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 132  Listen to Psalm 132

Psalm 132 references the experience of David in his quest to build the temple. We learn in 1 Chronicles 17 that David desires to build a temple to God to give a proper place for worship. However God, through the prophet Nathan, tells David that it will in fact be his son that will fulfil this wish. In these times where meeting to worship is very different to ‘normal’ we may echo the desire of David.

However, unlike David, we know that because of the gospel, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God can be worshipped in all places. Perhaps this time of Covid is an opportunity to discover what it means to worship God in our homes? The end of the psalm looks towards David’s children - his legacy. How might our experience of this pandemic equip us to serve the next generation in worship?

God, we miss worshipping you all together in song. Please teach us more of you as we learn to worship in different ways.

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 131  Listen to Psalm 131

I was once helped to see that I could be proud and self-centred when one of my church leadership team said to me, “Roger, be more of a servant and put the chairs out.” The man was a true servant, I needed to heed this comment. This psalm is about having a humble dependence on God and not being ‘me centred’. In verse 1, David points out two areas that we need to watch if we are to be humble and not me centred.

First our heart. When our heart is proud, we take the credit that belongs to God, we also look down on other people. Jesus could have claimed his status, yet ‘he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross!’ (Philippians 2:8). Will we humble ourselves?

Second our eyes. The Bible says, ‘For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world’ (1 John 2:16). The world offers us so many enticing things which we see and go after. Let us be careful not to let our culture feed our appetites.

Taking note of these will help us not to be me centred, but to trust in God like a small child (verse 2).

Jesus, help me to deny myself, take up my cross and to follow you. I want my life not to be about me, but about 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 130  Listen to Psalm 130

This psalm starts in the depths (verses 1-2), yet ends in solid hope (verses 7-8). We all have had times of being in the depths, I certainly have. The key to ending in hope is to cry out to God. We need to get real with God, not glossing over the harshness of the situation, but looking to God for his help. We do not need to get our life sorted out before coming to him.

In tough times we are prone to blame ourselves thinking, ‘This has happened because of my sin years ago!’ Corrie ten Boom, who was a Holocaust survivor, said ‘God takes our sins and puts them in the depths of the sea and put up a sign which reads, “No fishing.”’ Let’s not go over old mistakes, because God does not ‘keep a record of sin’ and is a God of forgiveness (verses 3-4).

The psalmist may still be in tough times, yet his spirit is hopeful that God’s answer will come (verses 5-6). Hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking but is a certainty (Hebrews 11:1). Are you good at waiting? I am not great at it. He and we must learn to wait, trusting God for his help. Whatever tough times you are going through, lets trust in God's unfailing love for us (verse 7)!

Lord Jesus, you know my situation, my spirit cries out to you for mercy and help. I praise you for your forgiveness and unfailing love.

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 129  Listen to Psalm 129

The psalmist looks back to the past and though he and the Israelites were oppressed, God delivered them. His suffering was intense, but God cut him free from the enemy. He describes his suffering with a vivid picture of deep furrows on his back. Could this be a picture of what was to come for Jesus (John 19:1)? Jews have continued to be slandered and persecuted through the centuries, but have survived. The church has also seen persecution and still does in many countries, but it continues grow. How would my faith stand up under torture and pain? We may not have physical persecution, but do you have someone getting at your back constantly because of your faith? There are Christians today who suffer much for their faith. Let’s pray for them to be strong in the Lord and know his presence with them.

The writer faces the enemies with defiance (verse 5) and prays for God to confound those that hate Zion. He uses another picture which would speak to people of that day. Grass sprouting on the flat, sun baked housetops, would shoot up to start with, but would wither in the heat of the sun and so there would be no harvest. He doesn’t want them to suffer as he has, but asks God to make the enemy wither and not flourish or prosper and for them to miss out on God’s blessing.

Lord, we are thankful for the times when you have rescued us. Help us to be strong in our faith when we face adversity and be prepared to speak out your truth and love.

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 128  Listen to Psalm 128

This psalm suggests that a blessed home is based on fearing the Lord and walking in his ways. Our homes may not be ideal, but this blessing is available to all who will honour and respect God and isn’t dependent on race, class, education or intelligence, but rather a life of obedience.

Although God cares for us, we are to work for a living (verse 2). We know deep down that we are happiest when we have work to do, strength to do it, and a fair return for what we have done. Volunteering can also bring blessing and a sense of doing God’s work. Jesus knew this in his life: "My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:34).

The pilgrim journeys to Jerusalem were usually made as families, so it makes sense for there to be attention given to family relationships in the Songs of Ascents. Children and grandchildren will be a blessing. Good wives may not all be able to have children, but can be fruitful in other ways e.g. kindness, helpfulness, etc. Although ‘He that finds a wife finds a good thing,’ later in scripture, singleness is also a calling of God – Jesus was single and this can be a blessing.

To the Israelite, blessings came out of Zion (verse 5), which they regarded as God's earthly dwelling-place. When we think of where a lot of Jesus’ ministry took place, where he died and rose again for us and where the gospel was first preached, we are all blessed out of Zion (Jerusalem).

