Psalms about Man

Introduction

Well, we’ll begin with the self-serving statement. Today’s our anniversary. And I can remember on our anniversary years ago when we were just starting out and struggling and didn’t have a whole lot of money. We lived in South Alabama. And for our anniversary, we would go to the drugstore and pick out an anniversary card and show it to each other. And then put it back on the shelf and go home. We would try to find two cards. One sweet and probably not a surprise to you, one funny. That expressed what we felt. Because isn’t it amazing for most of us, maybe not for you, but for me, somebody else can say it better than I can. And sometimes, just sometimes you’ll find just that right card. That some employee at Hallmark had the insight into your life and your heart and can say it just right, better than you ever could, but yet expressing exactly your sentiments.

That’s what the Psalms do.

We began last month with this kind of disjointed series that we’ve entitled Windows into the Psalms, and just remind you that one Sunday a month we’re going to do a lesson about the Psalms, kind of a generic kind of lesson. And I’ll remind you it’s going to be very different feel to these sermons than the sermons that you normally hear from this pulpit. But the psalms are so beneficial because the psalmists do far more powerfully what the people at Hallmart do. They express the heart of the child of God better than we ever could. And so I want in this series of lessons to encourage you to become students of the Psalms, or maybe better students of the Psalms. Read them. Meditate on them daily. Because in them you will find your life circumstances represented.

1. The Psalms Are Hebrew Poetry

And your feelings, both positive and negative, stated more beautifully and more powerfully than I bet you can state them yourself. And so we’re talking about these Psalms, a part of the Old Testament, the biggest chunk of the Old Testament, the biggest chunk of the Bible, of man expressing by inspiration, his feelings about himself, about his circumstances, and about his God. Now let’s talk just a little bit. Each lesson we’re going to do kind of a little bit of introductory material into the Psalms. The Psalms are poetry. Now, I would immediately raise my hand in this point of the class and say, no, they’re not. They don’t rhyme. Poetry is supposed to rhyme, isn’t it? And you think, well, okay, they written in Hebrew, maybe they rhymed in Hebrew, but the rhyming is lost in the translation into English, but they don’t rhyme in Hebrew either.

And so they’re poetry, but their Hebrew poetry. And let’s talk just a little bit about Hebrew poetry. Hebrew poetry is different than English poetry. Not just because it’s a different language, but the style is different. Think about the characteristics, the most common characteristics of English poetry. And this is not true of all English poetry, but that which we normally think of poetry usually has three things to it, three general characteristics to English poetry. Number one is rhyme. A good poem, I don’t care what any English or lit teacher, a good poem is going to rhyme. Roses or red is one of the best pieces of poetry ever written. Because it’s short, it rhymes, and I can memorize it. Rhyme is just a consistent part of English poetry.

Some kind of rhythm or meter, it kind of has this kind of beat to it, doesn’t it? English poetry has that rhyme or meter to it. And then, of course, the flowery use of figurative language. Poetry says stuff about stuff in a different way. That’s the use of figurative language. That’s English poetry. But let’s think about the characteristics of Hebrew poetry, which the Psalms are. They too use figurative language. The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23 speaks in poetic terms about us being a sheep in the flock of God, and God is our shepherd. That’s figurative language, but it so flowerily and beautifully paints a picture that we can easily understand and relate to. If rhyme is maybe what we think of as the primary figure of English poetry, parallelism would be the main characteristic of Hebrew poetry.

Parallelism is just a fancy word of saying, saying the same thing twice. Look with me as a couple examples. There’s a lot of different degrees and types of parallelism, but let’s just look at three of them. Psalm 24. There is what’s called synonymous parallelism. That is the thought in the first line is going to be repeated in the second line, but using different words.

Psalm 24, verse 1 the earth is the full, the Lord’s in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord or who may stand in his holy place? If you take those three verses separate, the first line says something, the second line says the same thing, but just a little bit different way. That’s what’s called synonymous parallelism. There’s also antithetic parallelism. Look with me in Psalm 1. In antithetic parallelism, the first line is emphasized by a contrasting statement in the second line. So instead of saying the same thing, he’s going to say the opposite, the exact opposite. Psalm 1, look at verse 6.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The main point is God knows the way of the righteous. That is emphasized by the contrast. But God doesn’t know or care for the way of the ungodly. So that’s that antithetical parallelism. Alright, one more. Like I said, there’s literally probably a dozen types. But then there is progressive parallelism. Stay in Psalm 1, most well known, famous example of progressive parallelism. That is that the second and sometimes third line kind of ratchets up the discussion. Psalm 1, you could probably quote it by heart. Verse 1 blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

Walks, stands, and sits. You see that that’s there’s the progression there in that parallelism. That’s one of the main characteristics of Hebrew poetry is the idea of just saying things over and over again in a way to emphasize the meaning and the point of that. And then that goes to the next characteristic of Hebrew poetry that mirrors English poetry. And we talked about this a little bit last month, the idea of the abundance of words. A poet will take 12 pages to say three words. I love you. But he had to start talking about a meadow and some flowers and a perfect spring day. But he’s going to use a thousand words to say what he could say in three words. But that’s a good thing.

