Seeing God in the Psalms
Notes
Transcript
Intro: For the next 10 message I have planned out for us to go through a select portion of Psalms. Pastor Dennis did and excellent job of kicking it off with Ps 30 last week.
The overall theme is seeing God in the Psalms
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
We see God’s goodness as we see truth about him in His Word.
—To get the most benefit from the summer in the Psalms, I’d suggest 2 things.
1) Read the Psalms. If you start reading a Psalm a day, it becomes part of your life. It’s like owning a smartphone—Impossible to think of life with it.
2) Make at least one your own. Meditate on it, memorize it. Allow it to sink in and shape your vision of God.
Ps 16 sets us in motion; it get’s us started in the right direction
The small town I pastored in Iowa was called Orange City. So when I needed to get home from traveling I just put “Orange City” into my GPS....works great.
But there is also an Orange City in Florida. More that once the Google Maps defaulted to OC Florida.
To get set in the right direction, we need to see how essential our heart and hope are.
Seeing God means having our heart set on God
Seeing God means having our hope fixed on the Gospel
—Heart and Hope.
Apply: If we are not honest about these, I could preach all 150 Psalms. We could all read Spurgeons “Treasury” and it would still not move the needle much.
Where is your heart and where is your hope fixed today?
Have your heart set on God (1-8)
Have your heart set on God (1-8)
At the most basic level, this Psalm is a cry for help; a plea for protection.
Stability is most likely the main unifying theme.
We don’t get any context, but based on the ref. to death in the last verse—
Prayer for stability (v1); then a confident statement that God actually gives it (v8)
This is a short prayer for stability in the midst of life were death can become a sudden reality
When facing death, were do you turn for stability?
We also learn that prayer do not always have to be long and elaborate, wordy. Some of the best prayers are short and sweet
—Help me
—Protect me
—Deliver me
A friend who hold me accountable in my spiritual life recently asked me how I deal with battling impure thoughts. My plan is pretty basic—a simple cry to God for help often. it doesn’t need to be overly long, or sound like it could make in the Valley of Vision prayer devotional. .
Yet the short prayer does have a lot of substance behind it because of the heart.
Habits of a healthy heart
Having good habits comes down to being single-minded.
Satisfied (v2)
Honestly, v2 is a radical statement. “I have not good apart from you” God is my highest good.
Very similar to
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
-It means that my highest good is not in addition to God. I’m satisfied in God....and He is enough.
Satisfied in God is being single-minded.
2. Discerning (3-4)
Single-mindedness is found in who we associate with.
If you are a person who is into fitness and exercise, good chance you have others who share those interests
Do the people we are most drawn to share our goal and values?
King David delights to be around godly people—God’s people (v3)
Apply: this is really important in our day. It seems there is a growing trend for brothers and sisters to find something to disagree about rather than delight in others.
God calls his people to have a deep brotherly affection
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Early on in our marriage my wife rebuked me once. The issue was around a guy I was spending a lot of time with,. We were co-workers and so we did the carpool thing.
But he lacked maturity in some areas. My wife told me that the more time I spent around him I was starting to act more like him and she didn’t like it.
Apply: A heart-habit is to be discerning about who you delight to be around? Are they single-minded in their devotion? Or double-minded like those who “run after another god” (v4)
3. Dependent (5-6)
Often the cup is a symbol of God’s blessings (e.g. Ps 23:5)
All blessings ultimately come from the hand of God.
If we go all over looking for blessings, we will offend the one alone who can give blessing.
This was the exact problem Isreal fell into. They looked in many other places to find blessings—
Apply: Where do we turn to in order to find blessing? Does it express we depend on him alone to provide blessings?
It says a lot about our heart
4. Stable (7-8)
The Hebrew translated “shaken” (totter, shake)
It’s the same word translated “moved” in Ps 30:6 “I said in my prosperity “I shall never be moved”
—Yet there he spoke in arrogance presumption, and pride based on circumstance.
