Session 2- Psalms- Meg Nurcombe & Tim Dobson- Summer25

Summer Bible School on the Wisdom Literature

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

School this summer, uh, we're looking at the wisdom literature. Uh so how many of you in the last week for Job? So you all suffered well. So um uh we'll look at the wisdom literature. Um so each each kind of Bible school, middle Bible school, we'll try and take either a book or a letter, um, but this time I thought we'd take a little genre, the wisdom literature. And there's five books uh that you'll find in the middle of the Old Testament. Um, and they're five kind of how-to books. So the the reason that the wisdom literature is that it's it's how-to. So if we think that kind of the Bible is a way in which God wants to communicate uh uh to his creation, to people, uh, about who he's who he is, what he's like, and how to how to do life really well. Um it's it's much, much more than just a kind of a manual for life, but there are some things around about it that help us to navigate the different kinds of things that we find in life. So uh Jove is is how to suffer, or how to suffer well. Um Psalms is how to praise or how to worship, how to worship well. Uh Proverbs is how to act, uh, act well, how to live well. Uh the uh Ecclesiastes is how to enjoy life well, um, and uh Song of Songs is how to love well. So that's what we're gonna be doing uh this uh these four evenings. If you missed last week, at the end of this evening there will be a little QR code. If you want to scan that and put your details in, uh I can send you the audio and um and the notes from last week. Uh and again, if you want the notes from tonight, uh we'll do that as well. Um so that's kind of where we're going to head. I'm gonna do some kind of some myself and um Megan, this is Megan here, Megan uh waves kind of uh Megan's been a ministry apprentice with our church here, um working with students. Um, was just about to go to do a PhD in theology and arts. Yeah. Very good. Theology and arts. So um uh so makes it going to happen a little bit later on as we kind of think about how how does the sound kind of work in our day-to-day kind of uh life. Uh so can't you pray for us uh as we start our evening together? Uh Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you that it's living and active. It uh speaks into every area of our lives, it equips us um uh for good works and uh inspires us to live well. In it we find your truth and your promises that feed and nurture us. And uh, although sometimes it's kind of hard and complicated to understand and to read, we we know that it's worthwhile being like a workman who handles the word of God rightly. And I pray that tonight as we think about psalms and as we think about the place they play within your uh your we'd learn, we'd listen to one another, and uh we'd appreciate all that those kind of original writers put in uh to their poetry that still speaks to us many years later. So be with us, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, for those of you that hear kind of uh and were sharing about your favourite psalms, uh kind of um just a little show of hands. How many of you was your favourite psalm between Psalm 1 and Psalm 50? Give us a wave. Okay, how many of many of us between Psalm 51 and Psalm 100? Okay, and how many between 101 and 150? Does anybody want to say what their favourite psalm is and why it's why it's their favourite? Or you just white.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

I I love psalm one. Yeah, the picture of the oak tree. Okay. Yeah, on the bank or water. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Yeah. Yeah, the tree kind of taking moisture. Any other psalms before that? Yeah. 121. 121? That's how we look to the hills. Okay. Yeah, I listen to my earth matters. Where does my head come from? That's great. It's a great reassurance in life, isn't it? Kind of when things seem to pile in. Uh, where do we look to? Well, we look, we look up.

SPEAKER_07 4:05

Um anybody else? Yeah. Yeah. Um I wasn't gonna say Psalms 121, but like the classic Psalms 23, like we keep on like bashed into our skulls, but it's what when you actually listen to the lyrics, um it actually resonates. I think uh even though it's where I walk through the valley shadow of death, like the way it's the worst case scenario you can imagine. Yeah, I I don't feel yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:34

And there's a there's a there's a lovely mixture in Sound Twenty, isn't it, of kind of reassurance. So when you're actually gonna- I know when my my um dad died about kind of uh 35 years ago, and he just suddenly dropped down dead one day, lay in the garden with an uh of the caneurism. And um, and I remember we were really kind of traumatized as a family, not it's not as though he was ill or or we expected anything at all. And and again, just Psalm 23 was just again one of those those psalms that you kind of you can look at it and analyse it in in your head, oh the Lord's my shepherd, oh yeah, that's nice, isn't it? Nice imagery. But actually, sometimes God's word and the psalms just kind of minister you or they they resonate with you, or they feed you and they wrap you around in times of of trouble um and and real comfort. And I think you're right there. Um any other sounds, people I'm like Psalm 32. Psalm 32?

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Um shot down. Right.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of scary and reassuring at the same time, isn't it? You certainly know me. There's nothing that's hidden from you. But maybe within that is what that's reassuring us to actually, and he still loves us, he's still on our side, he's still so um great. Well, we're gonna look through the Psalms and we're gonna try and see um kind of how they how they work as part of uh written scripture, um, what how we can uh use them, how we understand them, how they were put together, um, and that kind of thing. Is that okay? Um, but just uh you may have come this evening and thought, oh, um I've come to do the King of Psalms. I hope that this question I've got is answered. Uh or I hope we cover this. Um is there anything just before I start talking? Because once I start talking, it's asking me to stop. But um, just is there anything that you you'd really like to pick up from this evening about the the Passalms? Any any kind of questions or any areas you want to make sure that we cover?

SPEAKER_09 6:54

Were they originally divided up into sections? I've got a recollection that they were into five books. Is that true? They divide them then in reality.

SPEAKER_05 7:04

Yeah, we'll we'll yeah, we'll cover, we'll do that, we'll look at how how the how the book was was was assembled together. Any other things that people like us to cover yet?

SPEAKER_07 7:14

I think that some there are two psalms that are like repeated one for one. Yeah. So it's kind of like exactly the same.

SPEAKER_05 7:25

And they also it also I think also appears in one Samuel. So I think it in the Bible, I think it may even appear three times. Any other things for us to cover? Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 7:34

How the Psalms are used prophetically in the scriptures.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

Okay, yeah, yeah, how the Psalms used prophetically. Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_06 7:46

Maybe about the authors and the title.

