Immanuel Sermon Audio
Psalms (19:66)
All right, thank you, Miss Joe and Tony. Keep that song book close. We're going to look at it in a couple of minutes, and we're going to sing a couple when we wrap up. If you need an outline, there's some at the front, and there's also some at the back. Book of Psalms right in the middle. Hope you are able to find that in your Bible. You guys know on Wednesday nights, and every now and then on Sunday mornings, but we've done this a couple of times on Wednesday nights, I like lists. I like lists of the best, or the greatest, or whatever. And so I have a part of a list. I'm not going to give you the whole list, but in 2010, Rolling Stone magazine, and you can go ahead and sigh and roll your eyes. That's fine. Rolling Stone magazine came out with the 500 greatest songs of all time. So if your favorite song was written in the last five years, sorry, it's not on this list. But 2010, the 500 greatest songs of all time, and I'm not going to give you all 500. I will show you, I thought this was interesting. Here's the breakdown of the decades in their 500. So when I look at that, here's what I say. I say most of the people writing this article grew up in the 60s and 70s. That's my first hunch. Yeah, see there you go. This was just the best music. So the 2000s, that goes all the way up to 2010. So we're going to play name that artist. And then we're going to see if you can name the artist and then guess which of their songs are in the top 10. So forget the bottom 490. They're not important. Now we're talking about the top 10, okay? Number 10, Ray Charles and the song. What did I say? I don't even know that song, it's in the top 10. Tint the best song ever. What did I say? Yeah, that wasn't a question, that's the name of the song. What did I say? Who's on first? Yeah. What did I say? Ray Charles. Number 10. Number 9, my generation. That is Nirvana. I don't know that they're really worth my hands up in the air. Nirvana song that was in the top 10 is, somebody knows it. Smells like teen spirit. There you go. Number 9, don't know it, you need to know it. Number 8, this is easy, Beatles and song number 8 was what? Not yesterday. No. No. Hey, Jude. Hey, Jude. Number 8, number 7. Chuck Berry. I just, I put this online today on Facebook and Twitter because I think that's the coolest picture I've seen in a year, at least. That's just a cool picture. Chuck Berry and the song, number 7, a blueberry hill. Are you kidding me right now? My goodness, we're going to send you to O'Wanna's. Blueberry hill. Golly, Johnny B. Good. Back to the future. Come on. People are killing me. You should read rolling, don't read Rolling Stonemore, that was a joke. Number 6, Beach Boys and song number 6 is, anybody? Oh, who said it? Good vibrations from a millennial. You guys ought to be ashamed of yourself. Wow. Number 5, Aretha and the song is easy. R-E-R-E-S-P-E-C-T, respect. Number 4, Marvin Gaye. I hope that didn't pick up on my mic and the recording. You hear something like that and the pastor just wants to say, what's going on? There you go. That's the song. What's going on? What's going on? Marvin Gaye. Moving on quickly to number 3. John Lennon, imagine, but it made it, number 3. Number 2, Rolling, I mean, come on, the magazine and the band, you got to put them up there. And the song, Satisfaction, number 2, and number 1, this one I like, Bob Dylan, and come on, listen. Ah, so smart. I was going to say, be careful here, don't make a fool of yourself. This is in Rolling Stone magazine, song number 1, Bob Dylan, like a Rolling Stone. Anybody left out you would put up there? Anybody? Simon and Garfunkel, K. Simon and Garfunkel, the carpenters, the Eagles, Corey said the Eagles ought to be up there today. Okay. Think with me for just a minute, okay? Think about secular music, okay? Secular songs, the songs that Rolling Stone is thinking about, okay? When you think about secular songs, what are the topics written about in secular music? There's not a whole lot, okay, alcohol or drugs, okay? Women, relationship, sex, lust, wrap all that up in one, okay? You could even say love, okay? What else? Something about mama, home, you know, sentimental, something like that, okay? So you've got substances that you can abuse, you have love and all of its perversions, you have nostalgia, home, mama, anything else? What's that? Well, the red solo cup, yeah, what do you put in the red solo cup? There you go. We've already discussed that. It's really not about red solo cups, it's about what's in this. Money, cars, possessions, stuff like that and the only other thing I could think of, okay? So you've got substances, you've got family, home, nostalgia, you've got love, you've got money and possessions and then the only other thing I could come up with was things that you do while you're on the substances or you dream up while you're on the substances that you listen to the words and you say, "I don't know what that's about." I think you were on something when you wrote that because I have no clue what you're talking about. So that's about the extent of it. So tonight, we're going to look at a song book, okay? The book of