Psalm 8 starts off with a heartfelt praise to God. The Psalmist says that the name of the Lord is Majestic, and goes on to say that “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength”.

This is where we get the saying “Out of the mouth of babes”. What the Psalmist is saying is that God uses children sometimes to accomplish His will. He doesn’t just use adults or people who have been theologically trained; He uses children as well.

Continuing, the Psalmist praises God, by thinking about the heavens, and the other things that God has created. This leads him to ask what man is, compared to what God is.

He answers by describing man, how man is slightly lowe rthan the angels, and has dominion over the works of God’s hands. In closing, he praises God again, by saying how majestic his name is.

When we pray to God, how do we do it? Do we remember to praise God? Or do we just thank him for a few things, maybe ask for forgiveness, and then launch into a list of things we “need”. Or do we remember that sometimes, we just need to praise God for Who He is, and what He has done.

Psalm 7 is a fascinating Psalm, asking for judgment.

The Psalmist starts out by declaring how he puts his trust in God, and asking that God save him from his persecuters. Now, after saying this, he says something very interesting.

He then says that if he has iniquity on his hands, he prays that his enemy will persecute him, and that his enemy will kill him.

Now, lets stop and look over this again. The Psalmist is praying that God will save him, but, if he has done something wrong; something to deserve this persecution, he prays that his enemy will kill him. Isn’t that an amazing prayer request? Too often, we assume that we are in the right, and that our enemies are in the wrong. The Psalmist understood that sometimes, we are in the wrong, and that our “enemies” are sometimes in the right. Because of this, he was willing to pray to GOD that if he had sinned, that he would be punished for it.

The Psalmist continues by praying that the Lord will bring down judgment on himself, and all the people. He prays that the wickedness of the wicked will end, and that the just will remain.

He then describes what God will do to the wicked, and how the wicked’s plans go astray.

In conclusion, he says that he will praise God.

This, to me, is such an amazing prayer. David prays that God will judge him, and that if he sinned, that God will allow his enemies to kill him. How many of us would be willing to pray that prayer? How many of us would be willing to admit that we might be the wicked, and not our “enemies”?

Psalm 6 is a prayer, asking for mercy for the Psalmist’s sins. It’s a picture of how miserable he is in his sins, and how much he desires, and prays for mercy.

He starts off crying out to God, for God to not rebuke him, and to have mercy. He speaks of how weak he is, and how tired his soul is. The next couple of verses detail how weary, and tired he is. He speaks about his grief and his woe, and how much he cries.

The Psalmist concludes by saying that the Lord has heard him, and that the Lord will answer his prayer, and he ends with a warning to his enemies.

This Psalm is a prayer for mercy. How many of us pray for mercy, and pray that God will handle things? Not a generic prayer, like “Help with such-and-such”, but a real heart-felt prayer?

We live in a culture that doesn’t like admitting that we’re wrong, and that doesn’t like asking for mercy. Our culture tries to create the image of being able to handle it all. This Psalm was written by David. David, the boy who killed Goliath, David, one of the greatest Kings of Israel, David, the man after God’s own heart. This is HIS prayer to God, asking for mercy. If someone that is considered so great can humble himself, and pray for mercy, why can’t we? Too often, we try to fix things on our own, and end up making things worse, or no different. Instead, we should follow David’s example, and pray to God, and ask him for mercy.

Today, I’m finishing looking at Psalm 5. I’m picking up in Verse 7.

Verse 7 is an interesting contrast. In the previous verses, the Psalmist was detailing the wicked, and how God was going to deal with them, and what God hated. In this verse, he starts by saying AS FOR ME.

Regardless of what the rest of the world is doing around him, regardless of how evil the world is, the Psalmist declares that he will come into the Lord’s house, and will worship Him. It doesn’t matter to him what the world is doing, he’s going to do what he is supposed to do.

How about us? Are we like that? Do we pray and worship God, and follow his commands, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing?

Continuing, the Psalmist describes the wicked, how there is no faithfulness in their mouths, and how they are utterly evil. He then prays that God will destroy them.

This would be a bleak Psalm if it ended here, but it doesn’t. It goes on to describe how those who trust God will be joyful, and how they will be blessed. He says that the Lord will bless the righteous, and compass him with a shield.

Compass with a shield means to surround with a shield, so it means that God will protect the righteous.

Psalm 5 is a heartfelt prayer to God,praying for judgement on the evil, and declaring the Psalmist’s dedication to God.

He starts off praying that God will hear his words, and consider his meditations. He then praises God, telling God how the foolish can’t stand in his sight, and how God hates all sinners. He goes on, saying how God will destroy all the sinners, and abhor deceitful men.

In this day and age, abhor is not a word that we use often. It’s a powerful word, meaning to feel excessive repugnance towards, and to detest to extremity. Compare that to hate which means to simply dislike intensely. So, abhor is a powerful word; one that shouldn’t be lightly used.

The Psalmist says that God ABHORS deceitful and bloodthirsty men. Now, bloodthirsty is an obvious word, meaning someone craving violence, but deceit has a broader meaning. It is defined as “an attempt or dispostition to deceive or lead into error”, “any artifice, or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false”, and “Any trick, collusion, contrivance, false representation, or underhand practice, used to defraud another”.

Now, lies are lies, and they are wrong, we know that, and most of us don’t do that. But, how many of us intentionally mislead someone, not lying, but just saying things that lead them to believe something not true? According to the Bible, God MORE than hates that. Why then, do we do things that God abhors? Shouldn’t we stop that, and only tell the truth, letting our yes be yes, and our no be no?

Tomorrow, I (hopefully) will conclude Psalm 5.

