Tim Badger - Class 1: Making the Most of the Psalms (Psa 119)

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

1. 0:00

   Okay, this is the 2018 Day with the Word. Our speaker this morning is Brother Tim Badger of the Brighton Ecclesia in Australia. His topic for the day is Closer to Our God, the Book of Psalms. This is class number one, entitled, Man of My Counsel, Making the Most of the Psalms. The reading for class one was Psalm 119, verses 1 through 24. Brother Tim.

2. 0:30

   Well, good morning, brothers and sisters and young people. Good morning. Nice. Oh, that's great. It's really wonderful to be here with you all this weekend. And unfortunately, my wife and three girls couldn't make it. But it's enjoyable nonetheless to be with you all around the Word of God this weekend. Well, brothers and sisters, what I might do is just show you the course of our studies, God willing, for today and following into Sunday.

3. 1:10

   I'll just put them up here. This is where we're going, God willing, with what we're going to be doing in and around the Book of Psalms. So our first session this morning is just going to be looking at the Psalms in general and how the book works. And opening that up a little bit so we can feel comfortable making use of the Book of Psalms and kind of opening that up in our own personal life from a Bible study point of view, but also how the book informs our personal prayer life.

4. 1:40

   So that's what we're going to be doing in our first session. And then what we're going to do in the following sessions is, particularly in the second one, we're going to look at the Psalms that have to do with lamenting or complaining or pouring out hard times to God in prayer. So we're going to focus on the lament Psalms in our second session and how those can relate to our own personal circumstances.

5. 2:02

   And then from there, we're going to move to the next big theme of the Psalms, and that is Psalms of Praise. So we're going to spend that third study looking at this idea of praise in the Psalms and what instruction it gives us on the idea of praise and how we can make the most use of that.

6. 2:22

   Fourthly, this afternoon, we're going to be looking at a different type of Psalm, and this is going to actually be a collection or a group of two Psalms, Psalm 111, 112. And we're going to be looking at how some of the Psalms are designed to instruct us to respond in our discipleship. So it's a real exhortation for godly living.

7. 2:42

   And so that's another type of Psalm, and we're going to look at that in our fourth session, God willing. And then tomorrow morning, God willing for the exhortation, we're going to look at a Psalm that particularly has to do with the Messiah and what that can tell us about our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

8. 3:00

   And how the Psalms really point forward as a major theme to the coming of the Messiah and our love for his appearing. So that's where we're going, God willing, with our study of the Psalms together. You know, brothers and sisters and young people, I think it's true that as a Christian African community, and certainly like days like today, our emphasis has, and rightly, has consistently been on turning to the Word of God as a place to inform ourselves and to help ourselves and find guidance and spiritual strength.

9. 3:36

   And so we call ourselves Bible students. But brothers and sisters, I think there's something that we need to continually emphasize in our lives as well. And that is the supreme importance of making use of prayer. And I don't mean just prayers for meals or introducing studies or prayers that we might say when we get in a car to go on a car trip.

10. 4:01

    All of those have their place and are supremely important, of course. But the book of Psalms, brothers and sisters, tell us that prayer is meant to be so much more in our life than just thanks for meals and the occasional prayer when we go to bed. This, right in the center, in the heart of our Bible, is a collection of prayers and songs and psalms that tell us this is how we are to pray.

11. 4:28

    This is the extent to which we can pour out our heart to God. And I think if you're like myself, when we turn to psalms, we sometimes can read these psalms and feel distance from these people, these brothers and sisters of old, because they feel so spiritual. And if you're like me, there's these times in life where we just don't feel on that page.

12. 4:49

    And sometimes that's more often than not. And so we come to these psalms where people are saying so in such high language of praise, their appreciation and love for God. And we stop and reflect on our past week or month or year or life. And we wonder if we've ever been in that place where we sit down and pray like these words are in the book of Psalms.

