Exploring the Psalms: The Power of Community, Faith, and God's Steadfast Presence

What does it mean to be a part of a community of believers, and just how vital is this fellowship in understanding and experiencing the fullness of God? This episode takes you on a spiritual journey where we uncover the powerful and ever-relevant messages hidden within the ancient hymns of the Psalms. From the depths of despair and repentance depicted in Psalm 130 to the uplifting Psalms of Ascension sung during the Israelite's pilgrimage to Jerusalem, these age-old lyrics reveal the vast spectrum of human emotions that a relationship with God often brings.

Ever wondered how the intense metaphors in the Psalms - the holies of holies, the depths of the sea - relate to our modern-day worship? We explore how Jesus' teachings have made God more approachable, punctuating the importance of His presence during times of despair and reassurance alike. Amid insightful discussions, we uncover the profound implications of stepping into God's presence, the importance of Scripture study, and service to others as the cornerstone of a developed faith.

Finally, we tackle the challenging but critical notion of God's steadfastness - His constant presence through our highs and lows, and how our overreliance on emotions can sometimes blur this reality. Taking inspiration from Psalm 130, we reiterate the power of hope, love, and unwavering faith in God, even when His presence feels distant. So, join us for a deep and thought-provoking exploration of these spiritual themes, and discover a renewed perspective that encourages us to stay aligned with our faith and keep looking upwards.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

So we just got done with a series called Community and if you've been looking at the entire week, really the focus by the way, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I love the shift in like bodies For some reason, like this side is like more packed now than this side. So I'm not looking at you guys anymore because everyone's kind of over here. No, I'm just kidding. But one of the things we've been looking about is the idea of community and the importance of being a community of believers and what does that look like and why is that necessary? And I've said it before, a lot of people think, well, like I don't need a church to know God, and to an extent I would say that you're right. But I would argue that you've never experienced the fullness of God without other believers. It's impossible you won't. And the other part of that, too, is when you're on your own, it's a lot easier for you to fall prey to false teachings because you don't have those people to come alongside you and say, yeah, that doesn't make sense. One of the biggest things and I hear it every year and it almost cracks me up, but it's actually kind of tragic is every year someone in our country has figured out the exact day Jesus is coming back. Every year hasn't happened yet, and when people start down that road I'm like hold on. The Bible was very clear that the Son of God doesn't actually know the day. So Jesus isn't privy to that information. Why is Joe Bob in your congregation suddenly aware? But part of that, I think, happens when we don't surround ourselves with good community believers, when we don't kind of build each other up and encourage each other to study and get in the Word. And Nick mentioned our community groups. That's a big part of it. We come together and we study the Scriptures. So we've been talking about this idea of community and so now we're about to start this series called Looking Up.

Speaker 1: 3:19

So we're going to be looking at the Psalms of Ascension, which is Psalms 120 through 134. So it's 15 total Psalms, and so just to give you an idea of the history of these Psalms, they have an incredible amount of diverse authors. A couple were attributed to David, one is attributed to Solomon, the others are unknown authors. The Psalms of Ascension were written for the sole purpose of worshiping God, so most of the words that we sing a lot in today's modern worship, you actually can pull them from the Psalms. It's pretty neat. And so the people of Israel. They wrote these Psalms and these were so they're called the Psalms of Ascension because as they would ascend to Jerusalem so a lot of times they didn't live in Jerusalem, but as they would travel back to their homeland to celebrate festivals, they would sing these Psalms along the way. And then, as they entered into the temple courts, as they walked up the steps, they would sing these Psalms to remind them of who God is. So in 15 Psalms the phrase the Lord has mentioned 53 times Very clear who they're about.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Psalm 120 talks about God's presence during distress. Psalm 121 talks about joyful praise to the Lord. Psalm 122 is prayer for Jerusalem. 123 is patience for God's mercy. Psalm 124 help comes from the Lord. Psalm 125 prayer for God's blessing upon his people. Psalm 126, the Lord has done great things. Psalm 127, god's blessing on man's efforts. Psalm 128, joy for those who follow God's ways. Psalm 129, a cry for help to the Lord. Psalm 130, a prayer of repentance. Psalm 131, surrender as a child to the Lord. Psalm 132, god's sovereign plan for his people. Psalm 133, praise of brotherly fellowship in unity. Psalm 134, praise to God in this temple.

