Psalms 1-7-24

Overview

Introduction to the Psalms

The Psalms sit at the very center of Scripture and at the heart of the Bible's wisdom literature, alongside Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Wisdom, as Scripture presents it, is living life the way God intended—and it is grounded entirely in God's created order. While other ancient cultures produced their own poetry and proverbs, the wisdom of Scripture is unique because it points to one God who is the source of all truth, righteousness, and understanding. Our righteousness is not finally a human achievement but is fulfilled for us in Christ.

God the Poet of Creation

There is a beautiful thread running from Genesis to the creeds. When the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds confess God as "Maker of heaven and earth," the Greek word behind "maker" is poiētēs—the same word from which we get "poet." We could rightly confess God as the Poet of heaven and earth. As Oswald Bayer put it, "God is the first poet and creation is his poem—a work made by speaking." This frames our reading of the Psalms: the God who spoke creation into being now gives us heightened, poetic words by which to speak back to him.

Reading the Psalms Well

Though the Psalms are poetry, do not be intimidated. A few simple features unlock much of their richness:

• Parallels and contrasts — weeping and joy in Psalm 126:4-6; the wicked and the righteous, cursed and blessed in Psalm 37:21-23.
• Repetition — "Wait for the LORD" framing Psalm 27:14; the fourfold "Bless the LORD" of Psalm 103:20-22.
• Gospel word-pairings — sin and mercy, wickedness and righteousness, curse and blessing.

These patterns are not decoration; they carry meaning and invite meditation.

Luther and the Psalter as Refuge and Prayer Book

Luther carried a Psalter throughout his life and turned to it constantly amid depression and physical affliction. Beside Psalm 119:92 he wrote, "If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." He called the Psalter "a little Bible," in which "everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended." He urged Christians to pray the Psalms, insisting that no human composition can match their fire, sap, and strength because they are God's own words returned to him in prayer.

A Mirror for the Human Heart

The Psalms lay bare the soul. Psalm 51, David's confession after his sin with Bathsheba and against Uriah, models honest repentance: a desperate plea for mercy joined with confidence that God's steadfast love will blot out transgression. This is why the Church prays Psalm 51 every Ash Wednesday—our hearts, like David's, must be exposed before the Lord who alone forgives.

Whatever season you find yourself in—joy, sorrow, fear, gratitude, repentance—there is a psalm that fits. As Luther said, "Place the book of Psalms in front of you. You will see your own self in it." Whether it is Psalm 23 in the valley, Psalm 119 in love for God's word, or Psalm 51 in confession, the Psalter trains us to pray.

Pastoral Application

Make the Psalter a companion. Pray the Psalms aloud, even when your own words fail. You need not be eloquent—you are speaking God's own words back to him. Let them shape your repentance, voice your joy, steady you in affliction, and teach you, season by season, to know both yourself and the God who created and redeemed you.

Transcript

Heavenly Lord, we thank you so much. We thank you for this new year. We thank you for this 3s

new time of study. Lord, we ask that you would lead us by your spirit through the study that we 9s

have this morning that you would fill us with knowledge and devotion and love to you. Lord, we thank 16s

you for your word that it is always speaking to us and that every time we turn to your word, 24s

Lord, you, you show us more and more who you are. Lord, we ask that we would be shaped by your word, 31s

that we would live according to your word and that we would rejoice, knowing that the promise of 38s

your word, the promise of life eternal is ours through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 46s

Okay, so today because this whole semester any sort of any class I'm teaching is going to be 53s

on the Psalms. I think I have three and then four, I don't know, it's it I think six or seven classes. 60s

So so a couple of things today we're going to we're going to start with an introduction to the Psalms 70s

and the Psalms are part of what is referred to as the books of wisdom. So so when you are when you 77s

open your Bible to the middle and you find yourself at the book of Psalms that is not only at the 87s

center of the Bible, but it's also in the center of the books of wisdom books of wisdom in scripture 93s

include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon so that middle section of your 100s

scripture prior to the prophet and after the Pentateuch and history that is where we find 110s

these books of what wisdom wisdom is living life the way that God intended in the books of wisdom we 119s

receive a bounty of living a righteous life we find righteousness written about talked about a lot 127s

in the books of wisdom we also see God in the books of wisdom we see God that he is holy he is 137s

righteous wise he is the just creator all of these themes are found within the books of wisdom 146s

it's interesting because you'll will hear in the in throughout the ages in the secular world and even 156s

within the Christian world some of you'll hear these comparisons made between the Israelites and 163s

Christians and those around them and and saying there are all these overlaps that you know well 170s

well the Christians have a story of creation but so does this culture and so does this culture and 176s

and really it's just a story and and it's just a way to try to explain things every culture has a 181s

creation story and so it's it's leading into this comparison comparison where where we compare the 189s

