Seeing Jesus in the Psalms

  Psalm 136 “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!  His faithful love endures forever .” Psalms 136:1 NLT MAIN POINT: When we see the patient, just, enduringly merciful love of God in Christ Jesus the just judge and king, we will be thankful. Before I do any research into these words and what others say about the meaning here, I personally react to these words repeated over and over 26 times with these thoughts. His = Jesus, God, my Shepherd, righteous King Faithful = dependable, reliable, consistent Love = caring, giving, humble, generous, patient, forgiving, protecting, providing, guiding, disciplining relationship Endures = lasts, survives, overcomes, is unstoppable, long-suffering, tested Forever = eternal, infinite, no beginning and no end, endless, always, timelessly I’ll first compare several English translations and then look at the Dutch and French translations to see if I can gain more definite insights into this refrain. One of the notable translations, the ...

Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. Psalm 25:5 NLT   Psalm 25 As I copied the Psalm today I had three impressions.  The first is grace. I was taken aback by how loving, gracious, forgiving and helpful God was in the eyes of David.  The second was that David was concerned about his sin. He talks about it a lot, and all of his sin: past youthful sin and present sin too.  Lastly I noticed a preoccupation with problems, enemies and depression (a negative perspective).  I am going to explore all three and see if I come out with a unified central theme. My first question is possibly obvious for you. If God is so gracious, so loving and so kind, why does David have such a concern for his sin? Further, if the rescuing presence of God is with him, why does David have all these problems all the time? This is a common cry of David and it persists throughout the Psalms. Isn’t David chosen? Isn’t he anointed? Hasn’t he been rescued and does...