Speaker 1: 5:44

So Josh Mooney explains the heart of the Psalms like this the Psalms of Ascent are actually traveling Psalms in the sense that they take worshipers on a pilgrimage toward God, first used, perhaps, as the pilgrims went up to Jerusalem for one of the great festivals that you can read about in the Old Testament, and perhaps they were adopted as the Jewish people were turned from their exile to Babylon and sang these same Psalms. It seems to me that they were designed by God to help us journey closer in our relationship to him and to avoid the many pitfalls and difficulties and divergent and distractions that can prevent us from continuing. This morning we're actually going to be focused on Psalm 130 specifically. So the Psalms of Ascension were. Some of them came out of the captivity that the Israelites had experienced, and if you've ever read the book of Psalms, I love it because it captures just about every emotion that someone could imagine. There's anger, there's joy, there's frustration, there's depression, there's questioning of God. There's Psalms that literally they call for God to wipe out their enemies. I mean it just it captures this array of human emotion that is profound, and these particular 15 are all about focusing on who God is and what God has done.

Speaker 1: 7:23

I don't know about you, but one of the things that frustrates me, at least in the culture today, is when people teach, or they act like as Christians, that you and I should be like super chipper all the time, like we should never have any problems. Like me, having a relationship with God means that you could walk up and stab me in the leg and I should be like well, lord bless you. By the way, please don't try that, because I'm not going to say Lord bless you, but we have this idea that if we have a relationship with God, everything is just supposed to be good and that's just not reality. Life is hard. I would argue that having a relationship with God, choosing to follow God, makes your life harder because Satan now sees you as a problem, so he wants to make your life difficult. And and so these songs really kind of attached to that idea that that in the middle of whatever storm that I'm in, that if I can just keep looking up, if I can just keep my eyes fixated on the God of all creation, I'm going to be unstoppable. I was sitting here this week thinking about that.

Speaker 1: 8:56

I don't know if you've ever done any kind of weightlifting. I used to when I was younger and you know, the one thing that I loved everyone loves was a leg day. Right, everyone loves to do leg day, but really it's miserable. But I can tell you that when you are doing something like a squat or a deadlift, one of the things they teach you, especially as you get older, is that it's really important, as you do any kind of weightlifting with your legs in your back, you have to keep your back aligned. So I've seen guys at the gym who, like, they're on the squat rack and they bend over like this and that doesn't count. But that's not how that works and the reason why they teach that because if you do this wrong, you're not going to have a back anymore. Right, you're going to hurt yourself. And you see these guys who they get heavier and heavier and heavier.

Speaker 1: 9:47

And so about 20 years ago, a friend of mine said to me because I was struggling with my form. He said do me a favor. He's like as you go down, look up. I was like why in the world am I going to look up? He's like trust me. He's like pick a spot on the ceiling and look up. I was like all right, whatever, and so I did it. Well, I'm not going to do it because my I'm just as I'm having this morning, but I looked up and I did my squat and my body stayed perfectly aligned. There was something about looking up that forced my core to maintain a correct posture. I think, if we can look up, that God will help us keep our correct posture. And most of the times, what happens the reason why we start to feel overwhelmed by the world is because we stop looking at him, we take our eyes off of the God of all creation and we start to try to solve our problems on our own. And when, when you do that, you lose your form and then you get hurt, you're not able to do as much as you could. You start to focus on the weight on your shoulders. That's the other thing. Right, as you looked up, as I did everything I could to stay fixated on that ceiling, the weight on my shoulders almost disappeared because my brain was doing what I needed to do.

Speaker 1: 11:32

And so, when we look at the Psalms of ascension, I cannot help but believe that Israel was on to something. Psalm 130, verses 1 through 8, says out of the depths, I cry to you, lord, lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, lord, kept record of sins, lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the Lord. My whole being waits and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchman. Wait for the morning, more than watchman, wait for the morning. Israel puts your hope in the Lord, for what the Lord is unfailing love with him is forward Redemption. He himself redeemed Israel from all their sins. Now listen, I'm completely aware that these Psalms were written specifically to the nation, for the nation of Israel, but I still see myself in there, the forgiveness that God offers, the mercy that he offers. If I can, if I can, long for him and serve him with reverence. I love that song. Take me in. That we did today. I want to say it's an old song but it makes me feel old.

