Sermon Overview:In Psalm 37, Steve directed us to three repeated commands concerning all that we face each day. The first command to “Fret not,” guards us from the depressing questions we can tend to ponder when life doesn’t seem fair. The second command to “Trust in the Lord,” comes with vivid pictures of what God is like and why we can trust Him. Finally, we are called to “Do good,” which is the...  Read More

“[Meekness] is a Christlike quality, for he said ‘I am meek.’ As exercised towards people, meekness is self-subduing gentleness. But here the direction is Godward, or rather towards the word of God, and it is that temper of spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as good,...without disputing. It is the spirit which says a simple ‘yes' to what the word teaches and commands, it is the mind di...  Read More

“David turns to acting and proves convincing. He dabbles nonsense graffiti on the doors to the town gate (more maintenance for Gath’s Park and Recreation Department) and let his spit run down his beard. A little exposure to the constant scratching and soaking convinces Achish he’s got another crazy around him, as if, in his view, he doesn’t already have his quota of such folks. Apparently confinem...  Read More

Summary:Fear, whether dominating our lives or consistently present in the background, is part of human life. In Psalm 56, David wrestles with two voices—fear and faith. Fear is rooted in circumstances and focused on reasons to be afraid. Faith trusts God based on the knowledge of God through his word. Through faith, David knows God’s graciousness, greatness, justice, judgment, and care for him. Da...  Read More

“Among our ever-expanding troubles, fear and anxiety have pride of place. They are quintessential human issues. They are not so much problems that occasionally seize us; they are regular features of daily life that can be either quiet in the background or loud and dominating in the foreground. They say that we are powerless and weak, there are troubles ahead, things cherished at risk, and there is...  Read More

“The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament was God's way of driving home to his people the horror of sin and the need for it to be punished - if not by the guilty one, then by an animal bearing that guilt. Yet the story of the Old Testament is a story of Israel's misusing the sacrificial system, using it to attempt to buy God off in a coldly transactional way rather than allowing it to mo...  Read More