SPEAKER_05 7:48

Okay, the authors, yeah, yeah, we'll we'll do that as well. Okay. Um so the the Psalms uh I suppose are unique amongst the books of the Bible in that um uh quite quite often um the Bible can be, does contain words from God to people. So in some ways we think it's it's the word of God. So somehow it is a communication of God to us. And whether it's the narrative of the history of God's interaction with his people, or whether it's some direct prophecy, or whether it's the teachings of Jesus, or whether it's kind of the uh uh apostles that kind of uh elaborated on the teaching of Jesus, actually, in some ways we look at the Bibles quite often and we think well it's it's it's somehow it's God speaking to us. But when we come to the Psalms, actually the Bible also contains words that kind of words that we speak to God or that we use to speak about God. And so Psalms is a bit like a collection of different kinds of songs or or poems. They would be said or they would be sung. Um they may have been meditated on individually, but they were originally designed for corporate um uh corporate singing. Um and and some of them were psalms that would psalms that are addressed to God, so like prayer poems, but they're they're definitely kind of spoken to God. Like Psalm 63, uh You, God, and my God, earnestly I seek you. I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there's no water. And again, it's it's a it's a psalm that is uh a poetic prayer that is spoken by somebody to God. There's some psalms that are spoken to other people. So they're like encouraging, kind of stirring other people up. So come, let us sing for joys of the Lord, let us shadow lies, the rock of our salvation. Actually, they were kind of calling on people. Come on, guys, kind of wake up, let's get going. Actually, God's words do praise. Um, and they're they're kind of they they call on people to uh come to worship God. So sometimes the the direction is towards God, actually, sometimes the direction is towards other people, actually sometimes the direction is towards ourselves. Um why, my soul, are you downcast? Why is so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my God, my saviour. And some of them that are kind of uh self-reflective kind of sounds. And so as you read them, as you look at them, probably one of the first questions is to ask is which way is this going? Is this a poem or a prayer that's gonna help me to worship and praise God? Is this something that is to uh encourage and exhort and bring other people in to worship God? Or is it this something that in my own personal devotions and reflections, this song is going to help me to connect with something that's going on uh in the inside here? Is that okay? So that would be the first thing I I would look for if I'm thinking, oh, how do I read or how do I uh how do psalms kind of speak that speak to me? Um uh the second thing is uh is to realise that um psalms are poems. Um so like with a poem, um uh people who are poets, my phenomenon here because he's a poet and just published a book of poems, and actually poets actually are very good at using words, and they use words to conjure up pictures, or you use words to um uh uh elicit emotional reactions and responses. Uh and there's a kind of a few words do a lot of heavy lifting. Uh in some ways, but that's that's how kind of poetry works. It is trying to um stir up in you, evoke in you uh a mental picture or an emotional reaction. Um, and so the psalms in the Bible are, in that way, they are poetry. Um as with poetry, in some ways they're not um they're not literal. So some people say, well, we ought to take the Bible. If you take the Bible, kind of if you're super spiritual, you take the Bible literally. Well, in some ways there's there's some parts of the Bible actually can't take literally because actually they were never intended to be taken literally. Um, poetry isn't always supposed to be taken literally. I want blow me out of cloud. Tim, how did you do that? How did you change it to water paper? And and kind of no, it's it's it's supposed to evoke something. It's it's words that contrari a picture of a feeling that I might have had in your head or in your emotions. So uh again, as we look through some of the psalms, actually they they're not intended to be taken literally. So one example is um uh surely in Psalm uh uh uh Psalm 50, where David has been caught out, he'd committed adultery, he's murdered the husband of the woman he slept with, um, and uh a year's gone by, or at least nine months to the baby's been born. Um and uh the prophet Nathan comes to him and says, kind of uh tells him this whole story, and he realized that he's sinned. And he pours out this great kind of uh psalm of remorse that again might help you to connect with when you really feel you've messed up. It's a psalm of remorse that David says. Now, in that psalm, he says things that aren't in the vertical commons literally true. Um he says things against you and you only have sinned. Ah, technically, David, you did sin against Bathsheba and you didn't say against against Uriah. You had a thought, you committed an ultrasound with her and he had him murdered. So it wasn't you and you only have by sin, but actually in this encounter with you God, as I'm trying to express how I'm feeling, and as I want maybe other people to connect that centre of remorse, it feels like in this moment it's you the only. You're in focus, it looks like you're the only nothing against. It says, Cleanse me with hyssop and I'll be clean. Actually, hyssop's not going to do anything with your wrongdoing and your shame. Hyssop is a medicinal plant, I think, I think it had medicinal properties that if you got constipated, it would help stuff, unblock stuff for you, and kind of cleanse you from on the inside. And so, kind of if you were to cleanse, I feel a sense of shame and remorse and grief, and and I want you to cleanse me like his that does it to my bowels, I want you to do it to me inside, to my spirit. And so he uses pictures to try and keep and so when he says, Surely I was sinful, sinful for my mother's birth, and the time my mother conceived me, actually, is that uh theologically, is that a point that we can base a theology on? Or is it just you saying, actually, do you know what? I've I've just kind of messed up so much, actually, um it feels like I have no option. Obviously, you did have an option, but it he says things in a poetic form to try and communicate something, but it's not necessarily meant to be taken as theologically in a vertical accurate. Does that make sense? Does anybody want to come back on that? So sometimes I think we take things literally because it's in the Bible, and we need to understand that it is poetry, and we need to read it as poetry, and and take it seriously. I would say that I don't take I don't take the Bible literally, but I do take it seriously. It's too important to take literally. I take it seriously because I want to interpret it and read it how it was written and how it was intended to be read and how it was intended to feed us. Um so when we come to a psalms, we we need to realise that actually they are poetry. Uh, and poetry that is supposed to evoke a sense of emotional response, emotional reaction. Um it's kind of where some things kind of touch our heads, and it's and maybe some Paul's teaching, oh, we wrestle with that with our heads. Actually, the psalms predominantly are going to touch our hearts and our feelings and our reactions are in a kind of life. Does that kind of make sense? So most of them are kind of uh poems. I think some of them though are more like um a personal journal. Do any of you ever write a personal journal? A personal journal? Um if you write a personal journal poorly, you you you write down kind of what the day's been like. Uh some of the highs and some of the lows. Actually, some of the kind of ways that you've reacted to certain certain people at work or certain situations. And they're seem to celebrate the things that kind of haven't gone. And actually, sometimes you process things as you're writing things down. You get it out of your system, you write down in general. This person will work really bully, really unfair. They say this out or the other, and kind of, I should go down, ah, and you write down just how you've reacted to the situation. And sometimes, at the end of that process of just getting it out, you think, ah, that feels a bit better. Because you you've you've processed externally something that you're feeling very intensely. And so there's these psalms, some of them call the imprecatory psalms, that you read those psalms, you think, hang on a minute, that looks super violent. That looks very unkind. How come this is in God's word? So I have you ever come across those kind of psalms, kind of bashing pregnant women, bashing their babies against rocks. Hang on a minute. What what's the psalmist doing saying that kind of stuff? Here's a couple of examples. Um this is Psalm 69. Uh, and it's talking about people eating a bad day with, or people do it along this case. He's sort of saying, uh, let the banks of table set before them become a snare, and their prosperity become a trap. Let their eyes go blind so they can't see, and make their bodies shake continually. Uh pour out your fury on them, consume them with your burning anger, let their homes become desolate and their tents be deserted. To the one who you've punished, they've added insult to injury. Uh, they add to the pain of those who you've hurt. Pile their sins on high, don't let them go free. Hang on a minute. I thought you were supposed to be a nice Christian. Why are you writing that kind of stuff? And why is it in the Bible? Um, Psalm 199 is kind of similar. Again, it's it's like this. It looks as though he's trying to curse somebody. Kind of. Uh let his ears be few. Let someone take uh take his position. May his children become fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children wander as beggars and be driven from their ruined homes. May creditors seize his entire estate and strangers take all that he's earned. Let no one be kind to him. Let no one pity his fatherless children. May all his offspring die. May just me. What's this doing in the Bible? May his family's name be blotted out in the next generation. What's that doing there? Actually, it's just showing that sometimes, you know what? However much we want to follow God, sometimes just stuff makes us angry. Actually, sometimes stuff just gets, sometimes things just kind of come to a head. And either we actually do do something about it, or somehow in the process of writing things down, actually we get into perspective what is going on. And in some ways, I think these psalms just help us think, actually, it's better to talk to God about it than to do it. If somebody's really kind of really kind of mean and horrible to you within your family, wider family, or within your the place where you live, or at work, and and they're really kind of getting to you, out of that sense of pain and anger, you might just start thinking about ways in which you can do something to them, manipulate or kind of passive aggression, or I mean, you might kind of think, oh, I'm gonna um now. What these psalms say is actually it when you're feeling that, that is a human response because even the psalmists, these godly saintly kind of people, uh, they had days when they looked at what was happening and they thought was unfair, and they had days when they wished that these kind of things happened to them. Now, in life knows down before God, the raw emotion gets processed in God's presence. And what happens is if you look at the end of the Psalms, actually, end of these psalms, they always end on a positive note. Now, why is that? Is that because if you think, oh gracious me, if it's gonna be a psalm, people can sing the psalm, it's gonna have a happy ending. Or is it the fact that actually if you bring your pain, your confusion, your disappointment to God, actually in do in the very process being honest with your emotions, not trying to hide things, not to try and be super pious or super Christian, but actually be genuinely real about your situations that you're facing that really upset you, really unjust, really cruel, really violent. Kind of as you bring those to God, actually at the end of each Psalm, so at the end of Psalm 59, uh, in having written this in this journal, he gets to the end and he says this praise him, O heavens. The season all that move in them, for God will save Jerusalem and rebuild the towers of Judah. His people will live there and be settled in the land. The descendants of those who obey him will inherit the land, and those who love him will live there in safety. And he comes to this kind of conclusion, actually, there's this part of the story, this particular person, this particular thing, actually, as I process the anger and process the fear and process the hurt, um, he comes to a conclusion, actually, but actually there is a God in heaven. There is a God in heaven who I can rely on, who I can trust. Actually, there's a bigger story here that I'm I'm part of that that kind of will work out. And in some ways, the anger and the frustration comes to uh a conclusion that seems to be they've gone through what they've felt and come to a positive conclusion with God. The same at the end of 109. But I will give uh repeated thanks to the Lord, praising him to everyone. For he stands beside the needy, ready to save them from those who condemn them. And again, as we process all that stuff, comes back with some, again, some really positive conclusions about who God is. Does that does that kind of make sense? Any questions on poetry, uh inquisitive uh psalms, improductory sounds, at all? Any or any thoughts? Yeah? Impectory uh that that it's um uh that that's that's the kind of that that's the the the type of psalm. That's the kind of um the classification's given in literature. In impegatory. Um what does it mean? I don't know. Uh I mean anyone who's an English scholar might know what that means. Uh you can always ask Engle. Um uh any other questions or comments?