Speaker 1: 13:13

When I first started going to church, that was a fairly popular worship song and I remember thinking how cool it was that, this desire to enter into the holies of holies. And then, as I studied the Bible, I almost had this realization of how terrifying that might have actually been as well. So one of the customs back then, as the high priest was the only one allowed to enter into the holies of holies, this is where God resided in his temple. Once the Ark he kind of trans, he stayed with the Ark. Once the Ark kind of found a home in the temple, the holy of holies was separated by this curtain in. One person could enter and if you were the high priest they would wrap these bells around you and they would tie a rope to you. Well, that's kind of weird, it is. But as long as they heard you and the bells go on, they thought oh, you're good Like this person is not completely void of allowed being in the presence of God. But if they heard the bells stop, the assumption was you probably died, so they would have to pull you back out.

Speaker 1: 14:29

And I know that sounds harsh, but the idea behind that is that God is so holy that when we enter into his presence we need to treat him in that manner. Now I know how it goes and when Jesus died and the moment that he died, the shroud was torn. By the way, that's what it's talking about that curtain was ripped down in the middle and Jesus kind of opened the door. He made God. Probably he did not. Probably Jesus made God more approachable than he had ever been in the entirety of humanity. We have access to God through Jesus and yet we still have to realize that God is holy and to enter into his presence is not something we should take lightly. And they understood this right and, and so a lot of times, as they ascended the steps Into the temple, they would sing these Psalms of ascension to remind them the God that they were about to be Entering into.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Said verses, one through two, says out of the depths, I cry to you, lord. Lord, hear my voice and let your ears be attentive. So I cry for mercy. The verse one and two Speak to the longing that our heart has for God. So this desire is typically seen when we feel we are disconnected from God or in the depths of despair from our personal choices. William van German says this our weaknesses and struggles come from Alive in the light of God's perfect earth, come alive in the light of God's perfect nature. To the godly sin, guilt and God's fatherly discipline are like being cast into the depths of the sea. It's a metaphor of adversity and trouble Talks about Jonah's. Jonah's prayer in the belly of the big fish expresses the anguish of being cast into the depths of the grave. As the engulfing waters threatened the deep surrounded Sea, we was wrapped around his head. The metaphor of the depths connotes a feeling of alienation from God.

Speaker 1: 16:53

The contrast between the call the psalmist to Yahweh and his adonai is a reminder to the reader that the psalmist understands the promise of the Covenant God of Israel. So so it. We see. This is oftentimes, I think, when we cry out to God, we see it as a bad thing, but it's not. Moments of despair in our life. Remind us of the God that we need. I I am so grateful that that I continue to find myself surrounded with people that that realize that the ministry that God has called us to is not something we can achieve on our own. We are not capable. But but the psalmist, in these first two verses, says God hear my cry of mercy, and he says it in such a way that he knows that God will hear him. I Know a lot of times when we pray to God we feel like we're just talking to the ceiling. I said that's a lie that Satan tries to convince you of. We, because the God of all creation, the God of the Old Testament, god in New Testament, has Consistently been a God who has heard the cries of his people and sometimes we have people that that teach it like a Talked about this in a video I did earlier this week that they always want to have this like super emotional experience with God.

Speaker 1: 18:43

You guys have been like camp, like you come back from camp and you feel like you like take on the world and and then you get home and your brother hits you like this is stupid, I don't want to be here anymore, like, but but that that camp high Is having that kind of experience with guys not bad, but the reality is it's not sustainable. The psalmist understood that that emotional Charge you get from knowing and relying on God is great. But even when you don't feel that it doesn't change who he is, just because you don't feel God close doesn't mean he's not. I love what he says, that sometimes that depth of despair, that idea of praising God in the storm, that idea of Jonah praising God in the belly of the whale, comes from this understanding that the God that I serve is still God.

Speaker 1: 19:47

I asked someone or someone asked me recently. They were like how would you define someone who's a mature believer? And I thought about it, because I think there's a couple of different avenues there. I think one is the understanding of Scripture. I think as you mature in your faith, you should study the Bible more and hopefully grasp it more. I think your service for others becomes evident. We were at a retreat recently and in Bob Russell if you don't know who Bob Russell was, you should definitely look into him Southeast Christian Church, more than 30 years ago, started with 120 people, retired with 18,000. By the way, if anyone ever made me feel like I could lead a church of 18,000, bob Russell did. And I was like, yes, but Bob Russell was talking about when he does this training with older people I think he's 80 now, by the way.

