O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!

God hates false accusations and those who make them. God loves the truth and desires us to be men and women of the truth. Peter urges us to “put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Pet 2:11). And the ninth commandment reads, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” God hates false accusations.

Among the psalms none are so deeply personal as the penitential psalms. These psalms are a group of seven psalms that articulate our deepest fears and anxieties as human beings. Because of this, they also equip us to respond in faith to times of distress and trouble and to overcome by the power of the Spirit.

Psalm 4 instructs Abishais of the evils of taking revenge and the virtue of trusting God. When you see men rising up against the Lord’s Christ, what should you do?

Each psalm has an historical setting in which it was originally written. That historical setting often helps us understand the way in which these psalms find their fulfillment in Christ’s life and ministry. One meaning does not exclude the other; they complement one another.

Psalm 2 has much to say of Christ–it is one of the psalms most quoted by New Testament writers. It speaks of where we must place our confidence and hints at the errant nature of revolutionary behavior.

In some ancient versions of the psalter, Psalm 1 didn’t receive a number. It was viewed as the introduction to the psalter, providing the setting for understanding the rest of the psalms.