“Storms help to make the sailors sturdy, and trials help to make Christians strong in faith.” —C.H. Spurgeon The first three lines of Psalm 29 are labeled Climacteric Parallelism. The idea is that the lines repeat, but at each step they move you towards a climax: “Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,” but what should […]
CHRIST, GOD’S ANOINTED (Ps 2:2). In his book, The Names and Titles of Christ, Francis Derk explains: Anointing in the OT symbolized the giving of the Holy Spirit and solemn consecration to the service of God. It was performed on the three offices of the theocracy: Prophet, Priest and King…In the fullest sense it was […]
“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord” (Ps 40:2-3). God is not […]
J. Oswald Sanders recounts the story of a believer who had tried every way to share the gospel with an elderly lady. He had used all the well-known gospel verses—John 3:16, Romans 10:9 and the like—but all to no avail. She just couldn’t get it. As he was preparing to visit her again, the Christian […]
“Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear;…Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.” —George Croly David declares himself to be one of those people Jesus described who had built their lives on the “Rock” (Ps 28:1; Mt 7:24-27). What a wonderful vantage place, especially when life’s storms hit us. But in this psalm David faces […]
CHRIST OUR MAN: “A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isa 32:2). H.J. Miles, in his poem, “What a Man!” says, When the blast’s o’erwhelming force […]
“Blessed of the Lord is his land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and the deep lying beneath, with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months, with the best things of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills,…and the favor of Him […]
We need to be up and doing: girding up the loins of our minds (1 Pet 1:13), stirring up our gifts (2 Tim 1:6), and offering up prayers and sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5). We should be stirring up one another (2 Pet 1:13), and building up one another (Jude 20), until we’re caught up to […]
The title gives us King David’s sentiments when he heard Jonathan and Saul had been slain by the Philistines on the slopes of Mount Gilboa. Saul sealed his own fate by his impetuous headlong plunge away from the Lord. Jonathan, on the other hand, had shown the nobility of a prince with God. But loyalty […]