A Year In The Psalms

Introduction

Well, as Jim said, welcome to the last day of the year. It’s a day of reflecting. And as you reflect back upon 2017, I want to ask you just one simple question. And that is, how did you do in your Bible study? Do you feel like that 2017 was a year spent in the Word of God? Or do you say, I could have, and I should have done better. Well, you know where I’m going with this. The challenge is not really in looking back and correctly assessing the past. The only benefit in that is by translating that into a better future. And to that end, as a congregation, we would like to encourage all of our members to spend a year in the psalm. You may have noticed in your way in these yellow sheets that were sitting on the table in the foyer.

They’re simply a Bible reading chart. And I know what you’re thinking. An annual Bible reading. Another way for me to fail and feel bad about myself spiritually about March. Who am I kidding? February. But I want to encourage you to try again. And to help you try again. This is a little bit different kind of Bible reading. Rather than reading the entire Bible, Old and New Testament in a year, which, let’s just be honest, in addition to our other Bible study, is a daunting task. Because it requires a seven-day-a-week schedule. It requires reading several chapters in a day. And if you get sick, or something else happens and you get behind one or two or three days, it’s difficult to catch back up. And it’s been my experience that most of the time when we try an annual Bible reading, reading the whole Bible through a year, that that’s the experience of most people.

That they start out, as with most New Year’s resolutions, start out with gangbusters, but then life gets in the way and you get behind, and it’s so difficult to catch up that we throw in the towel, and it ends up rather than bringing us closer to God, it really just ends up discouraging us spiritually. Now that’s not to really disparage Bible reading programs. I’m a fan of them. But we want to offer a different tact this year, and that is to just spend it in the Psalm. I think this will do two things. If you’ll go on this journey with us, it’ll do two things, maybe more than that. Number one is it’ll allow you to stay on schedule. If you have one of these charts, you’ve noticed that it’s really about three chapters a week.

Three chapters a week. You can do that. Even if you get behind, next week is only six chapters a week. That’s less than a chapter a day. And if that’s on, that’s only if you get behind. And so this is a reading chart that you can do. It only encompasses 50 weeks instead of 52. And so if you get behind, there is time to catch up in that two-week allowance. But another thing that it does, and maybe of greater benefit, this reading chart will allow you to spend some time in the text. Rather than having to just read at a quick pace so that you don’t get behind. You can pause and you can reflect. And so rather than calling this a light reading schedule, I would call it a deep reading schedule.

Then instead of reading Psalm 1 and thinking, well, there’s some interesting thoughts in there. I’d like to study those a little bit more or meditate on those a little bit more, but I’ve got eight more chapters to read before lunch. You can stop and say, I want to study on those things. And so I encourage you to get your Bibles, get an easy-to-read version, have a notepad and a pencil nearby, and go on this Bible reading journey with us. And it’ll allow you to study the text and then do what the psalms so often enjoin upon us, and that is to meditate in the text. Read that psalm. Maybe read it in the morning before work or read it at night before bedtime, and then that next day throughout your day, meditate on that psalm.

Bring those thoughts back to mind and think about them and reflect upon them. Another thing I want to challenge you to do, and we’ll be challenging ourselves throughout this year, is not just to read, study, and meditate the Psalms, but to pray the Psalms. Many of the Psalms are or seem to be prayers. They are expressions toward God. That’s the very definition of a prayer, isn’t it? And I think that you, in addition to your other prayer life, you can pray the Psalms. You may read a particular Psalm in that day’s reading and think, that’s the way I feel about God. Or that’s what I want to ask of God or tell God. I don’t think there would be any violation of God’s will. For do you open your Bible, bow your head, and read that Psalm to God as a prayer.

1. The Largest Book of the Bible

And so to that end, this morning I’d like for us to talk just a little bit about the Psalms. To give us kind of a background of what the Psalms are and to maybe reignite a passion in your heart for the Psalms so that you’ll read this book with us. You know that it’s the largest book of the Bible. If we take the Psalms, each individual Psalm as a chapter, there’s a hundred and fifty Psalms. Now, a little side note here the Psalms aren’t chapters, and so technically it’s not right to say turn to Psalm chapter 4. It’s actually the Psalm 4. But if we take them as chapters, as they’re kind of broken down in our text, there are 150 of those chapters are Psalms, 2,461 verses, and don’t check me on this.

There’s 43,743 words. It’s the largest book of the Old Testament, in fact, the largest book of the Bible. Hold that thought. We’re going to come back to that. That the Psalms, of all the books of the Bible, the Psalm is the largest. Now, it’s not just an Old Testament book. Yes, you will find it in your Old Testament. It was used under the system of Old Testament worship. But it is very much so a New Testament book. There are 283. We turn to the New Testament pages. There are 283 direct quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament. We many times in our sermons and Bible classes emphasize that if you’re going to properly understand the New Testament, you need to have an Old Testament background.

That’s why.

