Psalm 1

Psalms — Steve Gregg

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Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110

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Psalm 1

PsalmsSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg speaks about the book of Psalms and its importance to Christian teachings. The book of Psalms, also known as "praises," is largely comprised of writings and songs accompanied by stringed instruments. Gregg notes that while many of the Psalms were written by David, some were also collected during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. He discusses the different themes and types of Psalms, from Messianic to Penitential, and emphasizes the importance of meditating on God's word.

Transcript

Today we're going to begin the study of the Psalms. The book of Psalms is often referred to as the Psalter. There was a musical instrument called the psaltery, which you sometimes will find mentioned in the book of Psalms.

But the Psalter, if you ever read that term, you won't read it here in the book of Psalms or in the scriptures, but you will sometimes hear Christians refer to the Psalter. That means the book of Psalms. The word Psalm comes from a Greek word.

Obviously, it's the Greek title of this from the Septuagint, even though now you realize, of course, the Psalms were originally written in Hebrew. But several, well, about 285 years before Christ, the whole Old Testament, including the Psalms, were translated into Greek and they were given a Greek title. The Greek title is psalmos.

And psalmos is a Greek word that means a poem that was written to be sung to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. That is, the Greek word psalmos, from which we get the title here, is a poem which is written with the intention of being sung and accompanied by stringed instruments. Now, that's the Greek word as it's found in the Septuagint.

In the Hebrew, this book has more than one title in the Hebrew. There's two in particular. One of the titles that is given to this book by the Hebrew scriptures is tehillim.

I'll spell it for you if you want to write that down. The Hebrew word tehillim, T-E-H-I-L-L-I-M, tehillim. And that means praises.

That's the Hebrew word for praises. The alternate Hebrew title for the book is tephilos. That would be spelled T-E-P-H-I-L-O-T-H, tehillos.

And that means prayers. Those are Hebrew words. So, the Hebrew people called this book either praises or prayers or both.

They were alternate titles. And you can see that the book is full of both, praises and prayers. And not only those things, but many other things.

But largely, it is a book of praises, written to be sung, and for the most part, written to be sung accompanied by stringed instruments. Therefore, when in the book of James, chapter 5, we read that, if any, as Mary let him sing the psalms, the word psalms in the Greek and the New Testament, as well as in the Old, psalmos means a poem written to be sung to be accompanied by stringed instruments. Therefore, James tells us to sing those poems that were written to be accompanied by stringed instruments.

And therefore, we have the New Testament justification for musical instruments in the Church, which obviously some Christians wonder about whether there is New Testament justification for it. But the very meaning of the word psalm in the Greek includes the idea of stringed instruments. Now, this book, the psalms, is very, very important for Christian theology.

As far as the Old Testament writings are concerned, there is none more valuable to the Christian than the book of psalms. The reason I can say that, you might think, well, what about the book of Isaiah? What about Genesis? What about Exodus? These are very valuable books, and no question about it, those are very valuable books. But the reason I can boldly say that there is no book in the Old Testament more important to the Christian, and for Christian thought and theology, than psalms, is because that's how the New Testament writers viewed the situation.

They quoted from the psalms more than from any other Old Testament book. In the New Testament, which is a relatively short volume compared to the Old Testament, there are 186 quotations from the psalms. And these quotations usually are brought forward to justify some Christian teaching, something about the life of Christ or about the teachings of Christ.

When Jesus did or said something, frequently the writers would say, as it is written in such and such a psalm, and would quote from the psalms to show that the psalms actually predicted many things that Jesus did. Which tells us, of course, that Jesus is a major theme of the psalms. We will find that to be true, particularly in certain psalms that we would call messianic.

That is, they have to do with the Messiah, the predicted Messiah. We'll talk about that a little more a little later, but the point of the matter is that the book of psalms has a great deal to say about the Lord Jesus Christ and about Christian doctrine in general. And that's important for us to note.

There is a scripture, I believe it's in Luke 24, and I wish I had written it down because I'm going to want to actually find it. Here it is, I believe. In Luke chapter 24, it says, in verse 27, this is after Jesus rose from the dead and he was walking with the two on the road to Emmaus.