Speaker 1: 20:50

He says that a lot of times what he sees is you have people who they've studied the Bible so much, not that they can't learn anything, but they feel like they've learned everything. And he says sometimes the best advice I can give to someone who is well into their life is to take off the bib and put on the apron. He's like a lot of times it's not that you need fed, it's that you need to feed others now. So I think that's another indicator. I think it was you mature in your face. Serving and loving people becomes normal. I think it becomes part of who you are. But really, if you ask me what I think to find someone who is strong in their faith, I think as you develop and as you mature, you have this quiet steadiness to you that exists. I think of John's dad, bill. I don't know if you know Bill Cooper. A lot of you do. When I first met Bill Cooper terrified me. He would speak and I was like, yep, but Bill has this quiet, steady faith in his life that, no matter the circumstances, no matter the things that have happened, I've always seen him like the psalmist say, even in this I know who my God is. And so I think that as we develop as Christians, we should aspire to achieve that. That, no matter how bad things are, that we understand that God is still God. The psalmist understood that.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Psalm 130, three through five. If you, lord, kept a record of sins, lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the Lord. My whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. So this forgiveness is a hard pill to swallow for the recipient. We long for it, but we struggle to accept that we could ever be worthy of it. God's judgment is sure, but so is his forgiveness. Waiting for God to forgive can be an overwhelming experience, but to ascend God's mountain we must be without blame. Trusting God can be among our greatest challenge. God alone is responsible for dispensing of forgiveness. James Luther May says this the consequence of those truth for those who believe is that they fear the Lord. They can live as God fears, that is, as people who take the authority and disposition of the Lord as the greatest reality of all and base their living on God without reservation.

Speaker 1: 23:57

This idea of forgiveness. The psalmist and the next couple of verses says God, you above all offer forgiveness, and if you didn't, none of us could stand. You know, one of the hardest things I see new believers struggle with is the fact that you can't forgive yourself Almost consistently across the board. There I hear people say oh well, I messed up again, I screwed up. How could God ever love me? I'm trying so hard to stop this, I can't get away from it. And Satan comes in and he starts to convince you that somehow your relationship with God is based on what you can do for him, that if you can just do the right thing or say the right thing. By the way, if you look at other world religions, we're the only one in all of history that doesn't have a requirement to be in the grace and forgiveness of our God. Jesus paid the price, covered all of it. Every other religion that exists, there's things you have to do or achieve or pay, or there's this list. And if you look, even when Jesus was around 630, some laws.

Speaker 1: 25:31

And it's because you and I, we are conditioned in our human nature to try to win the favor of people around us. Well, they don't love me. I have to make them love me, or you know, you don't love me. Why don't you love me? And and and we long for that. And so we take that and we put it on God, and God says very clearly listen, I love you Just as you are. I Take you as you are. I I've paid the price. I give you forgiveness because I chose to give it to you. You can't earn it.

Speaker 1: 26:13

Paul goes on In his letters and and he writes about that internal struggle says I'm a man who, who does things that I don't want to do, and then I the things that I do want to do, I can't seem to do. I Mean so this, this struggle, that to find balance, is a. It's a constant struggle. You're not. I Really don't think that you're gonna experience the fullness or understand the fullness of that until you die, because our nature is to try to to earn God's love. And God says you don't have to earn it. I've already given it to you, and and so the Psalmist. They once again, they remind themselves as they answer into the temple that, god, you are the one who grants me forgiveness, you are the one who loves me, you are the one who has shown me mercy. Imagine how different your walk with God would be. Instead of trying to live to earn forgiveness, you lived as if you've already had it. It changes you.

Speaker 1: 27:41

I've had a couple non-believer friends of mine over the years that that have asked me you know why? Why do you do what you do? Why do you Serve God? Why do you tell people about God? And Really, the answer for me is simple it's because everything you did for me. I Live, and I try to live from this idea that the victory has already been won, the forgiveness has been established, that grace and mercy are in abundance, and so I live a life and I try to keep that in mind. Do I know I'm not perfect? Oh, every day, but it doesn't stop me from trying. But listen, every there's days when I come to God and and I've got to correct my thought process more than once. But I think that's our nature, where we're constantly struggled between what we should be doing and in our sinful nature. But the psalmist understands that the God has already forgiven us, that that we need to learn to live in that forgiveness. So I'm 136.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Through 8 says I wait for the Lord more than the watchman. Wait for the morning more than the watchman. Wait for the morning. Israel puts your hope in the Lord, for the Lord is unfailing love and with him is for redemption. He himself redeemed Israel from all their sins. Although I'm going to paraphrase this church put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is for redemption. He himself redeemed the church from all of their sins. So I'm 130.

