Psalm 110 – Awaiting the King  Like a symphony orchestra building to a climax, the Psalter moves to this magnificent proclamation. The exaltation and triumph of the Messiah celebrated in Psalm 110 must be seen in the light of the experience of the cross.

This is not an easy psalm and my meditation on Psalm 110 requires an open Bible and the reader’s diligence. May the Lord bless your meditation on Psalm 110.

Psalm 108 – Covenant Victory  There is something to be said for the emotional relief of a steadfast heart and a melody of praise. The expectation and experience of deliverance releases within the soul of the psalmist the spiritual endorphins of praise. David’s exuberance can hardly be contained. The psalmist shouts, “Awake, my soul!”

Psalm 107 – A Covenant Homecoming  Psalm 107 describes four desperate situations: wanderers in a desert wasteland, prisoners chained in a dungeon, fools wasting away because of their rebellious ways, and sea-faring merchants caught in a storm. The Lord in his unfailing love is powerful to save.

A word to the reader: For a couple of years now I have been working and writing on the Psalms. I got started on this Psalm project for personal and pastoral reasons. Personally, I felt I needed a better grasp of the Psalms; pastorally, I’m convinced that the Church would benefit greatly from turning to the Psalms as a resource for what it means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray and work to that end.  

Doug Webster, dwebster@samford.edu

Psalm 105 – The Covenant-Keeping God  The servants of God are summoned to do the work of worship by a blitz of actions verbs. All the  singing, glorying, telling, seeking, and rejoicing revolves around rememberingGod’s wonderful works. It is not about what believers have done but what God has done and is doing. The work of remembering recalls a history of the Lord’s covenant promises beginning with Abraham and ending with Joshua. In this psalm, Israel’s rebellious and wayward ways are forgotten for the moment and only the Lord’s great faithfulness is remembered. Psalm 106 tells the other side of the story.

Psalm 104 – A Creation Psalm  A deeply disturbing apocalyptic narrative streams live across our imagination and threatens to compete with the inspiration of Psalm 104. The psalmist’s ratio of postive to negative is instructive, but with the realities of nuclear proliferation, global warming, internet-deception campaigns, and terrorism, it is a tough competition. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set the Doomsday Clock, the marker of how close humanity is to a civilization-threatening catastrophe, at two minutes to midnight. Jesus’ Prayer Book is honest with what threatens ourselves and our planet. To pray the psalms is to become well acquainted with human frailty, depravity, and mortality. But in the midst of all that hard news, the ratio of grace supersedes doom and gloom. The psalmist inspires our self-exhortation, “Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord.”