Daily Meditations

Psalm 37:21 To give and not to count the cost In a money-oriented culture like our own it is easy to get caught up in the greed and covetousness of the world. Everything is measured by it’s financial worth. Where we live. What car we drive. Where we go on holiday. What clothes we wear. How much money we have saved. Who our friends are. How big our pension is. What possessions we own. For those who have nothing else to put their hope in of course all of these things matter. If your only expectations and hopes are earth-bound and there is nothing for you beyond this life then what you can accumulate here is vitally important. If your only ambition is to out-do others or to enjoy as many comforts while you have time and money to do so, who can blame you for grabbing them gratefully? This verse of David’s was written long before Credit Cards were invented but it seems that things were no different in his day. People borrowed then and they borrow now with no intention or hope of being able ...

Psalm 37:20 The wicked will perish Isaiah 40:6-8 takes this verse one step further. Isaiah cries out to the Lord for a word to bring to the people and this is that word; “ All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fail, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”  We are all finite creatures; our mortality haunts us all through our time on this planet as loved ones and family slowly slip off the conveyor belt of life. Sure enough, as the years go by, we all began to feel our own mortality, for the bodies we inhabit begin to show signs of decay. This all sound a bit morbid doesn’t it? Well it should not, for we who know the Lord have been promised new bodies, we are already new creations through Jesus Christ. Not so the wicked. The wicked will be consumed, they will go up in smoke. This is not...

Psalm 37:19 Provision for God's children This verse of Psalm 37 seems to take most of us to a different world. If we live in a civilised, organised, well-funded and protected country like Great Britain then disasters and famines are far from our daily experience. We link such calamities with third world peoples who live on the edge and whose existence is far more precarious than our own. Did disasters and famines affect David? Yes, they did, Israel experiences plagues and droughts and threats from enemies in his lifetime; these were all events that were, to some extent, out of the King’s control. Covid 19 has been a disaster from some and very frightening for many, we should not be complacent and think that these issues will never affect us. In fact, the Bible promises that earthquakes and famines and plagues will come upon the world in the last days and at those times men and women will read these verses and find hope and comfort. Meanwhile, perhaps we should not be so complacent ...

Psalm 37:18 The Blameless Party I wish I could say that I was in the Blameless Party, don’t you? What prestige and honour go with such a membership. Why? Because those who have attained this pinnacle of achievement spend all of their days under the Lord’s care. Every day, every hour, every minute he watches out for them. This is better than even royalty can ever hope for, to dwell in the Lord’s presence 24/7 must be amazing! Sadly, only the blameless can boast of such privileges and you and I would hold up our hands and admit that we fall far short of that description. Shameless more like!  I can hear you saying, “Hang on a moment but surely we do belong in God’s household, surely we do have His divine protection at all times?” Yes, of course we do, and it is not something we have attained, our membership is based solely on what Jesus Christ has done. The invitation to join came from Him but it is only available to those who are humble enough to acknowledge their sin and their depe...

Psalm 37:17 The Lord upholds the righteous This verse continues from verse 16. Having taken sides and nailed our allegiance to the mast we must face the consequences of our choice. The wicked choose this world, they choose fame, material success, wealth, promotion and self-advancement. They live only for this life and for their status in this world. Their education, their philosophy, their daily routines and their aspirations are all based on the values of the world. God is not in their thinking; they curse His name and mock those who believe in Him. They spurn His commandments and live without morals, they worship other gods made from earthly materials or created by their imaginations. These people have power in the world but the Lord God says that their power will be broken. The more powerful they become, the closer they are to destruction and to humiliation.  The righteous have chosen a different way. For us all values begin with a God of wonders who created us, loves us and pro...

Psalm 37:16 Fools gold This verse is all about value and worth.  Let’s imagine that you are walking down a High Street with a view to buying a ring for a loved one. You come to a large Jewellers, its windows gleaming with attractive bargains. There are rows and rows of every type of ring imaginable and the prices are much less than you imagined! You begin to look closely at the display cabinets and provocatively presented goods and slowly it dawns on you that this shop only sells cheap and nasty. There is nothing here that you would purchase for the one you hold dear. Around the corner, almost hidden, is a small shop with very little on display. But as you enter you realise that you are in the presence of quality and that your budget is going to be stretched for this place offers the “real thing.” Satan’s attractions are bountiful and abundant but they do not last. You may journey through this life buying into his stock and you may accumulate quite a hoard. Everyone will notic...

