Today’s passage: Psalm 77

Helpful thoughts:

• In this psalm, we get a first hand account of the psalmists suffering, prayer, and what helped him endure.
  • In the midst of his suffering, Asaph cried out to God and asked if God had abandoned His promises and attributes.
  • In recalling God’s faithfulness and power displayed through history, Asaph found relief from his pressing despair.
• It can be easy to overlook God’s attribute of immutability.  God never changes (Hebrews 13:8).
  • Our circumstances on this earth can change, but God’s use of them and His intentions for us never will never change!
  • The God who created the universe and promised a savior to Adam and Eve; is the same God who will bring justice to the world, usher in the new heavens, new earth and new Jerusalem and dwell forever with His people; is the same God watching over you and working in your life today.

Questions to consider:

1. How does this psalm correlate with Philippians 4:8-9?  What is true about the ways God has redeemed you from your sin and is working even in the midst of hardships to draw you to Himself?
2. What are some memories you have of God working in your life?  Where can you go to see all that God has done in history?  Why is it so important to continue reading the Word of God…including the Old Testament?
3. What will result in our faithfulness to focus our attention more on God than on our present circumstances?  How would that help us to remain contented, resolved, steady, etc.?  How might that change the things we weep over or celebrate (Think: Focus off of self and on God’s big picture and plan)?

Today’s passage: Psalm 76

Helpful thoughts:

• Salem and Zion both refer to Jerusalem.
• The God who is to be feared by all kings and nations around the world, is the who made Himself known to and who will dwell with His people Israel.
• The LORD is to be feared.  Right fear of the Lord produces a change of heart and actions.
  • “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” – Proverbs 1:7

Questions to consider:

1. Who is God?  Why is it only right and only acceptable to have a right fear of Him?  What would a person be taking for granted if they made a vow to God and didn’t keep it?
2. How do you rightly balance God’s love, mercy and grace with His holiness, righteousness, and justice?  Why is Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice such a joy and freedom for Christians?  How could we take all this grace for granted and treat God like a pushover, like our sin isn’t a big deal?
3. How can a healthy fear of God be rightly added to motivations of love, gratitude, future gracious promises, etc. for a Christian to pursue righteousness in this life?

Today’s passage: Psalm 75

Helpful thoughts:

• “Your name is near” is an acknowledgement of God’s presence.  Even when it looks or feels like God is not in control, He absolutely is.
• The idea of “lifting up your horn” is that of expressing majesty or strength.  For man to “lift up his horn” before God is to think too highly of himself and too lowly of God.  It would be a form of self-exaltation. Thus the idea of a “stiff neck” in verse 5.
• The cup of verse 8 is a cup of judgment.
• When nations are strong, it is God’s doing.  When nations dissolve, it is God’s doing.
  • Verse 7 – He puts down one, and lifts up (exalting) the other.

Questions to consider:

1. When do we tend to feel like God is absent or not in control?  Is there ever a time when God is not accomplishing anything?  What is God’s goal for you in every circumstance (Romans 8:28-29)?
2. What did the psalmist choose to do in the midst of the troubling time as he awaited God’s intended results? (Verses 1 & 9)  What should all of the trouble in the world point us toward?  What does it give the church an occasion to declare?
3. Why can we even look forward to God’s justice without fear?  What “cup” did Jesus drink on our behalf? (Matthew 26:39)  Why will our “horns be lifted up”?

Today’s passage: Psalm 74

Helpful thoughts:

• This lament follows the destruction of the Temple by Babylon.
  • As opposed to complaining about God to others, this Psalmist goes directly to God for answers and help.  This is lament.
• Israel’s enemies had destroyed buildings, stolen treasures, and replaced the contents of the Temple with their own religious “signs”.  However, God had created and sustains the universe.  The psalmist appeals to God’s superior power through these verses.
• The final basis for the psalmists request is God’s own word, His covenant (Verse 20).

Questions to consider:

1. What is the difference between grumbling and lament?  Why is lamenting a right response to our suffering?  How does it work towards resolution and comfort as opposed to grumbling and complaining?
2. Why is the psalmist right to appeal to God’s covenant?  What was promised to God’s people in Genesis 17:1-8?  What might the psalmist have been thinking about this covenant promise in that moment in history?
3. We have a different perspective than the writer of this psalm for a number of reasons.  How can this approach to lament and prayer help you with something you might be struggling with right now?  What promises has God made that you could appeal to?  Where do our trials fit into the grand narrative of Scripture?

Today’s passage: Psalm 73

Helpful thoughts:

• In this Psalm, Asaph confesses to jealousy of the perceived blessings of the wicked.  When he looked at his life and the lives of the wicked, on the surface, it seemed unfair.
• Verse 17 is the climax of the Psalm.  When Asaph desired to take sanctuary in the riches and temporary pleasures of the wicked, he had no sanctuary.  When God became his sanctuary, when he meditated/thought in truth about God, his mind was renewed/reoriented and his joy and vigor restored.
• The “strength” of the world is no strength at all.  Our own “strength” is no strength at all.
  • God is our strength or we have no strength.
  • When we have Him we have everything.

