1361. An Introduction to the Psalms

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That tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform today on The Daily Platform.

Dr. Steve Pettit will begin a new study series from the book of Psalms entitled encountering God like ask you to take your Bibles and turn with me please to the book of Psalms chapter 73 and I want you to open your Scriptures there and then leave it there.

As we began because today I want to do just an overall introduction to the book of Psalms as we will look at it over the course of this semester in your estimation what you think is ranked the most popular book in the Bible there 66 books in the Bible which would be the one that people turn to the most and if you say it's the book of Psalms, then you're correct is always been consistently ranked as the number one book in the Bible that people read. So the question is why. What is it about the Psalm that causes the Psalms that causes the people of God to turn to it so consistent so consistently. What is it about the Psalms that makes it so appealing to us on the autobiography of the early church father Augustine entitled confessions to close the book of Psalms on nearly every page any tells us why that is because he saw that after he was saved that the Psalms were central to the reorientation of his life, both spiritually and morally.

Another words, reorienting his life towards God.

Augustine spoke of being set on fire when he read the Psalms and most significantly, he viewed us all as the story of his own soul.

In other words, why is it that we turn to the Psalms because we see ourselves in the Psalms as we read them. It's like God is telling your story, you could call it your story as you read the Psalms 1 writer Trevor Longman. The third writes the Psalms appeals to the whole person. It informs that the intellect it arouses our emotions. It directs our wills and it stimulates our imaginations when we read the Psalms with faith we always come away changed through the Psalms.

People have had life changing encounters with God's answer question. Have you ever felt like you met God when you read the Psalms. I was a youth pastor of the state of Michigan from 1980 to 1985 in 1982 I brought our seniors from our Christian school on a senior trip down to the wilds in North Carolina was also during that time I've been in the ministry for a couple years. I was actually going through a number of personal struggles of one of those was just the reality that I was not gonna make a lot of money in life. I hate to say that that was what I was thinking two years, been married for two years living off of youth pastor wages. I was making probably about $12,000 a year and so that's not a lot of money. By the way is it will. That was like a thousand years ago.

Be quiet.

It wasn't that long and I was I was driving a Baptist beater car you own a Baptist beater bar we got a bunch of them here on campus in a I really found myself personally struggling and that is living in the light of what others had and what I didn't have. So I was struggling and that's where the Psalms comes in because every struggle we go through in life you can find an answer to the book is so I, Psalm 70, and notice what it says in the beginning I go in the wilds is a room there and I go that I have my devotions early in the morning before the day starts and I'm reading Psalm 73 Justin daily Bible reading in the starts out since truly God is good to Israel. Even the sites that are a clean heart, but as for me, my feet were almost all my steps, it will not slip for.

I was envious and foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

I went and all of a sudden I entered into what Dr. Les Ola calls the I am level was at me. It means God meets you right where you are, that which are struggling with whether it's sin or whether it's issues or confusion or whatever.

And God met me there and if you read through the rest of us all is the Psalm is dealing with the struggle he had in his own heart the prosperity the wicked, and it seem like the righteous. Just keep suffering and then he came to the conclusion to the end of the book and that is what you only see is the president you don't see the reality of eternity and he makes a conclusion down in the end of the chair of Psalm 73 when he says in verse 25 whom have I in heaven, but the and there's none upon earth that I desire beside the my heart, my flesh, my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart, and he is my portion forever and ever.

The words of I have got to have everything and really that was an experience for me.

All like up like a mini revival.

During that time I was there and God reoriented my my mind. My spirit, my heart back to him.

What happens when we encounter God in the Psalms. When Moses encountered God speaking out of a burning bush in the Sinai desert. What did he do. The Bible tells us that he took off his shoes and irreverently worship God. The Psalms were written so that we could hear God's voice speaking to us directly and we could worship God reverently someone right in this way, the Psalms illuminates the mind for the purpose of in kindling the soul.

