Passage, Paragraph, and Prayer

Verse 81 begins the eleventh stanza of Psalm 119, a stanza that has a fairly well-defined theme of being worn out, tired, and on the brink of ruin as we wait for God to keep his word to us and to bring the wicked to justice.Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Just like with Eve and her firstborn, Cain, Lamech may have thought that his son Noah was the promised Messiah, and named him accordingly. Even though he was not, God does still continue to bring Christians comfort through Noah’s life and ministry.Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Lei

In the closing verse of the tenth stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist reminds us of the kind of blamelessness God is looking for—a blamelessness that should always prevent us from claiming we have the innate ability to keep God’s commandments.Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

There isn’t a lot we can say about the meanings of the names in Genesis 5, because we don’t even know for sure if they are Hebrew names (was Hebrew around before the Tower of Babel?), and even if they are, we aren’t entirely sure what most of them mean. But we can note what appear to be some general trends, and some interesting details about Enoch’s and Methuselah’s names

”You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” Randy Newman sang for the "Toy Story" movies. In Psalm 119:79, the psalmist leads us to pray that our fellow believers would see us as a friend they can turn to in need.Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

In Genesis 5, the refrain “and he died” repeatedly rings out like a funeral toll. We do well to figuratively walk past the graves of these deceased men, to ponder the consequences of sin, and to consider our own impending death. Are we ready for death?Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 7

In this devotion we cover the three predominant worldviews (guilt-innocence, fear-power, honor-shame), so that we can answer the question: What is the psalmist leading us to pray for when he says, “Let insolent people ashamed”?Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

When people read in the Bible about early men routinely living over 900 years, they often can’t help but wonder if a different time scale isn’t being used. Pastor Biebert discusses this question in this devotion, but also reminds us that a 900-plus-year life is still a limited life.Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jes

In this devotion, we review the way this psalm uses various synonyms for God’s word. We then apply that to a verse might initially seem to be saying that God gives us compassion and life in exchange for our obedience to his law.Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Many Christians will say that all humans are still made in the image of God. While that is true in a limited sense, such people have not sufficiently grappled with what Moses writes in Genesis 5:1–5.Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).