SPEAKER_12 23:08

Yeah, I think we're definitely taking the other thing in the world.

SPEAKER_05 23:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I I I think I think it is uh yeah, God is love and it wants to draw us into that love relationship. And I think the Bible is trying to draw us in that direction. But again, in our humanity, sometimes we find out hard to love. We find it hard to love people. And and and and rather than being unreal and saying, I love I'm gonna love anyway, but inside I'm feeling actually at some point you need to process that before God, or else it will sip out somewhere uh kind of unbeknownst to you, uh, and it it you you can't put a lid on those kind of feelings without processing them uh before God, and maybe with other people. Okay? Um there are some psalms that are lamenting psalms. Um do you know what lament is kind of oh no, it's it's combated wrong? Oh, why is that happening to me? Why is that happening to us? Kind of um and quite a few of the psalms are uh uh lament psalms. Um uh now I wonder kind of why why do you think lament psalms, I mean maybe you can turn around and and and talk to a couple of the next of you. Why do you think lament psalms are important? Particularly when you think, well, I found Jesus and finding Jesus, he's promised to give us life and all its fullness, and uh he's promised to bring us give us joy and and we're gonna kind of live with him forever when we die, gonna uh why would we want lament sounds uh in God's word for us when we've found a new life in Jesus? Okay, just turn to the people next to each couple minutes and think why why why would you why would you think about a lament sounds in a few years? Anybody got any ideas why lament sounds for us as this side of the cross, this side of Jesus' resurrection, why they might still be of use uh to us? Any any thoughts about why why lament sounds?

SPEAKER_11 25:21

Well there's another aspect that lamentation is really important in the same way as expressing language. Okay. You have to come up with it in order to resolve that.

SPEAKER_05 25:29

Okay, yeah. So how how do you resolve anger those sounds? Or how do you resolve uh pain, disappointment, and sadness? And how do you resolve it?

SPEAKER_11 25:37

And then paying it.

SPEAKER_05 25:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

And I'll enable us to be real. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 25:49

Okay, okay. So it enables us to be to be real. Um so I remember I think that's quite an interesting thing, is it? So we can lament our personal sin.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:06

So so I think I think sometimes um quite often in the Bible actually the lament is around having wandered from God. So it's not just lamenting about I've had a bad day or why hasn't God answered my prayer today? Kind of it's it's more about actually we've significantly messed up here. Kind of, and when the when the um prophets call people back to calling God, actually the lament was quite compared to that, oh we've we've so departed from your ways. Um so is that a personal call to lament?

SPEAKER_08 26:38

What's going on in Gaza or something?

SPEAKER_05 26:40

Yes, yeah, yes, yes. Yeah, the world that God intended isn't happening like that at all.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, yeah.

unknown 26:50

Bringing your heart, bringing your real heart, no matter where it is.

SPEAKER_13 27:01

Being real, being honest, where you are, and how God.

SPEAKER_05 27:05

Yeah, yeah. I think that's right. So so in some ways, l lament psalms can can really help us uh connect. Um, so this is for example, this is Psalm 13. Um, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my soul uh and have sorry in my heart by day? How long will my enemies dominate me? Again, there's a sense of lamenting. I thought my religion was going to be sweet and connected and whatever, and and something's gone wrong. How long is this gonna go on for and that lament is kind of calling out, uh calling out to God? Obviously, um, even the call on the cross from Jesus, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from me? So far from the words of my groaning. I cry out by day, oh my god. You do not answer by night, you and I have no rest. And this the sense of things aren't as they should be. Um and it gives voice to some of those internal wrestlings that uh that uh that we have. Any other reasons why the lemonette might be there? Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right. I think sometimes I I don't know how recently you become Christian, but I think sometimes when you become Christian, you you somehow you've been counted to Jesus, but you you then kind of come into a church and and and you're kind of looking around thinking, okay, what's the what's the code of conduct here? Well what what do people do? Um they seem to be quite happy. Okay, I suppose they ought to be happy. They seem to be quite spiritual. Oh, I suppose they ought to be spiritual. They seem to be, and actually what you can do is you can you can very quickly start to play out of it and and you to join in with the crowd. You want to be fit in with the church, whatever. Actually, what happens is you you can cease to be genuine and real because we think that's what is expected. And I think because the inner Psalms you have lament, actually it's because that's what's expected. And sometimes the um uh the more triumphalistic maybe edge of Christianity actually loses something of the connection with pain that's that's a real experience that we need to somehow process. So I think I think it it does, it gives us license to say, actually, it's okay that I'm feeling like this. It's okay that my response it gives voice to some of the internal struggles that you think everyone else is coping well with my. No one else has got the questions I've got, no one else has got doubts like I've got that kind of um, and these kind of psalms give or say, well, if if David could pray a prayer like that, who was so close to God, then maybe me who's just starting off in the Christian a few years, can still feel like that. So I think that's right. Any other things where I lament psalms?

