Sermons on Psalms (Page 2)
Introduction
The stars and the heavens above were critically important in ancient history, serving as practical tools for agricultural cycles, timekeeping, and navigation, as well as spiritual guides and sources of religious meaning. Ancient peoples used celestial bodies to understand and predict seasons, floods, and other vital events, while also incorporating them into their myths, rituals,…
Today, and for the next two weeks, we’ll be making our way through this poetic masterpiece, seeking to understand all the truths that God has for us in this text. As I have spent time with this passage, I have noted three primary sections that need to be discussed. In the first six verses, the…
In Psalm 1, the psalmist provides us with a mantra for life. This song is simple and to the point, and the psalmist provides us with a way forward through the difficulties and anxieties of life. This way forward consists of simple, actionable steps that will bring us joy and happiness in this life.
In the second half of Psalm 101, David lays out the kind of leader that he aspires to become—a leader with integrity. Just like last week, we see in these verses, five issues of integrity that are important when it comes to life in general and in leadership more specifically. David had a front row…
After a psalm of praise (Psalm 100), we now have a psalm of practice (Psalm 101). Knowing and understanding God’s call on his life to be the king of God’s chosen people, David resolves to become a king that models himself after the One who has called him. Psalm 101 describes a man of integrity…
Last week, we started a short series studying through Isaiah 55. In this chapter, God is reminding His exiled people of who He is and what He promised to do for them. In those first six verses of Isaiah 55, we saw God’s invitation to have life more abundantly! Then the prophet explained the requirement…
The psalmist encourages us to give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love, compassion, goodness, lovingkindness, grace and mercy never ends (Psalm 107:1). After this encouragement to give thanks to the Lord, the psalmist mentions four different groups of people who are returning from exile. We looked at the first of these four groups a few weeks ago, but since I missed the past two weeks, we will be looking at the other three groups today. Just like we saw with the first group of returning exiles in Psalm 107, each of these groups find themselves in a difficult situation, then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and the Lord delivers them from their distress. Each time, the psalmist follows this up with these words: “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (Psalm 107:8).
We will be continuing our study from Psalm 107 today—focusing in on the concept of the Lord’s HESED to those who have been exiled from the Promised Land. The concept of restoration is a big part of Psalm 107. In this psalm, the author declares that the restoration is available through God’s HESED even to those in despair.
For the next six weeks, we will be studying through Psalm 107 with a particular focus on the steadfast love (HESED) of God. This Hebrew word is one of the most difficult words to translate because of the depth and breadth of its meaning. This Hebrew word carries the sense of an enduring connection that brings life and all good things into a relationship. In Psalm 107:1, HESED is translated thirteen different ways in English Bibles—love, favor, grace, mercy, kindness, goodness, loyal-love, compassion, benevolence, faithful-love, gracious-love, steadfast-love, and lovingkindness. HESED means all of those things and even more!