Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 3

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 3 


This is one of those Psalms which start out Down and end up Up, if you know what I mean.

This Psalm seems to fall into 4 parts:

V. 1-2
So much Opposition
So many not believing in God.

V. 3-4
God is there to protect
God is there to be our glory
God is there to lift up our heads
God is there to answer us in our cry of need

V. 5-6
God gives us rest
God keeps us in the midst of opposition


V. 7-8
God is able to defeat the enemy
God is the real deliverer

3 times in this Psalm we have the word Selah.

Selah is not just there to be dismissed,
it is there to make us

stop and ponder 

because it is advising us to pause and think carefully about what has been said.

Most notably it is there at the end after verse 8.




God's Blessing is upon His people!

Starts with a Tone of Despondency
Because of the people who do not believe in God and are against David.


Goes on to the knowledge David has of Who God is
God is the giver of hope, confidence, lifting from depression; the protector and carer for our needs and the one who is due all glory but also can restore David's glory as King.

Then the recognition of the peace & rest available in God
David does not need to fear because he knows to leave it to God who is caring for him through it all.


Ending in the Jubilant Proclamation of what our God can do!
A Call for deliverance because David knows God is the real deliverer and He provides the Blessing.

God's Blessing is upon His People!

So let's be confident and remember to keep going through everything because God is with us, listening and answering our prayers.  He is protecting us, giving us peace, and He is able to take care of everything.


Then we will rejoice in His Deliverance and Blessing.    SELAH

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 34

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on  it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 34 


Another one of my favourites from when I was a teenager.

This Psalm falls into six parts:


V. 1-3
Exaltation of the Lord

V. 4-7
Testimony of Deliverance from fear & the enemy

V. 8-10
Encouraging people to seek the Lord for themselves

V. 11-14
Advice on how to come before God



V. 15-18
The Reaction of God towards the Righteous & the Unrighteous

V. 19-22
The Results of the Righteous & Unrighteous Life


To me the whole psalm is written because of the knowledge found in these verses 19 - 22

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

Exaltation
The Psalmist desires that everyone would worship the True God.
He starts by giving His Adoration but then comes to wanting everyone to experience what he has.


Testimony & Encouragement
He tells what God has done & encourages people to turn to God.


Advice
He gives basic advice on how to have the proper awe and reverence towards God.

God's Reaction
How God treats us as righteous in His sight when we have truly turned to trust Him, compared with how He must treat us if we do not.


Results
The hand of comfort, healing & protection is on us.
God will bring us through all the tribulation others will put on us.

Basic Good Advice to Start your Christian Life

Surely when all of this Psalm is understood and acknowledged then you and I can truly say with the Psalmist:

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 2

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 2

This Psalm falls into three parts:

V. 1-3
People and Nations in Opposition to God.


V. 4-9
God sees all.
The Lord is on the Throne, He is in control.


V. 10-11
Warning to the rulers that if they do not serve God they will perish.

Overall Theme

No matter who thinks he is better than the Lord and God's people, he has to remember that Jesus is Lord and will do with them as He wills.

This Psalm encourages us to know that God is in supreme control.


People & nations may seem to be making the world a horrible place to live in 
but there will be an end to this.

The end will be GOOD for those who have trusted in God.

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 63

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on  it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 63 

This has long been one of my favourites and I remember learning a song based on verses 3 & 4 of this Psalm when I was a teenager.

While I was contemplating which Psalm I would put up for today's post I had a phone call from my son who is a Pastor in the Apostolic Church, UK.  He had rung to tell me that Pastor Hugh Mitchell had died this week.

During the past year we had all been very happy to hear that Pastor Mitchell had celebrated his 100th birthday and had been well enough to write a thank you letter to our church for the card we had sent him.


So why am I sharing this here?

Because it led me to choose Psalm 63 for today's post.

Pastor Hugh Mitchell was the writer of that song I mentioned above.

The song is entitled   "Thy Loving Kindness is Better than Life"

Looking at Psalm 63 v 1 - 8

This Psalm is about the Psalmist and his reaction to God:

V. 1-2
the Psalmist is seeking God earnestly
and he knows he has found God;
he has seen God's Power and Glory


V. 3-4
the Psalmist recognises the loving kindness of God
and how great it is;
his response is to praise, bless and adore God

V. 5-8
the Psalmist is joyful in his praise
which comes from fixing his attention on God;
recognizing God's help
and being secure in God's Hands.

There had to be a specific word used in this Psalm to express exactly what 

the Psalmist wanted to say


Lovingkindness

So great and special was the character of God that the Psalmist wanted to picture it for us.

Have you experienced God's Lovingkindness?

Do you think it is better than life?

Do you want to Bless God because of your relationship with Him?

Perhaps you know this simple but profound song

If you know this song or have heard of Hugh Mitchell then you might like to read this tribute to him.

UPDATE

Since writing this post my husband and I have recorded some videos of songs of bible Verses so I have included the one for Psalm 63 v 3 featured above.

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 1

On some Sundays I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today is appropriately looking at Psalm 1 for our first week of this series.


This is one of my favourite Psalms probably helped by the fact that there was a song based on it that we used to sing many years ago and that has helped me to learn some of the verses.

For me this Psalm falls into three parts:

V. 1-3
the man who is blessed


V. 4-5
the ungodly man


V. 6
the comparison of the end of the two men



The Man who is Blessed.
Firstly we know he is blessed because of what he does not do.
Secondly we know he is blessed by what he does.
Thirdly we see what the blessing will be like - good foundation, strength, fruitfulness, good life.

The Ungodly Man.
Firstly we know he is the opposite to the blessed man.
Secondly we know that his future is not good - not with God.

The End of the Two Men.
God respects and recognises the Blessed man.
The Ungodly man will perish.

There is no sugar coating - we are one or the other and it is not decided by man but by God.

Hence it should be God we are honouring in life and not trying to please man or be liberal or go with the times or be swayed by the majority or indeed be goaded into compromise by the minority.

And how do we know what is of God and what is not of God?
By delighting in God's Word and thinking on it all the time so we can use it as our guide & measuring rod.

It is important we know what the definition of the ungodly is 

but 

the one we need to focus on is the man who is blessed.

We need to avoid the pitfalls 

but 

most importantly 

we need to turn ourselves to the word of God.

Update:

My husband was preaching on this Psalm recently in church and around that time he put the words of it to music to help us all get the words into our minds and thoughts because we all know that singing is a great way of memorizing.

Below I've included a video we then recorded that will help anyone to sing along - this and other videos of worship songs can be found on his You Tube Channel  Apostolic Worship