One reason to love the Psalms is that they serve as a fierce rejoinder to the trendy spirituality of our age. If we are honest, sometimes (whether through the influence of our wider culture or through the influence of other Christians), we . . . Continue reading →
During the height of Nazi ascendency in early twentieth-century Germany, when the Confessing Lutheran Church was becoming more and more oppressed by the regime, a young preacher gave a sermon on the 58th Psalm. Continue reading →
It is the practice of the congregation that I serve to gather together on Wednesday evenings for a fellowship meal, and what we do after supper truly thrills my soul. We sing consecutively through the Psalter—every word, every verse—and I have the . . . Continue reading →
This series has looked at Psalm 10 to draw out its teaching that God is near to his people even when we do not feel like he is. That point comes out through David’s twofold prayer. He first laments how the wicked . . . Continue reading →
As we saw in part one of this series, Psalm 10 is a lament about how God seems to be standing far off from his people even as the wicked succeed in their evil. While the psalm recounts how the wicked conduct . . . Continue reading →
When I was young and I asked to do something I really wanted to do, my dad had a line that drove me up the wall: “We’ll see.” It seemed like a “no,” but without outright saying it. It felt like the . . . Continue reading →
Last time in Psalms 14 and 53, we looked at the psalmist David in his struggle with the workers of evil and with corrupt and perverse people everywhere in his midst. The Lord of great fortune was with him and with the . . . Continue reading →
“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”1 Does this sound familiar? Perhaps you have found yourself guilty of saying something like this. This was the programmatic catchphrase of Stuart Smalley, a fictional character played by Al Franken on . . . Continue reading →
Psalm 9 is a lesson about why history matters. We can easily question why we need to learn our history. At least, the modern assumption is that only the present matters. Psalm 9 reorients God’s people to the importance the past has . . . Continue reading →
Looking to the past ought to have an encouraging place in the Christian life, especially if we apply that practice to how we pray. Psalm 9 models how we can find great hope for the present by recalling what God has previously . . . Continue reading →
Most history teachers at some point in their tenure face that deflating student question: Why does this matter? In other words, what use is it to study the past? Is it not the present that is the most important thing? Why should . . . Continue reading →
Having given this wonderful text of Psalm 6 an expositional and pastoral survey in our previous two articles, we return one last time for a third installment wherein we consider further implications and applications from this marvelous psalm. Inspired by the example . . . Continue reading →
Last time in part one of our Psalm 6 devotional, we asked whether or not the reality of sin really troubles us—not necessarily the sin we see in society, but sin in and of itself: the interruption, perversion, and warping of the . . . Continue reading →
How much does sin trouble us? I do not mean necessarily the sin we see in society. We are not thinking here specifically about the sexual revolution or the moral decay of our nation, though these are devastating. But rather, consider sin . . . Continue reading →
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” It is one of those lines we tell our children to help them deal with aspects of life that can hit hard. It is also one of those lies . . . Continue reading →
During the course of this year, some 64 countries across the world will be going to the polls to elect new governments. In South Africa, where I live, we have just had a momentous election wherein the African National Congress (ANC) lost . . . Continue reading →
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 →