Indeed, putting the soul on fire. It may be said that the purpose of the Psalms is to turn your soul into a burning perhaps no one understood this better than David who is the primary author of the Psalms. He wrote right about 50% of the songs and the Bible summarizes Dave his experience of encountering God when it says he was a man after God's own. I think of that verse in my Amanda, are you a woman after God's own heart. David had multiple personal encounters with God and he expressed them in the songs. David had constant I am level experience suits with God. I am level meeting God on the level where I am not what people think about me, but what God knows about me right where I am in the deepest recesses of my soul and the book of Psalms takes the God and literally like ointment to to open or medicine to the soul, God speaks right to the heart. As you read the book of Psalms and so that's what I hope this semester you will personally experience and encounter with God through the book of Psalms. So as we begin this this study, let me just start out with some basic what I would call simple elements of the book of Psalms just introductory material that will move through this and it is just foundational. So for things. Number one the first thing is the special features of the song and one of them is that the Psalms is the largest book in the Bible it contains 150 chapters in 2461 versus the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm one 1976 versus the shortest Psalm is Psalm 117.

It only has two versus Psalm 117 is the middle chapter of the Bible is the very center of the 1189 chapters that are found in Genesis to Revelation. Psalms is written by more altars than any other book in the Bible, as we mentioned David, who wrote at least 50% of the book of Psalms, and he was called the sweet psalmist of Israel. Psalms took the longest time. To ride almost a thousand years, going all the way back to the oldest Psalm Psalm 90 written by Moses at about 1400 BC all the way up to somewhere around 500 BC when the exiles came out of Babylon back to the land of Israel and Psalm 121 was written Psalms is the most quoted Old Testament book of the New Testament. Out of the 360 Old Testament quotations or illusions in the New Testament the hundred and 12 of them come from the song's. The Psalms contains more prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament and the Old Testament than any other book in the Old Testament. It reveals the Messiah as the son of God. Psalm to the Son of Man.

Psalm eight reveals his obedience. Psalm 40 his betrayal.

Psalm 41 his crucifixion. Psalm 22, his resurrection Psalm 16 the ascension of the Lord. Psalm 68 and his enthronement of sitting at the right hand of the father and Psalm 110 and probably one of the most unique elements of the book of Psalms is that it was the Jewish songbook.

It was the hymnal for the Jewish people because the songs were always Psalm the word Psalms in in in Hebrew means praises in the Greek language. It means the plucking of strain and the idea of the Psalms is that they are praise songs to be sung back to God using musical accompaniment using or plucking streamed instruments like the heart or the liar or as we can modernize it today as we use multiple stringed instruments as we sing in church or strumming a guitar and a small group. The collection of these 150 songs and one book serves as the first hymnal for the people of God because it is going to the absolute importance that we worship God, and what I want to really emphasize is that you need to develop the daily habit.

We often say a Bible reading but actually is the daily habit of worship where I tune my heart I calibrate my heart, the human heart is like a stringed instrument. He gets out of tune very quickly and you gotta take time to tune it up. We all have to tune our hearts every day we get we can get flat or we can get sharp we get flat or sharp because we use it we can get flat or short because we don't use it. We just get out of tune naturally in the whole purpose of Psalms is killing our hearts out to God so that we focus on him and sing his praise. That leads me to the second thing and that is the style of the book of Psalms as we understand literary style slight narratives telling a story or prose like reading a a book of a book from the apostle Paul was the Psalms is essentially what we call Hebrew portrait but are you moving toward tree is very different than standard poetry we have in the English language that is built primarily upon arriving, and almost all of our hymnals. All our humans are humans written on that standard form with a rhyme at the end of each line, but he report tree is very different.

