Streams of Living Water

Is it true to say that ‘all good things must come to an end’, just like this short series on the Psalms is coming to an end tonight? Over the last couple of months we have been through the highs and the lows of the book of Psalms; we have been baffled by their sheer depth and enlightened by their utter reality; we have felt elated and we have felt depressed; we have seen our own sinfulness and we have seen the perfection of God. But tonight, I want to close by telling you that there are some good things which won’t come to an end – things which the Psalm we are going to look at tell us all about. These last type are called Messianic Psalms because they speak directly about the Lord Jesus Christ – that’s not to say that the other psalms don’t, simply that these psalms, par excellence, give us unparalleled access into the mind and heart of our Master. And what these psalms tell us won’t come to an end is the glory of the name and the triumph of Jesus Christ. His worthiness will never end and the praise of His name by His grateful people will never come to an end. In fact, there is a very real sense in which because these are good things, they will never come to an end. The splendour and majesty of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will shine eternally – they will never dim not supposing eternity means eternity. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you have a passion for the Glory of God? Do you live for, do you breathe for, do you do all for the Glory of God? Does the honour of His Glory and His Great Name mean more to you than your own reputation? Do you believe that God will not allow the guilty to go unpunished? These are the kind of questions brought up by the penultimate type of Psalm we are looking at – Psalms of Imprecation – Psalms like 137:7-9 where, humanly speaking, we are left scratching our heads at the viciousness of Scripture. After all, how barbaric is it to talk of taking little children and dashing their heads against rocks? I mean, that is so sub-Christian isn’t it? That’s the kind of thing psychopaths do – not followers of the man who said, ‘Love your enemies. Pray for them who spitefully use you’. I mean, you would might expect the Psalmist, if he had any morsel of what passes as modern godliness within him to say, ‘Lord, have mercy on Babylon’, but rather than that, this vicious, vengeful, hate-filled songwriter pens these words of vitriol. This has led to many commentators, even evangelicals, calling these verses, and the other psalms which follow this trend, Psalms like 69, 83 and 109, ‘devilish’. They don’t believe they should be included in the Christian cannon of Scripture because they say that they are simply sub-Christian sentiments – relics of Judaism, not worthy of the disciples of Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

The evening of the 13^th April 1746 was grim, at least if your name was MacDonald or Cameron. It was the night before the battle of Culloden and Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops were exhausted after retreating the 200 miles from Edinburgh. Encamped a few miles away in Nairn were the numerically superior troops of The Duke of Cumberland. As a last attempt to avert disaster, Prince Charlie ordered his troops to march the 12 miles, or so, to Nairn, and, in the dead of night, to ambush the Duke of Cumberland’s army whilst they slept. But, whilst they were still a few miles shy, the alarm was raised and the ambush was called off. At 4am in the morning, the even more exhausted Jacobites returned to Culloden, many of them collapsing where they stood and only waking up the next day to find a royalist sword through their bellies. The eve of the battle of Culloden set the tone for the next day – a next day which would herald the destruction of the clan system and the transformation of the Highland way of life forever. The eve of this battle, and all battles, are all important to the result of the subsequent encounter. Read the rest of this entry »

Six months ago, or so, I decided to take up birdwatching. I thought it would be a nice, easy hobby to take my mind off things and get me some fresh air. But after a little while, my enthusiasm for birdwatching started to wane – the reason? Because I was struggling to tell the difference between different kinds of birds. In fact, if I am being honest, and I know you’re all going to laugh at me when I tell you this, but I’m still struggling to tell the difference between a crow, a rook, a jackdaw and a raven. And if I can’t tell the difference between these four big, common birds, how am I going to tell the difference between wing patterns on a tiny little bird? I have begun to realise that there is far more to bird-watching than I once thought.
Now the same principle works in the realm of the Psalms even more. Read the rest of this entry »

I want to start tonight with two different worlds. My first world is approximately 400BC where there was a great man writing a masterpiece. His name was Sun Tzu and he was a general of an army in China. He wrote a book called, ‘The Art of War’ where he discusses the tactics of battle and the strategies of war. My second world is that of Ashes Cricket where, at the present moment, Australia are threatening to whitewash England. Cricket commentators have termed this present Australian Cricket Team one of the greatest to have ever played Test Cricket. But these same commentators also pay tribute to the Australian Cricket Coach, a man called John Buchanan – a ruthless winner with, what sportsmen call, the Eye of the Tiger. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember! That’s the message of Psalm 105 – Remember the amazing things God has done for you! God has worked an epic of salvation and deliverance in your life – Remember it and praise God! That is the message of the next different type of Psalm we are looking at – Psalms of Remembrance – like Psalm 105 – Psalms which look back to all the wonderful ways in which God has and is blessing His people. I want to see three things tonight about this epic story of God’s salvation: Read the rest of this entry »