OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 22

Psalm 22:1-31

22:1-2 This Psalm is special in that it is the Psalm of David Jesus chose to recite on the cross. This Psalm expresses the journey of faith: un-trust to trust; doubt to understanding; fear to peace; weakness to strength, independence to dependence, danger to safety; indifference to praise; irreverence to worship.

Jesus chose this Psalm because it is the journey all children of God are able to take when they choose Him. The journey reveals that we are not forsaken but chosen, not alone but advocated for, not unheard but answered. 

David learned patience and trust. Desperate situations, early in his faith, caused him to make desperate proclamations of doubt and accusation against God. He misinterpreted his impatience as God's silence. But over a lifetime of steadfast growth in faith, David began to understand God's quiet, timely movements. As His prayers were steadily answered, safety attained and provision received, he learned that God had been listening. More than that, God had been answering, "Yes," all along. 

We learn that Jesus spoke this Psalm in Matthew 27:46. We must not misinterpret these words as Jesus' own; indeed these were the words of David. Likely, Jesus recited this entire Psalm. The entire Psalm would have encouraged others in their journey of faith as it moved from fear to peace, and doubt to trust. By the end of the Psalm, all of God's goodness is revealed and therefore the fear at the beginning rendered moot. It is a Psalm that teaches us not to fear, not to feel unheard or unloved, even though we have desperate moments, perhaps confessions, just like David had.

22:3-5 While his faith and trust in God was still under development, David relied on scripture; he relied on God's history with His people. David trusted in the reputation God had earned. His ancestors had trusted in God and were saved because of Him. Like any relationship, our relationship with God is a process, and God understands that. He knows that we take steps, lifelong, into deeper trust. 

22:6-8 David was attacked and vulnerable; insecure and humbled by his enemies. They did not believe in him and he did not believe in himself; his internal mindset was fragile, desperate, weak. So many in scripture experienced emotions we still have today; their experience should bolster our fortitude in faith. God was able to rescue David from that despair. 

22:9-11 Steadily David came to the realization that God had been present in his life; God was the reason he existed at all. He realized that he could request God's help in his tribulation, and that only God's help would be enough. 

22:12-18 He felt surrounded, and nearly devoured. He knew he could not climb out of his situation on his own strength. His only hope was divine intervention, the compassion and intervention of God. It is fitting that Jesus would speak this Psalm on the cross; for often it is in our most desperate times that learn to put out hope and trust in God. 

22:19-21 David asked God to be near, to strengthen him, to rescue him and God answered. Our call to God results in an immediate change of course. Our life takes on new direction and higher quality. Just like David, God's can change us from trapped to free; weak to strong; lonely to comforted, directionless to purposeful. There are so many transformations God makes in our lives when we put our faith in him; this Psalm is David's personal account of that truth.

22:22-29 Rescued by God, David expressed gratitude. He boasted of God's goodness and strength and compassion. His relationship with God changed forever; he had learned that it was safe, and even prudent, to trust in God. David sought God and then praised him, because in finding God, he found life. David knew that one day, the whole world would marvel at God. All the earth would worship.

22:30-31 The relationship with God, continues, as David knew it would. For God is absolute, steadfast, omnipresent. David knew that new generations of people would continue to come and learn to love God. That their lives would be transformed and lighted by God when they put their trust in Him. He is worthy of perpetual worship. Jesus spoke this Psalm on the cross and wisely; for the event of God-With-Us was not a  merely moment, it began a forever.

OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 21

Psalm 21:1-13

21:1-2 David was filled with gratitude and joy for the strength, salvation and answer to blessing He provided him with. King David always ensured that his relationship with God went both ways. God was generous and gracious, David was obedient and thankful. It was God's strength that powered him through life and the joy of God's love that lighted his days.

21:3-4 God provides life: life that is full and purposeful, steady and progressive. The children of God who serve Him are loved by Him, cared for by Him, as royalty. Our provision from Him is abundant; we receive both what we need and the good things we wants us to have. 

21:5-6 God's own glory, honor, and majesty is placed upon the life of His children; for that reason, we live differently than does the rest of the world. We rest on God's peace; we benefit from His orchestration of both personal and universal details.

21:7 A relationship with God must have a relationship of trust. David received comfort and mercy from God because he trusted God to provide it. Fear and worry dissipated because of that deep trust; God's adept orchestration in difficult situations proved to David that God could be relied on. 

21:8-12 Moreover, we can trust, as David did, that God can handle His enemies. And God's enemies are the people who antagonize you. So we can trust that His light will pierce the darkness that tries to infiltrate our life. 

