Chapter 11, “Living Guilt-Free,” is taken from Psalm 130:

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
² O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
⁶ my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
⁸ And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

After reading Chapter 11, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. How do you distinguish the kind of real guilt this psalm is addressing from other kinds of feelings of guilt?
2. How do verses 1-2 describe this guilt?
3. Why is recognition of our guilt before God and true conviction of guilt good?
4. How does God’s forgiveness, described in verses 3-4, stand in contrast to the secular doctrine of forgiveness?
5. What results from God’s forgiveness, the fundamental foundational need of every human being?
6. Why does the psalm end in verses 5-8 with hope and waiting?
7. In verse 5 the psalmist hopes in God’s Word, a key principle of spiritual health. Do you have a similar hope?
8. Are you confident in God’s forgiveness and plentiful redemption, hopeful about the future with God and the new day to come?

To read more about Psalm 130, see my earlier blog post, “Expositing Psalms.”

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

Chapter 10, “Finding Freedom from the Past,” is taken from Psalm 129:

¹ “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”—
let Israel now say—
² “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
³ The plowers plowed upon my back;
they made long their furrows.”
⁴ The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.
⁵ May all who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned backward!
⁶ Let them be like the grass on the housetops,
which withers before it grows up,
⁷ with which the reaper does not fill his hand
nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
⁸ nor do those who pass by say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord!”

After reading Chapter 10, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. How do we deal with the raw emotions and statements expressed in this psalm without simplistically rationalizing them or avoiding the fact that they are written here?
2. Can you relate to the psalmist who has an affliction in his past from which he needs freedom?
3. How does the psalmist describe his affliction in verses 1-3?
4. What solution does the psalmist find in verse 4?
5. How can you actually escape from the prison of your past?
6. Why is a personal time of Bible reading and prayer essential in this process to find freedom and ultimately in our journey to joy?
7. What warning does this psalm give us through verses 5-8?
8. How is getting over your past really all about having the cross at the heart?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

Yesterday we focused on “Beating the Daily Grind” by adopting God’s perspective on work and family. Today in Chapter 9, “The Blessing of Family,” we’re looking more specifically at family through Psalm 128.

Psalm 128:

1 Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!
² You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
⁴ Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.

⁵ The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
⁶ May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

After reading Chapter 9, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. How do verses 1-4 define blessing and describe its rewards?
2. What does it mean to “fear the Lord”?
3. Do you believe the blessing of marriage and family that is described in verses 1-4 for those who fear the Lord?
4. What messages does our society give us that contradict the truth of this psalm, and what kind of consequences might these ideas bring?
5. Because this psalm is not a guarantee of easy family life, can you think of examples in your family where God has used a difficult experience to bring blessing?
6. Will you receive the blessing described in verses 1-4 through the prayer in verses 5 and 6?
7. Is the idea of your family as a “zone of sacredness” or a sanctuary new to you, and is it an encouragement?
8. As marriage reflects a larger reality of the whole Bible, what hope does believing and receiving the blessing in this psalm give us for today and future generations?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

Join us this Sunday, May 26, at 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 a.m. as we look at Matthew 7:12-14 in our “iTeach: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount” series with a message entitled “The Road Less Traveled.”

Have you ever felt that work or family sometimes can be frustrating or less than fulfilling, a daily grind?

Chapter 8, “Beating the Daily Grind,” is taken from Psalm 127, and shows us how life can be not “in vain”:

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
² It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

³ Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

After reading Chapter 8, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. Generally speaking, how can a change in perspective change you (for good or for harm)?
2. In verses 1 and 2, what does the conditional clause “unless…“ show us is necessary for life not to be lived “in vain”?
3. How could acknowledging that God is the primary cause for true accomplishment and that our human effort is secondary alter how we view everyday life?
4. Could the realization that you are loved by God shift your outlook from anxiety to confident trust?
5. Does the picture that this psalm gives us of how God views children change how you see them?
6. Why is it important to have correct theological assumptions?
7. How can adopting God’s perspective on work and family enable you to live beyond the daily grind?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

In the first six days of our “journey to joy” through the Psalms of Ascent, we’ve been through the dark side of the emotions, asking for help. Today, we are coming to the bright side of the emotions: laughter, joy, happiness, in God.

Is it a surprising thought to you that God and “laughter” or “joy” go together?

Chapter 7, “Laughter,” is taken from Psalm 126, which helps us discover the secret of joy:

¹ When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
² Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
³ The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.

