Soul Prayer

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doing; I muse on the work of Your hands   Psalm 143:5 Declare – Prayer proclaims.  In praise, in cries, in pleas, in exultation, we have discovered that most prayer in the Hebrew world is vocalized.  Prayer is the personal, announced testimony of the grace…

The Last and the First

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord! Psalm 150:6 Praise – In the end, it’s haleluyah.  If my life amounts to nothing more than praise for God, it will have reached its zenith.  In fact, David tells us that the purpose of all creation is to praise Him.  The Hebrew is…

What We Know

O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.   1 Chronicles 16:34 O Give Thanks –  David knew what he was doing when he assigned Asaph the task of giving thanks to God.  Asaph’s prayer, recorded in 1 Chronicles 16:8 to 36 is a powerful example all of us. …

What The Title Says

  A psalm of praise, of David  (notation before Psalm 145:1) Psalm –  Our title, “Psalms,” comes from the title found in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint).  In fact, it is a transliteration of the Greek word psalmoi.  That means the Greek word is not translated.  It is simply phonetically moved…

Prayer Ratio

You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God.   Joel 2:26 Praise – The most common Hebrew word associated with prayer is palal.  In most contexts, it means “praise.”  Think about that for a minute.  Hebrew prayer is eight times more likely to be about praise…

When The Lion Speaks

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.   Psalm 32:3 Groaning – We have all kept quiet about sin.  And we have all suffered the consequences.  David is absolutely right (and he would know).  When I close the closet door on my sin, when I cover…

Oppressed Prayer

They have heard that I groan; there is no one to comfort me.  Lamentations 1:21 Groan – If this word has never been part of your prayer vocabulary, I wonder if you have really experienced fatal dependence.  Every biblical character whom God used to accomplish His purpose seems to have been intimately familiar with anaw…

A Weeping Word

Nevertheless, You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to You.  Psalm 31:22  Cried – There is no better place to discover the range of prayer than in the Psalms.  In fact, a great number of the Psalms are actually called prayers.  But guess what?  Yesterday’s word “to pray” (athar) does not occur…

Verbal Advantage

Then he will pray to God, and He will accept him, that he may see His face with joy, and He may restore His righteousness to man.   Job 33:26 Pray – Something quite unexpected occurs when the Old Testament speaks of praying.  The only verb that actually means, “to pray” is this word, athar.  It…

WHAT IF

What do you think your life would be like if: you really believed that God is the sovereign ruler of every single event and action and thing in the universe you knew that every single thing that happens in your life is because God wants it to happen you treated God as the sole owner…