Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 28/7/2013 Psalm 139 was written by David, although he does not indicate when he composed it. Yet although we do not know when he wrote it, we can see from the contents how he wrote it. It is very clear that this psalm focuses on several of God’s attributes. So it is a worship song full of strong theology. Of course, there is more than one way of writing accurate theology. It can be put together in dry, tedious and complicated language, with the consequence that the God described is not attractive to the heart. In contrast, theology can be written in a warm, devotional and personal manner, with the outcome of loving and grateful adoration of the God of grace. The God who knows me (vv. 1-6) The theological term for God’s knowledge is his omniscience. To put it into one sentence, God knows all things actual and possible. He knows how many blades of grass there are as well as how many people there are. As far as each one of us is concerned...

This sermon was preached on 24/7/2013 This psalm is a song of worship by a psalmist who had almost died, perhaps because of an illness. He had prayed very earnestly about his situation and the gracious Lord had given him a complete recovery. Yet it looks that he had also thought about what would have happened if the Lord had responded differently and allowed him to die. Would that have been a disaster for him? The answer to this question is that it would not have been so. Instead, perhaps through a message conveyed to him from heaven, he realised that ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’ The first thing we can observe is the name that is given to them – they are ‘saints’. A saint is a saved sinner. At some stage in each of their lives they discovered his grace and embraced the mercy he offered to them. None of them had exactly the same experience as another believer had known. But they all realised that the Lord could and would save them f...

What does it mean to be a Christian? The answers to that question are many, depending on what aspects of the Christian life are being considered. So we need to define further the question. We can adjust it in this way: what does it mean to be a Christian in situations of difficulty? The Hebrews to which this letter was sent were in such circumstances, so we can apply our question in this way as far as they are concerned. Perhaps we can imagine applying the question to Christians today who are undergoing physical persecution. Yet we make a mistake if we only limit the application to such circumstances. We can apply the question to ourselves as we live in our post-Christian culture. What does it mean to live as a Christian in contemporary Scotland? I would suggest that the passage we are about to consider provides us with the necessary answers. As far as an outline is concerned, the author provides three responses. First, he refers to the devotional life of his...