Savoring the Scripture

  Hope for the Brokenhearted and Wounded Psalm 147 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 Psalm 147 is a post-exilic psalm. Israel, because of its repeated idolatry, was given by God into the hands of its enemies. God had warned them that their continued idolatry would result in their captivity. But He did not leave them without hope. Though they would be captured and carried off to foreign lands, it would be for a prescribed time: 70 years. After those 70 years, God would bring them back from the place He had scattered them, and they would return to Jerusalem. Psalm 147 was written after these 70 years of exile, when the promises that they had been pleading for had been fulfilled. The people have witnessed with their own eyes that God has brought them back.  But when the exiles came back to Jerusalem, things were not the same as when they had been taken. Jerusalem was desolate and its gates burned with fire (Nehemiah 2:17). The walls and the temple ...

Praise to the One who Opens Blind Eyes Psalm 146 Jesus saw the man who could not see him. BSF Lesson 13 In the Scriptures, there are two types of blindness: physical blindness and spiritual blindness. Both forms of blindness are a result of the fall. Now that sin and its curse has entered our world, our physical bodies bear the evidence of mortality. Our bodies, designed by our magnificent Creator, no longer function wholly and completely. Even more devastating is our spiritual blindness. When Adam sinned against God, all mankind fell with him in his first sin. He represented the whole human race, and because of his sin, mankind was plunged into spiritual darkness, spiritual blindness. And in our blindness, we don’t even know we’re alienated from God.  In John 9, we read the story of the man who was born blind. But Jesus found him and gave him his sight. This is the story of every believer. We are born blind. The sin nature we are born with blinds us to our separation from God and ...

  How Great Thou Art Psalm 145 O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow’r thru-out the universe displayed! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art, how great Thou art! “How Great Thou Art” Psalm 145 is the last of the Davidic psalms in the psalter. It is an acrostic enumerating the greatness of our God. The psalm provides many descriptions of the Lord and His works, as well as giving us the actions of the Lord which should elicit praise from us. In the revelation of the magnificence of God and His works, this psalm shows that it is the response of our mouth which most readily shows the awe of our heart. “How great Thou art!” is the theme of this psalm. Rest and rejoicing are ours as we consider our great God and His wondrous works. The lists below categorize the descriptions of the ...

A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus Psalm 144 The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction. Charles Spurgeon One of my favorite autobiographies is the story of Darlene Diebler in Evidence Not Seen . Darlene spent four years in a Japanese prison camp deep in the jungles of the Dutch East Indies during World War II. It’s an incredible story of faith. One story she shares is about Dr. Jaffray, a mentor who was like a father to her. While they served on the mission field together, he often encouraged her with his wisdom and kindness. When they were captured by the Japanese, they, along with some of the other missionaries, were kept together. Eventually, though, they removed Dr. Jaffray and sent him to a men’s camp. When he was being taken away from their group, Darlene shares, “After they loaded the men into the truck, Dr. Jaffray leaned toward me and said, ‘Lassie, whatever you do, be a good soldier for Jesus Christ.’” Darlene said in her book, “The echo of those words wa...