Psalms Journal

Vitoria Camargo Monteiro

19/03/19
Psalm 1-10
“There are many who say, "Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O
Lord!" You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In
peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
Psalms 4:6-8 ESV

The passage talks about Joy. It makes a parallel between the joy found in the world, and the one
found in God. The joy found in the world is the one which fulfills our pleasures: “when the grain
and the wine abound”. But the Joy that comes from God is not found in our fulfilled pleasures, but
the opposite, is found in the sacrifice of those to be in the presence of God, which brings the highest
joy that you can experience.

19/03/19
Psalm 11-20
“I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord
always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad,
and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to
Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence
there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalms 16:7-11 ESV

In these verses it talks about how it looks like to be in God’s presence. David is saying that because
of his obedience he can experience God’s presence. And because of that God gives him instruction
to life. Because he’s always seeking to God, God is always with Him, so despite whatever happen
David is not shaken.God show the best from life to him, guiding David, and filling him with joy and
pleasures forevermore. In the same way as David is with us, the more we seek God, and His
presence the more we’ll experience His blessings (joy and pleasures).
20/03/19
Psalm 21-30
“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean
hands and pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessings from the Lord and righteousness from God of his salvation.”
Psalm 24.3-5 ESV

Not for the first time, David talks about of the blessings that the presence of God can provide. But
now, for the second time (15.1-5) he ask the question of who can come to the presence of God. In
general, experiencing the presence of God is always a result of faithfulness and obedience to God.
Now he answers this question by mentioning specifically the clean hand and pure heart, which
means who do good things, as an act of obedience, but not only that, someone who’s moved by a
good heart. Something that all christians struggle with is their motivation to good works, so thats
the heart that God expect from us, a heart that it’s intention is only the love for God.

20/03/19
Psalm 31-40
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the
Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him,
and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his
way, over the man who carries our the evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.”
Psalm 37.3-8 ESV

Usually when we talk about doing God’s will, we think about giving up of ours. And sometimes
that’s true, BUT, The wrong idea that we have is that God doesn’t want us to do our own will. God
is interesting in your desires and dreams, he care for the details, He was the one who made you that
way! So by seeking for God’s presence He’ll builds up in a sense that our heart will desire for His
things, and Him alone. So by having this pure heart, God have the pleasure of giving you “the
desires of your heart”. Trusting God is so much better, cause He’ll guide us and put our heart in the
right place, but when we trust ourselves we get worried, fret ourselves, and as he says, that tends
only to evil.

20/03/19
Psalm 41-50
Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he
will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts
himself blesses - and though you get praise when you well for yourself - his soul will go to the
generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. Man in his pomp yet without
understanding is like the beasts that perish.
Psalm 49.16-20 ESV

While living with God, you may look to unfaithful people prospering and ask yourself if is really
worthy to fallow God, once that people that don’t are “better" than you. The thing that we need to
analyze is the definition of better! Being richer, having more houses and things like that, that are
temporary, is not being better! God promises, a lot of times, blessings for the people that walks with
Him. That doesn’t mean that the more you seek God the more rich you’ll be. These blessings that
God promises to us are about eternal things, even if that means changing your life here somehow.

21/03/19
Psalm 51-60
(55.12-17)
In these verses, David brings to God that he is hurt. That happens a lot in the book of Psalms, but
usually David ask for protection and refuge from his enemies. This time, David is betrayed by his
friend. I see in my life that, because I’m surrounded by Godly people, and friends that brings me
closer to God, is very easy to me to “lean"on them, and make them my refuge, or my safety place…
But what God expect from us is to rely only on Him, and not in anything else. In times of
loneliness, David doesn’t seek for people or anything else but God, which give us an great example
of someone who trust and rely on Him.

21/03/19
Psalm 61-70
(67.1-5)
In verses 1, he asks for God’s blessings. This is something that all Christians wants (I assume). But
why? Usually, when we seek and ask for God’s blessings for our lives, is for our own gain, is to
experience from God the best from life. You’re not wrong if you thing that God’s presence and His
blessings are the bests things in life, but life is not about us, and our purpose while seeking God,
should be love for God, and love for people. The fallowing verses surprises me lot in the sense, that
it shows the purpose of the psalmist when he asks for God’s blessings: “that your way may be
known on earth, your saving power among all nation… let all the people praise you! Let the nations
be glad and sing for joy…”. May us have the right heart, a selfless heart while seeking God.