Psalms and every song, all 150 of them, center on the God of the Bible, okay? He's the focus. But in those 150, there's a lot of variation and they're just not vanilla. We love God. We love God. We love songs, just cookie cutter. In fact, there's more variation in the book of Psalms than you would find if you listened to Christian radio all day long. You listened to Christian radio all day long, to be honest with you, you're going to hear the same kind of stuff over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And when you look at the book of Psalms, there is some repetition, but there's a lot of variety. So we're going to talk about Psalms. I put some, just facts, some of this stuff you may look at and say, duh, I know that, that's obvious. Some of you may not know these things. You maybe have never studied the book of Psalms or you don't know anything about the book of Psalms. So, just a few facts about Psalms, I want you to not sound like rednecks when you talk about the book of Psalms, okay? I want you to speak as if you are intelligent, even if you're not, I want everybody to think you are, okay? So, just very basic. When you talk about the book as a whole, you say, this is the book of Psalms, right? There's 150 of them, plural. When you say, for example, in your Sunday school class, somebody needs to read chapter 23 in the book of Psalms, please don't call it Psalms 23, there's only one, Psalm 23. So just so you don't sound like you don't know what you're talking about, you just think in your mind, okay? If it's the book as a whole, capital P Psalms, if I'm talking about one individual, it is a Psalm. It's the longest book in the Bible, it has the most chapters of any book in the Bible, it has the shortest chapter in the Bible, two verses, Psalm 117, and then depending on how you count the chapters in the Bible in the English translations or Hebrews, most scholars say Psalm 118 is the very middle chapter of the entire Bible. The chapter right before it, the shortest, the chapter right after it, the longest. Psalm 119 has 176 verses, so there you go. It is by far the most quoted Old Testament book when you read through the New Testament. Does that make sense? New Testament authors, they quote the Old Testament, they quote almost every book in the Old Testament and at some point, but Psalms, the book is the book that they quote most often. There are 35 different Psalms that get quoted in the New Testament and all total, there's 400 references to the book of Psalms in the New Testament. A lot of them have notes above them and this can be a little bit confusing because when you read through your Bible, sometimes you have sectioned headings that sort of describe what the next paragraph or the next couple paragraphs are about. So I'm looking at Isaiah, just turned to Isaiah 11, above verse 1, it says, "The righteous reign of the branch," okay? That's what the next verses talk about. That's something that the editors added in, just to kind of break it up and help you read through it in context and in sections. In the book of Psalms, every now and then you see notes, so look at Psalm 3. In my Bible, there's an italicized note at the top that says, "Save me, oh my God," okay? That's added in by English editors of the Bible, okay? But below that, and before verse 1, it says, "In all caps in my Bible, a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son," and then look at Psalm 4, it says, "To the choirmaster with stringed instruments, a psalm of David," number 5, "to the choirmaster for the flutes, a psalm of David." And so some of them tell you who wrote it and some of them tell you how it was originally sung. You can even mention the melody that it was supposed to be sung to in ancient Israel. We don't know those songs anymore, but there you go, it's listed for you. Instruments, who it's for, the setting, what was going on, all of those things are original to the text, right? That's not an English editor adding that in just to help you understand. Those are things that's part of the text when you read those notes. So some of them have that, not all of them do. You may or may not know that there are actually five books in the book of Psalms. It's not just 150 chapters crammed together, but it's 150 chapters divided into five books, and then those five books put together. And so just take your Bible real real quick, and the first book obviously begins up above chapter 1, book 1, and then you flip all the way to chapter 41. And between the end of 41 and the beginning of 42, it says book 2, that's where book 2 begins. And then you go to chapter 72, between 72 and 73, there's the division. Book 3 begins with 73, and then the same thing between 89 and 90 and 106 to 107. Meaning that each book, there's five of them, each book ends with praise to God. And so I just want you to see that. Look at chapter 41 verse 13, it says, "Bless be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, amen, and amen," ends with the word of praise, look at Psalm 72 verse 18 says, "Bless be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things, blessed be His glorious name forever, may the whole earth be filled with