SPEAKER_10 29:58

I suppose it kind of um I mean they make people like when Jesus says, take up the cross and follow me, is um even say like you know, follow me and your life's gonna be great and you're gonna have a Yugati, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:12

Yeah, just as they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. Yeah, great, okay. How do I handle that persecution? Well, when poor Zions are in prison, they their responsibility was to use probably some of the psalms. And actually, some of the psalms were released. An earthquake and freedom from prison and whatever. And we don't know what songs they were singing. When they sing some of the lament songs, actually, this shouldn't be happening to us. We were following you, God. We just cast out an evil spirit from someone who's been held was being trafficked as a human being. We were just trying to do well, good, and actually the psalms they could have been singing could have been psalms that were were some of the psalms that are saying kind of, God, we were on your side, and yet we've been beaten up without trial, and now we're here we are, we're locked in. And and the psalms could have been used back, but actually, even though these lament psalms, again, they they they have a little window of hope at the end. Maybe for Paul and Silas, it was the window of hope at the end that led them to praise uh as well. So, okay, on that. Um, so uh again, um as you read the Psalms, how do you read them? Again, the use of metaphor and symbolism is frequently within Psalms that help us to express our joys and our sorrows, our successes and our failures, our hopes and our regrets. Uh again, it's the it helps us to navigate. So actually, when you are happy, actually when things aren't going well, actually there's a psalm for that. There's a psalm to express your joy and your thankfulness and uh gratitude. Actually, when you're feeling the sorrows, actually there is a psalm for that. Actually, when you're feeling that you've been successful in something, well, well, I thank you that the success has not come because I'm the greatest person in the world, but because you've given me the skills and gifts to do it. There's a psalm for that, there's a psalm for hope, there's a psalm for rest. Actually, um, there's the psalms are there to help you tap into uh all kinds of different uh human human emotions. Um so if we just turn tap into it and think, okay, how were they brought together? How were they assembled? In what context were they written, uh, and what were they originally kind of written for? Okay, so so originally uh there were 147 Psalms. Um uh so one's repeated, so Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, like I said earlier on, uh, were repeated. Um uh two are two are broken, so uh Psalm 9 and 10 were probably one Psalm, uh and Psalm 23 and 24 again originally were probably kind of one psalm. Uh so uh we've got 159, a nice random number, but there may have been uh through kind of different ways that they were translated and rewritten, rewritten, um, the number kind of fluctuated on how many were actually in the psalms. Um how it was brought together is that is there's probably um some smaller collections of psalms that were being used. So there's probably some things that were around um uh King David's time. When King David was a was a great songwriter, had lots of top hits, um uh, and and and people probably just who were involved in in worship or in the personal life, they'd probably just heard the songs that David wrote written, songs that were sitting sung when they went to Jerusalem. And actually, uh and people would kind of would gather those together. Maybe not in a written sense, but they would be sung, oral tradition was something that was put out. So there would be people that would kind of um just like people like I don't know, Oasis or Muxfly or um Justin Beaver, actually, people put, oh, I just love David's Psalms, they're just great. And and and they would just have these little collections of Psalms of David, or there'd be psalms of the Sons of Korah or or Asaph, and and they were particularly dedicated to the sun worship in the temple. And and so as they were doing their sun worship in the temple, um, they probably had some creative songwriters there. And so they would write some songs that were particularly to do with with temple worship. And so there'd be little collections of temple songs. There'd be little collections of of um when you're on pilgrimage. I don't know if you've ever been hiking with a group of people and you get a little bit kind of worn out, a little bit, and so someone strikes up a little song, and somehow you sing a song together and just kind of cheers your spirits, and there's these songs called the psalms of ascent. When you went on pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem, your whole village would go, or some towns, and you'd be on this big kind of crowd of you. And actually, as you were going up to Jerusalem, you would sing these little kind of um uh little gathering of twenty or so psalms that would be kind of marching psalms or psalms that were set or psalms that prepared you for uh temple worship. Um at the end, there's these kind of five hallelujah psalms. Uh they all start with hallelujah uh and they all finish with hallelujah, um, and they're kind of uh uh again, there may have been a little kind of little group. So there were these little kind of collections that were probably passed on from uh parents to children to grandchildren, um uh, but they were actually gathered together, um compiled uh in the post-exile times. So quite a few of the of the scriptures um were held with oral tradition, but then when uh, if you know that the art of the Old Testament story, when the people of God disobeyed God, um uh they were invaded, they were taken to exile. And at that point people felt, you know what, the purposes of God have just come to an end. The temple's been destroyed, Jerusalem, the city of peace, that's been destroyed. Hang on, we're gonna lose everything, all our history, all our tradition, all words that God's spoken to us. And so in that time of exile, and as they started to rebuild, um they actually gathered together uh some history stuff and um uh some reflections, um, so one and two kings, uh slightly different from one and two chronicles, because they were gathered together for different purposes. Um within that context, um, we want temple worship to be happening again. How can we make sure that so they they started to compile um uh these um songs that were kind of well-known psalms into what we have now? Um, but it was it was more than just a hymn book. So kind of, I don't know if some of you are old enough maybe to go to church where you were given a hymn book, and there's a hymn book and had and numbers, and maybe there's a little kind of wooden thing with the numbers in it that you turn to the right hymn that we're gonna sing. Um Psalms isn't just a hymn book. Uh so this is where um it was compiled with uh with the story arc. Actually, that the they were compiled and they were put into a specific order. So rather than it just being kind of let's put all the Psalms of David here, let's put all the Psalms of Cora here, let's put all the kind of Psalms we're not quite sure who wrote them, um here. Um they they decided to give them a a story a story art. Um somewhere. Um uh so um so that that story art was um from actually um yeah I'll have um that story story art was um well it was five I don't know if it was say about five five books. Actually, if you if you if you look look at a a kind of a a paper bible, actually a paper bible will start with saying book one, book two, and actually there's there's five five books, so they're collected together in five books. And in some ways, some commentations say it's like the the five books of the Pentateuch. Um the five books of the Pentateuch that were telling the original story of how the people of God were formed. Here's five books, it's like a new Pentateuch as we're trying to rebuild people. Here's five books, here's five themes uh that we've grouped together actually to show a story arc of what God is trying to do still with his people now. And so um the story arc goes from um uh goes from lament to praise. So in the first part of the of the of the um of Psalms, there's probably proportion, there's more lament psalms than there are praise psalms. As you come towards uh the end of Psalms, actually there's much more praise psalms and less lament psalms. And I think what that what compilers do is actually that's the way that God tends to work. We tend to need lament because we realise actually we're in a bit of trouble here. Actually, things have gone wrong with the form, Genesis, kind of uh, and it goes through to the possibility of deuteronomy. We're going into Promised Land. There's something gonna happen, and we're gonna see some of the victories of uh coming our way, Jericho, the promised land's kind of kind of, and and so it moves from predominantly lament with a few praise psalms to predominantly praise with a few lament psalms, and in some ways the the story out they're trying to tell is actually here's the way that a someone who follows God's life should go. So it starts with lots of, oh, I've made a mess of my life, actually I need you, God, and it goes from that to actually I've found in Jesus a new life, a new hope, a new kind of peace. It's not that there's not some rough stuff that happens, so it's not as though there's it's all lament and all praise, but it's mostly lament, mostly praise. And so as they've kind of crafted these sounds together, uh that that is the kind of the story arc. Um so uh those are the those are the again, if you want this, uh you can if you sign up at the end, you I'll send you this. Um those are the story arc from um book one, book two, book three, book book four. Um again, these verses here, they're they're they're all uh those verses at the end of each of the five books, they're exactly the same uh Hebrew words. Finish off now. Whether they were put in there by the original writers of the Psalms, or whether the people who compiled Psalms put those little tag lines in there just to show that this is the end of the first section and the start of the second one, this is the end of the second section, and the start of the third one. But again, if you look at those verses at the bottom there, uh those are all in Hebrew the same um uh the same phrases, the same kind of ending. Um in Psalm uh 41, if I just read Psalm 41, verse 13, um, this is at the end of what's what's called book one. Uh praise to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, Amen and Amen. At the end of Psalm 72, um there'll be a similar kind of similar kind of sentence. So it says this um praise to his glory's name forever, may the whole earth be filled with glory. Amen and Amen. Um this concludes the prayers of uh David, the son of Jesse. So those phrases split up in five books. Um again, some commentators, and again, I'm not quite sure if I've pushed it this far, but some commentators will say kind of the theme of book one has got some kind of gentlemen themes in it, the theme of book two has got quite a lot of ecstasy feel to it. Uh, book three, there's quite a lot of Levitical, kind of temporary stuff in there. Uh, book four, numbers, book five, do you want to be uh looking forward to the promised land and hope. Um uh again, I'm I'm not quite totally sure if the five books of Torah, five books of Psalms, it totally works like that. Um, but there are certainly there are some themes in some of the Psalms that do correlate uh to those five books. Um and as I say, the conclusion, so there's a there's an introduction and there's a conclusion. And um, I thought maybe um at Bible school we do say um public reading of scripture. Um so I I wonder whether we could just read Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. It's okay. So if you've got a Bible, um, would would somebody like to read read Psalm 1 for us? Anybody like to read Psalm 1? Thanks so much. And and would someone like to read Psalm 2? Yeah, thanks. Okay, so uh so this is the start. So there's an introduction, five books and a conclusion. Um and the introduction again are two psalms that uh whether they were the kind of the best hits of the time, or whether they were just setting the tone for how the structure of the book of Psalms was going to be written. But um, as we read through, um Psalm one is about being faithful to Torah, being faithful to God's word. Actually, if you live according to God's word, what should life look like for you? And calling people back to obedience to abide in God's word. The second Psalm is about here, there's going to be a king that we're waiting for. Um so Torah and Messiah, Torah and God's word and kingship are things that will reappear through the sons. So let's look at someone and say, what's this tell us about Torah, people who live according to God's word? Uh so someone.