13. 5:16

    And so that's part of the challenge, brothers and sisters, this weekend, is that we want to use this book and learn how to use it and take its advice from the examples of prayers in this book to come closer to God in our own personal discipleship. And certainly we know we're not on the wrong page in doing that, because we know that the book of Psalms was absolutely crucial to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ in everything he did in his life.

14. 5:45

    So that's what we want to try and do, brothers and sisters, to encourage each other to open this book and make use of it so we too can draw that bit closer to God in our life. You know, when the spectacular discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was made, when people were going through those for years after that discovery and looking at all the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, most of the fragments, brothers and sisters, are from the Psalms.

15. 6:16

    In fact, more of the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were turned up 2,000 years after Israel was dispersed by the Romans, most of those fragments, more than even the first five books, the Torah, are from the Psalms. And that tells us something about the importance and the place of this book and the people of God through history.

16. 6:39

    It's actually true as well that there is more Greek copies, for example, Subtuagent, but all the other fragments in Greek that have been found. There's more Greek copies of the Psalms than any other Old Testament section. And that again underscores that this book has been absolutely central to the ups and downs and the trials that the people of God have been through.

17. 7:02

    It's to this book, the Psalms, that people turn in the hardest times during the history of the truth and God's people on the earth. And we also know that along with Isaiah, Psalms is the most frequently quoted book in the New Testament. Of all those Old Testament citations, it's Psalms and Isaiah that are by far the most that are quoted, showing us that not only is Isaiah an important book for helping us in our emotional understanding of God and how to express that and drawing closer to God, but it also has extremely important teaching about the Messiah and God's expectations and promise to his people.

18. 7:49

    In fact, when we come to the amazing book of Hebrews, just in chapter one, we're not going to turn there, but we just open that book that describes to us the importance of Christ in so many ways, and it's kind of like a machine gun firing of quotes from the book of Psalms.

19. 8:05

    It's one Psalm after another in Hebrews chapter one that says this is why Jesus is so important. This is his position. This is why he's better than the angels. This is, and over and over and over again, to the point at which at the end of Hebrews chapter one, the writer to the Hebrews, which I think last year I was just talking to Greg about this way, might be Luke, or might be the Apostle Paul, or maybe it's just God as it says in chapter one.

20. 8:33

    We don't necessarily know. But out of interest, at the end of chapter one, he makes this final quote from the book of Psalms, from Psalm 102, to prove the elevated position of Christ. And you or I, well, I'm talking for myself, I suppose, if you read Psalm 102, we would never read Jesus Christ into Psalm 102, talking about you were the same, you never change, you're like the garments all grow old, but you, oh Lord.

21. 9:01

    And when you look at that quotation, it's a staggering quotation by the writer to the Hebrews and says that this is talking about the Messiah. When we read it, you couldn't, we sort of think, wow, this could only really be Yahweh of the Old Testament. And yet we're being told that even those Psalms have an application in full to the Lord Jesus Christ.

22. 9:21

    So it's quite an extraordinary book. And you know, for thousands of years, brothers and sisters, this book has been where people have turned in hours of need, in times of trial. Nice, I feel like the sound just picked up a little. And the people in the back have just been like, what did he say?

23. 9:41

    Okay. Well, let's just think about how the Psalms work as a book. So we have a little bit of understanding. The Psalms, as a collection, are written, obviously, by a number of different people. So let's just do a quick recap on who writes these. There might be a few screens here that are going to be hard to see from the back, but we'll do our best.

24. 10:06

    So here's our authors in this amazing collection of the book of Psalms. We have David, who obviously, most of the Psalms are ascribed to him. We've got 73. And then it seems like Psalms 72 and 95, according to the New Testament, are also David's Psalms. 12 are ascribed to Asaph. We have the sons of Korah, who have done 10.

25. 10:27

    We have Solomon, Juduthan, Heman, Ethan. Some of those we don't know too much about, but they're all in there. And Moses. And then there's about 50 or so that are completely anonymous that we don't have any idea who wrote them. We can infer, and some of them still are probably the work of David, but we are not told explicitly.

