JULY 19, 2025 Psalm 102:1 A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord: Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You. As we begin, let us first take note of the heading given to this particular psalm, which tradition says was written by David. Though […]
JULY 18, 2025 Psalm 101:7-8 He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord. In the words of one Jewish commentator, this psalm […]
JULY 17, 2025 Psalm 101:5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; the one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. In the previous devotion, David declared that he had no interest in following in the ways of the wicked lest their rebellious inclination negatively affected […]
Psalm 101:3 I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. At some point during their sojourn in Egypt, the people of Israel began to stray away from the faith of their fathers and embraced the ways of the Egyptians, including worship of […]
JULY 15, 2025 Psalm 101:2 I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. When the patriarch Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and changed his name from Abram to Abraham. It was on this occasion that the […]
JULY 12, 2025 Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. It is noted by Jewish commentators that the Hebrew spelling of the phrase, “it is He who has made us and not we ourselves,” could be rendered “it is He […]
JULY 11, 2025 Psalm 100:1-2 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. When Messiah went preaching throughout the Galilee and Judea, He often encountered and confronted the religious elite of whom He said, “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will […]
JULY 10, 2025 Psalm 100 A Psalm of Thanksgiving. This last in a series of eleven psalms said to have been composed by Moses is introduced to us as a psalm of thanksgiving. Tradition says that this particular psalm was sung in the Temple when worshipers would come before the Lord with a korban todah […]
JULY 8, 2025 Psalm 99:7 He spoke to them in the cloudy pillar; they kept His testimonies and the ordinance He gave them. In this verse, the psalmist obviously refers to the unique and powerful way God made His Presence known among His people as they journeyed through the wilderness, and how He communicated with them […]
JULY 7, 2025 Psalm 99:6 Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them. It is abundantly clear that, in the beginning of Israel’s call to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation, Moses and Aaron stand out as […]
JULY 6, 2025 Psalm 99:4 The King’s strength also loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Among men, those who wield great power have a tendency to regard themselves as being above the law. History is, in fact, replete with examples of those who lived by the philosophy […]
JULY 5, 2025 Psalm 99:2-3 The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name—He is holy. The Hebrew word translated as “high above” (also rendered as “exalted”) refers to an elevated object, such as a bird that soars in the heavens and is thus completely removed from the earth. […]