SPEAKER_14 43:54

Blessed is the one who does not walk in the stand in the

SPEAKER_05 44:44

So the focus of that is okay, how can you be someone who's like a tree by a root by water? Actually, it's large in the law of the law, the Torah. The law of the Lord, actually meditating on it day and night. That's the kind of person. Actually, the look of people actually don't give a lot of time to your word, but actually give time to God's word. So that's Psalm, the emphasis of Psalm 1 is faithfulness to the word of God, to the Torah. Psalm two, thanks.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time in futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle, the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed word. Let us break their chains in cry and free ourselves from slavery to God. But the one who walks in heaven laughs, the Lord scoffs at them, and then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them in his fierce fury. For the Lord declares, I have placed my chosen king on the throne in Jerusalem, on my holy mountain. The king proclaims the Lord's decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have become your father. Only us and I will keep you the nations as your inheritance, and the whole earth as your possession. You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. Now then, you kings, act wisely. Be walled for your windows of the earth. Serve the Lord with nothing and fear, and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God's word, son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities, or his anger flares up in an instant. Oh, joy for all to take that huge in heaven.

SPEAKER_05 46:26

Okay, so Psalm 2 is about there's a king who's who's coming. There's a king who's somehow is a son of the father in a unique, special way. And so those two things set the tone for this lament to praise arc. How does life go from lament to praise? Actually, there's something about God's word and being faithful to God's word. There's something about a coming king, and that king is so as you go through Psalms, again, those are probably two things to look out for. What do the Psalms, how do the Psalms help us to understand and know and trust in God's word and have that integrity between what we read and what we do? Like Jesus says, it's not just knowing what the Bible says, it's the wise person hears the word and puts into practice. They're like the tree who's rooted by the water. Uh so in what way does the Psalm help us to understand God's Word? And in what ways do the Psalm provoke us to see the King that we know now is the Messiah King in Jesus? So the Psalms will point us towards understanding, having a love for God or for his word, it will point us towards the becoming King. Yeah, yeah, so um yeah, there are kind of metaphors or kind of uh fairy stories about princes and speaking beauties and whatever and poetry and parables can work like that. Uh I think in this case, because of the way that we see in the New Testament the psalms that uh are used, um in these kind of cases, this this prophetic element that comes within the poetry, there is some prophetic uh insight that those first New Testament Christians seem to pick up and say, actually, when the psalmist said this, actually within poetry seeped into that as comes from revelation. And that revelation is like a prophetic revelation of what's coming as well, um, which we'll look at in a minute, as how does adoration lead to revelation. Um and so within it, so um uh it we need to take it seriously, uh scripture, and so although it's written as as poetry, sometimes it is true, and you need to kind of work out how do you what template do you use to work out whether it's just an image that's supposed to depict uh rule or power or uh justice, and what within that does depict a real real person. So that that that is down to interpretation on that point of how do you interpret this as just as uh stirring emotion and stirring a reaction and giving uh uh a vague hope, or is it giving an actual hope? And we'll look at some of the sums if we've got time in a minute, just how how that might work. Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, so so the notes will be all the slides.

