Psalm 39

Psalm 39:4

"LORD, make me to know my end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.

It's easy to lose perspective of our lives.  Many days seem to drag on forever.  Occasionally they flit by, and I wonder where it went.  However, from the perspective of the next day, they almost always seem to have flitted by.  And that's only measuring against one day out.  Years then seem to have vanished.  Eventually decades have disappeared.

Now, take that from God's perspective, just looking at all of creation's timeline.  We live maybe a century.  Just in recorded history, that's 1/6 of 1%.  We have no clue how far time will span on before the end of the Millenium.  But 0.16% is already a tiny amount.  That's the most we get to see of God's view, and only from our extremely limited perspective.  How much more is there that God knows, while we're just sitting here dumb and ignorant?

Psalm 38

Psalm 38:18

For I confess my iniquity;
I am full of anxiety because of my sin.

I've written before about the fear of God.  It's a fear of both respect, and concern.  God is the one in charge; we don't have anything we can do to change what He wants to happen.  He has everything, we have nothing.  But also, we know that, so we don't want to tick Him off.  He has the ability to punish us as severely as He sees fit.

Now, we know that He knows everything we do.  There's nothing we can hide from Him.  Yet, when we admit that we've messed up, we still feel the shame especially strong.  It's like when we were kids, and we had to come clean to dad.  Mom had already told Him what we did, but we still had to admit it.  That shameful, sick-to-your-stomach feeling is likely what David is expressing here.

Psalm 37

Psalm 37:39

But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;
He is their strength in time of trouble.

Man cannot do his own salvation.  He can't be good enough, or right enough, or pure enough, or strong enough.  He can't be smart enough, or humble enough.  No matter what we try, we will always come up short.  Only God can grant us salvation.

However, God can make us good enough for a situation.  He can make use strong enough to resist temptation.  He can make us smart enough to run when we need to.  He can make us humble enough to ask for His help.  He can even make us ask for others' help, when needed.  He could force us to do all this, but doesn't.  We have to choose it, or else it wouldn't matter, because it wouldn't be our choice to come to Him.

Psalm 36

Psalm 36:1

Transgression speaks tot he ungodly within his heart;
There is no fear of God before his eyes.

Fear can be a useful tool.  It can prevent us from doing something we shouldn't because of the possible consequences.  Those consequences can be natural, like burning your hand on a hot stove.  They can also be directed, like your parents spanking you for disobeying them.

God can punish us, too.  He can discipline us when we sin.  The purpose of this discipline is to teach us to not do the same thing again.  However, we don't always listen.  Maybe we think our punishment was man-made, or just random, since we can't see God directly doing the punishing.  Maybe we think we won't get caught again.  Maybe we just don't care, because we think the benefits are worth the risk of punishment.  But whichever it is, we do not have a proper fear of God.

Psalm 35

Psalm 35:18

I will give You thanks in the great congregation;
I will praise You among a mighty throng.

This man is not like me.  In a group, I prefer to keep quiet.  I don't want to bring attention to myself.  Even if I have something to say, I prefer not to jump in, wait to see if someone else had the same thought.  But David here is not like that.  He is going to stand and make the whole congregation know what God has done for him.

And he is right to do so.  God has done something significant, and he is giving credit where credit is due.  He has been delivered not by his own work, but through God's intervention.  Even in the places where I know God has directly come in, It tend not to say much about it.  David does the exact opposite.  I need to learn to be more like David, and announce when God has done something for me.

Psalm 34

Psalm 34:3

O magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

I always saw this as just a call to worship.  But reading it today, it means something different to me.  Maybe because it's a Sunday, this other meaning has clicked.  But it's not just a call to worship, it's a call to worship together.  It's a call to communal worship.

Worshiping with others is often significantly different from worshiping alone.  Together, we worship in different ways than normally alone.  Most people don't sing alone much.  Most don't lift their hands when alone.  Most feel something more personal, more intimate when alone.  Together, we are bringing our commonalities together, and use them to focus our praise to God.  Our differences get set aside, so that we can do the thing we're supposed to always do, together.