Psalm 37:15 They don't stand a chance It would be foolish to think that the conflicts described in these verses are all one way. In truth, the wicked do not stand a chance! They are in the pay of their master who does not give a stuff about them. He will not protect them permanently and when their time has come he will cast them away like crumbs from the table. His only interest in them is to further his own purposes. Please do not feel sorry for such people willingly go along with the devil’s schemes in order to promote their own little hierarchies. This is a game of mutual dependence although, of course, it is no game; lives are broken, people get hurt and the development of Satan’s kingdom depends on his willing volunteers, be they people or demons.  In the light of the above we need to know that justice will reign, that good will come, that God’s will, will be done. Sadly, for the wicked,  “Their swords will pierce their own hearts and their bows will be broken.”  Eve...

Psalm 37:14 The wicked v the poor and needy Oh dear! Not a nice verse this, is it. Firstly, let’s be clear about who we are talking about here. Once again a contrast is drawn between the wicked and the poor and needy. We have discovered previously (for instance in Psalm 34:6) that the poor and needy are not impoverished, out-of-work, out-of-hope victims of economic decline but those who are poor and needy in spirit. In other words, those who have discovered their own weaknesses and fallibility and have learned to trust wholly in the Lord. They realise they are nothing, they know they are helpless, they do not feed their egos but instead look to God in all things. These folk contrast with men and women who have it all sorted, who are self-dependant, who are arrogant in their own strength and who do not need God’s help.  The wicked cannot tolerate the righteous who follow the Lord, they see their own weakness reflected but choose not to face it. The best form of defence for them is t...

Psalm 37:12-13 The Lord laughs at the wicked I’m sure that we have all been subject to a bit of teeth gnashing at times! Let’s keep our discussion of this verse within the confines of the Christian church. If you are a leader, there will inevitably have been occasions when certain individuals gnash their teeth at your leadership and plot and scheme to bring you down or to tarnish your character or to undermine your authority. It’s interesting that whenever these folk are confronted, they grow very agitated and the whole affair usually ends with a torrent of abuse and the accuser storming off in a huff. Sometimes we have to placate and calm and seek to befriend these people, more often than not I have found that it is best to let them go. It is not difficult to determine whether the accuser is a hurt and troubled person and they need love and support or if they are the “wicked’ and it is best to part company, however painful that may be. You see, if you are strong in faith and in the Lo...

Psalm 37:11 Who will inherit? This verse was quoted by Jesus in His famous discourse – usually referred to as the Beatitudes.  “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.”  Matthew 5:5. This matter of inheritance needs to be explored some more. For David, and those who had gone before him, it meant of course the physical land of Israel; the residing place of God’s chosen people who had conquered and distributed what had once been Canaan. Jesus taught much about a different land, He called it a kingdom – the Kingdom of Heaven. To exist in that land means observing rules and ways of living that are different from those who live in the world. So radically different, in fact, that hardly anyone has been bold enough to embrace them! Thankfully, it is not by discipline, laws and rules that the Kingdom of Heaven takes root in our hearts. It is when we meekly surrender to the King and allow Him to take control by His Holy Spirit. So long as we remain in control of our lives...

Psalm 37:10 The wicked will be no more Having lived for a few years now, I can recall the comings and goings of many evil people, some known to me, others just names that became familiar for a while. In my childhood, in the nineteen fifties, the name of Adolph Hitler still hung like a bad odour over the land. Since then many brutal dictators have come and gone. Many men and women who had their moment of fame or infamy as they broke the rules and lived depraved lives that made headlines. There have been corrupt men and women who made fortunes abusing others and using influence and money to promote themselves. Then there were the politicians who persuaded massed crowds to follow them, the sportsmen and women who basked in their brief moments of glory, the entertainers, the actors, the celebrities; so many of them are no longer with us, their places filled by the next generation to think that the road to happiness and success is the way of money, fame and power. Every day, it seems, one o...