Psalm 4 is a beautiful psalm of trust in God. It shows how much faith that the Psalmist had, and how he relied on God regardless of what was happening around him.

In the first verse, the Psalmist cries out to God, praying that God will hear this prayer of his. The Psalmist then switches who he is talking to, and speaks to men, asking how long they will chase after things that have no meaning.

So, because it says Selah, lets do as it says, and pause and consider. Do we cry out to God? or do we chase after things that have no meaning? or try to turn God and what He has done into nothing?

The Psalmist continues by saying how the Lord has set apart the godly, and how the Lord will hear the godly when he prays. The psalmist continues, giving a command to stand in awe of God, pray, and to sin not

Now, let’s pause and consider. How many of us can say we stand in awe of God, pray, and do not sin?

The psalmist then says to put our trust in the Lord, and to offer sacrifices of Righteousness. Sacrifices of righteousness would be doing righteous acts or good works when we don’t have to. How many of us consistently do that?

He then says that many people pray that God will show them good, and make them happy. From there, he continues by praising God, thanking him for putting gladness in his heart, and that he will be able to lay down in peace and sleep, because the Lord protects him.

How many of us have that kind of trust in God? How many of us have that kind of peace and gladness? Can we say that we offer sacrifices of righteousness to God?

Psalm 3 paints a picture of a man crying out for God’s help, and how God helps and protects him.

The first two verses detail the Psalmist’s initial cry to God, telling Him how hopeless he is, and he tells God how people say that God cannot help him. These two verses paint a bleak picture; someone so alone, surrounded by troubles.

Now, in most Bibles you will see the word “Selah”. This, according to scholars, is best translated as “stop and listen”, carrying a strong implication that we should stop and consider what we have just read. So, pause, and consider what the Psalmist is saying. He says that his troubles are increasing, and that people say that God cannot save him. Doesn’t that sound like life today? More and more, people say that God cannot help us, or God doesn’t exist. If the Psalm ended here, it would be a bleak Psalm, BUT, it doesn’t.

The next verse describes God as a Shield, and as one who lifts up his head. The Psalmist then describes how he called unto God, and how God heard him.

There is another Selah intermission, so again, reflect, consider, examine the previous 2 verses. God hears us when we cry out to Him, even when the rest of the world says He won’t. Isn’t that great? No matter how bad things get, no matter how much worse they look like they’re getting, God will hear us when we cry out to Him.

The Psalmist concludes by describing how God has protected him, and how he will not be afraid of his enemies.

The Psalm ends with Selah, so, one more time, read back over the Psalm, stopping to examine it, and to meditate on it. The Psalmist said he has lain down and slept, because he was protected by God. That is a powerful picture. Look at the previous verses, he is surrounded by troubles, and yet, with the knowledge that God is protecting him, he is able to sleep, without fear. How many of us have faith enough to depend on God, without worrying about what is around us?

The Psalmist says with 10,000 people around him, he would not fear, for he cries out for God’s help, and God protects him. He describes what God has done to his enemies, and ends by saying that salvation belongs to God, and asks God’s blessing on His people.

So, how about us? Do we cry out to God when we are surrounded by troubles? Do we have faith that, no matter what men may say, that God will save us? Do we have the peace in God that we can feel safe, knowing that he is protecting us?

Today, I’m taking a look at Psalm 2, part 2 of my series through Psalms.

The Psalmist starts the chapter off with a rhetorical question. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? He then speaks how the kings and rulers plot against God, and how they want to break free from God. However, he goes on to say how God laughs at their efforts, and then speaks how He has set up a King in Zion.

The Psalmist continues, with God speaking, saying how He will give this King the heathen for his inheritance, and how the king will crush the evil.

The Psalmist ends with a warning and a promise to the kings of the world, warning that if they don’t serve the Lord, and don’t respect the Son, that they will perish, while if they serve the Lord, and respect the king, they will be blessed.

Kissing. by the way, in that day and age was a way of showing honor, in more modern terms, we would say “show repsect”.

There has been much debate on who the Son/King is. Some have said that it is David, while others believe that it is Jesus. There is evidence for both statements, so we probably won’t know for sure till we get to heaven. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t practical advice and doctrine in this chapter. In fact, we can see some of this happening today.

Do we not see the kings of the earth and the other rules trying to break free from having to serve or to believe in God? The Bible is very clear on this point, that those who try to break away from God will be crushed. I’m sure that we can look at history, and see examples of nations that tried to break away from God, and in the process, were destroyed.

What about us then? Do we plot to break the bonds of serving or obeying God? Or do we serve God, and trust His Son? In simple terms, do we try to avoid obeying God when it’s not convenient? Do we serve God only when we want to? Or do we serve him all the time?

Psalm 1 is a chapter of comparison. In the first section of the chapter, we are told about a righteous man, and how he acts, while the second section tells about the wicked man, and the consequences of being wicked.

The righteous man doesn’t follow the advice of the evil, rather, he follows what God says. It says that “in His law doth he meditate day and night”. We are supposed to read the Bible, and think about it constantly. How many of us can honestly say we think about the Bible and what God says more than just at devotions?

The Psalmist goes on to use an analogy, comparing the righteous man to a tree planted near the river. The tree brings forth fruit, and does not whither. People who study the Word of God, and who meditate on it, and who follow it do bring forth good fruit. This fruit ranges from witnessing to other people, to helping build up other Christians.

In the second part, the Psalmist details the wicked man. Their ways are like chaff, which the storm drives away; dust in the wind, lasting only a moment. Compare that to the righteous man, who’s ways last, and does not whither.

So, how many of us are righteous men, and how many of us are ungodly men? Do we read and meditate on the Bible more than just at devotions, or are we content to just do our own thing? Are we producing good fruit?