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 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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Psalm 19 - The Glory of God

3 April 2020

When we live in difficult times it can feel as if every day is the same. I’ve been speaking to various folks in the past few days who have said they have found this week a lot harder than last. The novelty of a new situation and new challenges is wearing thin. For some the demands and intensity of ‘all being in the house’, for others the isolation of being home alone. Others are out at work, many plunged into situations where the daily and incoming sense of pressure feels almost too much to bear. 

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Psalm 18 - The LORD my rock

2 April 2020

Psalm 18 is a powerful Psalm, words of someone who has ‘been there’. The titles of the Psalms were added sometime after they were originally written. However where there is a title it can be really helpful, helping engage our imaginations with the circumstances that gave rise to the words before us.

David first sang his song pf praise when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of Saul and from his other enemies (it seems there were many people out to get David).

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Psalm 17 - The apple of your eye

1 April 2020

You cannot read the Psalms without grasping the urgency that keeps on coming from within them time and time again. Sometimes when we are in the midst of a crisis we talk of needing ‘time to ourselves’, or we try to ‘get our head cleared.’ At other times we seek to comfort and strength of friends or family and of course these are all good things.

However time and again in these Psalms David doesn’t seek to clear his mind, neither does he reach out to other people. Time and again we find David reaching out, crying out, to the LORD.

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