Read Psalms 101:3  David said that he needed to be careful about what he saw.  David said in this verse that he would "set no wicked thing before his eyes."  When you see something wicked, you remember it, even though you don't want to.  Satan will come to you later and tempt you to remember what you saw.  And you will.  That is why you should be careful in the first place about what you choose to look at.  David goes on to say that he hates the wicked people.  He doesn't hate them, he hates their wicked ways.  And then finally, David says that their wicked ways will not cleave unto him.  That means that their wicked ways will not stick to him.  When someone throws a ball of mud at you, it splats and sticks to your clothes.  That is what David is talking about.  Just like you do not want mud to stick to you, David said that he did not want wickedness to stick to him.  Wickedness is just as bad as mud!

Read Psalm 100:1-5  There are so many good things in this psalm.  The psalms were written to be sung - they were actually songs that David and the others sang.  The first two verses talk about singing.  We are commanded in verse 1 to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.  We should be happy when we sing. Verse 2 says that we should come before God with gladness.  We should be glad because God takes care of us and protects us and loves us.  We don't have to take care of ourselves.  Verse 3 says that evolution is false - we did not make ourselves - God made us!  Since He made us, he owns us.  And since He made us, He is smarter than we are.  We are reminded in the last part of verse 4 to be thankful.  The reasons we are to be thankful are found in verse 5 and there are three.  Read verse 5 aloud once again and see if  you can find the three reasons that we should be thankful to God.

Read Psalms 96:6  These are powerful words in our verse today that describe God!  First of all, David said that honor and majesty describe God.  Honor means someone whom you respect or think greatly about them.  They are an important person who we should be respectful to.  Majesty refers to the glory and fanciness of a king.  God is the King of heaven.  He is called the King of kings.  The kings of this earth are kings of countries.  But God is the King over them all!  Then in the last part of our verse, David described God as having strength and beauty.  That is an interesting combination of words.  These two words are actually opposites.  If you have a pair of blue jeans, they are strong and sturdy.  But if you have a nice, pretty dress, it has a lot of lace on it.  It is beautiful.  But usually, you don't have the two together.  Either it is sturdy or it is beautiful.  But both strength and beauty refer to God.  He is glorious and majestic and also strong and powerful.  I am glad that I serve a powerful God who is also kind and gentle.

Read Psalms 96:2-5  In these verses David said that God is the only real God.  David said in verse 4 that God is to be feared above all of the other gods. But in verse 5 David said that all of the other gods of the other nations were just idols; they are not really other gods, they are just things that are made by someone out of wood or silver or gold, or stone.  Someone made the idol, but God made everything!  I would much rather obey a God Who made everything (including me) than a god that I made myself!  It is so silly to think that someone would make something out of stone, and then bow down to it.  But then people are silly.  I am glad that I can trust in the true God who made the heavens and the earth and me!

Read Psalms 90:12  Although this verse is not at the end of Chapter 90, it is the conclusion of all of the verses that we have read already.  Because God is eternal in verse 2, because God is outside of time in verse 3, because our lives are soon over in verse 10 - David asks God in verse 12 to teach us to number our days.  We need to realize that we only have just a few days to live.  We had better use our lives for God than to waste them on useless things.  And the reason that we should be careful and number our days is that so we will be able to live a wise life: so that we will live lives pleasing to God.  Do you want to obey your parents?  Do you want to obey God?  If you do, ask Him to teach you and to direct your life.  You will be happy if God is in charge of your life!  Did you like the picture of the old lady and young lady?

Read Psalms 90:10  David said that God would give us 70 years to live - may be even 80 if we take care of ourselves.  But even if we live to be an old, old person, death comes way too soon.  Sometimes we think that we have a long life to live and we can just take our time doing things for God.  We'll just do what we want to now and then do something for God later.  But it seems like so very soon, our life is suddenly over.  Our life goes by so quickly!  The last part of verse 9, which is just before our verse today, says that our life is just like "a tale that is told."  When we read a little story book before we go to bed, that is what our life is like!  No longer than it takes us to read a little story, our whole life is over!  The end of our verse says that our life is soon cut off and we fly away.  When we are cut off, where do we fly to?  If we are born into God's family, we will fly away to heaven to live with God forever and forever!  What a blessing!

