This week, we begin a new section of the psalms known as the Psalms of Ascent. They were often read by travelers as they approached Jerusalem for one of Israel’s religious festivals.

They have long been used by other believers as an analogy for their own pilgrimage toward God. They teach us to reflect and pray about things we otherwise might not have considered.

If there is one psalm that might be most associated with our current crisis, it is surely Psalm 91. With its specific reference to protection from a plague, it’s not hard to see why.

But Psalm 91 says something more—something better. We’ll attempt to see the whole psalm and how its promises build toward things we would never have had the boldness to request.

Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible. But that familiarity comes with a challenge. Its images and ideas can pick up a sentimental nostalgia that keeps us from feeling the real impact of its message.

Psalm 23 offers us the remarkable realization that the valley of death's shadow can be the very place the shepherd leads us to find green grass and calm water.

Happy Easter! The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. There was no amount of power or money that could cover up his resurrection. Jesus was alive.

It was all as he had predicted. And in predicting his vindication, Jesus turned to Psalm 118. It is a psalm of worship which captured the remarkable reversal of God's blessing on those men had rejected. It may have been this very psalm that was on Jesus' mind as he headed to the cross and that first morning of his resurrection.

The Bible is never sentimental about our suffering. It never peddles easy solutions or gimmicks. It is honest about the ways suffering leaves us feeling isolated and in darkness. But there is a kind of mercy in that this psalm even exists—that the Bible is willing to be this honest. That mercy trains us for our own days of suffering.

Psalm 88 is known as an imprecatory psalm. It is one of the most extreme laments in the psalter. Yet it too has been a part of believer's worship for centuries.

David had accumulated everything a person could, wealth, power, position, but the rebellion of his own son Absalom left him devastated and fleeing for his life. It exposed how little control David actually had, how little control any of us have.

Psalm 62 is David's reflection on this devastating time and how he urged himself to still trust in God's power and steadfast love.

The Psalms are characterized by frankness and honesty. And they don't imagine that believers escape the experience of human emotions. Instead, the Psalms catalog the human experience and instruct us on how to pray through our emotions. David's fearful prayer of Psalm 56 is a perfect example.

Having established how believers had received justification and reconciliation, Paul turned his attention to the power of sin.

If god's grace is free and more abundant where sin abounds than should Christians even worry about sin? Should we go on sinning so more grace will abound?

Paul describes how believers have shared in the death and resurrection of Jesus. How can those who have died to sin now live in sin?

Having addressed how Jesus' death and resurrection had made a way for humanity to become righteous by faith, Paul next turned his attention to the problem of sin. If we were now reconciled to God and if God was making us righteous through Jesus, why do we still experience sin and particularly sin's consequence of death?

Having explained how God is welcoming humanity into his covenant through faith, Paul next turns to explain the implications of what this reconciliation means. We now have peace with God, access to his presence, and the ability to rejoice in the revelation of his glory. Even in suffering, we are compelled to hope.