Leen Ritmeyer - Using The Psalms For Overcoming - Class 3 - More than Conquerors

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:01

   Oh, good morning, Bernie and sisters and young people. I’m glad to see a good number of you here, which I didn’t quite expect, so good on you. The title for this study is taken from Romans chapter 8. If you turn to Romans chapter 8, although we read it yesterday, let’s just read the last few verses of this chapter, starting at verse 35.

2. 0:34

   That who shall separate us from the love of Christ, tribulation or distress or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

3. 1:01

   If I persuade her that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the apostle lists the difficult circumstances in which he found himself many times in the verse 35. He had a fair share of his tribulations. If we ask ourselves how did he conquer the fear which he undoubtedly must have experienced when he spent nights in the deep and in jail?

4. 1:45

   We too may find ourselves in difficult circumstances when we show our love for the truth and stand up for the truth. The possible exhort is to be followers or imitators of me, as I am also of Christ. And what did Christ do when he was persecuted? If you go to One Peter chapter 2 One Peter 2 verse 21 by the middle of the verse 21 for even here and to were ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that he should follow his steps, who did no sin not was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him their judges righteously.

5. 2:51

   So we should learn from this that when we are in difficulties, we should commit ourselves to God. And how can we do that if not through prayer and using the Psalms, we commit ourselves to God. It puts our minds right, for we develop the mind of Christ.

6. 3:17

   Now we started a new day, didn’t we? It was a bit hard, but it was a new day. And if you go back to our Psalm 5, which we read this morning,

7. 3:31

   then the best way to start a day, as I’m sure most of you do, is with a prayer to God. Now this Psalm 5 is actually a morning prayer, as it says in verse three, my voice shout out here in the morning, Yahweh. So it is a morning prayer. But what that does, does that first verse or the title in the KGV actually mean to the chief musician upon Nekhilot, a Psalm of David translating it, It means to him that overcometh toward an inheritance, the best fruits for the beloved.

8. 4:22

   Nikhilot means an inheritance. And the Hebrew word upon is not upon, is not al, it’s al is toward, or as Phanic actually says, is the power of the inheritance. And of course that is expressed in verse 7. But As for me, I will come into die house in the multitude of Thy mercy. There’s our inheritance.

9. 4:45

   That’s where we want to go to. So when we use this prayer in the morning, we are thinking of the inheritance which has been laid up for us. Look at Psalm 16, which speaks about an inheritance in verse 5. Yahweh is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot.

10. 5:09

    The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yeah, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless Yahweh who has given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I’ve said Yahweh always before me because he’s at my right hand. I shall not be moved. So to get an inheritance we must said Yahweh always before us from our waking hours till we go to sleep, because that can change our mind and our behaviour. It will make us receive God’s counsel and His instructions and it teaches us to commit our ways and to Yahweh every minute of the day.

11. 5:57

    So if you say this summer’s all your heart, then we are ready to receive God’s counsel and to be led by the Spirit. You see, it starts then like this. Give ear to my word. Shower. Consider my meditation. You can’t say this Psalm early in the morning. If you haven’t meditated on anything, you should have meditated on things.

12. 6:30

    Otherwise you can’t say this Psalm and we can’t pray to God. So I see that the Psalms work two ways. It’s a prayer to God. If we can only say this Psalm if you really mean it, you can’t say consider my meditation if you’ve thought about nothing at all. And then it continues saying my foreshadow here in the morning hour. And then it continues in the morning where like it says direct my prayer.

13. 7:02

    But my prayer is an in italics. It isn’t there in the Hebrew because you already said that you will pray. The word direct means to arrange yourself in the morning. Will I arrange myself unto thee, and I will look up.

14. 7:24

    And that is what we do when we use this Psalm. So in the morning we pray to God and we have meditated on him, and now we’re going to say that we’re going to set our life in order. And how I could do that? That the Psalm tells us, doesn’t it? What are the things that are spelled out for us in verse 4?

15. 7:54

    Thou art not an ale that has pleasure in wickedness. So if you encounter wickedness in the place we work, where we study, or wherever we find ourselves, then don’t join in, because you know that God has no pleasure in wickedness.

16. 8:12

    And then now they shall evil dwell with thee. We mustn’t do evil. It’s very easy to do, but if you keep your Psalm in mind, then it will direct your your way of life with God. And it says the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. It’s all right to have little joke here and there, but to act foolishly.

