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!