Read Psalms 90:4  Yesterday we saw that God is eternal and outside of time.  That is very confusing to us.  We can't wait for tomorrow to come, but we have to.  But God doesn't have to wait - He is in tomorrow and yesterday and today - all at the same time!  Only He could do that because He is God!  Our verse today says that a thousand years is just like yesterday to God!  The verse goes on to say that for God, the thousand years are just like a watch in the night.  During King David's time, the soldiers would stand guard in the night.  They took two hours each, so there were 6 watches each night.  One soldier would stand guard for his two hours and then he would come and wake up the next soldier to stand his guard.  Then the first one could go to sleep safely, because his friend was standing guard over all of the soldiers.  The next morning, they would all wake up and march on to the next camp.  But when there weren't too many soldiers in a camp, they might have to stand guard a couple of times in the same night.  The first soldier would stand guard for his two hours and then would wake his friend up to take the next watch, and then he would go to sleep.  But after two hours, this second guard would wake up the first soldier and then he would get a couple of hours of sleep.  But when this first soldier would be awakened by his friend, it would seem like just a brief moment that he had been sleeping.  That is what the second half of our verse says about the thousand years to God.  The thousand years to God they were just like the brief nap that the first guard had before his friend woke him up.  To God a thousand years is a brief time, but to us it is a loooooong time!  Aren't you glad that God is eternal?  Isn't it great to be able to depend upon Him?

Read psalms 90:2  This is a wonderful verse for me.  When I was in college many years ago I had a good friend named David Rodman.  David ran cross-country with me and I hung around with him at his house.  But the best thing was that David was a good Christian friend.  David knew it was good to memorize Bible verses.  He encouraged me to begin a Bible memory program.  This verse was one of the verses that I memorized!  When I read this verse, I think of David and pray for him.  He is a missionary in the jungles of Venezuela.  I like the end of this verse because it tells us that God is in control of time.  We think of time in three ways: past, present and future.  We remember what happened in the past, we are doing things now in the present, and we look forward to what will happen in the future.  But God is outside of time.  God is ever present!  God is in the past right now, God is with us right now in the present, and God is in the future right now preparing things for us!  It is hard for us to think about, but God always is.  Isn't it wonderful to know that God is in charge of everything!  And He loves us!

Read Psalms 89:11  This verse says that God made the heavens and God made the earth.  Therefore, they belong to Him; they are His.  The last part of our verse says that God founded the heavens and the earth.  Did you know that underneath the ground of every house there is a lot of concrete?  This buried concrete is called the foundation.  Why would someone waste so much money by pouring all of that concrete underneath the dirt?  Well, your house is very heavy and one corner or another might break apart, so you need something underneath of everything to hold your house together - your house needs a foundation.  Our verse says that God founded the heavens and the earth.  This means that God Himself is the foundation of everything!  Just like the verse yesterday, we can always depend upon God's faithfulness.  The Lord is the foundation  - the strong part underneath of everything!  We can go to sleep tonight and not worry, because God is in control of everything!

Read Psalms 89:1  David said that he would sing unto the Lord for two reasons:  First David would sing to the Lord because of God's mercies.  Do you remember the difference between mercy and grace?  Grace is God giving us something good that we do not deserve, and mercy is God not giving something bad that we do deserve.  God's mercy would be Him not punishing us when we deserve to be punished.  Then secondly, David said he would sing unto the Lord because of God's faithfulness.  Sometimes we are not faithful, but God is always faithful.  Have you ever forgotten something important that your mother or father told you to do?  I have.  One time I was supposed to pick up grandma Poppie at the bus station, but I completely forgot.  She was standing there at the bus station waiting for me and I was hanging around at home.  When she called to see where I was, I was so embarrassed!  I got into my car and hurried right down to the bus station!  God never forgets us!  He is always there when we need Him.  That's because He is faithful.  We may forget, but God never forgets.  Isn't that wonderful!  I think I'll sing a song to God right now.  Can you think of a song that you could sing to God right now?  Why not just sing it!

