The Psalms

Psalms

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  • Psalm 51

    by Jesse Huckel
    Romans 4:1-8

    1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say?

    “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

    4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

    7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
        and whose sins are covered;
    8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

    Psalm 51

    To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

    1 Have mercy on me, O God,
        according to your steadfast love;
    according to your abundant mercy
        blot out my transgressions.
    2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
        and cleanse me from my sin!

    3 For I know my transgressions,
        and my sin is ever before me.
    4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
        and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
        and blameless in your judgement.
    5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
        and in sin did my mother conceive me.
    6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
        and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

    7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
        wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
    8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
        let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
    9 Hide your face from my sins,
        and blot out all my iniquities.
    10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
        and renew a right spirit within me.
    11 Cast me not away from your presence,
        and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
    12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
        and uphold me with a willing spirit.

    13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
        and sinners will return to you.
    14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
        O God of my salvation,
        and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
    15 O Lord, open my lips,
        and my mouth will declare your praise.
    16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
        you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
    17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
        a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

    18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
        build up the walls of Jerusalem;
    19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
        in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
        then bulls will be offered on your altar.

    Sermon

  • Psalm 50

    by Jesse Huckel
    Revelation 5

    1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

    6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,

              “Worthy are you to take the scroll
                and to open its seals,
              for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
                 from every tribe and language and people and nation,
              10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
                  and they shall reign on the earth.”

    11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshipped.

    Psalm 50

    A Psalm of Asaph.

    1 The Mighty One, God the Lord,
        speaks and summons the earth
        from the rising of the sun to its setting.
    2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
        God shines forth.
    3 Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
        before him is a devouring fire,
        around him a mighty tempest.
    4 He calls to the heavens above
        and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
    5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
        who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
    6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
        for God himself is judge!                                  Selah
    7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
        O Israel, I will testify against you.
        I am God, your God.
    8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
        your burnt offerings are continually before me.
    9 I will not accept a bull from your house
        or goats from your folds.
    10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
        the cattle on a thousand hills.
    11 I know all the birds of the hills,
        and all that moves in the field is mine.
    12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
        for the world and its fullness are mine.
    13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
        or drink the blood of goats?
    14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
        and perform your vows to the Most High,
    15 and call upon me in the day of trouble;
        I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
    16 But to the wicked God says:
        “What right have you to recite my statutes
        or take my covenant on your lips?
    17 For you hate discipline,
        and you cast my words behind you.
    18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
        and you keep company with adulterers.
    19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
        and your tongue frames deceit.
    20 You sit and speak against your brother;
        you slander your own mother’s son.
    21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
        you thought that I was one like yourself.
    But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
    22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
        lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
    23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
        to one who orders his way rightly
        I will show the salvation of God!”

    Sermon

  • Psalm 49

    by Jesse Huckel
    1 Timothy 6:3-10

    If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

    Psalm 49

    To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

    Hear this, all peoples!
        Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
    both low and high,
        rich and poor together!
    My mouth shall speak wisdom;
        the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
    I will incline my ear to a proverb;
        I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.
    Why should I fear in times of trouble,
        when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
    those who trust in their wealth
        and boast of the abundance of their riches?
    Truly no man can ransom another,
        or give to God the price of his life,
    for the ransom of their life is costly
        and can never suffice,
    that he should live on for ever
        and never see the pit.
    For he sees that even the wise die;
        the fool and the stupid alike must perish
        and leave their wealth to others.
    Their graves are their homes for ever,
        their dwelling places to all generations,
        though they called lands by their own names.
    Man in his pomp will not remain;
        he is like the beasts that perish.
    This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
        yet after them people approve of their boasts.           Selah
    Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
        death shall be their shepherd,
    and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
        Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
    But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
        for he will receive me.                                                             Selah
    Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
        when the glory of his house increases.
    For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
        his glory will not go down after him.
    For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
        — and though you get praise when you do well for yourself —
    his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
        who will never again see light.
    Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

    Sermon

  • Psalm 66

    by John McGeachie
    Luke 17:11-19

    On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

    When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

    Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.
    Now he was a Samaritan.

    Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

    Psalm 66

    Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
        sing the glory of his name;
        give to him glorious praise!
    Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
        So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
    All the earth worships you
        and sings praises to you;
        they sing praises to your name.”          Selah

    Come and see what God has done:
        he is awesome in his deeds towards the children of man.
    He turned the sea into dry land;
        they passed through the river on foot.
    There did we rejoice in him,
        who rules by his might for ever,
    whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
        let not the rebellious exalt themselves.          Selah

    Bless our God, O peoples;
        let the sound of his praise be heard,
    who has kept our soul among the living
        and has not let our feet slip.
    For you, O God, have tested us;
        you have tried us as silver is tried.
    You brought us into the net;
        you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
    you let men ride over our heads;
        we went through fire and through water;
    yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
    I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
        I will perform my vows to you,
    that which my lips uttered
        and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
    I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,
        with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
    I will make an offering of bulls and goats.          Selah

    Come and hear, all you who fear God,
        and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
    I cried to him with my mouth,
        and high praise was on my tongue.
    If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
        the Lord would not have listened.
    But truly God has listened;
        he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
    Blessed be God,
        because he has not rejected my prayer
        or removed his steadfast love from me!

    Sermon

  • Psalm 46

    by Jesse Huckel
    Matthew 6:25-34

    “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
    Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
    Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

    “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.
    If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

    So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
    For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

    But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

    Psalm 46

    God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

    Selah

    There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
    Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

    Selah

    Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
    “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

    Selah

    Sermon

  • Psalm 45

    by Jesse Huckel
    Ephesians 5:15-33

    Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
    Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

    Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
    Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour.
    Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
    Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
    In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church — for we are members of his body.

    “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

    This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

    Psalm 45

    My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.
    You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendour and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet.

    Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
    All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad.

    Daughters of kings are among your honoured women; at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir. Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honour him, for he is your lord.
    The Daughter of Tyre will come with a gift, men of wealth will seek your favour. All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold. In embroidered garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions follow her and are brought to you.
    They are led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king.

    Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land. I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.

    Sermon

  • Psalm 44

    by John Oakley
    Romans 8:31-39

    What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
    He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

    Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

    “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

    No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

    For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    Psalm 44

    We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.
    It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.

    You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.

    In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.

    Selah

    But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies.

    You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us.
    You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations.
    You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.
    You have made us a reproach to our neighbours, the scorn and derision of those around us.
    You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.

    My disgrace is before me all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge. All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals and covered us over with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?

    Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.

    Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.

    Sermon

  • Psalm 43

    by Jesse Huckel
    Ephesians 5:1-14

    Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

    For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
    Therefore do not be partners with them.

    For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

    Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
    But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:

    “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

    Psalm 43

    Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.

    You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

    Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.

    Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.

    Sermon

  • Psalm 42

    by Jesse Huckel
    John 2:12-25

    After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

    When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

    In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
    So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”

    His disciples remembered that it is written:

    “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

    Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
    Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
    The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”

    But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
    After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

    Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

    Psalm 42

    As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
    My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

    My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
    These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

    Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.
    My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon – from Mount Mizar.

    Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life.

    I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
    My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

    Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.

    Sermon

  • Psalm 41

    by Jesse Huckel
    Galatians 2:1-10

    Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.

    Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

    As for those who seemed to be important — whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance — those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.

    For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

    All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

    Psalm 41

    Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
    The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.

    I said, “O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.” My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die and his name perish?” Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it abroad.

    All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying, “A vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.” Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

    But you, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up, that I may repay them. I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me. In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever.

    Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

    Sermon