327 results for author: Mark Hathaway

335 – Psalm 21 – Be Exalted

Psalm 21:11-13 (NKJV) 11 For they intended evil against You; They devised a plot which they are not able to perform. 12 Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces. 13 Be exalted, O [yhwh], in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power. We talked about verse eleven last time, but I’ve included it here to provide a bit of context. Of course, to truly keep what we are studying in context requires reading all thirteen verses. As a quick aside, I find the Psalms one of the easiest books to keep passages in context. The reason is, unlike other books of ...

334 – Psalm 21 – Enemies

We have six verses left to consider in Psalm twenty-one. In verses one through seven King David relates how YHWH has blessed him. He describes specifically how YHWH has answered his prayers. These few verses are an inside look into the relationship between YHWH and King David, then verse eight takes an interesting turn. David is no longer describing his relationship with YHWH—the focus of his narrative changes to how YHWH will deal with His enemies.  Psalm 21:8 (NKJV)             8       Your hand will find all Your enemies;     Your right hand will find those who hate You. There’s quite a bit of information to ...

333 – Psalm 21 – The Most High

I am a black-and-white thinker most of the time. There is little gray in my world. Let’s put it this way, it always surprises me when someone says they don’t have an opinion on a topic. I wonder, how can anyone “not have an opinion, they’re breathing aren’t they?” Even if my opinion isn’t a conclusion reached after considering the facts carefully, I still almost always have one. If I’ve had time to ponder the topic a passion for my opinion grows. The only problem with that is I’ll sometimes state my opinion as a hard fact with little consideration for how anyone else feels. I was reminded of that this morning in Sunday school. ...

332 – Psalm 22 – Life Giver

As I was preparing to write today I realized that In a real sense, it’s as if we are reading the personal diary of King David when we read the Psalms he authored. How do you think you would feel if you’d written out your prayers to YHWH God, expressing your failures, and deepest fears in a journal, and then God announced, “Give that to the chief musician so he can set it to music. I want the whole nation to sing your prayers to me as a form of worship.” Yes, David was a great King, but we must remember he was a man with his own sinful ways, shortcomings, and fears. You and I get to benefit regularly from his vulnerability when we study ...

330 – Psalm 21 – Relationship

We covered verses one and two of Psalm twenty-one last time, but I think we need to view them in the interest of context. I’d like to say let’s review, but the comments I want to make are new ones about these introductory verses. Psalm 21:1 (NKJV)            1       The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;     And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! In verse one David declares he will “have joy” in YHWH’s strength. He further declares he will “greatly rejoice” in YHWH’s salvation. The next several verses detail the evidence for why this ancient earthly king is so grateful to YHWH. ...

329 – Psalm 21 – An Introduction

There is every effort today to silence the Christian voice. Most people do not want to hear about God and His standards. They want to be left alone to do whatever they want to do. To be held accountable to God and His word is too restrictive and even oppressive. There is intense pressure to silence the church. Unfortunately, much of the church has buckled under the pressure and hasn’t much to say outside the four walls of the building. Unfortunately, the church of today has largely withdrawn its influence from society. The results are catastrophic.  For example, without the understanding that we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) ...

328 – Genesis 15 – What does YHWH say about it?

We’ve been working our way through the book of Psalms, but we need to take a momentary detour through Genesis chapter fifteen. I have deliberately not addressed current events in my devotional posts instead focusing strictly on the truths of the Bible. It’s always been my hope and belief that as people learn Biblical truth they will be equipped to make necessary adjustments in their own lives (application). There is however so much confusion about the current war in Israel I would feel derelict in my writing if we didn’t consult the word of God for clarity. I cannot do an exhaustive study on the subject, but I want to at least make you aware ...

327 – Psalm 20 – May YHWH

Let’s spend some time in the nine verses of Psalm twenty. The title of the Psalm tells us David authored the Psalm. However, there’s a simple two-letter word that indicates David’s inspiration for putting pen to parchment here. The word is the word, “we”. This powerful little pronoun shows up three times in this Psalm. Two times in verse five and once in verse seven. Psalm 20:5 (LEB)      5 May we shout for joy over your victory,       and in the name of our God may we set up banners.       May Yahweh fulfill all your requests.  If you consider the previous four verses you will notice there is no indica...

326 – The Bible in Your Life

According to americanbible.org, “...the number of printed English translations and paraphrases of the Bible, whether complete or not, is about 900.” I have heard it stated and even said it myself, that Bible illiteracy is at an all-time high. I decided to look at some statistics. I took the following chart from: https://www.barna.com/research/sotb-2021/ The article on the web page referenced above is interesting and much more comprehensive than this article. I decided to include this chart because I think it encapsulates why people don’t know their Bibles. They simply aren’t spending enough time reading the Bible. This is a ...

325 – Psalm 18 – Fear

What happens in the human mind that causes us to minimize the intensity of specific passages of scripture? We can go through our “read-the-Bible-in-a-year” plans and hardly acknowledge passages where Yahweh God is fuming mad. You may even be resistant to the idea that God is ever “fuming mad”, to which I would simply respond, “Read your Bible and discover for yourself”. We often treat the Psalms as “comfort food” for our souls when we are down in the dumps, but what about the difficult passages like Psalm 18? Psalm 18:6-8 (LEB)      6 In my trouble I called on Yahweh,       and to my God I cried for help.  ...