26. 10:47

    But that list is interesting from another point of view, brothers and sisters, and that is this. The earliest psalm that we have in the record was written by Moses, Psalm 90. And he also, I'm absolutely confident, wrote Psalm 91. So the earliest psalm in this collection goes all the way back to the time of Moses, when people were recording these prayers, all the way back to Psalm 90.

27. 11:14

    And we're told that. It's written by Moses, the man of God. Well, when does the last psalm get written? In this collection of 150, the latest psalm that we have. Does anyone know what it is? What's the latest psalm? From Moses all the way to... Come to Psalm 137. Now, there's an exhortation in this that will sort of develop as we go, understanding how this book works.

28. 11:49

    Psalm 137. Verse 1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung up our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion.

29. 12:19

    And they don't, because they can't. And what they do write, the song that they do write, is this one right here. Psalm 137. So, brothers and sisters, this is written by the people that were of the exiles. So, that's an extraordinary thing. That the book of psalms that we have go all the way from Moses all the way to the exiles.

30. 12:41

    And there's everything in between, David and everyone else. Now, that is a long period of time. Over a thousand years, brothers and sisters, that is represented in these psalms. From Moses to the exiles. You have all of these sentiments of the people of God coming to God in praise, but also in lament and complaint.

31. 13:02

    And psalms that describe the history of Israel and all sorts of other things. So, that's an extraordinary length of time. And we're going to see, and we're going to see the reason for this and the exhortation that it holds, is that there's absolutely no doubt that the book of psalms that we have it now, as we have it now, in the order it is, was almost certainly compiled by Ezra and Nehemiah in the exiles.

32. 13:26

    That's the end of the story of the psalms. It was finally compiled at that time by the exiles after all of that year, all of those years of captivity. When we come to the book of psalms, it's actually given in Hebrew, this title, Tehillim, which is the word praises. And actually, that word only occurs in Psalm 145.

33. 13:49

    Just come to Psalm 145. This is what the Hebrews traditionally called this book. Psalm 145, which is an extremely significant psalm in its placing. And we'll see that a bit later. But if you'll notice, Psalm 145, in the heading, it says that this is a praise of David. And that word praise is to Helen, which is where the book gets its actual title from in Hebrew.

34. 14:18

    And it literally just means a psalm, or namely some sort of hymn of praise. So that's where the whole book gets its title from. And Psalm 145 is the only one that mentions that exact phrase. But the interesting thing is, brothers and sisters, when we come to the book, it seems like that title is misleading, because this is the type of psalms that we have.

35. 14:39

    When we look at all of these 150 psalms, spanning from Moses to the exiles, one-third of the book are psalms that we would classify as psalms of praise, where people are coming, and like the title kind of encaptures, to Helen, Psalm of Praise, people are coming to God with confidence that God is at work and that what he's done in the past, looking back to Egypt and redemption from Egypt, and looking back over the history of Israel and what's happened.

36. 15:06

    A third of our psalms are prayers of confidence to God. But you also have psalms that recount the wonders of creation. And we'll get one of those briefly this morning in our third session. But interestingly, this, brothers and sisters, and I want you to take notice of this this weekend. Sometimes when we come to the book of psalms, we think, well, this is mainly a collection of hymns of praises.

37. 15:32

    But that's not true. By far, the hymns or the psalms of lament outweigh the psalms of praise in the book. And that says something to us about the purpose and the reality of this book and the experiences of the people of God through history. There are more hymns of complaint and lament to God.

38. 15:55

    Hymns that are struggling with doubt and not understanding what God's doing. Hymns that are struggling with waiting for God to act and the people, his people, not knowing why he's not acting even though he's promised that he would. By far, those psalms are more common than the psalms that people are saying out of confidence.

39. 16:14

    There's also psalms and some of these overlap, of course, and some of them have elements of both. But there's also psalms that go through the history of Israel. There's psalms that have direct instruction and teaching. There's psalms that are communal and psalms that are personal. So some of those psalms are communal that you can clearly see this would have been a congregational item that they would have used in the temple or other places.

