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During last night's Bible study, we took our time to look at every verse in Psalm 92. 

Psalm 92 is unique because while every psalm is intended for worship of the LORD, this is the only psalm that is noted as "a song for the Sabbath day." 

Why is Psalm 92 a Song for the Sabbath day?

So right away, we realize that this song is a special one! 

We don't know who wrote it, but we know its intention: 

PSALM 92 is a song to refocus your attention away from the busyness of life and rightfully back on the Most High God.

The Sabbath day is not just a day of rest - it's a day to cease and stop your normal work to reposition God as the center of your worship. 

In the Hebrew, "Sabbath" is also defined as an "intermission."

So this song is a powerful invitation to take a pause or break from whatever was previously capturing your attention, so you can go back to it with renewed strength and focus. 

What shall we do when we intentionally pause from the...

Last night during our online Bible study Zoom discussion, we did a line-by-line deep dive into Psalm 84.

Psalm 84 is such a sweet, yet powerful psalm overflowing with promise and power that can only be found in the presence of God.

When we yearn to be close to the LORD, by making worship in the House of God a priority in our lives, we will encounter the LIVING GOD! 

Let's look at these first two verses:

"How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." Psalm 84:1-2

The psalmists of Psalm 84, the Sons of Korah, were desperate to be in the House of the LORD. 

They were desperate for the courts...they were deeply longing to spend time in worship before the Living God.

Why? Because without the presence of the Living God, we are weak! We are left dry, hungry, and thirsty.

BUT IN the House of the LORD, in His courts, in His presence, we will find...

It felt so good to be back online with our Soul of Worship Ministry Online Bible Study community last night! 

After a week away, we meditated on these 4 simple but powerful verses in Psalm 89:

"Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all day long, And in Your righteousness they are exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, And in Your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the LORD, And our king to the Holy One of Israel."

Psalm 89:15-18

Psalm 89 was written by Ethan the Ezrahite, a man that was known as a man of wisdom (1 Kings 4:29-31). 

And what wisdom did Ethan the Ezrahite want to share with the people of Israel? 

The blessings that are unlocked when we know the joyful sound! 

Blessed are those who know how to worship, why they worship, WHO they worship, and what true worship sounds like!

We went deep on...

Psalm 76:1 says: "In Judah God is known."

Judah is of course one of the tribes of Israel, the southern kingdom of Israel where Jerusalem is found, the tribe from which Jesus descended from, but also JUDAH means PRAISE.

We could replace the Hebrew name of Judah with praise in this verse and it would read:

"In PRAISE God is known." (Psalm 76:1)

There are A LOT of parallels between the power of praise and the blessings and heritage of the Tribe of Judah, but we are going to focus today on this: 

We make God known through our praise. 

We testify of His goodness when we sing of what He has done.

In Psalm 78, Asaph composes another song of instruction with the main lesson being this: let's learn from our past sins and positively impact our future by praising God.

"We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done."

Psalm 78:4

So...

In our online Bible study last night, we began to dig into the themes of Book 3: Psalms 73-89. 

This third volume of praise and prayer consists of only 17 psalms, 11 of which are penned by Asaph.

So I thought, who is Asaph? What's his story? 

Asaph is mentioned a few times in 1 and 2 Chronicles, from where we learn a few things:

• Asaph's name means "gatherer" in Hebrew 
• Asaph was a Levite, appointed by David when the Ark was brought into Jerusalem
• Asaph was a singer and a musician with the assignment to "raise the voice with resounding joy" 
• Asaph's assignment grew to Chief Musician, prophetic worshiper in David's army, and seer
• Asaph's sons continued in his legacy 

(References: I Chronicles 15:16-19, I Chronicles 16:4-5,7, I Chronicles 25:1-2,6-7, and II Chronicles 29:30) 

Yet, the high calling and successful ministry did not make Asaph exempt from feeling weak, confused, going through trials, or questioning his life's...

Now, you all know that I love to declare, "Worship is my warfare!".

So in last night's online Bible study Zoom class, we unpacked the purpose and power behind a war song.

A war song is also known as a battle hymn or a warrior's cry. It is a call to arms.

Battle hymns have been used since Biblical times and through our recent era. I asked my husband, who is a history buff, about his thoughts regarding the intention behind war-time songs and military bands and we came up with the following 3 main purposes:

1. War songs raise morale and bolster the spirits of soldiers going into battle. The song reminds them of their purpose and reason for fighting.

2. War songs inspire, comfort, bring confidence, and unify the entire army. 

3. War songs are tactical & strategic. When everyone is marching to the same cadence (rhythmic flow of sounds), the army can advance quickly, effectively, and predictably. 

As it is in the natural, so shall it be in the...

Though situations arise that seem hopeless, overwhelming, oppressive, and fearful, the Psalms remind us that God is our hope in every circumstance.

What is hope?

In general, "Hope" can be defined as: 

• an optimistic state of mind,
• a feeling of expectation, and
• a desire for a certain outcome.

We might casually say, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, because I’d like to take a walk.” But keep in mind, that kind of hope doesn’t come with any guarantees.

What is Biblical hope?

Biblical Hope is the strong and confident expectation that God *will fulfill* His promises over us.

The strength of our Biblical hope is in God’s faithfulness.

We can be confident in God’s promises because God has always been faithful.

So our hope is secure and steadfast, because we have no reason to believe that His faithfulness will end with us.

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For...

While all Scripture is powerful and meaningful, there are quite a few psalms that truly stand out. 

Psalm 51 is definitely one of those.

There are 7 Songs of Confession in the Psalms: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143.

These psalms all express deep sorrow for sin, 5 of the 7 written by David.

These songs of confession and repentance remind us that we were all born sinners and are in need of a Savior.

These psalms help us to recognize our sinfulness, express our sorrow, and ask for God’s forgiveness so we can be washed, purified, and renewed.

Psalm 51 also reminds us that if we are not careful, it is very easy for even a "Man after God's own heart" to get entangled with sin.

The enemy is always looking for ways to take us down, so we must stay on guard!

But we should also confidently know that if we humbly come back to the LORD with a broken and contrite spirit, God is so merciful to forgive and restore us.

With this week being...

I love to encourage you to MAKE A SOUND! (I think we all know that!)

But I would be wrong if I didn't also make it clear that stillness before the LORD is worship, too.

 

 

 

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Worshipful silence before the presence of God and in obedience to the Holy Spirit is a sign of humility, confident expectation, and submission to God's strategies.

Let's take a look at Jericho!

We often teach about Jericho to encourage the power of worship and praise since the walls came tumbling down after a holy shout from the people of Israel. (And this is still true!)

But before it was time for the shout, there was a lot of walking and waiting in confident silence.

“Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall...

Worship through song is a powerful way to experience the liberating, chain-breaking power of Almighty God.

If you know me for any time at all, you know this is a constant theme I speak about and live by - WORSHIP CHANGES THINGS!

While it can be easy to sing praises to God after a victory, we know that David often worshiped before, during, and after the battles that he faced.

Because of David's genuine and constant state of worship through prayer and praise, David experienced God's ground-shaking deliverances time and time again.

David wrote many songs of deliverance and in fact said in Psalm 32:7 that God would surround him with songs of deliverance.

But Psalm 18 is something special.

Psalm 18 is one of the most powerful songs of deliverance sung by King David and is the longest Psalm of Book One.

It is also fully captured in 2 Samuel 22.

When God repeats Himself in Scripture, we ought to pay attention!

We broke down just the first half of this psalm in our online Bible study this...