Sermon Tone Analysis

The Little Blue Books

I remember seeing the older generation carry two things to church, a Bible and a hymnal.

Back then, those were the two books that every faithful believer carried with them.

The Little Blue Books did not have any music notes, only lyrics.

All the songs were in Spanish, and I often struggled to recognize the songs.

The idea of a collection of hymns is an ancient custom of those who belong to the covenant community of God.

They remind us that our God is present and relevant through all the ages.

Even though projectors and video screens made the books obsolete in some gatherings, we still have the sacred call from God to include hymns as a part of spiritual obligation.

Colossians 3:16

The Big Book in the Bible

Psalms is the largest single book within the Bible.

Some have commented that it is so important that it has been placed right in the middle.

We would not be wrong to consider that the book of Psalms should be central in our understanding of God.

It is one of the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament, next to Isaiah.

And it is the most quoted book of the Old Testament by Jesus Christ.

If our Savior knew it well and used it, we ought to be increasingly familiar with this blessing from God’s Word.

Style and Structure

The book of Psalms includes 150 poetic compositions that were meant to be sung or recited by God’s people.

It is divided into 5 major sections.

They were used in liturgies, order of worship, or sections of a worship gatherings and festivals.

As Hebrew poetic writings, they used a particular style that emphasizes parallelism, grouping ideas and phrases to express ideas.

The two most common things we see in Hebrew poetry are these two types of parallelism:

Synonymous: an idea is stated followed by a modified restatement

Antithetic: an idea is stated followed by a contrasting opposite statement

Content and Use

The Psalms are not merely ancient liturgies and literature for the curious.

As Scripture, the Psalms disclose God.

However, unlike Mosaic Torah and the Prophets, the Psalms are primarily human words addressed to God.

They reflect what Israel found to be appropriate and effective speech to God.

In this respect, they are not a “lens” focused on God, as the Prophets represent, but a “mirror” reflecting the character of God.

The psalms express the wide range of our responses to God, such as laments, thanksgiving, praise, retelling ancient stories, and wisdom for those who follow God.

In addition to informing beliefs about God, humans, and the world, the Psalms should also shape worship.

The book of Psalms was part of the hymnbook for the early church.

And they remain an endless source for our understanding of what it means to approach our Savior and Lord.

It ought to shape our understanding of what faithful worship looks and sounds like.

It should be our playlist of expression to God.

Psalm 1

Chapter 1 is a wisdom psalm describing the two choices that all people have in response to God and His Holy Word.

We can either receive it or reject it.

Ignoring it is essentially the same path as rejection.

Who is Blessed?

The term “blessed” implies more than God’s gracious favor; it also implies the human response of happiness.

It points to being happy, a state of being that only occurs on the path following God.

In this psalm, we see the path of being blessed.

The positive outcome is described by what the person avoids.

The blessed person refuses to let themselves be guided by the world's standards in thinking, behaving, and belonging.

Some have noticed potential progress in degrees of movement, walking, standing, and finally sitting, but we should recognize that the Psalm writer sees each movement as equally wrong whether one progresses to the next action.

The blessed person does not:

consider the normal advice of the world as, by default, good and true

join him or herself to the standard flow of ways of living and reasoning

take up the standard attitudes and ways of thinking of this world

As Christians living in this modern world, we have to regularly check our hearts, minds, and message to evaluate if we have taken on the default attitudes and activities of this fallen world.

Does the Christian community look different from the non-believing community?

The message of scripture is consistent.

Those who follow God have a natural departure from how this world thinks and acts.

When we take up God's values, desires, and will, we will ultimately be in opposition to culture.

When we look no different from the culture at large, we must ask ourselves, have we deviated from God's ways?

The psalm writer proceeds to tell us how the happy person remains in the place of blessedness.

They do so by meditating on the Word of God.

The term "law" may seem out of place because we may think of our civic codes' endless rules and regulations.

The writer has in mind the whole counsel and guide of scripture.

But what does it mean to meditate?

Does it mean the same thing as we find in other religions?

Many religions use meditation as the activity to disengage and empty one's mind to achieve clarity.

But the term here implies actively engaging and exercising the mind to remember the Word of God, appreciate it, analyze it, and apply it to one's life.

The difference is our focus.

The psalm writer declares that the more we engage our thoughts in the scriptures, we will inevitably find ourselves to be blessed.

We may find ourselves looking to the examples of cows.

At feeding time, they take in as much food as possible to spend the rest of their time slowly chewing and digesting it.

Then, they bring it up from their stomach to chew it repeatedly, allowing the nutrients to meet the needs of their life.

How is your intake of the Word of God? Are you bringing it up to let it nourish your life?

What does blessing look like?

Like a good poem, this psalm describes the blessed life by comparing it to a tree planted by streams of water.

We know that life does not exist without water.

And in this picture, the tree is ideally located next to an abundant source of water.

As a result of its location, it is fully alive.

It is fruitful; it is in the best shape that a tree could ever hope to be.

The key phrase here is "prosper."

To “prosper” implies making steady favorable progress and success.

Who wouldn't want this?

Our world craves success and prosperity.

But is our idea of success the same as God's?

And like the first phrase, we must distinguish between God's ways and the natural ways of this fallen world.

There may be similar areas in which the world and scripture agree, but we must recognize that these two paths go in opposite directions.

So what does prosperity look like for the believer?

Obedience - even when it means I suffer a temporary loss

God's blessing - receiving the direction, approval, and abiding presence of our Creator, identifying us as His

Eternal Life - God's rule and reign both now and in the future.

The Other Option

Every choice has a consequence.

For some choices, the consequences are rather harmless or of no consequence.

But there are choices for which the consequences, are both real and predetermined.

Such is the case with choosing and rejecting God.

God establishes the consequences and they will surely come to pass.

The Psalm writer echoes the same idea that the prophet Jeremiah declared about those who chose God's way or the way of self-direction.

Jeremiah 17:5-10

In contrast to the flourishing tree is the chaff.

Chaff is the worthless husk material that surrounds the ripe seed of wheat.

When wheat is processed for food use, the husk is separated from the seed by beating it.

But the wheat and chaff are still in one pile.