Author: PGC Administrator

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Psalm 116

English Standard Version (ESV)

I Love the Lord

116      I love the Lord, because he has heard

  my voice and my pleas for mercy.

2          Because he inclined his ear to me,
  therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

3          The snares of death encompassed me;
  the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
  I suffered distress and anguish.

4          Then I called on the name of the Lord:
  “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

5          Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
  our God is merciful.

6          The Lord preserves the simple;
  when I was brought low, he saved me.

7          Return, O my soul, to your rest;
  for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

8          For you have delivered my soul from death,
  my eyes from tears,
  my feet from stumbling;

9          I will walk before the Lord
  in the land of the living.

10        I believed, even when I spoke:
  “I am greatly afflicted”;

11        I said in my alarm,
  “All mankind are liars.”

12        What shall I render to the Lord
  for all his benefits to me?

13        I will lift up the cup of salvation
  and call on the name of the Lord,

14        I will pay my vows to the Lord
  in the presence of all his people.

15        Precious in the sight of the Lord
  is the death of his saints.

16        O Lord, I am your servant;
  I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
  You have loosed my bonds.

17        I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
  and call on the name of the Lord.

18        I will pay my vows to the Lord
  in the presence of all his people,

19        in the courts of the house of the Lord,
  in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

Reflection

• The psalmist gave thanks to God for delivering him from imminent death and for lengthening his life. He promised to praise God in the temple for these blessings.
• This is a hymn of individual thanksgiving, and it is also messianic. This is a good psalm to read when you need to recommit yourself to serving God.
• Recall a time when you did call on God and he answered you and showed you great and mighty things. What was this experience like for you? What “sacrifice of thanksgiving” could you give to God?

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+115

Psalm 115

English Standard Version (ESV)

To Your Name Give Glory

115      Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

                for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

2          Why should the nations say,
  “Where is their God?”

3          Our God is in the heavens;
  he does all that he pleases.

4          Their idols are silver and gold,
  the work of human hands.

5          They have mouths, but do not speak;
  eyes, but do not see.

6          They have ears, but do not hear;
  noses, but do not smell.

7          They have hands, but do not feel;
  feet, but do not walk;
  and they do not make a sound in their throat.

8          Those who make them become like them;
  so do all who trust in them.

9          O Israel, trust in the Lord!
  He is their help and their shield.

10        O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
  He is their help and their shield.

11        You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
  He is their help and their shield.

12        The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us;
  he will bless the house of Israel;
  he will bless the house of Aaron;

13        he will bless those who fear the Lord,
  both the small and the great.

14        May the Lord give you increase,
  you and your children!

15        May you be blessed by the Lord,
  who made heaven and earth!

16        The heavens are the Lord’s heavens,
  but the earth he has given to the children of man.

17        The dead do not praise the Lord,
  nor do any who go down into silence.

18        But we will bless the Lord
  from this time forth and forevermore.
Praise the Lord!

Reflection

• This is a hymn sung by the whole community, rejoicing in its solidarity as a people of the Lord. We are taught to give glory to God, and not to ourselves (v 1); and not to idols (vv 2-8). We must give glory to God by trusting in him, in his promise and blessing (vv 9-15); and by blessing him (vv 16-18). 
• Passover recalls events which set the God of Israel apart from the deities of all nations. Pagans scoff because God cannot be seen, yet their idols of silver and gold are inanimate lumps. Therefore, God’s people cry out together:

O Israel, trust in the Lord!
  He is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
  He is their help and their shield.

You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
  He is their help and their shield.

• What are some modern idols? Christian idols? In what sense do you become what you worship? Are there any ideas, things, people that you trust more readily than God?
• Consider how vastly superior God is to all idols. Ask God to help you forsake the idols in your life.

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+114

Psalm 114

English Standard Version (ESV)

Tremble at the Presence of the Lord

114      When Israel went out from Egypt,
  the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

2          Judah became his sanctuary,
  Israel his dominion.

3          The sea looked and fled;
  Jordan turned back.

4          The mountains skipped like rams,
  the hills like lambs.

5          What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
  O Jordan, that you turn back?

6          O mountains, that you skip like rams?
  O hills, like lambs?

7          Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
  at the presence of the God of Jacob,

8          who turns the rock into a pool of water,
  the flint into a spring of water.

Reflection

• When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he dwelt among them and ruled over them.
• The psalmist personified the Red Sea as seeing the Israelites coming and fleeing from them by parting its waters. Later when the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the Jordan River backed up as far as the town of Adam, farther north in the Jordan Valley, to let them cross. The mountains around Sinai quaked when God came down on Mt. Horeb to meet with his people.
• Therefore, everyone should tremble before the Lord (v7), as God’s creation does, because he uses his great power to save and to provide for his people. Remembering his deliverance and provision should move us to fear and be in awe of him. And we offer him praise.
• Where does your “salvation history” begin? What main events would you retell in a personal psalm?
• What in your life was: (1) Egypt? (2) The Red Sea? (3) The Jordan? (4) Sinai? (5) Water from the rock?

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+113

Psalm 113

English Standard Version (ESV)

Who Is like the Lord Our God?

113      Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,
  praise the name of the Lord!

2          Blessed be the name of the Lord
  from this time forth and forevermore!

3          From the rising of the sun to its setting,
  the name of the Lord is to be praised!

4          The Lord is high above all nations,
  and his glory above the heavens!

5          Who is like the Lord our God,
  who is seated on high,

6          who looks far down
  on the heavens and the earth?

7          He raises the poor from the dust
  and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

8          to make them sit with princes,
  with the princes of his people.

9          He gives the barren woman a home,
  making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!

Reflection

• Psalm 113 is the first of a collection of six psalms (Ps 113-118) used in the celebration of Passover. They affirmed God for raising up the oppressed (Ps 113), and for deliverance from Egypt (Ps 114). They offered the praise of the community (Ps 115), the individual (Ps 116), and all the nationals (Ps 117). The cycle concluded with an exultant shout of praise that looked forward to the coming Messiah (Ps 118).
• Passover was truly a season of praise. Each year, the Jewish people recalled all God had done for them as each Jewish family reenacted the supper held the night death struck Egypt and passed by the blood-marked homes of God’s own. At last Pharaoh agreed to release his slaves. Passover thus was a festival of freedom, a joyous celebration of God’s salvation.
• The God of Israel, who is exalted over all nations and whose glory is above the heavens, stooped down to raise “the poor from the dust”, and lift “the needy from the ash heap”. It is fitting to praise the Lord God.
• We Christians too have a Passover to celebrate. God in Christ became a man, and humbled himself to accept death, that we, who are marked with his blood through our faith, might be lifted up beyond princes, to stand before the very throne of God.
• Spend some time meditating on your own Passover experience. Offer a praise and thanksgiving to God and the Passover Lamb.

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me. Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.