Psalm 41 - Be Gracious To Me, O Lord!

Most people have never noticed, but the book of the Bible we know of as "Psalms" is divided into five parts, or books. The division goes like this:

Book 1:  psalms 1-41
Book 2:  psalms 42-72
Book 3:  psalms 73-89
Book 4:  psalms 90-106
Book 5:  psalms 107-150

Psalm 41 completes the first book of the Psalms. It begins, like Psalm 1, with a 'blessed.'

Blessed is the one who considers the poor!

In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;

Looking at the First Book of the Psalms as a whole we realize that it can be looked at, at least in part, as a tutorial on how to live the 'blessed' life.

Blessed are those whose lives are saturated by the word of God. --Psalm 1:1-2

Blessed are all those who take refuge in God.--Psalm 2:12

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.--Psalm 32:1

Blessed are the chosen people of God--Psalm 33:12

Blessed are those who trust in God--Psalm 34:8

Blessed is the one who makes the LORD his trust--Psalm 40:4

And now blessed is the one who considers the poor.

But what does it mean to 'consider' the poor? It means to help them in their time of need and not to take advantage of them. Those who use their abundance to help others in time of need will find that they, too, will be helped by the Lord in their time of need.

In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;

Notice that the promise is not that days of trouble will never come. Rather the promise is that when the day of trouble comes the Lord will deliver him. Christians ought not be misers. Christians ought to be generous.

The old proverb says:

"There was a man, and some did count him mad,

The more he gave away the more he had."

But Psalm 41 is more than just a sermon on generosity. It is a prayer for God's grace. David is going through a time of trial and he is calling upon God to forgive his sin and heal his condition. Then, after pleading with God for grace he begins to expound upon the un-grace of those who around him. This un-grace builds and builds with each verse until it culminates in verse 9:

(9) Even my close friend in whom I trusted,

who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Although we cannot say for sure, it is likely that in these lines there is an allusion to Ahithophel, the close confidant of David who betrayed him in the rebellion of Absalom (2 Samuel 15-17). Ahithophel joined sides with Absalom and when the tide turned against Absalom, Ahithophel went out and hanged himself. What a picture that is of Judas and his betrayal of Jesus and how afterward he went out and hanged himself. Jesus himself pointed back to verse 9 in John 13 and called it a prophecy of that betrayal.

This was the last of my sermons from the book of Psalms for a good while. I will perhaps take up with Psalm 42 at a later date, but until then this is it. I hope you will take the time to click the link below and listen to the sermon found there. It was preached yesterday at the Winnsboro Reformed Church. I hope you will find it a blessing.


Click here:  Psalm 41 - Be Gracious To Me, O Lord!



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Psalm 40 - Glad News of Deliverance

Psalm 40 was a joy to prepare and preach because it is so full of Christ and the gospel. From beginning to end it is a song of deliverance. The psalm was fitting to be preached during this time of year--the Advent season--because that is what Christmas is all about. It is about our salvation. It is about our deliverance. And this psalm speaks of Christ's obedience to the Father and his taking on flesh to come give himself on the cross to deliver us. The psalm even points to the resurrection--and our resurrection in Christ, both spiritually and one day, physically.

Here is a short excerpt from the middle of the sermon:

"Have you ever thought about how patient God is? See him in his might and his majesty. I know that's not possible now, but try to imagine it. Here is this magnificent God, the all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe. See him as he delivers small, insignicant David. Why does he do it? Well, because he loves David. Let that sink in. But then contemplate this. Why does he love David? Because that's who he is.

Here we have a whole world of people created in the image of God who care nothing about him, know nothing about him, care nothing about seeking him. Why should he stoop to deliver David? Why should he stoop to deliver any of us? Especially in light of the fact, as we shall see, he is rescuing David from some trouble that David has gotten himself into by his own sin. But he does. And he stooped to deliver you. And he stooped to deliver me. And that is his plan.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the LORD.

And here we are faced with the cross again. Why do we make much of the cross? Why are we always talking about sin and forgiveness and death and resurrection? Because the cross is the centerpiece of God's glory. It is the work of redemption and it is the place where our redemption took place. When God delivered Christ from the cross by raising him from the dead he delivered us as well."

