Sermons on Psalms
In the second half of Psalm 101, David lays out the kind of leader that he aspires to become—a leader with integrity. Just like last week, we see in these verses, five issues of integrity that are important when it comes to life in general and in leadership more specifically. David had a front row…
After a psalm of praise (Psalm 100), we now have a psalm of practice (Psalm 101). Knowing and understanding God’s call on his life to be the king of God’s chosen people, David resolves to become a king that models himself after the One who has called him. Psalm 101 describes a man of integrity…
Last week, we started a short series studying through Isaiah 55. In this chapter, God is reminding His exiled people of who He is and what He promised to do for them. In those first six verses of Isaiah 55, we saw God’s invitation to have life more abundantly! Then the prophet explained the requirement…
The psalmist encourages us to give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love, compassion, goodness, lovingkindness, grace and mercy never ends (Psalm 107:1). After this encouragement to give thanks to the Lord, the psalmist mentions four different groups of people who are returning from exile. We looked at the first of these four groups a few weeks ago, but since I missed the past two weeks, we will be looking at the other three groups today. Just like we saw with the first group of returning exiles in Psalm 107, each of these groups find themselves in a difficult situation, then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and the Lord delivers them from their distress. Each time, the psalmist follows this up with these words: “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (Psalm 107:8).
We will be continuing our study from Psalm 107 today—focusing in on the concept of the Lord’s HESED to those who have been exiled from the Promised Land. The concept of restoration is a big part of Psalm 107. In this psalm, the author declares that the restoration is available through God’s HESED even to those in despair.
For the next six weeks, we will be studying through Psalm 107 with a particular focus on the steadfast love (HESED) of God. This Hebrew word is one of the most difficult words to translate because of the depth and breadth of its meaning. This Hebrew word carries the sense of an enduring connection that brings life and all good things into a relationship. In Psalm 107:1, HESED is translated thirteen different ways in English Bibles—love, favor, grace, mercy, kindness, goodness, loyal-love, compassion, benevolence, faithful-love, gracious-love, steadfast-love, and lovingkindness. HESED means all of those things and even more!
As we enter into this third week of our Advent studies, let’s pause for a moment to remember that advent refers to the coming of or arrival of the Messiah. While looking at the prophecies that foretold of His coming, we have seen several, overarching themes that have arisen. The first week, we talked about hope, and that hope is to be found in nothing other than Jesus Christ. The second week, we considered the concept of peace, and determined that only Jesus is able to provide us with real lasting peace. Today, we are going to focus our attention on the concept of joy.
The sermon series that we are starting today is a four-part series called “Anticipating Advent.” Today, we will be looking at the concept of HOPE as it relates to the prophesied arrival of the Christ child. Over the next three weeks, we will look at PEACE, JOY, and LOVE respectively. The Bible reading plan that I am inviting you to join will follow along with these same concepts.
After restoring the broken-down wall of Jerusalem, the restored exiles needed spiritual direction and renewal—they needed revival. In our study last week, we noted that this process of renewal begins with hearing and obeying the Word of God. In today’s study, we will focus on the role of confessing sin in the renewal process, as well as the attitudes that foster a repentant spirit and the product of confession.
Psalm 32 was written by King David sometime after his series of sinful acts dealing with Bathsheba and Uriah, her husband. The story was scandalous, but David thought he had hidden the truth from everyone. Hidden sin is never hidden from God, a lesson that David learned first-hand. Psalm 51 records David’s prayer of repentance for all the things that he did. Psalm 32 is its companion and stresses the blessings of God’s forgiveness and the suffering he experienced because of his stubbornness in acknowledging his sin.