Intro to the Psalms

Intro

I have always loved the book of Psalms. Though I am not a huge fan of poetry all the time, this is one thing that I like to read through. The book of Psalms has been and still is the irreplaceable devotional guide, prayer book, and hymnal of the people of God. The Hebrew title is “the book of praises” (tehillim). The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) used psalmos for tehillim; the word means “a song sung to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument.” The Vulgate followed the Septuagint and used psalmorum, from the Latin psalterium, “a stringed instrument.” The King James adopted the word, and thus we have the book of Psalms.

Think of it this way. We used to have these books in the chairs or pews that we used to sing from called Hymn books. Consider the Psalms the ultimate Hymn book. They where the songs and prayers of the Israelite's.

The Psalms cover the breadth of human emotion as well. It is amazing to me to see what is all contained in the Psalms. We sometimes struggle with the words to pray, how to talk to God. When we are going through difficult times, when we are struggling or depressed we struggle to find the word to communicate to God. The Psalms are the books you can find to make know to God what is going on in your heart for the writers of the Psalms have gone through it all.

The 150 Psalms are split into 5 books, we are not going to go through all of them this summer but go through a few to see the different types of Psalms that where written and how they affect our lives.

We are going to go through questions about how we can pray through the Psalms in times of need when we do not have the word to say. How can we find comfort in the experience of others. How can we find joy in the midst of pain? How can we find delight in the Lord.

We look to the first few verses in the Psalms to get an idea of the thought going through the book. How happy is the one who delights in the Lord and walks in His ways, He will be fruitful. But watch out those who live lives without Jesus for they will perish though they may triumph for a time.

Psalms Background

First I want to look into some of the background to the book of Psalms. The writers of about two-thirds of the psalms are identified in the superscriptions. David leads the way with 73 psalms. He was Israel’s “beloved singer of songs” and the man who organized the temple ministry, including the singers. The sons of Korah, who served as musicians in the temple , wrote 11 psalms , Asaph 12 psalms, King Solomon two , Ethan wrote one, and Moses one. However, not all scholars give equal value to the titles of the psalms.

The book of Psalms is quoted or referred to many times in the NT. around 300 times. If it is that important to them then we should really take a look at it as well. There has also bee a trend for christian musicians to remake the Psalms into songs as well.

if the Psalms contain the depth of human emotion, then we should turn to it more often when we are struggling to know what to pray and what to say to God in the depth of our despair.

Another thing to remember is that the Psalms are also Christocentric. That means they point us to Jesus. The story of the Bible tells us the story of our relationship with God and our need for a savior. if this is really what the Bible tells us, the message of the gospel then we need to learn how to recognize Jesus in the message of the Psalms, which is something that we are going to look into as we go through different Psalms in the next little while.

The Psalms are meant to be prayed.

As I mentioned before when we do not have the words to say, when we do not know what to pray we can turn to the book of Psalms, that is what they are is prayers to God. Even when we do know what to pray, instead of trying to “pray” from the heart as people say so often, we can learn personal pray from the Psalms.

Not just person prayer we need to learn interpersonal prayer, that is praying for other people, from the Psalms. For example, the psalms that deal with persecution we can use to pray for those that are dealing with persecution around the world.

The last thing I want to mention is the different types of Psalms.

Be Worshipful Chapter One: Introduction to the Book of Psalms

psalms are laments to the Lord, written by people in dire circumstances. There are also messianic psalms that point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are also psalms of praise and thanksgiving, royal psalms, wisdom psalms, psalms of affirmation and trust, penitential psalms, and even imprecatory psalms calling down God’s wrath on the enemy

as we go through the Psalms we will point out the themes of each of them and what they mean.

Psalm 1 - Wisdom Psalm

We have gone through a bit of the background work of the book of Psalms, to get an idea into what we are going to look into. I wanted to take a quick look into the first Psalm to get a glimpse into what this is going to look like.

Poetry is not my thing, I have never really preached through the Psalms as It is slightly uncomfortable for me to do.

Psalm 1 is a wisdom Psalm. Psalm 1 is called a wisdom psalm because we learn that happiness results from our choice to follow God's direction of life. In this psalm the writer sets forth two ways or two directions in life. One is the right way that leads to happiness, and the other is the wrong way that leads to misery.

The focus of Psalm 1 is on the word of the Lord. The blessings on the one that obeys and the curse on the ones that disobey. There is great wisdom and blessing in those that follow the will of God.

Psalm 1:1 CSB

1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!