17. 8:34

    If you do that, we won’t stand in God’s sight. That’s what the Psalm says. Now, hatest all workers of iniquity be living in an evil world. And I thought it was made plain to us last night, but God hates those things. So it’s not only not joining in, but not even allowing it and warning other people of wicked ways. Thou shalt destroy them that speak well leasing. It’s not leasing a car.

18. 9:04

    It’s lies. God will destroy them that speak lies. And how easy is it by his sisters. Many of the conversations people outside to have a little lie to make yourself look better, but God hate lies and Yahweh abhors the men of blood and deceit. So there’s six points here in these verses 4-5 and six.

19. 9:32

    And if you just remember this Psalm and we say it in the morning and keep it in our mind, it’ll direct our paths and then we commit our ways into Yahweh. That is how this prayer can help us, and we soon find out that if you use these psalms for our prayers and the commitment to memory or even a small section of it and stick it up here, then our minds become more pure, more like the mind of Christ and less like our own mind.

20. 10:11

    It’s good to start the day with prayer. David always did. So put a few things on on the overhead, but look at Psalm 63. It’s a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. And it says, then Elvim dawat my ale early will I seek thee. The word early is the word for shaka. That is the darkest part in the night. We had a good opportunity to put this into practice when the alignment of 3:00 in the morning, yes, it was still dark when David woke up in the wilderness and it was dark, he said in the early dark morning, I was sickly. My soul thirsts for thee, my flesh longest for thee, in a dry and weary land where no water is. David said this time in the wilderness. The nation of Israel was formed in the wilderness, far from the distractions of the world.

21. 11:19

    But if we love the world more than God, we won’t pray this Sam. The peasant world has many attractions, especially for young people. The question is, do we look upon the world in which we live as a wilderness or do we take full advantage of all the distractions, the so-called attractions it offers to us?

22. 11:48

    So it becomes clear that if you do use the Psalms, and we think about them, that it will change our mind and it brings us closer to God and we are in good company. Then we pray in the morning. Daniel prayed three times in a day, in the morning, at the time, in the afternoon, at evening sacrifice and before he went to bed.

23. 12:13

    And also David prayed in the morning. You can see there Daniel prayed three times in a day. David also three times in a day. Psalm 55, evening and morning. And at noon will I pray. Psalm 59, I’ll sing aloud to Thy mercy in the morning. Psalm 88 in the morning my prayers shall come before Thee. And at the 19, I prevented the dawning of the morning, and I cried.

24. 12:42

    So it is a good thing to start the day with God, to commit yourself and to him. Keep those guidelines in mind, which the prayers Psalm 5 says. And then we are ready. We’ve arranged ourselves to face the day.

25. 13:01

    And then before we go to work, we have breakfast and we give thanks for our food to God. And it is a good thing to do, but it is easy to fall into kind of the Christadelphian phraseology. Now we thank God for the food that we are going to eat, and we pray that the strength derived thereof we may use in dying service, that we don’t serve God with our stomach. Jesus fasted for 40 days and he still served God. But this good to give thanks for food. And why not use the sounds for giving thanks? You know you can compose a prayer using sounds. This is something I often say.

26. 13:44

    The earth is yowers and the fullness thereof the world. And they that well dream because God gives rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. So the soil produces food. It has got the thanking for it. The eyes of all people and animals alike wait upon thee and I’ll give them their food in due season. You can say something like this.

27. 14:06

    Bless our Elimi people and make the voice of his praise to be heard, which hold is our soul in life and suffers not our feet to be moved. I always end giving thanks for my food by saying who gave his food to all flesh for his mercy and yours forever. I’m not telling you how to give thanks, I’m just showing you that it’s possible to vary our prayer and use spirit words in even giving thanks for our food.

28. 14:40

    It’s good to give thanks like you could turn to Psalm 103. I suppose the older you get, the more thankful you are to God that He gives us life and still some energy. He gives us a family. Lovely companion and there’s so many things we should give thanks to God for and this is a section the 1st 5 verses which I this so I know the heart and it’s it is also pain your heart. So bless Yao my soul and all my inwards. It’s actually says his holy name. Bless Yao my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgive us all thy iniquities, who healest all thy diseases, who redeemest thy life from destruction, Who redeem is the life from the structure.

