Rev. Zachary Keele grew up on a ranch in a small town named Crawford, Colorado. He attended Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California. He has served as the pastor of Escondido OPC since 2006.
In the first installment on Psalm 25, we identified the agony for which the psalmist was praying for relief. The community around him shamed and ridiculed him as beyond the reach of forgiveness. Even his own memory tormented him that the sins . . . Continue reading →
Oh, to be a kid again! It is pretty safe to say that nearly everyone makes this wish at least once. You are full of adulting; the bills keep coming in, the diapers do not end; your body hurts for no discernible . . . Continue reading →
In our first piece on Psalm 24, we heard the acclamation of the Lord, creator of all, to whom everything belongs, and to whom all owe reverence and obedience. Then, by the righteous inquiries of the priest, the people swore their oath . . . Continue reading →
How do you greet a champion? What is a fitting celebration for the hero returning home? In the present season, we have seen several such festivities. DC adorned itself with pomp and galas for the inauguration. Columbus spilled into the streets for . . . Continue reading →
Life is littered with passages. These are the milestones and the ordeals that transition us from one stage to another. Waiting at the DMV for your driver’s test, sitting for the Bar, getting married, becoming a parent, retirement—these are just a few . . . Continue reading →
There come those times in life when you want to express your sincere thoughts and deep emotions to someone special: a birthday, a love letter, a major milestone. The words have to be just right, so what do you do? You can . . . Continue reading →
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, God save the King? Many of us think of some BBC show or a period piece on the British monarchy, as we know this cry entirely from history, literature, or entertainment. Indeed, it . . . Continue reading →
Within the bookstore of biblical studies, an alarming variety of works rest upon the shelves. Erudite tomes of philology and archeology, collections of sermons, thematic monographs, devotional series, and popular commentaries intermingle like diverse species in a rainforest. Arguably, each type has . . . Continue reading →
And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, Still first to fly where sensual joys invade; Unfit in these degenerate times of shame, To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame; 1 In general, it is accurate to notice that poetry has . . . Continue reading →
In the first section of this survey of Psalm 51, we were rocked by the foul stains of our sin. As sinners, conceived and born in iniquity, sin corrodes and tarnishes every last fiber of the inner person. Our hearts are rotten . . . Continue reading →
When it comes to laundry, some of you have probably become master stain removers. Clothes are not cheap, and stains are inevitable. If you have kids or a dropsy husband, you fight grassy knees, drips of coffee, blots of ink, and those . . . Continue reading →
As a father sitting beside a fireplace, David laid out fear of the Lord 101 for us. Those who obey the law are rewarded with long years loaded with good, while the wicked suffer dire days. Besides convicting us for falling short, . . . Continue reading →
A common human experience is to wonder what others are thinking. You are sitting there watching someone and you get this strong curiosity about what is going through their mind. We cannot read minds, which is probably a good thing, but we . . . Continue reading →
As we noted in part one, Psalm 110 can be divided in two parts: verses 1–3 and verses 4–7. Whereas the first half opens with a heavenly oracle, the second starts with an eternal oath of Yahweh. After listening to the oracle, . . . Continue reading →
If you survey the story of David, you must admit that his biography is quite exceptional. He is a remarkable figure. This is in part due to the fact that David is so diverse. He has moments of stunning integrity and days . . . 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 →
In an age of TikTok and Christian pop music, the Psalms can seem like a dusty relic in a poorly visited part of a museum. Sure, many modern choruses are snippets of Psalms or rough paraphrases of them, but their tunes and . . . Continue reading →