His glory, amen, and amen." Look over at the end of Psalm 89, end of book 3, Psalm 89 verse 52 says, "Bless be the Lord forever, amen, and amen," okay, same thing. Look at Psalm 106, ends with just a very simple statement at the end, let's see 106, "Bless be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, let all the people say, amen, praise the Lord, and then the very last Psalm 150 ends with, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord." So just an interesting note, five books, they all end with a declaration of praise. They all end with the doxology, and that last hymn we sing had a fifth verse, and it was in italics, and that fifth verse is called the doxology. And doxology means a word of praise, right? Dox from the Greek meaning praise or glory, ology, logos, meaning word is a praise word, a word of praise, so they all end with doxology, this is a book about worship, it's a book about how to express your heart to God in worship, it's about how to be a spiritual person. And when you think about that, think about that phrase, you want to be a spiritual person, that's a buzzword today, and you can poll people, and every time they take a poll, this number climbs, people saying, "I'm not a religious person, but I'm a spiritual person." Religion, system, organized, and not so much, but spiritual things, absolutely. And so this is a great thing when you run into one of these people, church, and really not for me, I don't know. You say, "Well, did you know there's a book in the Bible just for you? Just for spiritual people to tell you what true spirituality is about. You may have some misconceptions about what it means to be a spiritual person. You may be going down the spiritual path in the wrong direction, the book of Psalms can straighten you out. There are private Psalms meant to be read and reflected on just by yourself, and there are Psalms that are corporate in nature, meant for the body, the church, the nation of Israel, whoever gathered together in worship." Interesting that, this is where I want you to take your hymnbook back out, okay? Find those two hymns we just looked at. Interesting that it wasn't all that long ago that the book of Psalms was the songbook for Christians, right? Not that long ago in the grand scheme of history, and when people started singing hymns in church, it was very controversial. You want to sing a hymn in the church? That's what God gave us this book for, right in the middle, longest book in the Bible. We don't need hymns, and there was arguments, and there was churches in the United States in Britain that split because one group said, "Listen, we're going to sing some hymns. We're going to sing number 14, praise to the Lord the Almighty." It was written in 1680, people saying, "This song is a hundred years old," and other people saying, "This book is thousands of years old," and you had other people saying, "Well, we just want to sing number 27, all creatures of our God and King." St. Francis wrote it in 1182. It's an old song. It's been around. It's tried and true and tested. We like it. We're going to sing it. And you had other people saying, "Look, forget 1182, this is what you ought to sing." So I'm not advocating that you only sing the book of Psalms, but I do think it is interesting when you talk to people who get so passionate about singing hymns only, you can just kindly say to them, "Look, I know St. Francis lived a long, long time ago, but the book of Psalms was around a long time before St. Francis." So if you're willing to gum all the way up to 1182, why not go all the way up to 2015? Something to think about, and you can take that for what it's worth. Let me show you, talk to you about some of the types of Psalms, some of the genres within the book of Psalms. We're going to go through these quickly. We won't talk a lot about them, but I want to read examples of this. It's easier for you to get the feel of it if we read it than if I just try to explain it to you. So get your Bible out, and I listed all these for you so you don't have to try to write them down. There are a lot of Psalms that are Psalms of praise. Look at Psalm 8. These are Psalms that praise God for His work in creation, and they praise God for His work in the nation of Israel. Right? Remember, this is Old Testament, so we're thinking about the nation of Israel. Psalm 8, and I'm going to read through these quickly, "To the choir master according to the Githith," that's the melody, "a Psalm of David, O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babies and infants. You have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him. You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You've given him dominion over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the pass of the seas. O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth, psalm of praise. You can look at 150 on your own. It is the ultimate psalm of praise, the capstone to the whole book. So you have some that are psalms of praise. You also have psalms of lament. Look at 88. If you don't know much about the book of psalms, it may surprise you to know that there are more laments, psalms of lament