Scripture
Psalm
78 sermons
The Resurrection-Hope of the Righteous One
Psalm 16:7–11 opens a window into the mind of Christ according to his human nature, revealing the steadfast confidence that carried him through suffering, death, and into resurrection glory. The passage is not ultimately about David — as Peter and Paul demonstrate in Acts 2 and Acts 13 — but about the resurrection of the Holy One who, having rendered perfect obedience, could not be held by the grave. His secured resurrection grounds the believer's own resurrection hope and calls the unbeliever to repent and receive the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ by faith alone. The sermon exhorts both believer and unbeliever to fix their gaze on the path of life Christ has opened — pleasures forevermore in the presence of God — as the only sufficient anchor through the dark providences of this present age.
The Resurrection-Hope of the Righteous One
Psalm 16 is read through a christological lens, with the Apostle Peter (Acts 2) and the Apostle Paul (Acts 13) as the interpretive guides: David speaks here concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon traces the earnest petition of verse 1, the joyful contentment of verses 2–6, and the steadfast confidence to be treated in verses 7–11, showing how Christ's human dependence on the Father, his delight in the saints, his repudiation of idolatry, and his sufficiency in divine providence together constitute the resurrection-hope of the righteous one. The imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith alone, is the ground on which David, and every believer in saving union with Christ, can share in that same hope. Hearers are called to imitate the Savior in prayer, meditation on Scripture, and a rightly ordered love that prizes God above every earthly portion.
The Active Obedience of the Righteous One
The Psalmist's Description of Depravity
The Lament of the Psalmist
Psalm 13 is a lament psalm in which David — and, by virtue of his identity as the greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ — cries out to God under the perceived forgetfulness of divine providence, the daily sorrows of the soul, and the threatening triumph of the enemy. Lament is distinguished from whining precisely in that it is directed toward God in faith, not away from Him; it is the transitional space between present pain and future promise, driven by covenant confidence in God's hesed. The sermon traces the structure of the psalm in two movements — the lament of verses 1–4 and the refuge of verses 5–6 — and applies it to the believer's life through the sympathizing high priesthood of Christ in Hebrews 4:14–16, calling Christians to bring their sorrows boldly to the throne of grace.
The Psalmist's Cry in an Age of Deceit
Psalm 12 confronts the believer with a world of flattering lips, double hearts, and lying tongues — both outside and inside the professing church — and asks how the righteous can persevere when the foundations are being destroyed. The sermon argues that the psalm is preeminently the prayer of Christ in his earthly ministry, who faced this same godless opposition and who, as the incarnate covenant head, is the definitive fulfilment of verse 5's divine promise to arise and set the oppressed in safety. The contrast between the corrupt words of the wicked (verses 1–4) and the pure, tried word of God (verses 5–8) teaches that theology, prayer, and dependence upon Scripture are the appointed means by which the pilgrim church endures in a present evil age. Unbelievers are warned that the autonomy expressed in verse 4 — 'our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?' — leads to the judgment of God, and are called to kiss the Son before his wrath is kindled.