Introduction: The book of Psalms is the Bible's hymnbook. The psalmists are bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. We sympathize with their struggles and feel they are akin to us in ours. Of this magnificent book of the Bible, John Calvin once wrote: "I may truly call this book an anatomy of all parts of the soul, for no one can feel a movement of the spirit which is not reflected in this mirror. All the sorrows, troubles, fears, doubts, hopes, pains, perplexities and stormy outbreaks by which the hearts of men are tossed have been depicted here to the very life.”

Psalm 2:1-4 —The coming rule of Christ on earth enrages the nations. Their preposterous plotting to prevent it and ridiculous resolve to resist it is not just ridiculed by the Almighty, but the only thing mentioned in the Bible that makes God laugh.

The vanity of humanity in deifying divinity is pure hilarity to the Deity!

 

Psalm 4:1 — A sovereign God can use our distress to enlarge our lives.

 

Joseph was a prisoner before a prince and wore a iron chain on his ankle before a gold chain around his neck.

 

Psalm 7:11 — God’s judgment is always just and the wicked are always under His wrath. (NKJV)

 

Sinners are already rightfully judged by God, all that remains is the carrying out of God’s judgment.

 

Psalm 7:12-13 — God’s sword is sharpened and unsheathed, His bow is strung and bent, and His arrows are tipped with fire toward the unrepentant. (HCSB)

 

The life of the unrepentant sinner may appear serendipitous, but it is not safe, for he or she constantly lives in the crosshairs of divine condemnation.

 

Psalm 7:14 — The wicked conceive the diabolical and then endeavor to bring forth its desolation and deception. (NKJV)

 

The soul that conceives evil cannot give birth to good.

 

Psalm 7:15-16 —All the wicked, like Haman, who scheme to hang the righteous, will sooner or later end up swinging on their own gallows. (Esther 9:24-25)

 

The schemes of sinners to stamp out the saints are all Sisyphean.

 

Psalm 7:17 — To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them; to bless Him for miseries is the way to remove them.

 

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” (Harry Ironside)

 

Psalm 9:17 — There is no surer way for a nation to assure itself of hell on earth than for it to forget the God of Heaven!

 

“Without God, there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” (Ronald Reagan)

 

Psalm 12:8 — To worship vain things is to vainly wander through life. In the end, you will have lived your life for nothing and have nothing to show for the life you’ve lived. (HCSB)

 

Those who lift up worthless things wander through life witlessly.

 

Psalm 14:1 — It’s neither science nor scholarship that causes men to suppress the truth about God, but sin. It’s not the intelligent mind of a brilliant genius, but the iniquitous heart of a blasphemous fool that leads a man to say, “There is no God.” (Psalm 53:1; Romans 1:18-19)

 

It’s ignoramuses, not intellectuals, who believe there is no God.

 

Psalm 18:3 — It is praying to God and the praising of God that enables the people of God to prevail over their enemies.

 

There are no better ways to battle the devil than to bow in prayer and to breakout in praise.

Psalm 18:11 — Though sometimes shrouded in darkness, God is never at a distance.

 

The perseverance of a dark night of the soul is but a passage to divine revelation and preparation for divine illumination.

 

Psalm 18:28 — The Lord is our Lamplighter, who enlightens our way through encroaching and enveloping darkness.

 

A lone lamp can light the safest way through sheer darkness.

 

Psalm 18:46 — The God of our salvation, who is both immortal and invincible, is to be ever extolled and exalted.

 

“A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles.” (B. B. Warfield)

 

Psalm 19:1-4a — The sky, without saying a word, speaks, to everyone under its worldwide expanse, both day in and day out, as well as night after night, of the Creator’s wondrous work and great glory. (HCSB)

 

“I cannot imagine anyone looking at the sky and denying God.” (Abraham Lincoln)

"An undevout astronomer is mad." (Edward Young)

Psalm 19:4b-6 — The divinely inspired Scripture declared the sun to be the tabernacle (center) of our solar system centuries before human discovery ever detected it. Contrary to popular opinion, true science never contradicts the truth of Scripture, but always confirms it. (NKJV)

"My experience with science led me to God They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?" (Wernher von Braun)

Psalm 19:7-10 — God’s Word is infallible, soul-saving, life-giving, trustworthy, enlightening, inerrant, gratifying, unadulterated, illuminating, eye-opening, immaculate, eternal, immutable, and irrefutable. Therefore, it is to be more prized than gold and found more palatable than honey.

 

"This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy.

 

It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s character. Here paradise is restored, Heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object, our good is its design, and the glory of God its end.

 

It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is given you in life and will be opened in the judgement and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labour, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents."