It says, in beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now, all the scriptures would mean all the Jewish scriptures. The Jews divided their scriptures into three categories.

The law, which was the first five books of Moses, or we call the Pentateuch, or they would call the Torah. That was one classification of scriptures. Another was the prophets, of course, which included much of what we would call the history books.

They called them the early prophets. And then what we would call the books of prophecy, they would call the latter prophets or later prophets. So, they had the law and the prophets, but they also had a third category.

Those were called the writings. In the Greek, they're called hagiographia, but you don't need to know that necessarily. It means the holy writings.

And those include the poetry books of our Bible. They include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and also the book of Lamentations and some others that are classified as prophets for us. But these are the writings, and the largest book in the book of the writings was clearly the Psalter, the Psalms.

And we can see that Jesus went through the whole scripture, as it says, with his disciples, starting at Moses, starting at Genesis, and working through all the prophets and in between all the writings as well. And he taught the disciples the things that concerned him, the things that were talking about Jesus, he talked about. And if you turn just a little further, in the same chapter, Luke 24, verse 44.

Luke 24, verse 44, Jesus said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. So, Jesus said, all the things written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms. And no doubt he intended the Psalms to be a reference to the writings in general, but the book of Psalms in particular concerned him.

It says, and then opened he their understanding, verse 45, that they might understand the scriptures. Now, Jesus gave special revelation to his disciples to understand the scriptures, which obviously included the Psalms. And so, in the New Testament, we have the divinely inspired interpretation of many Psalms.

It's a blessing to us that so many of the Psalms are quoted in the New Testament, because we can see how they are quoted, how they were understood by these divinely inspired men, to whom Jesus gave the power to understand the scriptures properly. And we can apply back those interpretations from the New Testament into the Psalter as we read it. For instance, Psalm chapter 2 is quoted frequently in the New Testament, at least four times or more.

The most frequently quoted chapter of the Old Testament, as it is quoted in the New Testament, is Psalm 110, which is quoted a half a dozen times or more in the New Testament in different places. So, as we look at these quotes in the New Testament and see how the apostles understood them, we can read back into the Psalms that enlightenment that they received from Jesus, and see the meanings of the Psalms in a way that the Jews could never understand them without that enlightenment. And that's what we'll seek to do as we study through the book of Psalms.

We'll seek to see Jesus there, and seek to see whatever the apostles saw there. Now, a few points of fact about the book of Psalms might help to bring enlightenment or understanding about them. First of all, 55 of them, now there's 150 Psalms, a nice round number, but 55 of the Psalms are addressed to the chief musician.

Now, David, in his lifetime, set up, you know, he brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and he cast a little booth around it to house it from the weather. And he set up courses of singers to stand around the Ark of the Covenant day and night, 24 hours a day, musicians and singers standing around, and they'd have shifts. They wouldn't, you know, one man wouldn't stand there 24 hours, but they'd have shifts.

Different singers would come and go, and all day round the clock they'd be singing praises to God around the Ark, which represented God's presence. And so, the chief musician would have been the man who led the musicians, basically. And there's 55 of these Psalms that are specifically said to be addressed to the chief musician.

They were written either by David or someone else and sent off to the chief musician for the people to sing around the Ark of the Covenant. And that's what will, it's nice for us to know that when we're reading these, where they originated, what their original purpose was. The original purpose of these Psalms, many times, was to just stand in the presence of God and sing praises to him and to call upon him.

As far as who wrote the Psalms, we usually think of David as the author of the Psalms, and that's correct, at least it's half correct. About half the Psalms are said to be written by David. 73 of them, in fact, out of 150, 73 are said to be written by David.

I won't give you all the numbers of which ones they are. But there are 12 of the Psalms that are said to be written by Asaph. Now, Asaph was the head of David's choir, according to the Old Testament historical books.

Asaph was David's choir director. And so, 12 of them are said to be written by the choir director. So, David wrote 73 of them, at least, because some of them are anonymous and we don't know who wrote them.

