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Read Psalm 5:1-12 What do you do in difficult situations? Many of the psalms were written during difficult, often painful, experiences. In Psalm 5 we find two sequences concerning trials. In the first sequence (vv. 1-7), David is experiencing difficulty and makes his request--"hear me." (v. 1-3). Meditation here means "sighing, murmuring, groaning"--a quiet expression of feelings. When our burden is beyond expression, all we can do is sigh and moan before the Lord. The Spirit

Read Psalm 116:1-11 Whoever wrote Psalm 116 went through some difficult experiences to give us these verses. In fact, he almost died. But the Lord heard his cry and delivered him, and that's why he wrote, "I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me" (vv. 1,2). Picture God leaning down to His little child, getting close enough to hear. Sometimes I have to get close to people who are speaking because my hearing is

Read Psalm 4:1-8 Sometimes God's people can be so discouraging! In Psalm 4 we find David listening to people saying, "Who will show us any good?" (v. 6). David's own men were discouraged. They were going through a trial, and some were saying, "O David, this is the end. God is no longer going to help us." That's hard to take. It's rough when your associates or friends say to you, "Well, you've reached the end. Who will show us any good?" But David called on the Lord, and God e

Read Psalm 131:1-3 One day King David was walking through the palace, and he heard a child crying. What was going on? The child was being weaned. The mother was saying, "Now, my child, you are growing up, and it is time for you to be weaned." The child was saying, "You don't love me; you hate me. If you loved me, you wouldn't do this." Then David went to his desk, got his pen and wrote Psalm 131. The problem with too many of us is that we have grown old without growing up--we

Read Psalm 107:32-43 It is dangerous for Christians to depend on comfortable circumstances. When God sees that we are depending on our circumstances and not on Him, He will change those circumstances in a hurry. "He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into watersprings. There He makes the hungry dwell, that the

Read Psalm 101:1-8 A pleasant elderly couple who attended the first church I pastored came to me one day and said, "Pastor, we have moved into a new house, and we'd like you to come and dedicate it." So my wife and I went to the house, read Scripture, prayed and dedicated that house to the glory of the Lord. What is the most important part of a house? At first you might say the foundation, the heating system or the plumbing. But the most important part of a house is the home.

Read Psalm 119:17-24 What do you do when people criticize you? What goes through your mind when you are in the presence of people who are unkind, especially people who don't believe the Word of God? The psalmist gives one answer: "Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors" (vv. 23,24). Meditate on the Word of God. Get your mind fixed upon what God says. If we ponder and think abou

Read Psalm 37:25-29 We see and hear all kinds of testimonials from famous people in advertising today. Quite frankly, I don't put much faith in what these celebrities say. What do football players really know about automobile tires? What do actors or actresses know about computers? We know they are used in ads to lend the authority of their name to the product. When we hear a testimonial, we'd better find out who said it, what was said and if we can really believe it. We find

Read Psalm 139:13-18 "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (v. 14). The psalmist is talking about the miracle of conception and birth. It's an amazing story. "For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb.... Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well" (vv. 13,14). Someone defined a baby as something that gets you up at night and gets you down during the day. That may be true, but so are the words of poet C

Read Psalm 2:1-6 The world is getting noisier. So many voices vie for our attention. The result is that many people are getting the wrong instructions. It is important that we have discernment in a noisy world filled with propaganda. We need the truth. We need to distinguish the four voices of Psalm 2. The first is the voice of defiance--the nations of the world (vv. 1-3). It is amazing that the nations would defy Almighty God. He has provided for them ( Acts 14:17 ), guided

Read Psalm 136:10-26 Israel is the only nation for which we have a complete history. We know how it started, how it grew, where it is today and where it will be for the rest of history--thanks to the Word of God. In Psalm 136 the psalmist reviewed Israel's history. As he looked, he saw the mercy of God. He performed three marvelous ministries for the Israelites: He brought them out; He brought them through; and He brought them in. God wants to care for us in the same way toda