40. 16:39

    And there's ones that are deeply personal. And one of the most challenging types of psalms is what we call or what some people call the imprecatory psalms or the judgment psalms where the psalmist says to God, I want you to obliterate my enemies off the face of the earth. And they use language that strong.

41. 16:58

    Sometimes the psalmist will say, I want you to kick my enemies in the teeth. That's the expressions that are in the psalms. And we, that's one of the challenges that we'll just look at briefly in the psalms. Wow, how do we relate to that? I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ clearly said to love your enemies.

42. 17:13

    And if you're, you know, if they, if you're hit, you turn your cheek. Well, how do we, how do we make use of psalms in that culture today in 2018 trying to live a life of Christ? And we'll just briefly touch on that a little bit later this morning. But our focus is going to be really on the lament and the praise psalms as we go through.

43. 17:34

    Well, the book of psalms is divided into five parts. And this as well might be familiar to you, but let's just have a quick look at it so everyone's on the same page of how this works. There is five books that the psalms are divided into. So the exiles clearly had some deliberate organization in mind.

44. 17:50

    And there was a purpose, right? So there's five books. And I'm going to suggest to you that the first book starts at Psalm 3 and Psalm 1 and 2 is kind of like a little introduction, but we'll see why that's the case in a moment. But let's just quickly, if you can do some Bible marking, all the better this morning.

45. 18:08

    If you haven't marked this in, it's worth just knowing. So the psalms doesn't become like a big gigantic book and you're swimming and not knowing what's going on. So we're just going to take a minute to do this. The first book is Psalms 3 to 41 or 1 to 41. And we know the books are divided the way they are because of these little passages that are found at the end of each book.

46. 18:33

    Now, I've put those verses at the end of each book in pink there. Hopefully you can see them at the back. But those are called doxologies. You may have heard that term before. It's kind of a theological term. But a doxology is a statement of glory. That's what it kind of means. It's basically like a little teeny condensed hymn of praise.

47. 18:52

    Let's have a look at it. Psalm, come to Psalm 41. This is the end of book one. And you've obviously noticed these in the readings before at different times. But look what it says in verse 13. Verse 13.

48. 19:09

    Psalm 41, verse 13. Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, Amen and Amen. Now, it's clearly some sort of ending. And that's a little distilled, highly kind of charged hymn of praise to God. And that is the end of book one. Now, this continues. The second book goes to Psalm 72.

49. 19:33

    So let's just have a quick look at that. We'll just race through these. So Psalm 72 ends on the same note, the end of the second book.

50. 19:46

    Now, look, you might think, okay, that's interesting. But if the exiles did this under inspiration, there must be some sort of reason. And there's lots more that we can even just explore than we can even explore today. But look at verse 18. Notice the common elements here. Blessed be Yahweh, God of Israel.

51. 20:05

    There it is. It's a really similar phrase that keeps coming up over and over again. Who only does wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Now, clearly they're not.

52. 20:22

    Right? Because, like, we've read that before, but then you go on and there's Psalms of David other places through the book of Psalms after this statement. But at this time when they were collecting them, it's almost like they put this together and then they decided to add more to it as they went along.

53. 20:40

    Which is a beautiful thing in terms of how the people of God used this over time as this collection grew. Now, the common elements that we're looking for at the end of each book are the idea of God being blessed, there's some element of being forever in there, and this idea of being kind of a closure.

54. 20:58

    Amen. So let's come to the end of Psalm 89. And you'll see this again. So Psalm 89, just quickly. The same little expression or doxology as some people like to call it. That seems too convoluted to me, so just a little hymn of praise sounds more nice. Verse 52, Blessed be Yahweh forever.

55. 21:23

    Amen and amen. So the blessed Yahweh forever and amen. Come to Psalm 106. Again, you have this statement. Verse 48, Blessed be Yahweh God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say amen. Hallelujah. And then of course, interestingly, the last one is Psalm 145.

