30 July – 5 August 2017. Psalm 32 (click to read). One thing that surprised me when I first started teaching in Taiwan was just how quiet the students are. In class it’s always difficult to get students to share their ideas or even ask questions. When I spoke to another professor about this, he told […]
23–29 July 2017. Psalm 23 (click to read). In the Old Testament, it was common to describe both God and kings as shepherds. This was a good reminder that God was the one who guided all Israel, and the one who cared for the whole nation. The king also took on this role as shepherd, […]
16–22 July 2017. Psalm 17 (click to read). When people hurt us and say mean things about us, it’s only natural for us to want revenge. Straight away we start to think of things we can do or words we can say to hurt them even more than they hurt us. In Psalm 17, the […]
9–15 July 2017. Psalm 11 (click to read). Every day it seems like tabloid newspapers are declaring the end of the world. Every day there’s some new enemy and some new reason for people to live in fear. One day it’s evil immigrants and foreigners taking over the country, another day it’s gay people destroying […]
2–8 July 2017. Psalm 4 (click to read). Most of us like to think that we don’t care what other people say about us. But that’s rarely true. When people speak badly about us, when they lie or gossip about us, we do care and it really hurts. Often evil words hurt us much more […]
28 August – 3 September 2016. 2 Chronicles 13–14 (click to read). Psalm 133:1 tells us: “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” But in 2 Chronicles 13 we don’t see much harmony between brothers at all. Instead, the Israelites are at war with each other … again. Here the […]
21–27 June 2015. Psalm 145 (click to read). Psalm 145 continues the theme of the universal praise of God that we have seen in many previous psalms. Here God is the royal and majestic king, the ruler of all things, and so he must be praised by all things forever, throughout all time. In verse […]
14–20 June 2015. Psalm 138 (click to read). Psalm 138 launches into a great hymn of praise to God, thanking and worshipping him for his wonderful love and faithfulness. Like many of the other psalms of universal praise (like Psalm 65 or Psalm 117), this psalm tells how the whole earth will join together in […]
7–13 June 2015. Psalm 131 (click to read). Augustine, one of the great fathers of the church, taught us that the root of all evil is pride. In the church, pride is certainly a danger for many Christians. This is especially so when we talk about knowing God. It is very tempting for us to […]
31 May – 6 June 2015. Psalm 124 (click to read). When we go through troubles and hard times in life, it’s so common for us to feel alone. How many times have you been facing difficult problems, and have just felt like there is no one who can understand what you are going through, […]