2. What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him?

Because it adds background and flower and meaning to the idea of that poetry. And so there’s the characteristics of Hebrew poetry, figurative language and the abundance of words, just like English poetry. But instead of rhyme and rhythm or rhyme and meter, we have this idea of parallelism as the main characteristic of Hebrew poetry. Last month we talked about psalms dealing with God. God reveals himself in his word and reveals himself through this poetry. But this morning, let’s talk about psalms dealing with man. We get insight into our own being, our own existence, and in particular, our being and existence in comparison and in relationship to God when we look at the Psalms. Jeremiah read for us Psalm 8. Let’s look at that one. One of the maybe the most well-known Psalms that speak of man and man’s relationship to God.

Jeremiah did an excellent job of reading, but let’s read it again. In Psalm 8, verse 1 says, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. You who set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider, 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 should visit him. For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.

You’ve put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beast of the fields, 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 in all the earth. In Psalm 8, we have a picture of Jehovah’s glory and man’s dignity. But he doesn’t just start talking about man’s dignity that God has assigned him. He first starts talking about how almost inconceivable that dignity is. When I consider your heavens, the works of your hand. What is man that you’re so mindful of him? Let’s do what the psalmist says we should do. Let’s consider the heavens and see the work of his hands. The vast universe that we live in.

It’s almost unfathomable by our finite human minds. But let’s think about it for just a minute. The earth is a big place.

And as far as big or notable cities, the furthest city away from Orlando would be Perth, Australia. If you were to travel to Perth, Australia, the furthest city away from Orlando, it’s about, it’s over 11,000 miles away. That’s a long trip. 11,000 miles to Perth, Australia. But the sun is more than eight thousand times further away. The sun that we can so easily see in our sky, and the sun that is responsible for life being able to exist on this planet, is about ninety three million miles away. Perth, Australia is eleven thousand. The sun is ninety three million miles away. That not blow your mind. That there can even be ninety-three million miles. And so there’s the sun hanging in the sky. And there’s our earth hanging in the sky, spinning at the equator at about eleven hundred miles an hour.

You ever notice when you look at the sun, and then you look at the moon, that they’re the same size in the sky. That’s how we can have a solar eclipse. The moon can pass in front of the sun and cover it up. They’re the same size. But they’re not really. What appears to be the same size to us in the sky, the sun is actually, and scientists far more smarter than I tell us that the sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon. But it looks the same size to me. But it’s 400 times larger than the moon. But that’s explained because the moon is 400 times closer than the sun. Atheists would tell us that’s a coincidence. That both of these planetary objects, both of these celestial cosmic bodies, the sun and the moon, which, by the way, are perfectly placed for life to exist.

You move that moon, you move that sun, life as we know it ceases to exist. You stop this planet that is spinning at the equator, 1,100 miles per hour. You stop it for a second. And scientists tell us that we and everything on this planet flies off into the atmosphere at 1100 miles per hour. That’s the world. That’s the galaxy. That’s the universe that we exist in. When I consider your heavens, the work of your hands. What is man that you’re mindful of? God who could do that, knows little old me. He knows my name. As we talked in our lesson last week, he knew me as I was being formed in the womb.

Jesus says not only does he know me and know my name, he has the very hairs on my head numbered. Now that’s not a hard enough task for me as it is for some of y’all, but he knows everything about me. The psalmist first paints the picture of how minuscule we are on this tiny planet, ninety-three million miles away from our sun. We’re just a speck on a speck in a speck.

And these microscopic beings living on this speck of dust, and this elephant finds them. We’re that speck on that speck of dust. Ninety-three million miles plus away. What is man that you’re mindful of him? Or the son of man that you visit him. But you have made him a little lower than the angels. And you have crowned him with glory and honor. Not only does God know this speck rotating on a speck inside of a speck. And not only does he know my name and know the hairs on my head, he’s crowned me with glory and honor. He’s given me dominion over this planet. That God did that for this speck. Now this psalm is quoted four times in the New Testament. And all four times it’s applied to Christ.

