The Central Moment

Let’s talk about our giving. Are you trusting the Lord with your finances and growing in your generosity toward his work and the needs in our world? Though abused by some, one of the most powerful principles in Scripture is the principle of giving and receiving.

We tend to fear the unknown. That is why fear of the future can be so paralyzing. Will my children turn out OK? What if I get sick? Will my career be successful? Will I have enough to retire on? How will I die? Given all those uncertainties, it’s time to put our futures into God’s hands!

Beyond human friendships we can enjoy friendship with God. His presence can walk with us through our days and, when other friends fail us, he is always there. Like the old hymn reminds us, it’s “friendship with Jesus, fellowship divine!”

In God’s creative genius we were designed as people for relationship and human connection. That is why friendships are such a gift from God. With good and godly friends we are stronger, wiser, and healthier!

In Jesus, we live and act as forgiven people. When we put our faith in what Christ accomplished for us at the Cross we are then clothed with Christ’s righteousness, not our own. Forgiveness can be ours!

The very last Psalm of the Old Testament book of Psalms gives us the where, why, and how of a life of worship. May our lives be lived for his glory and may his praise be the outflow of our hearts. Indeed, let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

The final 5 chapters of the Psalms each start with the word “Hallelujah” or “Praise the Lord.” Those 5 Psalms also end with that same word. And it is in between those pairs of Hallelujah’s that we will see the Lord’s triumph and dominion extend all the way from our lives today to the end of time.

Psalm 145 is the last Psalm that is specifically attributed to King David. It is written as an acrostic with each verse beginning with a subsequent letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But beyond its poetic beauty, it reminds us of what living and thriving in a God-centered life can be like.

The prayers of God’s people are powerful! They rise like incense before him until he acts to intervene in our lives, and ultimately the world. This is the divine partnership that is preparing us to reign and rule with him forever. So let’s keep filling the throne room of God with the incense of our prayers!

What determines our value as human beings? If we are simply the accidental byproducts of the random forces of the universe, then it is left to prevailing opinion or personal delusion to determine our value. But Psalm 139 roots our value in the creative genius of God who weaves purpose into our beings right from our mothers’ wombs.

None of us can reach our potential alone. We were created for community and connection. As worshiping pilgrims would make their way to the Temple in Jerusalem, they would affirm the beauty and power of unity with one another. Both their survival at dangerous turns and their experience of God’s blessing would depend on it.

Our God can restore life and vitality to the most desolate places in our lives, much like a river in an otherwise dry desert. Hardship really can give place to holiness and wholeness. Or, in the Biblical language of the Psalms, we may sow in tears but we will reap with joy.

Are you happy with where you are in life, or are you yearning for higher and better places? The 15 Psalms of Ascent, beginning with Psalm 120, were psalms sung by Jewish pilgrims on their way to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. Because we too are on pilgrimage through this life, they have much to say to us about our own life journeys.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, clocking in at 176 verses. It can feel like a formidable devotional challenge when you come to it in your daily Bible reading. Yet it speaks poetically and elegantly to the fixed reference point that every one of us needs in life -- God’s Word.

How does God look at the death of one of his faithful followers? Obviously he sees it as  gain from heaven’s perspective, but there is a way in which God also looks at it as a loss to his purposes here on earth. This is where Psalm 116 is often misunderstood.

We can never rise higher than the object of our worship. So what if we put aside lesser loves and meaningless pursuits in order to worship our Creator? He cannot be confined by space, time, or circumstance. And he is the one who always lifts us higher.

The prayers of the Old Testament often have a way of finding their way into the New Testament. This, of course, is all under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In turn, these prayers can also become our language of prayer!

The Psalms contain many Messianic ‘clues’ as to the identity of Jesus, God’s Son -- even though the Psalms were written hundreds of years before his birth. These clues fortify our faith and reinforce the authority and ministry of Jesus in our lives.

Sometimes we don’t know what to do with God’s justice. Many resent the idea of God’s wrath, and yet when victimized themselves they wonder where his justice went. Let’s never underestimate God’s passion for true justice and let’s be free from taking revenge into our own hands.

Spiritual amnesia -- we all fight it. In spite of the many times in the past that God has come through for us, we so easily forget and default back to our old patterns. But God’s new covenant with us in Christ is one that he will never forget!

Today let’s speak to our souls and tell them to praise the Lord with everything that is within us. After all, he is our Savior, our healer, our rescuer, and our provider. He loves us unfailingly and he is sovereign over all!

Psalm 100 is a favorite of many. It describes gates of thanksgiving and courts of praise, all of them leading us to the presence of God. And it is there in his presence that we find his ultimately durable and unfailing faithfulness.

Why sing when our world is so broken? Why have joy when so much suffering prevails? We sing and rejoice because, in the end, justice will come to our world. God’s righteousness and faithfulness will finally win out.

It’s time for a praise break! Let’s sing, let’s shout, let’s bow down before him. Why? Because he is the great King. No one is like him and yet he claims us as his own! Join us in doing this today.

The sting of injustice, especially when we are the victims of it, can be crippling and enraging. And where is God when injustice comes? Does he even see? Psalm 94 gives us some life-giving perspective and hope.