Read Psalms 85:4-7  David was reminded that although God is good and loves us, God also hates sin.  God is pure and nothing evil is ever near Him.  David knew all about his sin and knew that God was against sin.  When David repented of his sin and was sorry, he asked God not to be angry with him anymore.  David asked God to revive him and forgive him and to show mercy and to give him salvation.  A few days ago, we talked about grace and mercy.  Do you remember?  You may remember that grace is God giving us something that we do not deserve.  God gives us salvation.  But here in verse 7, mercy is God not giving us the punishment that we rightfully do deserve.  God withholds punishment.  I agree with David.  I am glad that God gives us salvation and does not give us punishment!  Isn't God good!

Read Psalms 84:10,11  In these two verses David compares his days spent serving God to days that were used for himself.  Sometimes we think our best days are when we get to do what we want to.  But those days are not our best days, those are selfish days!  We should obey God's Word, the Bible and listen to what God says to do in His Bible.  Only those days serving and obeying God will we look back on and say that they were our best days!  David said that he would rather live 1 day in God's presence obeying God than 1,000 days living his own ways!  Wow!  That is a big difference!  David goes on to say that he would rather be a lowly doorkeeper in God's house than to enjoy living in pleasure in the tents of the wicked.  David said that doing evil was not near as good as serving God as His janitor!  Then David said that God will give grace and glory to us if we follow after the Lord.  If we obey God, He will not withhold anything good from us!  That sounds like a much better deal that Satan has to offer.  Our selfish way does not lead to lasting happiness.  The ways of the wicked only lead to guilty feelings and sorrow.  If we want to be happy, we must follow God's ways!

Read Psalms78:6  Our verse for today says that it is important that we teach our children about how God was good to us.  Our children need to know that God has been good to us and has blessed us because they don't know the blessings that we have had.  We have to tell our children about the blessings.  Before I was born, there was a preacher in West Virginia by the name of  Brother Garten.  He was the preacher at Shady Springs Community Church.  Someone gave him a subscription to a Christian magazine, the Sword of the Lord.  He read the magazine and became excited about God's Word and began serious preaching at his little country church.  My father and mother attended that little church and got saved only months before I was born in 1949.  Because of their decision to follow God, when I was born, they took me to church and I grew up learning about God.  So, I was saved when I was only 6 years old because I was taken to church every Sunday.  When each of my children were born, my wife and I took them to church where they learned about God and where they were saved at an early age.  That is called a Godly heritage.  We are not saved because our parents are saved; we are saved because we go to church and learn about God and decide for ourselves that we are sinners and need to be saved.  What a wonderful heritage to pass on to our children and grandchildren!

Read Psalms 77:11&12  Sometimes when we are having a bad day or when we are in trouble, it is easy to forget that God will take care of us.  When our troubles are right there in front of us, we forget how God has taken care of us before.   That is why David reminds himself in these verses to remember the works of the Lord.  David knew that we need to remember that God has taken care of us in the past, and He will take care of us in this trouble as well.  That is why we can trust in God.  That is why we must remember.  If God has taken care of us in the past, and if we remember that He has, we will not worry when trouble comes again.  God will take care of us again, just like He has done many times before.  Then in verse 12 David reminds himself to meditate on the works of God.  Meditate means to think about it.  Meditate means to keep on thinking about the wonderful things that God has done for us.  It's like this: If God has taken care of us in the past - and He has, and God loves us so much - and He does, then He will take care of the trouble that we are in today - and He will!  Our job is to remember God's care and goodness!

