Cities Church

Because Jesus has already come in the flesh to save us and is coming again to bring us into his finished heavenly city, the Christian life is fundamentally future-oriented; our best days are always ahead, not behind, no matter how hard the present year has been.

Psalm 37 distinguishes the righteous (those who take refuge in Yahweh) from the wicked (those who live as if God is not real), and offers three practical lessons for the righteous: time is on our side, stand for what you stand on, and don't just make it; God wants to move his people from merely surviving to overflowing generosity and blessing.

Psalm 35 is finally about Jesus, the true and final faithful servant who was unjustly hated and yet vindicated in his resurrection, and because God vindicated Jesus, believers who are united to him by faith can endure unjust suffering knowing God will rescue his own too.

Psalm 33 calls God's people to worship him through singing and music, and then lays out the reasons why he is worthy of such praise: his faithfulness and reliability, his creative power, his sovereign control over all things, and his overflowing steadfast love shown ultimately at the cross.

True blessedness belongs not to the righteous but to sinners who confess their sin to God rather than hiding it, because God forgives the ungodly through Christ's righteousness rather than requiring works.

Psalm 30 traces David's arc from prosperity to the pit to praise, teaching that earthly prosperity is both a gift and a test, that suffering is purposeful, and that in Christ joy is guaranteed to have the final word over sorrow.

Psalm 29 summons all creation; even the angels; to ascribe glory to Yahweh because his voice/word thunders with sovereign power over creation, and this call to praise and promised blessing of strength and peace find their fulfillment in Jesus, the incarnate Word of God.

When our hearts feel dried up and God seems silent, David shows us to respond by remembering God's past faithfulness as sustainer, praying, and posturing ourselves in faith to receive; and this preservation is ultimately secured by Jesus the shepherd-king who will never drag his sheep off with the wicked.

David's cry for vindication in Psalm 26 is not rooted in sinless self-righteousness but in unwavering trust in God's covenant faithfulness, and for the Christian that hope of ultimate vindication is secured even more fully through Christ's resurrection and coming justice.

In Psalm 25 David shows that God's relation to sinners is complex: he exposes and shames the unrepentant and wantonly treacherous, but instructs, pardons, and befriends humble, God-fearing sinners who wait on him; and in Christ, who bore our shame on the cross, we who trust him will never be put to shame.

Psalm 24 reveals that the righteous King of glory who ascends God's holy hill is Jesus the Messiah, and because believers are united to him, they share in his ascension, glory, and inheritance, calling them to live morally, generously, and joyfully as citizens of heaven.

Psalm 23 is not primarily about David or the believer's own journey but is the voice of the Messiah, tracing the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus; and because Jesus has walked the pasture-valley-temple path before us, we can face our own death without fear.

Psalm 22 is both a very human prayer of lament and a messianic prophecy fulfilled in Jesus' crucifixion, and Jesus can help us in our own experience of divine absence because he himself walked through it and knows what it is to suffer forsakenness.

Psalm 21 is not about David but about the Messiah, and it reveals three dimensions of Jesus's glory: Yahweh enthrones him as universal, eternal king, makes him the happiest person ever through joy in the Father's presence, and gives him power to subdue all his enemies including death.

Psalm 20, a battle prayer for the king, traces a single pattern of trust from David to Daniel in exile to Jesus in Gethsemane to the church today: God's people do not trust in chariots and horses (their own means) but in the name of the Lord, especially in a day of trouble like the 2020 pandemic.

Psalm 18's pattern of David's rescue and triumph is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, whose resurrection and exaltation mean he presently reigns over the nations, and every act of a Christian's faith and obedience right now happens only because Jesus reigns.

Psalm 15's eleven qualifications for dwelling in God's presence reveal a standard of integrity none of us fully meets, but Jesus alone embodies this blamelessness perfectly, and because he has entered God's presence as our forerunner, our failures no longer bar us from abiding there too.

Psalm 14 exposes the fool who lives as though God will not hold him accountable, but contrasts him with God's people who seek him, call on him, and shelter in him; giving certain hope and present joy even amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis.

Psalm 13 shows the movement of honest prayer from confession of felt divine absence, to supplication for God to intervene, to adoration rooted in God's steadfast love; a pattern especially relevant amid the COVID-19 pandemic, since no matter how dark things feel, God has ultimately dealt bountifully with his people in Jesus.