The 15 Psalms that follow the longest Psalm in the bible are called the Songs of Ascents (see subheading under each Psalm). These were the songs that people would sing as they travelled with their families to Jerusalem for festivals like Passover or Tabernacles. I’m preaching about these Psalms on Sunday so I’m including a longer video for Saturday and Monday from my message (spoiler alert!) and a poster to help you pray through these Psalms and have a super epic prayer time.
Key Verse:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” – Psalm 121:1-2
This has been one of my favorite verses in the bible for a long time. The Psalmist wasn’t looking at the hills because they were beautiful or imposing. The hills were full of high places where people would worship improperly. There must have been such a temptation on the long journey to Jerusalem to just stop at one of these places and worship instead of totally following God. These tourist traps could make you feel like you were doing a good thing even though you were breaking God’s law that his people must only worship on Mount Zion.
Vision of God
God wants us to sacrifice to worship him. I’m so grateful that I don’t have to lug sheep to Jerusalem 3x a year but I still have to watch out for shortcuts. If worshipping God isn’t at least a little hard then I’m probably not doing it right.
Vision of Others
The question in the Psalm is so good! “Where does my help come from?” I’m so grateful to have amazing spiritual friends and counselors but at the end of the day my help must come from the Lord. After all, he is the maker of heaven and earth.
Go with God
I want to work and sacrifice to spend time with God!
Jesus
Jesus shows us what living for God with no shortcuts looks like on the cross and then he shows us how blessed we will be with the empty tomb!
The book of Psalms is a collection of songs and poems mostly commonly thought to have been written by David throughout his life, the longest of which—and the longest chapter of the whole Bible—is Psalm 119. In this Psalm, the overarching theme is the glory of scripture, and therefore, the glory of God. From verse to verse, it may feel unvaried in how it talks about God’s word, but only to those who haven’t studied it closely enough. I think Charles Spurgeon explained it far better than I ever could when he remarked that Psalm 119 “helps you to see the variety of Scripture… Its variety is that of a kaleidoscope: from few objects a boundless variation is produced. In the kaleidoscope you look one, and there is a strangely beautiful form. You shift the glass a very little, and another shape, equally delicate and beautiful, is before your eyes. So it is here.”
What is one key verse?
Psalm 119:114 — You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.
How does what you read change your vision of God?
We strive to be living our lives for God, and most of the time that means going against what everyone else in the world arounds us deems as “normal”. The world is screaming at us to live for pleasure and do whatever we want, and it can be physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting to hold to God’s word. We cry out to Him, and he shelters us. He gives us rest from all the chaos, and gives us peace. He protects us like a shield from the stones and arrows that the world hurls at us, and He hides us away safe and sound.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?
and
How will you Go With God because of this reading? (What is an action step?)
In the craziness of the world today, especially with social distancing and isolation, it gets increasingly difficult to feel connected to God and to His body of believers. I find myself falling into survival mode. It feels like I get up, go to work every day, and try to tune out all the negativity from those around me. It’s draining in every way. But I need to constantly remember that though it can be exhausting, we can’t tune out all that’s going on out there. We’re supposed to be there for each other, and love our neighbors, and mourn with those who mourn, and not turn a blind eye to our brother and sisters in need… and most importantly, we’re supposed to find our rest and rejuvenation at every opportunity from God and His Word.
Where did you see Jesus in these chapters? (What made you think about Jesus?)
I’ve always been convicted by Jesus’ go-to knowledge of scripture. Like, whenever someone would come at him with a question, or a conflict–BOOM–scripture. When the Pharisees tried to catch him in a trap about God’s law–BOOM–scripture. When Satan tempted him three times in the desert–BOOMBOOMBOOM–scripture every time. Jesus ate, slept, and breathed scripture. Even in his last moment, he was quoting scripture. Psalm 119 does an excellent job to try and evoke a sense of wonder for God’s word. There’s always a deeper level to God’s word, always more to be gleaned.
This is a psalm of acknowledgement of God for who he is and what he has done. It is a reflection and praise of his loving character. It is also a call to remembrance of God and his works. I think it is a great perspective to have in life to be able to live as a Christian with confidence and zeal.
What is one key verse?
Psalm 111:4
“He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful.”
This verse stuck out to me because I think it sums up the psalm well. On one hand we are called to remember the Lord and what he has done. On the other hand we are reminded of his loving character.
How does what you read change your vision of God?
