A brief tutorial and a sample prayer through Psalm 103 — After making the case that Israel’s divinely inspired hymnbook (i.e. the Psalms) is an excellent “instrument for theological instruction,” Tim Keller goes further in his book entitled The Songs of Jesus to describe them as something to be experienced. He says, ‘Psalms, then, are not just a matchless primer of…

Two quizzes to test the accuracy of your conceptions about the two parts of the Bible — Is the God portrayed in the New Testament the same God portrayed in the Old Testament? The stereotypes of a “fire and brimstone, wrathful” old testament god and a “love conquers all” new testament god are prolific in our culture. Consequently, it’s very hard to believe they are the same…

All day, every day! — This one is short and sweet. Very celebratory and encouraging people to celebrate all the time. For a reliable version, please see the English Standard Version. Everyone who calls himself a follower of Jesus, celebrate him! Celebrate his character and reputation! From now till eternity, keep it up! 24/7/365 — all day, every day. We should be celebrating him! He is so much more important, beautiful, and weighty than all things on this earth.

Acrostic Poem about a Godly Man — This acrostic poem pairs with the previous psalm, which talks about God primarily. This one focuses more on the man who is godly. Again, I attempted to translate the meaning of each verse into my own words and also have each verse start with the successive letter of the alphabet…

Acrostic Poem About God — An acrostic poem is one where each line starts with subsequent letters of the alphabet. This psalm was an acrostic Hebrew poem. Most translations, including the ESV version (which I recommend as a reliable one) do not attempt to make their translation an acrostic poem. Instead, they capture the meaning…

David’s overheard conversation — This psalm is short, but it is non-emotional, symbolic, and highly quoted in the New Testament. Consequently, it was difficult to translate. It contains the confusing phrase in many English translations, “the LORD says to my Lord.” I also had to deal with phrases like “from the womb of the…

I hope it is a slow and painful death — This one is one of the most vengeful ones I’ve seen. It goes like this: ‘help, I’m innocent, kill then slowly, they deserve it, help!’ I sense something like rage and sadness — definitely mental instability. The author is very clear about the character of God though — he protects…

Your loyal love and faithfulness is through the roof — This one starts out with pretty confident praise and self-justification. It then transitions into calling out God’s specific territorial promise and asking for him for military help. It ends on a desperate note of someone who wants to regain divine assistance. Strange transition if you ask me. What is interesting…

The Rhythm of Grace — This one kind of feels like the Beatitudes and also feels like Proverbs. It is an invitation to listen to all the people that God saves and see if there is a pattern. It then goes through cycles with verses repeating themselves in a sandwich kind of fashion. There is…