29. 15:32

    Crown is the is loving kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies not thy mouth just and he would thy future which good things? So thy youth is renewed like the eagles. This is a Psalm for the beloved. And if you say this Psalm, then we are beloved of God too. So the Psalms are very practical.

30. 15:59

    We know that God will hear his own words, but you’ve got to think about it that can we actually say or do we actually mean? Do we live up to the words we say to him though? Those words help us to put us in the right frame of mind to help our behaviour.

31. 16:14

    And then he can pray that Psalm to God. We all fail at times, don’t we, during the day, especially when we let our guard down and we don’t remember our morning prayers. We’re not the only ones that fail at times, but we believe as it says that if you confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

32. 16:41

    And the words to ask God for forgiveness have all been prepared for us. And they give us an insight into the sin of David and how he struggled and, and how he came out of it. And we go through the same process. And the Psalm tells us exactly how David felt. Go to Psalm 32.

33. 17:11

    I start by saying, and he knew this beforehand. Bless it. And after this word, this means happy. Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy is the man unto whom Yao impute is not iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guile. There’s David. That is what he wanted to be. But like all of us, he fell, didn’t he? Then he says, When I kept silence, my bones vexed all through my roaring, all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

34. 17:49

    My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Si la but we all go through this process. It’s not easy to confess our wrongdoing. David tried to hide his sin with Bathsheba for a long time. He got a pregnancy, called you HO for hoping that he will sleep with his wife so they can pretend he was his baby and he refused. So he had to send him back and put him in the battle and have him killed.

35. 18:22

    And all the time he was trying to hide his sin. But while he was doing so well, it says, I kept silence. And we can all, you know, remember that we can all associate ourselves with it. We like to keep science. We don’t like to confess the things we’ve done wrong. But you know, your, your bones get old and you’re roaring all day long. And if you’re God’s hand, they must have felt God’s hand heavy upon him.

36. 18:54

    His moisture turned into the drought of Summersila. And that’s the state of mind David was in for a long time, more than half a year. I don’t know exactly how long

37. 19:06

    and he was suffering because he didn’t want to confess. His sin was such a shameful thing to have to say. When David, when Nathan the prophet came to him and he said thou art the man. It must almost have been this relief that David said I have sinned and then he could continue that next verse. I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity, if I not hate, although it took a long time to confess it, I’ll said, I’ll confess my transgressions into Yao, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin seala.

38. 19:45

    So the first seala shows the state of mind we are in if we don’t confess our sins. The second seala is very valuable to remember that if you acknowledge your sin, then God will forgive it and he could live again. He wrote another Psalm after that same event, which is Psalm 51, the very powerful Psalm. When we lived in Jerusalem, we often used this Psalm for our morning prayer because we’ve all sinned. It gives an insight into how David felt. Look at verse 10.

39. 20:27

    He after he confessed his sin, he said create in me a clean heart, Elovene and renew a rite or a constant spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and have helped me. There’s a free of his, a willing spirit. He couldn’t be king anymore.

40. 20:52

    He couldn’t give guidance to his people. He didn’t feel spiritual anymore because only when God created a clean heart in himself in David again and he was sure that he was not castaway from God’s Princess, which we are. If we don’t confess our sins, then in verse 13 says our teach transgressors thy ways and sin is shall be converted unto thee.

41. 21:17

    How can we teach other people when we haven’t confessed our own sins? See David’s heart at this particular time was not right. This God. It’s always good to examine our heart. See a Psalm which very powerful and often when you come to the truth early on, you can associate with this Psalm 139.

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    And if you just would keep this always in our head, it would help us so much. 139 To the chief musician, the Psalm of David. For him that overcome is just the best fruit of the beloved. And it gives you an insight into God himself and our relationship with him says, Thou asserted me and known me. Thou knows my down sitting and my uprising. Thou understands my thought afar off, Thou compasses my past and my lying down, and art acquaint.

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    It is all my ways, but it’s not a word in my tongue. Thou knowest it all together. And if we realise that God looks down on us, He can look into our heart every minute of the day, then they’re more careful how we conduct ourselves in the day. But then if he do that, then we get confidence that we can pray this Psalm to God and look at Psalm 20, the verse 23 at the end of the Psalm. Then they could say, search me Elohim, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there’ll be any wicked way in me and lead me into the way everlasting. If you go to Psalm 17,

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    because if we are right with God, we can say this. This is verse 3. And can we really say that by the sisters, thou has proved my heart, Thou has visit me in the night, Thou stride me and found nothing. I’m purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. And that is a beautiful state of mind to have.

