Please read Psalm 20 (9 verses)

May the Lord Jesus answer us when we call to him in our time of trouble. This is one of the themes in this Psalm. Some people trust in the things of this life and the supports this world offers but the Christian remembers the name of the Lord and trusts in that name. Consequently the Christian stands upright but those who trust in the wrong things are bowed down and fallen.

The Psalm begins with a kind of spoken blessing. The psalmist lists many ways in which the Lord bless us and helps us in our times of need. The Lord will answer us in our day of trouble. The name of the Lord will defend us and He will send help from His sanctuary. The Lord does not forget the sacrifices that we make for his sake and He will accept our sacrifices when He remembers our faithfulness to Him. The writer asks that our heart desire will be filled and that the purpose of our life will come to pass.

The greatest blessing that the Christian has is to be able to rejoice in their salvation. To have the full assurance of faith that you belong to God and that you are upheld by him is the greatest blessing of all. Because of this we can set up banners in the name of our God and we can ask him for anything and our petitions will be fulfilled. Assurance of faith is the one single blessing that gives us strength to face the day and hope for tomorrow. The enemy knows this and will do anything to undermine our faith and render us useless to God or other people. We resist him in the power of the Spirit.

The strength of the Christian comes straight from the Lord their God who dwells in the heavenly city of Zion. This is the eternal destiny of the people of God and we have so much to rejoice about both in this life and in the one to come. The final plea is that the Lord will save. We pray for those we love who are outside the kingdom and ask that they will find the Lord Jesus to be their king and that He will answer them when they call to Him.

Please read Psalm 19 (14 verses)

There is no excuse for unbelief. The heavens and the whole created order of our planet, solar system and universe cry out to the majesty and power of the Lord, the Creator. We see it in the smallest of particles and the sheer care and beauty of it all shouts out the reality of the Lord our Maker. Every day the inanimate and animate world preaches out the glory of the Lord and the careful and loving hands that made it all. It is a powerful witness to every nation and tongue and runs through all the world. 

Yet greater is the revealed Word of the Lord. His laws and statutes are forever sure and show us the intricacies of His beauty and perfections. They make us wise to God and change our heart and mind or be like His perfect character. They are sweet to the believer and the rewards for keeping them are sheer delight. To fear God and honour His Word makes us truly clean. We have it in our hands and the value of what we possess is often downplayed as we fail to recognise its worth. The psalmist is not one of these people, but considers the Word of God to be peerless beyond correction. 

The psalmist is conscious now of his inner faults and sins and asks the Lord to cleanse him and make his behaviour blameless. He wishes to be innocent of that great transgression – the unbelief that infest the human heart and keeps him from God and the enjoyment of Him. The writer asks that his heart and words be acceptable to the Lord who is his strength and Redeemer. This is the prayer of the believing heart, that we might praise Him and delight in His name. 

Please read Psalm 18 (50 verses)

The psalmist has a personal faith in God and assigns Him honour by calling Him “my strength; my rock; my fortress; my deliverer; my shield; my salvation; my stronghold.” He knows he has been saved from his enemies, specifically king Saul, by the mighty hand of the Lord. Death and hell have surrounded him but he has cried out to the Lord and the Lord has heard him. The Lord has honoured His servant by upholding him and making him victorious through all the ravages of the enemy and the difficulties of his situation. 

The majesty of the Lord of seen in His judgments. His anger is kindled at the treatment of His servant. This Psalm is also indicative of the treatment of Christ when He was sentenced and put to death on a cross for the sins of the world. Christ has overcome the enemy against His people and has triumphed over sin and death for their sake. The Lord has delivered His servant and brought Him into a safe place. The Lord has delivered Him because of His righteous life and has shown Himself merciful to the merciful one. The Lord gives strength to overcome and is a shield to everyone who trusts in Him. Christ has trusted in the Father and has been the ultimate obedient servant and is now the Saviour King. He has been faithful unto death and is now the conqueror. 

