Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 29

"Psalm 29:
A thunderstorm is viewed in this psalm, not as a phenomenon of impersonal nature, but as an act of divine intervention.

David opens the psalm by a call for praise to the LORD (verse 1-2).
He next describes the LORD’s power in a storm: first over the sea (verses 3-4), then over Lebanon (verses 5-6), and finally over the wilderness (verses 7-9).
The concluding verses of the psalm appropriately express the application of God’s power to His people (verses 10-11).
The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts. God is everywhere conspicuous, and all the earth is hushed by the majesty of His presence. The word of God in the law and gospel is here also depicted in its majesty of power.

3 representative realms of the supremacy of God bring forth praise to God alone.
I. The Lord’s Supremacy over Heavenly Beings (29:1-2);
II. The Lord’s Supremacy over the “forces of Nature” (29:3-9);
III. The Lord’s Supremacy over Humanity (29:10-11).

Psalm 29:1 Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
“O ye mighty”:
Literally “sons of God”.
The reference here (in Psalm 29), is most likely to God's mighty angels.

Psalm 29:3 The voice of the LORD [is] upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD [is] upon many waters.
“The voice of the LORD”:
His voice is frequently associated with the thunder (compare e.g., 1 Sam. 7:10; Job 37:4-5; Psalm 18:13; l Isa. 30:30-31).
Jeremiah 10:13 When He utters His voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasures.

Psalm 29:4 The voice of the LORD [is] powerful; the voice of the LORD [is] full of majesty.
Or "with power"; as thunder, in the effect of it shows.
The poet describes the appearances of things, not the actual reality.
To him it seems as if the thunder, rolling along the sky, hewed out a chasm in the clouds, from which the forked lightning issued.

Psalm 29:6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
As the thunder crashes and rolls and reverberates among the mountains, it seems as though the mountains themselves shook, and were moved from their places.
This is expressed with extreme vividness, though no doubt with truly Oriental hyperbole, in the present passage.
"Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn":
Rather, like a young wild ox.
Lebanon and Sirion, or Hermon (Deut. 3:9), are the two principal mountains of Palestine.
The authority in the voice of God makes any mountain obey, whether it is a physical mountain or a spiritual mountain.
Jesus said in Mark 11:23:
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and

shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Psalm 29:7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.
Rather, “the voice of the LORD heweth out flames of fire”.

Psalm 29:11 The LORD will give strength unto His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace.
His special people, His covenant people, whom He has chosen for Himself."
BooksOfTheBible.Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 3/8/2026 - Colossians 1:16 All Around Us

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. Colossians 1:16
"This means one would expect that life should show evidence of being created by an intelligence and that it could not have arisen from matter by natural processes. 

*Scientists know that life is built on the molecule of hereditary called

DNA. 

The more DNA has been studied, 

--the more we understand it is like a library of books filled with information. 

--That information is read by a code system. 

--We also know that information and code systems cannot arise from matter by natural processes. 

--Information and codes can only come from an intelligence. 

Thus, DNA can only be explained by an intelligent designer. This does not prove it was the God of the Bible, but it does confirm what the Bible declares." 

AIG

Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 28

"Psalm 28 is another prayer by David for deliverance, one of many which he prayed when pursued by one enemy or another.
It contains a petition both for deliverance (verses 1-3), and for divine retribution (verses 4-5), before suddenly shifting to an unshakable tone of thanksgiving for the anticipated answer (see verses 6-9).

Verses 1-9: We encounter a radical shift from lamentation and prayer

to thanksgiving.
The psalmist, without regard for his unchanged circumstances, shows confidence in crisis.
David, moving through two cycles of crisis and confidence, magnifies the justice of God.
I. First Cycle: Individual in Outlook, and Terminates in Praise (28:1-7);
A. His Personal Crisis (28:1-5b);
B. His Personal Confidence (28:5c-7).
II. Second Cycle: Corporate in Outlook, and Terminates in Prayer (28:8-9);
A. His Reassurance in the Light of Corporate Confidence (28:8);
B. His Request in the Face of Corporate Crisis (28:9).

Psalm 28:1 Unto Thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, [if] thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
David is speaking to his LORD.
He is the Rock that we build upon.

Psalm 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
The Holy of Holies, in the tabernacle and in the temple.
Where were the ark, the mercy seat, and cherubim, between which the LORD dwelt, and gave responses to His people.