Psalm 40 reminds us that we are to make much of Christ and the gospel. I hope that you will. I hope that it will become the focus of your life. And if you don't know Christ and you haven't experienced his grace, may he turn your heart today toward him. O taste and see that the Lord is good!

(Below is the link to the sermon.)


Click here to listen:  Psalm 40 - Glad News of Deliverance


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Psalm 39 - A Complaint to God

Have you ever been angry with God? David is and Psalm 39 is the written record of his complaint to God. It is one of the darker of the psalms and it reminds us that life is sometimes very dark as well. About what is David angry? It appears as if David is angry over some rough chastisement he has received at the hand of God because of some sin that he has committed. See his complaint?

Remove your stroke from me;

I am spent by the hostility of your hand.

When you discipline a man

with rebukes for sin,

you consume like a moth what is dear to him;

surely all mankind is a mere breath.

Psalm 39:10-11 ESV

What David says here about the span of our lives is profound. We need to be reminded of it. God is eternal and our lives are very short indeed. While God is taking the long view, ours is but a very short horizon. God does eternal things, who are we to question what we are not even capable of comprehending? Look at verse 5:

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,

and my lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!

Charles Spurgeon wrote about this verse:

“Think of eternity, and an angel is as a newborn babe, the world a fresh blown bubble, the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity. Before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and a man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust.”

Think of the vanity and emptiness that sums up almost all human activity. We live our short, dramatic lives for what? At the end what is there to show for it? What is its purpose? Most lives are lived purposelessly.

Knowing this, knowing how weak and frail and insignificant we are apart from God, who are we to question him or become angry with him over anything? But David does. And oftentimes so do we.

Below is a link to an audio recording of the sermon I preached from Psalm 39. I hope you will take the time to click and listen. And I hope you will take inventory of your own life. What do you consider valuable? Are you okay with God being God?

Click here:
Psalm 39 - A Complaint to God



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Psalm 38 - Sin's Burden Lifted

Psalm 38 is a penitential psalm. These are psalms of repentance and were included in the liturgy of the Old Testament in order to teach God's people the importance of repentance in their lives and in their worship. As Christians we are a people who repent and believe habitually, as a matter of course, but also genuinely as God does his work of grace in us to rid us of sin.

In this psalm David describes what appears to be a physical illness from which he is suffering. There is disagreement about whether David is describing an actual physical malady or just using the metaphor of physical suffering to describe the distress he is enduring. Either way, David is miserable as his sin festers. Sin is like a cancer in the soul. It destroys. It brings us down. It ruins us. It makes us miserable.

And so we find it true of ourselves as Christians that we can never be happy in our sins, but that conscience and the word of God will make us miserable until such time as we turn to God for healing. Better to be made miserable by God who loves us and is using that misery to rid us of the cancer of sin than to just be made ruined and miserable by the sin itself, with no hope for a cure.

But repentance is not the only thing we find in this psalm. We also find Christ. When we read this psalm looking for him, placing it in his mouth, we see how wonderfully it fits there, pointing to the redemption, our redemption, which he purchased for us at Calvary.

1 Peter 3:18>>For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 

This is the sermon I preached from Psalm 38 at the Winnsboro Reformed Church. You will find the audio at the link below. Just click and it will open up a new browser in your window where you can stream the MP3 recording of the sermon. I hope you will listen and be blessed.

Click here: Psalm 38 - Sin's Burden Lifted

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Psalm 37:30-40 - Salvation is from the LORD

The wisdom of this world always falls short because it does not begin with the fear of God nor does it look at life from the perspective of eternity. We are not merely some species whom Chance evolved into being, wandering without purpose through life, destined only for nothingness. We are created in the image of God, by God, for the purpose of bringing glory to God. The purpose of this life is not ourselves, but God. The fact that we fail to understand this, or reject it, is Exhibit A of our fallen nature.

Ours is not a pragmatic religion. We aren't in this for what we can get out of it. If we truly believe in Christ then our hope is tied to something far beyond this world. If you're looking for something to help you achieve what you want out of life, then Christ is not for you. Jesus did not come to give us what we want or what we think is best for us. Jesus came to call us away from such foolish thinking. He made it clear that those who follow him must expect to lose their life--for his sake and for the kingdom. The irony and the beauty of this calling is that it is a calling back from ruin to eternal joy. Following Christ and finding our purpose in him is part and parcel of being restored, being made again into what God intended us to be. No human being will ever be satisfied with anything less.

