Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 801 to 825 of 5000 results

801. “I Will Not Fear Though Tens of Thousands Assail Me”

Psalm 3:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... metaphor in the Old Testament, and here the psalmist engages the bold metaphor of his involvement in hand-to-hand combat, but, as Schaefer comments, to see God “knocking out the teeth of the enemy is an original touch.”4 Theological Insights Psalm 3 illustrates the fact that theology and life are congenially related. David’s life was filled with conflict, yet he could lie down and sleep at night and awake to a life of trust “because the Lord sustains me” (3:5). Faith shapes practice. The effect ...

802. “Lord, Who May Dwell in Your Sacred Tent?”

Psalm 15:1-5

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C. Hassell Bullock

... of stability. We have to acknowledge that family stability in our modern world, for example, is quite a different social spectrum than Israel’s tight sense of family loyalty. But even that changing social reality can find remedies in our relationship with God. Illustrating the Text The way to God Bible: Psalm 15 invites us to consider the profound questions, “Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?” (15:1). People will respond to these questions in different ways ...

803. “You Will Fill Me with Joy in Your Presence”

Psalm 16:1-11

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C. Hassell Bullock

... in David, “a man after his own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). This psalm draws a contrast between those who “run after other gods” (16:4a) and those who have chosen the Lord as their portion and cup (16:5). We can draw an illustration from Israel’s history, especially seen through the eyes of the prophets. Hosea puts the story in the form of marriage and divorce, and ultimately God’s reconciliation with unfaithful Israel. The outline of that history lies behind the theology of this psalm. Our temptation ...

804. “When I Awake, I Will Be Satisfied with Seeing Your Likeness”

Psalm 17:1-15

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C. Hassell Bullock

... the theological momentum attained in Psalm 16:11. It has the effect of showing how truly foolish evildoers are, that they would exchange the joy and peace of God’s presence for the transitory pleasure and power of evil. Metaphorically, Psalm 17 is a good illustration of how the Psalms draw on other portions of Scripture, citing terms from Deuteronomy 32:10–11 (Song of Moses; Ps. 17:8) and Numbers 10:35 (Ps. 17:13). Outline/Structure The psalm is a single prayer, divided into its distinctive parts: A ...

805. “The Lord Is My Shepherd, I Lack Nothing”

Psalm 23:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... insist, that the psalmists and the editors of the book worked with word and phrase associations, and sometimes a word or phrase was enough to place two psalms next to each other and proclaim a message that the compiler of the book wanted to get across. This is illustrated in the relationship of Psalms 22 and 23. That is, Psalm 22 closes with the vision of a great feast in the kingdom of God (22:29) with a view to proclaiming the Lord’s righteousness (22:31). As a follow-up, Psalm 23 relates that, indeed ...

806. “Show Me Your Ways, Lord”

Psalm 25:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... see HCSB). The Septuagint’s “strength” and the ESV’s “friendship” both show the difficulty it poses for translators. In any case, this verse is a restatement of the thought of 25:12, the fear of the Lord being the link. Perhaps Abraham is a good illustration of this thought (Gen. 18:17–19; cf. Amos 3:7). 25:15 My eyes. Note the resumption of the first person, which is also the grammatical person of 25:1–7, suggesting the personal nature of the psalm. 25:18 my affliction and my distress ...

807. “Lord, I Love the House Where You Live”

Psalm 26:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... David’s whole life has been “on the way” to the Lord’s house, a concept that has tempered his life and shaped his character. The path is not just a way for one’s feet but a path engraved in one’s heart (Ps. 84:5). Illustrating the Text Writing our autobiography Personal Testimony: When we look at Psalm 26:8, we see the principle that motivates David’s life. It is the centerpiece of the psalm: “Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells.” David is developing ...

808. “Do Not Drag Me Away with the Wicked”

Psalm 28:1-9

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C. Hassell Bullock

... God will “carry them” like a shepherd. Thus we see that David begins with a focus on his own problems, and through the power of prayer, he turns toward the Israel he loves and commits them to the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Illustrating the Text Sometimes the innocent become collateral damage of this world’s evildoers. Church Missions: Nancy Shuman Davis had been a missionary in Mexico for forty years, working in orphanages and planting churches, with her husband, Sam. On January 26, 2011, while she ...