Read Psalms 73:2,3,17,18,26  Wow!  We have a bunch of verses we have to read today!  Psalm 73 tells a story.  When you have a story, you can't leave much of it out and still have the story to make sense.  That is true of our story in Psalm 73.  In verses 2 and 3 David said that he was discouraged.  Have you ever had a bad day when everything seemed to go wrong?  Verse 2 even says that David was so discouraged that he was almost ready to give up.  He said that his "feet were almost gone and his steps had almost slipped."  Have you ever been in a slippery place?  May be in some ice or mud?  It makes you nervous, doesn't it?  David said that he was discouraged because it seemed to him that the wicked people were getting away with their evil ways and that he was serving God for nothing.  It didn't seem fair to David.  But in verse 17, when David went into the house of God, God explained to him why the wicked seemed to be getting away with their wickedness.  When The Wicked person dies, they face eternity and hell.  But when the Righteous person dies, they go to heaven.  Then that is fair.  The wicked person might as well enjoy life now because they will certainly not be happy when they die.  When the Righteous person lives according to God's Word and God's ways, he has to obey God now, but when he dies, he will be happy for all eternity!  David finally said in verse 26 that although his heart failed, although he was discouraged, God was his strength.  We can trust in God and know that He will lead us through life and safely into heaven!  I am glad that I have chosen God's way, aren't you?

Read Psalms 67:19  In our verse today, David says "Blessed be the Lord."  That means that David is thanking the Lord for who He is and what He does.  God is good to us every day.  Even when we have trouble, God is still there using our trouble to help us to learn a lesson and to become better people.  David says that God is blessed because of all the things that He does for us every day.  These things are the benefits from God.   David goes on to say that the Lord not only gives us benefits, but he says that the Lord loads us up with benefits.  God gives us plenty and plenty of good things.  But David says that the greatest benefit that God gives to us is our salvation.  Truly, that is God's greatest gift of all: our eternal life that He gives to us.  Our verse ends with the musical word, Selah.  In Hebrew selah means "think about it."  We have learned three wonderful things from this one little verse.  Now think about that!  Or, selah!

Read Psalms 68:11  David said in this verse that it was God who gave us the word, the Bible.  But it was people who published it.  Publish means to print the Bible on paper and then to collect the pages together in order, and staple them together with a cover.  Many years ago, I copied the books of John and Romans in Romanian and printed them to take to Romania so that people could have their own copy of God's Word.  I published the Word.  It was exciting to print God's Word!

Read Psalms 66:18-20  Verse 18 is a conditional verse.  That means that if we do something, then God will do something.  It also means that if we do not do something, then God will not do something.  We would like to know that God will hear our prayer.  But verse 18 says if we are disobedient and have sin in our lives, then God will not listen to our prayers.  This does not mean that God cannot hear our prayers; it just means that God will not listen to our prayers because we are not listening to God.  But then verse 19 says that God will hear our prayer because we obey Him.  Finally in verse 20, David blesses the Lord for listening to and answering his prayer.  We should obey God because we love Him.  But we should also obey God because if we don't, when we need Him to hear our prayer, He will not listen to us.  It is much better to obey God and to know that He is listening to us.  Isn't it good to know that God loves us?  We need Him to hear our prayers.

Read Psalms 66:5-7  In our verses for today David is reviewing the mighty things that God did for the children of Israel.  God led them out of Egypt in a wonderful way.  But as they were leaving, Pharaoh changed his mind and went out to recapture them with his army.  Moses trusted in God, but the people he was leading were fearful.  They came to the Red sea, but they had no way to get over to the other side.  Then they saw a cloud of dust behind them that was being stirred up by the Egyptian army chasing after them.  They were stuck in a hard place:  drowning in the sea ahead of them or death from the Egyptian army behind them.  But David reminded his people how that God had piled up the waters of the Red sea on one side and on the other and then dried up the mud so that all of the people could walk across!  What a wonderful miracle!  Then David said in verse 7 that God rules over the nations.  God is watching the nations all the time.  The nations had better not be rebellious toward God, because He sees all and knows everything.  Did you know that God sees you every day and every where?  If we obey God, we are happy that He is watching.  If we disobey God, we should repent and ask His forgiveness.  I am glad that I am on God's side and that I am not one of God's enemies!  Are you on God's side?

