Seeing Jesus in the Psalms

  Psalm 140 (read the Psalm) MAIN POINT: Jesus had enemies and so will you, but you can trust that in the presence of God you are safe from your enemies. Jesus talked about loving your enemies ( burning coals on people’s heads ) and people being thrown into fire. ( Matthew 3:12, 25:41, Mark 9:43-49, Luke 16:23-24, Revelation 14:10,  19:20, 20:10, 20:14-15, 21:8 ) And Jesus definitely had enemies. There were people trying to kill Jesus, and Satan wasn’t leaving any space for his rampage of kill, steal and destroy campaign to pass Jesus by. David has his share of enemies too. It should be no surprise to you that both Jesus and David were people often on the run, aware of the danger that lurked in every location and word of their enemies' presence. Jesus uses the words of verse 3 to describe the people whom everyone assumed should be closest to God.  Have you felt like evil people and evil forces are gunning for your soul? David understood that feeling and even more, Jesus...

  Psalm 134 A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. 1 Oh, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,     you who serve at night in the house of the Lord. 2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary,     and praise the Lord. 3 May the Lord, who made heaven and earth,     bless you from Jerusalem. Psalm 134 :1-3 Main Point: We are called to praise the Lord Jesus Christ, maker of heaven and earth, as pilgrims and servants as we enjoy His presence and travel to be with Him. I’m looking at the many, many places in the Bible that say that Jesus made heaven and earth. “God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.” John 1:3 NLT “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thr...

  Psalm 101 Main Point: Love for God motivates radical holiness.  Warning this may get long and deep with lots of scripture and a seesaw back and forth showing the struggle and attitude needed to truly be holy. Skip to the conclusion if you are faint of heart ;) As I look at Psalm 101 I ask myself two questions:  Is this Psalm prescriptive or descriptive?  And /or Is this meant to describe what David thought and did or does it point forward mostly to Jesus, because only Jesus could do this and only Jesus is worthy to do this? Just because someone in the Bible says they do something does not mean that God thinks that is a good idea. I could give examples where someone does something, even something that sounds “righteous,” but God is not suggesting that we do that. Examples of evil people giving wicked advice that is not there for us to emulate are easy enough to find and are good examples of where we need to be careful. Even here I assume some of you may disagree. I ...

  Psalm 68 Main Point : When you live with the presence of God you will see the power and strength of God among you. As I copied Psalm 68 today I had many ideas of what to share. It is a very rich 35 verses. And there are verses that easily thrill our souls and we want to share these because we want to say, Look, God is wonderful and He does lovely things (vv.5, 6, 19, 20). But then there are verses that are possibly harder to enjoy depending on your situation and mindset in life (vv.1, 10, 12, 21, 23) . The whole Psalm tells us the story of how God will live with His people . And that is the idea that Isaiah picks up on in  “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us').”  I saiah 7:14 NLT And thankfully Matthew makes it very clear that Isaiah was talking about Jesus. “All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his prop...