With the kind You show Yourself kind; with the blameless You show Yourself blameless; with the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the crooked You show Yourself astute. Psalm 18:25-26 NASB Astute – Are you kind? Then you experience the kindness of God. Are you blameless (yes, I know that might seem impossible)? Then…
I was also blameless with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Psalm 18:23 NASB My iniquity – It would be much easier to for David to say that he kept himself “from iniquity.” Then the wickedness would be alien, outside, an enemy at a distance. But David uses the Hebrew ‘awoni, the combination…
The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. Psalm 18:20-21 NASB According to my righteousness – Who among us could make a claim like David’s? Who…
He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. Psalm 18:11 NASB Darkness – Where is the Lord, the God of creation, YHVH of Israel? Why don’t we see Him exercise His mighty hand on behalf of the righteousness? Why are the wicked of the world…
Then the earth shook and quaked; and the foundations of the mountains were trembling and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, and fire from His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it. Psalm 18:7-8 NASB Angry – God is angry. Woe to sinner is His hands! At least…
In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears. Psalm 18:6 NASB In my distress – batstsarli – “in my distress” – is the place of confinement. The narrow place. The…
The cords of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. Psalm 18:5 NASB Cords/surrounded – What are the cords of Sheol? How will we know what to do to avoid them unless we understand what they are? Perhaps we can begin by discovering what they are not. First, the cords of Sheol are…
The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. Psalm 18:4 NASB Torrents – Escape! Escape to the waste places! Run for your life away from the wicked and their overpowering influence. How else will you survive? How can you resist the constant barrage of cultural deviations from the way of…
If you know that He is righteous, you know that every one also who practices righteousness is born of Him. 1 John 2:29 NASB Righteous – This is about as close as John comes to describing “born again.” But John’s focus is not on the experience of forgiveness. He focuses on the practice of righteousness….
Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. Proverbs 19:20 NASB Be wise – I have recently been reading the early speeches of Abraham Heschel. Fifty years ago his prophetic insight into our culture sounded the warning. Fifty years later it seems as though we didn’t listen…