Read Psalms 63:1  Have you ever been outside in the summer time when it was hot?  May be you were busy playing  and didn't notice, but suddenly you realized that you were so thirsty.  Or may be you were playing baseball and you were out in the field and couldn't get a drink until the inning was over.  Or you were in church or in Sunday school and couldn't get up and get a drink.  Didn't it seem like your tongue was sticking to your mouth because you were so thirsty?  Here in our verse, David says that he longed for the Lord just like he longed for a cool drink in a dry and thirsty land.  I can imagine that David got into some dry places when he was a soldier fighting the Philistines.  A soldier can't just stop and get a drink whenever he wants to.  He has to keep fighting!  Here in our verse David says that his soul really wanted to pray to God and to read His Word, the Bible.  I want to learn more and more about God.  I hope you do too!

Read Psalms 55:22  Have you ever carried something very heavy?  Have you carried it for a long distance?  It gets heavy doesn't it?  It makes you feel tired and weak, doesn't it?  When we have a problem in our life,  we can get tired of carrying it all by our self.  Our verse today says that we can cast our burden upon the Lord.  He will hold us up and lighten our load.  Our verse goes on to say that God will never let us be pushed down by our burdens.  Do you have a problem?  Pray to the Lord about it.  Do you have something that is bothering you?  Talk to God about it.  Are you afraid of something?  Do you need something?  God will lighten that load - He will carry your heavy load!  Isn't it good to know that God knows all about our secrets and cares about how we feel?   The Lord will help you!  Don't be afraid!

Read Psalms 53:1  This is an interesting verse, but a hard verse.  Name calling is not good.  We should not call people names like stupid or dumb.  But one of the worst names to call someone is to call them a fool.  A fool is not just someone who is not very smart, a fool is someone who will not listen to someone else.  A fool is someone who thinks that they know everything.  But we should listen to other people and learn from them.  God gave us two ears and only one mouth.  Do you know why?  Because we should listen twice as much as we talk!  You never learn anything by talking; you only learn by listening.  Think about that!  But the most foolish thing is to say that there is no God.  Just because we can't see God does not mean that he is not there.  God is a Spirit and we cannot see Him; but He is still very real.  Only a fool says that there is no God.  I don't want to be a fool; do you?  I believe in God; do you?

Read Psalms 51:12  Yesterday we talked about being in trouble.  When we do something wrong we usually get into trouble for it.  But sometimes we do something wrong and we get away with it.  But, we get away with it just for a little while.  If your mother tells you to clean your room and you just hide all of your clothes that are on the floor in the closet, your room looks clean.  But when she opens the closet door... well you are in trouble.  When we disobey, we usually get caught.  But when we disobey God, He sees and knows everything!  We never get away from God.  When we are in trouble we feel bad.  We feel like we are not loved.  But this bad feeling is because of us.  We feel guilty.  God loves us and wants us to obey Him and love Him right back.  When we sin, we do not feel loved, even though God still loves us.  David asked God to give him back his joy.  When we disobey, we do not feel loved even though we are.  After we admit that we are wrong and ask forgiveness, then we can have our joy  back and then we can get a big hug from our mother - and from God!

Read Psalms 51:10  This is a good verse to remember when we have been in trouble.  I get into trouble a lot of the time.  Do you?  Sometimes my trouble is not my fault; but usually it is.  When I was a boy, I used to get into trouble.  My cousin would dare me to do things and I would do them.  But soon, one of the other kids would tell my father what I was doing.  Then I was in trouble!  In our verse, David was in trouble.  He knew he needed 2 things from God:  he needed God to clean his heart and he needed God to give him the right spirit about his trouble.  It is important that we have the right attitude about our trouble.  It is easy for us to blame someone else for our trouble.  But we are the one to blame.  Our trouble is our own fault!  That is the right spirit - don't blame someone else.  But most important of all, we must admit our sins before God and ask His forgiveness.  Then God can give us a clean heart and get us back in to fellowship with Him.  After we admit that we have done wrong, isn't it good to feel forgiven?  Isn't it good to be back where we belong?