David could have written some of those. But of those that are specifically said to be by David, 73 belong to David. And there is another one, by the way, Psalm 2, which it doesn't say in the Psalms that it was written by David, but when it was quoted in the New Testament, in Acts chapter 4, the disciples said David said, and they quote from Psalm 2. So, we could actually say 74 of the Psalms we know for sure were by David.

12 by Asaph, the choir director. 11 were said to be written by the sons of Korah. Now, the sons of Korah, again, they were certain Levites who were appointed to sing and play music around the Ark.

And so, 11 of them were written by that company of musicians. There is one that is said to have been written by someone named Heman, the Ezraite. And there is another one that is said to be written by Ethan, the Ezraite.

Two of these men are Ezraites, Heman and Ethan. We know nothing more about them, but they wrote one Psalm each. And Moses is said to have written one of them.

And Solomon, two of them. And then, of course, there are many of them. There are 50 of them that we don't know who wrote them.

50 of them are anonymous. So, out of 150, we have authorship for 100 of them established. And most of them, obviously, are by David.

That is more than any other writer. Now, the book of Psalms, all scholars are agreed, is divided into five divisions. In fact, we could rightly speak of the five books of Psalms.

They are compiled into one book in our Bible. But there are really five books of Psalms that were compiled at five different times in Jewish history. And they are divided quite easily.

It is not hard to tell the difference, where they change, because there is a recognizable point of transition between them. Each of the five books, and some people see this as sort of corresponding to the Pentateuch, really. You know, the five books of Moses.

Some people think of this as a poetic Pentateuch. Not that the material corresponds with the material in the Pentateuch, but simply that the Jews, of course, understood the law to be broken up into five parts. And for synagogue service, they broke up the Pentateuch into 153 specific readings.

The Jews did. They broke up the Pentateuch into 153 specific readings. And it is interesting that the book of Psalms has five books and has 150, very close to the 153, specific readings or Psalms.

So, it is very possible that the book of Psalms was arranged, as it is, in order to resemble sort of a poetic counterpart to the law. There were also five books of major prophets. So, it is interesting that the law of the prophets and the writings would have this division into five parts frequently.

Well, let me tell you what the five divisions are, and I will tell you certain characteristics about each division. The first book of the Psalms is Psalm 1 through 41. That is, the first 41 Psalms make up one book of Psalms.

These, it is believed, were collected by Solomon. Most of them were written by David. Not all of them, but most of them.

The vast majority of the first 41 Psalms were written by David, and it is believed that Solomon collected them. The Scriptures say that he collected Psalms. And Solomon, of course, was David's son.

So, the majority of the Psalms that Solomon collected were written by his father David, though Solomon wrote two of them himself, but they are not in this particular group. So, the first book of Psalms is 1 through 41. The second book is chapters 42 through 72.

42 through 72. And those are mostly written by David. Again, just like the first book is mainly written by David, so is the second.

And the next third book is chapters 73 through 89. 73 through 89. And those were mainly Psalms written by Asaph.

As I mentioned, 12 are ascribed to Asaph, and of that third book, most of them are by Asaph. Now, of the second and third books of Psalms, those were collected, apparently, well, the second book was collected by the Korahite Levites, the sons of Korah. Solomon collected the Psalms in the first book.

The sons of Korah, at a later time in history, collected more Psalms, which made up the second book. Later still, King Hezekiah collected Psalms, and he made the third book up. So, what we're seeing is that each of these five books of Psalms, which are collected in one book in our Bible, was gathered and collected at different times in history by different people.

So, Solomon, in his day, collected some. Later, the Korahites, the sons of Korah, collected some. Later still, Hezekiah did.

Now, the remaining two books of Psalms seem to have been collected during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. This would be the latest batch to be collected. And the fourth book of Psalms is chapter 90 through 106.

Seventeen Psalms in that grouping. And they're mainly anonymous. Mainly, we don't know who wrote them.

But those are 90 through 106. And then the last book of the Psalms is from 107 to 150. And those are partly anonymous and partly ascribed to David.

Now, those latter two books were collected by Ezra and Nehemiah. Now, how do we know that the book of Psalms really divides into these five books? Because we know that from the Hebrews. Their Hebrew Bible divides it up that way.