When Jesus calls us to lose our life for his sake and the kingdom, he is really not calling us to lose anything at all, for there is no life in the pursuit of self, no joy, no satisfaction--only ruin. Life, joy, completeness, these can only come from Christ. True life, the life that leads to eternal life, only comes through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 37 teaches wisdom from the perspective of our pursuit of God by faith, our trusting him, and our living in the light of eternity. In this sermon I finished up our series in Psalm 37, the conclusion of which is that salvation is from the Lord. I hope that you will take the time to listen and be blessed. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.


Click here: Psalm 37:30-40


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Psalm 37:12-29 - The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted

Psalm 37 is a wisdom psalm. In the Hebrew it is divided into 22 stanzas, each one pertaining to one of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. For some reason this acrostic form was not carried over into our English translations, where we find the psalm divided into forty verses. Because of its length I divided the exposition of it into three sermons. I covered the first eleven verses in the first sermon. In this second sermon I covered verses 12-29--ten stanzas in the Hebrew.

The first part of this exposition deals with the hatred that the wicked have for the righteous.

(12) The wicked plots against the righteous

and gnashes his teeth at him,

Our theology, our truth claims as Christians, is offensive to the sinful world. The gospel itself is an offense. If we genuinely believe the gospel and seek to live the gospel we will be hated. Sound harsh?

Understand that I'm not talking about Christians behaving in purposely offensive and obnoxious ways. There are plenty who do that in the name of Christ. No, I'm talking about genuine Christian belief and practice. Ours is to love and to speak the truth--but to speak the truth in love. And to live the truth we profess to believe. If we do so there will always be opposition. This is the norm in the New Testament. If we have not experienced that in our short lives living in the western world it is because we are an anomaly.

The second theme this particular passage takes up is that of wealth.

(16) Better is the little that the righteous has

than the abundance of many wicked.

The Bible has much to say about wealth and to get a balanced view of it would take more time than I had to put into that sermon. But what will help us to understand this passage and passages like it is to know that David is addressing ill-gotten gains. He is speaking of wealth accumulated by oppression. He's not addressing wealth gained by virtues such as hard work and wise investment. Abraham was wealthy and godly. Job was wealthy and godly. Even David himself, the writer of these verses, was wealthy. Profit is the reward of virtue and that is a truth that has been neglected in our day.

To the contrary, we live in a society where class envy is abused for political advantage. Envy is as wicked as oppression and it is possible for the powerful to use envy and greed to their advantage and take advantage of the poor by inciting them to envy the wealthy. This is why the Bible teaches us contentment. As Christians we should not be motivated by envy or greed in any way, but rather the pursuit of righteousness and Christ's kingdom.

Whatever God gives us in terms of material wealth we are to be content with it and use it for the furtherance of the gospel. But never, if we should find ourselves in a position of not having much, should we be envious of unrighteousness wealth, nor should we ever succumb to the temptation to seek wealth in an unrighteous way. That is what is being addressed here.

There is more to this sermon than this, including allusions to Christ and the gospel. I hope you will take the time to listen to it and be blessed. The sermon is about 30 minutes in length and you can listen to it by clicking the link below. God bless.

Click here:  Psalm 37:12-29

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Psalm 37:1-11 - The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

Psalm 37 is a mini book of Proverbs within the Psalms. It reads like the book of Proverbs, but it is less encompassing. It is wisdom centered around a particular theme--that of comparing and contrasting the righteous with the wicked.

All biblical wisdom starts with the fear of God. Being wise, according to the Bible, is coming to terms with God as he is revealed in the word and ordering one's life accordingly. We begin by acknowledging God and fearing him, then everything else builds on that.

