One of the most common causes for despair is fear. Fear comes from many directions: fear of failing health, fear of unemployment, fear of a failing relationship, parental fears, financial fears, etc. What makes matters worse is when the very thing we fear actually happens.
Psalm 34 was written during a time of great fear in David’s life. The setting is 1 Samuel 22:1. David is hiding from Israel’s first king, King Saul, who wants to kill him. Saul’s animosity toward David began after David killed the giant Goliath. When the Israelite men return home, what do the women sing in 1 Samuel 18:7b?
Because David is more popular than King Saul, Saul becomes so jealous he tries to kill David (19:10–11). Therefore, David flees into the Philistine country of Gath. He actually just “jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire” because the Philistines recognize him as the enemy who years earlier had killed their hero Goliath in battle. They drag David before the king where, fearing for his life, he pretends to be insane by scratching on the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. The king banishes him, and David hides from Saul in a cave (21:10–22:1). There he writes Psalm 34, in which we find five things required for facing our fears…
For the third time, we will look at the Twenty-Third Psalm. As previously mentioned, it is the most beloved chapter in the Bible because there are seventeen first-person pronouns—such as I, my, mine, and me—in these six verses. This Psalm also contains seven promises. In the previous two lessons, we considered the first five: the Lord will provide for me, pacify me, preserve me, pilot me, and protect me. In this lesson, we will examine two more promises.
We now return to the Twenty-Third Psalm, the most beloved chapter in the Bible. There are seven great promises in this psalm. Last week we looked at the first three: the Lord will provide for me, the Lord will pacify me, and the Lord will preserve me. Let’s look at two more promises, beginning with …
Now we come to the most famous and beloved chapter in the Bible. I think one reason it is so loved is its use of first-person pronouns, such as I, my, mine, and me. In fact, there are seventeen first-person pronouns in six short verses. Therefore, Psalm 23 takes us from an impersonal religion to a personal relationship with God. There are seven great promises in this psalm, and because of our personal relationship with God, each one enables us to defeat despair. In this lesson, we will look at the first three promises.
We are living in a world that often feels overwhelming, where, without a word from God, nothing truly makes sense. Many of us have asked the deepest questions about life: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose?” These are not just philosophical musings, but cries from the heart that reflect a longing for meaning and significance. Perhaps you've found yourself in a moment of despair, feeling lost or disconnected from the world around you, wondering what your place is in the grand scheme of things. In a world that moves at an astonishing speed—right now, Earth is hurtling through space at over 1,000 miles per hour—it can be easy to feel insignificant. We are stuck on this planet, unable to slow it down or change its direction, and it sometimes seems as though we are just drifting along with no real purpose. But what if there is a greater reason for our existence? What if our lives are part of a divine design? The Bible answers this question with a resounding yes. In Ephesians 2:10a, we are reminded that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. This means that we are not random accidents; we were uniquely and intentionally created, with a specific purpose in mind. In Christ, we have been given new life and the opportunity to walk in that purpose (2 Cor. 5:17). So, what exactly is our purpose in Christ?…
Have you been discouraged—at least to some degree—in the past year? The past month? This week? Are you discouraged right now? On a regular basis, we all become discouraged because we all have problems. Life is really made up of three stages that continually repeat themselves. We are either in a problem, coming out of a problem, or going into a problem.
Our attitudes toward ourselves and why we are here are determined more than anything else by how we picture God. Only when we realize what an awesome God created us will we begin to know who we are and why we are here. When David begins to realize who God really is, he writes Psalm 8. In this great psalm, David tells us five things about God that help us understand who we are and why we are here.