 

Psalm 19:11 — God’s Word warns us not to flout it, but promises great rewards to all who follow it.

Many who foolishly brush aside God’s commands falsely blame God for their bad circumstances.

Psalm 19:12 — On fallen feet of clay we all daily stumble short of God's glory, in both conscious and unconscious ways. Still, we can be sure that our sins will be pointed out by God's Spirit and pardoned by God's Son.

The closer we get to the light the more conspicuous our sins become.

Psalm 19:12-13 — Unperceived and presumptuous sins, wrongs presumed to be right, are neither guiltless nor innocuous. If committed, whether moronically or mistakenly, they will inevitably lead to greater iniquity.

 

Being ignorant of God’s law is no excuse for the infringement of God’s law, but a sure path to even greater infractions of God's law.

 

Psalm 19:13 — To presume that the grace and mercy of God grants you a license to sin is to grant sin lordship over yourself and to guarantee that you will become a most loathsome sinner. 

 

If you give sin an inch it will take a mile and the least little sin can lead to the most loathsome of sins.

Psalm 19:14 — We should daily pray that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart are both acceptable to our God.

The meditation of our heart, what we contemplate, controls the words of our mouth, what we articulate; therefore, we must never deviate in what we deliberate from any divine mandate.

Psalm 20:7 — Sinners trust in their numbered legions, such as a political movement or a parading military, but the saints trust in the name of their Lord.

 

“My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready. No matter when it may overtake me.” (Stonewall Jackson)

 

Like Stonewall Jackson, all who have faith in God should feel as safe in battle as they do in bed.

 

Psalm 23:1 — The most important word in Psalm 23 is the little word “my”—“The Lord is my Shepherd.”

 

While it is important for you to know the Shepherd's Psalm, it is imperative for you to know the Shepherd!

 

All things, having originated with the Lord, are owned by the Lord. Being His creation, makes everything and everyone His possession.

Psalm 24:10 — JEHOVAH-SABAOTH means “the Lord of the hosts.” Heaven’s host are under the command of Him who holds them in the palm of His nail-scarred hand. (Revelation 1:16, 20)

 

For still our ancient foe

Doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great,

And, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing;

Were not the right man on our side,

The man of God’s own choosing:

Dost ask who that might be?

Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth His name,

From age to age the same,

And He must win the battle. (Martin Luther)

 

Psalm 27:4 — The Christian should share David's sole desire, to daily dwell in God’s presence. Instead of wanting things from God, we should just want to be with God!

 

A man after God’s own heart daily lives leering at the beauty of the holiness of God and longing for the intimacy of close communion with God. He refuses to be distracted from the sacred—the beauty of the Lord—by the profane—the base things of this life. (Acts 13:22)

 

Psalm 27:8 — Prayer is not about seeking God’s favors, but His face. It’s more about being with God than getting things from God. To approach prayer with an earthly wish list in hand rather than in hopes of a Heavenly welcome mat being rolled out is to surely pray amiss. (James 4:3)

 

It is only those who seek God's face and not His favors who will ever know the fullness of God!

 

Psalm 27:13 — Unless you believe you'll behold the Lord's good favor in the future, you'll be utterly undone by the gathering misfortunes of the present.

 

Unless I had believed,

I had fainted long ago

So buffeted by whelming seas,

With treacherous undertow,

I dare not think, what might have been,

Unless I had believed.

 

Unless I had believed,

I could not have won the fight,

Too many and too fierce my foes,

To have withstood their might:

They would have torn me limb from limb,

Unless I had believed. 

 

Now that I believed,

Are my feet upon the rock.

My soul is established, strong, secure,

To brave the earthquake shock,

What tragic loss, what black despair—

Unless I had believed.

 

Psalm 27:14 — Waiting on the Lord requires the courage of one's convictions and results in the cementing of one’s constitution.

 

One never loses heart, neither time nor opportunity by waiting on the Lord.

 

Psalm 29:3-9 — When God storms out, "Glory" is shouted out, by men who quickly find out how swiftly they're shut up by God's rising up.

“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.” (William Cowper)

 

Psalm 31:1 — Those who depend on the Lord will be delivered and never disgraced.

It is Christ’s imputed righteousness, which is ours through faith in Christ alone, not our individual righteousness, which a righteous God sees as filthy rags, that guarantees us God’s deliverance. (Isaiah 64:6)

 

Psalm 31:2 — God bows down to them who bow down to Him, to be their speedy Rescuer, their strong Rock, and their saving refuge!

 

The Most High leans down low to hear the lowly prayers of those low in spirit.

