Sandyknowes Blog

Living beside the busiest roundabout in Northern Ireland gives plenty of opportunity for watching the world go by. Sandyknowes Blog is the personal blog of Niall Lockhart (minister of Ballyhenry). Pull in and have a read…

Psalm 24 - Lift up your heads

8 April 2020

The word ‘everything’ is a very big word. It leaves nothing out, it overlooks nothing. This is the word we meet in verse 1 of Psalm 24: ‘The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.’ This is a mind-blowing truth. There is nowhere we can go, or visit, or imagine, where the LORD does not stamp His mark of ownership. The reason everything belongs to Him is given in vs 2, it is because He created all things that He now owns all things.

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Psalm 23 - My Shepherd

7 April 2020

Last year on holidays we were in London and one of the places we visited was Downing Street. It is of course a very famous place, a place associated with history, power, momentous events and the seat of government. The news last night, and this morning, that the Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seriously ill in intensive care in hospital has come as upsetting news and a stark and shocking reminder of the seriousness of coronavirus. Much closer to home some have lost loved ones in recent days, others are becoming aware of people they know who are worryingly sick.

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Psalm 22 - Cries of Anguish

6 April 2020

Today we find ourselves in these ‘in between days’ between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. We stand in between remembering Jesus’ much welcomed arrival into the city of Jerusalem and his brutal execution, five days later, upon a lonely cross.

The Old Testament part of the Bible points forward to the life and mission of Jesus. It is the Old Testament which helps us to understand who Jesus was and what He came to accomplish. Psalm 22, which we are reading today, is a key Psalm in helping us to grasp what happened at the time of the first Easter.

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Psalm 21 - Your Strength

5 April 2020

David became King when he was thirty years old and he reigned for 40 years (2 Samuel 5 vs 4). Forty years is a long time to do one job and through those years David accumulated a huge range of experiences of life, and a huge range of experiences of God.

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Psalm 20 - Trusting in the Name

4 April 2020

Psalm 20 opens with one person addressing another: 

‘May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.’

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