The Psalms

 

This Sunday I am starting something new, bringing my congregation God’s word from the Psalms. In my Bible the introduction to the Psalms says, “The book of Psalms is filled with the songs and prayers offered to God by the nation of Israel. Their expressions of praise, faith, sorrow and frustration cover the range of human emotions. This diversity is unified by one element: they are centered upon the one and only living God.”

For most of the time that I have been their pastor it has been my practice to preach through whole books of the Bible. From beginning to end we have gone through 1 Peter, Colossians, Ruth, Mark, Philippians, Amos, John, Zechariah, James and Galatians. One advantage to this method of choosing texts is that we hear what God as to say His children from the entire book. Sometime this means that the Bible addresses something we would rather not hear about. But if we believe what Paul wrote to Timothy,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

then we dig in to the word and seek to know and live by the truth God teaches through it, Psalms included.

Psalms is a long book, 150 chapters, and I will be making one change in my practice, in that I will not preach the whole book. I expect that we will hear from 25-30 of the Psalms. There are also many kinds of psalms, where the main idea of the particular psalm will be praise, or thanksgiving, or lament/complaint, and even calling for God’s justice on God’s enemies. As we go through the Psalms we will touch on all the different types. Like other parts of the Bible, we may be confronted with things we would rather avoid but I will approach them with the idea that in those challenging things God has something for our good.

When I preach through a book I try to find a verse or two that captures the particular theme of that book. Psalms, being a long book and dealing with many things in many ways, presents a challenge to that task. I’ve settled on Psalm 68:19, 

Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation.

God is our salvation. Precisely how this was to happen was not clear to the writers of the psalms or the ancient nation to Israel. It is clear to us, as God’s plan of salvation has been worked out through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Ultimately the Psalms point to Him and their promises are fulfilled in Him. May the glory of our Savior be magnified and may our faith in Him grow as we hear from the Psalms.

 

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.