Trinity Church of Nashville, TN

When we know God through Jesus, we will come to want what he wants and trust what he commands.

God is light. In him there is no darkness. So how can sinners, who have reason to hide in the darkness, know friendship with God in the light? Only through honest confession of sin.

John wrote his letters to help his friends tell the difference between genuine and counterfeit Christianity. But why did John feel the need to do that? And how can you recognize true Christianity?

Psalm 23 has one central theme: The LORD is my shepherd. It is a statement that comforts the people of God, recognizing that God promises to provide for us, to protect us, and to give us what we need most–Himself.

A righteous king–an authority over us who always does what is right–is to our lives what rain or rich soil is to the grass. We were made to depend on such a king for our lives to flourish. This psalm shows us what a righteous king looks like, and how we can serve him.

When the powerful use their power to do whatever they want no matter who gets hurt, it makes sense to ask the question underlying this psalm: Who rules the world? And when you’ve felt the weight of that question, you’re prepared to celebrate the good news in this psalm’s answer.

God gives grace to his people to show his saving power to all peoples. This psalm shows us that those who know God’s grace and presence are responsible to share those blessings with those who haven’t experienced them.

We are called to a lifetime of praise that is built on trust in the Lord, the only one faithful to His word.

Thanksgiving psalms like this one show us how to relate to God as if we have history together, as if he’s been good to us when we’ve needed him. What do we need to see about God so our gratitude about the past fuels hope for the future?

This psalm of David gives us a profile of inner peace, and where we can find it.