Psalms 92:1-93:5
‘You,
O Lord, are exalted for ever… The Lord reigns, He is robed in
majesty…’(Psalm 92:8; Psalm 93:1-2). You, Lord, are ‘exalted.’ Help
us to exalt You in our worship. You are not exalted because we exalt
You. We exalt You because You are exalted. You are ‘exalted far above
all gods.’ That is why we sing, ‘I exalt Thee, O Lord.’ ‘He is exalted,
the King is exalted on high’- This is the truth concerning You, Lord. ‘I
will praise Him’- This is our response to Your truth. We sing, ‘Jesus,
we enthrone You, we proclaim You our King.’ This is our response to the
eternal truth concerning our Saviour: 'The Lord is enthroned as King for
ever.' ‘From all eternity’ the Lord is ‘robed in majesty.’ Help us,
Lord, to respond to His majesty. Help us to ‘magnify’ You, Lord – ‘O
Lord our God, how majestic is Thy Name’(Psalm 97:9; Psalm 29:10; Mission Praise, 158,217,388,507).
Psalm 94:1-23
‘When
I said, “My foot is slipping”, Your love, O Lord, supported me’(Psalm
94:18). You, Lord, are ‘able to keep us from falling.’ We are ‘kept by
Your power.’ Help us to put our trust in You. May we be confident of
this: ‘God, who began His good work in us, will carry it through to
completion on the Day of Christ Jesus.’ Help us to ‘press on towards the
goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenwards in Christ
Jesus.’ As we ‘press on’, may we never forget this: ‘It is God who
works in us to will and to work according to His good purpose.’ Help us
to ‘fix our eyes on Jesus’, trusting in His promise: ‘My sheep listen to
My voice… I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one
can snatch them out of My hand…’(Jude 24-25; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Philippians
1:6; 3:14; 2:13; Hebrews 12:2; John 10:27-30).
Psalm 95:1-11
‘Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord… Let us come before Him with thanksgiving… Come, let us bow down in worship…’(Psalm
95:1-2,6). Lord, You’re calling us to worship You with joyful
thanksgiving. We rejoice in You. We give thanks for Your love. You
are ‘the great God.’ You are ‘our God.’ You are the God of creation –
‘In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong
to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry
land.’ You are the God of salvation – ‘We are the people of His pasture,
the flock under His care’(Psalm 95:3-5,7). When, Lord, we hear You
calling us to worship You with joyful thanksgiving, help us to open our
hearts to You: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your
hearts’(7-8). When we hear Your call to worship, may we open our hearts
to the Spirit of worship.
Psalms 96:1-97:12
‘The
Lord reigns’(Psalm 96:10; Psalm 97:1). Lord, You are the King. You are
not only ‘the King all-glorious above.’ You are ‘the King of love.’ You
are ‘our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend!’ You are not only ‘the
King of heaven.’ You are ‘the God of grace.’ You are ‘the King of
mercy.’ Your reign is not to be restricted to some faraway heaven. It is
not to be a reign that is far removed from the practicalities of our
everyday life. You want to reign in our hearts. You want to reign in every part of our life. May Your reign of love begin. May Your grace and mercy control all that we do.
Psalms 98:1-100:5
‘Exalt
the Lord our God... Make a joyful noise to the Lord’(Psalm 99:5,9;
Psalm 98:4,6; Psalm 100:1). Lord, You're calling us to worship You with
joy. You're calling us to glorify You. You want us to enjoy You. In our
worship, may we never forget Your holiness: ‘He is holy!... The Lord our God is holy!’(99:5,9). In our worship, may we rejoice in Your love:
‘His steadfast love endures for ever... He has done marvellous
things!’(Psalm 100:5; Psalm 98:1). You are the God of ‘awesome purity’ -
and You love us with the most perfect love of all: ‘No earthly father
loves like Thee...’. Help us to worship You with holy fear and heartfelt
love.
Psalms 101:1-102:28
‘I
will sing of Your love... I will walk with integrity of heart...’(Psalm
101:1-2). Lord, we read these words, from many centuries ago, and, too
quickly, we say, ‘Things are very different now.’ Are they really so
different? Are worshipping You and walking with You out-of-date now? Are
they to be forgotten? So many people have no time for You, Lord. They
feel that they can do without You. They refuse to worship You. They do
not walk with You. In our ever-changing world, You keep on speaking to
us about something we must never forget: You, Lord, are ‘enthroned for ever.’ Your ‘Name endures to all generations.’
In all the changes of life, You, Lord, ‘remain the same.’ Your ‘years
go on through all generations.’. Your ‘years will never end’(Psalm
102:12,24,27). Lord, we read Your Word, and we say, "These words were
‘written for a future generation.’" They were written for us. Help us
never to forget to ‘praise You’(Psalm 102:18)!