Bible as one of many ways to know God or one of many ways to show us how to live righteously but that 197s

that is in error it is an error to say that the Bible is just one more story in how we can live or 207s

how we can speak to be good people some overlap there is some overlap in wise sayings in the books 217s

of wisdom there might be some some some overlap between the books of wisdom and other cultures 227s

of the ancient near east but there's a major clarification that has to keep forefront for us in our 234s

minds and that wisdom wisdom is based on God's created order wisdom is based on God's created order 243s

all wisdom all truth belongs to God and he has given this to his people also biblical wisdom is 257s

different than all the other cultures and religions because it emphasizes one God it emphasizes one 270s

God God who is the source of all knowledge God who is the source of all understanding all that 280s

is right and wrong is according to God's wisdom and perfection whether we want to make comparisons or 287s

not we know that the source of all truth the source of all that is true is God and so everything 297s

everything we know everything we learn everything we do everything we say is is in accordance with the 309s

wisdom of God it's according to his wisdom according to his perfection and our right our righteousness our 318s

rightness is fulfilled in Christ for us wisdom books are filled with poetry and prose but 328s

don't let this stop you from loving the Psalms don't let this stop you from loving the books of 339s

wisdom and don't let it stop you or intimidate you from turning to the Psalms I know 347s

so oftentimes with the book of Psalms it is either oh I love the Psalms or oh my gosh I'm trying to 355s

get through the Psalms because it's it's very high high nature with with the writing it's very 366s

very high uh verbiage and and so it's we get lost or we can get lost um I personally am not one 373s

that sits down often with a book of poetry but Psalms are different the Psalms are different and so 382s

even if you do not uh excuse me even if you do not love poetry you can still love the book of 390s

Psalms and the books of wisdom um uh uh do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do so 398s

Okay, so this is so cool. This is so cool. So in Genesis, in Genesis, we read in the beginning, 406s

God created the heavens and the earth, right? And in Hebrew, and if you know Hebrew, just forgive my 414s

pronunciation, but in Hebrew it says, bereshith, bera, eto heim, et tasha'mayam, et, et, et, et, et, et, et, et. 422s

And that is, so the apostles in the nice scene creed looked at the Septuagint, which is the Greek 428s

translation of the Hebrew like Bible, right? So it looked at that, and that's where we get our first 437s

statement in the apostles creed, the nice scene creed. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, 447s

creator of heaven and earth, or maker of heaven and earth. So the Greek word that's used is 453s

poietes, which again, if you speak Greek, don't hold my Greek pronunciation against me. And if you know no different 467s

than great, I speak it really well. Okay. Okay, so poietes. Now that means, yep, poietes, 478s

that means, this right here means maker, it means creator, it is also the Greek word for poet. 496s

It is the Greek word for poet. So we could say, I believe, in one God, 507s

Father Almighty, poet of heaven and earth. Already, doesn't it bring a higher or a more 517s

lovely tilt to it? One theologian Oswald buyer, he was writing about the creative power of God's word. 529s

I just love this. He said, when God spoke his speech created the universe. God said, let there be light and there was light. 538s

His words work in the sense that when what he says happens, God is the first poet and creation is his poem. 549s

A work, work made by speaking. Isn't that beautiful? So so poetry, poetry is a heightened language and to think that God 560s

created all that we see around us, all the beauty, all the nature around us, all of the people, 578s

creation, the birds, everything that we see, experience with our senses, God spoke into being. And he is the poet of creation. 587s

I really, really love to that. So as we go through the Psalms, I promise you, we are not doing a study on poetry. 600s

We are not going to to parse through everything as if we are studying poetry as a genre. But by default of the Psalms being what they are, 608s

we are going to cover aspects of poetry within our study to help us have clarity and to help guide us in understanding. 621s

For example, there are lots of parallels and word pairings in poetry and we're going to discover, discover that the Psalms also have a lot of word pairings and parallels. 631s

Watch for contrasting or similar meaning, meaning so we've got worlds and peoples, we've got weeping and joy. And we're going to watch especially for long gospel word pairings like curse, 644s

bless, sin, mercy, wickedness, righteousness. So we're going to just jump into a couple of these Psalms here. 656s

So if you open up your Bibles to the very middle, you'll find yourself in the book of Psalms and that's where we want to be. And ironically, I did not actually open to Psalms. That is, that's lame. Y'all, that's just lame. 664s

Okay, so we're going to go to the book of Psalms. We're going to start with Psalm 126. 678s

Okay, Psalm 126. We're going to just look at verses four through six. Okay. 690s

Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the water courses in the Negeb. 701s

Or Negeb, may those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy carrying their sheaths. 706s

So here the weeping juxtaposed to the joy and shouts of joy. 719s

So let's go to Psalm 37. So you're going to go back. 726s

Psalm 37. And I will tell you that not all of our not every week, we're not going to just, you know, hit on aspects of poetry or broader aspects, but we will dig into very specific Psalm. 733s

