Seeing Jesus in the Psalms

  Psalm 97 “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” Psalm 97:10 Main Point: When Jesus is your king you have welcomed His expansive kingdom into every area of your life and you have hated evil. All the translations agree on this text. I’ve checked the English, Dutch, and French translations and they all say “hate evil” or a close equivalent. I think it means to treat it like an enemy, to remove it from your life, not to permit it to reside in your presence--and it is a command. We can see the chapter starts with the God King (who we know to be Jesus Christ) and that it is a response to His kingship. The actions that flow from the excitement and fact that the Lord God is king are what we are looking at here. Another way of looking at Psalm 97 is to say we recognise the rule of God, and the things that we see in the Psalm are the natural and right responses from a person who is happy to be ruled by God as King.  I want God to rule me. I want God to be my King. I know that Jesus is th...

  Psalms 94 (Have you read Psalm 94? If not, click the link above and first spend time listening to God’s Word.) Have you heard that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament? Don’t believe such nonsense.  Compare this encouragement from Paul to persecuted believers in Thessalonica and what was written in Psalm 94. 7 And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels,  8 in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus.  9 They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 NLT “O LORD, the God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!” Psalms 94:1 NLT Who is it that we are waiting for and calling out to in Psalm 94? Isn’t it clear from what Paul wr...

 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 63 MAIN POINT: God rules through His powerful, benevolent presence by establishing His kingdom of security and provision. If you are following my adventure through the Psalms then you probably have realised with me that the more traditional devotional psalm of quiet meditation, peaceful contemplation or restful jubilation are so far the exception and quite rare. Most of the psalms until now with a few notable exceptions have been desperate cries for help, vengeance and justice. And to be honest I think we need to correct our expectations a lot and recognise that life is pain, warfare and a struggle. And if we are determined to live for God, then we'll face roadblocks from our own selfish soul that doesn’t want to relinquish power, obstacles from friends and family who want to occupy the place in your heart where God must live and the ever present forces of darkness who are grasping to kill, steal and destroy everything of God’s that is good. That is probably why Psalm 63 is...

  Psalm 58 I’m starting this morning by comparing many many translations because the language and figures of speech are so interesting. I recommend you do that too. There are many ways to compare translations. You can have the books (Bibles) and open them and look at them, you can use the YouVersion Bible App on your phone and use the compare function in the app where you can add many versions from many languages and see verses in a scrollable list. Or you can use the website I’m using today to click through the versions, https://biblehub.com/esv/psalms/58.htm . I’ve dipped into the commentaries out of curiosity. As I suspected, the Hebrew here is very hard to translate and understand. Barnes Notes are particularly helpful (I'm not consulting that one alone, but don’t feel it is needed to mention every version or commentary that I am consulting) in pointing out the difficulties. I am not looking for answers, I’m looking for the agreed ideas that across the board are translated wit...