Psalm 28:3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief [is] in their hearts.
The wicked having flattering tongues which try to draw the believer into their sin with them.
The next Scripture tells us of a few sinners we are not to be with.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or

covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat.

Psalm 28:4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.
Reward them according to what they do.

Psalm 28:9 Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
Colossians 3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."
BooksOfTheBible

Creation Moment 3/7/2026 - DNA Proofreading

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 

Psalm 139:14 NLT

"A scientific paper this week about a similarly complex operation, DNA Proofreading, was just published in Science Magazine. Let’s watch their feeble attempt at maintaining their view that cells emerged by blind, unguided natural processes, and that life went from goo to you by way of the zoo without a master Designer.

Evolution of error correction through a need for speed (Ravasio et al., Science, 19 Feb 2026). Seven molecular biologists and biochemists primarily from the University of Chicago try their hand at evolving repair processes like this one. The team includes Nobel laureate Jack Szostak, a leader in origin-of-life research, who could not answer Dr James Tour’s challenge in 2023. Get your Baloney Detector fired up; let’s look at their reasoning about how such complex operations might emerge by chance. This should be fun.

The Editor’s Summary shows that the authors intend for their hypothesis to explain all complex operations in biological processes by evolution only:

"Life expends substantial effort correcting errors introduced by the forces of disorder. Molecular machines, from polymerases to the ribosome, use elaborate proofreading schemes to double-check their work, reducing errors at the cost of time and energy. Such mechanisms may not evolve easily because they devote precious

resources to fixing mistakes. However, mistakes themselves also impose a time penalty, an effect known as stalling. Ravasio et al. present a theoretical analysis showing that because of stalling, error-correction mechanisms can in fact evolve to accelerate biological processes. The researchers found experimental support for this conclusion across a wide range of systems, from genome replication to the assembly of complex molecular structures."

That’s the sales pitch: “Our notion is that such complex things can evolve! Watch this!”. OK, let us watch how they do this trick. 

Q: Can a hat emerge and pull a rabbit out all by itself without a magician?

The Darwinian authors understand what they’re up against:

“Error-correcting mechanisms are ubiquitous in biology and are found whenever a process must select a correct substrate over alternative, incorrect substrates.”

The above is true for DNA synthesis, DNA replication, tRNA aminoacylation, and ribosomal assembly, and more.

“In many cases, the fidelity achieved by biology exceeds that expected from equilibrium thermodynamics, that is, from differences in binding energy between correct and incorrect substrates.”

“Large genomes need error correction to avoid the error catastrophe, yet canonical error-correcting machinery itself seems to require sizable, information-rich genomes.”

Error correction creates a “chicken-and-egg problem for fidelity.” 

Q: How could a cell do without it from the beginning?

“Error catastrophe” refers to the outcome of errors accumulating in an informational system. Without high fidelity duplication, information quickly collapses into gibberish. So how do they get around these design requirements? Answer: they separate speed from fidelity. They propose that selection for speed came first, and fidelity second. But watch for the magic words and question-begging assumptions:

"In the context of the origins of life, the speed-first route to error correction suggests a way around the chicken-and-egg problem for fidelity. Large genomes need error correction to avoid the error catastrophe, yet canonical error-correcting machinery itself seems to require sizable, information-rich genomes. Our results suggest a resolution of this tension by showing that simple error-correcting mechanisms could evolve before the evolution of complex ribozymes such as an RNA replicase. The key mechanism is that misincorporations stall growth, so that variants with even rudimentary error correction replicate faster and become more abundant, even before other information-rich function-encoding sequences emerge.

Once such speed-selected error correction mechanisms are in place, the resulting incidental increase in fidelity can be co-opted to maintain and evolve increasingly information-rich sequences. For example, high-fidelity RNA replication would enable the evolution of new advantageous ribozymes, creating a secondary selective pressure to retain and refine the error-correcting mechanisms that initially evolved “for free“. This two-step dynamic—speed advantage first, functional payoff later—is an example of a complexity ratchet: Nonequilibrium machinery becomes entrenched not because complexity was needed, but because selection for speed favors it and subsequent functions lock it in place. Accordingly, the evolutionary path to error-correcting ribozymes and, by extension, to large, information-bearing genomes may be smoother than previously thought."