 

Psalm 31:3 — God can be trusted to guard and guide us, since, as a tenacious guardian of His own glory (name), He will not allow it to be tarnished by failing to deliver on His promise to defend and direct us.

 

Since we are not deserving of God’s guidance on the basis of our own goodness, we should ask God to graciously grant it in defense of His own glory. We should not just pray for God to meet our need, but also for God to protect His name, by proving to us His promise.

 

Psalm 31:4 — Those God strengthens He snatches from secret schemes hatched against them by hostile schemers.

God turned the plotters’ lions into the prophet’s watchdogs to thwart the plot of the Persian presidents and princes to throw the Prophet Daniel into the lion’s den. (Daniel 6:1-24)

 

Psalm 31:5 — These divinely inspired words of David, as well as dying words of our Master, Jesus Christ, and of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, should be spoken in daily prayer by every living Christian. (Luke 23:46, Acts 7:59)

 

The repose of our spirits is a result of the redemption of our souls.

 

Christians who have committed the care of their spirits to their Lord in Heaven can calmly depart from this life on earth.

 

Psalm 31:6 — All who trust in the one true God are ticked off by all that is untrustworthy and untrue.

 

Far from respecting other religions, those who worship the one true God hate the worship of all false gods.

 

Psalm 31:7 — In our troubles, we must not think God to be unaware or uncaring, but must trust God to be merciful and magnanimous. 

 

Even in the midst of life's messes we can be merry, because God is merciful.

 

Psalm 31:8 — Christ’s saints are never in Satan’s clutches. Even in the direst of straits their souls can range in roomy and unrestrained realms.

 

The saints can never be cornered by Satan, because Christ protects them from so precarious a pickle.

Psalm 31:9-14 — The psalmist was the first and foremost singer of the blues, nullifying the popular notion that every praise song must be a giddy ditty.

 

Christians are not to see life through rose-colored glasses nor to suggest to others that the Christian life is a bed full of roses. Instead, Christians are to be honest about it and to trust the Lord to mercifully see them through it.

 

Don't be a fair-weather believer, but one whose confession of God and confidence in God is as constant in the storm as in the sunshine.

Psalm 31:15 — The realization that our lives are in God’s hands, not in the hands of others, especially not in the hands of our opponents or oppressors, turns divine providence into a soft pillow for anxious heads.

“Ignorance of providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness.” (John Calvin)

 

Psalm 31:16 — For the sake of His mercy, not their merits, God saves those who live by faith under the shining face of His favor. 

 

God proves His mercy by maintaining His people.

 

Psalm 31:17 — The prayer closet of the Christian, unlike the cemetery plot of the wicked, should never be a place of silence and shame.

 

We should pray that God “put not [our] prayers to the blush!” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

Psalm 31:18 — Although short-lived slanderers may temporarily wound the reputation of saints, the saints can be assured that all libelous lips shall eventually be silenced for all eternity.

 

The great indignity of the wicked contemptuously indicting the righteous is certainly infuriating to the Almighty.

 

Psalm 31:19 — To trust in God amidst fallen humanity is to lay up inestimable and irrevocable treasure in Heaven.

 

What better proof can we offer to fallen humanity of the sincerity and surety of our Christian faith than to live our earthly lives heavenly minded?

 

Psalm 31:20 — In the secret pavilion of God’s presence, pride cannot step foot nor can a slanderous tongue get in a word.

 

We are delivered from both the disdainful and the defamer by ducking behind the Divine.

 

Psalm 31:21 — God’s stedfast love is a shelter to the saint under siege in this sin-cursed world. 

 

Christians can be calm under the cover of Christ’s compassion even when their country is confronted with calamity.

 

Psalm 31:22 — In our haste we may feel that God has shut His eyes to our plight, but in time we will find that He has opened His ears to our prayers.

 

No matter how deep down we sink beneath our load, we are never out of sight of our Lord.

 

Psalm 31:23 — The faithful, who love the Lord, are protected by Him, but the prideful, who love and look to themselves, will be punished by Him.

 

There will be no strutting down Heaven’s streets of gold.

 

Psalm 31:24 — The heart sinks in the cowardice of despair, but is strengthened by the courage of hope.  

 

Those who hope in the Lord will be helped by the Lord to be both Herculean and heroic.

 

Psalm 34:5 — No one will ever blush who looks to God to be brightened up!

 

All who look to the Lord will be uplifted and unashamed.

 

Psalm 34:8 — You must personally trust the Lord to taste that He is good. Afterward, you acquire an insatiable appetite for Him, because nothing but Him can ever satisfy your hungry soul. 

 

Christians should savor time spent in God’s presence more than a connoisseur does the taste of a good meal, for the spiritual sustenance of Christians depends upon them daily supping with Christ.