So just a heads up on that too. Today we're doing a more introductory, but, but we will dig into Psalms. 749s

Psalm 37 beginning at verse 21. We're going to do 21 through 23. 757s

It says, the wicked borrow and do not pay back, but the righteous are generous and keep giving for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. 764s

So here we hear curse and blessed. We hear the the wicked and the righteous. 776s

So we hear these parallels or these comparisons being made. We also will find a lot of word and line repetition. 783s

If you've already been in service, you'll you'll perhaps remember, and if you have not been in service yet, you'll see in our Psalm that we that we speak allowed together. 793s

There is some repetition, a word in that. Let's go to Psalm 27. So we're going to just go back a little bit. 806s

Psalm 27 verse 14 where we see this this repetition. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. 816s

Right. Now let's go over to Psalm 103. I know we're jumping a little bit, but I don't feel bad about jumping because we're still in the same book. 831s

There you go. Okay. So Psalm, excuse me, Psalm 103 beginning in verse 20. 841s

Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding obedient to his spoken word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will. 851s

Bless the Lord, all his words in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. We hear that repeated phrase. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. 862s

Another one. Bless the Lord for his dead fast love and doors forever. How often do we hear that? That comes up a lot. 875s

So watch for those things. Watch for those lines or words. As we study these Psalms, I will not point them out every time probably. 885s

But, but you know, it just it helped to draw our attention. There is something there is purpose and meaning behind the repetition. There's purpose and meaning behind the contrasting or the paralleling or the putting words together that are similar. 900s

So, so now I want to talk a little bit about about Luther and his thoughts about the Psalms. So throughout his life, Luther, Luther always carried a sorter with him. Not a salt shaker. 920s

A sorter. And that was that was something that he encouraged everyone to have with them, to take with them. He he would constantly turn to the Psalms as a place of refuge. 939s

If you did not know this, and maybe you did, Luther struggled his entire life with depression. He struggled with physical ailments. And so he was even after the beautiful epiphany of being saved by grace through faith and not by our works after after that epiphany for him. 957s

He's still struggled with depression. He's still struggled with with with his with his own faith life, right? And so so he consistently would turn to the sorter for refuge. And he wrote in Psalm 984s

1992 in his Bible, he wrote there, if your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. 1006s

He had to turn to God. He had to turn to God's word, or he would have died. 1016s

Can you imagine having such a passion for God's word, and I'm not saying you don't at all, I'm not saying that. I'm just putting ourselves in the shoes of Luther and having such a passion for God's word that it is it is life itself. 1030s

That without it, without being able to turn to it at any given time at every moment, he would perish. 1049s

I pray that each of us would have that passion for the word of the Lord, that it is as necessary as the air that we breathe, because it is. 1060s

So he constantly would turn to the word of the Lord constantly turning to the Psalms. 1077s

Luther believed in a lot of Christians believed before him that the Psalms were to teach us how to pray. 1084s

So he would use the Psalms for prayer. He wrote in his preface to the 1545, not the 1945, 1545 edition of the Psalter, he said, every Christian who would have bound in prayer and piety ought to make the Psalter his manual. 1091s

Everything that a pious heart can desire to ask in prayer, it here finds Psalms and words to match so aptly. 1109s

So sweetly that no man, nor all the men in the world, shall be able to devise forms of words so good and devout. 1117s

In my opinion any man who will but make a trial in earnest of the Psalter will very soon bid the other pious prayers adieu and say, ah, they have not the sap, the strength, the heart, the fire that I find in the Psalter, they are too cold, too hard for my taste. 1125s

He would use the Psalms as his prayers. Have you ever heard anyone pray the Psalms? 1146s

It is absolutely stunning to hear God's word in this beautiful, beautiful language prayed to the Lord, prayed right back to the Lord. 1156s

David is the greatest author of the Psalms, meaning that he wrote many, many of the Psalms. He was a musician, he was a poet. 1171s

Like this is heightened, it is, it is with the intention of turning to the Lord in song in prayer. 1182s

So they are a beautiful way to engage with the Lord in prayer, describing the insight of the Psalms into the workings of the human soul. 1192s

Luther wrote the book of Psalms has other excellencies, it not only tells what the psalms say about their work in conduct, but also lays bear their hearts and the inmost treasure of their souls. 1201s

I think of Psalm 51, let's go there right now, Psalm 51. 1214s

Absolutely incredible. And as we go through, I think we're going to be saying that a lot. 1221s

Wow, this is incredible, this is amazing. Can you believe, you know, so, but how David bears his soul, he just lays it all out there. 1227s

Psalm 51 is a confession. Think about when you have a private confession with Pastor Iable or myself or you have in the past with with a pastor or priest, when you have had private confession, that is not something that is comfortable to do. 1240s

