Praise the Lord! Psalm 9:1–20 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. Psalm 9:1 The tone of Psalm 9 is set by the first two verses, which declare David’s intention of praising God verbally, with words and in song, and with his whole heart. Here we need to apply David’s example…

In God’s Thoughts Psalm 8:1–9 What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:4 Psalm 8 begins with a celebration of the surpassing majesty of God, and this places men and women within a cosmic framework. It is a way of saying from…

God Our Shield Psalm 3:1–8 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. Psalm 3:3 The first stanza of Psalm 3 is an expression of the crisis that has come into the psalmist’s life because of the enemies who have risen up against him. The second…

The Right Path Psalm 1:1–6 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Psalm 1:1 When most people think of the results of upright or godly living, they think of rewards. That is, they think that if they do what God tells them to do, he will reward them, but…

Our Powerful Redeemer Job 19:23–27 I know that my Redeemer lives. Job 19:25 The word redeemer in Hebrew is goel. It refers to a relative who performs the office of a redeemer for his friend. We must visualize a situation such as this. A Hebrew has lost his inheritance through debt. He has mortgaged his…

Whom Do You Trust? Job 1:1–22 Have you not put a hedge around him? Job 1:10 God promises to shield the believer against Satan. A main point in Job’s situation is that God had placed a hedge around him. Satan could do nothing to him until God permitted the hedge to be lowered a little…

Sudden and Certain Justice Esther 7:3–10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Esther 7:10 Mordecai was a Jew who worked in the court of Xerxes, the king of Persia. Haman was a high official. Most people deferred to Haman, bowing to him almost as if he were the…

God’s Favor Esther 5:1–3 She won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Esther 5:2 Esther became King Xerxes’s queen after being taken from the home of her cousin and guardian, Mordecai, to live in Xerxes’s palace. A great enemy of the Jews named…

Under Covenant Nehemiah 9:3–10:29 Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing. Nehemiah 9:38 Things changed radically in Jerusalem under the governorship of Nehemiah and the pastoring of Ezra. The people had been spiritually dead. Now they revived, and the changes that came transformed their nation and culture permanently. What were the…

Getting Right Nehemiah 5:1–13 The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God? Nehemiah 5:9 We must ask of ourselves: What good is it to build great evangelical institutions, constructing walls against the “evil” of our opposing, secular world, if within the walls the…