalm 68 uses a lot of imagery found in Numbers 10 and in the wilderness wandering and also from the book of Judges, especially the song of Deborah.
God is depicting with leading his people to a place of refuge and a home. God’s enemies fail before him and he will scatter what is left of their bones.
This Psalm more connects with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, even the women announcing the victory and dividing the spoils to the men on the day he rose.
This psalm finally gets to Jerusalem, God’s chosen hill, which causes all the other hills to be envious of God’s decision.
St. Paul quotes from 68:18 in Ephesians 4 to describe that Jesus ascended and now gives gifts to his church and through his church.
Psalm 66 echoes the Aaronic Benediction from Numbers 6. It could be that Psalm 67 was sung at the end of the worship service as the people were prepared to go out.
A key word in this psalm also fits into the key themes of the Bible: blessing. It was blessing that God gave to his creation in Genesis 1-2. It was the blessing that mankind lost in Genesis 3 when the curse came.
It is also the blessing that God promised Abraham to bring about the offspring, Jesus, to bless all people. And it is Jesus to restores the blessing and declares blessing in the Sermon on the Mount.
In this psalm, the same pattern continues. God blesses his people and that blessing flows out to all the nations who will come to know the saving power of God. The result of all nations coming under the God of Israel is that all the creation will experience the blessing of God as well.
Psalm 66 is a psalm that fits into psalms 67-68 as well. These form a unit and the church has always associated and connected them to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With many Greek and Latin manuscripts of Psalm 66 stating that this is a psalm of the resurrection. And this psalm is quoted and alluded to during the Great Vigil of Easter/Pascha
So with the resurrection of Christ in mind, we see that this psalm is praising God for his deeds. Several deeds are referenced, especially the bringing out of Israel from Egypt and the crossing of the Jordan River. The language is sync together with the concept of dry land, a term used in the Old Testament to carry the freight of the concept of the New Creation.
Jesus has stepped into that New Creation and because he is alive, we too shall live and are connected to the land of the living. So we too sing, even as we suffer. Using the idea of water and fire as where God’s people praise also links us to Exodus 15 and Revelation 15.
So we pray to God knowing that he hears when we call. And that he has not removed his steadfast love from us.
Psalm 65, along with Psalms 66-68 form a unit of worship/harvest psalms. Each will praise God for his gifts and goodness, especially to his people.
Psalm 65 begins with the temple, the people of God, in view. In the temple flows God’s salvation. He atones for people’s sins and all people will draw near to him. This psalm forms a thought when Jesus says that God’s house is a house of prayer for all people.
Then the care that God has flows outward. The creation is described with God’s love and care in mine. And God is over abundant, he cares intimately for the creation’s care and wellbeing.
As the maker and the ruler, God is the sustainer. The end of the psalm loops us back to the beginning at the creation brings forth abundant sheep and grain, items used in the worship and sacramental life of God’s people in the temple.
David notes that his enemies are plotting against him in Psalm 64.
More than half of this psalm is devoted to the schemes of the enemies. They are plotting and conceiving evil. Their weapons are being sharpened and readied which are their tongues and words.
They lie in ambush and think their plan is all set and undetected, which is comical knowing that David is aware.
And he is aware because God is with him. Suddenly God flips the tables and the enemies are overcome by the same weapons they were ready to use.
This psalm gives us insight into the life of Christ during Holy Week. On Wednesday of that week Christ’s enemies plotted and readied for their chance to strike.
But Jesus knew of their plan. He knew of the betrayer and he knew that God would deliver him.
And because Jesus is delivered we all can break forth into joy because Jesus has destroyed the enemy of death by dying and he gives us that victory.
David has a desire for God as he staggers in the wilderness from his son, Absalom, who has conducted a coup.
David realizes that at all times of the day and night and in all his longings, that they are a need from God for all times of the day.
David says that God’s steadfast love is better than life itself. And therefore David knows that he will be satisfied by God because God has a stake in David’s life and family.
Indeed, that stake is the promise of Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of all.
Psalm 62 finds David anchored in place while the world is moving fast paced around him.
What keeps him anchored is God. He has his hopes and future set on him.
Throughout the psalm all other methods and helps are the pushed aside because salvation belongs solely with God. So David implores us to keep our eyes focused on the cross, the grave and the resurrection. For in the work of Jesus we have our solid foundation.
And while we receive this all from God, we are also busy at work doing what God has called us to do in our vocations. For indeed God will render to a man according to his work, and the work that Jesus Christ has accomplished is dished out for our salvation!
Psalm 61 is the prayer of David being far from God and asking to be brought near.
He uses many images to convey being brought near. To a rock that is higher than him. A place of refuge and a strong tower.
Then he moves the image to a fragile tent but the tent that brings to mind the tabernacle, the place where God dwells. A tent which has become flesh in Jesus and was torn in death for us and shed his blood so that we would come to God.
Then the image of a mother bird protecting her chicks from the storm to convey that God is with his people in hardship.
Then with the Selah interlude, a voice comes out to say that God has given the heritage of those who fear God to him. This is the voice of Christ through whom all blessings flow.
The voice then ends with those who fear the Lord praising health and well-being to the King, through whom steadfast love and faithfulness are abundant.
