The Heart of the Matter - Mark 7:18-30

Psalm 9

This Psalm’s title is “To the Chief Musician. To the tune of [a]“Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David.” Like chapter 8, some believe this Psalm is a specific tune called “Muth Labben” in Hebrew. Others believe it is referring to a specific instrument that it was played on. The specific part of this title “Death of the Son” is referring to the way the ancient Chaldee version reads: “Concerning the death of the Champion who went out between the camps.” So some believe this is referring to Goliath. Perhaps David wrote this Psalm remembering the victory over Goliath from the advantage of many years since that triumph. Whatever the case, this Psalm is a Psalm of praise and celebrates the goodness of God and His power over all nations.

When We Abide, the Fruit Will Thrive - Mark 7:31-37 & 8:1-10

We will see Jesus continuing His journey going into different regions. We will see Jesus continuing to pour out the power of healing from Himself with compassion towards all that come to Him. We will see how the more He tries to keep people to keep the miracles quiet, they just cannot do it and we will also see the disciples once again doubt Him when it comes to His power regarding feeding the crowd.

The Heart of the Matter Part 2 - Mark 7:24-30

We will look at Mark 7:24-30 and this story for some is hard to understand. Here is a woman, a non-Jewish woman who has the same need that many of the people who have come to Jesus had. Jesus has cast many a demon out but so far they have all been in Jewish people not Gentiles. We need to take a step back here and first look at the culture. The Jewish people looked at Gentiles as unclean people and they would have nothing to do with them. They would refer to them as dogs.

The Heart Of David As A man Of Worship - Psalm 8

Psalm 8 is another Psalm written by David. This Psalm however is different than the first 7 that we have read so far in the sense that this one is more of a meditation and praise. While we have seen an aspect of that in the other Psalms, for the most part they were crying out in in midst of trials, tribulations and or persecution. We know that David’s life was full of ups and downs, some from external sources such as Saul, the Philistines or even those in his own family, but some of his suffering is directly related to the consequences of his own sin. While he repented and he was a man after God’s own heart, and we know he was forgiven and used by God, but in this world the consequences of sin remain. This Psalm does not appear to be linked to any particular time period regarding personal struggles, but it does show the heart of David and how he is a man of worship and this Psalm reflects just that.

The Heart of the Matter - Mark 7:18-30

We will continue the theme from last Sunday "Tradition vs. Truth" and we will see how Jesus makes it clear that we have a heart issue, not a food issue or an outside purification issue. We know that God always looks at the heart. When He gave Israel the law, it wasn’t what was in the law that God was concerned with, it was the attitude of the hearts of His people toward Him that He was looking at. We know the law could not save. We also know it was given to reveal and expose the hearts of man for what they are.