Psalms
The Gospel In Song
Truly God Is Good
August 20, 2023 • Michael McCracken • Psalm 73
A theme emerges in scripture around the idea of being envious of evildoers and sinners. Throughout the ages people have struggled with the reality that those who do evil seem to flourish and be successful. Scripture doesn’t shy away from the fact that good things don’t always happen to those who “do good” and that bad things don’t always happen to those who “do bad”. As believers, how are we supposed to walk faithfully in the midst of this reality?
Hoping In A Person
August 13, 2023 • Michael McCracken • Psalm 72
The gospel is ultimately hoping in a person. Our hope is that by faith in Christ we are bestowed with His righteousness, sins forgiven, and relationship with God restored. As it turns out, scripture is a narrative that shows that we really have been hoping in “persons” since the beginning. We prove over and over again that we were made for this. The problem is that we reject the Lord by hoping in someone other than Him.
Finishing Well
July 30, 2023 • Michael McCracken • Psalm 71:1–15
We come upon a very familiar Psalm. It’s familiar because we have read similar passages already. What makes this Psalm unique is that we find out that this one is written in his old age. Oh the perspective we gain about that which is most important when our strength has been poured out.
Life from Dread
July 31, 2022 • Michael McCracken • Psalm 64
Sometimes the warrior can lose sight of the point of being a warrior. Sometimes in weariness and exhaustion and wounded-ness the warrior can believe that it is safer and easier to find sure footing by simply viewing everyone and everything as the enemy. To be sure, life impacts the way your flesh is conditioned to view, perceive, and respond to every situation you walk into. The Psalmist seems to outline some of the ways we would be tempted to hide ourselves and make ourselves feel “safe” and “secure” as ones who set their minds on the flesh. What would it look like to respond, in those same situations, as ones who set their minds on the Spirit? In this Psalm we really can find life from dread.
Longing
July 24, 2022 • James Evans • Psalm 63
Longing is an emotion that most of us are pretty uncomfortable with. We don’t like the feeling that it creates in us. This uneasiness that there is something out there that my heart deeply wants, and I don’t have it. We deal with this in many different ways. Most often, when we do experience a deep longing in our heart, we try to satisfy it as fast as we can or at least distract ourselves from it. But most of the time, in our immediacy to put the longing to rest, we settle for things that only curb it and do not leave us deeply satisfied. Others of us have tried that enough, and now we just seek not to long for anything. We settle into lives that fall well short of our desires and mask our sorrows with the outward appearance of contentment. “I should be grateful for what I have,” we tell ourselves as we put our desire for joy to rest. But what do we do when we can’t curb the craving when we can’t find a distraction that can block out the urgency of our need? What do we do when our sorrow won’t be hidden behind a veil of contentment. This is where we find King David in Psalm 63. With a longing that must be satisfied and a clarity that only the wilderness can provide, calling out to a God that He believes not only has the ability but the desire to give him the joy he so desperately seeks.
Greatly Shaken
July 17, 2022 • Michael McCracken • Psalm 62
Hebrews tells us that God shakes things so that we will know what belongs to His Kingdom and what belongs to the kingdom of this world. We live in a time where it seems like everything is being shaken and it truly seems difficult to know where to find firm footing. The writer of Ecclesiastes looked in many places and in many directions only to come to the conclusion that all was vanity. In Psalm 52 we are given a picture of what it looks like to see God as truly our rock and salvation as well as a picture of what it looks like to react was one who is “shaken”. One of the great dangers of our time is that in our culture it seems perfectly acceptable to be shaken all the time and still believe that you are a Christian. When the Lord calls us to speak the truth, may we we be living the lives to go along with it. It would seem that as believers, if this was ever going to be the case, we must take up the discipline of silence and grow in the ability to pour out our hearts before Him. It will be in those spaces where we can come to know Him, in the midst of all things shaking, as the true and powerful One Who is working out His steadfast love. This becomes our firm foundation as the things and people around us continue to be blown and tossed. May we, the people of God serve as a non-shaken presence pointing others to the Mighty One who saves.