Let’s get this straight. Stalling is bad, because it brings life to a halt. Therefore life “needed” a way to avoid stalling. Presto! A hat emerged to meet this need! Then “selection pressure” produced a rabbit that the hat could pull out of itself. These wonders evolved for free! No intelligence required! What a smooth magic act. Szostak holds up a sign saying, APPLAUSE.

Clear-thinking heads must shame these charlatans out of science. Even in the most charitable version of this tale, it won’t wash. Imagine some mindless machine trying to copy DNA. It’s fast but has low fidelity. What’s going to happen? It will produce strands of gibberish long before some “subsequent functions” or a “functional payoff” arrives (or emerges, one of the Darwinists’ favorite miracle words). The hat will evaporate before the rabbit emerges, leaving behind the smoke of error catastrophe.

A need cannot pull a solution from nothing. Just because it would be nice to have a fast, high-fidelity molecular machine, nothing in nature requires that it materialize. The laws of probability guarantee that it never will." 

CEH

Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 27

"Psalm 27 is so structured so that the psalmist’s expressions of confident trust includes his prayer for deliverance.

David first expresses his complete confidence and trust in his God (verses 1-6).
On this basis, he then feels free to present his petition for deliverance from his enemies (see verses 7-12).
Finally, he returns full-circle to the trust previously stated as the only proper attitude for one who must now wait for God to act (verses 13-14).

Verses 1-14:
This psalm is characterized by strong contrasts such as lament and laud; persecution and praise; plus warfare and worship.
In Psalm 27, the psalmist, in the presence of his LORD, engages in 3 conversations which help him balance the ups and downs of real life.

I. He Converses with Himself about Privileges (27:1-6);
II. He Converses with the LORD about Problems (27:7-12);
III. He Converses with Himself about Perseverance (27:13-14). 

Psalm 27:1 The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD [is] the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
John tells us, that in Christ was life; and the life was the light of men; "but he adds that, the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:4-5

Psalm 27:2 When the wicked, [even] mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
“Eat up my flesh”:
An allusion to the psalmist’s enemies being like vicious beasts (compare Psalms 7:2; 14:4; 17:12; Job 19:22; Jer. 30:16; 50:7)
“They stumbled and fell”:
These two words convey a thorough defeat.

Psalm 27:4 One [thing] have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.

This desire of which David speaks here, is the desire of all believers. This is our dearest wish, only we extend it to those days of our immortal life which have not yet dawned.
The beauty of the Lord. In connection with these words, we would try to show that the character of God is attractive, and fitted to inspire us with love for Him, and to make us, as it were, run after Him.

Psalm 27:5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.
David's security, as our security, is in the LORD.
Jesus Christ is the Rock of foundation that we should build upon.

Psalm 27:8 When Thou saids, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
For you to seek the face of the LORD is to attend His house and ordinances, that is where He grants His presence.

Psalm 27:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
"When my father and mother forsake me":
That is, the nearest and dearest friends.

Psalm 27:11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path.
His way. When one, through constant meditation therein, knows the way of God, and has learned the secret of the Lord, his own way is assured.

Psalm 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
The words "I had fainted"......The psalmist refers to the state of mind produced by the efforts of his enemies to destroy him."
BooksOfTheBible/Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 3/6/2026 - The "Law" that "groans"

For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22 NLT

"The essence of the generalized second law (of thermodynamics) is that when considering non-equilibrium states,

the final entropy must be greater than the initial entropy, which means that the final information available to an observer of a system is less than the observer’s initial information.

Within the generalized second law, entropy is identified with the uncertainty that an observer has concerning a system, and the generalized second law requires that this uncertainty increases with the passage of time. As Gange summarizes,
"In the words of the New Generalized Second Law, an observer functioning within a closed system will lose, but never gain, information." 

Science&Culture

In other words....since sin has entered the world, the world has been devolving---not evolving into a higher state of order.

Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 26

"Psalm 26: From the statements of the psalm itself we may easily
deduce that David was being falsely accused.
In light of this fact, his protestations of innocence are not pride, but the just complaint of a man of God (verses 2-8).

Structurally, 4 intermingling prayers and proofs reveal the psalmist’s passion to worship the LORD in spirit and in truth.
I. His Situation (26:1).
A. His Prayer for Justice (26:1a);
B. His Proofs of Commitment (26:1b).
II. His Transparency (26:2-8).
A. His Prayer for Scrutiny (26:2);
B. His Proofs of Loyalty (26:3-8).
III. His Eschatological Outlook (26:9-11a).
A. His Prayers for Final Favor (26:9);
B. His proofs of Measurable Difference (26:10-11a).
IV. His Confidence (26:11b-12).
A. His Prayers Show Confidence in the Person of God (26:11b);
B. His Proofs Show Confidence in the Provision of God (26:12).