3. The Psalm Applied to the Incarnate Christ

Look with me in the book of Hebrews, chapter four, or chapter two, excuse me. Hebrews chapter two. Again, four times the New Testament quotes this psalm, and those four times applies it to the incarnate Christ. Look in Hebrews chapter 2. Then begin in verse 5. For he has not put the whole world to come, of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place, saying, What is man that you’re mindful of him, or the Son of Man that you take care of him? And you made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor, and has set him over the works of your hand. You have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is now not put under him.

But now we do not yet see all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. When Jesus partook on flesh and blood, this psalm now applied to him. He was made lower than the angels. Jesus isn’t lower than the angels. He’s above the angels. He is God Himself. But he was made to be like man, being made lower than the angels, to partake of flesh and blood, to suffer and die, so that we might have even greater glory and honor and dignity than was placed upon us in the creation. What is man that you’re mindful of him?

You’ve crowned him with glory and honor. You see how the psalmist expresses both the puniness and the dignity of man in the eyes of God.

4. Psalm 49: Where Is Your Treasure?

Turn with me to Psalm 49. We’ll notice another kind of technical part about the Psalms. You’ll notice that in your Bible, there’s probably a heading. In fact, there may be two headings. One that was put there by men, but one that we assume was put there by inspiration. Psalm 49, before you start verse 1, it says, To the chief musician. A psalm of the sons of Korah. So there seems to be some kind of musical notation. We have that in some of our songs, sung to the tune of I’m not ashamed to own the Lord. You know, and some kind of musical notation. These have some kind of headings here. It was a psalm of David. Sometimes the headings identify the author. Maybe a dedication to the chief musician by the sons of Korah, it says here, a psalm of the sons of Korah.

We’re used to it saying the Psalm of David, but here it says, the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah, the Korahites, were the doorkeepers of the temple. You read about them in the book of 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 9, the doorkeepers of the temple. And maybe they were engaged in the aspects of worship, maybe even the musical aspects of worship. And they pinned this psalm. Psalm 49 says, Hear this, all you peoples. Give ear to all you inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall bring understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will disclose my dark saying on the harp. Why should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall not it shall cease forever, that he should continue to live eternally and not see the pit. For he sees that wise men die. Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses will continue forever, and that their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man, though in honor does not remain.

The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling. But God, but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me. Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased, for when he dies he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him, though while he lives, he blesses himself, for men will praise you when you do good for yourself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see light. Man who is in honor yet does not understand is like the beast that perish. This psalm almost sounds like it belongs in the wisdom literature.

Like it sounds belongs in Job or in one of the proverbs. That here we speak about the frailty again of man. The frailty of man and that life is temporary. And really ask the New Testament question, where is your treasure? Isn’t it interesting that money and influence seem to be a universal and age old problem of thinking that status and wealth are what make up this life. And the psalm is so poetically and beautifully reminds us, as Jesus would in the New Testament, that that rich man is going to die. You know, one part of being a gospel preacher is that oftentimes you’re intimately involved in other people’s lives. And over the course of my preaching career, because of that relationship, I’ve seen a lot of people die.

I’ve seen a young person, an old person, a poor person, and a wealthy person die. And in that moment, they all die the same. Nothing separates them in the moment of death. The poor man dies like the rich man. The status, the wealth could not escape them of that moment. Death, they say, is the great equalizer, and that’s what this psalm is to say. And that name and that wealth can do nothing for eternity’s sake. You can’t redeem the soul with money, he says.

Who died and somehow, somehow figured a way around the rules and was able to bring money, treasure into eternity. He somehow skirted the rules and had a sack of gold coins when he approached the pearly gate. And you know the story. It’s always Peter for some reason standing there at the gates, and Peter asked, What’s in the bag? And he says, Gold. To which Peter laughs and says we use that for asphalt. See, those things that impress mean nothing to God and mean nothing in eternity. And so the psalmist again asks the question that our Lord would ask, where is your treasure? If Psalm 8 puts it in perspective that what is this speck that you are mindful of him, you’ve crowned him with glory and honor.

Psalm 49 puts it in perspective of what really matters, or what should really matter to man.

Conclusion

When our status is changed from here to there, where is our treasure? Well, the psalmist has done it for us.

And aren’t we blessed that we have someone far more eloquent than we express our amazement that God knows who we are, that he cares for and has given us glory and dominion and has tried to get us to put our priorities straight so that we could live with him and have true treasure when this life is over? Would you give your life to that God, the God who has crowned you with glory and honor? The God who has given you a treasure above any treasure. Would you give your life to him this morning? You might not be able to put it as sweetly and as beautifully as the psalmist, but would you come to him and say, I submit and I obey? Can we help you this morning?

Can we help you in any way this morning? Would you let it be known right now as together we stand and sing?