Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

As David concludes his song about the grinding pain of unjust treatment and his chosen responses, he then commits to patience. Resolved: I will patiently stand and wait for relief.

As you continue your attentive listening this week, keep your ears open for another kind of offensive, unproductive speech. It might seem like a minor problem, but I assure you, the Scriptures take this seriously.

David's prayer for protection while enduring mistreatment didn't merely ask God for help; the king's song included a commitment on his part. Resolved: I will be faithful in public worship.

[Thursday] we examined two kinds of destructive speech that attempt to achieve ulterior motives. When we flatter someone, we deceive that person in order to gain an advantage for ourselves.

King David knew the sting of unjust treatment as keenly as anyone in history. To keep mistreatment from undermining his relationship with God, he put some resolutions into a song.

Take a few moments to review Proverbs 15:2, which we will use as our outline as we discuss the destructive use of the tongue. [Saturday] we will concentrate on constructive uses of speech.

As David endured unfair treatment despite his doing what was right, He cried out to God in the verses of Psalm 26. As we read his anguished lyrics, we will uncover some resolutions David made.

Solomon had a lot to say about what we say. In fact, tongue, mouth, lips, and words occur almost 150 times in Proverbs.

If I were asked to give a popular title to Psalm 26, it would be: "How to Do Right When You've Been Done Wrong." We have all been "done wrong," haven't we? Maybe that describes your circumstance right now.

It isn’t known how many people walk around with undiagnosed heart problems, but the frequency of sudden deaths from heart attack suggests millions.

As David brings his song of the sheep to a close, having reflected on the Lord's faithful care throughout his life, he then considers his future.

Solomon addressed no less than six kinds of troubled heart in his wisdom sayings.

As David's song of the sheep concludes, he suddenly drops the analogy to consider his own experience of God, both as a simple man in need of a Savior and as a king in need of divine guidance.

Although the daily grind of a troubled heart is common, we often think we’re the only one struggling with discouragement, anxiety, doubt, and disappointment. Not so! It’s all around us.

As a former shepherd keeping watch over flocks in the wilderness, the composer of Psalm 23 understood the nature of sheep, including their bad habit of wandering.

Whoever dubbed our era “The Aspirin Age” wasn’t far off. We live in a time when huge numbers of the world’s population use medications to relieve heartache, much of which is stress related.

Like many of the songs found in the Bible, Psalm 23 states its case in the first verse and simply verifies it in the remainder of the song. The key thought is this: Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall lack nothing!

A major cause of death in our world is heart trouble. I don’t mean heart attacks or heart failure; I mean that nearly everyone endures the daily grind of a troubled heart, which often presents as lingering anxiety and low-grade depression.

I have observed that few inner battles are more fierce than the daily grind of uncertainty. No doubt you, too, have encountered one or more of its many faces as you have struggled with a career choice, new direction in life, . . .

In years past, before the printing press and the Internet made information so readily available, people memorized—precisely, word for word—anything they considered helpful.