There are many different grammatical tools used in the book of Psalms. In Psalm 1:1 we have what is a form of Parallelism. Not a big deal but for those grammar nerd out there if there are any, the way the rest of the verse explains and expands on the first line is a form of parallelism.

the first word we see here is How Happy. you may think, that is not the way that I memorized that verse! I like how the CSB interpreted it.

Lots of versions of the bible used the term blessed. I am not sure how many people actually know what the word means. If you look into what Blessed actually means we have to go back to the original Hebrew. Bear with me here. The word here means to be Characterized by happiness and being highly favored as by the divine grace of God. That is a lot to stuff into one word, so you see why versions translate it a bit different to get the original meaning of the word.

The question then is what is it that causes happiness and divine favor by the grace of God, something that we do not deserve.

it is those that walk in the way of God.

Proverbs 4:14–15 CSB

14 Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones. 15 Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by.

This encourages us to do a few that are good reminder for us. The first results in a divine peace and happiness.

A blessing on those that choose to live godly lives.

Psalm 1:2 CSB

2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.

this sets the tone for us for the rest of the Psalms. When we look at it we are called to godly living, and the peace and blessing that results from that. Where is our concern for the glory of God, for godly living and the hope that results from living a godly life.

then the opposite would be the me for those that do stand in the way of sinners, who pattern their lives after the world and strive to live a life of sin.

we have the choice of two different types of life, either life or death, blessing or curse. but this blessing needs to characterized by a dismissing of the sinful way of life.

I like the poetry behind the abundance, the peace, the great hope of living a life characterized by living a life for God.

Psalm 1:3 CSB

3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

abundance is promised to those that walk in the way of the way of the Lord. But this is not the prosperity gospel.

Pursue the way of wisdom we are told. This prospering is to famous wealth or anything like that but a life characterized by living for God. God’s blessing on our words and the thing we do for His glory.

We Become satisfied by the faithful love of God, Rest in humbling ourselves under His mighty hand. We need to remember that our prospering is seen in glorifying the Lord God in all that we do. It is for Him that we live and breath and have our being. For our prosperity is for the Glory of the lord.

When I went to Millar and played sports, we had a team cheer, that just become something I did but was a reminder for us. We would gather in a circle and put all of our hands in the middle and someone would shout, who is it for, and everyone would shout “for the Lord”. The prosperity we see is for the glory of the Lord not for our own pride, though the Lord does want to give good things to us.

The Wicked.

But the wicked are not like this.

Psalm 1:4–5 CSB

4 The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

Even the wicked prosper, and it drives us nuts sometimes that this happens.

Psalm 73:3 CSB

3 For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

the wicked prosper in this life, and that is okay. Their prosperity is for the temporary gain of their own pride.

But as we are dealing with the envy of the prosperity of the wicked, we need to remember that their way ends in ruin. it is only temporary, that goes away, remember our treauser is in heaven.

if this life is all their is and there is no heaven, then sure seek all the treasures and pride of the earth because that is all you get. go ahead and get wealthy. But if there is more, which we believe there is then what we need to seek is not our own wealth but the treasure we can find in heaven, for that is our eternal home.

Psalm 1:6 CSB

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Our life may be tough now, sometimes. Yes the Lord may give us good things now because he is a good father. but when we go through hard times we need to remember that this life is temporary.

The riches that we try to horde can still be found in some places under the great pyramids. people buried with their car so they might have it in the afterlife. All that happens is looters coming after taking the riches the Pharoahs of old left behind. The way of the wicked lead to ruin.

So What?

In the end what do we learn from this? why should it matter to our lives? The first thing that we need to remember is that

We can turn to the Psalms for guidance in prayer.

when we do not know what to pray, even when we do know what to pry the psalms are there. The contain the depths of human emotion written by people who went through a lot in their lives. Instead of trying to pray from the heart pray from the Psalms when you are struggling.

We Learn what should bring us Joy

It is a lesson we can all learn what brings us pure joy. It is not what the world thinks. How happy, blessed are the ones that walk in the way of the Lord, that stand upright and not walk in the way of the wicked.

Money and things may bring us temporary happiness but that will not matter in the end. True joy comes from following the Lord God with all our hearts for our reward is in heaven.

Temporary Joy

The wicked will do prosper and this makes us sad sometimes why God would allow this to happen. But that is only temporary. To become apathetic and trust in yourselves will only keep you away from God. Temporary joy is not worth it. For what blows away like chaff in the end, we must strive instead to seek God.

This is what we are going to go through for the next little bit. How it is we can see Jesus in the Psalms, how we can find Joy and peace and a connection with God. The Lrod promises to watch over those who walk in His ways.