Laura Tasker’s Reviews > In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions Through the Psalms > Status Update

“As the book of Psalms (also called the "Psalter") nears its end, a resounding note of triumphant praise to God is swelling.
More and more, the final psalms lift our hearts to praise the Lord, adoring him and giving him thanks.
Psalm 148 is striking in that it calls the universe itself into this chorus of praise… Such creations honor their Creator by doing what he decreed them to do.” (Pages 405 & 406)

[W]e see the true substance of how God answers such prayers from those who know they are not righteous: he does so in Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who lived the life we should have lived and died the death we deserved to die, to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). In Christ, we are righteous with a status earned and given to us irrespective of what we bring to the table (2 Cor. 5:21). All we need to offer is our need.

With the Lord there is forgiveness v4. Unfailing love, "Plentiful redemption" v7. God proved this in Jesus and at the cross. If you are a believer, God's love has brought you to Jesus. You are safe. Your sins can darken your awareness of God's love, but they cannot darken the reality of that love. God does not redeem his people from some of their iniquities; rather, "he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities" v8.

“Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” 125:1

“The Bible is not mainly a book of advice, telling us what to do. It is mainly a book of redemption, telling us what God has done. The Bible is not commands with stories sprinkled in; it is a Story with commands sprinkled in. To be sure, we are called to the high summons of holiness and obedience, but even this is a grateful response from the heart to what God has done for us in his great grace.” (On Psalm 111.)

‘"The LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 100:5). Your pain never outpaces his love. Your difficulty is surrounded by the deeper reality of his goodness. He proved it by sending his own Son for you. Even in the pain of life, we lift our hearts and our voices to the Lord.’ (Page 277)

Are you in haste? That is not what Christ came to offer. Instead he came to offer eternal rest (Heb. 4:9), which we anticipate each and every Lord's Day as we rest from our worldly labors. Bring to Jesus your worries, your cares. Unload your burdens on him. Above all, give him your sins. He died and rose again to give us rest for our souls now and, one day, rest for both soul and body, perfectly, forever, unendingly.

“This is the note on which [Psalm 90] ends: "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!" (v. 17). For those who trust in God, he delights to dignify our brief lives with everlasting impact.
Love those whom you see today. Dignify them. Rejoice in them. You are planting seeds that will grow and blossom into eternity.” Page 255