And there's an interesting feature that sort of shows where one ends and the other begins. Each of these books ends with what we would call a doxology. The word doxology comes from the Greek word doxa, which means glory.

And a doxology is a special praise, a description of glory to God. And you can see, for example, at the end of Psalm 41, which is the end of the first book of Psalms, that there's a special doxology which appears in similar things with a double amen at the end of each of the books. But Psalm 41, verse 13, represents one of these doxologies.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen and amen. This amen and amen implies that this is a major stopping point.

And it is, clearly so. And the next group, of course, ends at Psalm 72. We can look how that psalm ends to see that there's a similar doxology there.

Psalm 72, in verse 19, it says, And blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. And then it says specifically, these prayers, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

That means, in other words, this is a stopping point, too. These were collected by the sons of Korah, and that group ends with such a double amen also. And so do each of the five.

They don't all have the double amen, but they all have a special doxology at the end. So, these are the marking points of the five different books. Now, that may not have any practical value to us to know.

Or it may. But it just helps us to understand how the book of Psalms came to be amassed. Different people over history in Israel amassed them over a period of about 500 years.

Solomon being the first to collect them. Ezra and Nehemiah being the last to collect them. And certain groups being collected in between over a period of 500 years, this book came to be collected to its present form.

Now, there's something else, a feature of the Psalms that we should make a comment about. It's that 71 times in the book of Psalms, 71 times, we find the word selah. Spelled S-E-L-A-H.

Selah. And it usually appears at the end of a line, at the end of a sentence. Though not necessarily at the end of a psalm.

There may be several selahs in one psalm. Scholars are not 100% certain what selah means. But it obviously has a notable place in the psalms since the word appears 71 times.

The main theory among scholars is that selah refers to a musical interlude or a rest. That is, it's a Hebrew word for an interlude or for a rest. So that when you come to that point in the psalm, the singers.

This is like instructions to the singers. At this point, when you come to the selah, you stop singing and perhaps music will play for a while, an instrumental piece, before you start singing again. The idea being that what has been said is sufficiently heavy and noteworthy that they should stop singing to reflect on what has just been said before they go on to the next point.

Now that is the main theory that scholars seem to endorse. There are some other suggestions. Some believe that selah means a change of voices.

That is, perhaps maybe the tenors would begin singing one part and then at the selah it would be the altos would begin to sing. That's only a theory and there's no assurance of it. And one other possibility is some people believe the word selah means repeat from the beginning.

That is, you go back to the beginning of the section that ends with the selah and you do that again. Sort of the way we sing some of our choruses. We go back to the beginning and do it over again.

So those are some of the ideas. The main idea by far, and most scholars seem to be in agreement, is that selah would be considered a musical rest or an interlude where the singing stops for a moment with the intention of reflecting on what has been just said. And so that's how we're going to understand it.

Now, one thing, if you've read the book of Psalms before or any number of Psalms, you've probably discovered that they have these little inscriptions in small print right under the number and right before the actual psalm begins. You might have wondered where these inscriptions come from. Not all the psalms have them, but the majority of them do.

There are 34 psalms that don't have inscriptions. You know, if they just say psalm number so-and-so, then the psalm begins. But obviously 34 is a minority.

All the others, 112 of them or whatever, or 116 of them, do have inscriptions over them, which give some information of some kind about the psalms. These inscriptions, no one knows where they came from. But one thing is certain, they've been around a long time.

The earliest manuscripts available of the psalms have these inscriptions in them, and many scholars believe that they belong to the psalm themselves. That is, that the person who wrote the psalm also wrote the inscription above it to give certain information about it. They might say a psalm of David, or they might say a psalm to be a Meganoth of David, or some kind of a word like that which has to do with a special kind of psalm.

But these inscriptions, we don't know if they're inspired or not. The psalms are certainly inspired, but whether the inscriptions are or not is debatable. But there are many scholars who, after looking at all the evidence from the manuscripts, are convinced that these inscriptions go all the way back to the beginning, and that those inscriptions could have been written in by David himself or by whoever wrote the psalms, in which case we would do well to take them seriously and consider that they are accurate, whether we consider that the inscriptions themselves are inspired, maybe not even very important, but that they are at least accurate and give accurate information.