Psalm 26:1 Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; [therefore] I shall not slide.
“Judge me”:
Literally “Vindicate me”.
“I shall not slide”:
The slide here, is similar to what we would call backslide.

Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
“Examine me … prove … try”:
Theses 3 invitations to divine scrutiny are essentially synonymous ways of testing, refining, and purifying.

Psalm 26:3 For Thy lovingkindness [is] before mine eyes: and I have walked in Thy truth.
The psalmist now enters upon an enumeration of the points of conduct on which his confidence in his integrity rests.

Psalm 26:4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.
That is, chosen or used to converse with them.
2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Psalm 26:6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD.
Compass means to revolve around.
This then, means that David walked near and around the altar.

Notice, also, that David realizes the altar is God's.
This washing of David's hands was very similar to Pilate.
They were both saying to those around, I am innocent, I wash my hands of the matter.

Psalm 26:9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men.
Do not bind me up in the same bundle, nor put me in the same accursed and miserable condition with them.

Psalm 26:11 But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me.
David is saying, as for me and my house, we will serve God."
BooksOfTheBible

Creation Moment 3/5/2026 - Absent from Darwinism

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21

"Much of the vast neo-Darwinian literature is distressingly uncritical.

The possibility that anything is seriously amiss with Darwin's account of evolution is hardly considered.... onlookers are left with the impression that there is little or nothing about Darwin's theory to which a scientific naturalist could reasonably object. 

The methodological scepticism that characterizes most areas of scientific discourse seems strikingly absent when Darwinism is the topic." 

Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini, New Scientist 2/03/2010

Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 25

"Psalm 25:
The second of the acrostic psalms, Psalm 25, emphasizes David’s need for deliverance from his enemies in verses (1-3, 16-22) and for forgiveness from his gracious God (verses 4-15).

I. Prayers in Times of Trial (25:1-7);
II. Praise in Periods of Confidence (25:8-15);
III. Petition for Help in Trouble (25:16-22).

Psalm 25:1 Unto Thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

“I lift up my soul”:
This is a vivid picture of David’s dependence.

Psalm 25:3 Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
The prayer passes from the particular to the universal.
What David desires for himself he desires also for all the true servants of God.

Psalm 25:4 Show me Thy ways, O LORD; teach me Thy paths.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Psalm 25:5 Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou [art] the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.
The prayer is that God will both teach this to the psalmist and lead him in it

Psalm 25:6 Remember, O LORD, Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindnesses; for they [have been] ever of old.

God's character cannot change.

1 Chronicles 16:34 O give thanks unto the LORD; for [He is] good; for His mercy [endureth] for ever.

Psalm 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to Thy mercy remember Thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.
Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 25:11 For Thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it [is] great.

What a strange ground on which to base a plea for pardon! One is naturally inclined to minimize his fault, when asking for pardon; among men the smaller the offense the more easily the pardon is secured, and that is why people are so apt to try to hide their sins, or make them appear as small as possible. That plan, however, is not the right one to pursue with the Lord.
We see an admission of guilt which is the first step toward forgiveness.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1 John 1:9 

Psalm 25:14 The secret of the LORD [is] with them that fear Him; and he will show them His covenant.
“The secret”:
This could well be rendered the “counsel” or intimate personal communion.
The Bible reveals God to the believer.
The Holy Spirit teaches us all truth.
Jesus kept no secrets from His own.

Psalm 25:16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I [am] desolate and afflicted.
He pleads no merits nor works of righteousness of his, but casts himself upon the mercy of God.

Psalm 25:18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
This connection between suffering and sin, in the sense that the one naturally suggests the other.

Psalm 25:19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
The arguments he uses are taken both from the quantity and quality of his enemies, their number and their nature.
"For they are many":
Their sins and corruptions, Satan, and his principalities and powers and the men of this world. "And they hate me with cruel hatred."
BooksOfTheBible/E.J. Waggoner

ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeological Find Suggests Civilizations Embraced Mathematical Thinking

"Evolutionary anthropology has long portrayed human ingenuity as emerging through a slow, linear progression: from early hunter-gatherer societies, through the ‘Iron Age,’ and onward to increasingly complex civilizations culminating in the modern day. 