Now, if we talk about illusions and references, there’s far more than that. But just 283 quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament. Of those 283 quotations, 116 of them are from the Psalms. Now, in some sense, that doesn’t surprise us. It’s the biggest book. And so you would expect maybe more quotations from that. But I think it speaks more than just the volume of this book. It speaks of the importance of this book in both Messianic and New Testament prophecy. In fact, of all, if you do the math, of all the quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament, 40% of them come from the book of Psalms. Even allowing for the fact that it’s the biggest book of the Old Testament, that is still highly skewed in saying that so many, 40% of the Old Testament quotations in the New Testament come from the book of Psalms.

2. Why the Psalms? A Book of Songs

There’s reason enough for us to think about the Psalms. To spend a year in the Psalms, reading, studying, meditating, and praying from this important book. But you still may be asking, why the Psalms? What’s so important about the Psalm? What is so drawing about this book? Well, because, as you know, the Psalms, the book of Psalms is a book of poetry, and more specifically, it’s a book of songs. It was the Hebrew hymn book. The Jews, when they would go to Jerusalem and worship God at the temple, even on their way, many believe, to worship God at the temple, these psalms would be sung as songs of praise, as songs of request to God. And God’s people have long expressed themselves to God and about God through songs.

If you think about that, Old and New Testament alike, think about how much music is a part of our worship to God. Always has been. Not just a part, but a large part of our service and worship to God. And of that, singing has always been emphasized. The words of the song. Again, the size of the book of Psalms emphasizes that, doesn’t it? Now, some of what I’m about to say delves into the realm of speculation on my part, and so take it with a huge grain of salt. But if we talk about why the psalms, and if the psalms are songs, and those songs were a part of the musical worship to God, then that begs the question, why music? Why song? Why don’t we just get up and read these words?

Why do we sing them? Well, there may be a few reasons for that. Number one is what better way to express, and we’re going to talk about emotion here in a little bit, but what better way to express emotion than in song? In fact, the New Testament gives us that hint, doesn’t it if anyone is joyful, let him sing. Songs express emotion and bring out emotion maybe better than anything else. Is there a song, whether it be secular or spiritual, that every time it comes on, it makes you smile? Maybe because of the tempo of that song, maybe the words of that song are, and this will hit on what we’re going to talk about in a little bit, maybe it evokes some kind of memory.

I remember the first time I heard this song. I remember who I was with. When it comes to spiritual songs, how many times when a song is led in worship? Does a reflective smile come on your face? And you think that was Brother So-and-so’s song. He led that song so many times. I can’t sing that song without thinking about him. When Deedra and I were at Florida College, my sophomore year, I would drive over every Sunday from Temple Terrace, Florida, to Merritt Island, Florida, and preach.

Whosoever surely meaneth me. Songs evoke emotions, don’t they? Songs can bring us great joy. They can bring and express great sorrow. Better than just the written or the spoken word. Another thing songs can do, music can do, is that music seems to be somehow tied to the human memory. We just talked about that a little bit, didn’t it? Invoking those emotions many times comes from invoking some kind of memory. That we remember some event. So many of the psalms can be classified as historical psalms. They’re a psalm or a song about some particular historical event in Israel’s history. And they would remember those events as they sang those songs. Those songs evoke memories. Memories of what God has done for us.

Don’t you find it many times easier to remember a song than it is to put some kind of written word to memory? In fact, I’m not asking for a show of hands, but how many of us learn the apostles and the books of the Bible that way? And I’m surely not asking for you to raise your hands now, but how many of you can’t say the books of the Bible without kind of singing it a little bit? You still haven’t learned it the real way. You still have to sing. You see, songs are. In fact, we could do that if we showed up this morning. And not only was the PowerPoint malfunctioning, but all of the song books had been stolen. Would that put an end to our song service?

3. The Psalms Inform Our Intellect

Nah. We’d still sing, wouldn’t we? Now we might have to stick to the first and the last verse. But we could sing those from memory, so many of these songs. And so God has used music as of an important part of our relationship and of our worship to Him. And no book, no book does a better job of expressing our relationship to God than the Psalms. And so I think that’s one benefit that you’ll see if you’ll join us on this year in the Psalms journey. That you’ll be brought closer and drawn closer to God. And so here’s what I think two things are going to be accomplished, which we spend this year in the Psalms. Number one is we’re going to get smarter. Because the Psalms inform our intellect.

The Psalms, and isn’t that the interesting thing about song? That song and singing is not just some kind of light, fanciful thing. It really engages the mind and the brain. And so the psalms are going to inform our intellect. They allow us to truly know God. Look with me at the most familiar Psalm, Psalm 23. They tell us about God. And as you turn into Psalm 23, in fact, you might not even have to turn over there. That may be one of those that you have put to memory. But we understand that the scriptures and the Psalms in particular don’t just present us with facts to be known. For some kind of intellectual pursuit. We are informed about God so that we might know him better.

And I want to encourage your Bible study, whether it’s this Bible reading or whether it’s just your Bible study in general, I want to encourage you to use your Bible study for that purpose. Not just to check off a list and say, I read the Bible today. I’m keeping up with the church’s Bible reading plan, and so that makes me a good Christian. Not just to read it so that you can accumulate some facts.