than any other type of psalm. And a lament, when you call it a lament, it sounds very spiritual and reverent. What they really are are complaints, gripes is what they are. When you read them, sometimes you think, you can't say that to God. You should not say that, but they are very, very honest and almost always, almost always in a psalm of lament, there is a gripe and then there is a turn to faith. That is a difference between what a lot of people do today and a lament in the Bible. Yes, they are honest and raw and there is a complaint or a lament or a gripe, but then they remind themselves of the truth and they turn towards faith. So look at Psalm 88, a song, a song of the sons of Cora to the choir master, according to the mahalath leonath, a maskal of heman, the Israelite, got it. Verse 1, "O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you, let my prayer come before you and climb your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to shield, near to the grave. I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those who you remember no more." You understand what he's saying there? He's saying, "You forgot me. You have forgotten me. I have no strength, and I'm about to die, and you're nowhere to be found. They're cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions, dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me. You've made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call to you, O Lord, I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness and abadon, or your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But, underline the word but, lament, lament, lament, lament, gripe, gripe, gripe, honesty, honesty, but, O Lord, I O Lord, cry to you in the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your tears, I'm helpless. Your wrath has swept over me, your dreadful assaults destroy me, they surround me like a flood all day long, they close in on me altogether, you have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me, my companions have become darkness. So, again, he ends with lament, but in the middle there, right, when it says, it feels like you have forgotten me, he says, but, I do cry to you, and in the morning my prayer does come before you. I know that you're listening, I know that you're there. I do have faith in you, but the lament begins and ends the Psalms. So, lots of Psalms of lament, also Psalms of thanksgiving, that's pretty obvious of what that is, I don't think it needs a lot of explanation, look at 118, won't read all of 118, but I do want you to note that it begins with the words, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, and it ends with the words, give thanks to the Lord he is good. What do you think it's about? Giving thanks to the Lord, because he's good, it's not rocket science. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel say, his steadfast love endures forever, let the house of Aaron say, his steadfast love endures forever, let those who fear the Lord say, his steadfast love endures forever. Out of my distress, I called on the Lord, the Lord answered me and set me free, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear, what can man do to me, the Lord is on my side is my helper, I will look to him and triumph on those who hate me, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man, it's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes, on and on it goes ends with the idea again of giving thanks, obviously that's I hope self explanatory to you. Psalms of trust, look at Psalm 23, I know you know it but I want you to find it and we're going to read it from the Bible. Psalms of trust are just that, they're Psalms where the author is communicating his trust in God and these Psalms, this is just maybe my personal opinion but I think it's right, these Psalms are the most beautiful Psalms. These are the Psalms when you read it, you think wow, that captures what I want to say. You ever find yourself struggling with what you want to say to God or what you ought to say to God and you read the Psalms of trust and you say that's it, it could not be said any better than how you said it right there, Psalm 23, Psalm of David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in passive righteousness for his name's sake, even 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 before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I don't know how you're going to top that unless you turn to Psalm 73. This is my favorite Psalm and Psalm 73 is a good example that these genres mix, the first part of Psalm 73 is a lament and the second part of Psalm 73 is a psalm of trust and they're mixed together and you find that a lot, different types mixed together. Let's look at Psalm 73 verse 23, he says, "I am continually with you, you hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Behold those who are far from you will perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you but for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works." There you go, Psalm of trust. Next one is Psalms of the earthly king and we're going to look at Psalm, let's do Psalm one, we'll do two, Psalm two. These are