Psalm 37:9 Who will inherit the Land? One of the great questions posed by this Psalm was alluded to in the opening comments. “Who will inherit the land?” We need to remember that the spiritual battle going on around us is no less real than the physical battles fought by David and his troops. It is a battle for possession, ownership and occupancy. The Satan already has control of much of this world but he wants it all! He has control of people’s minds and habits and their priorities, but he wants more. What is so utterly frustrating is that his aim is to kill and destroy, his only plan is to eliminate God’s creatures and God’s Creation. The Satan has no ability to create, only to destroy. He aims to entrap people in his webs of deceit and his dungeons of addiction and depravity in order to annihilate them. The eroding of the natural world, the interference with the climate, the production and spread of uncontrollable viruses are all the brainchild of this evil dictator. Sadly, most of t...

Psalm 37:8 Refrain from anger This verse, as so often happens, embellishes what has gone before. As we have seen, the wicked tend to get away with it! They prosper, their schemes unfold, others are dragged in, willingly. The deceit and lies gather support, the whole scenario around us grows poisonous and we move from anxiety to anger for it seems that nothing can be done to stop the poison. The devil never stops plotting. It is his very nature to oppose God and to oppose those who obey God. He has leaders and nations in the palm of his hand, he is not the prince of this world for nothing! Whenever you and I put our necks above the parapet and start to get active we will be shot at and one of the most obvious schemes is to undermine authority and then to start a gossip crusade. Lies and more lies are the toolmark of the evil one. The Lord says to you and me, “Don’t get angry. Don’t boil over with indignation and frustration. Don’t give him credit by reacting to his schemes. In the end y...

Psalm 37:7 Do not fret A scenario is painted in this verse that is so familiar to many of us. The enemy is very active, evil schemes are always being contrived and he is nothing if not busy. The scene unfolds on a grand scale on the international stage and then tapers right down to personal relationships and individual’s lives. On the world stage we see evil men and women getting their way, spreading their lies, flouting their power and using every form of corruption to control and subdue others. In our own families and workplaces we see the same strategies but on a much smaller scale. Men and women who use deceit and lies and subterfuge and gossip to undermine us and to thwart our roles or our position. The schemes are wicked and devious, sometimes no more than a little negative word here or a bit of tittle tattle there, it’s enough to make people question our role or our authority. We get very anxious; we wring our hands in frustration and we begin to plot revenge or use manipulation...

Psalm 37:6 Shining like the dawn The journey, mentioned in the previous verse, is not instantaneous. We don’t pick up our Bibles, do a quick study and stay transformed for the rest of our lives. Of course, there are Damascus moments, encounters with Jesus or infillings with the Holy Spirit which are life-changing, However, the normal Christian life is a foot-slogging journey, often arduous and full of stops and starts. The process of faith is one of gradual surrender to the Spirit of God and if we are the subjects of that process we may not notice real change going on. It’s a bit like watching a child grow; its parents don’t see much daily evidence of growth, but visits by grandparents, family and friends are accompanied by exclamations of surprise, “Why he’s shot up hasn’t he!” “She’s really growing in confidence.” Our spiritual journeys are intended to bring us closer to the Lord, to make us more and more dependent on Him and as we grow something amazing happens. He vindicates us by ...

Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord The study of the Psalms in depth, over time, has taught me a number of lessons. One of the greatest has been about trust and dependence. It comes up again and again. The way of the world is to ignore God completely. The hardest step for the repentant sinner is to come humbly to the cross and acknowledge the supremacy of God and Christ. This first step of faith is a step away from ourselves and a step towards Him. We are saying that our trust has changed, at least in part, for we now recognise a higher authority. We realise that there are things that we cannot do for ourselves, things that God has done for us. Gradually, over time, by study and learning and experience and fellowship, we move further away from our self-dependence towards God-dependence. Faith is the name of this process. It means to relinquish control of ourselves and to hand it over to the Lord. It is a long process; day by day we take teetering steps towards Him and so our faith g...

  Psalm 37:4 The desires of your heart This next verse in David’s song looks simple but is anything but! How do we “delight in the Lord”? Delight = pleasure, joy, gladness, satisfaction – all words that we understand but, so far as the Lord is concerned, they do not always describe a relationship with Him. For many, the Lord is a God to be feared; a stern judge, a rule-making headmaster, a spiritual policeman. For others He is the object of their demands and their constant requests. Still others see the Lord as a kind of lucky charm, you’re better of with Him than without Him but He’s not really someone to relate to.  How do we perceive the Lord our God? The man who wrote this Psalm delighted in Him. For David, God was a source of constant delights, someone who made him glad, their relationship was the basis for all that was good in his life. Let’s be fair here, some of the Psalms we have read are very different, they depict a David who is woeful and depressed and in those tim...