I think when I live remembering what God has done in my life to bring me to this point, and reflect on his love for me it causes me to live differently. When I live with these things in mind I’m motivated to put aside the pettiness of the world and live joyfully in response to God’s loving character.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?
I think it causes me to be less critical of myself because I start to look at myself through the lens of worth that God gives me. I remember that God has been steadily working in my life in a powerful way. In spite of my faults he has found worth in me, he shows me love and kindness even when I deserve none. That makes me view myself a little more how God views me.
How will you Go with God because of this reading?
I will Go with God through this reading by widening my gaze on life a bit. In this time with so much separation, and all that’s going on in the world I think it’s easy to get tunnel vision and have a limited perspective on life. I intend to look, and seek faith on how God is working in this time by looking back and seeing how he has been faithful time and time again. I wont have all the answers about what’s going on in the world now, but I can look back on God’s faithfulness and love and have faith that he is working now.
Psalms 107-110 are about praising God and giving thanks for His love for us. He helps and saves us from our sins. He rescues us from the darkness because He is a loving God. Our God is Justice. He is always there for his people and protect them even before their enemies.
What is one key verse?
Psalms 107: 6-9
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. 8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, 9 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
I thought this verse was important because it reminds us that we need to seek God first and come to Him because he is the only one who can deliver us from our trouble. We should crave for God, the living God and his word. He has an unconditional love for us. We are going through hard time, especially how this pandemic affects people’s life. We need to come before God and cry to Him. He is always there to helps us and we need to thank Him for what He has done for us.
How does what you read change your vision of God?
It is a great reminder of why we need to put God first. He is faithful and keeps his promises for us. Our God is big. Everything is possible for Him. He can save us from our struggles. He can turn any situations into blessings. We just need to come to Him and open up our heart. He is the most High that needs to be praised and glorified.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?
We need to be forgiving and love others because God loves us even though we all are imperfect. Unity and fellowship are important to show God’s love and it is such a joy to be together for God.
How will you Go With God because of this reading? (What is an action step?)
It is important to seek God first and give thanks to Him for his love for us and his forgiveness. His love is greater and higher than what we can imagine. We also need to praise the Lord daily because He is so good and an amazing God.
Where did you see Jesus in these chapters? (What made you think about Jesus?)
In these chapters, I see Jesus through the unfailing love that God has for us. God sent Jesus to save us. He is the living water that we should be thirsty for.
Psalms 105 talks the LORD’s blessing on his covenant people.
We see in Psalms 106 God’s mercy to his covenant people.
What is one key verse? Why?
Psalms 104:20-24
“You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and down in their dens. Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening. How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom, you made them all”
The reason I picked out these verses as a reminder of glory and beauty of God. It shows that God is not a God of mistakes but a God of perfection.
How does what you read change your vision of God?
It reminded me that God is always faithful to his promises. That he longs to bless his children. Realizing that even though we are broken by sin, that we have a father in heaven that loves us unconditional and is patiently waiting for us to turn our hearts back to him.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?
The psalms remind us that we are beautifully created by God.
How will you Go with God because of this reading? (Action)
Taking a step back every day from the busyness of life, even if it’s just to observe God’s creation and beauty around us.
Where did you see Jesus in the Chapters?
In Psalms 106 where the author goes into detail the sins of Israel present and past. Jesus’s unconditional love always shines through even when the Israelites were bent on rebelling.
Psalms 98, 99, 100, and 103 are all praises to God for His judgement, salvation, His mercies, His holiness, and faithfulness. We see in Psalm 101 is the promise David gives to the Lord to be righteous and in 102 a prayer to the Lord when affliction and overwhelm are present.
What is one key verse?
Psalm 100: 2-3
“Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”
I chose this passage because it is such a great reminder to praise our God with loud joyful praise for who He is and how he loves us, and an amazing way to praise him is through our gladness and joyful song. I love how this passage of praise also reminds us about God’s truth, that we come from God, we belong to Him and we are so precious to him as his children. Especially how David emphasizes that it’s not just the truth that God has made, us, but that we belong to Him, I love how we are referred to as “the sheep of his pasture.” It shows me that God is our shepherd, he will always watch out for us, protect us, and provide for us. Those are amazing truths to constantly praise and worship God for.
Shout to the Lord by Hillsong is a worship song that this passage makes me think of to worship the Lord:
How does what you read change your vision of God? It reminds me to rest in God’s truth, that I am His, that we are His, and not just to rest in that truth, but to rejoice in that truth. To continuously be grateful for the love that our Lord has for us, and that powerful, protective love does not end.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?It shows the importance of being joyful and celebrating that we belong to God, and thus, what we do should always be centered around our Lord. And how important it is to be grateful for my relationship with God and the fellowship of believers.
