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Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Let’s take just a moment to look beyond the controversy over when the Lord came and focus on why He came.  I think Isaiah gave us the best explanation the Bible offers. What follows is my adaptation of Isaiah 53.

I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another;

Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.  He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge,  who subdues peoples under me.

O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.  I pour out my complaint before him;  before him I tell my trouble.  When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.  In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. 

O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

A Bible Study by Jack  Kelley

In the past I’ve explained why I believe Jesus probably was born sometime in September. If that’s the case then what really happened in December?  Is Christmas just the result of overlaying Christian beliefs on a formerly pagan holiday as some believe,

Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; protect me from men of violence, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day.  They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely,

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

In the time after their sin and expulsion from the Garden Adam and Eve must have felt incredible despair. They had experienced life both before and after the curse, the only ones to do so, and had first-hand knowledge of the difference.

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing your praise. I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept  when we remembered Zion.  There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”  How can we sing the songs of the LORD  while in a foreign land?

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.

Praise the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD;  praise him, you servants of the LORD, you who minister in the house of the LORD,  in the courts of the house of our God.  Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. 

Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD. May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  It is like precious oil poured on the head,  running down on the beard,  running down on Aaron’s beard,  down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon  were falling on Mount Zion. 

O LORD, remember David  and all the hardships he endured.  He swore an oath to the LORD  and made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob: “I will not enter my house or go to my bed- I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids,

My heart is not proud, O LORD,  my eyes are not haughty;  I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have stilled and quieted my soul;  like a weaned child with its mother,  like a weaned child is my soul within me.  

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.