The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; 10 they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law. 11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. (Psalm 78:9-11) The men of Ephraim—that is, the tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel—fall into grave idolatry. So completely do they abandon God’s covenant (verse 10) that God delivers them into the hands of Assyria. In contrast to the…
Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. 25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. 27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. 28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. (Psalm 69:24-28) When suffering severe injustice, David composed this psalm, which…
Note: This post, the third in our three-part series on Psalm 63, is a guest contribution from Kyle Bjerga. Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced. (Psalm 63:9-11) David had no…
Note: This is the second in a three-part series on Psalm 63. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6Â On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7Â Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 8Â I cling to you;Â your right hand upholds me. (Psalm 63:5-8) Hiding in the desert from…
Note: This is the first in a three-part series on Psalm 63. A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.1 You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will…
In this long post, we’ll walk through Psalm 37 in light of the global coronavirus crisis. David’s prayer, in very different circumstances, offers us much in the way of insight, strategy, and hope. Â Do Not Fret Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and…
Psalm 42 is one of my favorite psalms, as the psalmist takes his troubled soul in hand and marches it toward newfound hope in God: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (verse 5). Some years ago I preached on praying ourselves into hope through this psalm. In these troubled times, it may be worth listening to again (or for the first time).…
As I mentioned in my last post, I’d like to offer a series of short reflections on worship, spurred in part by two interesting posts by Tim Challies (1 2). I don’t intend this to be a polemical series, but do want to offer some thoughts on the ongoing “worship wars.” Thankfully these have stilled for the most part, but I’m not always sure why the ceasefire. In many cases, I don’t think it has…
In the short essay “After Ten Years,” which serves as prologue now to Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes an astute observation: It is one of the most surprising experiences, but at the same time one of the most incontrovertible, that evil—often in a surprisingly short time—proves its own folly and defeats its own object. That does not mean that punishment follows hard on the heels of every action; but it does…
When trouble hits, as it inevitably does, the human heart instinctively cries out in prayer. (To the best of my knowledge, no other species exhibits this tendency.) A majority of people the world over pray regularly, even daily; remarkably, this number includes a large percentage of those who profess not to believe in God. Theologians would attribute this to our sensus divinitatis : our innate sense of the divine (cf. Romans 1:20), or our “incurable…