Seeing Jesus in the Psalms

  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...

 Psalm 67 This is one of the most evangelical Psalms I’ve read so far. Short and powerful, the message of who God is is expanded to all the earth, to the whole world, to all nations, to people everywhere. If you ever wondered about what God was thinking and doing in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament, you can be assured that He was always interested in reaching the whole world. May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. Psalm 67:2 Just so we are all clear, this has never not been the task. It has always been the goal of God’s people to make God's power known to all people everywhere throughout the whole earth. It has never been okay to just ignore the others, to be only focused on those in the circle of God’s current family. Jesus showed us this is for everyone. Jesus took it to Samaria. Paul took this message to the ends of the earth. And it has always been God’s plan to have missionaries, ambassadors, representatives and i...

  Psalm 48 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV If you want to skip right to the thoughts from Psalm 48 click here or scroll down to the end of this section. I have some very simple exegetical guidelines that I use when reading the Bible and trying to make sense of it. (Don’t worry I have not forgotten Psalm 48 but I feel like I need to set some guidelines before I offer my interpretation of this Psalm.) It’s all about Jesus. ( And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27) Whenever I read the Bible I know it is about Jesus and so I look for Jesus. Of course there will be contextual, historical and thematic truths that will need to be understood as well but they are tools to make my way to Jesus. It’s not all about me. It is easy to try to apply everything to myself and try to make my...

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.  Psalm 29:4 NLT   Psalm 29 This morning after copying Psalm 29 out of the New Living Translation I took the time to read the chapter from each of the following bible versions and  to read the accompanying notes or alternative texts. I recommend you consider doing the same sometimes when studying a particular passage.  Herziene Statenvertaling NBG-vertaling 1951 BasisBijbel English Standard Version The Passion Translation Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling King James Version The Message Douay-Rheims Challoner Revision 1752 Darby's Translation 1890 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition New American Standard Bible 1995 La Bible du Semeur Segond 21 MAIN POINT: The mere voice of the Lord is awesome with indescribable power that gives His children strength and peace. God’s voice is worthy of honour All powers, including angels, are invited to honour God. Even just the name of God is awesome and worthy of...