John Mark Hicks

Texts: 1 Chronicles 29:29-30; Psalm 19:14 Days 20-22 in Around the Bible in Eighty Days. Every people-group has a history; they tell stories about their journey. And every people-group has a liturgy; they worship someone or something.  Israel is no different. The Torah and subsequent histories (running from Judges through Kings and Chronicles to Ezra-Nehemiah) narrates […]

Texts: Romans 9:4-5; Psalm 19:7-10; Romans 3:1-2 Days 20-22 in Around the Bible in Eighty Days. God chose Israel from among the nations as God’s own firstborn. As firstborn, Israel was tasked with blessing the nations through their obedience to God (as a light among the nations) and the promises made to Abraham. God equipped […]

Words. Some are voiceless, some form a narrative, and others offer a response. Psalm 19 is a meditative response to words that make no sound and words that shape the life of Israel. The Psalmist offers a meditation on how God encounters Israel through creation and Torah and how believers respond to such gracious revelation. […]

Psalm 1, perhaps also Psalm 2, serves as a preface or introduction to the Psalter. It says something important about how we should read, sing, pray, and meditate on Psalms. There is some text-critical evidence (variant readings) that Acts 13:33 calls Psalm 2 the “first Psalm,” and some medieval manuscripts write the first psalm in […]

The first major section of Amos addresses the nations, including Judah and Israel (Amos 1:3-2:16). The writer begins with Damascus (Syria) in the north, then moves southwest to Philistia. Afterwards, the text moves due north to Tyre and then southwest to Edom. This is followed by Ammon in the north and then Moab south of […]

The most heartfelt and gut-wrenching expression of Paul’s love for his own nation, his own people, for Israel is found in Romans 9:1-5. Israel, though gifted by God with wondrous privileges, had rejected God’s Messiah. Paul was heartbroken as he listed the gifts in an overflow of praise for God’s grace toward Israel. Gift one: […]