Grace City Denver

God reveals himself in a general sense in the created world, which makes his glory conspicuous. God also reveals himself in a more particular sense in the pages of Scripture, which tell his story of redemption. We treasure God's Word because it tells us this true story of creation, sin, and rescue, and makes us wise unto salvation.

In this third-longest Psalm of the psalter, David recounts God's protection and deliverance from his enemies. He links his own rescue to the rescue of the Exodus, and he makes an astonishing claim: God rescued me because I was blameless before him. How? How can a former adulterer and murderer be counted blameless before God? This message unpacks how David ultimately points to Jesus and the grace of our salvation.

Message from James Kamb on July 9, 2023

Everyone wants happiness and everyone wants to be satisfied. But people take very different paths to achieve those goals. In the end, all idolatry leads to pain and ruin. But putting God at the center of our lives leads to fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

How is a person qualified to live in the presence of a holy God? On the surface, David seems to provide a moralistic answer: "Do this and don't do this." But digging deeper into the heart of this psalm, we see more gospel and more grace -- and we see the importance of our grateful response.

The fool is the one who refuses to acknowledge God - either philosophically or practically. The path to foolish corruption is the failure or refusal to center life on God. Though we are all guilty of this foolishness, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

This psalm is an individual lament, first complaining about God's apparent lack of awareness or concern over the suffering of the righteous. David is frustrated, even demanding, but he never stops hoping in the character and salvation of God.

What happens when we die? Where do we go? How does our story end? And what difference should that make for how we live our lives here and now?

The experience of pain and suffering is universal. And one of the most basic, human questions is, "Why?" We have an innate desire to make sense of – to find purpose in – our suffering. We don't want pain to be pointless. This is why we respond the ways we do, especially trying to find (or assign) reasons to our suffering. Most importantly, what are the timeless, biblical resources we have when life hurts to help us discover God's meaning behind it?

Everyone intuitively knows that certain actions are good and other actions are evil, regardless of how anyone feels about it. In other words, morality is not subjective and personal, but objective and universal. There is an absolute standard outside ourselves to which we are all held. This standard is an overflow or reflection of God’s character and it’s found in the Word of God. This is a standard we obey by trusting God’s heart and knowing he intends only good.