Psalm 60 is David’s psalm to teach us how to deal with defeat and adversity and even when God himself is the one causing it!
David teaches us that we do not have to be pious but can tell God that he is the one causing the grief. But this teaches us not to flee from God but rather to God. For that is the attitude of belief. When God is the enemy it is to God that we should flee to refuge.
God then gives his answer as the earth totters and shakes, he will come through on his promises. This psalm teaches us to fall back to God’s promises no matter what.
Indeed the promise at the end is one of confidence. If David did not mince words when he labeled God has the cause of the failure. He also has no doubt that God will come through for his people for the sake of his promise.
For us, God has made promises to us in our baptism into Christ and this is something we always flee to refuge for.
Psalm 59 puts us on a night of watchfulness and dread. Saul has sent men to watch the house that David is in and kill him if the opportunity affords it. David describes them like wolves circling about waiting to destroy him.
But David has his eyes on God. He knows that God will deliver him and show his steadfast love to him. And certainly God comes through.
The Psalm ends with the night ending and the morning arriving and the so called wolves who come prowling each night leave whining because God will vindicate his servant and he will see that salvation.
Behind David in this psalm stands Jesus Christ, who was watched and hounded by his enemies though he did no wrong, but who was vindicated and rescued from their jaws and also grants that salvation to those who trust in him.
Psalm 58 is a psalm of righteous judgment against all that is evil and wicked.
Using some of the most shocking language in the Psalter, David leaves no space or room for evil to be given any quarter or place.
Evil is described in the psalm as the devil is described in the Bible, as a serpent and a lion.
The Psalm describes evil in the 3rd person perspective, but we can see how this evil also infects all our hearts and the resulting destruction would have been ours if Christ has not redeemed and saved us by his love.
The psalm ends with the confidence that the righteous will be vindicated and evil will be ended. God is indeed the judge on earth.
David while in the cave in 1 Samuel 22, prayed this Psalm of refuge to God.
In it he prays that God be merciful to him and be the refuge that he knows that God is. He notes the trap and power of the enemy and yet he knows that God will send out his steadfast love and faithfulness to him.
David also notes that his heart is ready, even saying that his singing in the night will be the cause of the Dawn waking up.
Finally, he knows that God salvation and God’s glory will be exalted over all and that David will sing of him among all nations.
In this psalm we see the salvation of Jesus Christ, with Jesus coming down from heaven to save us and with his ascension, Jesus has gone up in order that he would be able to save his people who trust in him.
Psalm 56 is a psalm for when you are beat down and suffering the terrors of sin and death.
When we are afraid, we will put our trust in the Lord. David prays this prayer confident in the Lord’s answer and even talks about the future resurrection as a present done deal with how confident he is of God’s care.
St. Paul will use many ideas in this psalm as he writes the letter to the Romans. Especially as we consider Romans 8 that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is revealed in us because of the love of Jesus Christ.
David’s enemy and adversary is his own friend in Psalm 55. If it were an enemy, he could handle that, but a betrayer is something that creates such distraught for him.
This betrayal turns him to God, and throughout the day David calls to him and puts the matter into God’s hands.
Psalm 55 is but the voice of Jesus crying out that he has been betrayed by one of his own and how the betrayal hurts. But even in betrayal Jesus knows that God will do right by him and will lead him out as he faces all our foes.
Psalm 55 paints David’s heart in a state of anxiety and worry. He is faint and at a loss.
Why is David in such a state of mind when he faced so many threats and problems? Because this problem is not a threat on the outside, the threat he faces is a betrayal on the inside. Better to face the onslaught of an enemy then the knife in the back from a friend.
With these words, we see the pain that Jesus experienced when Judas betrayed him. The betrayal of Judas is expected and known by Christ, but that does not lessen the hurt and the pain by it.
But yet we see that when such moments arise, we put our faith and trust in God who orders all things for his good.
David has been betrayed by members of his own people into the hand of Saul.
Psalm 54, is a good foreshadow to the prayer that Christ would pray as he was betrayed into the hands of sinners.
This psalm calls upon God and notes the betrayal, it seeks then God’s sure and certain promises and calls us to remember the promises that Christ has made to us.
Then the prayer ends with the certainty that God will deliver based on these promises, using words that bring to mind the hope and joy of the resurrection, that we will see it with our own eye!
Almost word for word from Psalm 14, Psalm 53 puts us back with David as we trace through the prayers of his life.
We are reminded that no one seeks after God, not you or me or anyone. That our faith is not a self help where you do as well as you can.
Our faith is something that God makes known to us. This revelation is centered and made known to us through Jesus Christ and through his Word.
We take comfort that God has made himself known to us and the depth of our sin is covered by the death of God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
David contemplates and cussed us to see the difference between good and evil in Psalm 52.
Coming from the time in 1 Samuel 21 when Doeg the Edomite snitched on David’s location to Saul. Doeg killed the 85 priests and the people of Nob when Saul was angered at them helping David.
David prays to God and trusts in his steadfast love and knows that boasts of man will not prevail but God will overcome and the righteous shall see it and trust in God.
After noting that David has committed his sins against God he asked for what seems like the impossible: That God would restore him.