Psalm 33

Psalm 33:8

Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

We have every reason to be in awe of what God has done.  The evidence presented to us that He created the earth is knows as general revelation.  In this, we are to understand how impossible it is for the universe to have been created naturally.  First, everything has to come from somewhere, unless something supernatural exists to start thing off.  The mathematics show how ridiculously improbable it is that this all came into existence naturally, given how narrow the tolerances are for everything to fall apart.

Therefore, we know what power God has.  We know that He set things up in this delicate balance.  Through Scripture, we also know why He did it, so that we could be here and come to know Him.  He has all the power, which is why we should be in awe, and more than a little fear, of Him.

Psalm 32

Psalm 32:1

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!

This is a very simple statement, yet very powerful.  This could be the foreword to the entire New Testament.  This is an excellent summation of the reason many put their faith in Christ.  He took the penalty we could not pay, and extended its benefit to us.

Because of that sacrifice, our sins our covered.  Our transgressions are forgiven.  God can once again look upon us with joy, because we are not acceptable.  Christ has taken the transgressions and sins upon himself, so that we don't have to.  He has given us the opportunity to truly know God once again, for the first time since Eden.  How blessed we are because of that.

Psalm 31

Psalm 31:7

I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness,
Because You have seen my affliction;
You have known the troubles of my soul,

God knows.  He knows everything.  He knows everything about everything.  He knows everything about you.  All those things you don't like about yourself, all those things you know you shouldn't do.  All those things you do anyway.  All those things you do unintentionally, but still feel guilty about.  God knows them all.

God has every reason to condemn us for our sins.  And yet, He doesn't immediately.  He has every right to burn you to a crisp, or erase you from history altogether.  He has every reason necessary to wipe out the entire universe.  By the way, He doesn't need a reason, He could do it regardless.  And yet, here we sit.  We should bask in His love and kindness, and be reverently grateful, because we certainly don't deserve them.

Psalm 30

Psalm 30:12

That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

David had been mourning, and God had given him some sort of relief.  From what's said earlier in the chapter, I think maybe it was that David had been stubborn and not obeying God's directions.  God therefore withdrew from him and David felt the absence and despaired.

He cried to God, and He revealed Himself again.  Therefore, David is praising God.  He is thankful that he was not destroyed when God was not supporting him.  He now is so grateful, he wants to praise Him for the rest of his life, and afterwards.  He does not want to be silent anymore.

Psalm 29

Psalm 29:4

The voice of the LORD is powerful,
The voice of the LORD is majestic.

Let's see, how can you describe God?  Lots of ways.  You can talk about His qualities, His power, His omniscience, His purity.  Anything that is good, you can multiple to infinity to describe God.  But how do you describe just His voice?

In this verse there are two descriptors used.  The first is power.  His voice alone can break mountains, cause earthquakes, and bring the world to heel.  Much of the rest of the chapter describes its power.  But it's also majestic.  Is it fitting for majesty, for a ruler.  It has its own beauty, its own dignity.  I don't really know what that means, besides that it is amazing to behold.

Psalm 28

Psalm 28:8

The LORD is their strength,
And He is a saving defense to His anointed.

I chose this verse, over several others in the chapter that say very similar things, because of the focus.  Many of the other verses in this chapter talk about the righteous one calling out to God, and being protected by Him.  I realize that that was how it generally worked in the Old Testament times, but those times are not today.

Instead, with Christ's coming, the old rules don't quite apply the same way.  God doesn't always save those who call upon Him.  Sometimes, they still fall, or fail.  Some would say that it's because their faith wasn't great enough.  Some would say it's all part of God's plan, and we can't know how those failures will work for His future glory.  But I think that, while not discounting those answers, this verse gives a different perspective.  God will do as He chooses, and He does the anointing.  If He chooses someone, He will supply the strength they need when they need it (that doesn't necessarily mean that He will give that strength when we think we need it).

Psalm 27

Psalm 27:11

Teach me Your way, O LORD,
And lead me in a level path
Because of my foes.

If you want to know what is right, you need a source.  You obviously don't know what's right and what isn't, or you wouldn't be asking.  However, your choices will only be as good as the origin of your decision-making.  If you choose the wrong source for your reasoning, the end result will be flawed.