21:13 David exalted God, praised Him and sang of God's power and strength. He marveled at God's characteristics: supernatural mercy and grace, undefeated power and strength, abundant love and  impenetrable defense. 

OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 20

Psalm 20:1-9

20:1-3 David makes several prayers for us:

May the Lord answer you.

May the Lord defend you.

May the Lord help you.

May the Lord remember you.

May the Lord accept you.

And truly it is a blessing at we can count on God to do each of those things: He listens and answers, watches and defends, supports, remembers and accepts. He has made us His priority; and as His children, we have access to that which so much of the world neglects. We do not rely on things or people or substances to ensure our happiness, or ability to endure. Our reliance is on our Provider, our Savior, our almighty God who knows our needs and fills them expertly, consistently, fully.

20:4 David's intercessory prayer for us continues:

May He grant according to your heart's desire

May He fulfill all your purpose.

When we commit ourselves and our life to God, our heart's desire and our purpose align. God ensures that both are fulfilled. When He is our treasure, our heart's desire and He is our purpose and destination, we can be sure that the path of our life and everything that comes onto it is known by Him and under His authority. 

20:6 Be confident, as David was, that God will save His anointed (the children who chose Him and who were thus chosen for great purpose). We have God's ear and from His place He will answer what needs and questions we speak into it. Powerfully, deftly. 

20:7-8 Regardless of what others, or the world in general trusts in, we choose to remember that only God is worthy of our trust. Others have bowed down to the material world, to temptation, to self-serving interests, but we have risen in faith. We stand in righteousness. 

20:9 David closes his prayer with a request: save, Lord; answer, Lord. We need His rescue and His voice. 

OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 19

Psalms 19:1-14

19:1-4 The connection between God and the earth extends beyond humanity. David perceived that the skies and mountains, the atmosphere and physical earth responds to its creator, express acknowledgement and obedience to Him. In every corner, every place. The kingdom of heaven is both universal and atomic. To love God, to acknowledge him and obey Him is to meld, spiritually, into the whole of life. 

19:5-6 He has made this earth a beautiful and hospitable place. A place of warmth and survival, extending all around. 

19:7-11 The word of God is instructive and instrumental in our life. He transforms the quality of our soul, enhances its better qualities and gives us wisdom beyond our boundaries. His justice is purer than any system we come up with on our own; he helps us to adhere to and rejoice in the way and fruits of justice and enlightenment. 

19:12-13 David recognized that he would need God's assistance in becoming and remaining pure in faith.  He knew that he needed God to restrain him sometimes from worldly tendencies. To cleanse him from the results of worldly pursuits. David set God's authority to dominion over his life because he knew that something else, something tainted, would take over if he did not. David committed himself and his life to God; he understood that God's ownership of his life meant nothing else could steal or tempt him away. 

19:14 David wanted to ensure that what he spoke was righteous and sincere. God is our power and savior and we should strive, also, to please Him, to adhere to the philosophy of life he designed for us. 

OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 18

Psalm 18:1-50

18:1-3 David proclaimed that he would continue to love the Lord. He listed his reasons, and more specifically, the offices God filled in his life: his strength and foundation, fortress, protector and deliverer; the most faithful, trustworthy force in his life; his shield and salvation and stronghold. For all of the places God filled with strength, love and provision, David knew that God was worthy to be praised. David praised God who made him safe from all of his enemies, within and without. 

God's love and protection is comprehensive. He fills all of our needs and delights in providing additional blessing. David proclaimed that he did not just love God in the present moment but that he would continue to. We must be as steadfastly loyal to God as God is to us. 

18:4-6 David experienced fear and sorrow, and captivity to distress but God rescued him from all of it. God heard his voice. If God is listening for us, we have the opportunity to speak to Him; we have access to God's arsenal of power we need only to ask for it. 

18:7-12 God came into David's love as a storm, the storm of storms, against his enemies. Never doubt that God can rush into your live with forces strong enough to dispel whatever plagues you. In ways that cannot anticipated He sweeps in to change and rectify, indignant on behalf of His beloved child.

18:13-15 For David, God scattered the foe. The Lord did not arrive swiftly and powerfully in David's life because David was perfect. David was not perfect. Yet his unyielding love and obedience to his faith initiated the power of God in the circumstances of his life.  

18:16-19 In the way that only He can, God reached down and lifted David out of his troubled waters. He plucked David up from people and situations which were more powerful than he was. And though David was confronted on all sides by enemies, God was his support blocking each of them. He rescued David and then delivered him to a broad place, a safe place of joy and opportunity... a place to express his love for God without toxic distraction. 

