Day 2

Yesterday we began a journey in the Psalms. It will take about a year. It will be a wonderful Journey! Before we begin we need to lay a foundation. As with the SMS series on Revelation, this study will be based on my undocumented marginal notes from 45 years of study. My favourite commentary on the Psalms was by Dr. William Scroggie and Spurgons ‘Treasury of David’. Commentaries from Henry, Morgan, Guizik and others have crossed my desk over the last 4+ decades, and while I have mined gems from their pages referencing them would be impossible, not just because of the space constraint, but because when notations were made in my study Bible, I did not record any references. The same is true for any sermons I have presented on psalms over the years. The challenge now is to weld those notes into 350-word SMS reflections.The Psalter should be precious to us if only because it most clearly promises the death and resurrection of Christ, and describes his kingdom, and the nature and standing of all Christian people. It could well be entitled a “Little Bible” since everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended, and compacted into a Manual of prayer, worship, and faith. Psalms is the most quoted OT book in the NT. 

Of Particular significance to me is the number of psalms that were used or quoted from directly in the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life on earth – at least 8. Especially psalms 22 & 30, plus the Hallel Psalms (113-118) that would have been used at the last supper. These are incredible when you read how dramatically they portray what was about to happen, and then the aftermath beyond the cross. Jesus’ use of the Psalms puts the divine seal on Ezra & Nehemiah’s compilation. Of the 7-sentence sermon that Jesus preached from the cross, 3 of the statements come from the psalms. 

Your job will be to read the psalm; my Job will be to give you the inspiration that providence has enlightened me with from many sources over the years. May the Lord bless our journey together!