God will lead us in a level path, if we let Him.  That much is obvious.  However, what does that last line mean?  Is it asking God to lead him levelly, because his foes are trying to mess the path up?  Or is it saying that he want to know how to go levelly, by using his foes appropriately?  If he comes across a dip in the path, and can cause his foes to fall into that dip and step over them, the path stays level.  But this sounds odd (though, of course, not outside God's ability), so which is it (if either)?

Psalm 26

Psalms 26:8

O LORD, I love the habitation of Your house
And the place where Your glory dwells.

What house is David referring to here?  At this point in time, the Temple hasn't been built yet, so there is no actual house for God.  Is this some reference to David's palace, since he wasn't allowed to build the Temple?  Did he consider that God's house?

Or was he referring to the Tabernacle as a house, even though it wasn't a permanent building?  He denigrates it as a tent, when he wanted to build the Temple.  But it is where God's glory dwells, so it would fit.  Or maybe it was the house related to wherever the Ark was at the time?  It doesn't say when David wrote this, so I can't be sure.  It might even have been written in anticipation of the Temple's construction.

Psalm 25

Psalm 25:8

Good and upright is the LORD;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.

I like the simplicity of this verse.  By definition, good is what is in God's character.  Therefore, in everything He is good and upright.  He is the source of all things good, and nothing that goes against Him can possibly be good.

If sinners (i.e., all who have ever done anything God would not) are to learn how to do good (i.e., be like God), they have to learn on their own, or be taught.  In order to learn themselves, they would have to have a way to observe God, which is impossible because He is incorporeal.  Therefore, God has to teach them, either directly, or by leaving something that they can learn through.  Simple, right?

Psalm 24

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the LORD's, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it.

This is one of the base statements of belief in God.  The first thing that must be true, if God exists, is that He created everything.  If it was not created by God, then it had to come from somewhere/something else.  That would mean that there is something outside of God, which leads to one of two possibilities.

First, it could be that there is another god out there, which would raise the possibility that there is a struggle between them.  That means they don't always agree, which means there is no absolute right or wrong.  The second possibility is that something created God, which also created us.  If that's true, then it means that we're worshiping the wrong person, and should be worshiping the true creator of everything.  Either way, this verse has to be true, or we've made a terrible mistake.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23:1

The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not want.

What does a shepherd do?  He guides the flock, for starters.  He knows where the food is, and how to get from here to there.  He knows when it's time to move on, and when to let the flock stop and rest.  He watches out for the flock, and protects it from predators.

God does all these things.  He knows what we need (not want, but need), and when we need it.  He knows how to get us from here to there, if we'll obey his instructions.  He knows when we need to change, and when we need to rest.  We are very good at finding trouble, but God will not let it become overpowering.  The only thing that can keep us from contentment is ourselves.  We may not have what we want, but we will have what we need, according to His plan.

Psalm 22

Psalm 22:27

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.

The people of the earth are many and varied, more so than ever before.  Many do not recognize the existence of any supernatural, much less a single deity.  Those who do accept a deity, do not believe that it is a specific one known as Jehovah or Yahweh.  This prediction has never come true.

However, that does not mean that it never will.  Revelations tells us of a time when Christ will come back, and physically take command of the earth.  At that point, everyone on the planet will know that He is God.  They may not like it, they may not think it's the whole story, but they will know the truth.  Those who do not accept it will face the worst consequences possible, but those who do will see delights beyond their greatest imaginations.

Psalm 21

Psalm 21:11

Though they intended evil against You
And devised a plot,
They will not succeed.

Many try to hurt God in some way.  Some do it be going directly against His plans, damaging the church or believers or good works.  Others do it unintentionally, by not believing that He exists, or just think that He doesn't care about us.  Others simply ignore Him, and do what they want to do.

However, none of these can succeed.  We cannot hurt the indestructible.  We can't harm the flawless.  We can't damage the definition of perfection.  He sets the standards by which everything is judged.  We can make Him regret our choices, but that's all.  No damage we can do will cause evil to Him in any way.