Psalm 103:1-22
‘Praise
the Lord’(Psalm 103:1-2,20-22). Lord, You're calling us to praise You
for Your ‘steadfast love.’ You are ‘abounding in steadfast love’(Psalm
103:8). How are we to respond to Your ‘steadfast love’? Are we to say,
‘God loves me. I can do what I like’? No! We must not think like this.
We’re not to say, ‘I’ll keep on sinning. God will keep on
forgiving’(Romans 6:1-2). Your Word tells us something very different.
You love us. Teach us to love You. When Your ‘steadfast love’ has really
touched our hearts, it changes our lives: ‘As the heavens are high
above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him... The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him’(Psalm 103:11,17). We thank You, Lord, for Your love. Help us to live to please You!
Psalm 104:1-35
‘I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live’(Psalm
104:33). Sometimes, Lord, we feel like giving up. Other things become
more important to us. Worshipping You gets pushed out to the edge of
your life. Wrong attitudes creep in. It starts with the idea, ‘Worship’s
just an hour on a Sunday.’ Then, it becomes, ‘I’ll worship the Lord
when I feel like it.’ It soon becomes, ‘I’ll worship the Lord when I’ve
nothing better to do.’. Before long, all desire for worshipping You, Lord, has gone! Little-by-little, we drift away from You, Lord. It’s time, for
us, to start thinking about what’s happening. It’s time for a new
beginning. It’s time for an ‘all my life’ commitment to worshipping You,
Lord - not just on a Sunday, not only when I feel like it, not only
‘when there’s nothing better to do’!
Psalm 105:1-22
‘Look to the Lord and His strength;
seek His face always. Remember the wonderful works that He has
done...’(Psalm 105:4-5). Lord, You give strength to those who put their
trust in You. Trusting in Christ, we have this great testimony: ‘I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me’(Philippians 4:13). How,
Lord, do we receive Your strength? We must '‘seek Your face always'. We
must not think we can face difficult circumstances in our strength.
Without Your strength, we will be defeated. You have helped us in the
past. Help us never to forget this. Help us to give thanks to You for
every victory won. As we face temptation, help us to remember Your
promise of victory: ‘God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted
beyond your strength. With the temptation, He will also provide the way
of escape...’(1 Corinthians 10:13).
Psalm 105:23-45
‘He brought His people out with joy’(Psalm
105:43). When things are going badly and we feel like giving up, help
us, Lord, to remember Your Word: ‘The joy of the Lord is your
strength’(Nehemiah 8:10). You're calling us to ‘rejoice in You always.’
You do not leave us on our own when our time of testing comes. You are
there for us in our time of need: ‘My God will supply every need of
yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus’(Philippians
4:4,19). When we are deeply conscious of our own weakness, You come to
us with Your Word of strength: ‘My grace is sufficient for you. My power
is made perfect in weakness’(2 Corinthians 12:9). Through Your Word, we
receive strength. Your Word brings joy to us. May we sing ‘glad songs
of victory’: ‘The Lord is my Strength, my Song, my Saviour’(Psalm
118:14-15).
Psalm106:1-48
Lord,
we read about Israel’s sin - ‘They soon forgot what He had done and did
not wait for His counsel... They despised the pleasant land; they did
not believe His promise... They grumbled in their tents and did not obey
the Lord... They rebelled against the Spirit of God’(Psalm
106:13,24-25,33). This is not only ancient history. It’s the story of our
life! We read this, and we must join in Israel’s confession of sin: ‘We
have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have done wrong and acted
wickedly’(Psalm 106:6). We thank You, Lord, that the history of Israel
is not only a history of sin. It's also a history of salvation: ‘He
saved them...’(Psalm 106:8,10). When, Lord, we read of Your salvation,
may we echo the prayer of Your people - ‘Save us, O Lord our God...’ May
we join with them in praising You - ‘Praise be to the Lord...’(Psalm
106:47-48).
Psalm 107:1-43
Lord,
there are some things that are worth repeating! The story of Your
amazing grace is worth repeating over and over again - ‘Then they cried
out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their
distress’(Psalm 107:6,13,19,28). The call to praise You is also
something we need to hear again and again - ‘Let them give thanks to the
Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men’(Psalm
107:8,15,21,31). Help us, Lord, 'consider Your great love.' Help us to
‘give thanks to You’(Psalm 107:43,1).
Psalm 108:1-13
‘With
God we shall gain the victory. He will trample down our enemies’(Psalm
108:13). In ourselves, Lord, there is only defeat. We are no match for
‘our enemies’- the world, the flesh and the devil.
We are surrounded by the world - ‘The world is ever near. I see the
sights that dazzle. The tempting sounds I hear.’ We live with the
constant problem of the flesh - ‘the storms of passion, the murmurs of
self-will.’ Behind the world and the flesh, there is an even stronger
enemy - the devil: ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against... the spiritual forces of evil...’(Ephesians 6:12). Lord, our
situation seems to be utterly hopeless. How can we possibly win the
victory? The simple truth is: We cannot. There is, however, a deeper truth: You, Lord, are with us - and ‘with God we shall win the victory’!
