Psalm 32 - Learning from your mistakes

In the book of Psalms there are different categories of Psalms. Some Psalms are grouped according the author i.e. David, Moses etc. Some are called Messianic Psalms as they focus on the coming Messiah who Christians believe was Jesus. This Psalm is in the group of ‘maschil’ Psalms. Maschil means that the reader should learn something from the Psalm. It is a good principle to learn from your own mistakes but it is even wiser to learn from another person’s mistakes.

Psalm 6 - Heartbroken in the Presence of God

Have you ever felt heart broken in the presence of God as a result of sin? You might say that thankfully this has not been your experience very often since conversion. Great men of God, like David, had these experiences on a fairly regular basis. If you have never felt like that maybe you have become desensitised to sin in your life.  

Psalm 6 has three sections. 

Studies in the Psalms - The Seven Penitential Psalms

Most people will be aware that the Americans talk about their prisons as ‘penitentiaries’. You may also be vaguely familiar with the concept of ‘penance’. In religious circles this normally means either a feeling of regret for misdeeds or some religious payment for sin.  In Biblical terms the word ‘penitential’ means to ‘repent of sin and to seek forgiveness’. We are going to discover in these psalms a number of lessons about sin, the sinner and how God deals with sin. 

Let me summarise them:

1.    There is nothing that can be done by an individual to atone for sin;

2.    God is extremely angry about our sin;

3.    Sin weakens and exhausts a person morally and physically;

4.    Sin has a defiling and contaminating effect in the life of the believer;

5.    Sin ruins our relationship with God;

6.    God alone can forgive sin;

7.    God is gracious and merciful as well as holy and just;

8.    There are forces against the believer that would seek their downfall (i.e. our flesh, the world and the Devil).

European Tour Final Stop - Rome - Acts 28

Scripture Passage

Acts chapter 28

Scripture Verse

Acts 28:28 ‘Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles’

This the final episode of Paul’s journey to Rome. How will he get there?

At the end of the last blog post on the Book of Acts all the men on the ship escaped to the shore safely. The soon found out that they were on the island of Malta. The local people were really kind. They made a fire to warm them up. It was rainy and they were cold.