How will you Go With God because of this reading? (What is an action step?) I think it’s so important to continuously remember the Love our God has for us, as expressed in this passage, and it comes from the truth that “the Lord is God,” and because He has loved us in the way this passage depicts I will praise my God for it.
Where did you see Jesus in these chapters? (What made you think about Jesus?)
I see Jesus, in the love that is expressed in this passage, in that protective, sacrificial, all consuming love, “he made us, we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”
Psalm 90 – A Psalm of Moses about the transient nature of this life and the eternal nature of God. He asks God to teach him to humber his days aright – an amazing prayer that we should employ.
Psalm 91 – This is the Psalm that Satan himself quoted to Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4). Jesus countered with verses from Deuteronomy. A grave reminder that we must use the scriptures with care and integrity because Satan can use them too.
Psalm 92 – This is a Psalm for Sabbath. What a great way to start and end a day of rest in God!
Psalm 93 – This simple Psalm speaks to the unmovable nature of God. The things that threaten us are no threat to him.
Psalm 94 – A powerful Psalm of lament that calls upon the “Lord of vengeance” to make things right while also remembering that ultimately God is in control.
Psalm 95 – A simple song of praise that features a warning quoted in Hebrews 3-4 – Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts!
Psalm 96 – I love this Psalm of praise because it says that the trees of the forest will sing – I’ve heard it!
Psalm 97 – This Psalm reminds us that God is big and evil is small – O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
Key Verse:
Psalm 95:7-8 “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.'”
I chose this verse because it basically gets a sermon written around it in the book of Hebrews. We often cite Hebrews 4:12-13 which is an amazing verse, but this Psalm actually gives us the context based on the days of wandering and disobedience in the desert.
Vision of God
This verse is a reminder of the justice of God. He parted the seas, sent the plagues, raised up Moses and still let a whole generation of his people fall and not enter his rest because they did not trust and obey.
Vision of Myself and Others
As much as I love the mercy of God and certainly need his grace everyday. I also must respect his justice. As the Hebrew writer points out, this passage begins with the word, “Today”. That’s back in Moses’ day, Jesus’ day, the early church period and TODAY. This is a promise of God that we can’t ignore – Today, if you harden your heart, you will not enter his rest.
Go With God
I want to keep my heart soft by reading, praying and having people who love God play an active role in my life. I have to keep being open about my feelings, temptations and sins so sin won’t begin to harden my heart.
Jesus
I see Jesus in all of this because without him we’d all miss out on his rest. Jesus’ sacrifice gives us the chance to make every today a day full of God and goodness and tomorrow a day of rest in God for eternity.
This group of Psalms are mostly songs by the Sons of Korah, with one prayer of David in the middle and a longer song by Ethan the Ezrahite at the end. The ones by the Sons of Korah express a spirit of gratitude, humility and a deep devotion to God – Ps 88 being the only one that’s more a song of lament. David’s prayer expresses a humble spirit looking for God to give a gracious answer. The last psalm by Ethan is a multipart song that reminds of God’s promises and covenants with David.
What is one key verse?
Psalm 89:15
Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face
Why?
So many reasons, but I’ll give two. First of all, it stands out as being fun. Do you know the festal shout? I’m sure that if you don’t, you now really want to. Who wouldn’t want to be part of the people who know the festal shout?! [Think MASSIVE celebration] They are the blessed ones. Just thinking about that produces a light-hearted spirit within me, a spirit of wanting to draw others in and celebrate together. We need to know that it’s important to God that His people who know the festal shout are blessed, and we especially need to know this in light of the palpable fallen state of our world thus far in 2020.
Secondly, this verse expands my understanding of how we are to live. “Walk” is discipleship language. The meaning is not ‘walk’ as in down the street or for exercise. It’s ‘walk’ as in how you will live your life. And it’s to live your life in the Light, in the light of God’s face, in other words in other places in scripture – in His delight, to both be delighted in Him and for Him to be delighted in us. Something very illuminating I heard recently, someone was speaking about repentance and how he had always thought repentance would bring him back to a God that he had let down and disappointed, but had actually come to realize that instead repentance is the way we experience the love of a good, good Father. I believe that if more of us thought about repentance in this way and chose to live in a way where we wouldn’t let the world (or our own sin) get us down, but would repent and return every time to find that God is waiting for us to delight and walk in the light of His face, we would know ourselves to be blessed as the people who know the festal shout of God.