Read Psalm 105:1-4 Nutritionists remind us that we must have the minimum daily requirements of vitamins and minerals if we are to be physically healthy. Similarly, David gives God's minimum daily requirements we need if we are to be spiritually healthy. The first requirement is praise. "Oh, give thanks to the Lord! . . . Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him" (vv. 1,2). Praise means giving thanks for all that God is, all that He does and all that He shares with us. Praise is rejoic

Read Psalm 103:6-12 We usually praise the Lord for something He has done for us. Today, let's thank the Lord for something He has not done. "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities" (v. 10). Everyone knows the plague of his heart--not only the occasional sins but those that try to get us into bondage. What's more, God knows all about it, too. In fact, He knows our sins better than we do. God sees the origin and the outcome o

Read Psalm 119:145-152 Would you rather have the Word of God than sleep? Don't misunderstand me. We need sleep. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that God expects us to take care of our bodies, and sleep is part of that care. But the psalmist says that he would rather have the Word of God than sleep. "I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word. My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word" (vv. 147,148). Im

Read Psalm 107:22-31 Quite frankly, I don't like large bodies of water. I don't like to be on them, and I don't like to be in them. I don't mind being by them; to sit by the ocean and watch the waves is fine. When I read these verses I almost get seasick. They describe a storm at sea. "For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. They reel t

Read Psalm 9:1-6 Psalm 9 is a great victory psalm. "I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works" (v. 1). Notice the universals in that verse--"my whole heart" and "all Your marvelous works." I must confess that there are times when I don't praise the Lord with my whole heart. At times I've stood in church with the hymnbook in my hand, singing a great song of praise--but not with my whole heart. The best way to have victory is to pra

Read Psalm 104:31-35 When Jesus Christ is your Savior and God is your Father, when the Holy Spirit is within you and the Word of God is teaching you, all of creation takes on new beauty and new blessing. The sky is a deeper blue, and the earth is a richer green. You don't see just creation; you see the Creator. And you don't simply see a Creator; you see the Heavenly Father, who cares for you. "I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I ha

Read Psalm 104:19-26 After surveying God's work in creation, the psalmist wrote: "O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions" (v. 24). This verse shows us important traits of God. First, creation reveals God's wisdom. We ought to take time to admire His wisdom in creation. I've read that if the proportion of gases in the air were changed ever so slightly, all of us would die. The way God tilted the earth, the w

Read Psalm 133:1-3 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (v. 1). This is as true today as when it was written centuries ago. We would expect brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. After all, they share the same nature because they have the same parents. Until they move out, they live at the same address and eat at the same table. We also would expect God's people to dwell together in unity--but not uniformity. My wife and

Read Psalm 106:16-23 We often think of Moses as a great leader and a great legislator, and indeed he was one of the greatest. But have you ever thought of Moses as a great intercessor, a man of prayer? I was amazed to discover how many instances of prayer are recorded in the life of Moses. For instance, when the Israelites turned against God, made a golden calf and began to worship like the heathen, God was prepared to judge them. But Moses went up on the mountain and interce

Read Psalm 141:1-10 One of the greatest privileges we have as children of God is prayer, yet so often we take it for granted. As the gospel song goes, "O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!" In Psalm 141 David pictures prayer in a beautiful way that will help us appreciate it more. "Lord, I cry out to You; make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before Yo

Read Psalm 127:1-5 I feel like weeping when I think about the tragedy of more than 1.5 million babies murdered in their mothers' wombs in the United States every year. Abortion has turned the womb into a tomb. I wonder what those presiding doctors and nurses would think if they read Psalm 127. "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is His reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has h

Read Psalm 122:1-9 Are you glad when it's time to go to the house of God to worship? Are you really happy when, on the Lord's Day or any other day, you can go to church? The psalmist was. "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord"' (v. 1). We worship the Lord privately as well. I trust that every day you read His Word and pray and worship Him. But Christians belong to each other. We are the sheep of God's flock. We're the children in His family,

Read Psalm 119:25-32 An enlarged heart, in the physical sense, is dangerous. But spiritually speaking, an enlarged heart can be a blessing. "I will run in the way of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart" (v. 32). If you have an enlarged heart physically, you don't do much running. But if you have an enlarged heart spiritually, you are ready to walk and run with the Lord and accomplish His purposes. When an athlete is running, he is on a path and has a goal in min