45. 24:03

    Brothers and sisters, there’s another very practical Psalm which helps us to develop a pure heart and to keep that perfect man in focus, and it’s Psalm 15. It’s such a beautiful short, Sam. It’s the best fruit for the beloved Yahweh. Who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Remember Psalm 5, fame.

46. 24:29

    It overcomes towards an inheritance. That is our inheritance. To be in the Tabernacle of Yamaha, to dwell in his holy hill of Jerusalem in the Kingdom. Only people that are like this will be there. He had workers, uprightly workers, righteousness, speakers the truth in his heart. Backbite does not resist tongue, nor does evil to his neighbour, doesn’t take up a reproach against his neighbour in his eyes of vile personalist contempt, but he honest them that fear. Yahweh swears to his hurt and change, does not put his not out his money to usury, nor take His reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Learn the Psalm by heart by my sisters. We have it with you all the time. And we Harry Tennant one saying when he visited people in the hospital and they couldn’t use their hands, they couldn’t hold the Bible open.

47. 25:31

    How much scripture do you have at your command? If you don’t have the Bible, you can say the Lord’s Prayer, maybe Psalm 22 if that’s all we know. It’s pretty poor, isn’t it? The sounds have been designed to be prey to God, and they put us right. It helps us also to control our thoughts, how to channel our brain functions into the into the right directions, not to be distracted by mobile phones and iPods and iPads and whatever we have.

48. 26:09

    There’s a lot of there’s distress in the workplace and at home. We are exposed to advertising that prey on our lust and our desires. There’s peer pressure among young people. They all know our the advertisers all know our weak points. And the Apostle Paul also knew about his humour of weakness. I saw another law of our members boring against the law of my mind and bringing into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

49. 26:37

    Then he counsels in Second Corinthians chapter 10, he speaks about our warfare, because for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mightily mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations or reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And listen to this bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

50. 27:38

    How many thoughts go through our heads all day long? I’m still struggling with it by the sisters to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I found this Psalm such a great help because they put our minds right. Whenever a wrong thought comes in your mind, I would like to say a Psalm or a portion or one verse or a sealer verse. It helps you in your life.

51. 28:10

    It helps us not to listen to the inner voice, and it would be more suitable to silence it, just as David did for a while when he had seen this Bachiva and he didn’t silence that, that that voice that made him sing. So I said before in Psalm five and first one, it says, consider my meditation Says in Psalm 19, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Yeah, my strength and my redeeming. But how do we meditate?

52. 28:48

    Doesn’t mean sitting on the floor with your knees crossed on your hands empty your brain. That’s not meditation. There’s just nothing. It’s emptying your mind. Meditation means to think about something. Look what it says in Psalm 63. See often we can’t sleep, especially after last night. And it says in verse 6, I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. But what do we think of think about when we wake up in the middle of the night, but all the troubleshootal after a previous day about the the fight together as a colleague at work or some kind of a discord in the family.

53. 29:54

    Now you focus on God’s word. It says that Psalm 77 is on the screen that our meditate of all thy work and talk of thy doings. Psalm 1 or 219. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect and to thy ways. So we need to meditate on something, namely on God and his work, and to think of his precepts.

54. 30:20

    And the words meditate is the same as speak in Hebrew. And so when it says, My mouth shall speak of thy wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding, those are the words for meditation. It says, how love are thy law. It’s in my meditation all the day, and it helps us to meditate. And that actually is the word Hagar in Hebrew. That’s the word Hagar that means to meditate quite interestingly in modern Hebrew.

55. 31:00

    You remember how Eliezer Benura tried to use old biblical Hebrew for modern concepts? You drive a car, don’t you? And I’ll be glad there’s a steering wheel because of as you crash into things. So the steering wheel makes it possible for the car to go in the right direction. Do you know what’s called in Hebrew?

56. 31:20

    A Haggar? Same as the words for meditation. As the steering wheel steers the car through the roads. So our meditation will steer us through life. Very clever that was.

57. 31:36

    And so the sounds are are instrument to help us meditate. Look what it says in Psalm 9. Go to Psalm 9 please, because there that word Rigayon is used. And verse 16, this yawa is known by the judgment which he executed. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higayon Si La is an important first, because Yao is known by the judgement which he executed. So last night that fierce judgement which got poured out on those wicked cities, and the wicked was snared in the work of their own hands.