Psalm 109:1-31
Lord,
we come to You, recognizing that, without You, our situation is
hopeless - ‘I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I
fade away like an evening shadow’(Psalm 109:22). When our enemies are on
the attack, we are no match for them. What are we to do when the world,
the flesh and the devil are threatening to overwhelm us? We must come
to You, Lord, praying for Your help, asking You to save us - ‘Help me, O
Lord my God; save me in accordance with Your love’(Psalm 109:26). Help
us, Lord, to look away from ourselves and our own weakness. Help us to
put our trust in You and Your strength. You will not fail us. You ‘stand
beside’ us in our time of testing. You ‘save’ us from our enemies. Help
us to keep on praising You: ‘I will greatly praise the Lord with my
mouth. I will praise Him among many people...’(Psalm 109:30-31).
Psalm 110:1-7
‘The
Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand...’(Psalm 110:1). Lord, we
read these words, and we think of our Lord Jesus Christ: When ‘He was
taken up into heaven, He sat at the right hand of God’(Mark 16:19). When
Jesus ascended to Your Father’s right hand, the Holy Spirit was sent
down from heaven to fill our lives with Your blessing (John 7:37-39).
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are changed: ‘In the Day
of Your power, Your people will come to You willingly...’. We come to
You, Lord, in our weakness, and You ‘renew our strength.’ We come to You
in our weariness, and we are ‘refreshed’ by Your ‘streams of living
water’(Psalm 110,7). ‘Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart
to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of
loudest praise.’
Psalms 111:1-112:10
'Praise
the Lord... To Him belong eternal praise... Blessed is the man who
fears the Lord... His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end
he will look in triumph on his foes...'(Psalm 111:1,10; Psalm 112:1,8).
Those who 'fear' You, Lord, have no need to live in fear of man. Those
who know that ‘eternal praise’ belongs to You, Lord, can face their
enemies with confidence. Our confidence is not in ourselves. Our
confidence is in You. We know how good You have been to us - ‘He provided
redemption for His people.’ We thank You that we have heard and believed
the Good News of Christ. We need not ‘fear’ any ‘bad news’ which the
devil sends our way. We 'trust' in You, Lord, confident that the ‘light
‘will triumph over the ‘darkness.’ We thank You that the Good News of
Christ will triumph over the devil’s bad news (Psalm 111:9; Psalm
112:4,7).
Psalms 113:1-114:8
‘The
Lord is high above all nations... Who is like the Lord our God, who is
seated on high?... Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, who
turns the hard rock into springs of water’(Psalm 113:4-5; Psalm
114:7-8). Lord, You are greater than we could ever imagine. There is no
greatness like Your greatness. All human greatness cannot even begin to
compare with Your greatness. Your greatness is not only the greatness of
Your power. It is also the greatness of Your love. When we sing,
‘How great Thou art’, we sing not only of Your power - ‘Thy power
throughout the universe displayed.’ We sing also of Your love - ‘And
when I think that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die - I scarce
can take it in, that on the Cross my burden gladly bearing, He bled and
died to take away my sin...’
Psalm 115:1-18
‘Not
to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your Name be the glory because of Your
love and faithfulness’(Psalm 115:1). We thank You, Lord, that You love
us. You love us with a faithful love, ‘an everlasting love’, a ‘love
that will not let us go’. Your love ‘never comes to an end.’ Nothing can
separate us from Your love (Jeremiah 31:3; Lamentations 3:22-23; Romans
8:38-39). What have we done to deserve such love? Absolutely nothing!
We are ‘sinners.’ We do not deserve to be loved by You. We have done
nothing to earn Your love. Love begins with You, Lord. It comes from
You. How do we know that You love us? Have we proved ourselves worthy of
Your love? No! - ‘God shows His love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us’(Romans 5:8). ‘To God be the glory!’
Psalms 116:1-117:2
‘I
love the Lord... I will call on Him as long as I live’(Psalm 116:1-2).
Our love for You, Lord, is to be a lifelong life. It is to be the love of our
life. What are we to do when our love for You grows weak? We must
remember Your love for us - ‘Great is His love towards us. The
faithfulness of the Lord endures forever’(117:2). When we find it
difficult to keep on loving You, help us to remember how much You love us.
When we feel like giving up on loving You, help us to remember that You
never give up on loving us. You love us when our love for You is
strong. You love us when our love for You is weak. In love, You reach
out to us. You bring us out of our weakness and into Your strength. May Your strong love reach us in our weakness and give us Your strength:
‘Loving Him who first loved me.’
Psalm 118:1-29
‘The
Lord is my Strength and my Song. He is my Saviour’(Psalm 118:14). We
thank You, Lord, that Jesus Christ is our Saviour. We thank You that He
gives us a song to sing: ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine... This is my
story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.’ Help us,
Lord, to grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. May we
sing His song with strength, committing ourselves to His service,
earnestly seeking to win others for Him.