56. 21:56

    Now this one's kind of spread out throughout the Psalm because in a sense, brothers and sisters, and we'll see this more clearly in our third session, Psalm 145 is actually, in a sense, the last Psalm in the collection. And you say, well, wait a second, there's still five more left and we'll see their place.

57. 22:13

    But in a sense, Psalm 145 is the final one. So look at this idea, all those elements, blessing, forever, and amen, in that sense, are in there. Have a look at verse 2, for example. Verse 1, I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.

58. 22:34

    That's that same phrase that we've seen. Verse 2, every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. You see the idea? This Psalm is pulling together those little statements that have been found at the end of each book. And in a sense, this Psalm is kind of taking those phrases and stretching them out.

59. 22:51

    And this person is just thinking on those and dwelling on them and praising God in more detail. Well, have a look at verse 21. My mouth shall speak the praise of Yahweh and all flesh shall bless his holy name forever and ever. So do you see how those work? Those are the five endings of the book.

60. 23:15

    But there's no amen in this one. And that's because the amen is actually the last five Psalms. 146, 47, 48, 49, and 50. We'll see that in our third session as he comes to this amazing crescendo ending the whole collection as the exiles put this together. So that's how the book of Psalms works, brothers and sisters.

61. 23:35

    And we know that the order has some significance because in Acts chapter 13 we're told it's written in the second Psalm. So by that time that order is well established. And what I think we want to take away is sometimes the same sort of thing gets us when we read Proverbs is that it feels like you're just wading through this big collection and it feels really random and you're not really sure where it's going.

62. 23:57

    Well I think we need to take away this morning brothers and sisters that this book is highly structured. There's a deliberate purpose to how this book works. Now let's come back just out of interest to Psalm chapter 1 and well Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 because they're going to help us with what this book is all about as well.

63. 24:22

    It's been noted and recognized that these two Psalms really hold the keys to the whole book. So let's have a look at Psalm 1. Neither of these Psalms are ascribed to anyone in the book of Psalms themselves but immediately in Psalm 3 in most of the first book most of them are ascribed to David but not these two Psalms.

64. 24:45

    right? So Psalm 1 is actually all about the people of God listening and keeping the Torah. Now why do we say that? Well look at verse 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the Torah of Yahweh and his Torah he meditates day and night.

65. 25:13

    Now that's the word for Torah which is a reference to Jewish people and at this time as well to the first five books and it's probably not just exclusively those first five books this is the word Torah has to do with teaching so the focus of Psalm 1 is that crucially for the people of God it's his teaching that will keep them going if they delight and love it delight in it and love it.

66. 25:37

    So the focus of Psalm 1 is the central place of the teaching or the Torah of God in the lives of his people. Well what's Psalm 2 all about? Someone just summarize Psalm 2 what's the focus of Psalm 2?

67. 25:57

    In and out of itself Jesus Christ right? The Messiah right? So Psalm 2 is all about the Messiah and Psalm 1 is all about the words of God the teaching of God the Torah the first five books and what you find as you go through every one of those five books of Psalms is those two themes are absolutely central the Torah the teaching of God and the Messiah the Messianic hope and that brothers and sisters is the rock foundation of the book of Psalms from Moses to the people in exile who have who have realized what's so important those two things keep coming up over and over and over again in the Psalms it's the words and the teaching of God that will keep them going and it's the hope of the Messianic King to come the Messiah and that is absolutely central to the faith of these people whether they're going through trial that's excruciating whether they're going through captivity and they're wondering what on earth has happened to the promises of God or whether they're going through times of prosperity and praise those two things can never be left from the life of the people of God and so what what basically happens is the exiles take all these Psalms and they arrange them neatly into five books which are meant to parallel the Torah the first five books brothers and sisters now some people have tried to relate this book one to Genesis and Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy and I've looked into that myself and you may have done so I'm not entirely convinced it's meant to be a complete replica of the first