Fifty-two of the psalms have a very simple inscription at the top. Fifty-two of them have an inscription like a psalm of David, or something very simple like that, simply telling who the author is. A psalm of David, a psalm of Asaph, a psalm of Solomon, a psalm of Moses.

Fifty-two of them have those very simple inscriptions and nothing more. Fourteen of them have an inscription that gives historical information. The first of these, if I could give you an example, is Psalm 3. Psalm 3 says, and the inscription says, a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

So, there are fourteen like this that give some kind of a historical piece of information. What was happening in David's life when he wrote this? Well, that's what these inscriptions tell. We could wish, actually, for more of those kinds of inscriptions, because it's very interesting if you can get the historical background for a particular psalm.

You can certainly enter more into what the psalmist is going through, if you know what he's going through. At any rate, there are only fourteen with that kind of inscription, but it gives historical information. There are four inscriptions that give a specific purpose.

There are two, for example, of this type that say, a psalm to call to remembrance. Two of the psalms were given to call something to remembrance. Those psalms are 38 and 70.

You don't need to know that now. We'll notice that when we get to them. But, then there's one that says a psalm for the Sabbath day.

That's also for a purpose. Of the four that have a purpose, there's two that say to call to remembrance. One says a psalm for the Sabbath day, which is Psalm 92.

And, then Psalm 102 is the other one, which says something like a psalm of the afflicted when he's cast down. A psalm for people who sing when they're feeling down. So, four of them have inscriptions that give some kind of a purpose for the psalms being written.

There are fifteen of them, and they're all in a row that are called psalms of degrees. Now, this is the only category of inscriptions where all the ones of the same type are found together. For instance, the ones that give historical information, fourteen of them scattered throughout the whole book.

But, there are fifteen that say a psalm of degrees. We will talk later about what that means, a psalm of degrees. But, they are Psalms 120 through 134.

Those fifteen successive psalms, 120 through 134. There's some interesting theories about what it means, a psalm of degrees. The prevailing notion seems to be among scholars that they refer to degrees of progress.

As the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity back to Jerusalem, that they sang these at different points along their journey. But, that's not by any means a unanimous opinion of the scholars. But, there are some theories that we'll talk about when we get around to talking about those particular psalms.

And, finally, there are 39 inscriptions in the Psalter. Thirty-nine of them that have special Hebrew words that are hard to translate. Like, Meganoth, and Neganoth, and Alamoth, and Sheminoth, and words like that.

A lot of times, these words are impossible to translate. They're Hebrew words that are not found in any other connection. Therefore, the scholars have no idea what they were, or they have some idea, but they can't be sure of it.

But, these special Hebrew words usually are believed to refer to certain kinds of musical instruments that are to be played specifically with these. This psalm is intended to be played with this particular kind of instrument. And, in some cases, it may refer to a certain kind of psalm.

Some of these words are translatable, and some of them are not. We'll talk about them when we know what they are. Okay, so that talks a little bit about the inscriptions of other psalms.

They may not be inspired. We don't know whether they are or not. But, they certainly give reason to be believed as historically accurate.

Or, in other words, if it says the psalm of David, there's no reason for us to doubt that it really was written by David. It probably really was. Okay, one other thing to consider about the inscriptions, though this may not interest us too much, it's yet noteworthy, is that sometimes an inscription goes after the psalm instead of before it.

Now, for example, look at Psalm 4. That's the first case where we could give an example of that. This is one that has a special word in it. Or, no, Psalm 4 has a special word in it.

It says, To the chief musician on Neganoth, which would be apparently a certain kind of musical instrument, this is a psalm of David. Now, it's almost certain that the first line of that inscription goes to the previous psalm instead of Psalm 4. Now, you wouldn't know it because it's mentioned after the psalm 4, but it's almost certain that that psalm divides right in half. That Psalm 4 is a psalm of David, but the line, To the chief musician on Neganoth, really belongs to Psalm 3. The reason we can say that is because in the Psalter, in the Hebrew psalm, book of Psalms, there are not these chapter divisions.

