Tag: Psalms

Psalm 92.1-3
It is good to praise the Lord
   and make music to your name, O Most High,
proclaiming your love in the morning
   and your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
   and the melody of the harp.

Reflection: King of My Heart :: Worldwide Prayer
By John Tillman

The prayers that form the psalms are the emotional heart of our scriptures. It is no mistake that worship is a time of poetry, music, and art.

This simple, poetic prayer from Canada leaves no doubt that our source and supply for life, for freedom, for healing, for guidance, and for strength is in Christ. Christ is our King of Kings and stands with us through whatever we face.

How true it is that our human striving, cannot compete with the life Christ won for us through his death. May we never stop praising him for that. One of the gifts of poetry is brevity and this prayer brings that gift as well.

Prayer for strength from Canada
God of all gods
I tried, you died
King of them all
Stand by my side

King of my heart
You hear my call
Holder of hands
Cushion my fall

Lord of my life
Your strength I seek
Best friend indeed
Guide me, I’m weak

Love of my life
Oh what a treat
Precious Redeemer
Your face to meet

Prayer: The Greeting
You are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence since I was young.
I have been sustained by you ever since I was born; from my mother’s womb you have been my strength; my praise shall be always of you. — Psalm 46.11

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 9 (Listen – 5:06) 
Psalm 92-93 (Listen – 2:09) 

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about Suffering for Our True Identity
It is not all right to be a Christian. And if we ask why, the answer is a sad one; Christians have given Christianity a bad name.

Read more about Artful Prayers
One of the reasons that the psalms are so engaging to any reader of God’s Word is that they are works of art and carry with them the inherent timelessness that great artworks possess.

Psalm 90.14
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
   that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Reflection: Outward-Focused Rhythms
By John Tillman

Morning routines are important and are shaped by the culture surrounding us. Londoners take, on average, 90 minutes to go from waking to walking out the door, while in Shanghai, the average person spends only 9 minutes grooming in the morning.

How we spend our first 59 waking minutes affects the rest of our day. Whether we start with a shower, or a workout, or reading, or a snooze button, the way we start our morning is important.

Our culture desires to maximize this time in monetizable ways. We often look to design habits that make our lives more productive and therefore profitable, but we don’t often design habits that make life more meaningful and therefore more satisfying. One of the reasons we may find our morning routines unfulfilling is that they typically center on ourselves.

Instead of focusing mostly on activities that are forms of self-investment, practicing daily rhythms that are rooted in Christ can take us beyond ourselves.

One way to open ourselves up is by praying for those few may be praying for—the unlovable, the unnoticed, the hurting, the hated. We lean into the love of Christ to supply ourselves with love for the unlovable and the hated. We draw up living water from the well of Christ, to pass on in Jesus’ name, to the hurting. We take hold of Christ’s light of truth, directing its caring spotlight on the unnoticed.

Jesus promised his followers a “rich and satisfying life.” This life only comes, however, to the sheep who learn the voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd. The abundant joy and fulfillment Jesus provides transcends the good days and bad days of life, by helping us transcend our fixation with ourselves.

The psalmists are also focused on being satisfied in God. Psalm 90, a psalm of Moses, pleads with God to “satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.”

Spiritual rhythms don’t have to be practiced in the morning to be effective. (In fact, we recommend integrating spiritual practices throughout your day.) But spiritual practices flourish when connected to actions that go beyond ourselves.

Scripture reading, prayer, and reflection on the character and nature of God each morning is time well invested. Especially when the actions growing from our faith flow outward, into our community.

Prayer: Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody. — Psalm 57:7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 7 (Listen – 4:13) 
Psalm 90 (Listen – 2:03)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about Thoughts and Prayers
The kind of prayer that Paul engages in is fruitful in creating action—good desires and the deeds that follow.

Read more about Occupation of Meditation
The results of true prayer are tangible actions on our part, empowered by God to make a difference in our world.

Psalm 85.11-12
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
   and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
   and our land will yield its harvest.

Reflection: The Cultivating Life
By John Tillman

The Lord is seeking a harvest of faithfulness from the earth. When we partner with him and cultivate the soil of our hearts, we ensure that Christ’s power will take root in us and bring forth a harvest of the fruit of the spirit.

We have written before, “cultivation is supernatural,” but the simple actions of cultivating faith are not ethereal or fanciful. They are the practical, steady doings of the farmer.

Water the ground with prayer
Praying is like watering the soil of your heart so that it doesn’t become hard and dusty and so that the things God plants there can grow.