It's not comfortable to lay bear our souls before anyone. And knowing that we are coming before the Lord to bear our souls, our sin, our every thought word indeed that we know in the depths of our souls is just hideous. 1261s

That that were embarrassed and ashamed that God would even look at us. And this is what we bring forth to him. That is what we read in Psalm 51. 1283s

David had just committed adultery with Beth Sheba. He had arranged for the murder of her husband. He was complicit in all of the wickedness surrounding the adultery, surrounding the murder. 1294s

He was trying to cover it up. He was being deceitful. And when his sin is pointed out to him by the prophet Nathan, he bears his soul in confession. And that is what we have in Psalm 51. 1311s

On me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sins for I know my transgressions. 1327s

And my sin is ever before me against you. You alone have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 1344s

He goes on. It's just this hurt, wrenching confession. This plea for mercy, but also knowing that he will receive mercy. 1360s

It's a demand as well as a plea because he knows that he has done wrong. He knows that he deserves the punishment of God. 1378s

And so we, we not only know what David is bringing to this. We know his actions. We know his words, but we also can read it. 1392s

And we can speak those very words, pray those very words to the Lord, knowing that it, our words, our prayers too. 1404s

Knowing our deeds, our words, our words, our laid bare before the Lord. This is every Ash Wednesday. We go through Psalm 51. We recite it as a congregation because we're entering that season of lent entering that season of repentant and confession. 1415s

And so there the heart is laid bare. The souls are exposed. Psalms speak to our hearts during the joys and sorrows of life and everything in between. 1435s

Luther said, the human heart is like a ship on a stormy siege driven about by winds blowing from all corners of heaven. The book of Psalms is full of heartfelt utterances made during storms of this kind. 1450s

Where can one find nobler words to express joy than in the Psalms of praise or gratitude? In them you see into the hearts of saints as if you were looking at a lovely pleasure garden or were gazing into heaven, how fair and charming and delightful and the flowers you will find there. 1463s

The best of all is that these words of theirs are spoken before God and to God which puts double earnestness and life into the words. For words that are spoken only before men in such matters do not come so mildly from the heart are not such burning living piercing words. 1481s

It is therefore easy to understand why the book of Psalms is the favorite book of all the saints. For every man on every occasion can find it in the Psalms which fits his needs, which he feels to be as appropriate as if they had been set there just for his sake. 1501s

In no other book can he find words to equal them, no better words place the book of Psalms in front of you. You will see your own self in it. For here is the true no thyself by which you can know yourself as well as the God who created all things. 1521s

When we turn to the book of Psalms I like how he says that you know you can turn and you think this was written just for me. This is God's word just for me because the book of Psalms hits every season of life that we experience every high every low and the all of the in between. 1542s

These are written for us to engage with God. They are written for God to engage with us and they speak. They speak to the heart and soul unlike unlike any other word. 1564s

Just as God's word we can open it and we know anytime we open God's word regardless of where we open it regardless of where we're speaking we know that God is teaching us is speaking to us is leading us shaping us transforming us we know we know that to be true. 1585s

I also know that there are times in my life when it is absolutely appropriate to to go to the book of Esther and it really speaks and then there are other times in my life when I would I would not understand what I'm supposed to get what I'm supposed to be led in from the book of Esther right does that make sense but in the book of Psalms as we turn to the Psalms 1607s

maybe it's Psalm 23 that I need in this very moment maybe it's the first Psalm maybe it's the last Psalm maybe it's Psalm 119 speaking of God's word maybe it's Psalm 51 and I will full confession here Psalm 51 I go to a lot a lot 1637s

but it's I think that one and this is a biased opinion that one just gets right to the heart of man and to the heart of God love Psalm 51 1661s

So I'm going to stop talking about it right now because I can't stop I love it 1677s

So Luther also calls the Psalter the spirits summary of the whole Bible he says the Psalter should be precious to us if only because it most clearly promises the death and resurrection of Christ and describes his kingdom and the nature and standing of all Christian people 1684s

it could well be entitled a little Bible since everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended and compacted into a manual 1706s

it seems to me as if the Holy Ghost had been pleased to take on himself the trouble of putting together a short Bible touching the whole of Christianity in order that they who are unable to read the whole Bible may never the last 1718s

never the last find almost the whole sum comprehended in one little book the Psalter is the very heragon of books 1733s

don't be scared of the book of Psalm we are going to have a great time going through this I hope and I pray that our study will open the book of Psalms for each of us 1745s

for every single one of us and and that we will be able to weave it into our life of prayer into our prayer life because it is God's own word given to us that we get to recite to pray right back to him and we don't have to worry if we're eloquent when we pray we don't have to worry if we're getting exactly what we're trying to portray 1760s

because we are praying God's own words to him and that's a beautiful thing that is a beautiful thing 1788s