Psalm 19:1-6 describe what is called “general revelation.” This is how God has revealed himself to everyone. These verses tell us that the sky declares God’s glory and proclaims the work of his hands. That the sun, moon, and stars are literally talking. Literally saying, “God is awesome! God made this! God is God!” That when we look at the majesty of the stars or the brilliance of the sun, it is obvious that God is God. It is obvious that these things couldn’t never be matched by humans and could never have just appeared randomly. My Psalm 8 devotional talks about the disadvantage we have today versus people from ancient times in being able to see God in this way.
Psalm 18 Devotional – God’s Hype Music
Psalm 18 is God’s hype music. Hype music is what a sports team plays in the locker room before a game or what blares from the speakers as a fighter does his walk up to the ring. Hype music is loud, it gets you pumped up, and it has the air of victory to it. Psalm 18 is all of these things.
Psalm 17 Devotional – Hidden in God’s Wings
Psalm 17 plays like a greatest hits album, replaying many of the common lines and themes we’ve seen from the psalms so far. Greatest hits albums are comforting because they show that this material lasts. They show that these concepts are not just one-hit-wonders, but are a deep well we can come back to again and again. In Western Christianity and Western culture at large, we are obsessed with solving our problems. If it is conceded at all by Christians that we’ll have problems in this world, in the next breath we are being told a 3-step plan to solve those very problems. The repetition of the psalms tell us problems don’t work that way.
Ep. 42: Interview with Preston Sprinkle on transgender identities, the Church, and what the Bible has to say
Noah and Preston dive into Preston’s new book Embodied: Transgender identities, the Church, and what the Bible has to say They discuss loving and empathizing with people who are trans* and / or who struggle with gender dysphoria and making the Church a place they can find love and the path of discipleship.
Psalm 16 Devotional – Ending the Never-ending Chase
This is a perfect picture of the alcoholic, so thirsty for a drink that satisfies, yet never does. Barbossa’s plight always reminded me of my previous porn addiction: wanting something that satisfied, but always being left empty. Tasting the wine in my mouth, but it emptying out onto my feet. The only way to keep the wine inside of me was to keep drinking more and more and more of it. Our culture feeds us this lie about sex all the time, with people having sex before marriage with regularly, yet continuing to come up empty, in loneliness and despair, masking it all by chasing the next hit with even more abandon than the last. In the Pirates clip, the crew-mates reaction to Barbossa’s wine is telling. They are all staring silently at what is one of the most tragic sights imaginable, then when he looks at them they all laugh as loud as they can! If they can make his tragedy cool and popular and desirable and normal, it will mask how sunk they really are.
Psalm 15 Devotional – What God Cares About
Psalm 15 helps us in understanding the things God cares about. As new covenant Christians (I explain here how this relates to the old covenant under which the Psalms were written), we know it’s by the grace of Jesus that we may dwell in God’s sacred tent or live on his holy mountain (Romans 3:23-24). With that in mind, we can now look Psalm 15 as a clear list of things God cares about. I don’t think we spend enough time in modern Christianity looking at the things that are on God’s heart. In any love relationship, you want to know what is on the other person’s heart, and out of love, you want to be about those things as well. This is particularly true with God, who is not only our spouse, but is also our Father and Lord and King. So let’s take a look at this short list in Psalm 15 of some of the things God cares about: