Psalm 88 A lament – frankly, as lamentable as any lament that we have read. There’s not a shred of hope in any of what the psalmist writes. He calls out to God for help (vv. 1, 2, 9, 13), yet he blames God for his condition (vv. 6-8, 14-16). And unlike any other lament …
Author Archives: Fred
August 9 / Psalm 87
Psalm 87 To me there’s not a lot to reflect on in today’s psalm. The psalmist is extolling the glory of Jerusalem and Mount Zion, established/ordained by God Himself. The psalmist pays particular attention to the special “citizenship” of those who were born there – in contrast to those who were born in the other …
August 8 / Psalm 86
Psalm 86 All the nations You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. (v. 9) Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on …
August 7 / Psalm 85
Psalm 85 Today’s Psalm 85 looks to be a psalm of confession, although confession is only implied, not fully stated. And while the psalmist seems to be confessing for the whole nation, it would be a good exercise for us to look at the psalm as a model for individual confession. Here are those elements …
August 6 / Psalm 84
Psalm 84 I am not the Bible memory person that John would like for me/us to be, but there have been quite a few verses in my life for which I can call “chapter and verse”, mostly verbatim. Today’s reading has one of those, one of the earliest in my “list” that I can recall: …
August 5 / Psalm 83
Psalm 83 Where possible I like to put these psalms into their historical settings. Today’s Psalm 83 fits best with II Chronicles 20, where we see Moab, Ammon, and Edom (vv. 6-7) all gathered against Israel, with Assyria mentioned only as an ally (v. 8), not the powerful foe that destroyed the Northern Kingdom. Often …
August 4 / Psalm 82
Psalm 82 At first glance, this is quite confusing, especially depending on the translation you are using. Does verse 1 have “gods” or “rulers”? If “rulers”, we can imagine that the psalmist is speaking of either Israel’s leaders or the leaders in the surrounding nations. If “gods”, we can imagine God calling an assembly in …
August 3 / Psalm 81
Psalm 81 An unusual psalm… I don’t recall many (any?) psalms where we see a prophet, possibly a Levite, quoting the Lord as He speaks directly to His people (vv. 6-16). Carol and I were part of a church back in Northern Virginia where we would occasionally hear someone speak up in a prophetic voice …
August 2 / Psalm 80
Psalm 80 First, a few clarifications. We should have no problem following the vine metaphor that the psalmist uses in verses 8 to 16 – Israel being transplanted from Egypt to the Promised Land and taking control of that entire area during David’s and Solomon’s reigns. So within that metaphor, the sea refers to the …
August 1 / Psalm 79
Happy August, y’all!! August??!! Already?? Yeah… Psalm 79 The temple has been destroyed and Jerusalem is in ruins. The Israelites were taken into exile to Babylon in 587 BC; this psalm could very possibly have been written from Babylon during that exile. A couple of items to note. There are a number of verses in …