Many months ago the Lord prompted me to walk my way through the Psalms and to write down what He showed me. It was a new venture for me and I was dubious about my "stickability" and also that a Collection of Songs like this might get a bit tedious. I mean, up to now I had only ever skimmed through this book of the Bible and meditated on the verses that stood out. One of the reasons for the journey was that I was becoming more aware of the battle that we are in as Christians and I wanted to see what the Psalmists had to say about that. It was some months later that I was prompted to commit my ramblings to a blog, mainly because there were certain people who I thought might be encouraged in their own journey.  500 blogs later and one or two have kept with it, others have dipped in from time to time. It's not exactly been a worldwide success! However, I cannot stop now, the journey has been an incredible blessing to me and I look forward, every day, to the time spent in...

Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good The very brevity of the wicked in verse two is now contrasted with the longevity of the righteous. Instead of evil works we are encouraged, nay commanded, to  “Trust in the Lord and do good.”  The consequence of such a life is stability, ownership, safety and provision. We do not need to feed our egos if we trust in the Lord, those who trust Him have already learned the lessons of dependence and once we have done that, our ego is subject to higher authority.  Instead of today’s tabloid headlines the righteous seek their place in the annals of heaven, they care little for man’s attention and would rather serve the Lord in obscurity.  This theme of “the land” will be revisited on numerous occasions in this Psalm. David is, of course, talking about the Promised Land, the inheritance of Israel. He is the mortal king of the land and he seeks the prosperity and safety of his people. Under his reign they would enjoy expansion, s...

Psalm 37:2 Good and bad grass! We had a couple of weeks without rain earlier this year. Beyond the garden gate is a meadow and that meadow was covered in green grass and clover, 12 -18 inches high. Two months ago it was looking wonderful and the farmer must have been purring as he anticipated the crop of hay that was waiting to be harvested. Then came the drought and the green grass quickly became dry and seared and it died. It still produced hay but not quite in the way expected and probably not in the quantities expected either. This is the way of the wicked, one moment they prosper and flourish and the next they are dying and worthless. The process is very quick and happens right before our eyes, their time is so short and I wonder how many have regretted the way they used it. Arrogant to the end, most will finish their days in unbelief and will soon be forgotten. I sometimes ponder how many men and women have claimed centre stage in my lifetime? They dominated the news programmes a...

Psalm 37:1 Who will inherit the Land?   This is a massive Psalm that continues the theme of Psalm 36 in that it constantly contrasts the way of the wicked with the ways of the righteous. On four occasions David throws into question who will inherit the land. (Verses 9,11,22,29) Will it be the wicked with their schemes, their violence, their deceit and their lies or will it be the righteous who humbly trust in the Lord?  So, I suggest we use this as our theme and keep this question in mind. The world is the Satan’s domain, he is the prince of the power of the air. But we seek a greater kingdom and live for a different Lord. Can we inherit as we live in the world? What are the qualities of the righteous? How do we claim the ground? What are the battles that lie ahead as we seek to become like Joshua and the Children of Israel as they ventured in their Land of Promise?   V1        This is a good start, a gem of wisdom before we get goi...

Psalm 36:12 Not able to rise! A bit of a roller-coaster, this Psalm, wasn’t it?  Verses 1-4 slate the wicked – their attitudes, their words and their actions. Thousands of years later and nothing has changed there!  Verses 5-9 are a wonderful exposition of the love and faithfulness of God. We rise from the tawdry habits of the wicked to the glorious heights of the abundant blessings of the Lord, and we become breathless with wonder at His provision and glory. Verses 10-11 are a prayer asking the Lord to continue in showing love and righteousness to the faithful and for protection against the proud and the evildoers. Verse 12 ends on a note of victory but also offers a salutary warning. The end of the wicked will come, they will die in their sins, their evil plots ad schemes will be snuffed out by the inevitability of death and they will never rise again. If you are a believer today, you will rise again. You will not sleep in the dust of death until judgement; instead you are p...

