25–31 August 2019. Psalm 132 (click to read). Doing something nice for someone is rarely easy. Making a special meal for someone we love involves long hours of preparation and cooking. Planning a family holiday means working hard all year, saving money, and not buying the little things we would like for ourselves. In our […]
18–24 August 2019. Psalm 127 (click to read). Children can be a wonderful blessing. Even though in ancient Israel’s culture people especially valued sons, today we know that all children are worthy of love and can be a great source of joy. But just because children bring blessings and joy, that doesn’t mean raising a […]
11–17 August 2019. Psalm 121 (click to read). Each day brings with it a new set of challenges. There are new obstacles to deal with at work, difficult problems to face at school, and even constant challenges at home. With all of these difficulties, it can feel hard to cope on our own. Often we […]
4–10 August 2019. Psalm 120 (click to read). There is a widespread assumption in our society that it is only actions that are really harmful. To raise a hand against others, to hit others, to beat others, to use weapons to kill and cut is terribly wrong and severely punished. But simple words (so the thinking […]
28 July – 3 August 2019. Psalm 118 (click to read). During a recent series of interviews I did with Taiwanese business leaders, I was surprised to find that so many CEOs had exactly the same complaint. One of the biggest problems in Taiwan’s workplaces, they told me, was a lack of company loyalty among […]
21–27 July 2019. Psalm 111 (click to read). Psalm 111 begins with a call to “Praise the Lord!”. This isn’t a suggestion or a recommendation, it’s a strong command to all of us. The rest of the psalm then gives us a list of many reasons why the writer personally wants to praise God so […]
24–30 March 2019. Numbers 24–25 (click to read). In Numbers 24–25, the story of Balaam continues. Balak, the king of Moab is afraid of the Israelites and their military power, and so he hires Balaam (a non-Israelite diviner from Syria) to come over and curse the Israelites. In this way King Balak hopes that he […]
2–8 December 2018. Psalm 87 (click to read). Psalm 87 is one of the so-called “Songs of Zion”, hymns that praise Zion (another name for Jerusalem) for its role in God’s work of ruling and blessing the world. Jewish scholars tell us that Psalm 87 may have been sung by pilgrims on their yearly journey […]
25 November – 1 December 2018. Psalm 80 (click to read). When things go wrong in our lives, we often want to know why. Why did it happen? And if God really loves us, why didn’t he protect us? The problem is that there are no easy answers to this “why” question. Maybe that’s why […]
18–24 November 2018. Psalm 74 (click to read). Sometimes one of the hardest things about being a parent is not giving our children the things they want. Because we love our children, we want them to be happy. But sometimes the things that little children want just aren’t good for them. They want to eat […]