Recently I read through the Psalms and found them to be particularly uplifting. They illustrated to me the Kingship of God and how David viewed himself as part of that Kingship. It is the relationship of one of the greatest believer, King David-a man after God’s own heart, with God. Do the Psalms sound like something we would say? It should.
Why a Reformed Caucus?
Why mark this as a Reformed Caucus and not a Devotional or Ecumenical post? I don't believe we see ourselves as part of this Kingship. This stems from two sets of errors I consistently see among Christians; God’s view of scripture and His view of unbelievers (the wicked). The Psalms succinctly addresses both of these issues. God devotes much time to the praise of His word and the beauty of His Law. It is my prayer that we understand the importance of God’s word as viewed by God, and align our view with God’s view of His holy word.
The Psalms also sharply contrasts God’s view of believers’ verses non-believers. At one time theologians talked about two concepts; grace and justice (the Law). This view is seldom talked about and you have to go as far back as the writings of Arthur Pink and others to find any discussion on it. In today’s ecumenical world, with its emphasis on loving unbelievers, the understanding of grace and justice has all but disappeared.
Christians have a strong God-given desire to love and to pray for those who do not know our Lord. Paul prayed for the Jews. Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem. But our views must be balanced with God’s view of the wicked in order for us to understand grace and justice. This is documented in the Psalms. Only by understanding God’s view of the wicked can we truly understand our fallen nature and how God looks at us. Through this understanding we can better understand the grace of God; both in our salvation and in our sanctification process. The more we see how impure we are, the more we understand the grace of God.
It is my prayer that through the Psalms
2) the right view of the wicked, the righteous life of the believers and the grace God has given us and sustains us with.
I will eventually post all 150 Psalms but, after the third Psalm, I will not ping the Reformers to all these posts out of respect for their time. People may read, meditate and comment on them as time allows. I noticed that some like one version over another. I chose the ESV because this is what we use at church. But I’ll rotate the text for interest.
I look forward to reading these Psalms with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
I agree with you HarleyD. It was through reading the Psalms that I really began to come to grips with these issues. That and the absolute sovereignty of God. I look forward to reading and occasionally commenting on the Psalms from this point of view.
Just as I found my church, the pastor was winding up a multi-year sermon series through every Psalm. I was thrilled to find someone doing that, so I asked him to start over just for me. :)
How about a temporary GRPL + friends Psalms ping list? I would love to be pinged to all of them since the "articles" by definition could not possibly be ever considered a misuse of my time. :)