Psalm 22, Part 1: Lament of the Anointed in His Suffering

Posted inPsalms Commentary
There are several quotations from and references to Psalm 22 in the gospels. Matthew 27:46: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Matthew 27:42,43: He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is…

Psalm 29: The Power of the Voice of Yahweh

Posted inPsalms Commentary
Matthew 8: 23-27 shows us the power of the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke…

Psalm 70: A Clever Chiasm

Posted inChiasms, Psalms Commentary
To the Chief Musician, of David, to Cause to Remember 1. O God, to deliver me, O Yahweh, to my help hurry. 2. Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my soul. Let them be turned back and humiliated who delight in my evil. 3. Let them return as a consequence of their shame…

Psalm 16: A Pilgrim’s Song

Posted inPsalms Commentary
In Acts 2 Peter says about verses 9 and 10 in this psalm: Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath…

Psalm 9: A Prayer of the Oppressed for Justice

Posted inPsalms Commentary
This is a psalm about the judgment of God on the unbelieving that saves us, his people, from their oppression. Let’s look at some of its prominent features. 1. The Structure of the Psalm The psalm has three main parts. In the first part (vv. 1–8) David praises the Lord for upholding his right and…

Baptized into Christ’s Suffering

Posted inBaptism
In Mark 10:35-45 Jesus teaches the twelve a very important lesson about leadership and humility. More than once there was competition among them about who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and they needed to learn that pride and ambition for position and glory do not have a place in the kingdom of…

Psalm 100: Four Triple Parallelisms

Posted inPsalms Commentary
In Hebrew poetry the usual form of parallelism is a pair of lines that are roughly the same in meaning (synonymous), or that present a contrast (antithetical). In Psalm 6 we see nine verses in the standard form, and all of these except verse 3 are synonymous. But one verse (v.6) adds a third line…

Praying to Our Father in Heaven for Deliverance from Evil

Posted inLord's Prayer
In the sixth petition we pray for sanctification. Sanctification has two parts. The first is removal of the corruption of our natures, and the second is making our natures holy again. We want more than spiritual neutrality; we want to be positively good, like God himself. Another way to look at it is that we…

Praying for Our Father’s Forgiveness

Posted inLord's Prayer
In the last three petitions of the Lord’s prayer, the Lord teaches us to ask of God everything that is necessary for us. In the fourth petition he teaches us to ask for everything that we need to maintain the life of the body for service to him in his world. In the other two…

Praying that Our Father’s Will Be Done

Posted inLord's Prayer
Praying “Thy will be done” is probably the most difficult of all petitions. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for the cup to pass from him, he wanted that urgently. His whole being was recoiling in horror from the God-forsakenness of the cross, but he added “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be…