Although the Book of Psalms mostly focuses on “worship, praise, and dependence” (Vang and Carter 204), the first chapter opens with an important wisdom warning that there are two paths of life available that people can choose from. One path leads to righteousness and blessing from God, and the other path foolishly leads to wickedness, curse, and destruction from God. Psalm 1 provides insight that there are two ultimate destinies in life, and only one path leads to blessing and eternal benefits with God. The purpose of this paper is to explain what Psalm 1 is teaching about blessing. When deciphering what Psalm 1 is teaching about blessing, one will notice first that the chapter has three main segments. Verses 1-3 describe a blessed person, …show more content…
A blessed person is to find delight, joy, and happiness from what God teaches according to His laws. Moreover, a blessed person is to meditate day and night on the laws of the Lord. To meditate is to think continually and always be mindful in what God teaches applying it to the daily routine, mundane areas of our life. It is widely recognized that “wisdom theology is a theology of creation, that is, a reflection of faith upon the world intended by the Creator” and “the Creator has given rich gifts of well-being” and additionally, the “Creator God has set limits and built into creation rewards and punishments that are evoked and set in motion by wise or foolish actions” (Birch, Brueggemann, Fretheim, Peterson …show more content…
Verse three helps provide insight to this answer. The Psalmist describes a blessed person as one of strength by the river water, growing, not withering, bearing fruit, and prospering in whatever he does. When a person meditates on God’s law, he will flourish as a tree is created to flourish when planted by the water. A righteous man and woman of God should also be planted close to God, meditating on Him through all of the routine parts of their day and night, so that God as the River of Life will nourish them to grow in faith like leaves and the fruit of good works. In this advisement, the Psalmist could have been reflecting on God’s law given through Moses to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and also by Joshua in Joshua 1:7. The law included a blessing promise of physical prosperity to Israel as a result of covenant faithfulness. However, it is also important to note that in Galatians 4:22-23 we understand that a believer’s fruit is a transformed life representing godly character and conduct, thereby a spiritual blessing. So, God’s blessing from wise living according to God’s laws can take the form of both physical and spiritual in support of the theology of
... a cry for help “Save me god (commentary note)”. Maybe the psalmist is saying that it is this coming to awareness of our failing as human beings and our efforts to transcend those flaws are those that will bring true salvation. It may not be misfortune that Christ does not look at the drowning supplicant, but to the angel next to him; perhaps man is really alone, he finally must come to Christ, confessing all of his sins and weaknesses.
The fiftieth psalm begins with the heading “A psalm of Asaph”. Whether it was officially written by him or simply dedicated to him , it is noteworthy to understand who Asaph was and the impact he had on the music and worship of Israel. Asaph was part of a music guild in the court of David along with Heman (1 Chronicles 6:39 ) and Ethan (1 Chronicles 15:19). These men were appointed to lead the musical celebration for the return of the Ark of the Covenant when King David danced passionately enough to embarrass his wife Michal (1 Chronicles 15:16ff). He also served under the leadership of King Solomon during an incredibly significant theophany of the glory of God (2 Chronicles 5:12-14). Perhaps this dramatic encounter with God led to the divine inspiration of Psalm 50’s theophany. Not only was Asaph a music leader, but also a writer of music and referred to as a “seer” (2 Chronicles 29:30). Evidently Asaph’s ability to “see” was an asset in the writing of this psalm, for Asaph “saw” quite a startling prophecy of God and his coming judgments on His people.
N. T. Wright’s The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential reminds us of the differences found within the importance of God’s time, space, and matter in comparison to our time, space and matter perspectives. In our limited human capacity we as human kind take our miscues from the human perspective when chasing after the material gains of this world as we put our prayerful meditations and relationships to God on the back burner of our lives while redirecting our energies toward the relationships we cultivate with our wealth. If we as Christian cultivate our relationship with God we will be recognize the wealth we seek can only be found in our relationship with Our Father and Our Savior Jesus Christ as He is the provider of our wealth. He sees clearly our needs providing for them daily. If we could see the realities of our time, spac...