However, recent evidence suggests that some of the earliest societies possessed far more sophisticated ways of understanding the world than evolutionary anthropologists have traditionally depicted.

The Earliest Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art: Painted Halafian Pottery of Mesopotamia and Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking (Yosef Garfinkel & Sarah Krulwich, Journal of World Prehistory, 5 December 2025). The authors of this paper found striking evidence that early civilizations possessed a “complex” awareness of

symmetry, precise spatial division, and geometric sequencing as expressed in artistic forms. These findings were derived from painted pottery vessels from the Halafian culture in northern Mesopotamia.
While the authors describe their findings as “rather surprising”, intelligent design and young earth creation perspectives interpret this differently: humans were created with intelligence from the beginning, fully capable of symbolic thought, measurement, and artistry. The Halafian pottery bears witness not of a slow evolutionary climb from ignorance, but to an innate creativity and mathematical capacity endowed by the Creator from humanity’s beginning.

Garfinkel and Krulwich’s archaeological dig discovered precisely imprinted motifs depicting flowers, shrubs, branches, and trees, arranged in mathematically significant sequences. The authors describe these motifs as depicting repeating multiples of 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64, thereby “creating a mathematical series,” and note that the patterns were “meticulously executed.” They express surprise at the level of artistry involved, explicitly linking it to the mathematical precision the designs required. As they write:

“The depictions of flower petals in the geometric sequence of the numbers 4, 8, 16 and 32, as well as 64 flowers in another type of arrangement, point to arithmetical knowledge.”

From a secular archaeological perspective, the authors express surprise that such sophisticated Halafian vegetal motifs are dated to the seventh millennium BC: well before the evolutionary anthropologists estimate the rise of writing or advanced mathematics. Yet the evidence demonstrates that these early communities possessed not only aesthetic sensibility but also a clear awareness of mathematical structure. This finding challenges the evolutionary model of cultural development, which assumes a slow, linear accumulation of knowledge from primitive beginnings to modern complexity.

Mesopotamia is precisely where Scripture places the emergence of post-Flood human culture following the dispersion of Noah’s descendants (Genesis 10). Moreover, by the time of Noah, Scripture already records the use of precise mathematical measurements in God’s instructions for building the Ark (300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high), making it clear that persons of that era routinely understood the meaning of numbers and standardized measurements (Genesis 6:14-16).

As Ecclesiastes 1:9 reminds us, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Human creativity has always been part of God’s design." 

CEH

Creation Moment 3/4/2026 - Agnosticism in the light of the CREATOR

For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:2- ESV

"At least in the case of God, the evidence for fact and truth on creation and morality is everywhere: DNA; Fine-tuning of the universe; Objective moral values; Intelligent design, etc. 

Q: So, to return to agnosticism: Is it really neutral? And can one be agnostic about their agnosticism (ad absurdum)?

Firstly: It’s debatable that agnosticism is a neutral stance on whether or not God exists. I tend to see it as a truth claim, in that the agnostic admits to know his agnosticism is the right world view regarding theism, otherwise they wouldn’t be an agnostic. And what’s right for them, must also be true for him, and what’s true must be a knowledge claim, despite being dressed up in ‘healthy skepticism’.

Then there is the problem for the agnostic of appearance and reality, where objects in the external world can be visually perceived in more ways than one. Are agnostics agnostic about appearances in the external world? They should be if they want to be consistent.

However, a tree seen from many angles looks different, as does a human being. This geographical phenomenon by visual degrees can also be seen in everyday domestic objects, the countryside landscape, or works of art. From a distance of thousands of miles, Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa looks like a white snooker ball; but on closer inspection it vaguely resembles a Jackson Pollock abstract painting with its fractured crust and zig-zag patterns.

Then there is the phenomenon of optical illusion. This is where a person’s visual system differs from reality in certain visual categories, where sometimes light plays a powerful role. In an essay in The Imaginative Conservative (Dec 9, 2017), Thaddeus Kozinski said we must keep our eyes fixed on the suffering and death of Jesus Christ and hold on to him for dear life in the midst of the evils that would otherwise suffocate our souls and eclipse all the beauty and love that this world still contains. He added: “Agnosticism is the ultimate stupidity and wickedness because it doesn’t so much reject God as ignore Him. If I were God, I’d be more angry at such cold indifference than anything else.”
KennethFrancis

Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 24

"Psalm 24:
The psalm is clearly divided into two parts: a processional song

emphasizing God’s sovereignty and man’s need for righteousness before God (verses 1-6), and an antiphonal song stressing the glory of the LORD (verses 7-10).

