Psalm 51:10-12, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.’ This picture was a request from one of …
Psalm 139:18, ‘I awake, and I am still with you.’ In context, this verse speaks of the Lord’s faithfulness to preserve His people through the night and waken them to His presence in the morning. However, bearing in mind the double meaning Scripture assigns to the concept of ‘sleep’—i.e., both the sleep of physical rest, …
Psalm 46:2, ‘…though the earth gives way…’ In Psalm 46, we see that YHWH God Himself is the unshakable refuge for those who have fled to and hidden themselves in Him. To emphasize this point, the Psalmist employs catastrophic language about the earth itself being shattered, the mountains being hurled into the sea, or the …
Psalm 42:11, “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” How do we know that ‘we shall again praise Him’? How do we know that this darkness is going to lift? That we will rise again from this pit? That the hopelessness that has devoured days, months, years of …
Psalm 127:1, ‘Unless YHWH builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.’ And what is the ‘house’ that YHWH builds? Ultimately, it is the House of the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is The House built by the Lord on the cross and from the tomb, raised up from the ashes …
Psalm 27 Rather than a specific verse, this image attempts to visually exegete some of the central movements of the 27th Psalm. So, perhaps the best way to explain it is to walk through the elements of the image in the order that they appear in the Psalm. David begins by confessing that YHWH …
Psalm 102: 24-26, [v.24] ‘Oh my God,’ I say, ‘take me not away in the midst of my days—you whose years endure throughout all generations!’ [v.25] Of old you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. [v.26] They will perish, but you will remain… Heb. 1:10 cites …
Ps 89:9-10, ‘You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass…’ Here we find a poetic description of YHWH’s creation of the world, which may also be understood as a poetic recounting of the Exodus. How do we know this? First of all, the …
Ps 90:12, ‘…teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.’ Much of our culture is designed to prevent us from numbering our days, to prevent us from looking steadily at the absolute reality of our own mortality and the unshakable certainty of our own death. But this is …
Ps 83:16-18, ‘Fill their faces with shame, THAT they may seek your name, O YHWH. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, THAT they may know that you alone, whose name is YHWH, are the Most High over all the earth.’ Two points — First, there is a …
Psalm 80:10, “ I am YHWH your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. YHWH alone—as the God who raised His people out of slavery—will be the God of His people. A necessary implication of this is that He alone will be …
Ps 37:23-24, ‘The steps of a man are established by YHWH, when he delights in His way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for YHWH upholds his hand.’ Here we see an interesting dynamic of the Christian life: The saint is one who both will most certainly fall and who will never …
Today’s picture is divided into TWO PARTS in order to highlight two different perspectives on the ‘dark night’ of the Christian soul: Part 1 (the darker one) corresponds to Ps.22:1-2; Part 2 (the lighter one) corresponds to Ps.22:9-10. Picture 1: Ps. 22:1-2, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you …
Psalm 61:6-8, “Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! May he be enthroned forever before God…So will I ever sing praises to your name…” Notice that God’s prolonging of the king’s life and His enthronement of the king in His presence *results in* or *forms the ground of* the …
Psalm 65:3-4, “When iniquities prevail against me, you atone [ἱλάσκομαι/כָּפַר] for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” Notice the transition into verse 4, “Blessed is the one…” We move almost …
Psalm 45:13, “All glorious is the Princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the King…” Revelation 22:9-11, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb…the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God…” The Bridal …
Psalm 2:2,5-6 “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed…Then He will speak to them in His wrath…”As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” It’s voting day in the US, and let me start by saying …
Psalm 38:1-2, “O YHWH, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me…” Psalm 38:22, “Make hast to help me, O Lord, my salvation!” Notice two things from these verses in Psalm 38. First, in verses …
Ps 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” “Table” implies rest, rejoicing, supply, and—perhaps most important—fellowship, while “in the presence of my enemies” conjures images of threat, danger, tension, and enmity. It is not natural to set the experience of table fellowship and the immediate presence of enemies …
Ps 30:4-5, “Sing praises to YHWH, O you his saints, and give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may remain for the night, but rejoicing comes with the morning.” Notice that verse 5 supports verse 4, meaning that what …