a little bit tricky when you read them. You read words like king and you read words like anointed, the king was anointed. You read sometimes David is specifically singled out as the king and when you read them you understand that he's not talking about God the king and the heavens, that's the next one we're going to look at. But he's talking about the actual king of Israel, right? The physical, real life, flesh and blood, king of Israel. You read about it and you say he's talking about a real human. But then you read him and you say, but it doesn't seem like he's just talking about David, right? And ultimately all of these Psalms point to Jesus, we're going to come back to that at the end. So yes, they're about the earthly king at the time but they're also about the earthly king to come who will be flesh and blood, who will be real life, really there, be able to touch him, be able to talk to him, be able to see him. Look at Psalm 2, what are the nations rage? The people's plot in vain, the kings of the earth set themselves against the rulers, they take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed. There's that key word, anointed. Literally you could say against his messiah, exact same word, against his messiah. Let us burst their bonds apart and cast their cords from us. He who sits in heaven, laughs, the Lord holds them in derision, then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, "As for me I have set my king on Zion my holy hill." There's a king, in Zion, in Jerusalem. I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, "You are my son, today I've begotten you." That ought to make you think New Testament, Jesus. Ask of me, I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. It ought to make you think about the Great Commission. You will break them with a rod of iron. That ought to make you think about the book of Revelation where Jesus is sitting on the throne holding a rod of iron. You'll dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, kiss the sun, capital S, sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled, blessed are all who take refuge in him. So Psalms, there's several of them about the earthly king. Also Psalms about the heavenly king. And these are Psalms, like Psalm 47, that talk about God being the king over everything. The earth is not the focus, all of creation is the focus. We're not just talking about Israel and David on the throne or Jesus someday being the king. We're taking a cosmic look at things, Psalm 47 is a short one. Clap your hands all people, shout to God with loud songs of joy for the Lord the most high is to be feared a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, nations under our feet, chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet, sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our king, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth, sing praises with the psalm. God reigns over the nations, God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather is the people of the God of Abraham for the shields of the earth belong to God, he is highly exalted. So a bunch of Psalms talk about God being the king over all things. Then there's Psalms of wisdom and I'm going to let you look at Psalm 32 yourself. We won't read that one for the sake of time. These are Psalms that are not explicitly worship but they're more reflective and they're more about teaching. And so David wrote Psalm 32 and in it he says blessed is the man who's forgiven, whose transgression the Lord does not hold against him. And the whole Psalm is a reflection on that. What does it mean to be forgiven? What does it mean to be blessed by God? Not directly worship but more about wisdom and thinking about the truth. Then there's Psalms of the law. Psalm 1, the very first one is a good example of that, we'll look at it in a minute. Psalm, look at Psalm 19, we won't read 119, all 176 verses. But look at 19, beginning in verse 7, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure and lightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean and during forever, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter than honey in the drippings of the honeycomb. By them, by your word, your servant is warned and in keeping them, in keeping your commandments, there is great reward." And so Psalm 19 focuses on the law of God and it teaches you about God's law. Then there is a really interesting group of Psalms called imprecatory Psalms and that word imprecatory comes from the Latin word that we would translate imprecations and literally it means curses and we're not going to read it tonight, but I want you to go home, mark this one and read Psalm 109. And when you read Psalm 109 and think about what it says, you ought to be a little bit uneasy and all I'm going to say to you is if you're really uneasy and you want to talk to me about it, I promise you can make sense of it and you don't need to rip it out of your Bible. So I could have told you somebody's name, but she lives in Kingfisher and she goes to church with Allen and one night I taught on Psalm 109, okay, that I'm challenging you to read. And at the end of the talk, this lady