• The seed that grew after thousands of years

    I recently came across something that was rather encouraging. If it was encouraging to me, I’m sure it will be encouraging to you as well. A seed was discovered in the ruins of King Herod’s palace at Masada in Israel. In 2008, researchers decided to plant the seed in some… Listen ⇢

  • The trustworthy voice of Jesus

    Donald McCullough recalls being in the city of Edinburgh a few weeks before beginning his doctoral studies. He was new to the city so didn’t know his way around very well. One evening he went to a concert at Usher Hall. After it finished he headed out into the night,… Listen ⇢

  • Being pursued by goodness and mercy

    “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” (Psalm 23:6, ESV) Max Lucado tells a story about a mother and her first grade son, Timmy. She became worried when Timmy wanted to walk to school by himself. The mother wasn’t sure it was a good… Listen ⇢

  • Powerful truths for perilous times

    Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist. He was also a Jewish man who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. In one of his books he comments on something remarkable: seeing grown adults walk into a gas chamber reciting the Shema. That’s the central creed of Judaism. It is found… Listen ⇢

  • THROUGH

    Life can be difficult. We know it’s true from our own experiences. Plus, the Bible tells us as much. But we are not without help or hope. Psalm 23 is very well known. It is read at funerals, underlined in Bibles, tattooed on bodies, and memorized. It speaks of God… Listen ⇢

  • The fruit-yielding tree God will use to bless others

    Psalm 1 describes a person who is seeking to be righteous. They delight in God’s teachings and meditate on them consistently (verse 2). Verse 3 describes something important about that person’s life: “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season…” They… Listen ⇢

  • Chewing the cud of God’s word

    In Psalm 1:2 we are told about a person who is blessed by God. This is a person “whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.” But what does it mean to “meditate”? This word can make us think of… Listen ⇢

  • Enter by the narrow gate

    We’ve been discussing the “way of the righteous” from Psalm 1. It stands in contrast to the “way of the wicked.” Hebrew scholar Robert Alter points out that taking a certain “way” (or “road” or “path”) is a metaphor for a “set of moral choices.”* When I first tried to… Listen ⇢

  • Doesn’t God expect us to be perfect?

    In the previous devotional I explained how pursuing “the way of the righteous” as articulated in Psalm 1 is about a direction, not perfection. Some of you will have wondered, but what about Matthew 5:48? “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Ah yes, that statement by Jesus… Listen ⇢

Meet the producer, Matthew Ruttan.

Matthew is a disciple, pastor, husband, and dad of three who lives in the psalms.

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