⁴ Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
⁵ Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.

After reading Chapter 7, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. Contrast mistaken notions of joy with real joy.
2. What does this psalm tell us in verses 1-3 that being restored is like, and what results does it bring?
3. How do verses 4-6 provide a model prayer for this restoration, this dream, to come true?
4. What contrasts are pictured when the dream does come true?
5. If joy is about being restored, being brought back to what we were designed to be, how does this restoration begin and continue?
6. Do you know the real joy that is described in this psalm?
7. As you conclude this chapter and another step in your “journey to joy,” perhaps close with a prayer using this psalm as a guide, asking God to restore you to joy.

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

How do you find a sense of confidence in the face of real insecurity?

Chapter 6, “Security,” is taken from Psalm 125 and helps us discover the answer.

¹ Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
² As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore.
³ For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
on the land allotted to the righteous,
lest the righteous stretch out
their hands to do wrong.
⁴ Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts!
⁵ But those who turn aside to their crooked ways
the Lord will lead away with evildoers!
Peace be upon Israel!

After reading Chapter 6, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. What sources of insecurity are currently affecting you, both in your personal life and in the world at large?
2. How does the psalmist picture those who trust in the Lord?
3. What two reasons does this psalm give us to trust God?
4. Why is it hard for you to trust God?
5. When you are in the gap between letting go of something seemingly secure and being caught by the Catcher, how can you wait to be caught with confidence and find an otherwise insecure, terrifying place to be an exciting, even exhilarating, one?
6. How can this trust in God bring you to a place of security?
7. Does the promise that God will do right encourage you to trust Him?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

As we’ve walked through the first four days on this “journey to joy,” we started with a call for help (Psalm 120), took a step of looking up to God (Psalm 121), moved towards God’s people (Psalm 122), and asked God for mercy (Psalm 123).

Chapter 5, “Danger,” is taken from Psalm 124, which rejoices that help has been found:

¹ If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
² if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
³ then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
⁴ then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
⁵ then over us would have gone
the raging waters.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
⁷ We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

After reading Chapter 5, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. What would be found on the flight data recorder of your own life after going through a time of real danger?
2. What phrases does David use in this psalm to depict the forces of evil that oppose the work of God?
3. Likewise, what words of praise are given in this psalm for God’s rescue from danger?
4. How does this psalm contrast the Lord and man?
5. How can danger not lead to defeat or destruction?
6. Have you found this pattern to be true: that God crushes us to reveal to us who he is in our weakness?
7. What does danger become witness to when experienced with God?
8. How are the cross and resurrection connected to this witness?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

Can you recall an experience in your own life where you faced injustice?

Day 4 in our “journey to joy” brings us to Chapter 4, “Injustice,” which is taken from Psalm 123:

¹ To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
² Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he has mercy upon us.

³ Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
⁴ Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.

After reading Chapter 4, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. If you have faced injustice, has it developed in you empathy and compassion for those suffering from perhaps greater injustice or oppression?
2. In what ways does the psalmist model for us how we can be free from repression?
3. As in Psalm 121, we find the psalmist lifting up his eyes. How does lifting his eyes to heaven instead of focusing on the injustice help him?
4. How do the principles of submitting to God and praying for mercy challenge our human level responses to injustice?
5. Can you see how injustice in your life can be an opportunity for God to change you, allowing you “to be the change you wish to see in the world”?
6. Why do we need mercy, and why should we plead for it for others?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.

What thoughts or feelings come to your mind when you hear the word “church”?

The third chapter of Journey to Joy, “Church,” is taken from Psalm 122:

¹ I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
² Our feet have been standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem!

³ Jerusalem—built as a city
that is bound firmly together,
⁴ to which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
⁵ There thrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
⁷ Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
⁸ For my brothers and companions’ sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
⁹ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.

After reading Chapter 3, here are some questions for personal reflection. Feel free to post a comment for discussion.

1. Would you say you have a real love for the church, not a self-orientated kind of love, but a love meant for the benefit of the other, even at the loss of yourself?
2. Have you ever acknowledged that you have a deep need for community?
3. How are some Christians in danger of living disconnected from the church, or “decorpulated” from Christ’s body, as DeYoung and Kluck describe it?
4. How can you guard against individualism and cynicism about the church?
5. What is the future hope for the church?

For more resources related to Journey to Joy, visit www.thejourneytojoy.org.