Psalm 134

God is supposed to be praised, and man is supposed to praise him. It's not like some old lady fishing for compliments. At best that kind of person is just silly. If God wasn't worthy of all this praise it would be different. But he is. He's the greatest thing thing that's ever existed. 

Praising God is just giving him his due. 

Psalm 132

In this psalm there's a repetition of the well-known promise to David that he would always have a descendant on the throne of Israel. I've heard about this promise as long as I've been in church, usually spiritualized to refer to Christ, but I've never heard the  "if" clause mentioned. 

And there's always an  "if". 

Psalm 131

You don't have to know everything. Sometimes it's just enough to know that God is God, 

Unfortunately, some people believe they have to understand everything about God and his plans. We'd all be better off with the attitude in this psalm. Some things are just too wonderful to fully comprehend. 

Psalm 130

No matter what you've done, God will forgive you. 

That's hard for us to grasp, but if we just turn back to him and ask, he will forgive us. Israel had done a lot of terrible things by this time, but according to this psalm, they had never done anything beyond God's ability to forgive. He's not a God who looks for a reason to condemn people; he's a God who looks for a reason to save them. 

Psalm 129

Even if people mistreat us, or if they always have, it doesn't mean that God hates us or has abandoned us. We tend to judge what we can't see by what we can, but as God has told us repeatedly in his word, he isn't like us. People can be hateful or petty, but God can never be. 

He's always waiting to shelter us if we'll just ask. 

Psalm 128

Just because the Bible says something, it doesn't mean it's a promise. 

Some people like to find promises in the Bible that aren't really there. The Psalms and Proverbs are especially popular for this. One problem, among others, is that it's pretty safe to say that none of the people doing this is an Old Testament Jew. Another is that this kind of twisting of Scripture in order to hold God to something is just legalism. 

Psalm 127

While this psalm calls children a blessing, we tend to look on them as a curse. And it's not just abortionists either; even in the church we rarely have more than two or three. I'm ashamed to say that I chose to have my wife surgically mutilated rather than accept what God might give us. 

We have become a culture that flushes its heritage down a sink. 

Psalm 126

To be in God's favor is to know joy. 

Not happiness; that's just a temporary feeling of well-being based on enjoying your circumstances. Not contentment, which is just satisfaction with your situation. Joy is deeper; it can't be taken from you and it lasts forever. 

Psalm 125

Remember covenants?

This is another example of people holding God to his word, asserting that they'd kept their end of the bargain and insisting that he do that same.

Psalm 124

In 3,000 nothing has changed.

This psalm is labeled as "Of David." That makes it about 3,000 years old. After all that time mankind is still entirely dependent on God.

Psalm 123

Remember Psalm 23?

That was 100 psalms ago. We've covered a lot of ground since then. If you've been reading along the whole time we're over halfway through the Bible. And this psalm? It's a plea for mercy.

Psalm 122

in this psalm, not only the Temple is praised, but the city of Jerusalem itself. The focus is still on God, though. The city is only praised because it's where the people of Israel met with God.

The city is only famous because God chose it.

Psalm 121

There are a lot of psalms about why we should trust God. This isn't one of those,

Instead of telling why he believes in God, he believes in God. Instead of telling all that has done to make him trust him, he just trusts him. Why does he know God will rescue and defend him? We're never told. He just does.

Psalm 120

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Why do we ally ourselves with people with whom we don't agree? Why do we think that whatever good might result outweighs the bad that might be required? Why do we always think our way is better than God's? 

Psalm 121 will be here next Monday.

Psalm 119 Taw

Deliver me, since I've kept your law.

Often this psalm seems very mercenary, with the psalmist saying what he's done for God and expecting something in return. That's because we don't understand covenants, which are just agreements to do something for each other.

Psalm 119 Sin and Shin

For too many of us, reading the Bible has become just another chore to get through. Being a Christian doesn't make it magically come alive for you. If it does then I must not be a Christian. Sometimes it's just an old, dry book.

How many of us can honestly say we love it?

Psalm 119 Resh

You can't rebel by being just like everyone else.

Many people have no interest in God or his word. Most of them don't. That's not a new attitude; it's the sin there is, and thinking that way just makes you like every other would-be rebel out there.

Psalm 119 Qoph

We're very sleepy people. The psalmist talks about getting up early to meditate on God's law, but not even the idea of communion with God is enough to get us out of bed.

If only we loved God as much as our pillows.

Psalm 119 Tsadhe

Even when the entire world is against you, you can always depend on God and his word.

Though our foes don't believe, we do. Though our foes won't ultimately triumph, we will. And we should never want to see anybody on the losing side.

Psalm 119 Pe

The psalmist praises God for protection, and asks for protection so that he can praise.

The best thing a person can do is to praise God. That's because he's the best thing there is. And it's not like we don't praise anyway. Anytime we value something, we want to talk about how great it is.