A Look at Psalms

Over the years that I have been a Christian God’s plan of salvation for man has been of interest to me. I am the first to admit that I am not a teacher, theologian, or bible scholar: but I am a sinner saved by grace. I feel strongly that the Holy Spirit guides his children in the reading and study of the scriptures. So, we will start this undertaking by making it clear that we will be looking at Psalms chapter by chapter, verse by verse as I saw them at the time of this writing. I believe that when I read and meditate on scripture, the message God has for me is relayed to me through the Holy

Spirit. My desire for you, as you look at the Psalms, is that you receive a blessing and encouragement for your spiritual life. Again, I want to stress that God speaks to us according to our needs. He may have a different message for you than he has for me. But I hope that what I see will guide you in seeing the Psalms in a profitable light.

I have been a Christian for over sixty years. As a lad of about twelve years of age, I came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I was a sinner. I was being reared in a Christian home. I was going to Sunday school and church every Sunday. I knew who Jesus was, I knew that God created the earth. I knew that Jesus died for my sins. My dad who was a deacon had his way of preaching to us kids almost every day. But as a result of the gospel being preached to me in a revival meeting, I began to resist the wooing of the Spirit. I know now that the devil must have been working on me too. For several days * was one miserable kid. But toward the end of the meeting, I by faith accepted the promise of God’s forgiveness though the sacrifice of his Son Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have ever lasting life.” John 3:16.

One of my favorite books of the bible is Psalms. To me it is a book of poems, songs, praise, worship, thankfulness, prophesy, written especially for me, a child of God. It also is useful as a guide to call Christians to repentance when we have sin in our lives. But most important of all, Psalms points the world to Christ. Because of my faith in Christ, God continues to forgive me if I confess my sins, and repent. He restores the joy of my salvation.

David is my favorite man of the bible. He demonstrates the human frailties of man, which very much demonstrates my own life as a Christian. He was like me, not perfect by any means. But he was described in the scriptures as being the apple of God’ eye I believe the reason that this is true, is because David was willing to admit his sin to God and ask for forgiveness. This seems to me to be the secret of having a close fellowship with the Lord and spiritual blessings this side of Heaven. I hope you enjoy sharing with me the looking at the Psalms beginning with the first chapter. We will look at each chapter in chronological order, and I will share with you what I see in it. My motivation for writing this book was my desire that readers of this book might get a better understanding of what God has done for those of us he saved from our sins. We have so much more of a reason to praise the Lord, and serve him than most of us ever realize. The understanding I am talking about has nothing to do with the faith that we had to be saved. But the study and learning more about what was involved when God sacrificed his Son for our sins hopefully will motivate us to more praise and service to him. I will be using the King James Version except when otherwise noted.