Nancy Palmer

David, the psalmist really knows how he has disappointed God time and time again, yet he testifies that God has not abandoned him. Rather that when David calls out to God, God has indeed answered him with an assurance that cannot be hidden from those who see David. His face is radiant not covered with shame. The righteous fear the Lord and because of this, they have no fear of others. I am redeemed because as a servant of His, He has seen my sinful state of bondage, and paid the price for me to be set free. What a gracious master, He is. Can you imagine a slave owner paying the price of freedom for his slave with the life of the slave owner's son? But if a slave owner did this for his slave, would not the proper response of the slave to be completely dedicated to serving his master freely? It is impossible to consider. Yet this is what God has done for me. To avoid condemnation, I must fully rely on God (F.R.O.G.), there is no other way.

Praise continually because it is in praise that: we demonstrate that we are indeed grateful for all He is doing for us, we recognize His sovereignty, and we acknowledge the abundant love He lavishes on us. Barriers to living and breathing praise continually include the 'busy'ness of life, a sense of self-importance and self-reliance, and a perception of weakness among peers. I am responding better to the call of God in my life since He has seen fit to slow down my life through a lay off from teaching these last 7 months. Because of the humbling of this period of my life, I am less busy, and recognize that my sense of self-importance and self-reliance has been turned upside down. I now take the time to bring my relationship with Christ into clearer focus through study of the Word, prayer, seeking Him in all aspects of my life and in quiet reflection. This study has been a great part of developing a habit of daily praise.

We can see from New Testament scripture that the religious leaders of Jesus' time tried to discredit Him time and time again as they built up their self importance in the religious community of the day. In my own life it is easy to fall into the trap of pointing fingers to those in positions of religious authority, while forgetting to examine the temple God is intent on building within me. It is of eternal importance that I personally do not reject the perfect cornerstone He has provided. The image of boughs in hand as we parade to the altar of sacrifice is one easily related to the triumphant Passover entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on what we as Christians have come to call Palm Sunday.

The predominant emotion conveyed is one of unrestrained gratitude. The psalmist reminds me that my response to all God has done for me should be (1) shouting, (2) worship, (3)approach Him (come before Him, enter His gates) with singing, (4) know who He is, what He has done, who I belong to, and where He calls me to be (in His pasture, in His protective care). God has faithfully called me to be His loved child from the first generation through the present and on to eternity. He never ceases to call me to loving relationship with Him. I am commanded to respond to this great love with thanks and praise.

Only when we recognize that sin has caused our relationship with the heart of God to be completely broken, can we be motivated to seek to be reunited with Him. Being 'sorry' brings only a band-aid to a heart but not a complete healing. We must humble ourselves in recognition that we cannot fix our own heart by the 'self-application' of the "I'm sorry" band-aid, but must seek the complete healing of the Great Healer, the Lord God Almighty. Band-aids are worse than useless to heal a sinful heart.

First of all - - ALL sin is great. No matter the sin, whether society or religious structures more severely rate one sin over the other, every sin is an affront to the Holy One. When we recognize this, we recognize that we all are in a state of separation from God and need to have our heart purified. God set up the sacrificial system to provide for a cleansed heart; our sin requires a sacrifice to be made holy again and that sacrifice was provided with the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ. We must present our contrite heart and accept the gift of mercy provided by this great sacrifice on the cross. The process is recognition of the sin and our sinful nature, presentation of our desire to be made pure so that we may be in a restored right relationship with our Creator, and an acceptance of the grace of God. The drawing power of God initiates the process, we must respond and Christ 'seals the deal'! Praise the Lord - it's a done deal!

David is hardly minimizing his sin. Quite the contrary, David is anguishing that 'all sin' is against the Righteous One even though it might appear that his (David's) sin was specifically against Bathsheba an Uriah. There is no sin except that against the Holy God. Having a 'sinful nature', i.e. even from our very moment of conception is NO excuse to sin especially when the Lord, the Giver of Life, is madly in love with us. It is with great consequence that we sin, only that God would provide the Lamb (Jesus) to bring us back into right relationship with Him.

There are many parallels between this prophetic psalm and the accounts of the crucifixion of the Christ which have already been outlined by prior respondents but what strikes me most poignantly from this prose is vs. 24. Clearly, my sins were laid upon Jesus and caused His suffering and sacrifice yet at no time has Jesus ever despised me, never has He hidden His face from me. While I may at times turn my back to His graces and mercies, He never denies them to me. I have been, am, and currently live in a blessed state of forgiveness. For this I offer my praises to the Lord enthroned in my heart. As to why David may have been inspired to write this psalm, I believe God did this to reassure me (and all of us) that He has charted our lives, that He is in control, and that for Him there are no surprises. I'm sure that God experiences delights in us, but not surprises. In the midst of the trials of life, when things are looking hopelessly lost and tough; we, like Jesus, are a part of a BIG plan. God will triumph, of this we can be sure. We should all be encouraged to press on because of this prophetic scripture.