David knows that he cannot repair the breach, but that God can cleanse him. In fact, David uses a Word that is only described with God in the Bible: Create. This exact word is used in Genesis 1-2 and is only used of God in the Old Testament
What David sees is that God must preform an act of creation which also works as an act of salvation.
Then David sees that he will be rightly ordered before God and that God will open his life and also transform his life. David then hopes that this will be given to all the people of God who put their hope in his unfailing love.
David reflects on his sin in Psalm 51. The context is after David has murdered Uriah and committed adultery with Bathsheba. This is the 4th of the penitential psalms and arguably the greatest.
David implores for God’s forgiveness and steadfast love. This psalm teaches us to not make excuses or belittle sin.
But after God has made known our sin with his Word, to confess them and ask for forgiveness and to receive forgiveness where God has promised to give it— in his Word and Sacraments.
God comes forth as the judge and the one who will vindicate his people!
The aim of Psalm 50, which takes cues from Joshua 22, Isaiah, Matthew 13, and Revelation 2-3 is the view of God coming as the judge.
Then the psalm backs up and God gives us the opportunity to know this and live life rightly before him before he does come as judge. God gives us every chance to turn to him.
The issue that God has with his people is that their hearts are far from him. They may do the right thing, but their hearts are not in line. God wants them in spirit and truth while also not neglecting what they do.
God owns all the creation and cannot be bought off, and while he chastises his people, he rebukes the wicked among them in vs. 16-23.
This psalm sets us up for Psalm 51 where the tension is finally broken by the response of King David.
God comes forth as the judge and the one who will vindicate his people!
The aim of Psalm 50, which takes cues from Joshua 22, Isaiah, Matthew 13, and Revelation 2-3 is the view of God coming as the judge.
Then the psalm backs up and God gives us the opportunity to know this and live life rightly before him before he does come as jusge. God gives us every chance to turn to him.
The issue that God has with his people is that their hearts are far from him. They may do the right thing, but their hearts are not in line. God wants them in spirit and truth while also not neglecting what they do.
God owns all the creation and cannot be bought off, and while he chastises his people, he rebukes the wicked among them in vs. 16-23.
This psalm sets us up for Psalm 51 where the tension is finally broken by the response of King David.
Psalm 49 ends with us not wanting to live like the rich and prosperous whose hope is in this world and whose hope is vain. But rather to be those who seek after God, who knows that God will ransom us from death and from the power of Sheol.
This psalm uses language that brings to mind God receiving Enoch and Elijah from death and it causes us to look to the promises of Jesus Christ knowing that his death ransoms us because he is both true God and true Man.
Psalm 48 describes the reality that exists because of what we heard in Psalm 45: the marriage of God with his people.
This consummation causes the church to be the pinnacle of beauty and security because God is with her. God is praised by her, her enemies flee because of the work of Jesus Christ and because of God’s work for his people, the church dwells secure.
Other features of this psalm direct us to the place where God dwells and shows us also where he does not. False churches and false titles given to others are taken away and given back to the God and his people.
Psalm 47 is a psalm of praise to the God who has ascended with a shout!
This psalm has been seen in the church has a way to speak about the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. It goes together many images of God going up in the cloud with the trumpet being played in the Wilderness Wanderings and also when the ark was enthroned in the city of Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 2.
The Most High, Jesus Christ is the focal point where heaven and earth meet, who fills his temple, the church, and is above every name that is named. For Jesus has entered the holy of Holies by means of his own blood and sits as our high priest
Psalm 46 is a psalm where the people of God, the church, is speaking to her God. The church is described as a strong fortress and a secure place because God is with her.
The world and the kingdoms are coming and going but the gates of hell will never overcome the church.
This psalm has brought much inspiration in the Bible and in the life of the Church. Matthew, John, Hebrews, Revelation all draw in themes that Psalm 46 expounds upon.
The psalm ends with a confident tone from God, highlighting that he will take care of things and be exalted
Psalm 45 is a love song that describes the husband, the king. And also describes the bride, the wife of the King.
Through this psalm the love that the two have for each other is described and it reveals to us the love that Jesus Christ has for his bride, the Church. And the love that the church has for her husband.
This psalm weaves in themes from Genesis 2, The Song of Songs, John, Ephesians 5, and Revelation that presents a complete picture of the love God has for us.
Psalm 44 tells the dual story of remembrance of God’s action for his people and the present disappointment and shock that God does not currently save us.
This psalm gives us words to pray and say to God as we reflect on the glory of God’s actions in the days of Jesus but the pain we feel that the does not currently act. A pain that feels like rejection and loss.
It is for this though that our Lord Jesus became man and knows the bitterness of sorrow and the misery of defeat. And who now triumphs above the heavens. He is the Lord we should pray to, for he can deliver us.
Psalm 44 tells the dual story of remembrance of God’s action for his people and the present disappointment and shock that God does not currently save us.
This psalm gives us words to pray and say to God as we reflect on the glory of God’s actions in the days of Jesus but the pain we feel that the does not currently act. A pain that feels like rejection and loss.
