David wrote Psalm 28. He started it with crying out to the Lord. Verse 1 says, “To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock; do not be silent to me…”

In verse 6 he thanked the Lord for answered prayer. It says, “Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications.”

He verbalized his thanks through a new song that bubbled out of his heart.

Verse 7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”

The Lord loves our new songs. We can take them from Scripture. We can fill our hearts with thanksgiving and let the words of praise bubble up. They don’t need music. 

Ephesians 5:19 says, “…singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

Psalm 33:1 says, “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.”

Verse 3 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song…” He is our audience of one. 

Steadfastness means to be firm, be established, be fixed, be securely determined.

David wrote Psalm 57 about when he fled from Saul and hid in the cave. 1 Samuel 22:1. Think of the stress he was under. 

Psalm 57:1 says, “…in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by.”

In verse 7 he wrote, “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.” In his stress David turned to praise. 

Another example is Asaph. He was overwhelmed. This is how he turned his eyes from his circumstances to the Lord. 

Verse 6 says, “I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search.”

Verses 7-9 were his questions. In verse 10 he realized his thoughts created his anguish. 

In verses 10-12 he turned his thoughts to intentions of ‘I will remember, I will meditate on, and talk of God’s deliverances.’

Psalm 147:1 says, “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.”

The work and intention of the enemy against our faith is defeated when we intentionally turn our stress into praise.

In Psalm 86:11 David wrote, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.” 

David was asking the Lord to give him singleness of heart. He wanted to praise the Lord with his whole heart. 

Our hearts can become fragmented because of unresolved issues, unforgiveness, bitterness, or resentment. 

I wrote a book “Cultivating Our Heart: repurposing fallow ground.” 

Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground…”

Fallow ground can bear no fruit for the glory of the Lord. It’s full of weeds and clods of hard packed dirt. 

God’s way is through praise. Psalm 116:17 says, “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”

Hard trials, trauma, or turmoil are opportunities to live in His irrevocable gifts of peace and joy through thanksgiving. It’s His will. 1 Thessalonians 5:18. “In everything give thanks…”

Psalm 146:2 can be our purpose of heart. It says, “While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”

Waiting is a trial all its own. The truth is that trials come as a fiery purifier of our faith like gold and silver are refined. 

Any fiery dart lie that we allowed to penetrate is hidden dross that weakens our faith. 

As the Lord allows situations of waiting, He uses them to expose the hidden dross that manifests as impatience. 

Psalm 25:4-5 are great verses to hide in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will use them to remind us to continually seek Him as we wait. 

David wrote, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”

A key for us in waiting is to keep His word before us. Psalm 119:2 says, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.”

God’s word that is hidden in our hearts will guard us from the temptation to make things happen in our own strength ~ because we didn’t wait for His impeccable timing.

It is good to live in the awareness that apart from the Lord we can do nothing. John 15:5

Psalm 84:5 says, Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”

Verse 7 says, “They go from strength to strength…”

When we walk in the Spirit, then our fleshly automatic pilot is dismantled. Galatians 5:16-17

Psalm 84:11 is a reminder of one blessing of the righteous. It says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Psalm 34:9-10 says, Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him…those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

What do you lack? I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit where you stepped out in your own strength.

The path of obedience is strewn with grace. Years ago I heard a pastor say that grace is God’s strength to do what He called us to do. 

When I’m in a hard circumstance I like to say, “Lord, I’m standing in my grace box.” All four sides say “Your grace is sufficient for me.”

David wrote Psalm 143. In verse 4 he expressed how he was overwhelmed. Then he increased his faith in verse 5.

It says, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands.”

We can do the same looking back through Scriptures. Over and over the Lord miraculously worked deliverances when the circumstances seemed impossible. 

As our faith is increased our heart is freshly awakened to desire to commune with the Lord. 

Verse 6 says, “I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land.”

It reminds me of David’s words in Psalm 63:1. “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land.”

The Lord uses our hard trials or spiritual dryness to create  hunger and thirst to draw us into intimate communion with Him.

Psalm 20:4 says, “May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose.”

Job 42:2 says, “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”

God’s purpose will be fulfilled. However the enemy will tenaciously fight against it

The battleground is for our mind. In Ephesians 2:3 it says that before salvation satan controlled our minds

In Psalm 140:7 David wrote of God’s protection. It says, “O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle.”

Isaiah 28:6 says He gives “…strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.”

Satan uses fiery dart lies to destroy our faith. When we fight them through truth there is no battle. They are quenched

When we allow them to penetrate by dialoguing with them the battle becomes inside

They seed into our hearts. We unknowingly own them. They become part of our thought processes 

The strongholds, according to 2 Corinthians 10:4, says the weapons of our warfare are His word. His word alone is able to pull down internal strongholds 

I love Psalm 18. 2 Samuel 22:1 says, “Then David spoke to the Lord the words of this song, on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 

Psalm 18:7-15 are so picturesque of how the Lord responded to David’s cry for help. 

Verse 16 says, “He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.”

The title of my book, “He Drew Me Out Of Deep Waters” came from that verse. 

It’s a biographical sketch of His deliverance in my life. The epilogue, “…is to use my brain injuries as a platform to proclaim God’s wondrous work.”

Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, His tender mercies are over all His works.”

For years my parents, aunt and uncle held a Bible study at a rest home. Later my dad, my cousin, and myself took turns speaking there

In June 2015 my dad entered as a resident. He still took his turn. His last message,at age 95, was from Psalm 107 which I came to in my reading. Fond memory. Sitting in his wheelchair at a table with his Bible open

Five times in verses 1, 8, 15, 21, and 31 each say the same thing. “Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

I love verse 9. It says, For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”

It is the goodness of the Lord that leads men to repentance. Romans 2:4

That’s the theme of this psalm. They got into trouble over and over. Then they cried out in their distresses and He delivered them

Today ~ take time to just fill your heart with His goodness as you recall His deliverances in your life

Psalm 16:8 is a verse of intention. David wrote, “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.”

Where is your focus? When we focus on our circumstances, we lose sight of the Lord as our Abiding Presence.

Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Our inner transformation is God’s purpose through our trials. Romans 8:28 says He is working everything for our good.

How? Why? Verse 29 says, “…to be conformed to the image of His Son…”

2 Corinthians 3:18 reveals the how. It says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Setting Him before us eclipses the hard trials and adverse circumstances. They fade. We see Him only using everything in our lives to conform us to be more like Himself.