 

Psalm 34:10 — Whereas those who seek God are guaranteed His daily sustenance and their daily satisfaction, the most aggressive of self-seekers, even the young lion—the King of the Jungle—often goes without and finds himself in want.

 

It is a famished soul that fends for himself rather than puts his faith in God.

 

Psalm 37:1 — "Fret not" is as much a divine commandment as "sin not." Therefore, the temptation to fret should be just as resisted as any other temptation, since fretting is a sin, a transgressing of God’s law. (1 John 3:4)

 

Fretfulness is not only unfaithfulness, but faithlessness as well!

 

Psalm 37:4-5 — It's not whatever they desire, but the desires themselves—desires delightful to Him—that God promises to give to all who delight in Him. 

 

God gives the desires of their hearts to all who delight in Him, since all of their hearts’ desires are delightful to Him. If God took no delight in it, then, those who delight in Him would have no desire for it.

 

Psalm 37:16-17 — The paltry provisions of the righteous are preferable to the prolific prosperity of the wicked, because the wellbeing of the righteous is assured by God, but the wealth of the wicked will surely slip away.

 

It is better to be upheld by God than to be an upstart! 

 

Psalm 38:22 — The most harrowing of hardships can prove helpful to us if they hastens us to our knees to pray for the Lord to hurry and help us. 

 

The Lord is not only our Savior, by whom we are saved, but also our salvation, in whom we are safe.

Psalm 40:8 — Fulfilling God's will and obeying God's law is not drudgery, but sheer delight to those within whose hearts God's law is enshrined and upon whose hearts God’s law is inscribed!

 

Those with a heart for God don’t obey God because they have to or ought to, but because they wholeheartedly want to.

 

Psalm 41:3 — The saint is not immune from sickness, but assured that his or her sick bed will be made by God and turned from physical affliction into spiritual advantage. 

 

Oft have I sat in secret sighs

To feel my flesh decay;

Then, groaned aloud with frightened eyes

To view the tottering clay.

But I forbid my sorrow now,

Nor dare my flesh complain:

Diseases bring their profits too—

The joy overcomes the pain. (Isaac Watts)

 

Psalm 42:1 — A heart for God is not proven by a recited sinner’s prayer, but by a perpetual panting for the presence of God.

 

Those without a foremost desire for God in the here and now will not be forever dwelling with Him in the hereafter.

Psalm 42:2 — Thirst for the living God cannot be quenched at the arid altar of a false and nonexistent deity or by observing the lifeless formality of a dried up and dead religion.

 

All who truly desire God can’t wait until their next divine appointment with God!

 

Psalm 42:3 — The bitterest dregs of the saint’s cup of sorrow is that his free-flowing tears oftentimes trigger the skeptic’s blasphemous taunt that faith in God is futile. 

 

Where is God amidst your sorrow,

The skeptics continually say.

Where is God amidst the darkness,

Blotting out the light of day?

I must not allow my soul to languish,

Nor to be cast down and shamed,

Lest my severe anguish,

Lead to the Divine being defamed!

 

Where is God when sorrow assails me?

Oh, Lord of mercy, will you not reply?

Prove now that you are ever with me,

And that your outstretched arm is ever nigh.

Help me thus to emerge victorious, 

As the shield of faith I rise to take.

Oh, Lord, appear and show thyself glorious,

Help me now for thy own name’s sake!

 

Psalm 42:4 — When God is hidden and foes harangue, the tears of one’s presently perceived divine abandonment and human accosting precipitate heartfelt prayers, especially when one remembers past participation with the people of God in the praise of God at the house of God.

 

Remembering God's past mercies and our past praise should not compound present problems and make present miseries more miserable. Instead, it should persuade us to pour out our souls in prayer to God that He will soon have us praising Him again for His mercies to us.

 

Psalm 42:5 — The cure for a short-lived frown of despair is the hope that God will soon smile upon us. 

 

The smiling countenance of God delivers the cast down soul from all disquietude, discouragement, and despair. 

 

Psalm 42:6 — To lift up a cast down soul one should cast their mind back to previous divine interventions!

 

To lift up a cast down soul one should stop looking within himself and start looking upward to Heaven.

 

Psalm 42:7 — The depths of God are fathomed by those who’ve called out to Him beneath His deep billows, but all who’ve not sounded sovereignty’s surging swells simply splash through life in the spiritual shallows.

 

The depths of deepest prayer are fathomed in troubling and trying tempests that overwhelm the soul like a waterspout above, a whirlpool below, and billowing waves all around.

 

Psalm 42:8 — The songs and prayers of a soul overshadowed by God’s sovereign lovingkindness can neither be silenced by the toils of the day nor by the terrors of the night.