God also makes His servant high and has exalted Him and the gracious work of God has made Him great. The victorious Saviour has put all enemies under His feet and has beaten them as fine as the dust of the earth. The Lord has exalted Him high above all, for the sake of His righteousness and to make Him a mighty Saviour to His people and the judge to whom all will one day submit.

David sees and writes the parallels in his own life in this psalm, but we know by the exalted language that David is talking about his great descendant, the promised one who would sit on his throne forever. This Sovereign Saviour is mighty to save all who are struggling and draw them out of the deep waters and save them. As David has been shown mercy, so also the eternal Son is shown mercy in His suffering and lifted high to be the deliverer and Saviour of His people. 

Please read Psalm 17 (15 verses)

The Lord has sorely tested the writer of this Psalm and has found nothing of blame or for him to be held accountable for. The Psalmist is not self-righteous for his character has been refined in the fires of opposition and violence against his person. God has seen fit to show him many and great troubles which have purified his motives and all aspects of his inner life. He has become a righteous person because of what God has done in his life.

The psalmist calls on the Lord with confidence because he knows the Lord is full of lovingkindness and loves to be trusted. He asks the Lord to keep him “as the apple of your eye” and to hide him “under the shadow of Your wings.” The Lord is our refuge in all the trouble and oppositions of life and will sustain us and make us strong and resilient like the psalmist.

He describes his enemies and likens them to a young lion lurking in secret places waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. The writer asks God to cast the enemy to the ground and to deliver him with the Word of His mouth. It is the power of God that delivers His people and will protect them.

The wicked have only the things of this life to satisfy them and leave all they value to those who come after, which is described in the Scripture as futility. They are completely earth bound and only have the glory of physical provision, which they think they have got for themselves. They leave it all behind and enter eternity destitute. 

The psalmist has the Lord and is fully satisfied with the fact that when he awakens from death, he will see the face of God and be like Him. 

Please read Psalm 16 (11 verses)

The full confidence of the psalmist is in the Lord his God. He knows that God will keep him safe because he has taken refuge in the Lord and found Him to be faithful. In fact, there is no comparison between the Lord and any other help. There is no good person or thing apart from the Lord. The writer takes delight in other people like himself who delight in the Lord and who are faithful to the Lord also. Those who run after other support will be sadly disappointed. 

The Lord has done everything for the writer of this Psalm. The Lord has become his salvation and his portion in this world and the next. The Lord has become his very life and the Lord makes his way in life secure. He recognises that he has a pleasant inheritance which is kept for him in the future time. All the ways of his present life have been pleasant and the Lord has delivered him for all his oppression and adversaries. 

Day and night the psalmist find himself delighting and praising and worshipping the Lord for all He has done and as he does so, the Lord instructs and councils him in every right path. He receives a right perspective on his life, when he is praising God. The psalmists eyes are on the Lord and he is transfixed by His beauty and wisdom, which is the mainstay of his life. He knows he cannot be shaken for the Lord is in control. 

His mind and souls and body rest secure in the Lord and the Lord will not leave him to the destitution that other people face because of their unbelief. He speaks also here, as the voice of Christ, and the fact that He will one day rise again victorious over decay and death. The path of life is open to us because of the resurrection of Jesus. He has opened the path for us to walk down in confidence and hope and we are filled with joy, knowing that the eternal pleasures are at our right hand. 

Please read Psalm 15 (5 verses)

The psalmist ask a question about the kind of person who will be able to live in heaven with God. After the truths set out in the previous Psalm, we can see that no one is worthy to take that place, nor are we morally able to survive in that holy environment. Yet there will be an innumerable multitude there in heaven. There must be some change in the character of these people to make them fit to be there with God.

What are the hallmarks of these changed people?

These people have true and honest hearts that are true with themselves and face their unrighteousness and deal with it, making them people who do righteous works and say righteous words. They guard their words very carefully and do not backbit other people or gossip about them behind their back, building up a false profile that scapegoats someone to divert blame. They do not join in when other people are being regaled or say inconstant things about their friends. They keep their own council and bring matters of concern to the Lord.

