Building on the Foundation

We have two Psalms left in this series, but that's not the end of our journey through the Psalms. We have another one hundred and forty two psalms to go once we finish with these first eight, and I fully intend to make it through them all by the time I finish. As I said in my first post on the Psalms, the Psalms are some of my favorite writings in the Bible. They are full of prophecy, poetry, pain, courage, worship, and love, with many of them being written by a man who God said was a man after His own heart. A man who loved God with everything he had and followed Him clear to the end because of that utter devotion. We are blessed that God preserved his writings for us today because there is much that we need to learn from them. I'm under no illusion that I am bringing you everything contained in these Psalms, but perhaps there will be one thing that you did not see before that is brought to light by my thoughts.  The seventh Psalm nicely corresponds to the first day of the Fea...

It's been a hot minute since I visited the Psalms, but other projects have consumed my time and attention, from the three-part study on the clean and unclean laws to my upcoming history and study of feminism and communism. There's only so much time to study and write, so some projects get more attention than others. I'm quite excited about the upcoming post about feminism, and I learned a lot while doing the research for it and writing it, so I think it will at least be thought-provoking and hopefully educational. Stay tuned for that one. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on Psalm 6! Slash! The blood gushed out of the gaping gash in the neck of the massive bull and gurgled as it splashed sparkling red into the golden bowl. The giant bull's head slumped to the ground and the priest rose to his feet. He turned toward the door of the tent, took a deep breath, and prepared to enter, a thick rope dragging along behind him.  Atonement for sin used to be quite a compl...

It’s easy to forget where our protection and salvation come from, especially in this day and age of seeking out human leaders to come and save us. The election cycle is all about pointing out the evils of the other party while ignoring their own and trying to convince the people that they are the only ones who can save them. It works, too. People become polarized and they are confident that their candidate is the only good one who could possibly lead the country well. Unfortunately, they are all evil. God sets up kings and tears them down according to His purpose for them, but that doesn’t make them righteous or even good. They are unrighteous and immoral men, so why do Christians seek to have them rule over them?  There is a story in the first book of Samuel that we should carefully consider before choosing a candidate this year. The first king of Israel was about to be selected, and God picked a man to please the people. He was tall, good-looking, humble, and an excellent warrior...

Today, we are into the fourth Psalm. The third Psalm tied in very nicely with the last day of Unleavened Bread, and the fourth one, as we shall discover, ties in very well with Pentecost. David was a man after God’s own heart, and these Psalms come out of that devotion to God. They are inspired works of scripture, beautiful poetry, and the prayers and songs of a man utterly devoted to God.  David had his women, very beautiful women at that, but his first and truest love was always his God. That is where his devotion and fulfillment came from, not from his wives, and I think there is a lesson in that for each and every one of us, men or women. We have a spot within us that can only be filled by a relationship with God, and all too often, we try to fill that empty place with our relationship with the opposite sex. Our relationship with God takes priority over all other relationships, and it only exists in the first place because He chose us to be His first fruits.  Pentecost com...

As we prepare to get into the third Psalm, I would like to revisit the first two briefly and introduce something that just jumped out at me as I was reading the third Psalm. David is a type of Christ, and His writings heavily point to God and His plan for us. As I read through the third Psalm, it seemed very connected to the first two, so I was going to group them together, but then I read further. It’s not just the first three that seem like they go together; it’s the first eight.  Then I kept reading, and what I seem to have stumbled onto is a series of eight groups that lay out the plan God has for us, His people, in poetic form! Naturally, I am super excited to share what I have learned with all of you, so I would like to introduce the first series here and briefly revisit it from the first two Psalms. I hope it gives extra meaning to the Psalms for you as it has for me! The first series, which contains the first eight Psalms, is a mini overview of the overall series and it als...