For more than a decade I have owned a blueberry field and nursery as the tentmaking part of bi-vocational ministry. Beginning with tender youngstock, meticulously kept and established, the planting has spread into a thriving fruit forest. The plants started with a . . . Continue reading →
My wife and I have moved quite a lot in our adult lives. We have done local and cross-country moves. We have met a lot of wonderful people along the way. Continue reading →
The gravers of images, all of them are desolate Their delights never profit. Their witnesses do not see They do not know so that they are shamed. . . . He grazes on ash, a heart is deceived, it leads him away. He cannot . . . Continue reading →
Not ours, YHWH, not ours For to your name, give glory. On account of your steadfast love and on account of your faithfulness. Why should the nations say “Where, now, is their God?” Our God is in the heavens, All that delights . . . Continue reading →
I have a few friends I have to call every now and then so they can put my backbone back in place. Courage is one of those finnicky things where, even if we have it, the perfect storm—or maybe even a weak . . . Continue reading →
In the first part of our exposition of Psalm 50, we considered what proper, or correct worship is—that is, worship offered according to the Word of God (Regulative Principle of Worship) and given with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. . . . Continue reading →
Imagine preparing for worship on the Lord’s Day, the most important day of the week—you get to church, find your seat, and you prepare yourself for divine worship. As the worship service begins, you listen to the call to worship and the . . . Continue reading →
Having given this wonderful text of Psalm 22 an expositional and pastoral survey in our previous three articles, we return one last time for a fourth installment wherein we consider further implications and applications. With great indebtedness to the pastoral insight and . . . Continue reading →
Along the way in our little devotional Saturday Psalm series, we have said that Psalm 22 can rightly be called “the Psalm of Calvary,” given how the Lord Jesus adopts the words of King David for himself, crying out as he hung . . . Continue reading →
As we noted last time, this psalm was written some three thousand years ago and some one thousand years before the life of Christ. According to Matthew 27:46, Jesus quotes a portion of these words as he is suffering and dying on . . . Continue reading →
Psalm 22 has been called “the Psalm of Calvary” or “the Good Friday Psalm,” for reasons which may be obvious and which I hope become more obvious by the end of this little devotional series. This psalm was written some three thousand . . . Continue reading →
One scholar has commented about Psalm 3 that while Scripture most often speaks to us, the Psalter speaks for us.1 It gives us the words we need as we cry out to God. It shows us what godly prayers look like so . . . Continue reading →
Suffering is unfortunately part of our experience in this age. Until Christ returns, not all things will be right. Perhaps most things will not be right. The stark reality of life under the rainbow is that we live with provisional blessing, always . . . Continue reading →
We can probably imagine how different the perspective might be between a photograph taken by an ant and a photograph taken from space. Imagine an ant who happened to have an ant-sized camera and happened to be riding on the back of . . . Continue reading →
As we have worked through Psalm 2, the question running throughout is: Who rules the world? Are the nations going to overthrow God? For those in the know, namely those paying attention to the message of Psalm 2, the answer is clear. . . . Continue reading →
There used to be a gameshow called American Gladiators in which amateur athletes competed in ridiculous tests of strength against professional “gladiators.” The culminating showdown was always a duel atop raised towers where the leading contestant faced down a gladiator, each wielding . . . Continue reading →
An old Scottish tune, Skye Boat Song, about Bonnie Prince Charlie begins, Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing. Onward, the sailors cry! Carry the lad that’s born to be King Over the sea to Skye. If you are not . . . Continue reading →
I remember being in a record store when I was younger (if you are of the younger stripe, a record store is like if your favorite streaming service was a building where music was for sale on discs that you took home . . . Continue reading →
Have you ever been called home? It may be after a long vacation or a business trip. Or maybe you are going home to spend the holidays with family after moving to the other side of the country. There is just something about home. Continue reading →
As we saw in Part 1, the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120–134) were songs the Israelite pilgrims sang on their way to Jerusalem for the annual feasts of Passover, Weeks, and Booths. These fifteen songs are in cycles of three, and Psalm 120 began the first cycle with the psalmist far from God, dwelling in the tents of warlike, deceitful pagans. Continue reading →