>Feel like the wicked are doing a tap dance on your head? Read Psalm 94.Many years ago, I heard a pastor use the tap dance illustration and the imagery has stuck in my mind. What an appropriate analogy for those times in life when you feel that evil beats your brain in an oppressive staccato … Continue reading >Justice will return, Psalm 94

>God never ceases to amaze me.It's likely because I'm such a slow learner that God continues teaching me the same lessons over and over. But I believe an additional reason is that God delights in delighting his children.This morning I was extremely delighted to see once again God's perfect timing!For the last few weeks, I've … Continue reading >Praise in the flood, Psalm 93

>Believing that part of honoring the Lord's Day is to rest from my regular work and since my regular work is writing, I don't write on Sundays. But Psalm 92 is too good and too appropriate not to share today, on this day that the Heidelberg Catechism calls the "festive day of rest" (Lord's Day … Continue reading >Festive Day of Rest, Psalm 92

>It's tempting to simply skip Psalm 88 and go on to Psalm 89, which begins by extolling God's love and covenant faithfulness. This morning that sounds infinitely preferable to Psalm 88's lament.Psalm 88 is a long lament, but—unlike most in the Psalter—it does not include an assertion of confidence or hope in God. This lack … Continue reading >Grace trumps the grave, Psalm 88

>In seven short verses, Psalm 87 extols the church by directing the reader's mind from the loveliness of the covenant with the patriarchs to the glories of Jerusalem at the height of Israel's power to the beauties of the church within an ugly world and finally to the splendors of the eternal holy city.The church … Continue reading >Born in Zion, Psalm 87

>Back at the end of Psalm 72, we read, "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." But fourteen psalms later in Psalm 86, another prayer of David appears.David's prayers echo with emotions and images that touch the common chords on the harp strings of human hearts.He begins Psalm 86 confessing not only … Continue reading >David’s Prayer, Psalm 86

>Psalm 85 seems particularly appropriate at this time of year. Most farmers have finished their harvest and fields sport various hues of crop stubble; some fields are dotted with big round bales of corn stalks like giant golden marshmallows. Local cooperatives' pickups pulling double tanks of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer no longer slow traffic. The agricultural … Continue reading >Our land’s increase, Psalm 85

>To borrow a quotation from a well-known poem and place it totally out of context, "breathes there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself has" experienced, when reading Psalm 84, a hymn of praise raise within his heart?Psalm 84 sings in my mind more than any other in the Psalter. Of course, … Continue reading >Lovely Dwelling Place, Psalm 84