The righteous person does not honour a vile person and despises the character that lives a life of iniquity, against the Lord. They keep their word and are slow to make promises and take oaths that they cannot keep. The heart of this person has been changed to hate violence and any form of hurt toward other people. They give freely and do not extort money out of those who have little, nor do they take money as a bribe to divert justice away from the right decisions. These people who please God love justice and will ensure that it is done so that the innocent go free and the guilty are punished. Their life is one of sincerity and honesty and they face their difficulties with a true heart that seeks the will of God and the protection of His people.

God says that whoever is like this will not be moved from their good position before Him. It is easy to see that none of us are like this without the changing power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must seek the forgiveness of God and the new life that He offers that allows us to have worthy lives. Our character has been changed to be like Christ. Only then can we be sincere in our love for others and seek to obey the Lord in our daily life. It is the Lord who make us fit to live in that holy place and to live holy lives while still here in this world.

Please read Psalm 14 (7 verses)

God does not mince words. He is clear and honest with us about what He is like and what He expects. Those who are fools do not believe in Him and even go so far as to say there is no God. This is a position of desperation to get rid of all authority and the accountability that goes with it. It is a mindset of corruption and total moral failure. There is no hiding place from the Lord and all who think they can explain Him away are utterly foolish.

God looks at us as a race of beings and is disappointed at what He sees. We are all corrupt and there is no one who leads a pure and godly life in their natural state. All our works and thoughts are contaminated be the evil that dogs our psyche and we are all “workers of iniquity.” We do not call on the Lord even when we are afraid and see we are in danger and need, but try to find another source of comfort or else make up a “god” that suits us. We deal with the prospect of punishment by pretending that God is does not exist and we can do as we please.

Those who we perceive as being less than us we disparage and try to take advantage of for our own ends. We persuade people that they need what we have got and exploit them to prosper ourselves. Our motivations are purely selfish and our action self-seeking. The poor in spirit cry out under the oppression of the rich and influential.

This is not a pretty picture of humanity and goes against how we see ourselves. Our complaint is that God is being unfair and far too judgemental. We fail to admit our guilt before Him and therefore miss the salvation He offers to us. The psalmist longs for this salvation because He has faced His own deep iniquity and has humbled himself and found the Lord to be His refuge. He realises His lost state before God and accepts what God is saying about His moral position and confesses His enslavement by the false thinking of his mind. The writer longs for the coming Saviour of the world, a Saviour from heaven who will be able to deal with the corruption and free all His people from their sin.

He rejoices in the Lord because he is now free from the folly of not accepting what God says and has turned from his unbelief and finds rest and peace with God.

Please read Psalm 13 (6 verses)

The psalmist is lonely, dejected and lacking in the assurance that the Lord thinks on him and loves him. He also asks questions of the Lord in such an open and honest way, that we know he loves God and is devastate about his doubt. His enemies are triumphing over him and exalting that they seem to have got the better of him. He is suffering depression because of this and is daily cast down about his circumstances.

He petitions the Lord to hear his prayer and to please think on him kindly. He asks for the insight to understand his situation because he feels his life to be near the grave and the end looms large before him. Is he contemplating that his depression will eventually take away his life? Is he concerned that his state of mind will tip over into suicide and the ignominy of that end?

The writer is concerned that the enemy will over come him, either the actual physical enemies that pursue him, or the enemy that infests his mind with trouble. It seems to be on both counts for he is concerned that others will rejoice when he falls into bad times. However, the singer of this prayer has set his heart on trusting in the Lord his God and he knows that sooner of later the tide of his mind will turn and he will be able to rejoice in the salvation that has been provided for him.

When our mind is cast down, we fail to rejoice in what our Saviour has done for us, and we lose our sense of assurance and faith. This is a painful state for the Christian, but it is not permanent and the psalmist has the insight to know this. He knows that he will sing to the Lord the song of the redeemed and the song of the delivered believer. He sets his heart on the Lord and puts his hope in his Saviour.