58. 32:24

    Those are just things to meditate on. Nobody being jealous of the wickeds of the wicked, We need to see their ends, and then we won’t be distracted by them. Psalm 19 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation, the Higayon of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, Yahweh, my Redeemer. And so higayon is an interesting word. It helps us to meditate on God’s words. It says in Psalm 1, this happy is the man that walketh not in the council of Jim Godly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sitters in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and His law does he meditate day and night. There’s actually a very interesting connection with the book of Esther.

59. 33:28

    I’d like you to go to the book of Esther. We know the story. The king Archiviros, he had a wife. He put on a feast. And first he wouldn’t come because she kept her own feasts. She didn’t want to you know although dressed in a beautiful dress, she had a beautiful countenance to show herself in front of all those men as she didn’t realise that all her beauty was derived from the king.

60. 34:18

    And so the king was going to look for a new queen and remember that all those virgins were gathered together. And in verse 12 it says of chapter 2 Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to King Archuvios, after she had been 12 months, according to the men of the women, for so were the days of their purification accomplice. 6 months is oil of Mir. The oil of Mir is used in the anointing oil which represents the Spirit word of God.

61. 34:53

    And six months is odours and other things to the purifying of the women, probably incense, which is type of prayer. So just came every maiden unto the king. Whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the House of the women into the King’s house. In the evenings she went, and on the morning she returned into the second House of two women to the custody of Shah Gaz, the King’s Chamberlain, which kept the concubines.

62. 35:20

    And she came in into the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and she was called by name. Basically it was a House of death that the king didn’t call. You stuck there and you couldn’t marry anybody else. And this way you spent the rest of your life. But now verse 15, when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abigail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Haggai the King’s Chamberlain, the keeper of the women appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her.

63. 35:58

    And then the king made the great feast. In verse 18 / 17. The king loved Esther of all women. She obtained grace and favour in the sight more than all the virgins. So he said the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of fasting. But we want to be the bride of Christ, and he’s going to be king.

64. 36:17

    Then we hope to be the queen, don’t we? But how can we make the king love us? All those girls had to go through the same process of purification and then they could choose something extra.

65. 36:37

    Well, I’m the girls. So what would you choose, girls, Women, you go to the king. Nicely coloured socks or so or nice shoes, some some earrings or necklace. You go to the hairdresser, nice little hairdo. What do you do to please the king? Well, actually it’s something. And she won the contest, as it were, as a pity that we don’t know what made it acceptable was the king. I must have the right idea.

66. 37:12

    When those one of those young women went to the king, it wasn’t just to spend the night with him, because the king had a full day of work to do. He had to receive guests and the Queen was his companion. She had to be able to hold a conversation with the guests and she must show an interest in the work of the king, knowing that even if she would marry the king and have children, that she must be able to bring up those children because the king was very busy.

67. 37:52

    He needs a wise an intelligent companion. A king has only so much interest in talking endlessly about hairdos and earrings and so on. The interesting thing is that it is possible to know what made Esther accept it. With the king she took nothing but what Haggai had appointed. The Haggai is the same word as Higayon.

68. 38:28

    Same with us. Haggad is where it comes from. It means meditation. Why did God choose Mary to be the mother of his son? Because he pondered those things. In her heart she thought about things. She was a had a reflective mind. And that’s what the king needs. He needs to be able to trust his screen, to look after the wives of the ambassadors and to entertain them in an intelligent way.

69. 38:57

    A bit in the bed. That’s part of life. There’s only very small section of it, isn’t it? So he wanted a woman that can think, can speak, that has read, that is intelligent and it is attractive. And we can be like that if we meditate on the Word of God. And I found that there is no part of Scripture so powerful to do that as the sounds I would like to read you something because I’ve got a few minutes left of the writings of John Thomas see been a struggle in our community all the time how to praise God and how to and to pray to him.

70. 39:45

    And the apostle Paul says I will sing Mr. Spirit. I will sing Mr. Understanding also I would sing is actually the word Psalm. So I’ll sing with my understanding and I’ll Psalm with the understanding. John Thomas wrote in 1836 an interesting article in the Apostolic Advocate in the second volume called the Psalmady, and in his terminology that means the hymn book.