 

God’s lovingkindness is graciously commanded, not conditionally given; in other words, it’s ours because He mercifully mandates it, not because we merit or maintain it.

 

Psalm 42:9-10 — To ask and receive God’s explanation of His apparent abandoning of us will assuredly aid us to endure our adversaries’ attacks and aspersions upon us.

 

Persecutions should prompt us to pray, especially when our soul is cut to the quick by the sword of our persecutors over the inconspicuousness of God in our lives.

 

Psalm 42:9-11 — To make God our rock does not rid our lives of rocky times, but reassures us of divine relief within them.

 

There is never any cause for a soul whose hope is in the Lord to be disquieted nor to have a down cast countenance! 

 

Psalm 46 — This psalm has been called “The Song of Holy Confidence,” as well as “Luther’s Psalm,” since the famous Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, based his famous hymn⏤A Mighty Fortress Is Our God⏤upon it.

 

A mighty fortress is our God, 

A bulwark never failing;

Our helper he, amid the flood 

Of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe 

Does seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, 

And armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

 

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing,

Were not the right Man on our side,

The Man of God's own choosing.

You ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is he;

Lord Sabaoth his name,

From age to age the same;

And he must win the battle.

 

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God has willed

His truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure;

One little word shall fell him.

 

That Word above all earthly powers

No thanks to them abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

Through him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill:

God's truth abideth still;

His kingdom is forever!

 

Psalm 46:1 — God is ever-present with us to presently help us with every pressing problem. 

 

God, who is our safeguard (refuge) and strength, is not only a present help in need, but a help indeed, who is never more than a short and swift prayer away.

 

Psalm 46:2-3 — Faith in God fortifies us from fear, even in the most terrifying trials and troubling times. 

 

Faith in God supplies the saint with sure footing on solid ground even when earthquakes are shaking, mountainsides are sliding, and the swelling sea is surging!

 

Psalm 46:4-5 — The city of God is the universal church of God—all Christians collectively. God dwells in it by indwelling its tabernacles—all Christians individually. Consequently, the river of eternal life flows through it and its inhabitants are forever glad and guarded within it.

 

There is a river, a never-ending supply of life, that fills the city of God with forever rejoicing, by making it invincible and its inhabitants immortal!

 

Psalm 46:6 — When God speaks, the raging heathen are scared and silenced, worldly kingdoms are shaken and shattered, and the whole earth shudders and shivers. 

 

Like my earthly father, my Heavenly Father will soon end all objections and opposition to unquestioning obedience by uttering this ultimatum: “Because I said so!”

 

Psalm 46:7 — God’s presence is our protection. If He is with us, nothing can withstand us nor whip us!

 

Jehovah Sabaoth, the Head of Heaven’s host, is our sure Helper and safe Haven, who is forever with us!

 

Psalm 46:8-9 — The desolations of the world and the dissolution of war are the work of God. His sovereign fingerprints are on them both.

 

Nothing can be apart from the Almighty’s decree.

 

Psalm 46:10 — It is in stillness and silence that divine activity is sensed in our lives most keenly and that the still small voice of the Spirit is heard in our hearts most clearly.

 

We must be still for God to be exalted, lest our superfluous movements be mistakenly credited for God’s supernatural miracles.

 

To live in intimacy with God, you must live in stillness before God, for to continuously frail away in the flesh is to forfeit close fellowship with the Lord.

 

Psalm 46:11 — God’s presence is our protection. If He is with us, nothing can withstand or whip us!

 

Jehovah Sabaoth, the Head of Heaven’s host, is our sure Helper and safe Haven, who is forever with us!

 

Psalm 49:5-12 — Wealth cannot ransom one from death. While the poor may find themselves under the heel of the prosperous in life, the bank accounts and belongings of the prosperous will be pried from their hands in death. 

 

"You can’t take it with you. There are no pockets in a shroud." (Elsie de Wolfe)

 

Psalm 49:13-15 — The fate of self-made men and their mimickers is to move out of their earthly mansions into mausoleums, but God-made men will prevail over self-made men in the morning of the resurrection, when they move out of mausoleums into heavenly mansions. (Psalm 49:5-12; John 14:2)

 

On the resurrection morning the redeemed will rise from the grave and be received by God to reign with Him as His regents.

 

THE RESURRECTION MORN (Arthur S. Baring-Gould)

 

On the resurrection morning

Soul and body meet again;

No more sorrow, no more weeping,

No more pain.

 

Here awhile they must be parted,

And the flesh its sabbath keep,

Waiting in a holy stillness,

Wrapt in sleep.

