Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Psalm 59:9-10 You are my strength,  I watch for you;  you, God, are my fortress, 10  my God on whom I can rely  God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me. If you are a running back in football, unless you have good blocking, you are in for trouble.  Usually the fullback or a pulling guard goes in front of the tailback to knock over defensive players.  The running back gets the glory, but if he is smart he always takes time to give "kudos" to his blockers. David says something similar today when he talks about how God delivers him from his enemies.  He says, " I rely on God who will go before me." David can have confidence because he knows God is his "lead blocker". As long as he stays behind the Lord, he can defeat anyone.  This started in his life when he defeated Samson the giant, with a sling and a stone.   Usually we get in trouble when we try to "go it alone".  When we are out in the open with no b

Psalm 58:3 " E ven from birth the wicked go astray;      from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies. " G.K. Chesterson said that the doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy that has been empirically validated by thirty-five hundred years of human history.” In this psalm, David is asking for the judgment of those who are spreading lies against him, and unjustly accusing him. These are the rulers and judges of the people, yet they are unjust.  David is asking for judgment of these as he says,  " May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along,  ike a stillborn child   that never sees the sun. Obviously David has a lot of disdain for them, not only for their unjust ways, but also because they are coming after him.  But in describing them, he points to the fact that from birth they are wayward.  He is talking about the sinful nature that all of us are born into. David himself says, "In sin did my mother conceive me. " Psalm 51:5  Thi

1  Psalm 57 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me.  For in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings      until the disaster has passed. I am sure you have heard of the phrase, "man cave".  It is place where men go to get away from the stress of life.  It is a hideout where he can relax and do whatever he feels like doing.  Usually it involves some form of media entertainment (tv, video game, sports), and healthy food and drink like pizza and beer.  Today our psalmist is talking about a different type of "man cave".  The setting of this psalm is that David is hiding out in a cave from King Saul, who was looking to kill him out of jealousy.  Caves in rocks were natural hiding places, where one could peer out and be prepared for an intruder.  High caves were places one could look out and see the enemy coming from a distance.  It is this metaphor that David uses to describe how God protected him in his time of trouble.   God is h

Psalm 56:3-4 When I am afraid,  I put my trust in you. 4       In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid.      What can mere mortals do to me? One of the most common things we share as human beings is "fear".  Fear of death, fear of public speaking, fear of (you fill in the blank).  When a fear becomes so obsessive it becomes a phobia.  Some people who are afraid of flying, never fly, and drive thousands of miles to avoid flying. Each one of us have different fears based on things that have happened to us that may or may not happen again.  I got in a pretty bad car accident (my car was totaled) last December, with my son in the car. We still are a little nervous at an intersection.   As we know David was on the run from those looking to kill him, both friend and foe.  But, in these two verses, we see how David dealt with his fears.  When David was in fear, he put his trust in God.  He realized that God was bigger than his fears and turned his focus

Psalm 55 20  My companion attacks his friends;      he violates his covenant. 21  His talk is smooth as butter,      yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil,      yet they are drawn swords. 22  Cast your cares on the  Lord      and he will sustain you; he will never let      the righteous be shaken. 23  But you, God, will bring down the wicked      into the pit  of decay; the bloodthirsty and deceitful      will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you. In this psalm, David bemoans a friend who betrayed him in a dramatic way.  Many think it was his friend Absalom, or some other close advisor who turned on David. In this psalm goes David goes from fear (verses 1-8), to fury (verses 9-15), and finally to faith (verses 16-23). (Morgan) Ultimately David relies on God to calm his fears and he relinquishes judgment to Him as well. He uses a phrase that is picked up in the New Testament, " Cast your cares on the Lord" .

1  Save me , O God, by your name;      vindicate me by your might. 2  Hear my prayer, O God;      listen to the words of my mouth. 3  Arrogant foes are attacking me;      ruthless people  are trying to kill me —      people without regard for God. 4  Surely God is my help;      the Lord is the one who sustains me. 5  Let evil recoil  on those who slander me;      in your faithfulness  destroy them. 6  I will sacrifice a freewill offering  to you;      I will praise  your name,  Lord , for it is good. 7  You have delivered me  from all my troubles,      and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes. Here is the context of this psalm. " There were actually two times the Ziphites betrayed David unto King Saul, first in 1 Samuel 23 and the second in 1 Samuel 26. David escaped both times, but the circumstances of this Psalm seem to best fit the circumstances of 1 Samuel 23, when David learned of the Ziphite betrayal but before the deliverance of God was displa

Psalm 53 For the director of music. According to  mahalath.  A  maskil  of David. 1  The fool says in his heart,  “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;     there is no one who does good. 2  God looks down from heaven     on all mankind to see if there are any who understand,     any who seek God. 3  Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;     there is no one who does good,     not even one. 4  Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread;     they never call on God. 5  But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,     where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you;     you put them to shame, for God despised them. 6  Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!     When God restores his people,     let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! As David describes those who reject God, he calls them “fools”.  He believes the evidence for God is so cl

Psalm 52:8-9 But I am like an olive tree      flourishing in the house of God; I trust  in God’s unfailing love      for ever and ever. 9  For what you have done I will always praise you      in the presence of your faithful people. And I will hope in your name,      for your name is good. Here is the context of this psalm: The terrible events that prompted this chapter are recorded in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. Doeg informed Saul regarding David’s presence at the tabernacle of God and regarding the help he received from the priest there. In an evil and paranoid response, Saul sent Doeg to kill the priests and others at the tabernacle, and Doeg did – 85 people in total ( 1 Samuel 22:18-19 ). In this psalm, David is comparing himself with the evil acts of Doeg.  While Doeg's acts desecrated the temple, David was like a healthy tree in the house of the Lord.  The root of Doeg's evil led to destruction, but David's trust in the Lord would cause him to flourish in God's hou

Psalm 51 For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. 1  Have mercy  on me, O God,      according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion      blot out  my transgressions. 2  Wash away  all my iniquity      and cleanse  me from my sin. 3  For I know my transgressions,      and my sin is always before me. 4  Against you, you only, have I sinned      and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict      and justified when you judge. 5  Surely I was sinful  at birth,      sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6  Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;      you taught me wisdom  in that secret place. This is the famous passage expressing King David's remorse over his sin of adultery with Bathsheba.  He was confronted by the prophet Nathan and he came to his senses, and confessed his sin to God.  There are many aspects of his confessi