Faithful and Righteous Psalm 71:1–24 My tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long. Psalm 71:24 To deal with the limitations of old age, David looks to the past to remind himself of God’s faithfulness and power. He looks to the future to remind himself of the work yet to be done….

Poor and Needy Psalm 70:1–5 But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! Psalm 70:5 The last verse of Psalm 70 is what I call the psalmist’s most basic belief or persuasion. It has two parts: (1) he is “poor and needy,” and (2) God is his “help and . . . deliverer.” The…

The Shining Face of God Psalm 67:1–7 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. Psalm 67:1 The language of this verse is drawn from the great Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6. The text says that God told Moses to have Aaron bless the people, saying,…

Singing Praise Psalm 61:1–8 So will I ever sing praises to your name. Psalm 61:8 David began this psalm feeling at “the end of the earth” (v. 2), far from God. But as he thought about God and prayed to him, he drew closer to God and grew in confidence until he ends actually expecting…

Lessons for Victory Psalm 60:1–12 With God we will gain the victory. Psalm 60:12 (NIV) What lessons is David learning as he reflects, first on his people’s defeat by Edom and second on the promises of God to give an eventual victory? It seems to me that there are two of them. 1. Only God…

Trust in God Psalm 56:1–13 In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. Psalm 56:4 There are two parts to David’s confidence: 1. Confidence in God. The first is that he is confident in God. He trusts God. Not man! Not circumstances! Not his own cunning, as useful as that seemed to have been…

Cast Your Cares on God Psalm 55:1–23 Cast your burden on the Lord. Psalm 55:22 This statement is the verse picked up by the apostle Peter and commended to us in the fifth chapter of his first epistle: “[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Peter was a great…

Cleansed by the Blood Psalm 51:1–19 Blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1 “Blot out” refers to removing writing from a book, perhaps removing an indictment. Here is an illustration. There are certain ancient Bible manuscripts called palimpsests. They are pieces of papyrus (or some other ancient book material) that at one time contained a different…

King of All the Earth Psalm 47:1–9 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. Psalm 47:2 From the very beginning God had said that he purposed to bless all nations and all peoples through Abraham and his descendants, particularly through his one great descendant, the…

Our Refuge Psalm 46:1–11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:11 (NIV) The conclusion and proper application of Psalm 46 is this statement in verse 11. Who is he, this God who is his people’s refuge? The answer is given in the two names of God in…