The book of Psalms concludes the way all things will conclude – with noisy, joyful praise. Psalm 150: “Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the […]
There’s a saying: “Most people only look up when they’re flat on their backs.” It’s proved in the bible time and again. And this phrase “at their wits’ end” is a perfect description for where people find Jesus. Or rather, where He finds them. “Wits’ end” is quite a creative translation from the AV. If […]
Psalm 103 gives us a sobering contrast between the life of man and the love of God. One is extremely fragile and short-lived, the other is eternal and unchanging: “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is […]
The way we think about it, careers, businesses and sports teams go from “strength to strength.” And usually they go from “strength to strength” because of hard work and perseverence. But in Psalm 84 both those assumptions are challenged. First of all, it is God’s people who go from “strength to strength.” (Psalm 84:7) Now […]
Your days are numbered. That is a sobering thought. You have a finite number of heart-beats left. When you’ve reached your allotted tally there will be no more. To put it starkly, we are in the queue for the crematorium. It may be a long queue, but it’s getting shorter all the time. Queen Elizabeth […]
It’s a euphemism for death, but these days we rarely talk of people “biting the dust” – not in a final sense anyway. We might say that a plan or project has bitten the dust. But describing a person’s death as biting the dust seems the preserve of tough-talking cowboys. The exact wording – bite […]
The Hebrew language abounds in double entendres. We have already considered the multiple shades of meaning to the word “adam“. It refers to the historical person of Adam, to a man and to man (meaning humanity). The way the Bible thinks of things, what happens to the man Adam happens to all man. Or consider […]
For many it’s their favourite “King James” phrase. Yet, as far as I can tell, it was the Geneva Bible of 1587 that first gave us this wonderful wording: “My cup runneth over.” (Psalm 23:5) Here is the expectation of the Messiah as He faces “the valley of the shadow of death.” He will come […]
When his son Absalom briefly usurped his throne, David withdrew from Jerusalem. He crossed the Kidron valley, ascended the Mount of Olives and escaped to safety. “And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed […]
In between the Psalm of the cross (Psalm 22) and the Psalm of Christ’s ascension back to heaven (Psalm 24) we have the 23rd Psalm – a Psalm of resurrection. “1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. […]