Psalm 37 begins by reminding us that although the wicked often prosper in the short-term, it is the righteous who will prevail in the long run, for God is on their side. We look around us and we see that nice guys often finish last. We see that unscrupulous people often prosper. We see that ungodliness is often great gain in this world. And we are tempted to be frustrated by that. We are tempted to be envious of those who wantonly violate God's laws and unabashedly live wicked lives and seem, from our vantage point, to be enjoying themselves immensely, while we pine away on the straight and narrow. "So long, suckers!" they say as they pass us by on their way to some Bible-forbidden enjoyment. But, David says,

Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

We need to keep eternity in our perspective. If this life were all there were, it would make sense to "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." But for the Christian this life is not all there is and the only life that makes any sense is the one lived with eternity and God'S promises in view. We don't have to fight for what is already promised us. We don't have to fret over people who are soon to be judged. We long for liberty and justice and rights and human welfare and a world without war and poverty and on and on and on. And none of these things can be brought about through the politics of Babylon. But all of these will be set in place by the King when he arrives. And he will be arriving soon. And that is when the meek, you and I, shall inherit the earth . . .

In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;

though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

But the meek shall inherit the land

and delight themselves in abundant peace.

At the link below you will find an audio recording of the sermon I preached from these first eleven verses of Psalm 37. Just click and a new window will open in your browser taking you to the page where this and other sermons are stored. I hope you will listen and be blessed.

Click here:  Psalm 37:1-11 - The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth


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Psalm 36 - God and Man Contrasted

Psalm 36 is instructional. It teaches us about ourselves, our human nature, and then contrasts our nature with God's nature. Then it concludes with a prayer. Thus David shows us that orthopraxy only comes from orthodoxy. Or, in other words, sound Christian conduct and practice--in this case prayer and worship--only comes from sound theology.

Our problem is a heart problem. It is a desire problem. We desire sin in our hearts. We desire our own way. We desire autonomy and independence from God. While truth may speak to our minds, as human beings our reaction is to push away the truth because in our hearts we desire transgression. We desire our own way. I'm speaking, of course, of human beings in our natural state.

There is no political solution to this problem. Law, for example, cannot change it. What law does is expose it and what the state or government does is help keep it in check. So laws are good, assuming those laws are just and right. But laws at best can only curb human behavior by threat of force. They cannot cure what is wrong with us. We human beings are wicked to the core and that wickedness is what is wrong with the world. We love transgression.

David phrases it this way:

Transgression speaks to the wicked

deep in his heart;

there is no fear of God

before his eyes.--Psalm 36:1

And so David goes on describing the character of man until we are left feeling helpless and hopeless. 

Then he begins the contrasting picture of the great character of God. In verses 6-9 he says:

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast you save, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house,

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light do we see light.

And it is in this latter portion of the psalm where we begin to see the cross. At the cross God's providential hand is seen working in a way we would never have thought. Israel's promised messiah came and was rejected? How does that make sense? And through that rejection comes the deliverance of all God's people.

Think of the story. God becomes man. Creator becomes creation and creation kills him. Through death comes an end to death. Through cursing comes an end to the curse. Through pain and suffering come an end to all pain and suffering.

At the cross God's righteousness and salvation meet and become one. It is at the cross where God is shown to be both righteous and merciful at the same time. And here's the beautiful thing. God becomes a refuge for all who run to him.

Below you will find a link to the sermon I preached from this psalm. The link takes you to SoundCloud where you will find an MP3 recording of that sermon and many more. I hope you will take the time to listen and be blessed.

Click here:  Psalm 36 - God and Man Contrasted

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Psalm 35 - Another Prayer for Victory

Psalm 20 was a prayer for victory prayed over the king before he went into battle. Psalm 35 is actually a prayer for victory, too--or rather three, for there are three distinct prayers within this psalm. So that's what I called it: A Prayer for Victory II, or Another Prayer for Victory.

Psalm 35 is more than just a prayer for victory, though. Psalm 35 is an imprecatory psalm where David calls on God to defeat his enemies. Rather than covering Psalm 35 verse by verse as I have most of the other psalms, I instead treated it more in a topical manner and talked a little about the nature of an imprecatory psalm, the difference between the Old Testament and the New, and what the nature of the Christian's warfare is.

Here is the outline I used:

I. An Imprecatory Psalm and What That Means.

 II. The Christian and His Enemies.

III. The Nature of Christian Warfare.

 IV. What Victory Means in Our Lives.

  V.  What the Psalm Teaches Us About Faith.

 VI. When Ultimate Victory Comes.

VII. Where Jesus is in the Psalm.

I think you will find the sermon informative and challenging to your daily Christian walk. I want to encourage you to click and listen. The link below will take you to SoundCloud where the audio file for this and all my sermons and bible studies are to be found. May God richly bless.

