CNC Daily Psalms

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 35:11-28  Listen to Psalm 35:11-28

What happens when you keep praying and injustice continues? Well if you are anything like David, it might look a bit like this - continuing to ask God again and again “Why? Why are you doing this?” Sometimes in prayer I think it is easy to believe that if you’ve prayed about an issue once that is quite enough thank you. God wouldn’t want to be bothered with the same issue twice. As you may have picked up so far from the psalms, David doesn’t have that attitude at all. He confidently unpacks to God all the parts of his situation that are difficult, trusting that God will act on his behalf... eventually. You can tell that David thinks this from verse 18.

I would sum up David’s prayer strategy as this: “God I’m going to keep praising you and I’m going to keep asking for change.” This seems like such a healthy approach to prayer. There is always something to praise God about, as much as there is always something to ask God to change. Why don’t we try that pattern of prayer today.

God, I’m going to keep praising you and I’m going to keep asking for change. Would you help me to do both?

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 35:1-10  Listen to Psalm 35:1-10

Have you ever felt like you received unfair treatment? That the way you are being perceived isn’t at all an accurate reality of who you are? I’m sure we have all had at least one situation in our lives where we have felt this was the case. In the Bible we can read of several times in David’s life where he was misjudged or falsely accused of things that were nothing to do with him. In Psalm 35 he reaffirms his faith in God as the God of justice.

He declares his belief in the God who rescues the poor. The God who sees him.

David’s invitation for God to ‘Contend for him’ offers a healthy model for dealing with injustice. As we invite the God of justice to participate in our lives our attitude to dealing with that injustice will change. Knowing God is on the side of justice has provoked generations of Christians to stand up against the status quo, to see injustice tackled. I am also reminded in this psalm that Jesus was a person who faced injustice. When we encounter injustice ourselves we are offered an opportunity to follow in the steps of Jesus, to learn what it is to have God contend for us.

God, when I face injustice would you contend for me?

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 34  Listen to Psalm 34

Refugee David is in a “tight spot”. His life is threatened. He calls for deliverance, and escapes from the conflict. So, he proclaims God’s favour. Answered prayer (verse 4), freedom from fear and joy in the face of conflict. He worships and sees God’s bigger picture (verses 2-3). His lungs are full of praise and he speaks out the good news. God delivers and sets free those who are made righteous (verses 3-4) and filled by His Spirit. Especially those who are in physical trouble or crushed in spirit, those with a broken heart (verses 17-20). His angels surround them, and His eyes are on them and His ears open to their call.

How do we find this fulfilling exciting and joyful life? Taste and see that God is always good (verse 8). No good thing will He withhold from those who follow Him, who listen to Him and obey His teachings (verse 11). They shun falsehood, do good and seek peace (verse 14). They are the peace makers He loves. However, be aware God says you will always have troubles. You will meet opposition from the wicked who “commit slow suicide by the things they do” (verse 21).

In these difficult emotional times, there is healing and hope in the Lord for those who serve Him. Come, taste, be set free and fear no condemnation.

Thank you, God, for your favour. Make me a spreader of your good news that Christ sets us free and we “shall be free indeed”.

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 33:10-22  Listen to Psalm 33:10-22

In the second part of this psalm of praise, the psalmist shifts from the praise of God as creator to the praise of God who is in control of human history. The plans of the nations will be thwarted unless they are also the plans of the Lord (verses 10-12). The Lord made the world, but he is not just an observer or another actor in creation along with humanity. He is sovereign and in control of events in human history.

Plenty of plans have been thwarted this year as nation after nation introduced measures to lockdown their countries in an effort to contain and control the pandemic. Sporting fixtures, conferences, public events and celebrations have all been postponed or cancelled as the world faces the threat of the coronavirus.

The Lord looks down from heaven, but he is not a distant observer. He watches all of us, everyone, and considers everything that we do (verses 13-15). From Genesis 1, as we saw yesterday, we learn that God spoke creation into being by his Word. But he also saw that what he had created was good, and after he had created humanity he saw that it was very good.

What does God see as we tackle the pandemic?

I'm sure that he sees the weekly applause for the NHS, care home workers and key workers. He sees the teachers who transformed their DT workshops into the production of PPE. He sees the little acts of kindness between neighbours. He sees individuals whether 9 or 99 raising money to support the most vulnerable.

The psalmist says the Lord's "eyes … are on those who fear him," the God of unfailing love (verse 18) who delivers and sustains us (verse 19).

So how do we weather this phase of human history? By waiting in hope for the Lord, creator of the world and sovereign in history, hoping in his unfailing love.

Lord, we wait in hope for you. You are our help and our shield. Our hearts rejoice, for we trust in your holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 33:1-9  Listen to Psalm 33:1-9

This psalm was a hymn of praise used by Israel during worship. The first nine verses that we are looking at today are in praise of God's word. Verses 1-3 are a call to praise the Lord, singing joyful songs, and making music on stringed instruments and with shouts of joy. Why should we do this? The answer is revealed in verses 4-9. We praise God because the word of the Lord "is right and true" and "faithful in all he does" (verse 4). The psalmist tells us that it is through the spoken word that God created the heavens and the earth (verses 6-9). This reminds us of the creation account in Genesis 1, where God spoke the world into being.

