Psalm 78: Part 1: Psalms for Shepherds

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Psalm 78: Part 1: Psalms for Shepherds

An audible devotional on Psalms 78: Part 1

August 20, 2022 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds • Psalm 78

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We're beginning a series in Psalm 78 today, where Asaph, the psalmist, is recounting how God had been faithful to his ancestors, the Israelites, and how they had often repaid Him with disobedience. Please join me in the first 8 verses...

1 My people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3 things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.

The first eight verses in this psalm serve a great purpose. It's what I’m calling the “yets” and the “therefores” and the “so’s” of what God did without being reminded that God always has a bigger purpose than we think in everything He does.

My encouragement to you today, dear shepherd leader, is to evaluate what God has done in your life — or in previous generations of your family — that your children need to know so that they, and generations after them, may continue to put their hope in God and keep His commandments.

What are the testimonies in your life of God having a bigger purpose than you imagined? Have you shared them and allowed them to encourage others?

May you live deeply into your calling this week.

Psalm 127 | Psalms for Shepherds

September 14, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 127

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to the Presence Point Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week we continue our journey in the Psalms of Ascent with one of only two psalms attributed to Solomon - Psalm 127. These five verses speak boldly about the importance of the WHY behind what we do and who we do it for - the importance of remembering that unless a house, or a family, is built with the Lord at the helm the effort is completely in vain. Everything we do must be blessed by the Father. And that takes place when we allow Him to re-orient our identity and trust and re-establish Him as the primary identity of our life and the One in whom our deepest trust rests. It is then that He often multiplies time, money, effort, and outcome. That is how His economy works. He can take what seems inadequate from our human perspective and make it far greater than we ever imagined or hoped or dreamed into exactly what He wants it to be. He can take our best, well-balanced efforts and provide maximized outcomes. The Father does not need us to work from early morning until late at night to a place of exhaustion to accomplish His goals because verse 2 of this psalm tells us that God gives rest to His loved ones. He intends us to have rest and peace and balance. Remember that day called the Sabbath? The reality is that the result is always His anyway - what He knows is best and what He believes will best develop us and those we shepherd into who He wants us and them to be. Success for us - in any area of our lives - will only be what the Father chooses to bless, and we must rest in that promise. He is enough and He alone is our primary source of identity, the One in whom we place all of our trust. Dear fellow under-shepherd, I pray this is true of you and of me - that we will in fact truly rely not on ourselves and our ability to shepherd well, but on the Good Shepherd Himself to ensure we shepherd well those He has entrusted to our care. Thank you for joining me this week.

Psalm 126 | Psalms for Shepherds

August 3, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 126

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome once again to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week we continue our journey in the Psalms of Ascent with Psalm 126. Although perhaps written as a corporate lament, there is much language of hope and joy in these six verses. Nearly every verse contains an expression of joy – laughter, images of restored fortunes, streams in the desert, and abundance of harvest. However, we can also see in the song that the current state of the psalmist is not one of joy, ease, and abundance, yet he writes and sings in hope. Much like the hope we found in Psalm 125! It was the looking back at God’s faithfulness, at what He had done in the past that allowed the psalmist and singers to proclaim in that moment that they were filled with joy. The question we must ask ourselves is this: Do we live like this, dear shepherd? Facing the day as author Pete Santucci says, “like giddy dreamers whose dreams had actually come true”?, remembering God’s grace, His merciful love, the beauty in your life, and your standing in Christ no matter what may come? The psalm is a reminder to remember… to remember the goodness of God. The writers of the She Reads Truth Bible reading plan, The Psalms of Ascent, sum up Psalm 126 this way: “This song uses the memory of hardships [and rejoicing] as encouragement to remember that joy is worth the journey. And with that hope, this song calls the singers to be confident God will continue to use sadness to bring a better joy as they press forward.” Yes, the joy in Jesus is worth the journey through this world. Today, do you need to be reminded of how in the past our Good Shepherd has kept and cared for you, or a loved one, or one or more of sheep in your life? Pour out your prayer to Him, and may this psalm be a template for you. Look back. Choose praise and joy. Lay your requests before Him with the confident expectation that He will certainly be faithful again. After all, He has promised it. My prayer is that your sadness and mine, when it comes, will bring a better joy to us as we press forward, and that you find yourself held, hope-filled, and at peace in the presence of your Shepherd today. Thank you for joining me this week. As you allow Jesus to shepherd you, may you shepherd well those He has entrusted to your care.

Psalm 125 | Psalms for Shepherds

July 27, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 125

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week we are in Psalm 125, yet another Psalm of Ascent. This one wonderfully names the benefits that faith and faithfulness bring to God’s people. This song mentions “those who trust in the Lord”, who are called good and upright. One translation puts it this way: “those whose hearts are in tune with God”. And this song speaks of the wicked and refers to them as “whose scepter will not rest on the land allotted to the righteous”. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “Two kinds of men are always to be found, the upright and the men of crooked ways... When God is smiting the unfaithful, not a blow shall fall upon the faithful.” It may not always seem like this last sentence of Spurgeon’s is true, but it is! For believers today, this promise will ultimately be fulfilled when God’s people from every nation, tribe, and tongue reign in the new earth. Ultimately, not a blow shall rest on the righteous. It is that confidence that is what keeps followers of the Good, Great, and Chief Shepherd standing in moments where, in our humanness, we want to sink to the floor and crawl into a corner. It is then that we can have the confidence of verse 1 of this psalm: “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever”. And, from verse 2: “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.” And that, fellow under-shepherd, is what we must rest in today. No matter what is tempting to shake us, “even as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds” us. No matter what wickedness is looming before us, it shall “not rest on the land allotted to the righteous”. No matter what’s happening in our family, among our team members, in our organizations, or among the congregation, even as we lead in the most difficult of situations, we can stand firm, we can obey the father, we can continue to talk to and listen to him, and we can have hope in the God of the universe and every one of His promises. Thank you for joining me this week. And thank you for the commitment you have made to shepherd well.