Jesus taught his followers to pray to God as our father. It is easy to forget to converse with God like a trusted friend or a parent. Praying is also listening, so when we pray, listen—the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us something.

The Good Seed of the Bible
The Bible, the Word of God, is the good seed that God plants in us, his fields.

It is a false dichotomy to attempt to set The Holy Spirit (or Jesus) against the Bible as if we could cancel the one with the other. If Satan’s kingdom would fall when divided against itself, how much more Christ’s?

The Bible is the writing of—the very breath of—the Holy Spirit, given to the men and women who wrote the Bible. So, to hear from the Holy Spirit, the most direct method is to pick up a Bible and read.

Nourish the soil and Pollinate through corporate Worship
Many plants growing near one another will share water and nutrients with one another. Other plants, when they detect a closely related plant will put out less extensive roots, so as not to soak up all the resources for themselves.

When we gather to worship we are helping others to experience the fruit of the Spirit and to share our physical and spiritual resources.

The cultivating life is not an out of the box, pre-prepared spiritual solution. But when we keep worshiping God with others and planting the right seeds of what we learn about the Bible, and we keep watering the soil of our hearts with prayer, “faithfulness will spring up from the earth,” and “our land will yield its harvest.”

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples.
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all gods. — Psalm 96.2-4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 3 (Listen – 4:33) 
Psalm 85 (Listen – 1:25)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about Cultivation Is Supernatural
Truly abundant harvests aren’t accomplished by merely planting a seed. Harvest implies cultivation…Cultivation is not natural. It is supernatural.

Read more about For Sustainable Cultivation :: A Guided Prayer
A growing faith that produces a sustainable harvest is one that is cultivated. Faith that produces harvest is supernatural.

Psalm 83.17-18
May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
   may they perish in disgrace.
Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—
   that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Reflection: Worship and Politics
By John Tillman

People often complain that preachers, Christian leaders, or Christian musicians should, “stay out of politics.” This seems to only be expressed by those whose politics have been challenged on a biblical basis. I have never heard anyone say that a politically tinged sermon which agreed with their politics was “too political.”

Here, Charles Spurgeon analyzes Asaph’s Psalm 82 (which we read yesterday) but his analysis could be applied to any of Asaph’s twelve Psalms, including the ones we read today. Asaph often addresses himself to national concerns and the shortcomings of rulers. In his commentary, Spurgeon rejects the notion that “worship” must be divorced from criticizing political leaders or advocating for political causes.

“We have here a clear proof that all psalms and hymns need not be direct expressions of praise to God…the sweet singer was not forsaking his profession as a musician for the Lord, but rather was…praising God when he rebuked the sin which dishonored him, and if he was not making music, he was hushing discord when he bade rulers dispense justice with impartiality.”

The great preacher is particularly concerned with the way the government, specifically judges, should treat the poor.

“Judges shall be judged, and to justices, justice shall be meted out…Their harsh decisions…are made in the presence of him who…is the champion of the poor and needy…Look not to the interests of the wealthy whose hands proffer you bribes, but protect the rights of the needy…do not hunt down the peasant for gathering a few sticks, and allow the gentlemanly swindler to break through the meshes of the law.

Break the nets of the man-catchers…the bonds, the securities, with which cunning men capture and continue to hold in bondage the poor and the embarrassed. It is a brave thing when a judge can liberate a victim like a fly from the spider’s web, and a horrible case when magistrate and plunderer are in league. Law has too often been an instrument for vengeance in the hand of unscrupulous men, an instrument as deadly as poison or the dagger. It is for the judge to prevent such villainy.”

There is no topic outside the scope of scripture and each dominant party’s platform is anti-biblical in one area or the other. May our preachers, leaders, and singers boldly confront injustice no matter the rulers responsible.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Gracious and upright is the Lord; therefore he teaches sinners in his way. — Psalm 25.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 2 (Listen – 5:06) 
Psalm 83-84 (Listen – 3:20)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about Celebrating Earthly Kingdoms
Patriotism based on national pride is an easy idol to fall victim to. So is anti-patriotism. This is true whether anti-patriotism is based on national cynicism or idolatry of party instead of nation. Christians must avoid all of these.

Read more about Who is Your King?
When God sets out to make things new, he eschews governments. He starts a family. He lifts up the outcast. He frees the slave. He gathers a community. The privilege of God’s people is not to be used, but to be loved, to love each other, and serve others with, and lead others to, that love.