It is for this though that our Lord Jesus became man and knows the bitterness of sorrow and the misery of defeat. And who now triumphs above the heavens. He is the Lord we should pray to, for he can deliver us.
Psalm 43 continues the theme of psalm 42 and wraps up the tension began in Psalm 42. What began as displacement from God becomes a reunion with God and salvation in God’s dwelling and altar.
Psalm 42 reflects many identity markers from Jesus Christ from St. John’s Gospel. As Jesus called himself the Light and Truth and the Good Shepherd who leads people back to the Father.
This psalm also was used as a prayer before coming to Communion as people would come to the altar of God and proclaim his death until he comes.
Psalm 42 has a longing for God that only God can satisfy.
This longing causes the Psalm to weave through cherished memories. Thinking back to the times of festival at God’s temple with God’s people.
But these memories are like drinking tears, the salt only makes the thirst more intolerable.
But yet, the psalmist knows and hopes that as God gave once, so he will give again, and so we are called to hope in God because he is our salvation and our rock.
We take some time today to reflect on the Psalms thus far (Psalms 1-41). We take time to note the story, purpose, and meaning so far as well as look ahead at Book 2 of the Psalms (42-72)
Psalm 41 concludes Book One of the Psalms (1-41) and also brings together the themes and ideas that we have heard throughout the Psalms so far.
In it, we hear of the Blessed Man from Psalm 1, Jesus Christ, who goes around doing much good. He sustains and keeps people on their sick beds and considers and poor and the weak. We see this in the life of Christ.
Then the Psalm switches to a first person view of the Blessed Man, Jesus Christ, who carries our sins (v4) and will be vindicated by his integrity (v12). He is whispered against in reminiscence of Psalm 2. He knows that many are against him, wanting him dead, that even his close friend is seeking to betray him, which Jesus quotes in John 13.
But he knows that his Father will vindicate him, raise him up, and seat him in his presence.
The psalm then concludes with a final beatitude that summarize Book One and gets us ready for more in Book Two of the Psalms (42-72)
Psalm 40 ends with a tension that on the surface seems to undo how the Psalm began.
The Psalm began with delighting in God’s salvation. That his salvation already occurred and now we are secure.
Verses 11-17 then give weight to the struggle and evil and surround him. And he asks God for deliverance and confident that God will.
Some take these verses to be a different time in David’s life, but we would do well to note that the same happens to us. We are confident of Christ’s salvation to us. But yet we are also surrounded by our disasters and worries.
This psalm brings to life and gives word to the struggle that all Christians face and have who are in Jesus Christ.
Psalm 40 forms a triumphant conclusion to a theme started in Psalm 37 of waiting for God. Psalms 38 and 39 were expressions of the pain that often results in waiting.
Psalm 40 shows us the results of waiting: that they are worth it and God’s deliverance can be trusted and that it will cause us to erupt into a new song such as the Exodus and Luke 1-2
In this psalm, verses 6-8 are quotes especially of Jesus in Hebrews 10, the communal salvation that Jesus is drawing us into points us to the salvation and righteousness that Jesus has won.
Complaint Psalms are psalms where the prayer is complaining to God.
Psalm 39 is that kind of psalm in spades. In reference to the wicked, David to explodes on God. His pious demeanor gives away to exasperation on God.
This psalm teaches us and gives us the words to pray, especially if we feel that God is our enemy.
Yet, even though this Psalm ends on a rather sour note that God would just leave us alone so we could have some peace without him, this Psalm also prays that God would rescue us and deliver us, even when we are less than pious.
Ultimately, we can rest in Jesus Christ, who makes no demands of piety but rather that we turn to him and live.
Psalm 38 is an acrostic poem and also the third of seven penitential psalms. Here we also see a clear depiction of Christ as our sin bearer.
The Psalmist complains first of the effects of sin upon his body and how God is doing this to him and asks God for relief.
Then he remarks about those who are seeking his harm and mock and ridicule him and who have watched for this moment.
But he is silent to their rebukes and does not return their reviling even though he did good to them.
He then leaves his case with God trusting that God is his salvation and will not be far from him.
Psalm 37 is a prayer where we are to listen to God speak and instruct our hearts. This psalm is unique as that God is never addressed, but rather that God is addresses us, or that our new Adam is trying to keep our sinful flesh in line.
The psalm is marked by keeping faith and not forsaking the path, even as we look upon the success and wealth of those who do evil. We are not to follow them because their time is short and God knows their end.
Rather we trust and put refuge in the Lord for He will sustain us and will cause the meek to inherit the land.
Psalm 37 is a prayer where we are to listen to God speak and instruct our hearts. This psalm is unique as that God is never addressed, but rather that God is addresses us, or that our new Adam is trying to keep our sinful flesh in line.
The psalm is marked by keeping faith and not forsaking the path, even as we look upon the success and wealth of those who do evil. We are not to follow them because their time is short and God knows their end.
Rather we trust and put refuge in the Lord for He will sustain us and will cause the meek to inherit the land.
Psalm 35 is one of the 7 main imprecatory psalms, or a curse psalm. A psalm where God is asked to deal with the psalmist enemies.
God has taken vengeance upon his enemies, when he sent his Son who became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.