I’ll know all the answers. But to read it for a deeper pursuit. Because we realize that in these holy scriptures is where and how God reveals himself to us. And really the only way. Now, God has revealed himself in and through nature. But scant information is given about God in nature, isn’t it? I truly believe, again, with the psalmist, that you can look into the stars, look at mountains and the Grand Canyon, and say there must be a God. But there’s where the knowledge ends. Who is this God? Why did He make this? Why did He make me? Does He want anything of me? Is He a distant God or an involved God? And when this planet ceases to be, what will that God do and what will He do with me?

Nature tells us nothing about that, answers none of those questions. Only the scriptures do. And so God truly reveals Himself through His Word. And so if we’re truly to know God, we have to be people of the book. And so we read it not to just gather and accumulate information and facts, but we read it because there is God, revealed to us in the most fullest and intimate of terms. And so we read words such as this.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I want you to think about week eight of our Bible reading program where you’ll read Psalm 23. And think about how that will bring you closer to God and how you can use that in that eighth week. When you’re at work, when you’re at school, when you’re in Orlando traffic, that you can meditate upon God as your shepherd.

And not just know him intellectually as your shepherd, but to truly meditate upon what that means. They allow us to know God. They reveal the place of man. Many of the psalms are about man. Look at Psalm chapter 8. Starts out talking to us about God and then says, O Lord, our Lord, Psalm 8, verse 1, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you’ve endorned strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. What is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you would visit him.

You’ve made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You’ve made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name. You see, the Psalms tell us about us and about our place in God’s plan. They tell us about the word of God. The Psalms have so much to say about God, have so much to say about man and our relationship to God, and the Psalms speak of themselves. And of the entirety of the revealed will of God in the Word.

The greatest example of that is in Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the longest book. Talks about what? It talks about the Word of God. In fact, in Psalm 119, over and over again, the psalmist, by inspiration, is going to say this teach me your statutes. Teach me your word. And he’s going to tell us why. Look in in Psalm 119, verse 12. Psalm 119, verse 12, he says, Blessed are you, Lord, teach me your statutes. In fact, he says it this way teach me your statutes, because you are God. Because you are God, and this is your word, then teach me. Look what he says in verse 64. Psalm 119, verse 64, says, The earth, O Lord, is full of your mercy. Teach me your statutes.

In other words, because you love me and have been gracious and merciful to me. Teach me your statutes. Then in verse 33 and 34, he says, Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Because you are good, teach me your statutes. You are good, you are good to me, and you are the source of every good. So teach me your way. And then lastly, Psalm 119 and in verse 68 tells us, teach me your statutes because I want your approval. Verse 68 says, You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes. Because you are God, because you love me, because you are good, and because I want your approval, teach me your way, the psalmist says.

4. The Psalms Arouse Our Emotions

And so studying the psalmist is going to create, hopefully, within us a cycle. The more we read and reflect and meditate and pray on these psalms, the more we’re going to love God, and the more we’re going to love his word. And the more we’re going to want to be in it. And so the Psalms inform our intellect, but the Psalms will also arouse our emotions. We said that’s one of the benefits of poetry and of song, isn’t it? That it both speaks our emotions as well as arousing them. It’ll arouse reverence. What book of the Bible does a better job in expressing praise, honor, respect, and reverence to God than the book of Psalms. And so as you read the Psalms throughout this year, you are going to grow in your praise and reverence to God.

Uncomfortable but necessary is the emotion of shame. The psalmist, in fact, look in Psalm 44.

And you do not go out with our armies. Verse 15 My dishonor is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me. As we go through this year in the Psalms, there may be times when the emotion that is aroused is the emotion of shame because of sin. But that’s a good thing. Because that godly sorrow will produce repentance in your heart. Fear is evoked in the Psalms. Sadness is evoked in the Psalm. Sadness is a part of life. It’s something that needs to be dealt with and dealt with openly and fully. And the Psalms will allow you to do that. Turn over to Psalm chapter 6. Psalm 6. Psalm 6, verse 6 says, I am weary with my groaning. All night I make my bed swim.

I drench my couch with my tears. My eye waste away because of grief. It grows old because of my enemies.

And of inspired men who have felt that way toward God.

Conclusion

Love for your fellow man, but most importantly, love for God. And so I hope you’ll spend this next year in the Psalm. As we read together, study, meditate, and pray through this so evocative, powerful, God-filled book. And may God bless us in this next year that we might be drawn closer to Him through our study of the Word. Let us pray. Our dear God and Father, we love you so much, and we thank you for your word and for the opportunity that we have to live in it. Bless us this coming year, Father, that we might be closer to you. Help us, Father, to devote ourselves to a study of your word and to a more diligent walk in your kingdom. Bless us as a congregation and as individuals that we might all grow, that we might help one another grow, and that we might cause others to love you and to serve you faithfully.

Bless us this day as we worship you. May your name be reverenced and honored by the things that we do. Bless those that we love that won’t be with us today, that whatever reasons preventing them might be removed. May your name be honored in this place and in our everyday lives. All these things we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.