It is written on the idea of rhythm and most importantly parallelism. The idea parallelism is that there are two lines and the two lines work together, emphasizing some particular weight or some particular idea. For example, there is synonymous parallelism. That's kind of the most standard way so line is written, and that is where the second line repeats the first line and is just said differently. For example, in Psalm 7836 we say, but they flattered him with their mouths, they lie to him with their tongues. The second line is essentially saying when the first line is saying just slightly different. That's called synonymous parallelism we go together.

Then there's and to antithetic parallelism that is that one line, the second line contrast the first line. For example, Psalm 34 verse 10 the young lions, lack, and suffer hunger is a contrast those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing so is not rhyming is the idea of ideas working together and then the third form is called synthetic parallelism, and that is the second line adds to the first or explains it more thoroughly. This when you all know Psalm 23 verse one Lord is my shepherd and what's the addition to that, I shall not want. Another words that's because he is our shepherd and therefore he's going to provide all of my basic needs of life and of course all of that speaks to our souls.

Hebrew portrait he is written in such a way as to create vivid pictures to stir our emotions and our imagination. I mentioned Psalm 23. Think of all the pictures there and that's all a shepherd green pastures still waters the Valley of the shadow of death, he anoints my head with oil. He sets a table provided with a meal.

Rod and staff. This is the way the Hebrews, communicate, they always communicate with illustrations and images and figures of speech. Why, because it touches both the mind and the emotions you and I both know we all know that you can eat food that is very land. So what you do to make it tasty.

You put stuff on it, saw pepper, butter, garlic, hot sauce everything that you can do to make it tasty and God takes is true and it's not that it's bland, but because of who we are. He takes it in. He makes it tasty.

That's why the reading of the book of Psalms is so wonderful because it's it's it's taste for the soul included in the book of Psalms are a variety of types of salt and there are many different types of one rider trooper Longman in his book on how to read the Psalms gave seven different types of salt number one there are wisdom Psalms were to look at that next week.

In Psalm one we talk about discovering true happiness is where wisdom the secular Psalms of the lament. That's 1/3 of the Psalms.

What is a lament is the emotional heart cry of someone who is this grass living in difficult times if I could say it this way. They are people that are struggling with mental health.

How do you think you can say this way life is sometimes terrible but God is good and so we're going to look at one of those Psalms of lament in Psalm 90 where it talks about, have mercy on me, and the number three. There the Royal Saul. Saul, the prophesy of the coming rule and reign of the Messiah number four. There are him Psalms, that is, they are there times of just exuberant praise to the Lord. Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. We will look at that Psalm and is entitled you a latte and the fifth is our Thanksgiving Psalms. These are songs that express gratitude to God for his abundant blessings. Psalm 19 will study that glory to God in the number six. There are remembrance Psalms where God actually goes through the history of the Jewish people and we find those in Psalms like Psalm 78, and then finally the last or Psalms of confidence or Psalms of trust where the psalmist acknowledges his trust in the Lord's protection and his power and his provision. He is able to be at peace because we we are able to be at peace because we have confidence in God were to look at Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd in Psalm 121 the Lord is my helper and my keeper. All of these for the purpose of our hearts being kindled back to God that leads me to the third element of this introduction, and that is the superscriptions that are written in the songs. Now you've noticed these before and that is out of the 150 Psalms, 116 of them have different what we call titles or headings or notations.

For example, one identifies the offer author Psalm 90 it says a Psalm of Moses, the man of God. Psalm 120 to Psalm 134 a song of degrees or Psalms of a sentence, you often read a Psalm of David. It establishes and identifies the author establish its historical circumstances and context.

Sometimes it's David, who after he met this priest of any wrote this all for David Aziz running from Saul and he is hiding in the wilderness and sometimes the Psalms. The superscriptions explain how the Psalm should be sung or played on a piety of physical instruments and probably one of the most key superscription words we read in the book of Psalms is found 71 times you've read it before. It's the word. See law SELA H what is that mean well is a variety of meanings. Some think it means a change of musical accompaniment Psalms look at is a brief interlude with string instruments, or we would say break is being taken but primarily the ideas come to mean that when you come to the word. See law. It literally means to stop and think about think about this because what what's in our mind is not just reading it. It's meditating is thinking about it it's applying it to our life. We do take time and we are to meditate on and then the last thing I want to talk about are the steps that we can take to make the songs. What we what what I think God really intends for them to be in our own lives in 33 steps, all talk about their very very simple things.