just said, I think you ought to just rip Psalm 109 out of the Bible. I don't think it fits with everything else I read in the Bible. I think it does fit. It's not easy to understand. It's not obviously when you read it, you think Jesus didn't write that because there's some serious stuff in there. When you read it, don't freak out and don't rip it out of your Bible. Just understand it does fit. It can be made sense of it. It does cohere with the rest of what we know in scripture. So there are, I don't want to hide it from you, there are a group of Psalms. Psalm 109 is the most severe where the author of the Psalm calls down curses on his enemies. And the curses are not, I want them to have a bad day. The curses are legit and so you can read that one yourself. Those of a cent, we won't read those, they're all together right there, 120 to 134. And they are songs, Psalms, poems that were written as the pilgrims would travel to Jerusalem for the feasts, okay? So you understand Jerusalem elevation wise is higher than everything around it. So whether you're coming from the north-south, east or west, you say we're going up to Jerusalem. And if you're going south, you say we're going up to Jerusalem because it's up on a mountain. And so these are Psalms of ascent, of going up. And they would sing these when they go to Jerusalem to celebrate a festival. So there you go, 10 different types of Psalms. And I just gave you a couple of examples, obviously, of each of those. Let's talk about being spiritual. What does the book of Psalms tell us about being a spiritual person? I want to give you a couple of thoughts. Number one, if you want to be a spiritual person, you need to be honest. Spiritual person is honest. If you are a phony at church, if you are a phony in your devotional life, if you're a phony at work or with your family, you are not a spiritual person, right? Spiritual people are honest, they're real. And they don't try to put on a front with God and act like they're somebody they're not or act like they're feeling something they're not, they're honest. So we're going to look at these verses. Look at Psalm 10. Psalm 10 verse 1, this is pretty honest. Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? If you wanted to put that into modern English, you would say, God, you are nowhere to be found and especially when I need you the most, you're not there for me. That's how he feels, that's pretty honest. But look what he says if you keep going in verse 16, because he brings it around and he says, the Lord is king forever and ever, the nations perish from his land. On the one hand, he says, I feel like you're nowhere to be found. That's honesty about how he feels, but then he's also honest about the truth of the situation regardless of how he feels, you are the king. I'm not denying that, I'm not forgetting that. This is how I feel, and I'm honest, but this is the truth, and part of being an honest, genuine person is acknowledging the truth, whether you feel like acknowledging that truth or not. So, a spiritual person is honest. Second, a spiritual person repents of sin in their life. This is a dangerous thing in a lot of churches, because a lot of churches today, if you don't follow church trends, you may not notice this, and if you're in an Immanuel bubble, you're lucky that maybe you haven't encountered this, but there's a lot of churches that talk about we want to be real, we want to be raw, we want to be authentic, we don't want to pretend that we're somebody, we're not. And people my age hear that and they say, hey, that sounds nice, right? I'm tired of the fakeness that sometimes goes along with church, so they go to these churches and they're looking for that, and the problem is there's a lot of authenticity about how people feel but there's no repentance about sin in their life. So there's a lot of people talking about, man, I struggle with this, and they're open, shockingly open sometimes, man, I struggle with this substance, I struggle with an illicit drug that could land me in prison, or I struggle with pornography, or I struggle with this or that, and they're very open about it, but they never move to repentance, and they like to feel like they're being so authentic and spiritual, and the book of Psalms says, there's nothing spiritual about that. Spiritual people repent, Psalm 51, David says, to the choir master, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he'd gone into Bathsheba, I hope you remember that story, David says this, "Have mercy 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 sin, I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, against you, and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sinned did my mother conceive me, behold you delight in truth in the inward being, you teach me wisdom in the secret heart, purge me with his hyssop, and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be wider than snow." It goes on to talk about what repentance is going to look like in his life. All I'm telling you is if you want to be a spiritual person, yes, you need to be honest, genuine, authentic, don't pretend to be somebody you're not, but you follow that up