How does what you read change your vision of God?
Reading through the Psalms, I know how acutely aware God is of all the hardship, strife and evil that goes on in this world and the anguish of the human spirit. I read about His anger against unrighteousness and the power of His judgments. His ready response to the broken and humble and those who earnestly seek after Him with a whole heart. And amidst all this heavy reading, there is this small (but not insignificant) reminder that God made all things good, including the festal shout. Even in a world of big problems and unbearable sin that must be dealt with, God finds it important that we know He wants us to live our lives as people who love to walk in His light and find reason to celebrate because of it.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?
The essence of celebration in the meaning of the festal shout is rooted in good fellowship, in doing life together with others who also delight in walking with God. In-person fellowship is limited right now, so it can seem impossible at times to have meaningful fellowship, but whether its live-in-person or through other means (phone, Zoom, etc) this scripture helps my vision of the spirit in which I should pursue meaningful, festal fellowship of the kind that God made us to have.
How will you Go With God because of this reading?
This scripture urges going with God as a people knowing the festal shout, walking in the light of His face. It helps me know how to do this by first thinking of the opposite things. The words ‘festal shout’ bring to mind a celebratory gathering where the energy levels are running pretty high and people are enjoying themselves. Self-isolating with no outside contact and allowing ourselves to feel down seems like an accurate image of what’s opposite. Reaching out to other disciples to bridge the gap and change our situation away from the latter and more to the former seems like a good starting point! Being in the darkness and staying put would be the opposite to learning to repent quicker and knowing that God is not so much let down and disappointed as He simply is good, and wanting us to delight in the nearness of His presence even as He delights in us drawing near.
Where did you see Jesus in this verse?
Jesus walked in the light of God the Father’s face his entire life, and his life was given up for us so that we might walk in that same light. He did it so that He could go and prepare a place for us in the Father’s house, where there would be no more crying or pain – a place of massive celebration, filled with the festal shouts of God. It’s pretty clear that Jesus is all over this verse!
Psalm 78: This psalm was written to teach the children how gracious God had been in the past in spite of their ancestors’ rebellion and ingratitude.
Psalm 79: This psalm laments the destruction of Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian captivity.
Psalm 80: The psalm is a prayer for a fallen kingdom to be restored.
Psalm 81: This psalm recalls the miraculous deliverance at the Exodus, and applies its significance to the present: trust the Lord and see His deliverance.
Psalm 82: This psalm is concerned with the problem of unjust judges.
Psalm 83: Israel is threatened by hostile neighbors and the psalmist is petitioning God for intervention, citing his past deliverance and His (God’s) reputation being at stake.
What is one key verse?
Psalm 82:8 – Rise up, God, judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you.
How does what you read change your vision of God?
God is a God of justice, and ultimately His justice will prevail.
How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?
We are all imperfect. We as disciples all seek justice in this world, but our own vision of justice is shaped by our unique life journey as both individuals and the culture that we grew up in. As we pursue justice, it is challenging but necessary, that we view circumstances and solutions through the lens of His Word and not through a worldly lens.
How will you Go With God because of this reading? (What is an action step?)
I will seek to have a humble spirit and an open heart. I know what I know, but I also must be open to opposing viewpoints. I also need to have the strength of character to speak the truth when I see falsehood, but only guided by the wisdom of God and only with a loving attitude.
Where did you see Jesus in these chapters? (What made you think about Jesus?)
Speaking the truth is almost never popular when it challenges the current narrative or conventional wisdom. In John 10:34, Jesus references Psalm 82:6, in his defense, when a group of Jews were about to stone him. He was able to elude them at that time, but we know that ultimately he was crucified for speaking the Truth. Jesus didn’t cave to all of the pressure around him (from the public, from leaders, from his own followers), but continued about His father’s work. I need to follow His example, however difficult that may be.
The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and the moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth, you made both summer and winter.
These verses impacted my vision of God by helping me remember that he is the one in control. He made everything and is in control of everything. It is great to be reminded how big he is and how little we are. I am going to remember this scripture throughout the day to remind me that God’s plans are often different from ours, often bigger and better as well as challenging. We may not be able to establish the sun and the moon but with his help and our humility we can impact someone else’s life on a grand scale just like he did ours.
2020 Bible Vision 