21/03/19
Psalm 71-80
(73.17-22)
In this chapter, Asafe is talking with God about the prosperity of the pervert. The ones who are not
faithful to God, but still live a good life, have more than enough to eat and dress. The fact make him
question himself about if is worthy to fallow faithfully to God, once that people that don’t are as
blessed as him or even more. The fact is that, in these verses, he narrates when he comes to the
sanctuary of God, when he comes to God's presence. And it is like if he wakes up, he can finally
see. He experiences the blessing of the presence of God, and the joy and pleasure that it haves! So
all the “hard work” to keep faithfully to God is worthy, and all the riches of the men are no longer
blessings, cause they take you nowhere and they and up here.

25/03/19
Psalm 81-90
84.1-4
In these verses the psalmist narrates how much pleasure and the feeling that you have for being in
God’s presence. He compares a sparrow finding a home and swallow a nest for herself, with him
finding God’s altars. Oh how happy, how blessed are the one in God's altars! He continues to talk
around the verses 10-12, about how valuable is to be in His presence. In all of those verses I can
only thing about how God’s presence is right place for all of us, the place of joy, peace and rest,
where we find our advice, our help and refuge, the place we feel complete, safe and with a purpose.

91-100
95.8-11
It’s all about the heart. Speaking about being in God’s presence, or experiencing His blessings and
fellowship a lot of Christians start to set standards about how to behave, how to dress, how to talk,
how to act in general. The truth is for sure that there are some behaviors that God expect from us,
but all of them come from the pure heart that He talks about in Psalm 24.3-5. God is interested in
our heart, he want us to fear Him, by getting to know Him, and being transformed by His word. The
book of Psalms talks a lot of times about the truthful heart that loves God, and how our heart is all
that He wants from us, once that the rest comes from it.

101-110
8.8-10
While reading this, I had to stop to thank God. God is merciful, and the fact that he’s full of mercy
and all of His attributes, make Him love us with His love, and treat us based on who He’s and not in
what we do, our what we are. And thanks God for that!! We don’t deserve to live, to breathe, to do
nothing that we do, but we do because of His mercy. Not just that, but after receiving His mercy, we
sin against God to show our thankfulness. But He remain faithful, and loving, and merciful and all
that He is and bless us with His presence and blessings which we (again) don’t deserve!

111-120
119.9-11
How can I keep pure my way? How can I be build based in your will? How can I come to Your
presence? How can I know who am I based in the righteousness that you covered me? How can I
behave in a way that I will please You? How can I make choices that please You and are according
to your will? How can I not sin against you? And so many other daily questions that we have in our
lives, can be answered with this simple and quick phrase: by guarding it according to your word!
Being transformed and taught by God is the key to get closer to Him, to know Him better, to Know
yourself better, to know how to behave as a godly christian, to know what choices to make, in
general how to be wiser! How to act according to God is build by knowing Him!

121-130
126.2-6
The chapter 126 from the book of Psalms, is a chapter of thanks giving to God. Looking back and
giving thanks to God about what He did is refreshment for the ones who fight for Him! God is
good! Look back! Look how much he changed you, how much he blessed you with: your friends,
your family, all that He provide for you… Look for all that He did through you and in the people
around you! God is good, look around you and say: The Lord has done great things for us; we are
glad! Find your joy not in the circumstances but in God who is good in present all the time!

131-140
139.13-16
God know us so well, so much better than ourselves! The chapter 139 David make it clear how
much God knows us! He knows when we sit down and when I rise up , He knows everything about
us. That is so good, cause by knowing Him, He shows us about ourselves and about how can we
please Him with all the amazing things that He made us with. He shows us our straights and our
weakness! Is not possible for us to see every failure in ourselves, so Thanks God You knows us
better than we do, even before we were born, so You can build us and lead us in the way
everlasting!

141-150
150
After all of these days reading, this book could not end better! Hallelujah for all the He is! Come,
praise God, for He’s good! Come to His presence, seek for holiness, bring no animal, but bring your
sincere heart! Bring it before God all your struggles, your doubts, all of you cause you’re coming
before excellent greatness! I can only say: Wow! What a amazing God! Let everything that has
breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!