809. “Blessed Is the One Whose Transgressions Are Forgiven”

Psalm 32:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... that transaction in the lives of all the godly (hasid) who call on God while he may be found. At this point the teacher or preacher might speak about the use of the term “sin” in the public square (see Karl Menninger’s story in “Illustrating the Text”). The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives an axiomatic definition of sin: “Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.”[10] That is, sin is both omission and commission. The psalmist suggests that his sin is an offense ...

810. “May Your Unfailing Love Be with Us, Lord”

Psalm 33:1-22

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C. Hassell Bullock

... we put our hope in you. (33:22) The hope of Israel and the church is found in the presence of God’s “unfailing love,” the tie that binds the Testaments together and gives us a sense of God’s redeeming purpose in the world. Illustrating the Text God’s unfailing love Quote: A Room Called Remember, by Frederick Buechner. Buechner writes about an experience when someone he loved was near death, and though God did not seem close by, he desperately needed God and sensed his love: Though God was nowhere ...

811. “Taste and See That the Lord Is Good”

Psalm 34:1-22

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C. Hassell Bullock

... ), and observed how his or her mortal fears turned to the fear of the Lord. Verses from Psalm 34 could be woven through the testimony. Spiritual awakening Biography: John Newton. The story of the conversion of Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” is a great illustration of the “fear of the Lord” that leads to salvation (34:7, 9, 11). Newton lived the first twenty-two years of his life far from the Lord. At age eleven he became a sailor and later engaged in slave trade. But at age twenty-three ...

812. “May the Net They Hid Entangle Them”

Psalm 35:1-28

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C. Hassell Bullock

... resentment and violence. The range of the Old Testament ethic extends upward from the ground-zero code of retaliation, to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “your neighbor as yourself” (e.g., Mark 12:29–31). David’s demeanor illustrates the upper range. Admittedly, however, one may treat another person with consideration and respect without loving him or her, but at least this behavior puts one in closer range of love. Teaching the Text Psalm 35 is among the psalms that have long ...

813. “Trust in the Lord and Do Good”

Psalm 37:1-40

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C. Hassell Bullock

... solution, that God is always there in times of trouble to deliver us (37:39–40). In fact, one wonders if God does not allow some formidable problems in life so that we might “take refuge in him,” and taking refuge in God is the ultimate solution. Illustrating the Text Injustice Testimony: Anyone who has lived in this world for a while knows what it feels like to be the victim of injustice. Most of us have seen the injustice of “the wicked,” those who cheat and lie in order to get ahead, often at ...

814. “As the Deer Pants for Streams of Water, So My Soul Pants for You, My God”

Psalm 42:1-11, Psalm 43:1-5

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C. Hassell Bullock

... difficult and depressive situation, our psalmist prays that God may send his “light” and “truth” (NIV: “faithful care”) to conduct him to the house of God (43:3). This is a personification of these divine attributes, unseen but nevertheless very real (see “Illustrating the Text” for the ideas of vanguard and rearguard). If we want to make a connection to the incarnation of God in Christ, we may point out that Christ is not a personification of light and truth but their incarnation, the ...

815. “God Is Our Refuge and Strength, an Ever-Present Help in Trouble”

Psalm 46:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... has done through history as revealed in the Bible but also meditate on what he has done in our own lives. By remembering, we are empowered to know who God really is! In a world of shifting sands, God is our point of reference. One possible illustration for remembering who God is and what he has done is through a “cardboard testimony.” Ask volunteers to write on one side of a piece of cardboard some crisis or struggle they have experienced and write on the other side how God responded (bringing comfort ...

816. “Within Your Temple, O God, We Meditate on Your Unfailing Love”

Psalm 48:1-14

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... offer a Guide to lead us to our destination. In fact, in keeping with the theme that God’s presence in Jerusalem is the securing force of the city, the final verse insists that our Guide is the most important aspect of the journey. Illustrating the Text There is a difference between hearing and seeing. Personal Testimony: Drawing from your own life experiences, share a time you made a journey to a destination you had heard about but had never seen (for example, the Grand Canyon, the Pacific Ocean). Share ...