SPEAKER_14 49:49

Um the language uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:17

I think um again, when Jesus says that um when he returns, he'll come like a beef in the night, actually you don't know when he's coming. Actually, when Jesus comes, there will be judgment. So so like it it it will uh it will appear overnight, it will appear quickly. Uh although God is slow, so over the long haul God is slow, actually there will be moments when God is going to react. And and and so in this reaction where ultimately every tribe kind of nation will submit to Jesus, which is the kind of all the all rulers kind of being warned, actually there's a moment when uh actually every son will confess, every rule bow before Jesus, kind of serve serve the Lord, kiss the son unless he'd be angry with you. Actually, otherwise, if you because Jesus is the only one, otherwise there will be anger, there will be consequences. Does that make sense? No, yeah, it's like it will solve because it's actually actually as well. Yeah, it's been a slow boil, but then when it comes, kind of it will it will be it will appear. Okay, I realize kind of time's getting on. Um so just just a couple of things around so that's the structure of the book of Psalms. Uh, how are individual psalms structured? Um so I don't know if if you were to read something like this, you you you'd read it and you think, I know what that is. It's a limerick. It's a limerick because the first two lines rhyme, uh and that also rhymes vaguely with the last line, and then and then line three and four uh may rhyme as well. So uh so you look at something, you think, oh, I know what that is. That's a limerick. Actually, it's slightly humorous, kind of, um, and it has a certain kind of form to it. Now, in some ways, um to understand Hebrew poetry, Hebrew poetry in some ways doesn't work like our normal poetry. So our normal poetry might have certain stanzas, it might have a certain kind of rhythm to it, it might have uh a rhyming ending, um, it might be like high Q, which is something strange, kind of a number of syllables or something. But but poetry has a has a form that we know poetry. So uh when we come to read the Bible, actually the Bible also has the the poems have have form. Um so so that form is um uh uh what's called parallelism. So uh in each verse in a psalm uh it's got two lines, so each verse has two lines to it. Um so the first line either is sorry, the second line either is a repeat of the first line, so it's saying exactly the same thing, or it maybe it reinforces the first line. So for example, I've extolled the law at all times, first line, its pledge will always be on my lips, second line. Actually, what what the poetic form is it says things once and then it says things again. Maybe in this slightly different different way, but actually it's it's a it's it's synonymous. It's it's a parallel way of saying something. So extort the law at all times, its pledge will always be on my lips. They're kind of saying the same thing, you say it once after another, because that's how Hebrew poetry works. So if you look at the Psalms, quite often you'll see that the verses have one line, two lines, one line, two lines, one line, two lines. And it may be that they are a repeat and a reinforcement, and that's partly how poetry works. The second thing is it may be that it's um antithetic parallelism. This means that the second line contrasts to the first line. So you have a first line, and the second line of the poem actually contrasts the idea. So, for example, the Lord watches over the ways of the righteous, but the ways of the wicked lead to destruction. So it kind of juxtaposition. Here's kind of one thing, but actually here's the opposite. Here's one thing, here's the opposite. And actually, um the second line contrasts the thought of the first line. Um, or the third way is synthetic parallelism, which is um uh the second line adds extra information to the first line. The Lord's my shepherd, I will lack nothing. So the Lord's my shepherd, well, what do you mean the Lord's my shepherd? Actually, with him, I lack nothing. And so it it doesn't repeat the first line, but it adds a depth to the first line. So as you read through the sounds, you you'll probably see that um and people noticed that before? That it seems to repeat, repeat, next one repeat, repeat, next one repeat, uh or contrast, contrast. So that that's how kind of Hebrew poetry classically uh was written. Any questions for that? Or so so as you really let me just look out for that and ask the questions, is it is it kind of saying the same thing again? Is it saying the opposite thing, or is it saying something that um brings greater depth to the first thing? Um because that's how the kind of poetry works. Um the other thing with the poetry is that um they quite like um acrostic sounds that kind of that started with, particularly started with the different letters of the alphabet. Um uh so uh each line of the sound starts with the conceptual letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Uh so there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. There's nine sounds that uh in the Hebrew they start with the equivalent of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, they go through. Um, and there's so each of those sounds would have 22, I think it's 22 verses because there's 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Um so again, it makes you think there's some there's some thought. So as long as it's trying to connect with your emotions, actually there is some thought, some structure going into it. I mean it's not easy to think of a of a, you might think it's it's slightly tricky to think of a rhyme, a worm, uh, kind of uh what's a word that rhymes with orange? Kind of and you're struggling to get a poem that that has a rhyme at the end. Actually, but then they they they struggled and they thought a lot about this because they wanted each line of the of the each kind of line of the psalm to start with A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So, um, Psalm 119, which is the longest psalm in the book, actually Psalm 119 is even more amazing because uh Psalm 119, there's 22 stanzas, which are like 22 paragraphs. Uh and each of those paragraphs, each stand, all of the lines begins with a successive letter of the alphabet. So kind of um uh the first eight lines, each line begins with letter A. The second lot that each begins with letter B, the third lot of eight lines each begin with. You think, courageous me? That's even more complex. Um, but in some ways, even the thought that's gone into that, well, I mean, do you know what Psalm 119 is talking about? It's the law of the Lord. Actually, the law of the Lord is perfect, it makes you wise. How can a young man keep his way thought by by keeping it cut according to your word? I've hidden you a word in my heart that I might not sin against you. They're all verses from Psalm 119, because they wanted you to say actually there's something about the word of God that is consistent, it's organized, it's there's something profound about it. And they didn't want to just have some wonderful thoughts about scripture, actually wanted to structure the poem to say there's an incredible structure to this poem because there's an incredible structure to God and to God's word and the world that God's made us. Paul says in Romans 1.20, actually, we can understand something about God's divine nature and his eternal power through what's been made, because what's been made has, as a someone who did a physics degree, uh, it's such an amazing structure that kind of place with some equations that hold our world together, something that kind of, and Psalms 19 says, actually, the complexity of the way that it's written also shows something about the amazing way in which God's word has consistency to speak into our lives. Um, so the themes of God's word and God's law, there's uh a pattern, a consistency, a structure, the integrity to it, and that's the reflect not just in the words that are used, but in the way the actual the actual poem itself is structured. Is that okay? So again, I I I think I mean I I that would be a lot of work, wouldn't it? Try and get a poem uh that says the fan things that Psalms 119 says, and having each of the lines beginning with the right uh the right letter. Um okay, just a few more things from me and then I hand over to Megan. Um so someone's asking about who who wrote wrote the Psalms, so so um we're not quite sure on some of them, which is why it doesn't quite add up to 150 and some of these. So about 73 uh were written by David, um uh 12 written by Asaph, uh 11 by the Sons of Korah, two by Solomon, one by Moses, and the rest are uh anonymous. Um why is that interesting? Well, I think it's partly interesting because certainly for these two, they were temple worship writers, they they're linked with temple worship, and so this idea of when the presence of God is somewhere in the temple, here's how human beings should respond to God. Um there's something about Solomon and Moses that you know about their story, but uh, I suppose the ones of David, I mean particularly these these psalms of David, because um in the way they've been put together, they've looked at that intro for some of the psalms. And in the intro it says, this is the psalm of David when he was, in the cave of a lot of this is the psalm when he was well, this is the psalm, and actually you can, if you look at these psalms, actually you can link those to um the text of 1 Samuel. Um and so 1 Samuel will tell you about the story of the life of David, and the psalms will tell you the heart of David in that situation. And I think if you use them both together, so you read those psalms, and then you there'll probably look kind of reference to which book of 1 Samuel it's in, um, and you flick back and you read the story and think, okay, here he was, he was being pursued by Saul. It was an unjust thing, he was hidden in the cave. How would I feel? Well, this is how David felt. He wrote a song about it, and here's how he responded. Ah, maybe when I'm in a situation, why feel hemmed in? Maybe that should be my response too. And so these psalms all link into uh the narrative of the life of David. So you can read the life of David and hear the story being told, and then you can see the heart of David or David's responses by the psalms, the poems or songs that he wrote. Um, so yeah, that's an interesting way to read some of the psalms as well, to see the links there. Um I love this little story when Jesus is on the road to a Nevis, he's come back to life. He's with two friends, and they don't recognise that it's Jesus. Um as he's walking on, he says to them, um, kind of what happens, and oh have you not heard? The person we thought was going to be the Messiah was crucified, we devastated. And then he said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Ah, okay. Well, I I kind of know Moses, kind of, yeah, the serpent kind of raises up on the and that you look to it and you're healed. I can understand Moses leading to the promised land and then new Exodus. Uh I can understand something about the prophets, yeah. They were predicting kind of a virgin will be birth and but but psalms, kind of how how would the psalms, how how would Jesus look at the Psalms and say, actually, these psalms were talking about me? Just for five minutes. Okay, with people who you're with, so um how which psalms do you think Jesus might have talked to his friend about to show that they were talking about him? Have a little thing. You may think actually, I haven't got a clue. Um what would be some of the psalms that Jesus might have looked at if you bought this one? Okay, so uh first up, the psalm that we read, Psalm 2. Um, did anyone speak that one?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