And now we pray for God to save us from our enemies, the devil who prowls around to devour us, our sin that would undo us, and death that would silence us.
God has and will, even as we cry out, “How long?!” We know that his salvation to us is certain having been marked by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 35 is a plea to God for him to take action, even action that is violent.
Here we note that the calls for violence in the Psalms do not leave the violence in our hands but in God’s hands.
The enemies in this psalm are not for vengeance sake. These enemies actively seek to hurt and we are powerless to defend ourselves from them.
Christians should not shy away from the psalm that call for violence for we have enemies that are called sin, death, and the devil. These enemies are not to be reconciled, they are to be destroyed.
Fortunately we have a Savior who has fought and won on our behalf. Jesus our Lord!
The back half of Psalm 34 details the one who loves life. And as the Psalm moves forward we discover that the righteous one is the one who keeps himself from speaking and doing evil.
The righteous one can also count all his bones and is delivered from all his afflictions. And those who trust in him will not have to bear their own guilt.
This psalms ultimately details the Savior of us all, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The back half of Psalm 33 contrasts two different hopes. One hope is the frailty of human power:
The other hope is the certainty of God, the Word of the Lord, who is Jesus Christ our Lord, who sees all things and takes account and acts.
So we are called to fear God, which is to worship him and properly live as God would have us live.
And we know that we can hope in the Lord for we are never beyond his help for all things are under his sway and control. His steadfast love is sure.
Psalm 33 is a psalm of praise for the Word of the Lord.
This Word of the Lord is faithful and true. The Word of the Lord has made all things and has done so by the Word of his mouth.
This Word of the Lord reigns over all and frustrates the plans of the wicked.
Who is this Word of the Lord? It is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God made flesh and who dwelt among us revealing his glory to the end of the world by dying on the cross for us and being raised on the third day and who is seated now in the heavens.
Psalm 32 is one of the 7 penitential Psalms found within the Psalter.
Here David describes that someone is blessed by God when God forgives them of all their sins. How does this happen? Because of God’s steadfast love.
Sin is covered by God and a new life occurs because someone has to die. This points us to the blood that Jesus has shed that buys us back to God. We are now clothed with Christ and belong to him and this brings about a new life for those who are his.
Psalm 31 is a cry that alternates between the joy of God’s faithfulness and love and also crying out in despair and pain for God to do it again.
The essence of the prayer comes from vs 5, “into your hand I commit my spirit.” Which is the word that Jesus said on the cross. He knows his anguish well and he knows how deliver us and protect us who is now risen from the dead!
He is our refuge and will lead and guide us.
Psalm 31 is a cry that alternates between the joy of God’s faithfulness and love and also crying out in despair and pain for God to do it again.
The essence of the prayer comes from vs 5, “into your hand I commit my spirit.” Which is the word that Jesus said on the cross. He knows his anguish well and he knows how deliver us and protect us who is now risen from the dead!
He is our refuge and will lead and guide us.
Psalm 30, a Psalm used for the dedication of the temple, should be understood as a Psalm for the temple of the Lord Jesus, which is his body.
This psalm celebrates the Lord’s resurrection and gives us praise to join in our Lord’s victory.
Many Biblical images and accounts are swirling in this tempest of a Psalm.
Psalm 29 finds us in the middle of a Hurricane whose sound is the voice of God. Voice is said 7 times in this psalm (Revelation 10, John 12) which is an onomatopoeia with thunder.
We can remind ourselves of creation, Noah’s flood, the Red Sea crossing, Jesus walking on water, Jesus’ death and resurrection, and so much more that are alluded to in this psalm.
Here the Glory (kodesh) of the Lord is contrasted with the Kadesh (word play on ‘glory’) of this world.
At the end of this psalm is a blessing of peace, of calm after the storm. Like how Jesus calmed the storm, or Noah came out of the ark, or the people crossed the Red sea, or how Jesus came behind locked doors to speak of word of peace.
Psalm 28 compares the work of our hands with the work of the Lord.
The wicked are consumed with their work, never thinking how mean and little it is. And usually masking their work with evil intent.
But David holds out his hands empty to the Lord who will hear him. He begs God to not be silent but in the second half becomes confident that God has heard and certain that God will uphold him.
He then praises the character of God as God makes himself know through the work of his hand.
Psalm 27 is a prayer of David that builds off of the confidence that God has given based on his character. Verse one establishes the confidence. The rest of the Psalm weaves its way through the myriad of struggles and adversaries who fail and Mount up in life.
By the end of the Psalm, David gives a retort and exhortation to us: “Can you imagine what would have happened to me if I had not believed that I would dwell in the land of the living?”
We are then given an admonition: wait for the Lord!
Psalm 26 is a plea for God to judge us. And how shall we stand and walk as God comes to judge?
In the congregation of the evildoer they will always stand in their wicked works but in the congregation of the righteous, it will always be gathered in God’s faithfulness and grace that he has now given to us in Jesus Christ.
This Psalm also speaks for Christ who walked blameless and has made his people blameless too. This is our great treasure that it is such a joy to gather in God’s holy house and the place where Jesus calls his home
Psalm 25 is an Acrostic Poem (each verse begins with a letter in the Hebrew Alphabet).