68. 27:35

    five books but there's no doubt that the people in the exiles put this together and what they're saying is this that this is now the new Torah for the people of God in the form of prayer and it's not a new teaching but it's taking the first five books and the foundational teaching of God from the very beginning for his people and putting it into a prayer book that will allow the people to see how that teaching is meant to be lived out in their life whether in exile far away from the temple or whether in their own life of prosperity wherever they might be it's basically taking that original teaching of God mixing it with the strong hope of the Messiah and putting it together as this is how we are to live this is the new way of living there's no new teaching but it helps people put it in perspective in the ups and downs of life in the form of these prayers found in those five books organized in the end by the exiles and so this becomes brothers and sisters a prayer book for God's people trying to fulfill the Torah the teaching of God and to ensure they wait in hope for the Messiah and that's what we are all about you know brothers and sisters when we look let's just do this at the last book I want to look in more detail at that to underscore the place this has for us this is the structure of how book five works and this is a really useful concept to understand which shows you that this is very

69. 29:13

    deliberate and there's a purpose involved now I don't know if you can read that pink but you'll see so what we have in the fifth book is a deliberate arrangement you have an anonymous hymn or psalm and then you have a collection by David and then another collection that are anonymous and then right in the middle you have the psalms of or the songs of ascents now what do those have to do with what do the songs 120 to 134 what do they have to do with the songs of ascents what's that all about Hezekiah Hezekiah okay and particularly what's he so interested in in those psalms what are they related to yeah there is themes of deliverance for sure relating to the exiles particularly well it probably comes from the name the songs of ascents what does that mean well that name has come from the idea of walking up to the temple and those songs are actually really focused on restoring true worship and they relate highly to the temple of God and the history of how they've been labeled the songs of ascents is that they were it seems like they were used as people were walking up to the temple walking up the steps to the temple that seems to be the most clear interpretation of what that means but they're all linked to restoring true worship which is significant brothers and sisters because that's exactly the interest of the exiles and that's where you find this huge concentration of psalms that are all about restoring true worship in Zion right then you have another collection of anonymous and then some by

70. 30:59

    David and then a final collection of anonymous ones which are the last five psalms the question is well what's really going on here why why are the exiles interested in this well let's just come and make sure we get the idea and this is just a selection of the clues that we find in the last book particularly that the exiles have their fingerprints on the collection of these psalms come to psalm 107 which is the first one of this book psalm 107 now just notice this look what it says in verse 1 all of these are little links that show you the fingerprints of the exiles in this last book particularly oh give thanks to Yahweh for he is good for his mercy endures forever let the redeemed of Yahweh say so the redeemed there's the exiles redeemed from the captivity who has redeemed from the hand of the enemy there's the exiles and gathered out of the land so right away you get a little clue there that this last book particularly has the hand the handling of the exiles in it who are focused on this idea that God has brought them out of the exiles and they are now renewing their faithfulness to the covenant in the Torah and faithfulness to the hope of the Messiah now the little context of this is really crucial as well look at the end of book 4 psalm 106 look at verse 44 this is how this book ends nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry and for their sake now brothers and sisters all of those are sentiments that are very

71. 33:02

    relatable and applicable to those who are in exile in captivity right and look what their prayer is this is the prayer of those who are in captivity verse 47 save us Yahweh our God and gather us from among the Gentiles to give thanks to your holy name to triumph in your praise so you see what's happening psalm 106 the end of book 4 is the prayer of those who are in exile praying to God to save them to gather them from the Gentile nations who have taken them captive and the very next psalm is the prayer of the exiles who have been liberated you have redeemed us and you have gathered us just as we prayed in psalm 106 we also find psalm 137 that we looked at which is clearly by the rivers of Babylon we also find as we have looked at the psalm of ascents in 120 to 134 which have a focus on the temple which was relevant to the exiles returning but also have a look at this brothers and sisters there is a phrase that appears all the way through book 5 and only in book 5 this idea that God has made heaven and earth and that is coming straight from the mouth of Nehemiah come to Nehemiah chapter 9 Nehemiah chapter 9 so this is actually Nehemiah and the people who are confessing their sins at this time now you just look at this this is amazing okay you think of the exiles and the importance of this book of psalms then look at verse 5 of Nehemiah chapter 9 I find this incredibly exciting how the word

