Tag Archives: the book of Psalms

January 5
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“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. . .”  (Psalm 1:1a, KJV)

There is a lot of bad advice out there.  Some of it is “conventional wisdom.”  Some of it is based on superstition.  Some of it is based on half-truths.  All of it is beneath the disciple of Jesus.

The children of God have a higher, truer, more enduring counsel: The word of God.

Obtaining the counsel (advice) that blesses us, and those around us, is not hard to obtain; but it challenges our resolve to spend time in the presence of God’s Holy Word.

Like an attentive father to his child, the Lord God will guide our steps toward everlasting life, peace, and joy; the things that ungodly counsel promises, but never delivers.  – Luther

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January 4
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“I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.'”  (Psalm 122:1, KJV)

Okay, a status check: Do we (really) look forward to opportunities for corporate worship?

A lot of things conspire to dampen our enthusiasm for worship with others: The sermon doesn’t engage us; the hymns seem random; and — truth be told — the other folks at worship don’t seem too keen to be there, either.

No matter.  Perhaps a clue to David’s enthusiasm for approaching the place of corporate worship is found in the preceding psalm (Psalm 121:2): “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!”

For all of God’s gifts to us, gratitude and praise is the only appropriate response.  In the words of an old song of the church, “count your many blessings; count them one by one.  Count your many blessings, see what God has done!”

Brighten your day with gratitude and praise!  – Luther

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December 29
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“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place — what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  (Psalm 8:3-4, NLT)

The span of the universe is not measured in miles, but in light-years.  The moon and the stars — witnesses to every generation of humanity since Adam — maintain their mysterious magnificence.

The psalmist marvels at the fact that the finite, flawed, foundering beings that we are, nevertheless occupy the thoughts of the Creator of the universe; and, somehow, warrant the condescension and the salvation of the Maker of the moon and the stars.

Do we, like the psalmist, marvel, too?   – Luther

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