817. “If I Were Hungry I Would Not Tell You, for the World Is Mine, and All That Is in It”

Psalm 50:1-23

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... :18–21). In essence the Lord says, “When you worship me but do not keep my commandments, what does that mean about our relationship?” It is a natural connection to Jesus’s teaching that if we love him we will keep his commandments (John 14:15). Illustrating the Text Know who God is. Personal Testimony: The Psalms and the Prophets put knowing God at the center of theology. And sometimes, as this psalm attests, we know God through the witness and the actions of others. In one of my pastorates, a sweet ...

818. “Create in Me a Pure Heart, O God, and Renew a Steadfast Spirit within Me”

Psalm 51:1-19

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... one’s sinful condition in order to come to faith in Christ. The psalm is concerned with how one, already within the faith, deals with one’s sinful condition. A picture of a snow-covered mountain with the sun highlighting the white snow could complement this illustration well. Also, it would be good to have your listeners sing this song after you explain the meaning and its connection to the text. David the prodigal Bible: David’s view of God is equivalent to the image of the father in the parable of ...

819. “God Looks Down from Heaven . . . to See If There Are Any Who Understand”

Psalm 53:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... (53:5b). The point we can make is that God’s judgment aims at the evildoers in both situations, and in both situations he acts on behalf of his own people, the poor in one case (Ps. 14), the congregation in the other (Ps. 53). Illustrating the Text God’s work is perceptible only to those who believe. Quote: As the Iron Curtain was crumbling in 1989, the Manchester Guardian carried an editorial about the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of communism. The article observed that George Orwell ...

820. “Cast Your Cares on the Lord and He Will Sustain You”

Psalm 55:1-23

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... of the secular city that has arisen out of the love of the world, replete with immorality (55:9b–11), and contrasts that with a glimpse of another relational sphere, which we might compare to the city of God that has arisen out of love for God (see “Illustrating the Text”). In that “city” one calls on God, and he answers; one casts one’s cares on God, and he sustains; one trusts in God, and no outcome need be defined, for in that trust, with God alone as its object, the dove that flies away from ...

821. “Be Exalted, O God, above the Heavens; Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth”

Psalm 57:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... the Text”). Psalm 57 tells us that God sends love and truth from heaven to save us, and we cannot be saved by love alone. Love and truth sum up the gospel. They are God’s coambassadors. Illustrating the Text Half-truths Statistics: In January 2013, National Public Radio listed twelve common “half-truths” that most of us accept as fact. In truth, Subway sandwich chain’s footlong sandwich often measures closer to eleven inches than twelve inches; some scientists claim that pink is not actually ...

822. “You Have Given Me the Heritage of Those Who Fear Your Name”

Psalm 61:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... interpretation of the Psalms represents a later period of interpretive history, especially the early Christian era, evident in their New Testament usage. The dimensions of that, of course, developed over a long period of time, and the Targum is an illustration of a Jewish interpretive era that partially overlaps early Christianity. 61:7 appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.God assigns his personified “love and faithfulness” (hesed and ’emet) to keep the psalmist. See Psalm 89:14. 61:8 ...

823. “Truly My Soul Finds Rest in God”

Psalm 62:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... the psalmist (62:1; 39:2), leading some scholars to propose the same author for both psalms. Indeed, they both are associated with David, and they very well could have been written by him. The two psalms, with their similarities of language and difference of content, illustrate how language can be used to convey very different messages (see the sidebar). Outline/Structure The psalm has two parts, with a refrain focusing on the psalmist’s trust in God (62:2 and 6). If we take the word selah at the end of ...

824. “They Will Proclaim the Works of God and Ponder What He Has Done”

Psalm 64:1-10

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... to God, who takes up the role of warrior and aims his arrows at the psalmist’s foes. While this image may make us a bit uncomfortable, the idea of God’s participation in our human conflict is most reassuring (see “Our sharpshooter God” in “Illustrating the Text”). While it is a very different message from that of the incarnation—God’s taking on our humanity in Jesus of Nazareth—it is still the message of God’s identification with us in our need and participation with us in the conflict ...

825. “Come and See What God Has Done”

Psalm 66:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... imperatives are interspersed with the second person, “you,” applied to God (66:3–4, 10–15). Three times God is addressed directly, once by “all the earth” (66:3–4), once by Israel (66:10–12), and once by the psalmist (66:13–15), again illustrating the pattern. Third, the last movement of the poem (66:13–20) is dominated by the first person, “I.” As noted, the audience is wide at first and then narrows to Israel and finally to the worshiper himself. This pattern helps us see how we ...

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