72. 34:57

    of God works and the Levites Jeshua this is the people who confess their sins Jeshua said Jeshua Kadmiel Vanai Hashabaniah Sherabiah Hodajah Shebaniah and Pethahiah said now notice the echo stand up and bless Yahweh your God forever and ever blessed be your glorious name and that is exactly the words that are found at the end of every single book in the book of psalms that's the doxology and those were first on the words of the exiles Nehemiah chapter 9 so we now that's completely clear brothers and sisters that when the exiles were putting these together as something that they absolutely depended on for help and strength these psalms that they put those words that were the beginning of their confession at the end of each book now more than that look at this verse 6 you alone are Yahweh you've made heaven and the heavens of heavens with all their host the earth and everything on it the seas and all that is in them and you preserve them all the host of heaven worships you now brothers and sisters that idea that God has made heaven and earth is all the way through the fifth book of psalms and that's coming from the time of the exiles and Nehemiah and their sentiments at the time so there's another fingerprint of the exiles in the divine organization of this book but probably one of the most exciting is this and I want you to come to Psalm 145 you remember that we said in a sense this is the last psalm there's an extraordinary verse in here look what it says in verse 13 and this

73. 36:57

    is almost the central point of the psalm look what it says in verse 13 brothers and sisters your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations now I'm not sure if you check your margin if you have a reference to Daniel chapter 4 do you if it's not in there scratch it in because that is quoted from the lips of Nebuchadnezzar himself come back to Daniel chapter 4 so Daniel chapter 4 verse 3 and 34 and we recognize these words as an echo from Nebuchadnezzar himself a Gentile king brothers and sisters Daniel chapter 4 now we know the story of Nebuchadnezzar and his humbling by God and the transformation that took place at least for a time but look what he says in Daniel chapter 4 verse 3 this is his confession right how great are his signs these are the most extraordinary words ever uttered from a Gentile king it's incredible what's going on in this chapter look what he says how great are his signs and how mighty his wonders his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom his dominion is from generation to generation and that's uttered again in verse 34 and at the end of the time I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever for his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom generation now that is an absolutely awesome truly awesome statement from Nebuchadnezzar Gentile king and those words would have profoundly affected the exiles who would have heard them including Daniel himself and they're picked up

74. 39:08

    in Psalm 145 and are kind of given as the central point of that Psalm the words and the confession of Nebuchadnezzar and you know brothers and sisters the powerful lesson that's coming from this is that Nebuchadnezzar could only say those words when he was humbled by God and he lifted his eyes to heaven in prayer and he was humbled by God in the experiences that he was put through and his sense the idea there his sense only returned to him when he raised his eyes to heaven and prayed these words and realized and brothers and sisters that captures the entire essence of the book of Psalms and it's encapsulated in a Gentile king who was converted at this time to the hope of Israel and Yahweh the God of his people and so the exiles pick that up and say that's exactly the sentiment that the Psalms are actually happening in fact Nebuchadnezzar in that sense illustrates the point and the purpose of the Psalms not only for the exiles but for all of his brothers and sisters that it's telling us to lift our eyes to heaven and turn our life to God in prayer not just sporadically not just when big things happen but every day of our life and so if we're not going through a period of trial like the exiles were and if we're not pouring our hearts to God and being honest with him and how we feel because things are going wrong then we ought to be praising him for the hope of the Messiah and saying as much in our life I think few of us brothers and