 

For a space that tired body

Lies with feet toward the dawn;

Till there breaks the last and brightest

Easter morn.

 

But the soul in contemplation

Utters earnest prayers and strong;

Breaking at the resurrection

Into song.

 

Soul and body reunited,

Thenceforth nothing will divide,

Waking up in Christ's own likeness,

Satisfied.

 

Oh, the beauty, oh, the gladness

Of that resurrection-day!

Which shall not through endless ages,

Pass away!

 

On that happy Easter morning

All the graves their dead restore,

Father, sister, child and mother,

Meet once more.

 

To that brightest of all meetings,

Bring us, Jesus Christ, at last;

To Thy cross, through death and judgment,

Holding fast.

 

Psalm 49:16-19 — You should not be perplexed over the prosperity of the wicked. Although they exalt themselves over it and others envy them for it, it is ephemeral and ends in the grave.

 

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave." (Thomas Gray)

 

Psalm 49:20 — Those who boast in their wealth are like witless beasts, impervious to their impermanence. 

 

The true measure of one’s fortune is seen in the face of one’s mortality.

 

Psalm 50:10-12 — Not only is God’s brand on the cattle of a thousand hills, but He holds the copyright to the birds’ songs and the title deed to the earth.

 

“He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,

The wealth in every mine;

He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills,

The sun and stars that shine.

Wonderful riches, more than tongues can tell—

He is my Father, so they’re mine as well;

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,

I know that He will care for me.” (John W. Peterson)

 

Psalm 51 — This Psalm is the real sinner's prayer, the consummate example of the passionate prayer of a penitent sinner who knows the impossibility of his salvation apart from the divine intervention of a miracle-working and merciful God.

 

Salvation is not a mere human decision, but a stupendous miracle of God. It requires much more than nodding one’s head to the propositional truths of a gospel presentation and simply repeating the “sinner’s prayer” after some well-meaning soul winner. Instead, it requires God-given repentance, which alone can turn sinners from sin with broken hearts and to the Savior with all their hearts. Then, and only then, can the real sinner's prayer be prayed for the soul's salvation.

 

Psalm 51:1a — The plea of penitent sinners to God must begin with a plea for mercy. It’s not justice we need—our just deserts—but mercy—the undeserved pardon of a merciful God. To receive our divine pardon we must plead for it on the basis of God’s mercy, not our merit. 

 

“The Gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving. The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.” (John Stott)

 

Psalm 51:1b — The sinner's plea for mercy must be predicated upon God's lovingkindness—His unconditional love. Unlike others who love us conditionally, according to who we are and what we do, God loves us unconditionally, in spite of who we are and what we do.

 

 

Psalm 51:1c — It is the multitude of God's inexhaustible and everlasting tender mercies that makes possible the divine pardon of every pleading professed sinner.

 

“If we refuse mercy here, we shall have justice in eternity.” (Jeremy Taylor)

 

Psalm 51:1d-2 — Sin is a corrosive stain on human nature that soils the soul. Only divine detergent, the blood of Jesus, can wash it away and cleanse us from it.

 

For us to be justified before God, by God’s blotting out of the befouling blotch of our sins, requires nothing short of a divine miracle of immeasurable proportions.

 

Psalm 51:3 — The grimness of one's sin is never confronted nor the guilt of one's sin confessed until the Spirit of God convicts.

 

Sinners are never driven to their knees to confess their sin and to cry out to God for their salvation, until the Hound of Heaven, the Holy Spirit of God, is sicced on them to dog their heels night and day.

 

Psalm 51:4a — Ultimately, all sin is committed against God alone, since sin is the transgression of God's law and the falling short of God's glory. (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:23)

 

While others may be horribly wronged by our sin, our sin is nonetheless committed against God alone, since He is the final arbiter of right and wrong, to whom we must all ultimately answer and give an account!

 

Psalm 51:4b — Make no mistake about it; sin in the sight of God is not excusable, explainable, nor exemptible, but evil and contemptible!

 

 

Psalm 51:4c — God is clearly justified to convict and condemn us for our undeniable and inexcusable sins. Yet, He has gone to extraordinary lengths to offer us a divine pardon without compromising in the least His divine justice.

 

Since Christ vicariously suffered the punishment for all of our sins, He can justly offer a pardon to all of us sinners.     

 

Psalm 51:5 — Sin is a birthmark all sinners are born with. Man is not just a sinner by choice, but by birth and by nature. He is not good, as popularly believed, but born with a natural proclivity to sin; that is, to do bad rather than good and wrong rather than right.