Psalm 36:11 Keep me close to You David is hoping to avoid a scrap here perhaps? “May no arrogant so-and-so give me a kicking and may I not be slapped down by the wicked.” More likely he is praying confidently and intimately to the Lord that he wants no one to hinder him from his spiritual journey and his relationship with his God. The proud and arrogant can intimidate us, they can make us feel weak in our faith as they mock our dependence on a God who is, to them, irrelevant and non- existent. They belittle our faith and throw a thousand reasons in our faces, why we are ridiculous to believe in a God at all. This kind of intimidation is rampant in our culture, it is the arrogant and proud in the church and outside of it that silences the message and undermines the messengers. Don’t let them kick you, stand up to them. You and I have more reason to be proud than they do, only our pride is not in ourselves but in the God we serve. Neither should we let those who are intent on wickedness ...

Psalm 36:10 Keep loving me please There are Scriptures that teach that God loves the whole world. That, of course, is true. There is not one individual born on earth, who is not loved by the Lord God. Every life given is a life loved, every breath taken is a gift from the God of love. However, vast numbers of people, the majority, spurn that love. They are not prepared to humble themselves to receive that love. They turn their backs on the love-giver and prefer to find secondary comfort in inferior imitations of His love. Love that is spurned causes heartache in the soul of the giver and eventually that giver, hardens His heart and the gift of love is withdrawn.  Those of you who read this have tasted and seen that the Lord’s love is good, you know the love-giver and you have been warmed by His love. Hence, like David, you will join me today in praying,  “Lord, continue Your love to those who know You.”  That may be a given, it is unlikely that the Lord God could sto...

Psalm 36:9b We've seen the light “In Your light we see light”.  What a curious phrase, one that doesn’t quite seem to make sense? I think what this means reflects the teaching of Genesis 1:3 where we read, in the very beginning God said,  “Let there be light.”  In verse 14, sometime later in the creative process, He creates the sun and moon and stars, the sources of natural light. In other words when God said,  “Let there be light”,  He was not talking about the dawning of a new day or the great burning orb that traverses our skies. The light of God is something deeper, picked up by the Apostle John in his Gospel when talking about the Word,  “He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the  light  of all mankind. The  light  shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  John 1:2-4. God’s light is His Word, i...

Psalm 36:9a You are the fountain of life  Have you ever stood before one of the great city fountains and watched the water shooting high into the air? Another, more natural, phenomenon is found in a spring where water gurgles out of the earth and begins its long, downward journey to a river estuary, linking with countless other sources as it goes. However grand the outcome might be, all water courses start small and pour out what inevitably becomes a great torrent of vibrant energy and life. The Lord God wants to ignite a fountain of life within each of us. That initial spark of faith is intended to become a fountain that will flood our lives and pour out blessings on all those around us. The beginning is hidden, unnoticed and unheralded, it starts in the heart of each individual person but oh, the potential. Let us not confine ourselves here, let’s think about the river that might flow if we were to share the life within us and join with other tributaries until a vast river flows ...

Psalm 36:8b River of delights What a statement follows!  “You give them drink from your river of delights.”   Just as God waters the earth with rain from His storehouses giving life and blessing to all created things, so too He provides living waters for His people. This is a powerful metaphor in Scripture, rivers and water are always pictures of blessing and abundance and they are, of course, fundamental to life. But the Lord God promises more, His river is full of delights and it flows endlessly and it multiplies. Jesus spoke of this when He said,  “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.  John 7:37-39a. In Revelation 22:1-2 we discover the river of life that flows from the Temple of God and the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the New Jerusalem. Just as we are ...

Psalm 36:8a Fine dining I read recently of a man who had a powerful vision. He was walking along a shoreline and he came upon a vast dining area by the sea. There were hundreds of tables and chairs stretching as far as the eye could see. The tables were covered with exquisite white laundered cloths and the silver cutlery glinted in the sun. Every table setting had crystal glasses and beautiful plates and bowls. The centres of the tables were filled with fine dining foods from all over the world, each course presented on the highest quality china dishes. This was the most sumptuous banquet imaginable and everything was ready to be served. However, there was no one sitting at these tables, they were all empty.  A waiter stood close by and the man who had come upon this fabulous scene enquired about the diners and guests, where were they? “Listen,” said the waiter. The man listened and became aware of the sound of voices and activity but could not see where it was coming from. Th...