with repentance, okay? Not just content to be a miserable wretch, but then you move to repentance. Number three, spiritual people obey, closely connected to number two, but they obey. We're going to read Psalm 1 in a minute, so we'll skip that. Spiritual people obey. If you talk to a person who says that they're spiritual and they do not live a life, I'm not saying that it's perfectly obedient, but that the overall pattern of their life is obedience, and they want to tell you they're spiritual, you just laugh at them. No, you're not. Nothing spiritual about you. Spiritual people obey. We'll see that in Psalm 1. Number four, spiritual people have faith. Spiritual people have faith, particularly in difficult times. Psalm 62, the choir master, according to the jettathon, a psalm of David. For God alone, my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, leaning like a wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure and falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. That's what he's experiencing. And he comes back and he says, "For God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence for my hope is from him." He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation in my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Spiritual people have faith. Number five, spiritual people. Remember. And you'll see what I'm talking about just as one example in Psalm 136. Spiritual people remember. A lot of what you see in the book of Psalms is people preaching to themselves and reminding themselves of what they already know, but they're struggling to really, really believe. And so that Psalm 62 would be an example of that. People are attacking me. They're lying about me. They want to assassinate me. They want to kill me. They want to destroy me. But God is my rock. God is my rock. Psalm 136. "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of God's. His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords. His steadfast love endures forever. To the one who does great and wonders, his steadfast love endures forever. To him who by understanding made the heavens, his steadfast love endures forever. To him who spread out the earth above the waters and on and on it goes, saying, God did this for us. Don't forget that. His love endures forever. Be honest about your emotions, that's fine. But don't forget. Remember that his love for his people endures forever. So spiritual people remember. 6 spiritual people give thanks. They give thanks. There's about 20 different Psalms of thanks in the book of Psalms. And I'll let you look at Psalm 100. Psalm 100 is the only one that has a superscription, a note above it that says a Psalm forgiving thanks. It's the only one written for that purpose specifically. So you can look at Psalm 100. Interesting when you read Psalm 100. The only Psalm expressly written to give thanks to God. He never mentions anything material. When we give thanks, we give thanks for our homes and our stuff and our jobs and our money and our this and our that. None of that in Psalm 100. So you can look at it yourself. See how to give thanks. Number seven, a spiritual person worships. And there's two aspects of this I want you to see in Psalm 150. On the one hand, the book of Psalms says you worship God for what He has done. And on the other hand, the book of Psalms says you should worship God because of who He is. And sometimes we only think to give thanks and to worship God for the stuff He's done for us as opposed to worshiping Him for who He is. But look at Psalm 150. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His mighty deeds. What He has done. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Who He is. We praise Him for what He's done is mighty deeds. And we praise Him for who He is in His excellent greatness. So spiritual people worship God for what He's done and who He is. The last thing I want you to see is this. The whole book of Psalms really points you to Jesus. Sometimes it's more obvious than other places. But look at Psalm one and two. There's a great story about a Christian preacher who went to the Holy Lands and had the chance to speak to a group of Jewish rabbis. And he knew that in the oldest Hebrew traditions, Psalm one and Psalm two are actually one Psalm. So the preacher knew that. In the Hebrew tradition, the Jewish tradition, Psalm one and two, there's no division between them. They're just all crammed together in one. So he sits down with these guys and he says, listen, I want to read from the first Psalm. He's talking to Jewish people and he says to them, I want you to tell me who is described in these verses. Follow along. