by Stuart | 22 Aug 2021 | Hymnody
Joseph Scriven was born in September 1819 to wealthy Irish parents. He received the best education money could afford. More importantly, he received a Christian upbringing and grew into a godly young man, well-respected in his community. As a young man, he fell in...
by Stuart | 20 Aug 2021 | Devotionals, Psalms
Psalm 85 beautifully balances two realities that we often place against each other: grace and wrath. The writer recalls God’s favour to his people in the past, when he withdrew his anger from them (vv. 1–3). He pleads with God to show them grace again (vv. 4–7). He...
by Stuart | 19 Aug 2021 | Devotionals, Psalms
Recent psalms have focused much on the destruction of Jerusalem and God’s people wrestling with why it had happened and how long their exile would last. Psalm 84 switches gears. Here, we sense a shift from lamenting God’s absence to rejoicing in God’s presence. This...
by Stuart | 18 Aug 2021 | Devotionals, Psalms
Psalm 83 brings to an end a brief string of psalms (79–83) whose focus is the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. In these psalms, the people have cried out to God in despair, asking why and how long. The Lord answered those questions in Psalm 81. They had...
by Stuart | 17 Aug 2021 | Devotionals, Psalms
Last year, Global Finance compiled a list of the world’s ten best cities to live in. The cities selected (from tenth to first) were: Sydney; Berlin; Seoul; Paris; Frankfurt; Melbourne; New York City; Singapore; London; and Tokyo. The rankings were based on eight...