On the cross, Jesus had the weight of my sin and that of the entire world and felt entirely separated from and abandoned by God for the first time. Throughout his sinless earthly life, Jesus was in constant communion with God - seeking always God's guidance and leading. When Jesus accpted the burden of sin, the cold severing of this precious bond with God must have been devastating. To be such perfect love and be separated from God would leave Him empty, alone, isolated. God stepped in and answered Jesus' plea on our behalf by tearing the veil in the temple forever choosing to dwell with us, be available to us, and through the Holy Spirit - to live in us. Because of Jesus sacrifice, we never have to know the despair of isolation that He felt on the cross.

The Pharisees couldn't see past the human form of Jesus, they refused to see His divinity because of the threat it meant to the status quo that they had become quite content with. It was clear from scriptures that the Messiah was to come from the lineage of Abraham through King David, both fully humans, so they expected the messiah to be fully and only human. The pharisees were no doubt trying to lay a trap for Jesus because to their way of thinking, the son of a God would be a god himself. Nowhere in their training had they ever conceived of their God taking on the human form to walk among them, teach them, take on their sins, and become a blood sacrifice. They had limited their messianic expectations. Jesus came to meet and defeat sin, just as a warrior does not shrink back from the enemy. As a priest without blemish, Jesus has taken our sin, offered himself as a sacrifice and approaches the the Father to restore our relationship with the Creator. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord (Rom. 12:19). I guess that means that He's in charge of it. To be in charge of it, then he must me capable of it. We are called to become peacemakers and leave vengeance in His capable hands.

Yahweh's anointed king has many enemies yet because he is enthroned by God, he ultimately has the upper hand. To rebel against Him is futile, ending only in complete ruin. The anointed king was/is/will be triumphant. Though as the Psalm was initially interpreted to refer to the earthly kings of Israel, with the hindsight of the New Testament, we know this to refer prophetically of the Christ because they (the apostles) saw him as sinless and blameless, all the while persecuted and rejected. The apostles knew of his identification from His baptism when something like a dove descended and God claimed him as His Son. After the crucifixion, the apostles were witness to his resurrection and ascension. The ultimate triumph in the battle between good and evil. From this prophetic psalm and from the life of Christ, we know that He was/is/will be the victor. We should claim the victory with Him by being on the right side!

Love without trustworthiness is love with clay feet - it can't be depended on to hold you up when the weight of life becomes heavy. Trustworthiness without love is a contract without heart. But the God revealed in the Old Testament (and in the New) is a God abundant in covenantal relationship with us, not contractual. That the Great I AM desires nothing less or more of me than that I desire a relationship with him is incredible! He has done, is doing and will continue to do all that it takes for me to develop the trust in Him so that my desire for relationship with Him will increase. (It's not a secret that He is working to build that trusting, loving relationship with YOU too!) Romans 8:28 is just one of the New Testament verses that speaks to the themes of love and trustworthiness. Without the recognition of God's love and trustworthiness in your life, this verse is hard if not impossible to understand. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. Romans 8:28

God's character is described as that of an everlasting King with boundless greatness whose works and deeds are rooted in righteousness, grace and compassion; the ultimate expression of love. Because He alone is worthy and all are dependents in His kingdom, every creature should be filled with overflowing gratitude and praise. The stories of God's greatness through the ages are being studied by me though this and other Bible studies. I teach children's Sunday school at my church, conveying the message of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as well as the lives of the early church as recorded in the scriptures. I strongly believe that the gospel of my life with Christ, including both the successes and failures along with God's redemptive mercy and grace, are being 'read' by Christians and non-Christians alike. It is my prayer that my life, on balance, brings Glory to God. BTW - Pastor Ralph, in developing this on-line Bible study program, you are living a gospel story 'read' by so many people growing in Christ. Bless you.

God's character aspects that pop out to me in this psalm are that He is alone is worthy of praise, and He is faithful to His creation throughout all eternity. The events of Exodus are foundational because they were unmistakably from the hands of God. It was an amazing time because while this was not the first time God was apparent in the lives of His chosen people, He was evident in grandiose ways EACH day by his direct and miraculous provision of shelter, safety, food, water, warmth, encouragement, and even discipline. Every thing the people needed as they were delivered into the promised land over 40 long years. This is not to say that God isn't with me and evident in His provisions all these thousands of years later, but my sight is often dimmed to the miraculous ways He works in my life. It is hard to imagine that the Jews in the great exodus could have ever claimed that they couldn't see God at work. It was a brilliant move by God to require that the story of the passover become a feast tradition so that all the generations to come would learn of his deliverance and salvation plan as it points back to the time of Exodus and forward to the saving blood of Jesus the Christ. There are NO boundaries to God's forgiveness just as there are no limits on His love! We worship a patient King.

Vs. 1-2 reflect of the certainty of God's authority as creator of all. Vs. 3-6 reflect that those worthy of ascending to God's presence must be purified, made holy, set apart. From the New Testament prospective, must be washed clean by the sacrificial and atoning blood of Jesus. (Praise God and thank you Jesus that I am made worthy.) Vs. 7-10 God is HUGE! Not even the gates of Jerusalem let alone the walls of the Holy of Holies can contain Him. In spite of this, He still desires to enter the gates of my own heart as a King bent on protecting me for His glory sake. Even so, He will not (did not) knock down the gates of your (my)heart, but will (did) knock and announce His desire to enter in.