Questions to consider:

1. What are some of the desires this world seeks to offer that easily distract you?  What do you see others getting that you want, that you might deem unfair to have not received?
2. How do we go into “The sanctuary of God”?  What roles do church, fellowship, Bible reading, memorization, prayer, etc. play into transforming and shaping our minds (Romans 12:2)?  How does this help us to understand what “Delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4) really means?
3. What was the result of Asaph’s change of mind and values?  Was it just that he felt better inside?  What was the fruit? (Verse 28)  Will a person who truly delights in the Lord be content to keep it to themselves?  To whom can you declare the goodness of God today?

Today’s passage: Psalm 72

Helpful thoughts:

• This psalm is title “Of Solomon” but that doesn’t mean Solomon wrote it.  It seems pretty clear from the content that David wrote this psalm for/to Solomon. Though given it’s nature as a blessing to the king in Jerusalem, it also bears messianic themes and promises.
• Giving justice to the poor and needy means to eliminate the oppressors that may be preventing them from pursuing growth and success.  (Verse 4)
• The prayer of verse 15 was answered in 1 Kings 10:10.

Questions to consider:

1. Where do you see messianic promises and prayers in this psalm?
2. David prayed for his son (And for the promised King of Kings)!  Even if a person has gotten older and doesn’t feel like there’s much reason for them to still be on this earth, what massive ministry should they pursue?
3. How could this psalm help us to pray for our governing leaders (Keeping in mind of course that the United States is not Israel)?  What leader do we ultimately hope to see ruling and reigning over all the earth?

Today’s passage: Psalm 71

Helpful thoughts:

• Portent – An exceptional or wonderful person.
  • David was regarded highly by many, but he knew it was right to regard the Lord as higher than all.  God was David’s refuge and fortress, not the other way around.
• David did not keep this knowledge of God’s glory to himself.  What was in his heart poured out of his mouth (Matthew 12:34).
• David must have spoken of his trust in the Lord so much that even his enemies knew to only attack when they thought the Lord had forsaken him. (Verse 11)
  • They had come to know and believe the same thing David did.  God was his rock and fortress.

Questions to consider:

1. Where did David place his confidence in God’s desire to deliver him?  Was David praying, “God deliver me, I’ve been so good so you owe me one”?  Would that kind of transaction be reason for praise?
2. If/When people start to think highly of us, what must we remember?  Who are we?  Why is there any good in us?  Why would public opinion be such a dangerous counterfeit for doing all things for the glory of God as a living sacrifice and slave of righteousness (1 Corinthians 10:31, 2 Corinthians 5:9, Romans 12:1-3, Romans 6:15-23)?

Today’s passage: Psalm 70

Helpful thoughts:

• Those who say “Aha, aha!” (In mockery) are headed toward shame.  Those who seek the Lord will rejoice and be glad.
• One of the weapons of the enemy is this foolish verbal taunting.  Though David knew the truth, he did not combat the enemy with it.  He simply prayed to the Lord and rested in the truth.
• In spite of all David’s wealth/power, in the face of adversity, he knew who was really in control.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it so much better to turn to God first than to attempt to devise our own plan against someone who is attacking us?
2. Why does saying “Aha, aha!” right back at our adversaries (Even when we are right) not solve the problem?  What do they need more than to lose an argument?
3. Can you rest in the truths of God’s promises and ask for deliverance from trials at the same time?  How does your faith in His power and also in His sovereignty use all things for your good encourage you to fervently pray and to be patient?

Today’s passage: Psalm 69:30-36

Helpful thoughts:

• Micah 6:6-8
• Only the humbled can appreciate the mercy and grace of God.  Pride insists on recognition of our acts.
  • Humility produces gladness/JOY.  Pride produces bitterness.
• God will save Zion.  It will be possessed, inherited and dwelt in by His people.
  • Christ has risen from the dead.  The battle is already won.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the incredible irony of the insistence of the proud to receive recognition for their acts?  What do all men deserve? (Romans 6:23)
2. Why are we on the victorious side of this war?  What was accomplished?  Who accomplished it?  What remains to be done?
3. How does our humility in the midst of all this truth give us greater joy than if we had to accomplish it all on our own?

Today’s passage: Psalm 69:1-29

Helpful thoughts:

• Though David wrote this Psalm about himself, it points toward Christ.  This is a Messianic psalm and is referred to several times in the New Testament.
• In this instance, David was innocent.  But, he was not entirely innocent.
  • Christ was entirely innocent.
    • There is injustice in this world, but Christ has overcome the world.
• There is purpose in suffering.  And that purpose reaches far beyond just you and me.

Questions to consider:

1. What elements of this psalm point us to Christ?  What parts sound familiar to you from the New Testament? (If you have a reference or study Bible, use it!)
2. According to verse 7, for whose sake was David’s/Christ’s suffering?  How was God glorified by the cross?
3. How could God be glorified in our suffering?
4. Why is it right and best to turn to Him in times of injustice?