Delighting in the Law of God …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
The first thing the book of Psalms chooses to say about the righteous is that they do not follow the advice of the world, but they find pleasure in listening to God in his Word.
Psalm 1
Songs That Shape the Heart and Mind …
Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 1
The combination of instruction with emotion in the Psalms.
Psalm 2
Rejoice with Trembling …
A Meditation on Psalm 2:11-12
The only place safe from the wrath of God is in God.
Psalm 8
What Is Man? …
Reflections on Abortion and Racial Reconciliation
You cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating his supreme creation with contempt.
The Peculiar Mark of Majesty, Part 1 …
Palm Sunday
The glory of God is unique because of the lowly ways he chooses to show it.
The Peculiar Mark of Majesty, Part 2 …
Easter Sunday
We will reign with Christ and find our joy not in usurping God's majesty but in saying: “How majestic is your name in all the earth.”
Psalm 16
To See You Fills Me With Joy …
When you value someone because they value God, you are not denying that God is your only good; you are expressing it.
Psalm 19
Sky Talk …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
What are some practical steps that we can take to stay alive to the beauty of God's world?
Do You See the Joy of God in the Sun? …
Through the sky God ministers humility and hope and healing and happiness.
The Bible: Kindling for Christian Hedonism …
When Satan huffs and puffs and tries to blow out the flame of your joy, you have an endless supply of kindling in the Word of God.
Sweeter than Honey, Better than Gold …
In meditation on the Word of God and in following it there is great reward—greater than much fine gold.
The Heart You Know and the Heart You Don't …
How do you deal with sin in your life if you love God?
Psalm 23
Restful Words for Labor Day …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
It seems that with this passage of Scripture, more than any other, to recite it is also to experience its reality. The psalm itself is green pasture, the psalm itself is still water, the psalm itself restores my soul.
The Shepherd, the Host, and the Highway Patrol …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
I feel myself drawn with David not so much to love the green pastures but the good shepherd, not so much to love the lavish banquet but the bountiful host, and not so much to love the trip to Miami or the bungalow but to love the highway patrolman.
The Lord Is My Shepherd …
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack any good thing.
Psalm 25
The Goodness of God and the Guidance of Sinners …
The prerequisite for divine guidance is not a quest for messages, but a quest for holiness.
The Unmerited, Conditional Grace of God …
Reflections on Psalm 25
There is a profound difference between sinners who keep God’s covenant and those who don’t.
Psalm 32
How Not to Be a Mule …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
Don't be like the mule but run headlong to God in prayer while he may be found. For the contrite heart which prays will be forgiven and protected and taught the way to God and will be glad in the Lord forever.
Psalm 33
The Counsel of the Lord Stands Forever …
Reflections on Corporate Planning
A truth stripped of God is not a whole truth and will not guide the church well.
Psalm 37
Battling the Unbelief of Envy …
Envy steals your joy when you don't trust that God is doing what he has promised, namely, that which is best for you.
Psalm 40
In the Pits with a King …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
We're made of the same stuff as the saints of old, and they help guide us so that we persevere to the end.
Let All Who Seek Thee Rejoice and Be Glad in Thee; Let Those Who Love Thy Salvation Say Continually, "The Lord Be Magnified" …
Commitment Sunday of "Freeing the Future"
Our joy in God is both our worship and our evangelism.
Psalm 42
Spiritual Depression in the Psalms …
Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 2
Learn from the Psalmist how to fight for hope.
Psalm 43
I Will Go to God, My Exceeding Joy …
Practical steps you can take when you feel distant from God.
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, Session 4 …
2007 Spring Regional Conference
Practical steps you can take when you feel distant from God and it seems like he has forsaken you.
Psalm 46
God: Refuge for His People, Exalted Among the Nations …
Meditations on Signifiance and Success
One of the reasons we invest our lives in some insignificant ways is that we never become still enough to let the great realities hit us.
Psalm 50
Out of Zion, the Perfection of Beauty, God Shines Forth …
If you trust Christ, you are already a permanent citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Call upon Me in the Day of Trouble and I Will Deliver You …
Be thankful, pay your vows, call for help. And when God delivers you from the day of trouble, glorify him with all your heart.
Psalm 51
A Broken and Contrite Heart God Will Not Despise …
Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 3
Psalm 51 teaches us what it's like to be crushed with guilt well.
Psalm 57
I Will Sing Praises to You Among the Nations …
Something is wrong with a private God. But if our God is great, we go public with our worship.
Psalm 59
I Will Sing of Thy Might and Mercy …
Authenticity and depth in worship characterize those who suffer with Christ by bearing the burdens of others.
Psalm 63
Your Love Is Better Than Life …
Savoring the Vision
God is worshiped and honored and savored both by fainting for him and by feasting on him.
The Echo and Insufficiency of Hell, Part 2 …
Behold the Kindness and Severity of God
Fear of hell is no proof of love for God.
Wilderness, Worship, Treason and God …
Learn from David what to do in a brokenhearted, terrifying moment: Worship.
Worship: the Feast of Christian Hedonism …
When worship is reduced to a duty, it ceases to exist.
Psalm 67
Let the Peoples Praise You, O God, Let All the Peoples Praise You! …
Desiring God 2011 National Conference
Finish the Mission: For the Joy of All Peoples
Let the Nations Be Glad …
Missions Week
God blesses us so that the nations will be blessed.