71. 40:17

    I already quoted you from Elpos Israel that John Thomas wrote. It is true that no man has a right to worship God as he pleases. This is a Protestant fallacy. Man has a right to worship God only in the way God himself has appointed. Then he writes the word Samadi is compounded of Salo to sing, or a poem or a composition in measure. This is his general signification in its restricted and scriptural sense.

72. 40:48

    The term is applied to the singing of meters or measures dictated by the Holy Spirit. Psalmody under this limitation was the means prescribed by the apostle to the Ephesians, by which to exhilarate and cheer their hearts. He presented as the anthesis to wine, and says, Be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. And again he says, Let the word of Christ dwell. Rich dwell in your richly with all wisdom teach Mananadi and admonish Mananadi by psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, saying with gratitude in your heart to the Lord. Let people ask him, what psalmony, What hymn book shall we use?

73. 41:36

    He said, I replied, the book of Psalms. This was the national psalmody hit, the national hymn book of the Jewish nation for many centuries. It is full from beginning to the end of the word of Christ. Jesus and his apostles have and stamped upon it the divine impremature, whatever that means, and all things must be fulfilled which were written concerning me, says Jesus in the law, the prophets, and the Psalms concerning Him.

74. 42:06

    So he was on the right track. He loved the Psalms, and in the rights. If there were no other prophecies available to us than those contained in the book of Psalms. This contain abundant and sufficient testimony to prove that the Messiah of God should be a sufferer for sin. That He should be declared righteous by resurrection from the dead, be exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high, be an object of adoration.

75. 42:37

    That He should descend from heaven again. Attended with incessant lightnings that should come to Zion, raise the dead, subdue the nations, and establish His name forever. All that he says you can learn from the sounds. The whole gospel is laid out for us in the book of sounds, says John Thomas. And he was struggling with the hymn book because it was Robert Roberts who brought in the golden harp.

76. 43:09

    And John Thomas loved the sounds. He was one of the best psalmist of the best hymn books, and we call it one of the best because one of the least inconsistent with the truth is the collection of rhymes in use among us. But still the objections to other soundies lies with equal weight against this one, namely, it is composed of uninspired deities, that’s John Thomas. Hence our hymn book does not contain a single spiritual song or song of the Spirit.

77. 43:50

    In my view of the case, the Samadi of the body of Christ ought to be as spiritual as the revelations of the Old and New Testaments, and we might just as well have a great book for our Bible as human political compositions for our Samadi. Uninspired men, however great, good, learned or poetical, are all incompetent to the task of composing a Sartre fit for the celebration of the works, the wonders and the excellencies of the Lords. Our God.

78. 44:22

    Then you ask yourself what can be done under these circumstances? In reply to this enquiry says, I would observe that if I had no remedy to propose, I should have remained silent upon this topic, which is a delicate one. It’s difficult. We all love our handbook. We’ve got to be careful. There’s things in there which are not Scripture, so it had only a new compilation of uninspired rhymes. To offer the foregoing observation would be invidious, but I feel as free from this imputation as though no meters were in use of us.

79. 44:55

    I now advocate the claims of the psalmody of which the Holy Spirit is the author, in preference to all others whatsoever. I have therefore been encouraged by several brethren to undertake the work, determined to attempt the improvement, or rather the restoration, of the ancient psalmody of the body of Christ. Now I’m more impelled to essay this in obedience to the command of the apostle, which has already been considered a command.

80. 45:21

    I conceive as much to be obeyed as any other that can be adduced. And he started to put the psalms to meter. There’s an example here of Psalm 51 here in the Samadi. He went through the psalms and put them to meters. So without changing the words, hardly he wanted to use the sounds and make the sounds.

81. 45:47

    Our handbook. If you look through the old Christadelphia you find several of those psalms 72 another ones, and I don’t know why that was never taken up. Maybe his work was destroyed by that fire that destroyed his printing press. It was certainly John Thomas idea that we should use the sounds in our worship, both in our prayers and in the hymns we sings.

82. 46:13

    And he concludes his article with this by query. A query by way of finale. What psalmody extant? Is it probable Messiah will choose to the praise and glory of God when He comes to open the worship of the millennial age? Would you select the rhythmical, uninspired traditions of any sect extent, or rather those spiritual odes so replete with the celebrations of His varied fortunes as either psalms, hymns, and songs of the Spirit of God?

83. 46:54

    Doubtless the latter. Let us then resolve to do so too, but it. John Thomas, thank you.