When we look at this psalm through the lens of the New Testament, we see that Jesus is called the "Word of God" (John 1:1-18). The psalms were originally written in Hebrew. When they were translated into Greek, in a book called the Septuagint, the Greek word logos was used to mean word (verse 6). The same Greek word logos is used by John in his Gospel to mean Jesus, who he calls the Word of God. It is, therefore, Jesus who "is right and true" and "faithful in all he does." It is Jesus who loves "righteousness and justice." And it is Jesus, the Word of God, the logos of whom John says "Through him all things were made."

The psalmist says that since God created the world, this is more than enough reason that the whole world should "fear" or "revere" the Lord.

Why not spend some time today praising God, because of what he has done through his Word.

Lord Jesus, Word of God, we praise you today because...

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 32  Listen to Psalm 32

The psalmist is overwhelmed by the blessing that comes from knowing he is forgiven. He had taken a while to admit to God that he was wrong and needed God's forgiveness.  While talking to God he draws others around him and into the  conversation by urging them too to pray and confess while they have the opportunity.

The phrase “keep short accounts with God" was often heard in the early years of my Christian life when we were taught  how to build our relationship with God. David acknowledges his wrong-doing which is followed by God's forgiveness which clears him of guilt. He is concerned that others too should admit where they have offended God and can be assured of their relationship with Him. God is the one place/person we can always go to when we are in any trouble. He is our protector and defender. Others will also be celebrating and thanking God for the forgiveness they have received.

David gives advice here from his own experience of God's loving kindness and mercy telling his listeners that he will teach them and show them how to live as God would like. They should not be stubborn but allow God to mould them. As they continue to trust Him they will experience God's continued love. David ends with the encouragement to all those who “are upright in heart" to continue to rejoice in the Lord, to be filled with gladness and to let their praise of Him be heard.

Lord, thank you that You are always more ready to listen than we are to seek forgiveness.

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 31:14-24  Listen to Psalm 31:14-24

Having acknowledged his anguish, in the second half of the psalm David reasserts his trust in God. He remembers the blessing that the priests invoked over the people of Israel, that the Lord would make his face shine on his servants. He cries out for God’s help and reminds himself of God’s goodness to his people.

When we are under pressure it can be very helpful to remind ourselves of God’s love for us, both as shown in Scripture and as we have experienced it in the past. The Spirit of God enables us to fix our minds on what God wants for us. David models for us here how ‘the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.’

By the end of the psalm not only is David in a place of rest in God for himself, but he is able to exhort others to take heart.

Lord Jesus, thank you that your presence in us empowers us to have our minds set on what the Spirit desires.

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 31:1-13  Listen to Psalm 31:1-13

In the second half of this psalm, to be read tomorrow, it emerges that David composed these lines while in a besieged city. At the very start he declares where he has really taken refuge: not in the safety provided by the city walls, but in the Lord.

David highlights what distinguished the people of the God of Israel from other nations: a God who is alive and present with his people, understands their suffering, and moves on their behalf. As a result, he can even say from his position of lockdown in the city under siege that God has set his feet in a spacious place.

Despite the confident way in which the psalm has begun, the second section depicts the extreme stress David is under. He is mentally and physically challenged, shunned and even forgotten by his friends. His life is in danger.

We can quickly move from a place of feeling completely at rest in God and supported by his care to anxiety and stress. That is part of the human condition, which it is better to acknowledge than to suppress or deny.

Lord Jesus, thank you that having lived among us you know exactly how we go up and down. Help us remember that you are with us however we are feeling.

 

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 30  Listen to Psalm 30

This psalm may have been written during a time when Jerusalem had a plague approaching (1 Chronicles 21:18-23). We may feel that we are in a similar situation.

David is expressing thanksgiving for God’s deliverance, but he certainly knew fear and experienced dismay; he knew what it was to weep and wail. It seems also that when he feels “secure” and blessed by God he boasts that he will never be shaken. Only in the same verse he expresses dismay at God hiding his face.

David’s emotions were up and down. This man of God and anointed king had his wobbles.

Some of us may be weeping at the moment and maybe we the church need to weep with you. Jesus certainly had compassion and wept, sharing people’s pain.

Are there ways we can virtually stand around those in love, care and prayer, to let them know that our God who came into our painful world came also to turn things around, to bring rejoicing in the morning and to clothe us again with joy?

Graham Kendrick, a worship leader and composer, wrote a song of celebration called ‘God is good’. Some years later he wrote another song, ‘God is good all the time’.

Thank you Father, that you are good all the time and that you do turn our weeping into dancing and that joy will come in the morning.

We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.

Read Psalm 29  Listen to Psalm 29

I am calling this psalm a voice sandwich.

The psalm starts with a call to give God glory and worship and ends with God giving his people strength and peace. The sandwich ‘filling’ is a dramatic description of how God’s voice causes nature to shake, rattle and roll, with the heavens responding with a cry of glory. But we know that God’s voice doesn’t always come with thunder: Elijah heard God in the still small voice (the NIV says ‘a gentle whisper’).

When you know and love someone you don’t need a great formal introduction, you immediately recognise their voice from the first syllable. Like David we praise and worship the Lord’s glory. Let’s make sure we are listening in expectancy to the voice of Abba Father, the Lover of our Souls.

Here are some guidelines to hearing Gods voice:

Position your heart to be in a relationship with God.

Prepare your mind to focus on Jesus.

Ponder the word.

Praise with your soul.

Present it to those you trust spiritually.

Thank you Father, you are the good shepherd. Help us your sheep to listen to your voice.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ6SL1jMM00