Psalm 69
Pour Out Your Indignation Upon Them …
Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 5
How are we to understand the psalms that call down curses on others?
I Will Magnify God with Thanksgiving! …
What does an all-sufficient God, who owns and controls all things, demand from the creature he has made? That we cease to be great in our own eyes and become small that he might appear great.
Psalm 71
The Prayer of an Old Saint …
Some Scriptures can only be fulfilled by recognizing the generation gap and owning up to the fact that it is good.
Resolutions on Growing Old with God …
Eight resolutions for an aging saint.
Getting Old for the Glory of God …
2007 National Conference
Getting old for the glory of God means making him—rather than the treasures of this world—look glorious.
Psalm 73
Psalm 77
I Will Meditate on All Your Work and Muse on Your Deeds …
Moment by moment, our vital union with Christ is sustained, shaped, and carried by the Word of God.
Psalm 78
Educating for Hope …
A wise son makes a glad father, says the Lord, and it is the Word of God that makes a son wise.
Raising Children Who Are Confident in God …
What is our calling as parents and as a community of Christians toward our children?
Psalm 79
How Much Does God Love This Church? …
We are precious to God—so precious that he will not have us make that preciousness into our god.
Psalm 82
Putting the Gods in Their Place …
The truth we must hold to through all the cosmic conflict of this age is: All the nations belong to God.
Psalm 86
The Lord Is Great and Does Wondrous Things …
Immanuel Baptist
God is more powerful than all the gods and he is more powerful than all the nations. On God's side you cannot lose.
Psalm 91
No Evil Shall Befall You …
No ill befalls the saints except what God’s love permits, and even those "ills" won't conquer them.
Psalm 95
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Power of the Holy Spirit …
Unpacking the Master Planning Team Document
Jesus Christ has released the merciful power of God by his sin-bearing death; and the Holy Spirit is applying it to our church.
Psalm 96
Declare His Glory Among the Nations …
Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 6
God summons us to sing, and in doing so to summon the nations to sing a new song with us.
Psalm 100
Education for Exultation …
A Psalm for Thanksgiving
Education and knowledge should cause us to rejoice in God. If not, then they aren't fulfilling their purpose.
Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, O My Soul …
Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 4
Perhaps nothing is more effective in helping children fear God than verbally blessing the Lord in their presence.
Bless the Lord, O My Soul! …
Funeral for Ozzie Nelson
Twin Cities, MN
Forget Not All His Benefits …
The steadfast love of the Lord has been the same through all the changes of the last 120 years.
Psalm 104
The Pleasure of God in His Creation …
God rejoices in his works because his works are an expression of his glory.
Psalm 105
What Does It Mean to Seek the Lord? …
Meditation on Psalm 105:4
A meditation on Psalm 105:4
Famine, Flood, and Failing Fortune …
Every river and the seas do His sovereign bidding purely.
This is comfort surely.
Psalm 106
A Pastor's Role in World Missions …
Bethel Seminary Chapel
Abortion: The Innocent Blood of Our Sons and Daughters …
How is abortion similar to the child-sacrificing in the Old Testament?
They Poured Out Innocent Blood …
Sanctity of Life Sunday
Psalm 108
God Threw His Shoe on Edom …
Or, The Dome is Dead
What fools God makes of men who strive against their Maker!
Psalm 117
Everlasting Truth for the Joy of All Peoples …
Missions Week
Jesus Christ is building his church around the world with missionaries.
Psalm 119
Open My Eyes That I May See …
It is by prayer that our eyes will be opened to see wonder in God's Word and be changed.
Wonderful Things from Your Word …
The Supremacy and Sweetness of God, Tyndale College and Seminary, President's Chapel
How God Teaches the Deep Things of His Word …
A Meditation on Psalm 119:65–72
A meditation on goodness in Psalm 119:65–72.
Luther, Bunyan, Bible and Pain …
One of God's gifts to us in suffering is that we see and experience depths of his Word that a life of ease would never yield.
The Anatomy of Backsliding …
Sunday Evening Message
We need to see how the reality of imperfection turns up in the saints of Scripture and how they handled it.
Psalm 126
Talking to Your Tears …
When there is work to be done and you are sad, do it with tears, trusting that there will yet be a harvest of joy.
Psalm 127
Don't Eat the Bread of Anxious Toil …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
Wherever there are people whose hearts are not fretful or anxious or in a resentful frenzy the world sits up and takes notice.
Psalm 135
The Pleasure of God in Everything He Does …
Bethlehem College and Seminary Chapel
Twin Cities, MN
The Pleasure of God in All That He Does …
God is never constrained to do a thing that he despises. He does whatever he wants.
Psalm 139
Do I Not Hate Those Who Hate You, O Lord? …
The Verses We Skipped
How are we to understand those psalms that express hatred and call down curses upon the enemies of God?
Psalm 143
How to Argue with God …
Summer Psalms
Sunday Evening Message
Don't let your sinfulness hinder your prayers. Run into the arms of God and fill his ear with arguments that aim for His honor.
Psalm 145
One Generation Shall Praise Your Works to Another …
Education for Exultation: in the Next Generation
It is the Biblical duty of every generation to make sure that the next generation hears about the mighty acts of God.
Psalm 147
The Pleasure of God in Those Who Hope in His Love …
God delights in those responses which mirror his magnificence.
Psalm 148
He Commanded and They Were Created …
Since God created everything, we and all our so-called possessions are his to do with as he pleases.