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. It's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they're like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. And he says to these Jewish guys, who's that talking about? He says, is it talking about Abraham? And a rabbi says, nope, can't be Abraham. Book of Joshua says Abraham was an idolater at one point in his life. So that doesn't describe him. He walked in the way of sinners. Okay, scratch Abraham off. What about Moses? Was it Moses? Was it Moses, the guy who did that perfectly? And he just waits for an answer. And then somebody says, no, it couldn't be Moses. He murdered a guy in Egypt and he argued with God and he didn't uphold God as holy at the waters of Maribah, didn't get to enter the Promised Land. It's not Moses. Not Abraham, not Moses. He is David. Is David the guy being described here? Hmm. There's that thing about David and Bathsheba and the murder and the cover up and the conspiracy and the adultery. And no, it's not David. And he looks at these guys in the eye and he says, you guys know who it is. Jesus of Nazareth is the one who did this. Jesus is the one who never walked in the counsel of the wicked, never stood in the way of sinners, never sat in the seat of scoffers who delighted in the law of the Lord and meditated on it day and night. He is the one that the Lord knows. He's the righteous one. The wicked will not stand. Jesus will stand. And then, remember he's talking to these Jewish guys and in their Bibles, one and two are mashed together into one Psalm. And he goes right into Psalm two and he says, look, he's talking to the Lord Yahweh in verse two and his anointed, his Messiah. He's talking about Jesus and it goes down and it talks about the Lord saying, you are my what? You are verse seven. You are my son, Jesus, the son of God, the only begotten son of God, verse seven. There it is. He's talking about Jesus who sits on the throne with the rod of iron and on and on and goes and he's pointing these Jewish rabbis straight to Jesus. And then if that doesn't convince you, you can look at Psalm 110. Look at Psalm 10, 110. This is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament of all the Psalms that get mentioned and referred back to. This one gets mentioned the most and it's not even close, not even close. In fact, when Peter preached his first sermon ever on the day of Pentecost, this was the big home run point at the end of the sermon, right? Good sermon has something like that. Sometimes at the end where you build and you build and you build and then you tie it all together and Peter did that. He builds and he builds and he builds and then Peter says, listen, the Lord, Psalm 110, verse one, and you notice that's all capital letters, L-O-R-D, all capital, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord, all caps, says to my Lord. And he says, no, wait a minute, fellas. David wrote this, it says so right there in the note that's part of the text, the Psalm of David. And David talks to Yahweh and he's talking about his Lord. And Peter said to these people, these Jewish people, he said, look, David didn't have a Lord. He's the king. Nobody above David. He's the great king of Israel. But he had a Lord. And Yahweh is speaking to David's Lord. And Peter says, this is pointing you straight to Jesus. Talks down in verse four that the Lord, Yahweh, has sworn and he will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. It's a big long discussion. We're not going to get into tonight, but that's a big part of several chapters in the book of Hebrews saying Jesus is our great high priest, not from the line of the Levites, not from Aaron's line, but from the line of Melchizedek. And so Psalm 110, the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament, points us straight to Jesus. The whole book in one way or another is driving us straight to Jesus. So there you go, book of Psalms. I know that's a fly by. I know we left out a ton of stuff, but that gives you a big picture view of the book. So I'm going to pray and then we will share some prayer requests. Father, we love you. We thank you for the Bible and we do thank you for the book of Psalms. And Father, we see people in this book being very honest with you. We see people modeling for us how we should talk to you, how we should sing to you, how we should relate to you, how we should live our lives, how we should think about the truth, how we should think about difficulties. Father, we look at this book and as Tony prayed earlier, we see real life. And regardless of our circumstance tonight, we find words in this book. They don't just belong on a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Father, these words are your words and they're true words and they're living words. And we find words that apply to any and every situation and circumstance we face in life. And so I pray for those who are here tonight. And we just sort of skimmed over the top in a surface level discussion of the book of Psalms. But Father, I pray that they would leave and they would dig into this book, that they would read it, that they would memorize it, that they would cherish it, that they would think about it, meditate on it, that they would rest in these words, that they would believe these words, that these words would shape the way that we think and the way that we live. Father, again, we thank you for the Bible. We thank you for a book about worship, a book about praise, a book about how to be spiritual and how to relate to you. We love you. We ask for your wisdom and your direction as we devote ourselves to your word. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.