Number one. The first is you really need to take time to study and meditate on this. Think about it, you started your day every day just by reading one Psalm.

If you read one Psalm a day that you would read the book of Psalms 2 times a year. If you want to spend more time if you read five Psalms a day to read through the whole book of Psalms in one month but really what you need to do is study and meditate. Meditation simply means to think about it it's like what I was doing when I was reading Psalm 73. And here's the awesome thing about the book of Psalms that God meets you right where you are based on wherever you are in your life personally.

Here I was struggling with where I was, financially, and I read Psalm 73.

It's like boom is like God is speaking to you and this is the idea of the meditation.

It is the reflection of the word that your reading within the context of your own life and so you need to study and meditate upon it you need to write your ideas down. That's called journaling I died I started journaling when I didn't even know there was a popular word that literally was sit down and I would read what I was thinking about as I was reading the book of Psalms. I've done this many times. Make a biography of God as you read through Psalms. Every time you see something about the nature of God, write that down and so you build this biography of your God.

Memorize this particular Psalms that means something to you that speak to your and then I would encourage you something I've done recently over the last axiom.I did it before I came to Bob Jones.

Is it every year my of my birthday. I study the Psalm of my birthday, so if you turn 19 is study Psalm 90 turn 20 study Psalm 20 in each year you keep adding those Psalms and take a day or two or three. Are we just to work through that particular song and this year I studied Psalm 39 so that's that's the process I'm glad you're still awake thinking so study and meditate. Secondly, how many of you ever struggle with just praying. I maybe ever struggle with prayer, if you find yourself you want to praying start praying and suddenly your mind wanders, how many of you have ever come if you've ever studied. You try to praying you found yourself becoming like Peter, Paul and James you falsely by redo them. My wife said why noticed that you are praying, as I you know Jesus because it is a big rule spot. Why were right where your head the book of Psalms were written to actually be our guide, through prayer, where you literally take this all and you turn the Psalm into really guiding you in what to say to God, I mean truly God is good. Israel hears your prayer Lord, thank you that your good, even to them that are of a clean heart.

God, I will. I thank you that you cleanse my heart and the blood of Jesus.

And I pray Lord to cleanse my heart right now from all lessons. That's verse one, it becomes your guide to prayer in it what it will do is it will enrich your prayer life.

It will expand your prayer life. And finally, the last thing is to actually sing one of the evidential signs of the spear control person is that they saying spontaneously.

Now everybody's involved in music, but most people involved in music today are not really singing there listening they put on their earbuds and they listen to the song. I'm not saying that that's wrong. I just simply saying this spiritual people saying and they they take verses of Scripture. In some cases they make up their own songs, but it is a heart that is filled with truth and their worshiping God in the book of Psalms was written that we could have real genuine encounters with God. Here's my hope over this semester that there will be in your own life your own personal experience, a time where a song or particular Psalms just literally jump out and speak to you and you respond to God in humility and dependence in obedience to what you'll see is the truth of God coming alive in your life. Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the book of Psalms that was written to teach us how to know you, oh Lord, I pray for our student body that many of them will experience the burning bush of what you did for Moses in the wilderness you do in our hearts through your word. Oh Lord, speak to us, that we might walk with you.

In Jesus name, amen. You been listening to a sermon from Dr. Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University from the study series encountering God, which is a study from the book of Psalms we would urge you to get a copy of the study booklet so you can follow along as you listen to the sermons you can get a printed copy from our website. The Daily Platform.com. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study of Psalms here on The Daily Platform