300 – Psalm 15 – Introduction
With Psalm fifteen being only five verses long one might think I could get through the whole thing in one devotional post. Maybe someone would grant me two articles, the first one for the introduction, and the second one to wrap everything up. I could probably gloss over detail and get it done, but I believe I would be shorting both the word of God and the reader. I make no attempt to be exhaustive in anything I write, but I would like to notice enough detail in the passages we review to hopefully make intelligent interpretive decisions. I also wish to “prime the ...
299 – Psalm 14 – Fool’s End
I am humored by the skeptic that believes the Bible to be a fraud perpetrated upon mankind. It is often seen as a book of lies gobbled up by weak-minded fools who forsake all reason and cling to unfounded blind faith in a God who clearly does not exist. Only the unscientific mind could believe anything the Bible has to say. In the raging battle of the Bible versus Science, it is hardly a contest! Science wins by a landslide! How ignorant the ancient and modern-day fools have become. To dismiss the Holy book while hardly cracking it open!
If the skeptic would spend a ...
298 – Psalm 14 – Fear YHWH
Psalm 14:2-4 (NKJV)
2 [YHWH] looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call on [YHWH]?
One of the biggest traps (there are ...
297 – Psalm 14 – Introduction
Psalm fourteen is another short but beautiful Psalm weighing in at just seven verses. It is packed with incredible detail that is easy to miss if we don’t approach it with a teachable attitude. What I mean by that is, often what we read in the Bible seems so obvious that we don’t spend the time to study the passage at hand. We carelessly reach conclusions about the text without effort to keep what we read in context. Because all of the words used are familiar to us we take no time to look up keywords in the original language lexicons.
With just a little effort ...
296 – Psalm 13 – What will you do?
In our trek through Psalm 13, we have only two verses to consider. If you look at my previous articles in Psalm 13 you will see I made a short list of observations and have been working through them. These observations are certainly not an exhaustive list but hopefully have helped us to slow down and notice some details we might have otherwise missed. Here’s the list of observations again.
The Psalm’s title informs us David intended this Psalm he wrote to be put to music and sung by Israel.
David uses God’s proper name three times in ...
295 – Psalm 13 – How long?
Last time I listed some observations I made in Psalm 13, we covered the first one. Let’s see how far down the list we make it this time, starting with the second and third observations.
The Psalm’s title informs us David intended this Psalm he wrote to be put to music and sung by Israel.
David uses God’s proper name three times in this six-verse Psalm.
There are five questions David asks of Yahweh God. All but one of them begins with the words “how long”. (verses 1-2).
David makes one request of Yahweh (verses 3-4). It has two ...
294 – Psalm 13 – Introduction
If I were to ask you if you noticed the picture I selected for this week's devotional post most of you would probably respond, “yep, it’s a rose!” without having to look at it again and you’d be correct. Maybe some of you would say, “it’s a flower”, which is still correct but not very specific. Would you remember what the picture is tomorrow, next week, or next month? if I asked you to describe it to me with as much detail as possible could you do that without taking another look at it? Could you describe it in great detail without studying it and maybe ...
293 – Psalm 12 – Yahweh speaks
In Psalm 12:1-4 David calls on Yahweh for help. He cites the fact that godly men have ceased. The men that have replaced the godly, have with clever speech, oppressed their neighbors. Interestingly, David records for us what Yahweh Elohim (God) has to say about it.
Psalm 12:5-8 (NKJV)
5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says [Yahweh];
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
6 The words of [Yahweh] are ...
292 – Psalm 12 – Intro
Psalm 12:1-4 (NKJV)
1 Help, [Yahweh], for the godly man ceases!
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3 May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud things,
4 Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
...
291 – Psalm 11 – coals of fire
There are just two verses we haven’t considered in Psalm eleven. Let’s take a look at Psalm 11:6-7. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it would be best if you would read all of Psalm eleven for context. There are only seven short verses.
I know I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating. There tends to be a modern-day concept that God was one way in the Old Testament but is entirely different in the New Testament and following. It is sometimes thought that God was harsh before Christ, but now that Christ walked on the earth as the ...