It switches between voices of restlessness and confidence. Almost as if the heart wants to have the confidence (vs. 1-7) that the head knows (vs. 8-10).
This conflict moves about the Psalm as the bulk of the words from this Psalm come from Exodus 32-34 when Israel sinned and need to come to know who God is. A God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Psalm ends with a desperate plea to redeem out of all his troubles which we just heard listed out A-Z or in Hebrew, Aleph-Taw.
Psalm 25 is an Acrostic Poem (each verse begins with a letter in the Hebrew Alphabet).
It switches between voices of restlessness and confidence. Almost as if the heart wants to have the confidence (vs. 1-7) that the head knows (vs. 8-10).
This conflict moves about the Psalm as the bulk of the words from this Psalm come from Exodus 32-34 when Israel sinned and need to come to know who God is. A God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Psalm ends with a desperate plea to redeem out of all his troubles which we just heard listed out A-Z or in Hebrew, Aleph-Taw.
Psalm 24, using imagery from Genesis 32, Isaiah 63, Matthew 21, Acts 1, Hebrews 9, and Revelation 19, gives us a description of our Lord’s work.
That only he could enter into the Holy Places of God because Christ alone has clean hands and pure heart. He alone secured for us blessing and righteousness. Christ alone is who we should seek to have these things.
The Psalm ends with a cacophony of praise to Christ that brings to mind Palm Sunday and in heaven the angels welcoming this Lord Jesus who has been exalted for us and for our salvation.
Psalm 23 describes how the Lord is our Shepherd, or the one who guides us in life. We are sheep and are not the source of our life, we are not in control.
So God leads us. The certainty is first given of where God leads, maybe in spite of the evidence around us. But he leads us for the sake of his name.
And our Lord Jesus leads us through the places where he has gone ahead of us. Jesus has carved the path through the valley of the shadow of death and despair. And he gives us life.
The Psalm then weaves us through images of feasting and abundance that comes from the Lord’s hand using imagery that brings to mind the Exodus wilderness wandering, God’s promised covenant love, and what Jesus, our Good Shepherd does for us, in the feeding of the 5000 and in being the one who lays down his life for his sheep. He does this so we can stand before him with God’s people forever, or, on that day.
Psalm 22 is a cry of dereliction and faith from the pen of King David as he looks and sees the crucifixion and suffering of his Son and also his Lord Jesus on the cross.
The lines of this Psalm describe in rather vivid detail what our Lord would say and go through on the cross.
This song goes between sorrow and grief to hope and victory almost as if the two are in a battle. Eventually faith does indeed triumph as David and Jesus experience and see the resurrection
Psalm 22 is a cry of dereliction and faith from the pen of King David as he looks and sees the crucifixion and suffering of his Son and also his Lord Jesus on the cross.
The lines of this Psalm describe in rather vivid detail what our Lord would say and go through on the cross.
This song goes between sorrow and grief to hope and victory almost as if the two are in a battle. Eventually faith does indeed triumph as David and Jesus experience and see the resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is unexpected news, that upturns everything that we knew. It is unique and ushers in a new creation!
And today Jesus is making you a part of it. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Psalm 20 presents the image of us being at the foot of the cross praying to God to fulfill and grant all the Lord Jesus Christ had done for us. May God save the king indeed!
Psalm 19 is a Psalm revealing to us how God makes himself known.
He does through what is called Natural Revelation. We see this in vs 1-6 of Psalm 19 and is also reflected in Romans 1. God’s creation reveals the power, might, and glory of God. But through this means of revelation, we do not know how to interpret or know God. We do not know his disposition or character.
For that the rest of the Psalm makes known to us how we can know God and it is through what is called Special Revelation. God himself must talk. This is reflected in that in vs 1-6 only the title of God is used. While vs 7 onward use God’s covenant revealed name the LORD.
This knowledge causes us to understand the sound of creation in praise to its Creator and causes us to repent and ask for God’s mercy and grace which he makes known to us through his Son Jesus Christ our LORD.
Psalm 19 is a Psalm revealing to us how God makes himself known.
He does through what is called Natural Revelation. We see this in vs 1-6 of Psalm 19 and is also reflected in Romans 1. God’s creation reveals the power, might, and glory of God. But through this means of revelation, we do not know how to interpret or know God. We do not know his disposition or character.
For that the rest of the Psalm makes known to us how we can know God and it is through what is called Special Revelation. God himself must talk. This is reflected in that in vs 1-6 only the title of God is used. While vs 7 onward use God’s covenant revealed name the LORD.
This knowledge causes us to understand the sound of creation in praise to its Creator and causes us to repent and ask for God’s mercy and grace which he makes known to us through his Son Jesus Christ our LORD.
Psalm 18 is designated as a Psalm that David spoke to God after he saved him from all his enemies. This Psalm can also be found in 2 Samuel 22.
In it, David uses language that brings to mind God’s salvation that he worked in the Exodus and for God’s people throughout the ages. He praises God with complete joy for his work of salvation.
as David moves through the Psalm, we hear another voice speaking and soon come to realize that the author and speaker of this psalm is none other than Jesus Christ himself. The supernatural description lends itself to what our Lord Jesus went through on our behalf for our salvation.
