Dr Paul Allen

The Book of Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible. It contains prayers written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which means that the Psalms teach us how to pray in accordance with God’s Word. Therefore, one of the ways that we can grow stronger in prayer is to pray the Psalms as our own personal prayers. The Psalms make clear that the life of the true believer is inevitably full of conflict, adversity, trouble, danger, and sorrow. The Psalms show us that, for the true believer, life is difficult, indeed, life is a fight. There are external enemies in this fallen world who hate God and His people; our own sinful natures that still reside in us, inclining us to disbelieve and disobey God’s Word; and Satan and his demonic minions who tempt us to sin, pester us with worldly distractions, accuse our consciences, and mock us for our feeble faith. Read the Psalms, and you will see that not all of them are beautiful words of comfort such as Psalm 23 or songs of praise such as ...

Psalm 77: When we are hit with suffering of all kinds, we find ourselves desperate for comfort. And we won’t find it in shallow platitudes or empty promises. God offers comfort in many ways, but one of the primary ways is through his word. The more we know God’s word, the more we know him. And the more we know him, the more we find him to be everything he promises. He is a father to the forsaken and forgotten. He is a refuge for those in distress. He is a healer of the brokenhearted and a defender of the oppressed. And he is the one who turns our mourning into joy. Throughout Scripture, we see stories of God’s sovereign hands at work. Sure and steady, he directs human history to fulfil his redemptive plan. When Joseph is sold into slavery, and Esther is taken to a king’s harem, God’s unseen hand is orchestrating it all. When it seems like evil wins, his justice reigns. When all seems hopeless, his promises prove true. He is a good and trustworthy God. When we saturate ourselves in Scri...

Davy Ellis Anonymity is one of my fears in ministry, and I suspect my fellow pastors share my worry. We marvel at men like Luther, Owen, Spurgeon, and Packer. We spend seminary reading D. A. Carson, Thomas Schreiner, Alec Motyer, and T. Desmond Alexander. These giants have written numerous books, preached to thousands, or changed the course of the gospel cause in their time. Then we look at ourselves. We pastor churches of maybe 100. Anything we write will likely be read only by our mothers and spouses. A hundred years from now, we may be forgotten. In a thousand years, we will be forgotten. We feel anonymous. If we dwell on that thought for too long, we soon wonder what the point is. First Chronicles 1–9 can help. Desert of Names Preachers and laypeople alike often overlook the books of Chronicles. One reason is the long list of hard-to-pronounce, largely unknown names in the first nine chapters. There are about 200 names in Chapter 1 alone. Mark Dever designated these chapters a “ver...