Click here: Psalm 35

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Psalm 34 - A Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving

Psalm 34 is another of the acrostic psalms. Each of the 22 verses pertains to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is likely that it was used as not only a psalm of worship within the liturgy of he Old Testament church but also as a teaching aid or aid to memorization for young Hebrew children growing up in the faith. The Rev. Charles Spurgeon divided the psalm into two parts. Verses 1-10 he saw as a hymn and verses 11-22 as a sermon. I liked that division and used it in my sermon from this chapter, a sermon that is linked below.

Here is an excerpt from the sermon:

(19) Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

"This is a most realistic picture of the Christian life. The righteous in this world suffer, but they have hope in the midst of suffering, because they have a redeemer who came and suffered for them and in suffering made an end of all suffering and guaranteed us a place in a world where suffering would be no more. Do you know sorrow? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Do you know pain? He knew it well. Do you know loss? He cried out to God, "why have you forsaken me?" He was afflicted that he might deliver us from all affliction.

(20) He keeps all his bones;

not one of them is broken.

No permanent hurt will ever afflict God's people. Here in these verses we see Christ, for John's gospel teaches us to do so. Verse twenty looks not only forward to Christ, but backwards to the Passover lamb which prefigured Christ--the lamb that was slain and consumed and according to the commands of God this was to be carefully done in a way so as not to break even one of the bones. That lamb and this verse point us forward to the lamb of God, whom John the Baptist said was to 'take away the sin of the world.'"

I hope you will take the time to listen to the sermon and that it will be a blessing to you. Just click he link below and it will take you to SoundCloud where you can stream the audio file. God bless you.

Psalm 34 - A Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving

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Psalm 33 - In Praise of God's Word and Power::

In the Bible the word of God is often used synonymously with God's decrees. In other words, what God says will happen will happen and, conversely, what happens is what God says will happen. We see this in the creation story of Genesis chapter 1. God speaks and the worlds come into existence. Psalm 33 echoes that creation account:

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,

and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Psalm 33:6

God's decree not only brought the worlds into existence, but the decree of God sustains their existence. God's sovereignty extends over all of creation, including the creatures made in his image.

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever,

the plans of his heart to all generations.

Psalm 33:10-11

In Psalm 33 David is praising God for his word and his power. In support of this praise he points out God's creating the worlds out of nothing, working his sovereign will over the nations, and choosing a people for himself.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

Psalm 33:12

Who these people are and what that heritage is I delve into in more detail in the sermon. I hope you will take the time to listen and think about what God was saying through David in this psalm. Some of my conclusions are quite challenging to the modern American church. I don't back away from controversy here. But what I speak I speak in love. The audio is linked below.

Click here: Psalm 33 - In Praise of God's Word and Power

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Psalm 32 - The State of Grace

I call this psalm "The State of Grace" because of the wonderful condition David describes in the first two verses.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

How is it that my sins are not counted against me? How can a just God not count our sins against us? And if he does not count them against, how does he remain just? He remains just by counting them against a substitute, himself, who stood in our place, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Charles Spurgeon said when commenting on this passage:

“Pardoning mercy is of all things in the world most to be prized, for it is the only and sure way to happiness. To hear from God’s own Spirit the words, “absolvo te” (I absolve you) is joy unspeakable. Blessedness is not in this case ascribed to the man who has been a diligent law keeper, for then it would never come to us, but rather to a lawbreaker, who by grace most rich and free has been forgiven. Self righteous Pharisees have no portion in this blessedness. Over the returning prodigal, the word of welcome is here pronounced, and the music and dancing begin'

This forgiveness comes at a price. That price was paid by Christ at the cross. This is what we mean by free grace.

But there is more to the story than that, and more to this psalm. Below is a link to the audio file recorded when I preached this sermon on October 2. Just click the link to listen to the sermon. May you know the blessedness of being forgiven.

Click here: Psalm 32 - The State of Grace


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Psalm 31 God Is a Rock and a Refuge (Part 1)

Psalm 31 divides neatly into two parts and so I split it neatly into two sermons. Reading it actually does make you think it could have been two complete psalms at one time. Regardless, the theme is a familiar one. David is in distress. He cries out to God. God delivers him. But there is much more to learn from the psalm than that. And, of course, Jesus is in the middle of it all.

