18:1-24- The first three verses
set the tone: Worship. What a great start to this Psalm. Our attention
is directed away from ourselves to the Lord: ‘my strength...my rock, my
fortress and my deliverer...my shield and the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold’(1-2). The great testimony of verse 3 - ‘I call upon the
Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies’- did
not come easily (4-5). The enemies of the Lord will be brought to
judgment (13-14). ‘The cord of death encompassed me...He delivered me
from my strong enemy...’(4-5,17-19) - Rejoice in the risen Christ
through whom we have the ‘victory’ over ‘the last enemy...death’(1
Corinthians 15:20,26,54). God is leading us into ‘a broad place’(19).
Step into the future with Him. Don’t hold back! ‘Let go and let God have
His wonderful way’.
18:25-50- ‘This God’ is ‘our God’. He
is ‘the Rock’. He is ‘my Rock’. No one can compare with the Lord our
God. He is the living God, the God of our salvation (30-31,46). In the
Lord, we have salvation: ‘You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty’. In our God, we have victory:
‘You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at
my feet’(27,39). Do you want to enjoy God’s blessing - His salvation and
His victory? God says, ‘Clothe yourselves with humility’. Together with
His command, we have God’s warning- ‘God opposes the proud’- and God’s promise-
He ‘gives grace to the humble’(1 Peter 5:5). There is a question which
each of us must answer: ‘Who is on the Lord’s side? There is an answer
which of us must give: ‘We are on the Lord’s side’(Church Hymnary, 479).
19:1-14-
God reveals Himself in creation and Scripture. He speaks through His
created world. He speaks through His written Word. God is always
speaking. He is never silent. Through His created world, God is speaking
to us - every day, every night. He is showing us His glory (1-2). He
makes us aware of His presence. He whets our appetite for His written
Word. The Scriptures lead us to Christ. Through faith in Him, we receive
salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). Christ is the high-point of God’s
revelation. He is the living Word (John 1:1,14). The testimony of the
Psalmist - ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul’(7) -
becomes real for us through faith in Christ - ‘I came to Jesus...My soul
revived and now I live in Him’(Church Hymnary, 212). Make it real. Come to Christ. Come alive in Him!
20:1-21:13-
‘We boast of the Name of the Lord our God...Through the steadfast love
of the Most High’ we ‘shall not be moved’(20:7;21:7). We do not trust in
things that ‘collapse and fall’. We build on ‘the Rock’(20:8; Matthew
7:24-27; Psalms 18:1-3; 62:5-7). We ‘rejoice’ in our God. He has made us
‘most blessed for ever’(21:1,6; Ephesians 1:3). Think of Jesus Christ
your Saviour. He is absolutely trustworthy. He is completely dependable.
His love is an ‘unfailing love’(21:7). In Him, there is salvation. In
Him, there is joy. With His strong and powerful love, He has saved us.
He has given us ‘a new song’ to sing, ‘a song of praise to our
God’(Psalm 40:1-3). Let us lift our hearts and voices to Him in praise
and worship: ‘Be exalted, O Lord, in Thy strength,! We will sing and
praise Thy power’(13).
22:1-18- Read of the Psalmist’s
sufferings. Think of the Saviour, suffering for you (7-8,18; Matthew
27:39,43,35). We highlight two statements: ‘My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?’, ‘They have pierced my hands and my feet’(1,16). Jesus
Christ was ‘crucified and killed by the hands of the lawless men’(Acts
2:23). There is, however, more to His story than this: ‘The Lord has
laid all our sins on Him’(Isaiah 53:6). When we read of Jesus Christ,
‘pierced for our transgressions’, we see Him ‘pierced’ by men and
forsaken by God (Isaiah 53:5; Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34; Matthew
27:46). Looking on to Jesus Christ, risen, exalted and returning, we see
Him still bearing the marks of His suffering - ‘the mark of the nails’,
‘a Lamb standing as though it had been slain’, ‘pierced’(John 20:25;
Revelation 5:6; 1:7).
22:19-23:4- Jesus Christ has ‘tasted
death for everyone’(Hebrews 2:9). Now, through Him, salvation is
proclaimed to ‘the congregation’, to ‘the ends of the earth’ to ‘future
generations’(22,27,30). Jesus Christ, ‘the same yesterday, today and for
ever’, proclaims salvation to the great ‘congregation’, drawn from
‘every tribe and language and people and nation’(Hebrews 13:8; 2:12;
Revelation 5:9). Jesus Christ has passed ‘through the valley of the
shadow of death’ for us (4). Now, we rejoice in Him, our Shepherd of
love - (a) the Good Shepherd who died for us (John 10:11); (b) the Great
Shepherd who was raised for us (Hebrews 13:20-21); (c) The Chief
Shepherd who is coming again for us (1 Peter 5:4). He restores us. He
keeps us from ’straying like sheep’. He leads us ‘in paths of
righteousness’(3; 1 Peter 2:25).
23:5-24:10- For God’s people, there is a glorious eternal destiny: ‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’(23:6). We ‘receive this blessing from the Lord,...the God of our salvation’(24:5). There is only one answer to the question, ‘Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?: Jesus Christ ‘shall stand in His holy place’. No one else has ‘clean hands and a pure heart’- no one else but Jesus. He is the One who receives ‘blessing’ from the Lord - and He gives it to us (3-5)! How do we receive His blessing? - We must open our hearts ‘that the King of glory may come in’(7,9). How can ‘the Lord, strong and mighty’ live in me? How can I receive His resurrection power? Jesus says, ‘I stand at the door and knock, if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in’(8; Ephesians 1:19-20; Revelation 3:20).
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