The Psalter is a multivalent book, giving us examples for how the godly respond to the whole spectrum of experiences that we face in the Christian life. This collection of songs contains praises, laments, thanksgivings, and so many other examples of how . . . Continue reading →
If you think back over your life, there are a few key life-shaping events—choices or happenings that set the trajectory of your life. They are forks in the road, where you decided to choose the right path over the left. But, every . . . Continue reading →
As we saw in the first stanza of Psalm 63, while kneeling upon rocks and fenced in by thistles, David locked the eyes of his heart upon the Lord’s steadfast love within the sanctuary. His hope grasped on his future reunion with . . . Continue reading →
A hot and dry land—this is something some of us are familiar with, especially if you live in Southern California with its multi-year drought. Thankfully, we still have enough water for our persons, but our lawns and gardens feel the lack. As . . . Continue reading →
But the peculiar gift of man is to sing knowing what he says. Further, the understanding ought to accompany the heart and affections, which cannot be unless we have the song imprinted in our memory, that we may be ever singing it. Continue reading →
The Psalms were written by many poets and at many different dates. Some, I believe, are allowed to go back to the reign of David; I think certain scholars allow that Psalm 18 (of which a slightly different version occurs in 1 . . . Continue reading →
Since we have given this wonderful Psalm an exegetical, expositional, and pastoral survey in our previous three installments, we return one last time for a fourth wherein we consider some further implications of this psalm. With great indebtedness to the pastoral insight . . . Continue reading →
As noted in our previous installments, Psalm 1 is a psalm appropriate for any season of life because we, as Christians, live in a world where sin seems normal and holiness seems weird, where wickedness is celebrated and wisdom is mocked. We . . . Continue reading →
As we noted in our previous installment, Psalm 1 is a psalm appropriate for any season of life. Why? Because you, Christian, live in a world where sin seems normal, and holiness seems weird. What your grandparents may have considered warped and . . . Continue reading →
Psalm 1 is one of those passages that folks like to preach at the beginning of a new calendar year or ponder at the outset of a significant new season in life. Indeed, this psalm is particularly dear to my family. For . . . Continue reading →
King Jesus would know silence in a way that David never could because he was not merely wounded and abandoned. He was murdered in the most brutal way the Romans knew. He was publicly humiliated and shamed, and then, they hoped, silenced by being placed in a tomb.
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In our day and age, the average Christian is more likely to know the lyrics to the latest chart-topper than they are to know the words of Psalm 23, and it is even less likely that they have ever sung the metrical . . . Continue reading →
The Modern church has earned a dubious distinction: we live in the most psalm-less period in the history of the church. A Quick History Of Psalmlessness We know that the Jews sang psalms. We know that our Lord sang psalms with his . . . Continue reading →
In the previous post, we considered how Psalm 8 highlights the greatness of God’s being in order to highlight the greatness of His grace and how a greater conception of grace inspires greater gratitude in the hearts and minds of God’s people. . . . Continue reading →
Source Resources Subscribe To The Heidelblog! The Heidelblog Resource Page Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions The Heidelberg Catechism Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008) Why I Am A Christian What Must A Christian Believe? Heidelblog Contributors Resources . . . Continue reading →
Mindfulness is everywhere. Recently, as I was waiting in the grocery store checkout line, my eyes happened upon a special edition of TIME magazine titled, “Mindfulness: Your Path to Health & Happiness.” On the cover sat a young woman in a yoga . . . Continue reading →
If you have been watching this space or listening to the Heidelcast, you will be aware that various contributors and friends of the Heidelblog have been paying some attention to the renewed interest in postmillennial eschatology and to its child, the theorecon . . . Continue reading →
The Encouraging Aftermath (Psalms 88-92) Throughout the previous articles on Psalm 88 we have considered how light can be found in the midst of darkness. Yet, in this concluding article, we will return to the well-known phrase of the Reformation, “after darkness . . . Continue reading →
The question has been raised as to just what the divines might have meant by the noun “psalms” in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648).1 WCF 21.5 says, 5. The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable . . . Continue reading →
Throughout the Psalter many questions are posed in a melancholy manner. In book three of the Psalter (Psalms 73–89), we find a plethora of laments in the interrogative form. Imagine approaching the Lord with the following questions: Why do You cast us . . . Continue reading →