Asaph, the choir director, was harboring significant doubts about God as he saw how the wicked prospered and had so much ease in life. He began to question whether living a pure and righteous life was worthwhile. All this changed when he encountered God in true worship.

Psalm 1 is among the most recognized in the Psalter. It is a wisdom psalm that calls on us to be discerning between what is a righteous life and what is not. By using two word pictures the author sets a high contrast between the flourishing of the righteous and the peril of the wicked.

William Jay notes how audacious it would be to steal from a man in broad daylight while he is watching and yet that is exactly what we do when we do not give to God what belongs to God. God is the owner of all we possess and he is far better able to manage our lives than we are ourselves.

The Scriptures give numerous descriptions of who and what the Christian is, and it is relayed to us in a way that would be awe-inspiring if we were to simply consider them carefully. Among those truths is that we are heirs of God.

God has obligated himself for our sake, through the new covenant the Christian is assured that God will accomplish what he has said he would do. As our mediator and sacrifice Jesus' work on the cross assures the believer of the hope we find in Christ.

The OT character of Abraham gives the Christian an array of blessings and example to follow. The greatest benefit of all is that the believer shares in the infinite inheritance promised to Abraham. William Jay notes that it is an inheritance that reaches beyond the grave and is the reward of God himself to Abraham and his heirs - the Church of Christ Jesus.

Christ's instruction contrasting the Scribes and Pharisees speaks loudly to present-day church leaders and how they see themselves and may want to be perceived by others.

As we sojourn in this fallen world, the Christian is called to live in fear, but not just any kind of fear. 1 Peter 1 explains the sort of fear we are to thrive in.

About 30 years after Paul's letter to the Ephesians, John addressed the church while exiled in Patmos. In his letter the Ephesian church is praised but also face a stinging indictment: They abandoned their first love. Though lovers of pure doctrine and active in God's service the church quietly drifted away from their love for Christ. John reminds them of what they must do to remain a church.

Paul reminds the church to pray for one another but does not exclude himself from the prayer roster. He knows that his ministry will be effective when God's people pray for him. Amazingly, he sees his incarceration not as an injustice or a detour in the gospel's spread, but as God's providence and steeped in God's purposeful will.