Today’s passage: Psalm 124

Helpful thoughts:

• In today’s psalm of ascent, the people acknowledge that if God was not protecting them, they would have been destroyed.
• They were to sing this song on the way to worship.  In that way what they are singing communicates the fact that there is a people who can worship God because God has rescued them.  God is their savior and worthy of their worship and thanksgiving.
• When God is our shield and champion, we have the One who made the heavens and the earth fighting for us.  The Creator can beat His creation any time.

Questions to consider:

1. Why are there people who can worship the Lord?  Why do we exist?  Why are we rescued from our sin?  How much credit and glory does God deserve?
2. How does meditating on the greatness and power of God help us to think rightly about the events of our day and the people with whom we interact?
3. How could this psalm be sung by you?  What has God brough you through?  How can you praise Him and thank Him today?

Today’s passage: Psalm 123

Helpful thoughts:

• God is on the throne “in the heavens.”  There is no one higher, no one above Him.  To look for help elsewhere is folly.
• When God is our Lord/Master, we have the greatest and highest Lord!
• The mercy being asked for is relief from the contempt and the scorn God’s people endure from those who do not follow Him.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it sometimes easier to look to a person over us and put our hope in people over the Lord?  How does thinking on truth and faith keep our hope rooted in God?
2. How do we “lift our eyes” to God in our time of need?  How do we wait once we have “lifted our eyes?”  What does that look like in our lives today?
3. When we acknowledge God as our Lord, what does that also require we do with our expectation of results?  Who is the one who gets to decide how things will turn out?  What can we know is always true about what God decides (Romans 8:28-30)?

Today’s passage: Psalm 122

Helpful thoughts:

• The Psalmist was excited to go to Jerusalem and the Temple for worship, and in this psalm his eager expectation become reality.
• When we pray for peace in Jerusalem, ultimately we are praying for the return of Christ!
• When Jerusalem rested in peace, God’s people could freely go and worship.  When Christ returns, all will be made right.

Questions to consider:

1. How would these prayers and striving for peace have been seen and desired in before Christ came and the New Covenant was established?  What did the times when Jerusalem fell do to the worship of God’s people?
2. How does this psalm become a prayer for Christ’s return?  What do we look forward to when He rules and reigns from Jerusalem?
3. How can this eagerness to worship encourage you on Sundays as you prepare to go to worship with the body of Christ?

Today’s passage: Psalm 121

Helpful thoughts:

• As the pilgrim looked up in elevation toward Jerusalem, they could sing of the Lord our helper and keeper.
• The God who helps and keeps us is the God who created everything by His own power.
• The God who helps and keeps us is the God who never sleeps.  He knows all things at all times for all time, and His desire and will is to help and keep His children forever.

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways is this psalm humbling and also encouraging?
2. What are other things or other people whom we may seek for help and protection?  How do they compare to the Lord?  Why can we tend to look elsewhere?
3. How has God once and for all fulfilled the promise of verse 7?  How has God kept us from the evil of our own hearts and secured our eternal life?

Today’s passage: Psalm 120

Helpful thoughts:

• In stark contrast to the faith and joy we can have in God’s true words from chapter 119, today’s chapter speaks of falsehood.
• The Jews in exile (In places like Meshech and Kedar) had been encouraged to seek peace in the cities where they dwelt (Jeremiah 29:7), but the lying lips of the people were going to bring judgment (Verse 4).
• This psalm is a psalm of ascent (As are all of Psalms 120-134).  Meaning, it was intended to be sung on the journey to worship in Jerusalem.
  • This song was to be sung to remind the singer in his journey, peace and truth are to be found not in the nations, but in the worship of the Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the deliverance that was given to the psalmist (And all who cry out to the Lord for deliverance)?  Was the deliverance a new home or new neighborhood to live in (Where the new neighbors wouldn’t lie as much)?  If this song of ascents was sung on the way to worship the Lord, whose words and whose presence is our deliverance?
2. How can remembering that being with God and hearing His Word is deliverance help us to view our circumstances in life wisely? (John 16:33)
3. In truth, from whose deceitful tongue do we need deliverance first?  Why/How have we been rescued from the judgment that comes against lying lips?

Today’s passage: Psalm 119:161-176

Helpful thoughts:

• Sin/Shin
  • Fear of man and fear of God are contrasted in these verses.
  • Verses 161 and 165 need to be understood together.  When we fear God and our ambition is to be pleasing to Him (2 Corinthians 5:9) we can have peace even when people are displeased with us.
• Taw
  • When we read the Bible, we must read it to understand it as God intends.
  • There is humility communicated in the final verse.  When we remember that we have gone astray and are God’s children by His grace, our love for His Word only increases.

Questions to consider:

1. Does the psalmist read the Bible seven times a day because he loves it so much, or does he love it so much because he reads it seven times a day (Verses 164 and 167)?  Or…both?  How can this encourage us?  (The number seven could be figurative, this number is not suggested as a new law but to encourage a fulness of praise and study of God’s Word.)
2. How does a humble approach to God’s Word help us to read and understand it better?  When we come to the Word in pride, how might we misinterpret?  How does the gospel message and the ministry of the Holy Spirit guide us into the truth?

Today’s passage: Psalm 119:145-160

Helpful thoughts:

• Qoph
  • It is helpful to remember the “heart” refers to the inner man or the mind.
  • Knowing God’s Word teaches us how to pray (Verse 149).
  • Knowing God’s Word teaches about the One to whom we pray (Verse 152).
• Resh
  • The Bible is true and God’s commands are worthy of our obedience (Not just Christians, but all people).
  • When we see sin it should be disgusting, both in ourselves and in others.
  • When we remember why we are not condemned, we also remember what sinners need to hear (Isaiah 53:5).

Questions to consider

1. How does pursuing God in His Word with our whole heart change our perspective on life, on prayer, on anything?
2. Why should verses 153-160 humble us as opposed to making us prideful?  Who is our rescuer?  How do we see sin and sinners rightly?  What had God called us to do?

Today’s passage: Psalm 119:121-144

Helpful thoughts:

• Ayin
  • The psalmist knows of God’s justice and desires to see it, knowing that he needs to learn God’s statutes in his own life.
    • When we call for God’s justice, we should do so with humility knowing we too are guilty and that justice has been served for our sin through the suffering of Christ on the cross.
• Pe
  • God’s words and a life lived under His teaching is a blessing of grace.
  • Verse 135 recalls the blessing of Numbers 6:24-26.
• Tsadhe
  • The psalmist experiences trouble and anguish, presumably from those who forget God’s words.
  • His way of escape is not against his foes, but toward God’s words.  God’s Word enlightens his path in the midst of adversity.
    • He knows how to respond because of God’s Word.

Questions to consider:

1. When will the final fulfilment of God’s promises to those whom He declares righteous come?  How does remembering that we are sinners who have been declared righteous by God’s grace give us perspective on how we view the world?  How does this give us a greater love for God and a greater appreciation of His Word?
2. How would the tears of verse 136 be tears of compassion and hurt as opposed to tears of anger?  What does the psalmist acknowledge he needs in verse 132?  How can this help us to obey the commands of Romans 12:14-21?
3. If we were to counsel someone going through persecution to just read the Bible, how would that counsel be incomplete?  What does God provide for us in the Bible that directs us in our steps in the midst of hardship?