Pastor Ed's Series of Psalms

Psalm 1 | Psalm 2 | Psalm 3 | Psalm 4 | Psalm 5 | Psalm 6 | Psalm 7 | Psalm 8
Psalm 9-10 | Psalm 11 | Psalm 12 | Psalm 13 | Psalm 14 | Psalm 15
Psalm 16 | Psalm 17 | Psalm 18 | Psalm 19 | Psalm 22 | Psalm 23
Psalm 27 | Psalms 28-30 | Psalms 31-32 | Psalm 33 | Psalm 34
Psalm 35 | Psalm 36-37 | Psalm 38 | Psalm 39 | Psalm 40 |
Psalm 41 | Psalm 42-43

Psalm 1
10/22/09

I love studying the Psalms. They deal with our personal relationship with God. Author Philip Yancey said of the Psalms: “more than any other book of the Bible, Psalms reveals what a heartfelt soul-starved single minded relationship with God looks like.”

I wanted to do a series on Psalms because:

(a) They have had a profound influence on my relationship with God:

When we were trying to sell our house in Colorado, we were comforted by the words of Psalm 112:7: He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. And we were getting a lot of bad news at the time!

I used the Psalms with another Christian brother at the National Day of Prayer to have devotions and study with. This brought us closer together and closer to the Lord.

Psalms has been a constant source of comfort and joy in my daily reading.

(b) Studying the Psalms will take us on a spiritual journey because they have so many facets -

The first facet comes from the title itself. The Hebrew title means Praises, or Book of Praises. The Hebrew word is tehillim, which is taken from the same root for Hallelujah. Another title is simply “prayers.” They are also called Davidic because of David's large influence on them. David is called a man after God's own heart. Hebrews 4:7 says, Therefore, God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

Psalms also gives us:

Laments
Wisdom
Historical
Thanksgiving
Messianic

Before we start with Psalm 1, let's look at some of the fascinating history of the Psalms.

Scholars generally agree that most if not all of the Psalms were composed for public worship in the temple in Jerusalem. The Greek word for Psalm – I won't try to pronounce it – but it means “a poem to be sung to a stringed instrument.” Early Christians used the Psalms in this way:

Ephesians 5:19: Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.

Colossians 3:16: Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Many of the titles of the Psalms have associations with public events:

Psalm 100 Includes the phrase for the thanksgiving offering in the heading
Psalm 38,70 For the memorial offering
Psalm 30 Performed for the dedication of the temple
Psalm 92 Declares itself a song for the Sabbath day

More support for the public use is the mention of 24 Psalms of several guilds of the temple singers Asaph, Heman, Sons of Korah, and Ethan

I Chronicles 15: 17-19: so the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his brothers, Asaph son of Berekiah, and from their brothers the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah...the musicians Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals.

Other Psalms have written in the body itself reference to public worship:

Psalm 24:4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts and joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

Psalm 68:24-27: Your procession has come into view O God, the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary. In front are the singers, after them are the musicians, with them are the maidens playing tambourines.

Divisions of the Psalms:

Hebrew tradition divides the Psalms into 5 books – to pattern after the Pentateuch. It was said that “Moses gave to the Israelites the first 5 books of the law and as a counterpart to these, David gave them the Psalms which consist of 5 books.”

The contrast is this: the law was given to the people from Jehovah, and the Psalms are given to Jehovah from the people.

The collection was accumulated gradually, over a period of 800 years. It's amazing that the language is still consistent despite the culture changes.

Authorship:

Of the 150 Psalms, these are attributed directly in their titles to these authors:

> 73 to David – but some scholars think he is the author of all of them
> 12 to Asaph – he is one of the heads of David's choir in Jerusalem
> 11 to Sons of Korah – they held a high position to temple worship by David
> 2 Psalms 72 and 127 to Solomon
> 1 Psalm each to Moses (90), Ethan (89), and Heman (88)

The other 49 Psalms don't have a specific author in their heading, but many of these are attributed to David – also Jeremiah, Hezekiah, and Zechariah are given credit.

Transition from public to private worship

Today, we normally think of Psalms as private prayers. There were 2 key events in the history if Israel which caused this:

Destruction of 1st temple – known as the temple of Solomon to the hands of the Babylonian empire in 586 BC. Israel was swept into exile, the temple was razed to the ground – worship there no longer existed. The use of the Psalms shifted to what they were trying to teach. The Psalms were fiercely preserved as the Israelites endured the exile.

Imagine the culture change – we read Psalm 137 – By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy. They said sing on of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the songs of the Lord when on a foreign land?

The second temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 We have not had the temple or temple worship since! Since that time, the Jewish people have turned inward with their Psalms as models of personal prayer and as sources of divine guidance for holy living.

Conclusion

Today, we as Christians share a reverence with the Jewish people for the Psalms. 3 main ideas for our use of the Psalms today are:

> Guides to personal prayer – we all want to improve our spiritual lives
> Psalms form the basis for many hymns and praise choruses. Examples:

Psalm 121 I lift my eyes up to the mountains
Psalm 42 As the deer pants for the water
Psalm 8 O Lord how majestic is your name
Psalm 18 Blessed be the rock
Psalm 48 Great and mighty is he
Psalm 51 Create in me a clean heart
Psalm 61 Hear my cry
Psalm 66 Awesome God
Psalm 70 Be magnified
Psalm 73 More love, more power
Psalm 97 I exalt Thee
Psalm 118 Today is the day
Psalm 150 Let everything that has breath
> Psalms still serve as a scriptural resource for the Divine word of God speaking to us in our circumstances.
Let's go on to Psalm 1:
Psalm 1:

This Psalm has no authorship in the title – it has been called an introductory book to the Psalms. Verse 1: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

The word blessed conveys the idea of happiness that flows from a sense of well being and righteousness.. The first commands of Psalm 1 are to avoid negative lifestyles. Associating with things opposed to God. It has been suggested that the order of the verbs represent a gradual descent into evil – walk, stand, sit. The language is similar to Deuteronomy 6:7 – impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

'Wicked' – are meant to be the lawbreakers, found guilty in a court of law.
'Sinners' – not just isolated acts, but lives who are committed to evil
'Mockers' – are meant to mean those who disdain righteous living. Mockers act out of pride. Proverbs 21:24 – The proud and arrogant man – mocker is his name, he behaves with overweening pride.

Verse 2: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

The word “but” is often used to introduce an exception after a negative statement. It means “but rather.” The law refers to the Torah – the first 5 books of the Old Testament. The verb meditate refers to a word that initiates the sound of low voices murmuring or muttering as one reads the Scripture in a low undertone. Basically talking to yourself! Day and night shows how seriously we should take this.

Verse 3: He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

The comparison between one who studies the Torah with a fruit tree is also found in Jeremiah 17:7-8. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

The tree is planted by a master gardener to ensure that it will be well nourished and that it will bear fruit and be successful.

Verse 4: Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. The word chaff refers to the husk of grain that has been loosened from the grain and is allowed to be swept away and is useless.

Verse 5-6: Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

The way of person is their chosen lifestyle – a life path that determines one's ultimate destination. Jesus warns his listeners in words similar to the conclusion of Psalm 1 to choose the narrow road over the broad one. He uses two illustrations: Matthew 7:13-14 – Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Vs 24-27 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Conclusion

It is very clear from Psalm 1 that we have 2 choices – one leads to destruction, one leads to everlasting life. There is a command for us in this Psalm and that is to meditate on God's word day and night. By doing so, it will influence how we live and the choices we make.