Finally David will praise that the Lord is alive, which he speaks concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who is alive forevermore and has the keys of death in his hand.
God acts on the basis of his promise, a promise he made to David to show steadfast love. And a promise that we have no received through our Lord Jesus.
Psalm 18 is designated as a Psalm that David spoke to God after he saved him from all his enemies. This Psalm can also be found in 2 Samuel 22.
In it, David uses language that brings to mind God’s salvation that he worked in the Exodus and for God’s people throughout the ages. He praises God with complete joy for his work of salvation.
as David moves through the Psalm, we hear another voice speaking and soon come to realize that the author and speaker of this psalm is none other than Jesus Christ himself. The supernatural description lends itself to what our Lord Jesus went through on our behalf for our salvation.
Finally David will praise that the Lord is alive, which he speaks concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who is alive forevermore and has the keys of death in his hand.
God acts on the basis of his promise, a promise he made to David to show steadfast love. And a promise that we have no received through our Lord Jesus.
Psalm 18 is designated as a Psalm that David spoke to God after he saved him from all his enemies. This Psalm can also be found in 2 Samuel 22.
In it, David uses language that brings to mind God’s salvation that he worked in the Exodus and for God’s people throughout the ages. He praises God with complete joy for his work of salvation.
as David moves through the Psalm, we hear another voice speaking and soon come to realize that the author and speaker of this psalm is none other than Jesus Christ himself. The supernatural description lends itself to what our Lord Jesus went through on our behalf for our salvation.
Finally David will praise that the Lord is alive, which he speaks concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who is alive forevermore and has the keys of death in his hand.
God acts on the basis of his promise, a promise he made to David to show steadfast love. And a promise that we have no received through our Lord Jesus.
Psalm 18 is designated as a Psalm that David spoke to God after he saved him from all his enemies. This Psalm can also be found in 2 Samuel 22.
In it, David uses language that brings to mind God’s salvation that he worked in the Exodus and for God’s people throughout the ages. He praises God with complete joy for his work of salvation.
as David moves through the Psalm, we hear another voice speaking and soon come to realize that the author and speaker of this psalm is none other than Jesus Christ himself. The supernatural description lends itself to what our Lord Jesus went through on our behalf for our salvation.
Finally David will praise that the Lord is alive, which he speaks concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who is alive forevermore and has the keys of death in his hand.
God acts on the basis of his promise, a promise he made to David to show steadfast love. And a promise that we have no received through our Lord Jesus.
Psalm 17 is a cry of help to God from David who feels the threats of enemies around him but also from turmoil within him.
He appeals to God on the basis of his character and integrity but soon cuts off from that and turns to God in his steadfast love.
he eventually will describe his enemies and their portion in this life lulling them to destruction, but David’s reward will be to see and enjoy God’s presence when he wakes him up in the resurrection.
Psalm 17 is a cry of help to God from David who feels the threats of enemies around him but also from turmoil within him.
He appeals to God on the basis of his character and integrity but soon cuts off from that and turns to God in his steadfast love.
he eventually will describe his enemies and their portion in this life lulling them to destruction, but David’s reward will be to see and enjoy God’s presence when he wakes him up in the resurrection.
Psalm 16 describes a martial like relation with God. In language that brings to mind Ephesians 5, David describes his love for the Lord. That God guides his way and he is secure in him. And that not even death will end what God is able to do but that he can rescue even from there.
This Psalm also brings to mind the hope of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Psalm is the words of Jesus being spoken by his forefather David as Peter reminds us that David foresaw the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 15 brings us to the idea of not just coming into God’s presence but also staying there.
Ever since Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden, being in God’s presence has been elusive. But it is also the hope of our race that God would be with us always, even into the end of the ages and further on into eternity.
Which of course is Jesus our Lord for us. He fits the description of Psalm 15’s righteous man who is not just righteous for himself, but shed his blood so we could be made righteous as well. The Lord is our Righteousness.
Psalm 14 describes the fool, the one who does not consider God. Foolishness is something that is deliberately chosen in the Bible, and here the foolishness leads to thinking: There is no God.
This functional atheism is born out of the folly and not the other way around and it is the turning aside from what is self-evident. In many cases it is how God makes himself known in the creation.
This Psalm goes on to describe the actions of the folly, that they will persecute the righteous, or God’s people. They express that folly in the rejection of God’s people.
But we are told that their plans are for naught, for God is with the righteous and will deliver them, in ways that are often not looked for.
Psalm 13 begins with a series of four “How Long?” To God. This desperate cry is a way of avoiding direct accusation to God as well as faith knowing that God will act, while at the same time longing for him to act. “Come Lord Jesus Come!”
Then three consequences are listed if God should not act. That death will claim him, enemies taunt him and his foes triumph over him.
the prayer ends on a note of certainty the How Long will come because God will act according to his Steadfast Love.
Knowing how God has shown us love and forgiveness in Christ, we know with certainty that God will also give us all things, as St. Paul says in Romans 8.
Psalm 12 enters into a war of words between the wicked who use their tongues for lying and deceit and between the Lord whose Word and Promises are Truth.