75. 40:42

    sisters make use of prayer in the sense in a way in the extent to which the book of Psalms encourages us to do do you know the big lesson for the book of Psalms brothers and sisters is this I think God's saying through his exiles that collect these Psalms and depended on them for their life and hope through trying times and through people who are going through good times God is saying this pray like this that's what he's saying brothers and sisters and if you're like me there's been many times in my life where I turn to the book of Psalms and feel no I'm not even close to this this kind of understanding of God and appreciation and recognition and awareness of him in my life but brothers and sisters what I want you to take away this weekend is to turn to this book and let it help you with your prayers to deepen them and strengthen them not only the content of them but the passion and the sincerity of them as these people pray because that's what they're there for and the exiles gathered them all together a people who are waiting for the fulfillment of the Messiah to return to Zion that's exactly the position that we're in brothers and sisters in a sense we're the exiles that have been liberated but we're waiting for that temple to be rebuilt we are waiting for Messiah from the line of David to restore that throne we are in the same spot and these psalms should be and can be as meaningful to us as they were to the exiles who deliberately

76. 42:17

    put them together to help them through their life and so brothers and sisters there's challenges that we find in this book but at least what we see here is an understanding that this book was used by our brothers and sisters for years and years and years and I believe it's this book that illustrates their true relationship with God and how they use the teaching of God and the hope of the Messiah to do that and to bring them in strength towards God let's just come to Psalm 119 we entitled this session Men of My Council and that phrase comes from Psalm 119 Psalm 119 I think we're aware has many synonyms for the word of God his teaching his commandments his instructions his judgments his statutes but have a look at the attitude of the psalmist toward the word of God look what he says in verse 24 your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors now brothers and sisters what that literally means in Hebrew the word counselors is men of my counselor or men of my council so just to give a visual it's almost like someone who's gone to the elders in their ecclesia and they've asked for advice and they're listening intently to that advice and going away and acting on it and that's how this person sees the word of God he sees the word of God as men of his council and surely brothers and sisters the psalms are a crucial part of that the counselors that we have that get us through the challenges of life and if we use them look at the words that this person

77. 44:34

    uses in the psalm to describe their attitude and how they are his counselors he says in verse 6 he has respect unto all his commandments in verse 6 and that word means to scan to look intently at to regard with favor and consider verse 9 says he takes heed to them which is another word altogether to hedge about or protect and he uses another word in verse 11 your word I've hid in my heart and that means to hoard it away and another word in verse 15 he meditates on God's word to converse with oneself to utter to muse or to pray over verse 16 he delights himself in his statutes verse 18 it's the statutes and commandments and words of God that open his eyes and finally in verse 24 they're men of his counsel that God him and I pray brothers and sisters that we can use this book to be exactly that for ourselves but we will never be able to tap into this book if we don't treat it like the exiles did and that is we've got to soak it in and meditate on it think about it it can't be just when it comes up in the readings and we do the readings in our houses with our families or just at an occasional study day this person brothers and sisters is telling us in these psalms and the exiles are telling this to us as well that these are fundamental to our daily life we've got to make more use of them we've got to turn to them and read them and think about them and meditate on them

78. 46:08

    and use them to help us in our prayers and when we're failing for something to pray about because life is just pretty easy at the moment and there's nothing going wrong in our family or maybe our ecclesia and we're sometimes not motivated to pray because sometimes really prayer only comes when things go wrong then we need to take the message from psalms and says that's the time where we bring praise and confidence into our life and pour it out to God and thank him for the hope that we have you know brothers and sisters our brotherhood continually experiences traumas and tragedies in many different ways in our own families in our ecclesias in the brotherhood and you know the psalms brothers and sisters are not just personal are they so many of these psalms are people praying for the brotherhood and I feel that we brothers and sisters should be praying for the brotherhood praying for each other praying in our own personal way there's so many opportunities for prayer and I think what the psalms is telling us is that God wants us to enter into that and we're going to see that through lament and praise as we go through so brothers and sisters let's just think on those things this morning be inspired by the exiles who put these together under divine guidance that we might use them just as they did to help us through life and be strengthened and inspired by them so that we can draw closer to God no matter what's going on and what's happening in our life in our ecclesia

79. 47:47

    we can draw to the people who have to see the people who have to see the !