 

The doctrine of Original Sin has been called the first principle of our faith. If you get this wrong, you’ll get everything wrong. All spiritual deception can be traced back to the denial of this first fundamental. If man is innately good apart from God, then, he doesn’t need God. On the other hand, if man is innately sinful, then, good is impossible apart from God—who alone is good (Mark 10:18)—and man desperately needs God to come to any good end.

 

“The doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy empirically validated by thirty-five centuries of recorded human history” (Anonymous)

 

Psalm 51:5-6 — Man is not a sinner, because he sins, but he sins, because he is a sinner. Our real problem is not so much what we do, but what we are. To "know wisdom" in our lives, we must first know this unflattering "truth" about ourselves in our "inward parts" or hearts.

 

Since the truth is that our real problem is not what we do, that we sin, but what we are, that we are sinners, the Apostle Paul equates Christ saving us from our sins as synonymous with Christ saving us from ourselves; after all, we're our own worst enemy, from which we desperately need to be delivered, (2 Corinthians 5:15 NIV)

 

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” (Pogo)

 

Psalm 51:7a — David knew it would take hyssop, the strongest of cleansers to purge him from sin. Interestingly, hyssop was used to apply the blood of the Passover lambs to the doorposts of the Hebrews' homes in Egypt, so that God's judgement would pass over them. (Exodus 12:12)

 

It is no coincidence that hyssop was used to put the sponge of sour wine to the mouth of Christ, our Passover Lamb, before He cried from the cross, “It is finished,” for it is only by the blood that Christ shed on the cross that we can be purged from our sin and God’s judgment on sin can pass over us. (John 19:28-30)

 

Psalm 51:7b — The only reasonable thing a sinner can do is come to God praying for his or her sins to be washed away. (Isaiah 1:18)

 

According to Isaiah, sinners refuse to repent, despite being beaten black and blue by their sins, because sin makes sinners sick in the head (Isaiah 1:3-5). This fallen world is the victim of a spiritual insanity, which alone explains its spiritual masochism. No matter the consequences suffered, the miseries incurred, or even the toll taken on others, we continue to sin and refuse to repent.

 

Psalm 51:8 — The sinner's conversion is impossible without the preceding miseries of the Spirit's conviction. Brokenness always comes before blessedness, agony before assurance, sorrow before singing, and conviction before conversion!

 

Only under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, not the persistent coaxing of human persuasion, will sinners be convicted of their sin, convinced of their need of a Savior, and come to Christ for salvation. 

 

Psalm 51:9 — When we pray for God's pardon, He doesn't just forgive our sins, He forgets them; He blots them out never again to behold them. (Isaiah 43:25)

 

Did you know that there is one thing God cannot remember? It is the sins of those He has forgiven!

 

Psalm 51:10a — The heart cleansing of sinners requires nothing short of a new creation. God must miraculously transform us into a new person, by transplanting within us a new heart, so that we can take up a new life. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

 

Every Christian receives a heart transplant at conversion, which is miraculously performed by the Great Physician. Our old corrupt heart, with its natural proclivity for unrighteousness, is replaced with a new clean heart, with its natural proclivity for righteousness. 

 

Psalm 51:10b — The backslider's condition is self-induced, but must be divinely remedied, for only God can renew a right spirit within the backslider and heal his or her backsliding. (Hosea 14:4)

 

Far from possessing all that is needed, the backslider is bankrupt of all that is required for reconciliation with God.

 

Psalm 51:11 — The spiritual man should mortify the flesh and daily pray to be both forgiven of sin and delivered from sin, lest his life be devoid of the presence and power of God's Holy Spirit.

 

“Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.” (John Owen)

 

Psalm 51:12a — Although we can lose the "joy" of our salvation, we cannot lose our salvation, since both the miracle of it and the maintaining of it are miraculous works of God, neither of which are dependent upon our works at all.

 

If our righteousness cannot make us deserving of salvation, how can our unrighteousness deprive us of it? If it is not attained by merit, how can it be retained by merit or forfeited by demerit?  

 

Psalm 51:12a — Sin is the sole robber of the joy of our salvation. To forfeit the joy of our salvation for the jocularity and frivolity of this fallen world is to be egregiously shortchanged spiritually. Still, many a modern-day saint makes so scandalous a deal with the devil.

 

“There’s only one thing that can take the joy out of your life: it is sin, and only one kind of sin. You want to know what kind? Yours. That’s the only kind of sin, not somebody else’s sin, but your sin.” (Dr. Adrian Rogers)

 

Psalm 51:12b — Sinners need more than a change of behavior, they need a change of heart, which can only be wrought when the freely given Spirit of God transforms their desire to satisfy their sinful lusts into a desire to live in submission to God's laws.