*The movement of the psalm seems to follow the movement of the people.
It traces the community’s worship procession, both spatially and spiritually, through 3 progressive states.
I. State One: Worship of the Creator through Contemplation (24:1-2).
II. State Two: Worship of the Savior through Consecration (24:3-6).
A. The Probing Questions Inviting Consecration (24:3);
B. The Proper Qualities Indicating Consecration (24:4-6).
III. State Three: Worship of the King through Commemoration (24:7-10). 

Verses 1-2:
God is over all because He created all.

Psalm 24:1 The earth [is] the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
The whole universe, all the formed globe, both land and water, and the surrounding air, and all that is therein.
1 Corinthians 10:26 For the earth [is] the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.

Psalm 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His holy place?
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD?":
Mount Zion; called the hill of the LORD, because it was the place designated for His worship, or the place of His abode  Psalm 15:1).

The ideas here are: "Who shall ascend there with a view of abiding there? Who is worthy to dwell there?"
The question is equivalent to asking, what constitutes true religion?
What is required for the acceptable worship of God?
What will prepare a person for heaven?
"Or who shall stand in his holy place?"

Psalm 24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

Whatever is in our heart, is what we are.

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
David speaks here of the gates and doors, either first of his royal city Zion, through which the ark was now to pass to the tabernacle which he had built for it.
And he calls these doors everlasting, either on account of the durableness of the matter of which they were made; or from his desires and hopes that God would make them everlasting, or of long continuance, because he loved the gates of Zion (Psalm 87:2).
And the King of glory shall come in.
God was regarded as dwelling between the cherubim on the mercy-seat, where the Shekinah from time to time made its appearance."
BooksOfTheBible

Flavius Josephus

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name. John 20:30,31

"When someone says there’s “zero evidence” for Jesus outside the Bible, what they’re really saying is, “I haven’t seen anything that looks like a modern blog.” Ancient history doesn’t work that way. You don’t get bylines or headshots from 30 AD. You sift through surviving texts, check motives, and notice who mentions Jesus without preaching. Roman and Jewish writers did exactly that. They were people referencing a real man tied to real events.

Josephus was born around 37 or 38 AD in Jerusalem, which puts him one generation away from people who remembered Jesus. By his twenties, Flavius Josephus had priestly credentials, political instincts, and a front-row seat to the Jewish revolt that exploded in 66 AD. He surrendered, switched patrons, and kept writing. In his mid-50s,

around 93 AD, he finished Antiquities of the Jews.

By AD 71, Josephus had settled in Rome under the watchful eye of Vespasian, writing for Romans who cared about power, order, and what happens when leadership fails. Josephus drops names as cultural markers, not praise. When he does, you’re seeing what people accepted as public knowledge, even stuff they didn’t like admitting.

Josephus exists in about 120 Greek manuscripts, with dozens predating the fourteenth century, plus roughly 170 Latin translations, some reaching back to the sixth century. Scholars compare these traditions to catch copyist fingerprints, confirm names, and spot odd insertions.

Josephus won’t hand you a modern lab report for miracles or resurrection. Ancient history won’t work that way. Josephus does give you something more basic and more useful: an independent, non-Christian author tying early Christian leadership to a historical Jesus.

....The remaining shape looks like something Josephus would write: 

Jesus as a teacher,

 a known figure, 

executed under Pontius Pilate, 

followed by a movement that kept going. 

Scholars disagree about the exact wording, because we don’t own Josephus’ original draft.

So if someone tells you Jesus was invented by a group of fishermen and tax collectors, you can now respond with the truth. Jesus existed. History says so." msn

Creation Moment 3/3/2026 - Who might be the "engineering influence"?

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? 

declare, if thou hast understanding.

Job 38:4

"The quest for understanding our universe as a whole benefits from the

integration of knowledge from all areas of study, including those that consider questions of purpose, such as design engineering. 

The synthesis of this knowledge that provides the most satisfying answers regarding human experience is one that admits the recognition of purpose and the existence of an (as yet, not-well-understood) engineering influence."

Halsmer, Asper, Roman and Todd, “The coherence of an engineered world” 

Meditation Upon the PSALMS Series: Psalm 23

"Psalm 23:

A Psalm of David.