Why is it important that we learn the Bible? Why is it important that we study theology? Does it matter how much we know about God? And what is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? What is its purpose? What is my purpose?

And what sort of commitment should I have to Christ?

A Christian is not someone who merely professes Jesus. A Christian is someone who is a follower of Jesus. There is a difference.

I hope you will take the time to listen to this short sermon taken from the first eight verses of Psalm 31. I enjoyed preaching it and I think it would be a blessing and a spiritual benefit to you. Just click the link below and Soli Deo Gloria.

Click here: Psalm 31 Part 1

Psalm 30 - Praise For Deliverance

Does God chasten his people? Does God discipline his children? We know he does, but we don't like to think about it. In Psalm 30 David has gone through a time of trial brought on by God's chastening hand. What he learns from this incident is important to us, not just as an encouragement when we are going through the same thing, but as an encouragement in every trial, no matter what kind it is.

God is a God who delivers his people. This is his glory. This is how he has chosen to be known. Part of that deliverance is accomplished in us in this life through his work of sanctification in us.

And that's what we want, isn't it? The peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives? To be more like Christ? That is what God is bringing about in our lives. You see, God is doing something in us. Something important. In a sense, God is preparing us for heaven even while we're still here on earth.

Are you going through a trial? Do the events of life have you wondering if God is for you or against you? Know this. If you are in Christ, God is for you. What he brings into your life is for your good, even when it hurts. Read these words of David.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

Take these words to heart. They are beautiful words intended only for those in Christ. If you are in Christ, and you are going through struggles, write these words down, meditate on them. Memorize them. Make them your own. While we live in this world where there is weeping, we await the world that is to come where God shall wipe away every tear. There will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, or, as David writes: weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. All trials are temporary. In Christ, our bliss will be eternal.

I hope you will take the time to listen to the sermon I preached from Psalm 30. Just click the link below and a new window will open in your browser that takes you to a page on Soundcloud where you can listen to the sermon. It's about 27 minutes in length. May God bless you as you do so. Soli Deo Gloria.

Click here: Psalm 30 - Praise For Deliverance

Psalm 29 - The Psalm of the Thunderstorm

I love this psalm. And I loved preaching this sermon.

This is the third of the nature psalms. The first one was Psalm 8 and as we read it we imagine a young David composing it as he sits beneath a magnificent desert night sky. The second was Psalm 19 and in it David describes the glories of the sun and compares it to God's revelation of himself in the word of God. And now this, that reads as if David wrote it while witnessing a great thunderstorm arise out over the Mediterranean Sea, watching it cross over the great cedar forest of Lebanon, and out into the wilderness of Kadesh where it drops its torrents of rain upon the dry land. David sees in this great storm something that inspires him to worship, and so should we.

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,

ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;

worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.

The description of the storm that follows this call to worship is so vivid that it inspires us to worship as well. Worship is the theme and as we watch the storm along with David we learn a few things about worship--the kind of worship that pleases God.

I hope you will take the time to listen to the sermon and that in listening you will be encouraged to offer the Lord the worship he demands, worship that is in spirit and in truth. Just click the link below and another window will open in your browser and take you to a page on Soundcloud where you will be able to stream an MP3 recording of the sermon I preached from this psalm. Soli Deo Gloria.

Click here: Psalm 29 - The Psalm of the Thunderstorm

Psalm 28 - A Psalm of Answered Prayer

Is God ever silent? Why does God sometimes seem not to hear us? David wonders the same thing.

To you, O LORD, I call;

my rock, be not deaf to me,

lest, if you be silent to me,

I become like those who go down to the pit.

To understand why sometimes God seems silent, we must remember that (1) God is doing something in us all the time, (2) God is doing something for us all the time, and (3) God is doing something in the world through us all the time.

Now, these three things are unchanging truths even when God is silent and we wonder what's going on. God has not forgotten us. God never forgets his people. He always hears them. He just does not always answer immediately, nor does he always give us what we want. This work that he is doing is more important than our immediate comfort. He does always give us what we need when we need it.