This stability is radically different: it’s a stability of a heart set on God!!
Simply put: Godly people are stable people.
In that they are not following popular opinion, or giving into peer pressure, but are guided by the counsel from the Lord (v7)
Also, there is a sense that God is near.
*The reference to being at the “right hand” is probably a picture of a legal battle. The one at your right hand is your advocate who is there in your defense. He is by you.
To illustrate—Paul got this. God’s nearness was his stability in very difficult times.
At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.
Apply: Nothing brings more stability to life than knowing God is near.
Sum: To know God is near, and to find stability in that, is to have our hearts set on God.
Is your heart set on God? Do you have these heart habits of satisfied, discerning, dependent, and godly stability?
Have your hope set on the Gospel (9-11)
Have your hope set on the Gospel (9-11)
Ps 16 describes a person whose hope is in the right place.
The final verse captures that:
Here we also have an answer to the request at the beginning—a prayer for security with and answer from God: if your heart is right, and you hope in me…you have future that is eternally secure.
And not only eternally secure, but eternally joyful!
Now if we are going to spend the summer in the Psalms, we need to know one vital key
Seeing the gospel in the Psalms
**Gospel=good news that Jesus is God’s plan to redeem, rescue, repair, and restore his creation ruined by sin
When I was a child, I was told that if I did not eat the crust on the bread, that it would stunt my growth. I’m not sure where that came from—but I ate my crust.
But I think I would still be a solid 5’ 9” even if I did not eat my crust.
But if we miss seeing Christ in the Psalms---and OT, our growth in the Word will be stunted.
**This is not “eat your crust” advice....it how Jesus wants us to read our Bibles.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
So how do we see the gospel in this psalm? Where do we see the good news of what Jesus has done?
This psalm is quoted by Peter in his sermon in Acts 2
**The first sermon.... from an apostle.... references this---so we should pay attention!
In Acts 2:26-28, it’s used as a reference to Jesus’s resurrection.
(Also Acts 13:35) —by apostle Paul
he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
Gospel: I’d argue that the entire Psalm was both prayed for and lived out by Jesus.
That’s how Spurgeon saw it;
“As the Holy Ghost hath shown....that it is all about the Lord Jesus Christ, what here is said about him is precious, is golden, and is a jewel indeed!”
(Treasury of David)
—Our Lord Jesus lived his life with constant threats of stability.
From the moment of his birth King Herod wanted him dead; to the final days of his life men made good on that.
**But was death the final word? Was it the ultimate thing to fear?
No…actually dying and being separated from God’s presence for all eternity…that is the ultimate fear!
Yet this Psalm tells us that Jesus came to set us free from that ultimate fear.
Apply: Brothers and sisters, in this life there will be things to fear…small and great. Things that make us nervous.
But…nothing to ultimately fear if you have your hope fixed on the Gospel!
Gospel
—If your life is not stable because you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, then I invite you to come and receive him by faith today.
Believe.
Believe Jesus died on the cross to forgive you.
Believe Jesus came back to life—his body did not see corruption…and that your true path to freedom and everlasting joy.
Fix your hope today on the gospel!
Final Encouragement for Dads on Fathers’s Day
*Not to beat down, bust dads in the chops, but to encourage... like a coach who wants you to crush it in Christ.
1. Be a dad who knows that you need God; that you desperately need the gospel.
(This #1 has to be #1)
2. Be deliberate about good hearts habits mentioned: satisfied, discerning, dependent, and stable. All these are marks of a godly man.
Dads, the highest compliment that can be paid at our funeral is for our kids to say: my dad was a godly man.
3. Find deep pleasure in your relationship with God. This is not effeminate. Remember who wrote this: King David. The warrior King who was skilled at slay wild animals and giants. He is a leader and protector of those he leads.
But he was also a passionate worshiper. A man who found deep delight in God.
Dad’s when we come to our last days…do we want to leave the mark that we were most passionate about work, or hobbies....or God.
May we all be a people who fix our heart on God and our hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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