Speaker 1: 29:37

So these two, three verses calls Israel to celebrate God's dominion, overall creation, as we find ourselves being drawn out of the depths. We are naturally disposed to worship the God who provides, whose love is steadfast. Again, james Luther May says divine forgiveness will be fulfilled in the freedom that belongs to the children of God. How and when that full and final redemption will come, the Old Testament song does not say. But it is the hope of this that every pilgrim in the depths is made. And and I love that because it talks about that that as you enter into the depths, as you enter in some of the toughest challenges of your life, the ascension is what we wait for, this is what we long for, that as we enter into the depths, that we believe that the God of all creation will not only meet us in the depth but he will take us to the mountaintop and when we go back down he's coming with us. He has never failed us, never abandon us. I was worried. The gravowness of my voice when it captured the excitement of this. I hope is not getting in the way. But but the Bible teaches us that as we walk through life, god doesn't fail, and as we, as we ascend the mountaintop, we thank God for who he is. And as we ascend down the mountain, we thank God for who he is.

Speaker 1: 31:04

It's not about Feeling perfect all the time, it's not about having that high, but it's this, this steadiness in life to know that, no matter what comes my way, god is still God. The world is nuts man. We're tossed back and forth and we're taught to believe and listen to our emotions probably too much sometimes, and I'm not saying that that's bad, don't get me wrong. I remember growing up I feel like I stepped into the second generation, where my mom encouraged us to be a little more in touch. But I've met men and this is no fault of your own that have gone before me that you could slap them in the face and they would go mm-hmm. And so they were taught to kind of suppress it, which I don't think is healthy either. But at the same time, I don't think it's healthy to rely so much on emotion that we forget that even when we don't feel God, he's still there. That's the part I think that gets us in trouble.

Speaker 1: 32:21

Because when I come across, especially new believers, listen, they ride out that high for a little while and then life comes back and hits them hard. And what do they do? Nine times out of ten, they walk away. Well, god's not there. No, that's not true. Actually, god's there now, more than he ever has been. And it's going to get tough, it's going to be hard. And so these Psalms, as they sang them, as they traveled, as they went up to the temple, they would sing them and they would remind themselves that God, you're a merciful God, you've forgiven me, and that, god, you're in control of everything.

Speaker 1: 33:18

I know that I've already said this and I've done a few weddings in my lifetime, and there's a really long quote by CS Lewis that I'm not going to mention. But CS Lewis talks about the act of feeling in love and basically what he says is how ridiculous is it that you and I, the person we marry, that we're going to feel that we would expect to feel in love with them 24, 7, 365 days a year? And I know that that listen, that sounds counterproductive at a wedding, but I promise the whole quote's pretty good. But he goes on to say that a lot of times it's not the feeling of love that sustains you, it's the act of love that does so.

Speaker 1: 34:03

When your spouse is on your last nerve and you would sure enough kick them to the curb you would tell them to go back to their mother-in-law. You would easily make up that spare room for them. When your children are on your last nerve and they did something stupid again and they broke, name it whatever. I don't know about you. My kids have no concept of value for some reason, especially if it's not their thing. But in the midst of that, you still love them. You love your spouse unconditionally, you love your children unconditionally. And it's weird because a lot of times when you love them, you start to your defenses, start to soften, your heart starts to get bigger, and it's amazing that almost 90% of time, probably not more, the act of love can bring back the feeling of love.

Speaker 1: 35:16

And so when you talk about what's happening in these songs, I think it's the same concept that as they ascend the mountain, as they travel to Jerusalem, as they go to the temple, they start to put God back into perspective. I can imagine that every step that they took, in every word of the song they sang, that it brought them to a bigger and bigger understanding that I might not feel like God's here, but man, I know that he is Right. And so that commitment to stay focused and to keep looking up. It's amazing how much everything else in life falls into proper perspective when you keep looking at God.

Speaker 1: 36:21

This world is so full of so many things Good, bad, ugly the one thing that the church has to offer I think we have a lot, but the one thing we really have to offer people is the ability to put their eyes on something other than themselves. The God of all creation who offered me forgiveness for my sins, grace for my life, help in my time of need, the God who meant me in the depths and the God who meant me at the top of the mountain. He's the same God forever and if I'm not careful, I'll forget that. I love these songs and I love the idea that listen it doesn't mean it's going to be perfect. It's not what they're saying. But when your world is falling apart, don't forget to look up. That's right.