Walnut Street Church of Christ Dickson, TN

In this latest installment of our series on the psalms, Chris walks us through David's contrite prayer as he seeks God's forgiveness. In this psalm, David teaches you and me how to pray through the guilt and shame. You pray, He forgives. What if it were that easy?

Chris continues his summer series focused on the psalms. In this installment, Chris dissects Psalm 29 & highlights the fact that God is both powerful & personal.

Psalm 22 is about praying through pain. This psalm teaches us how to talk to God when times are tough. David’s prayer is about holding onto the conviction that God is good and He has a redemptive purpose when things look bleak.

David and the afflicted ones are powerless and weak. That’s the takeaway from Psalm 8. However, even though they are powerless and weak, God has chosen to rule the world through them. They are the underdogs who will be top dog. This is what Psalm 8 is all about.

Psalms teach us the language of prayer. They teach us how to pray through our fears. You lay it all out before God. You pray through your emotions in front of God. It’s an intentional processing where you seek to understand the source of your emotions, sort through them, and find how they relate to God. If I’m going to be a follower of Jesus, and cultivate a relationship with him, then I must learn how to pray through my fears.

Psalms 1 & 2 serve as an introduction to the entire book. Psalm 1 is reflecting on the 2 ways to be human. There’s the person who is like a blossoming tree of life planted by a stream. He doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. He doesn’t stand in the way of sinners. He doesn’t sit in seat of scoffers. The other is like an empty husk of wheat that just flakes off and blows away. The one who meditates on God's law and waits for the Messiah is the one who will be a blossoming tree of life.

WE work out OUR salvation collectively. We do this by being of the same mind and of the same spirit. We do this by submitting to one another. We do this by being on the same page and reading from the same script. This is not something that can be done individually. The context of Paul’s words are within the framework of the church. This is about US not ME.

There is no such thing as a zero-talent individual. Everyone has received something. It may only be one thing, but that single talent is very valuable. You may be a one-talent person, but you may be the only one with that ability. If you don’t use it, then some needed work will go unfulfilled. The Master has not left any of us with empty pockets.

One of our shpeherds at the Walnut Street Church of Christ, Scott Woodard, gives us some things to ponder related to what we leave behind. Everyone will be remembered for something? How will you be remembered.

God doesn’t need your money. It’s not about the money to God. So, we don’t start with money. We don’t start with the amount. We don’t start with the obligation. We start where Paul starts. We start with GRACE.