We had just read it before. We've had this reading before.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:21

So if you look at Acts chapter 13, when they're talking about the resurrection, actually use this verse from Psalms just to say, actually, this is why Jesus came to life. As it's written in the second Psalm, you and my son today become a father. God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subjected to decay. Actually, that was that was their proof text for Jesus' resurrection. It said it in Psalm Psalm 2. Um, Psalm 8 about Jesus' incarnation of humanity. Uh Psalm 16, his deliverance from the grave. You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. Again, kind of what was going to happen to Jesus. Uh he wasn't going to stay in the grave. Uh, Psalm 22 is crucifixion. Again, we said that one earlier on. Did we get that one? My God, my God, why have you taken me? Is there again quoted in the gospel accounts? Jesus saying that, Jesus was quoting Psalms as he's going through this the pain of carrying our wrongdoing and our shame. Uh, he's using Psalms to communicate with God. Um, Psalm 23. When Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. Actually, Psalm 23 is actually talking about Jesus. Kind of the Lord's my shepherd, Jesus and my shepherd. Um, lays on my life for the sheep. Psalm 31, into your hands I commit my spirit. That's that one. Again, Jesus quotes that on the on the as he's um as he dies. Into your hands I commit my spirit, deliver me, Lord, uh my faithful God. Um Psalm 34 is death. He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken as Jesus dies on the cross. Uh, normally they'll break their bones to kind of quicken death. When it came to that of Jesus, he was already dead, so he didn't break his bones. So, in some ways, there's a little fulfilment of a bit of a psalm for Jesus. Um his betrayal. Um, even my closest friends, someone I trusted, one who I shed my bread with, has turned against me. Last Supper, Jesus tips the bread in and gives it to Judas, who takes it. Um his kingship is bride, Psalm 43, your throne, your Lord will last forever, a sceptre of justice will be will be the sceptre of your kingdom, your love and righteousness, your love, righteousness, and hate wickedness. Therefore, God your God sets you above your companions by anointing you with the order of joy. Again, Jesus being set above his companions to be uh be the king. Uh Psalm 42 talks about his reign. Um 49 uh talks about the anointed firstborn. Um I will point him to my firstborn, Jesus the firstborn. The most exalted of the kings of the earth. Psalm 8 to 9, again, first of all anointed there. Who can live and not see death? Or who can not escape the power of the grave? Psalm 110, again this high priestly prayer, quoted in Mark 12 and in Hebrews 4 to 7 about this kind of king priest like Isabek. Psalm 118 talks about the cornstone, the stone of God's rejected, that's become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this in mobs and our eyes. Yeah. So who would have known there's so much in there? So I think that's why Jesus took a bit of time talking about, and this is what happened to me. It's just what the law, Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. They were talking about me when it happened. And so as we look through the Psalms, actually, the Word of God, Torah, and the coming king, when we look through the Bible and the New Testament, those kingly references apart from refer to Jesus. Obviously, the Jews weren't expecting Messiah to be crucified, tortured by Romans, they were expecting Messiah to come who's going to be triumphant and reinstate Israel. But God's character and nature was revealed in person Jesus and his death and resurrection. Okay, I'm going to hand over to Megan. Yeah, just to say adoration that leads to revelation. I think there's something about when we when we worship God, it makes space for God to speak to us. And that's why when there's adoration in the Psalms, I think you get revelation of Jesus. It kind of pops out unexpectedly. Actually, when we're in uh worship, either personal devotional worship, we may use the psalms. Or when we're in corporate worship and we sing some of the worship psalms, but some of them are based on the psalms. Actually, within a sense where we're opening our hearts and worship and adoration, that's frequently a place where revelation comes, when God reveals things about who we are and ourselves, God reveals things about who he is, that raises and increases our faith. Is that okay? So I'm going to with that. Megan, over to you.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:13