 

The sinner needs to pray for his obstinate spirit to be transformed into an obedient spirit by the freely given Spirit of God!

 

Psalm 51:13 — You can't preach what you neither practice nor possess. The unrepentant can't preach repentance nor the unredeemed redemption, lest they impede and hinder sinners rather than induce and help them to repent and be redeemed.

 

“I would be a Christian were it not for Christians.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

 

Psalm 51:13-15 — Those who have been pardoned by Christ will be witnesses for Him and worshippers of Him, for there is no possibility that a sinner who has experienced the saving power of Christ will be mum about it or humdrum in his or her appreciation of it.

 

There is no surer sign of a false Christian profession than a confessed Christian who neither witnesses nor worships. 

 

Psalm 51:14a — All sinners are guilty of "bloodguiltiness," since it was our sins that nailed Christ to the cross of Calvary. It wasn't Judas' treachery, the Sanhedrin's condemnation, Pilate's order of execution, nor the Roman soldiers, but you and I who nailed Jesus to the tree.

 

I see the crowd in Pilate's hall,

their furious cries I hear;

their shouts of ‘Crucify!’ appall,

their curses fill my ear.

And of that shouting multitude

I feel that I am one,

and in that din of voices rude

I recognize my own.

 

I see the scourgers tear the flesh

of God's beloved Son;

and as they smite I feel afresh

that of them, I am one.

Around the Cross the throng I see

that mock the Sufferer's groan,

yet still my voice it seems to be,

as if I mocked alone.

 

Twas I that shed that sacred Blood,

I nailed him to the Tree,

I crucified the Christ of God,

I joined the mockery.

Yet not the less that Blood avails

to cleanse me from sin,

and not the less that Cross prevails

to give me peace within. (Horatius Bonar).

 

Psalm 51:14b-15 — The worship of the redeemed is irrepressible. To be raised out of the deep valley of sin to the soaring summit of salvation is a most rapturous experience. One cannot go through the exultation of salvation without the accompanying exaltation of the Savior.

 

Whereas the redeemed saint cannot help but worship, the unrepentant sinner is incapable of it.

 

Psalm 51:16 — Like David, our sins against God are so egregious that there is nothing we can offer to God nor do for God to ever merit His absolution or acceptance. All we can do, since we too can offer God nothing He desires nor delights in, is plead for a divine pardon.

 

Not the labor of my hands

Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

 

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die. (Augustus M. Toplady)

 

Psalm 51:17 — The only sacrifices God accepts from sinners are broken hearts and penitent spirits. God does not despise, but delights in a sinner heartbroken over his or her sins and determined to wholeheartedly turn from sin to Him.

 

Only those who have been heartbroken over their sins by the conviction of the Holy Spirit will develop a detestation of sin that serves as a sure sign of their salvation from sin. 

 

Psalm 51:17 — It is only those who are brokenhearted over their sins against God whose brokenheartedness the Great Physician came into this world to heal. (Luke 4:18)

 

It is not those brokenhearted over what their sin cost them, but brokenhearted over what their sin cost Christ, whose broken hearts are healed by Christ. 

 

Psalm 51:18 — David knew he could not pray for God to take pleasure in Zion or to build the walls of Jerusalem until he had been pardoned by God. Likewise, the prayers of all unforgiven sinners are never heard by God until they first pray to God for His forgiveness. (Psalm 66:18)

 

There is no hope of revival corporately in the church until Christians are right with God individually.

 

Psalm 51:19 — The sinner can offer God no sacrifice except a broken heart, prepared for God's altar by God's Spirit. The saint, however, having been forgiven by God and made right with God can offer to God the pleasing sacrifices of those made righteous by God.

 

The saints, who have been mercifully pardoned by God, should continually offer the sacrifice of praise to their most merciful God. (Hebrews 13:15)

 

Psalm 51:19 — This magnificent psalm ends with David no longer morning over his sin, but mesmerized with his Savior, his guilt is expunged, his sin forgiven, and his salvation assured. David is off his knees and no longer pleading; his hands are uplifted and he is now praising.

 

Once the truly penitent sinner has been divinely pardoned, his guilt is no longer ever before him nor gloom all around him, but the glory of God is suddenly seen as all encompassing to him.

 

Psalm 53:1 — Atheism is not the conclusion of a clever mind, but of a corrupt one. It is not spawned by scholarship nor science, but by sin. (Psalm 14:1; Romans 1:18-19)

 

It’s iniquitous ignoramuses, not intelligent intellectuals, who say, “There is no God.”

Psalm 55:22 — There is no sense in carrying your burdens, when you can cast them upon the Lord, who can sustain you under them, keep you stedfast through them, and secure your victory over them.