David said his soul will “make a boast in the Lord” (v:2). David does not dwell on his experience, nor even on his deliverance, but on his Deliverer. The Lord is both the subject and the object of David's praise. Psalm reminds me of the fellowship of praise, for the most part praise can be private, However, that is not the kind of praise which psalms practice and promote. When David publicly praise God at worship, he did so purposing to promote worship on the part of the entire congregation., for the most part, those who loved God, as David did, have the right to rejoice and praise God with him. In Romans 12:15, Paul's teaching indicates that the new testament worship should be a sharing in the joys of the fellow- Christians: “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. David therefore urges his fellow-worshipers to join with him in magnifying the Lord so that His name will be corporately exalted (v:3). In Psalm 34 speak of David's deliverance, this poor man cried and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles, and the angels encamped around those who feared Him, and rescues
That is portrayed in the words of the Psalmist who says in Psalm 43:3-4, "O send our Your light and Your truth, Let them lead me; Let them bring me t...
Psalm 89 of the Book of Psalms, advocates the message of consequentialism, foreground by man’s relationship with God, with direct lin...
Psalm 113 reads like a 1st century pep talk for those with spiritual burnout. The writer makes his case for the Lord by pointing to the many ways that God earns our praise. These nine verses of scripture are saturated with three specific reasons to praise the Lord – He is Su...
The main point that I would choose to speak from Psalm 119 is that the Word of God is a guide for us as we live our lives. In verse 105 the psalmist writes "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." Once I saw that verse and than read the first chapter from DeYoung's book, I tried thinking of times when I responded to it by saying "Yes!, Yes!, Yes!" as DeYoung writes about on page fifteen, and why I responded that way. Or why I respond to the Word in the other two ways that DeYoung mentions. As DeYoung describes the Word of God in his book I find it amazing that I struggle to find time to read and be amazed by it. DeYoung writes that he wants us to start believing that the Bible is perfect, understandable, the most important
... divine law and letting reason govern one’s actions, they can achieve complete happiness. One must not totally disregard temporal goods, but their actions should be based on their goods of the will, not temporal goods.
The Psalms were originally collected into five “books,” listed according to the nature of the subjects found within them:Book One of the Psalms is found from Psalm One through Psalm Fourty-One.Book Two of the Psalms is found from Psalm Fourty-Two through Psalm Seventy-One.Book Three of the Psalms is found from Psalm Seventy Two through Psalm Eighty-Nine.Book Four of the Psalms is f...
Today’s culture is one where people like to do as little work as possible. Even when it comes to reading our own scripture, The Holy Words of God, a lot of people like to look up one verse and reference it to something without knowing what the rest of the passage says. Psalms 109 is no exception, it is one the more widely misused passages as of late. A popular verse from Psalms 109 is verse 8 which reads “Let his days be few; and let another take his office”, this is seen in reference to our current president, but what people fail to realize is what else David is actually praying. This paper is going to go through Psalms 109 and unpack it verse by verse to show the true meaning of what David was praying and to give us a new look at how to pray.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of our God stands forever” Isaiah 40.8
...ons of the gods in conjunction with man’s acts of will can result in a life that is newly aligned on a desirable path of truth and respect both for and from the divine.
“No matter the size of your problem or need, God is greater” (Roberts 183). When we accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we became God’s “little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (BibleGateway). A great peace and joy came over me while reading Roberts words: “God has more people for you to reach with a message that God loves, God heals, God is the Source of every person’s total supply, and God sent His only begotten Son so that any person who believes in Him might be forgiven of sin and live with God for all eternity” (Roberts 163). This is only the beginning; God wants us to reach every person no matter their race, religion, culture or creed with His good news. Roberts words of sowing and reaping stood out, because God has a specific time and place for everyone to sow and reap His benefits, and it should be a continuous, seamless lifestyle linked to faith” (Roberts 180 & 181). The Ultimate Voice, written by Oral Roberts reveals to us how God transformed his life, along with how to hear God’s voice to fulfill His plan and purpose in our lives.