Dear Lord, help us all to fear the Lord and walk in his ways and help us to teach younger generations to do the same by our words and example.

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 127  Listen to Psalm 127

This is Godly wisdom. All life’s securities and blessings are gifts from God rather than our own achievements. Not self-determined toil but a dependent trust that brings sleep and peace. God is always there, and he loves you (verse 2). Trust him and involve him for your domestic shelter and for the community and city you live in which are your places of refuge when under threat (verses 1-2). God wants to be involved with every area of your life including your family. In the Hebrew language sons and builders are the same word. In our culture our inheritance is in our house and children (verses 3-4). Our character witnesses when we face false accusations from those who would do us harm (verse 5). Verse 5 speaks of the benefit of children to support you in times of trouble and testing. This may sound very simplistic as we know that life’s happenings may make us feel guilty. So when “things go pear-shaped” we must remember that God still wants to be involved in every area of our lives, avoid recrimination.

Nicky Gumbel comments, “It is easy to get caught up with our own plans for home and family. Is God part of everything we do? Are there any areas of our life where we are going it alone where our labour will be in vain (verses 1-2)? St Paul speaks of the futility of a life lived without God. (1 Corinthians 3:20).

Lord, I commit my life, family, our church and everything I am involved in to your hands. I trust 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 126  Listen to Psalm 126

A psalm of ascents that celebrates liberation from captivity of the Jewish nation from its exile in Babylon. From a state of isolation where all they could do was to dream (verse 1), they are now in their home country on Mount Zion where God dwelt. He had set them free (salvation). A shadow of a greater salvation through Jesus Christ (Nicky Gumbel).

The key word is restoration by the Lord who has done great things (verse 2-3). Their acknowledgement leads to laughter and joy and a confidence to pray for a completion of the nation’s restoration (verse 4-6). They ask “God to do it again - bring rains to our drought-stricken lives. So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest” (The Message). They may face tears as they participate with God’s work but there is a certainty of an abundant harvest time from the seed sown in barren conditions. God has said it and his word is trustworthy and true. Verses 5-6 have often been helpful to those of us who scatter the gospel to our friends and neighbours but only see hardness and rejection.

As we live through another peak of virus infection and a “new normal” many of us can only dream of liberation and restoration. We are not alone. Life giving refreshing rain is a symbol of God the Holy Spirit always at work in us to bring righteousness, peace and joy in our lives (Romans 14:17).

Lord, thank you that you have done great things through Christ. If life is tough with tears help me to pray restore my fortunes, fill me with laughter and joy by your Holy Spirit. Help me to be a part of your harvest.

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 125  Listen to Psalm 125

I am writing this surrounded by mountains, some are huge bastions of rock reaching into the sky, solid and unmoving. This is the picture the psalmist uses to show the presence and protection God gives to his people. However this comes with the condition of trust.

When I was learning to rock climb, I was taken out with an experienced climber. We set out up a rockface roped together. All went well, then we came to a pitch where the rockface stopped and a gap appeared! To go ahead I had to launch my self across nothing. I was roped to a climber who had gone ahead and was attached to a rock, but it still meant pushing off from solid rock over thin air. I had all the equipment and a person to trust in, but I had to let go of all that felt safe.

Trust can be like that: we are not trusting in words, philosophy, or even ropes, but in the living reality of the Lord Jesus who calls us to follow him. This may mean letting go of all that we feel is solid and rely upon.

Father, I want to be obedient to you, thank you that I am roped to 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 124  Listen to Psalm 124

When I was growing up my mother would try and stop arguments from developing by saying the words, “No if’s or but’s.” Sometimes we can be tempted to look back at situations with complaints or regrets, “If only...”

Today’s psalm turns things around by being thankful and focuses on what would have happened if the Lord had not been on their side. We can forget, or choose not to see, that it is the Lord who is on our side, who is for us, and is always with us. Our help may come by different routes but ultimately it comes from the Lord, who is big enough to be creator of the heavens and the earth and small enough to enter our world as a baby - so that we can know that God is on our side.

Father, thank you that you are on my side, today and always.

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 123  Listen to Psalm 123

This psalm is a prayer of God’s people for him to show mercy and foil the contempt of the proud. Servants look to their master for all their needs and it is to God to whom we must look for all our daily needs. Servants in biblical times were dependent on their masters, probably for their very lives. How much do we truly depend on God or do we rely too much on government, other people, bank balance, etc? Where should we look for help but to our master? Many people look to the world for their security and in this they have their reward; but true Christians look to God as their master and their rewarder.

God's people find little mercy with men; but with the Lord there is mercy. Scorning and contempt have been, are, and are likely to be, the lot of God's people in this world. It can be hard to bear, but the servants of God should not complain if they are treated as Jesus was. Under the present trial that the world finds itself in, do we look to Jesus to sustain us through this pandemic, and by faith and prayer cast ourselves upon the mercy of God?

Father, you are our master and our God. May we always look to you for all our needs and to strengthen us when faced with ridicule and opposition.