18:20-24 As long as David's intentions remained good, his love for God pure, God's power was active in his life. God has laid out careful, simple instructions for us on how to live righteously. David followed those instructions and a righteous lifestyle results in peace. Peace upheld by the hand of God. A righteously lifestyle disallows the infiltration of unrighteousness, there are no cracks through which it can enter when your relationship with God is solid. 

18:25-27 Our relationship with God is what we put into it. We fill our own basket; we reap what we sow. What we put into the world is what we build around ourselves. 

18:28-30 Light and power. God illuminates the darkness, expels the monsters. He is our wall and army. Our springboard out of old places and into new ones. Our God is perfect therefore our trust in Him should be secure.

18:31-34 David marveled at the uniqueness of our God. Nothing compares. He makes us able and eloquent, deft and raised. He instructs and comforts, prepares and leads and protects. 

18:35-36 God's support is firm, His touch is gentle. He is a patient father, tenderly teaching us the way through new or difficult things. Present and beaming in our happiness, resilient and wise in our sorrow.

18:37-42 God made David strong enough to conquer his enemies. Whether our demons are internal or our enemies external, God will empower us to be stronger. He pulls the weeds in our lives up from the root, the dissipate as dust and ashes in the wind. 

18:43-45 Even though so many people and nations were against David, none of them prevailed against God. God made a seemingly impossible dream a reality for enemies to balk at and his children to marvel within.

18:46-49 David reiterates that God is worthy of praise. The beginning and end of everything should be praise for our Father, who does for us as He did for David. Ultimate, impenetrable protection. Abundant provision. Lasting peace. Perfect justice. Swift rescue. Safe haven. 

18:50 God is good and merciful to His children. 

OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 17

Psalm 17:1-15

17:1-2 Though he was not perfect, David dedicated himself to God, to life as a child of God. He put a focused, dedicated effort on living as a righteous soul and he trusted that the culmination of such a life would result in the presence of God.

17:3-5 David made his best effort to remain on a holy path, this is, he tried his best to be honest and fair and kind. Yet David recognized that he would make errors. He called upon the help and support of God to keep him from straying off the path, to prevent him from slipping.

It is realistic that we should expect error from ourselves; in fact it is crucial that we do, because we must be prepared in those moments to call on God to save us from ourselves, from temptation and other stumbling blocks.

17:6-9 David had spoken to the Lord, and had promised the Lord that he would hear even more from David. Make the same pronouncement to God: that you know Him and will continue to; that you have said His name and will keep saying it. David knew, wholeheartedly, that could would hear him. And that by being heard by God, he would receive a haven and a savior.

Are you as confident in God as David was? 

17:10-12 David had enemies and problems not just in his line of sight but surrounding him; but none of those enemies or problems could penetrate the shield of protection his relationship with God placed over his life. The will of God would persevere through their plans, despite their plans.

17:13-14 Instead of trying (and failing) to orchestrate his own solutions, David called to God. He called on the thorough power of God to sort out, heal, fix, and change the details of his life that needed attention.

17:15 David decided that his satisfaction came from becoming more and more like God in spirit and character. David's wealth and joy was his relationship with God. David recognized that other people had different treasures but his would always be the Lord.

OT: The Book of Psalms, Psalm 16

Psalm 16:1-11

16:1 David's ability to endure was dependent entirely on God. No matter what or who tried to tear David down, he knew that his faith would enable him to withstand. The comfort and the strength of the Lord is absolute.

16:2-3 He knew that the goodness in him was God and was because of God. He delighted in the work God had done in the world and in himself. He appreciated the workers of God who put His philosophy into action among humanity. 

16:4 So many people place their love, trust, desire and reliance on things outside of God. On money, power or pride. There are so many ways we could dump our devotion out on unworthy things. David refused to do that; it is a lifelong effort, steadfast devotion to God.

16:5-6 The will of God over David's life had saved him, provided for him, protected him and planned for him. It was not David's own action that built a beautiful life, it was God's. With awe and gratitude David recognized the work God had done in his life.

16:7-8 David appointed God as his sole counselor. As such, God counseled David's soul. He comforted it. David put God in front of him always. He put God's philosophy at the forefront of the decisions he made. His solid faith made him solid in life, unmoved by his enemies or fears.

16:9 David had gladness; he rejoiced and rested in God because of God's goodness covering his whole heart and life. No love or strength or wisdom is as comprehensive as God's. Those who trust in God have a comfort the rest of the world cannot even fathom. 

16:10 David knew that God would rescue and protect him.

16:11 In David's own words:

You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

God leads His children through life, and through the details of it. He provides joy and hope interminable.