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:19

Okay, hopefully you guys are doing okay. It's warm in here, so um, I'm gonna keep this brief. Um, but basically, Tim asked me to come and just kind of wrap up our time together talking and thinking about the place the psalms can have in our devotional life. Um, so I'm just gonna reiterate some of the things that we've talked about, and I'm gonna share how I use the psalms, kind of like in my own personal time with God, and then if it's okay, we're just gonna finish with a bit of prayer time ourselves. So, um, yeah, so I'm gonna talk about using the psalms devotionally, and I feel very grateful to be able to um share this with you. I've been kind of using the psalms in my devotional life before I even knew I had a devotional life because my mum, who sat back there, um, had me memorising and reciting psalms before I could even read. So they've just kind of been part of my life for a long time. And then when I got a bit older and I had my own Bible and sort of like my own kind of quiet time with God became part of a daily routine, the psalms were always where I wanted to stay, and they just held a really strong pull for me. Um, yeah, so it's actually kind of in the psalmist like landscape of poetry and prayer and praise and pain that I've actually come to know God and really learn how to be with Him and to commune with Him. So, yes, they're very special to me. Um, anyway, so as we've talked about, the Psalms in their honesty and raw humanity really teach us how to pray. Um, the psalmist words of confession, lamentation, and all reveal the rhythms of a life lived in the presence of God. Um, and actually for me, as I was reflecting on it, I was thinking about how the psalms highlight the intersection between heaven and earth. Um how do they do that? Well, they're a place where our mess meets the power and presence of God. Here, awe and anger, grief and hope, sin, sorrow, and sincerity sit side by side. A kind of a melting pot of human emotion that has been used as a pathway to God. So, really, the psalms teach us how to bring our own lived experience before God and how really to find ourselves in God's larger story. So, for me, like many people, the psalms draw out of me my own deepest fears and failures and kind of my biggest feelings. Um, and in that they teach me to reorient myself to God and to re-anchor myself to his truth, teaching me how to bring myself entirely before God and actually how to make something with all the emotions in life that have to go somewhere. So we touched on it a bit um earlier. Actually, how if we don't do something with these big emotions, they come out kind of somewhere in a negative way. So, actually, what I love about the Psalms is that some of these really big, negative, painful emotions are made into a doorway to God. Um, and I think that's a really beautiful thing. And we're talking about psalms of lamentation of where do you go when life is falling apart? How do you come before God and do something with this pain? Um, it's really beautiful, and yeah, so the Psalms teach us how to create something really with those emotions, how to pray, whether that's a cry of lament or a cry of praise, the emotions, feelings, and experiences that otherwise can sit and rot away in our hearts become a doorway to God, um, and really just kind of proof that everything can take us to God. There's no experience in life that has to separate us from God. So this is something why, well, it's a reason why when I read the psalms, I often write as well, and that's probably like my first uh top tip for using the psalms in your devotional life. I have a journal open next to me, often when I read the psalms, and I write my own words alongside, springboarding off what the psalmist has said, and kind of bringing that particular psalm into the centre of where I am in that moment or what I'm experiencing my life, what's going on in my life in that time. And that makes the reading of the psalm very personal and often very transformative, um, yeah, as I reorient myself to God, no matter what is going on in my life. So, yeah, if I were to give a few tips for using the psalms in your devotional life, that would be the first one. Whether you consider yourself someone like a writer or a poet or someone who actually doesn't really enjoy writing, I have found that having a page open in front of me and being able to respond to what I'm reading, um, yeah, is is really helpful. Sometimes I can just write and feel like I'm writing my own psalm and it's just kind of flowing, and then sometimes it's just like God, well, you know, I'm reading about how you're good and it doesn't feel like it, you know, and and just being honest, actually, with that, um, learning from the psalmist about how to be really honest with God. Um, another top tip would be to read a whole psalm, read it in its entirety. Um, I it can be tempting to just kind of like pick out the verses that really resonate and skip over the kind of violent bits or the bits that you know don't understand, but actually reading a psalm from beginning to end, even psalm 119 with all those long verses, is actually really amazing because you follow the journey with the psalmist. And Tim was talking about how often some of the psalms that you really wrestle with reading because they can seem really, really difficult to understand, end kind of like it with a window of praise or like a glimmer of hope, and I think actually that's a really amazing reflection of our spiritual lives there are those times when everything does feel difficult, so not skipping over them, um yeah, I think is another tip. Another one, slow down and read it out loud. Um, this is something that can be tricky for me sometimes. I like just kind of reading a lot and actually not rushing on to the next thing, but actually really settling into a psalm, maybe just for a whole week, just kind of that's the psalm that you read every day, and that's what you're thinking about and praying through. Something else. Um, yeah, don't see the psalms as a book to get through, like another thing in your Bible in a year. Um, yeah, psalms done that, moving on to the next thing. Um I I actually always read the psalms. Whatever else I'm reading in the Bible, if I'm studying, I always read a psalm because they really help me to just kind of like bring myself before God. Um so I that's something that really works for me. So I'd encourage you, yeah. The psalms just kind of like sit in them, let just kind of let them form you in your prayer life. It can be really amazing. Um, and then lastly, practice vocalizing the ugly emotions to God. Um, He sees all anyway, so actually, this the psalmist was onto something, you know, actually writing it down, actually saying it out loud, actually telling God how you feel, it does something in us. It's not for God's benefit, is it? So it's actually a really um powerful thing to do. Anyway, I wanted to conclude this evening by um actually praying a psalm. Um recently I was reading and meditating on Psalm 42. Um, like many others, it's a wonderful tool of locating where your soul is at and relocating your soul to where it should be. Um, lots of psalms do that, but this is just the one I've been thinking about recently, and I just encourage you as I read it now to allow this Psalm to kind of be a magnifying glass. Um, to ask yourself, where am I weary? Where am I apathetic? Maybe, where do I need to realign my heart with God again? So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read Psalm 42 out loud, and then after that, I'm gonna invite us to pray the Psalm, and I will read it again, but after each verse, I'm kind of interjecting with my own response, my own prayerful response to that verse, um, just as I wrote in my journal, so just kind of sharing that with you. Um, yeah, but I'm gonna read it now. So if you want to follow along, please do. If you want to just listen, then um yeah, let's allow these words to kind of wake up our souls. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude-keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you. From the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar, deep calls to deep. At the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me. A prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me. What they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. And now I'm gonna read it again, but this time I would just love to invite you to maybe close your eyes or posture yourself in a position of prayer. Um, and as you listen, I want to invite you to let these words be your own prayer. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before Him? I long for you, God, but don't let me become satisfied with anything less than your presence. I want to keep straining for you, seeking more of you. Deepen my desire for you. My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. God, I remember the times where praise and joyful worship flowed easily. But pain has wearied my heart and numbed my soul. Praise doesn't just roll off my tongue. The past and the future weigh heavy. So I say, Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon from Mount Mazar. God, my soul has amnesia. Help me to remember your faithfulness, to remember how you have never left me and never let me down. There is no moment when you are not with me, no place I can go from your presence. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. God, you see the depths of me, and there I am met by the depths of your grace. I find communion with you in the roar of great waters. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me. A prayer to the God of my life. Oh God, your steadfast love is ever with me. Day and night I am met by you. Deepen my sensitivity to the song of delight that you sing over me, and may that song raise a song of praise in me. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? God, you are my rock, my safety, my firm foundation. You never change. Then why do you sometimes feel far away? Where are you in the mess? But I say to my soul, Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Look up, see the King of Kings with his gaze on you. Look up, see the Son of Suffering with his arms around you. Hope in God, for you shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Amen. Yeah, so I'm just gonna say thank you, God, for this time together. Thank you for the psalms and for the wealth of honesty and wisdom and um truth that is in them. And I pray as we leave this evening, God, that we will be re-inspired and reinvigorated to meet you in the pages of this book, God, and to let these words shape us and shape our prayer lives and draw us closer to you. Amen.

unknown 1:24:30

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:37

Great. Um, just to say if you want if you want those those nodes, um, yeah, I will indeed. Yeah, just to say extra extra resources. There is there is um um, so the the um chat DEC can Google can help you. So if you if you if you actually isn't a sound that might help you when I'm being a little bit depressed. Just put it in. Uh AI. Isn't it? And actually it says, yes, there is a sound that can help you when you're depressed, and it'll give you a so um it's amazing what technology AI can actually help you to find God's answer. So um uh is a little book that actually I it's probably what the book that I've um welcome to study at a book of the Bible. Uh it's a classic, um, but how to read Bible book my book, it gives you a little bit about each of the books, so that's a great book. Um but if you want the notes, again, if you've got a smarty phone uh and you scan that QR code, if we just put in your name and email address, I'll email you the link to the talk and um the notes as well. Is that okay? But thanks for coming next week and look at the book of Proverbs. So back here next Tuesday, uh Dan and myself will be doing a lot of proverbs. So thanks so much. If you want to ask any questions, I'll be staying around and stacking chairs and stuff. So I but uh thanks so much for coming.