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Day 34: Praising in the Great Congregation

March 22, 2024 • Lauren Honea, Scott Graham, Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 22:20–31, Psalm 103:1–5

The sudden change described in Psalm 22:21 occurs for Jesus between Good Friday and Easter. Jesus dies in this world. His voice sounds no more. Then it does. Jesus departs into the silence of death on Friday and then blinks awake in new life on Easter. How soon, alive in that cave, does he finish the psalm he started on the cross? Perhaps he wonders, “What do I do now?” Then he prays in his joy, “I will tell of your name to my brothers!” Jesus prays Psalm 22 even now, "in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you."

Day 42: I Love the LORD

March 30, 2024 • Lauren Honea, Scott Graham, Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 103:1–5, Psalm 116:1–9

Can you visualize Jesus standing with arms outstretched and head turned upwards? Can you hear him say in front of his disciples, “I love my Father because he has heard my voice.” The Son prays; the Father responds. Love passes between them. Their love sources the whole universe. Father and Son ever reach and reply to one another. We live in the magnetic field of their eternal attraction. In the midst of our hurting, broken world, the incarnate Son lifts his heart to say, “I love the LORD!” 

Day 41: The Joy of His Return

March 29, 2024 • Lauren Honea, Scott Graham, Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 103:1–5, Psalm 96:1–6, Psalm 96:10–13

Throughout his life, this psalm would have uplifted Jesus in praise to his Father. In time, he would understand how it pointed toward his return in glory. He would have drawn hope from this future even on this day. For in Psalm 96, Jesus knows that the way things are right now is not the way things will always be.

Day 40: Our Great High Priest

March 28, 2024 • Psalm 103:1–5, Psalm 110:1–4

Through his years of reading the Psalms in his prayers to the LORD whom he knew intimately as Father, Jesus realizes how Psalm 110 had been written for him! This prophetic song of David gives Jesus insight into his unique identity as a man born of Mary and the Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit. He follows the Scriptural logic to know that only one person could be both the son and the Lord of David. Only one man could rule over Israel from the heavenly position of the Father’s right hand—Jesus himself.