The position of this psalm is worthy of notice. It follows the twenty-

second, which is peculiarly the Psalm of the Cross. There are no green pastures, no still waters on the other side of the twenty-second psalm. It is only after we have read, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" that we come to "The Lord is my Shepherd."

Psalm 23:1 The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.
One of God’s names is Jehovah-Rohi, meaning “The Lord my shepherd”.
David recognized that God cared for him the same way David had cared for his sheep.
"I shall not want." I shall not lack for temporal things. Does He not feed the ravens, and cause the lilies to grow? I shall not want for spirituals, I know that His grace will be sufficient for me.

Psalm 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.
This is a picture of complete peacefulness and rest.
We read of those who serve the Lord day and night in His tem ple: Revelation 7:16,17 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more... For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.

Psalm 23:3 He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Humanity needs “soul” restoration because of 

--spiritual carelessness, 

--difficult circumstances, 

--secret sin, 

--and the world’s influence.

Restoring my soul makes me a new creature in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
To restore is to bring back; so when we have wandered out of the way, the Lord kindly brings us back, even at the expense of His own life

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou [art] with me; Thy rod and

Thy staff they comfort me.
The shepherd used his “rod” to defend the sheep against wild beasts.
Mankind in general, fears death.
The Christian is not without hope of the resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:53-54 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Psalm 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
“Thou anointest my head”:
The Biblical imagery of anointing is frequently associated with blessing.
Leviticus 8:30 And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which [was] upon the altar, and sprinkled [it] upon Aaron, [and] upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, [and] his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.
Notice, what this anointing did.
*It set them aside for God's purpose (sanctified).

Notice the cup is not just full, 

but actually overflows.

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the

days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
David looks beyond the pasture into the future and is heartened by the glorious prospect of dwelling “forever” with the Lord.
O come in therefore to Jesus Christ; let Him be now the shepherd of thy soul."
BooksOfTheBible/Charles Spurgeon/E.J. Waggoner

Creation Moment 3/2/2026 - The Invisible Network

For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible: ....all things were created by Him, and for Him: Colossians 1:16

"Phosphoric acid is vital in both biology and modern technology because of its exceptional ability to move electrical charge. Inside the human body and in devices such as fuel cells, this small molecule helps drive essential chemical reactions.

Scientists at the Department of Molecular Physics at the Fritz Haber

Institute have now uncovered new details about how it performs this task at the molecular level.

Every second, countless electrical charges flow through our bodies. These signals are essential for life. Processes such as

--cellular communication, 

--energy conversion, 

--and metabolism all rely on the carefully controlled movement of charged particles across membranes and within cells. In many ways, the transport of charge serves as a fundamental regulatory system.

Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and related phosphate compounds are found throughout living organisms. They form the backbone of DNA and RNA, contribute to the structure of cell membranes, and are part of ATP, the molecule that stores and delivers energy in cells. These compounds are especially important for moving positive charges in biological systems.

Beyond biology, phosphoric acid also plays a significant technological role. It is used in certain types of batteries and in fuel cells. In these systems, engineers take advantage of one standout feature: its unusually high proton conductivity.

Protons carry a positive charge and can move through phosphate-containing materials in a stepwise fashion. They “jump” from one molecule to the next along networks of hydrogen bonds. This process, known as “proton-shuttling”, enables charges to travel extremely quickly.

Earlier research suggested that a specific negatively charged form of phosphoric acid could act as the starting point for the proton-shuttling sequence. This species is the deprotonated dimer

H3PO4·H2PO4-.

When the researchers compared their measurements with theoretical predictions, they found only partial agreement. Computational models had suggested that two structural forms should be equally likely. However, the experimental results clearly showed that the deprotonated phosphoric acid dimer adopts a single stable structure.

This structure is relatively rigid and presents high energy barriers for proton transfer. It contains three hydrogen bonds and features a shared oxygen atom that serves as an acceptor. Similar arrangements have been observed in other phosphoric acid-containing clusters, indicating that this hydrogen-bonding pattern may be common in such systems.

The study offers new insight into the molecular basis of phosphoric acid’s remarkable proton conductivity, “Nature’s proton highway.” By identifying a single stable structure for the key anionic dimer H3PO4·H2PO4- and revealing its distinct hydrogen-bonding motif, the researchers have clarified an important piece of the proton transport puzzle." 

SciTechDaily