Read Psalms 51:7  David felt really bad about his sin.  Sometimes we feel bad about our sin only because we were caught.  David was caught in his sin and Nathan the prophet told him so.  But David was truly sorry for his sin.  In the Old Testament, the Jews had to offer a lamb as the sacrifice for their sins.  The person would bring the lamb to the Temple to the priest.  The person would then lay his hands upon the head of the lamb and then the priest would kill the lamb.  That is a picture of our sins because the lamb did nothing wrong to deserve to die; the lamb died as a sacrifice for the person's sins.  Then the priest would take some of the lamb's blood in a bowl and dip a small branch from the hyssop bush into the blood and sprinkle the blood before the Lord.  That's why in our verse David asked the Lord to purge him with hyssop.  And then David said that when the Lord cleaned away his sin, he would be as clean as snow.  Isn't it great to know that you are forgiven of your sins.  When you are forgiven, you feel clean inside.  That is because God has cleaned your sins away and you are back to getting along with God as your best friend.  Tonight, let's pray and thank the Lord for cleaning our heart and for taking away our sins!

Read Psalms 51:2&3  We found out yesterday that David had sinned and that God had told Nathan the prophet to go to him and let to him know that he was not going to get away with his sin.  When someone, like Nathan the prophet, comes to us and shows us that we have done wrong, we have 2 choices:  We can lie about our sin and try to get out of it, or we can admit that we have sinned and ask forgiveness for our wrong.  If we try to get out of our sin, we are just going to get into more trouble.  If we lie about our sin, we still have our sin and the lie we told to try to cover up for our sin.  It is never a good idea to lie about our sin.  It is much better to admit that we are wrong and to ask forgiveness.  When we admit our sin, it is as if God is washing us in His bathtub.  David said that his sin was open and before him all the time.  He couldn't stop thinking about it.  But verse 2 says that David wanted God to wash him and to clean him up from his dirty sins.  Isn't it good to feel God's washing forgiveness when we admit our sin?

Read psalms 51:1  King David sinned against God.  So God sent Nathan, the prophet to tell David that he was guilty.  David had two choices:  He was the king and could have done anything that he wanted to do.  He could have gotten mad and had Nathan thrown out of his palace.  But David did the right thing,  He was sorry for his sin and repented before God.  This entire psalm is about David's sorrow and repentance.  There are two words that are similar, but very different, and both describe God's goodness  and forgiveness.  They are grace and mercy.  David asks for God to have mercy on him here in our verse.  Mercy and grace are like the two sides a coin: they are different sides, but still the same coin.  Grace means that God gives us something good that we don't deserve.  God gives us forgiveness and a home in heaven when we die.  Mercy means that God gives us forgiveness and does not give us punishment in hell that we really do deserve.  God's grace gives us His goodness that we don't deserve and God's mercy gives us forgiveness that we don't deserve.  Either way, God is good.  When you get into trouble and deserve a spanking, do you need mercy or grace?  When your mother takes you to get a cookies-and-cream blast at Sonic are you getting mercy or grace?  I am glad for both God's mercy and grace!

Read Psalms 48:1&2  When David became the king, he chose Jerusalem as his capital.  The capital is the place where the government of the country is.  In the very center of Jerusalem is a small hill known as Mt. Zion.  Mt. Zion is where David's son, Solomon built the first Temple.  It was destroyed and rebuilt 2 times.  Herod's Temple was built of pure white marble stone and was the Temple that was in Jerusalem when Jesus lived here on earth.  Herod's Temple was destroyed just a few years after Jesus' death.  Later, an Arab mosque, one of their churches, was built on Mt. Zion where the Temple used to be.  One of the Temple walls is still there in Jerusalem, and the Jews still go there to pray.  Jesus will come back to earth one day and set foot on Mt. Zion!  Our verses say that God is great and that He should be praised!  God is great and the city of His Temple is a great city too!