Psalms: The Psalter Driven Life

Psalms: The Psalter Driven Life
Setting our Hearts (lavav) on God’s Word
Introduction:

The book of Psalms can be one of the most intimidating and yet, one of the most rousingly inspiring books of sacred scripture. Much of the life of our Lord is either alluded to or directly implied within this collection of poems and hymns from Israel. It is a remarkable endorsement that even in his most excruciating hour, Jesus found comfort in reciting “The Treasury of David”. It may be that the reason the Psalms can be so intimidating is because of their breadth, but I think it is more because so many of the Psalms constitute a full disclosure of the thought life and emotional state their authors (warts and all). We religious folk are not always comfortable with that kind of transparency. The Psalms are rigorously intimate. But that is the very reason that they are also so inspiring and so rewarding; because they demonstrate the full orbed humanity of the believer in God. The psalms are not plastic piety, mass produced for easy consumption. They take a lifetime of meditation. You will never exhaust this vast warehouse of devotion and worship.

Title: “Book of Praises” (Hebrew); “Psalms” –verbal form means plucking strings; the Psalter

Date: spanning 1400 BC to around 500 BC (900 yrs)

Author(s): Moses (Ps 90), David (75 out 150), Sons of Korah, Solomon (Ps 72 and 127), Asaph, Heman, Ethan and Ezra, about 48 are anonymous. (Editorial arr. 5 books to match the Pentateuch).

Poetical style: parallelisms; wisdom literature; lamentations; penitence; thanksgiving (messianic)

Most frequently quoted OT book in NT
Purpose to “engender the proper praise and worship of God” Jmac.
Theme is trusting God while living in a fallen world (being faithful to him when He seems hard to find).
Practical theology

“The sovereignty of God is everywhere recognized, but not at the expense of genuine human responsibility. Life often seems to be out of control, and yet all events and situations are understood in the light of divine providence as being right on course according to God’s timetable. Assuring glimpses of a future ”God’s day” bolsters the call for perseverance to the end” (JMac, Study Bible).


Three uses of Psalms to produce Christian growth: to mature, to meditate and to magnify-
· All three are theologically driven




I. Reading the Psalms will Make the Christian to Mature:
Wisdom Literature (Right Living)

1. What Wisdom literature is:
The term wisdom means everything from technical, artisan, ethical, to government
Refers to lit. from Job to Song of Solomon
Created and collected by sages

Solomon was a sage par excellence:
29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. 30 Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all men— than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. 32He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his  songs were one thousand and five. 33 Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. 34 And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. (1 King 4:29-34).

2. An Example of Wisdom Literature in the Psalms:

The fool has said in his heart,“There is no God” (Ps 14:1)
And So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom (90:12).

3. How it helps the Christian to mature

God has made the wisdom of the wise into foolishness. The eternal things of the knowledge and wisdom of God are hidden from the scholars and scribes who, claiming to be wise have made themselves into fools. It was through wisdom that God made the heavens and the earth and that wisdom became flesh and dwelt among us submitting to the follies of men and according to the wisdom of God, was nailed to the cross and there he died on our behalf. It is that foolish message that makes the simplest of man wiser then the greatest minds of our time. It is the Fear of God producing wisdom that makes a man or woman richer then gold and rubies. If anyone lacks wisdom, ask God and then listen to His Word in the Psalms.

II. Reading the Psalms will Make the Christians Meditate upon the Meaning of Life:
Lamentation and Penitential


1. What is meditation?
Thinking about the word of Good

2. Example:
137 and 51

3. How to Meditate upon it:
III. Reading the Psalms will Make the Christian Magnify the Lord:
Thanksgiving and Doxology

1. What is Magnifying God?

Doxology: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen (Ps 41:13)
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord (150:6).

Doxology means glory. And nothing is more glorifying to God then worship. But in order to worship God, we must know who He is and what he likes or our worship becomes a pretense and an offense. The Book of Psalms show us that God likes to be worshipped with words and poetry and music. He also wants us to be thankful.

Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name (18:49);
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name (92:1).

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name (104:4)


Magnifying God is not a matter of making him into something he is not already. Magnifying God means opening our eyes to who He already is and seeing that He is too big to be contained by earthly eyes, much less human words and so when we magnify we stretch every adjective and every adverb beyond their limits to describe and magnify a God who cannot be contained by human language. Magnifying God means that we make much of him who makes much of us. Magnifying God restores us to what God originally purposed for us, which is that we would enjoy him and glorify him forever.

2. Examples?

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever:
To Him who alone does great wonders, (136:1-4)







Conclusion:

Spurgeon wrote this in the preface to his collection of sermons on the Psalms: “The delightful study of the Psalms has yielded me boundless profit and ever-growing pleasure”. Perhaps this message will encourage you to follow in Spurgeon’s footsteps so that you too will yield boundless profit and ever-growing pleasure.





1. Corporate Application: How we Worship together.

Psalms is a collection of ancient hymns
Psalms commands and inspires us to sing new songs
Worship is not entertainment, but it can be deeply personal and profoundly satisfying
Worship should always have God as both its subject and its object







2. Personal Application: How we Worship alone

Worship does not end at 11:30 am on Sunday
Begin your day with worship: read the Psalms
Read 5 chapters a day to finish in 1 month
Compose your own psalms