God’s Word can be trusted as a Word that is solid and refined completely. And we know that Word to be incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ!
An island surrounded by a storm has to suffer the buffets of wind and waves. The shelters on it are threatened by being consumed. What should those who live on it do?
Psalm 11 takes this imagery with the ideas of the wicked besieging the city. Will they stay or flee?
Ultimately the righteous put their trust and hope in God who is able to see and deliver them and who sits secure in the heavens.
Using imagery and words that hearken back to Sodom and Gomorrah, the righteous trust in God’s vindication.
Jesus, who is the true example of this, becomes the image of the righteous upon the cross, suffering the cup of God’s wrath so that we might have refuge in Him.
Psalm 10:12-18 wraps up much of what both Psalm 9 &10 introduced.
the Psalmist who is afflicted cries to God, but this time with certainty. While evil and wicked people continue to plot and cause trouble, God takes notice and will call to account on the last day. God will defend the afflicted, who are identified as his People, and will save them. In the meantime, he strengthens their heart.
Psalm 10 picks up where Psalm 9 left off. Where Psalm 9 portrays a confident assertion of God’s help and aid for the weak, Psalm 10 wails and moans that God often seems distant and absent now.
The verses that we consider today and gird ourselves with present the image of the tyrant who is confident in his arrogance. We see into his heart which acts as if there is no God and takes it out on God and men.
Hinted throughout our verses is that while it seems that God is high and far away that God’s judgment will work itself out and that the weak and humble need to wait for his action.
Psalm 9:13-20 picks up from the confidence that God hears the cries of the distressed to that of someone who is distressed and afflicted crying out.
The voice of the Psalm cries out for a deliverance from death to life and for the hope that God is above all the powers of the enemy and that his reign is sure and certain while the powers of man are but frail and fleeting.
The Psalm ends with a cry for God to rise and see the record straight and to remind his creatures that they are just that: limited and finite.
Psalm 9 is often connected with Psalm 10 as a single psalm that is broken up into two Psalms.
Psalm 9 praises God with their whole being, and we see this reflected in the fact that the Psalm uses many different voices and tones to reflect God’s salvation.
The Psalm begins with a bedrock of confidence in God’s action and the end result of evil and wickedness. This allows the space then for a lament in the back half of the Psalm where the cry for God to act takes shape.
Psalm 8 is a Psalm of praise to God for both his creation, and as we shall explore, his salvation through the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.
Psalm 8 holds together a tension, that God glory and power make us feel insignificant and small, and we wonder how he can even give a thought to us. At the same time, we are made in God’s image and made underneath him and given as lords of the creation that he has made.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 7 is a complaint made to God to show forth his justice and to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked.
the image given is of a Hunter and Hunted. With words that make all of us blush, we pray to God to vindicate us according to our righteousness and if we have sinned at all to cause us to die.
These words and prayers are of course the words of Jesus Christ who gives us these words to pray because he has made us righteous and not because we are. The image of Jesus on the cross is what we should take in mind as we read this Psalm. It is there that God makes a final judgment and saves us who take refuge in him.
Psalm 7 is a complaint made to God to show forth his justice and to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked.
the image given is of a Hunter and Hunted. With words that make all of us blush, we pray to God to vindicate us according to our righteousness and if we have sinned at all to cause us to die.
These words and prayers are of course the words of Jesus Christ who gives us these words to pray because he has made us righteous and not because we are. The image of Jesus on the cross is what we should take in mind as we read this Psalm. It is there that God makes a final judgment and saves us who take refuge in him.
Psalm 6 is the first of the penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). These psalms are characterized by the Psalmist crying out to God because the severity of their sin and the fear they have of God’s judgment. They also have moments of God’s mercy and grace with powerful images and moments that are tethered to the cross of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 6 moves us through this terror we experience before God and the comfort and confidence that also comes to us because of the certainty of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 5 is set within the context of worship. Who can stand before God and who cannot and why.
The Psalm alternates between speaking toward God and lamenting about the adversaries, even using language that we are not comfortable often using with God.
Before God we stand because of His righteousness and His steadfast love. We are blessed by his works and made a delight pleasing because Jesus Christ entered into the holy places of God his Father.
Psalm 4 is a Psalm for the end of the day. A day full of conflict with enemies. The Pslamist turns to God and will not let anger and sin overtake him. He knows that God will protect him from the taints and mocks of those who turn his honor to shame, that God will create a space for him in a tight spot and that God will bless him with all that is needed for this life.
Psalm 3 introduces us to David and the fight of faith that he and we are thrown into from the moment we wake up in the morning.
We also see how our God is at work on our lives to deliver us. Through it all, we see Jesus Christ our Lord, though surrounded by his enemies on the cross, is delivered by His Father.
Psalm 2 continues what Psalm 1 began to do: introducing us to the main character of the Psalm. In our Psalm today we see that the Blessed Man is also the Messiah, the King, and the Son of God. And through Jesus, God sets his King on his Holy Hill in the sight of all nations.
Today we cover Psalm 1, a Psalm rich with imagery of God’s Word and the Garden of Eden.
Welcome to the Podcast Belt of Truth where we dig into the Scriptures to seek Christ in them!