Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Psalm 155: from Beyond Psalm 150 As God’s people travel through the desert and prepare to take the promised land, they come to the border of the Amorites. They ask King Sihon for permission to travel through the country, promising to stay on the main thoroughfare and not take any of the Amorites’ food or […]
The phrase son of man occurs in 178 verses in the Bible. Sometimes son is written with an uppercase S and other times with a lowercase s. When used with an uppercase S, the references are to Jesus, as seen in all four gospels (28 times in Matthew; 13 times in Mark; 25 times in […]
Psalm 154 from Beyond Psalm 150 As the people of Israel travel about in the desert, water is scarce. They reach the city of Beer. God instructs Moses to gather the people, and he will provide water to quench their thirst. The people respond collectively, praising God in song. Though this seems like a poem […]
Psalm 153 from Beyond Psalm 150 The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117. It weighs in at a mere two verses, serving as a reminder that our efforts to praise God need not be long or wordy. Sometimes succinct is better. Miriam’s song of praise to God, only one verse long, is a […]
Do God’s Instructions to the King of Judah Apply to Us Today? It’s dark times indeed for God’s people. The prophet Jeremiah is his mouthpiece to speak truth. God sends Jeremiah to the king of Judah with a message. This message begins with some commands and ends with a promise for obeying and a threat […]
The Bible Addresses Complacency Complacency. The word complacent means to be “pleased or satisfied” or especially, to be “extremely self-satisfied.” This seems to describe many people that I know. They are complacent, perhaps not materially, but certainly spiritually. They are content to sit back, with no concern for their non-material well-being and little remorse for […]
While I can’t definitively answer this question about prostitutes, the Bible does give a clear indication—and the answer may surprise you. Through the prophet Hosea, God says: “I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution…because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—a people without understanding will come to […]
Isaiah Talks about Peace More Than Any Other Book in the Bible Isaiah talks a lot about peace, mentioning it more than any other book in Scripture. One-tenth of the Bible’s references to peace occur in this one book. That’s a lot of peace in one place. And God is the source of this peace, […]
God Wants Us to Celebrate Him and What He’s Done for Us As Isaiah moves forward in his sweeping prophecy, he devotes a section to the city of Tyre. Tyre is a city of prominence, a center of trade and commerce. God doesn’t like their self-sufficiency and that they take pride in what they have […]
God Uses His People to Heal the Hurting Elisha dies, but his influence lives on. Yes, Elisha continues to teach us today, thousands of years after his death, through the words recorded about him in the Bible. However, he also has a practical effect on someone postmortem. It’s one example of God’s amazing healing power […]