But there's much more in Psalm 28 than just that. The psalm also deals with the concepts of God's justice, judgment, and mercy and how we should deal with our enemies in the light of those things. What should the Christian response be to jihad, or ISIL, or ISIS, or Boko Haram? How should we pray? And what do we do, in the New Testament, with imprecatory prayers such as this that David prays in verse 4?

Give to them according to their work

and according to the evil of their deeds;

give to them according to the work of their hands;

render them their due reward.

Then we get into where the Church fits in God's program and in our lives and what this psalm has to say about that. And we always end with where Jesus is in the psalm, because that, after all, is the most important aspect.

I preached this sermon on Sunday, August 28, 2016 at the Winnsboro Reformed Church. I've included a link to the audio below. I hope it will be a blessing to you.


Click here: Psalm 28 Sermon

Psalm 27 - Living By Faith

Psalm 27 is a beautiful and instructive hymn about the life of faith. As Christians we are to live our lives Coram Deo, or before the face of God. What this psalm contains is practical advice on what that looks like, how the life of faith is lived out.

The hymn David writes is full of beautiful lines and stanzas. Verse 1, above is an example. There is also this about worship:

One thing have I asked of the LORD,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD

and to inquire in his temple.

David also addresses the trials and struggles of life. When they come will you stand, or will your faith waver? Does faith in God mean that he will always deliver us? What does that deliverance look like? All this and more is addressed in the psalm and in the sermon I preached from it.

I hope you will take the time and listen. Just click the link below and a new window will open in your browser where you will find an MP3 recording of the sermon. It was preached at the Winnsboro Reformed Church on Sunday, August 21, 2016. I hope it will prove to be a blessing.

Click here: Psalm 27 - Living By Faith

Psalm 26 A Psalm of Self-Examination

Vindicate me, O LORD,

for I have walked in my integrity,

and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.

Prove me, O LORD, and try me;

test my heart and my mind.

For your steadfast love is before my eyes,

and I walk in your faithfulness.

Psalm 26:1-3 ESV

What does David mean when he says he has walked in his integrity? And what kind of vindication is he looking for?

As in many of the other psalms, in this psalm David is crying out to God about false accusations that have been leveled at him. But he wants more than just for God to vindicate him. He wants an examination. He is looking inward and asking God to show him what is there. He wants to be better. So in the sermon from this psalm we look at that, going verse by verse and asking God to improve our walk of faith in this world. The sermon was preached on Sunday, August 14 at the Winnsboro Reformed Church in Winnsboro, Texas. Just click the link below and it will take you to the page on Soundcloud where an MP3 recording of this sermon can be found. God bless.

Psalm 26

Psalm 25 - A Psalm of Faith and Instruction

Psalm 25 is one of the acrostic psalms. It contains twenty-two verses, each one pertaining to one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It has been labeled by some as one of the penitential psalms, or psalms of repentance. As you will see I had a slightly different take on it.

I divided the psalm into two equal halves and preached two sermons from it on successive Sundays. The sermons are linked below. Just click on one to listen to it.

Psalm 25 Part 1

Psalm 25 Part 2

The psalm appears to be one that David would have written toward the end of his life. It is full of instruction in the faith, teaching us what David had learned through the years. There is much value here and I hope that as you listen you will not hear me, but hear the word. God bless.

Psalm 24 - The King of Glory

The Christian view of the universe and God's relationship to it encompasses three ideas:

God is creator.
God is sustainer.
God is sovereign (always in complete control).

God spoke and the universe came into existence. God continues to speak and therefore it continues to exist. As Paul quoted in his sermon at the Areopagus, "In him we live, move, and have our being." God created all things, he sustains all existence, and everything happens according to his decree. This is the historic Christian view, and insofar as some Christians have and do depart from that view they depart from the historic Christian faith.

What, then, of free will? Do we deny it? Not in the classical sense of the term, we don't. Men are free creatures in that their actions are uncoerced by God. Our decisions are our own. Man is free and responsible. How do we reconcile this to God's sovereignty? Well, that's one of the things discussed in this sermon I preached from Psalm 24.

The second and more important question I seek to answer in this sermon is what kind of person can enter into the presence of God? Psalm 24 answers that as well. And it also points us toward a hope beyond what we could ever hope to attain by ourselves. It point us to the King of Glory.

Just click here to listen to the sermon:  Psalm 24 - The King of Glory