You simply have a running set of poems, and these inscriptions are put there. So, it's not certain whether the inscription belongs to the psalm that just ended or the psalm that's just beginning. And there is a case where we have a clear instance that helps give light on this, and that's in Habakkuk, where there is a psalm, or Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk, chapter 3, has a psalm.

And the psalm in it begins in the first verse, A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet upon Shigenoth. Okay, there's Shigenoth, one of those words. Now, that should be the inscription at the beginning of the psalm.

Then when you get down to the end of it, in verse 19, it ends with this, To the chief singer on my stringed instrument. Now, the whole chapter 3 of Habakkuk is a psalm. It begins with the inscription, A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet upon Shigenoth, and it ends with the statement, To the chief singer on my stringed instrument.

Now, notice, the opening inscription tells who wrote the psalm, Habakkuk, in this case, or Habakkuk, and what kind of instruments were used on it, Shigenoth. But the last inscription at the end tells who it's written to, and also tells about stringed instruments, about what kind of instruments. Now, if you go back to the psalm 4 that we were talking about, you can see that one part of the inscription tells who the psalm was to.

That apparently belongs at the end of the psalm, that information. Whereas the statement, A psalm of David, telling who wrote it, belongs at the beginning. And while the early translators of King James Version, and maybe some of the other versions, did not observe this phenomenon, nonetheless we can be fairly sure, because of the pattern we get in Habakkuk, that the inscriptions that speak of who they're to, belong to the previous psalm.

And the ones that speak of who wrote it, belong to the following psalm. That might be of the least possible interest to you, to know that, but if we're going to know anything about the inscriptions, we might as well know what is to be known about them. Now, before we get right into the psalms, I'd like to sort of group them for you.

Now, not all of them fall into one of these groups, but there are some clear, discernible groups of psalms. And this is not the same information as the five books of psalms, because some of these groups, they're actually categories of psalms. Psalms of a certain type.

And in each of the five books, there are some of each of these types. So, this categorization I'm going to give you, really transcends the divisions into the five books of psalms. One of the types of psalms, I already mentioned, are the psalms of degrees.

This is the only group that corresponds with a group that's all found in one place, as I mentioned. We won't talk specifically right now about what the psalms of degrees mean, but we will when we get to them. But the psalms of degrees are grouped by themselves.

They clearly are all of one kind. They are all psalms of degrees, whatever that means. And when we get to Psalm 120, we'll have to discuss and decide what that probably means.

Another group, a very important group, as I mentioned, are the messianic psalms. The word messianic, of course, comes from the word Messiah. And messianic means they have to do with the Messiah.

Now, the Messiah has not come yet, so these psalms look forward to the Messiah and make certain predictions about him. And in some cases, put words into his mouth. There are times when the writer, and frequently it's David, speaks for himself.

But we are told by the New Testament writers that he was actually speaking for Christ. An example of this is Psalm 16, where David said, You will not leave my soul in haze, neither will you let your Holy One see corruption. Where he apparently is talking about how God will deliver him from death.

But Peter sees this as a prophecy put into the mouth of Jesus. He says, this is what Jesus actually is seen to be saying, that he will not see corruption, he won't decay in the grave. So, many times a messianic psalm will be of a type where the speaker is speaking about his own case.

And it's usually David. But where his own case really looks forward to another person, Jesus, the Messiah, and his case. And there are many times when David will be speaking about his distresses, the things that are going wrong in his life.

And he'll use words that are probably mostly very accurate, but because of the poetic language, sometimes get a bit extravagant and exaggerate a little bit. You know, all my bones are out of joint, and things like that. You know, probably David really wasn't in that condition, but just talking about how miserable he felt.

And yet, you know, when you take the most extravagant language that David uses to describe his misery, many times it applies very literally to Jesus' case. Psalm 22 is a notable example, where David starts saying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he talks about how the dogs, meaning the Gentiles, have circled him about and are causing him problems. He says, my bones are out of joint, my tongue cleaveth to my mouth, they've pierced my hands and feet, and so forth.

Now, a lot of that stuff didn't literally happen to David, though he was probably really, at the time he wrote that, in a situation where Gentiles were coming against him. He was surrounded. He was saying, God, where are you? Kind of a thing.

These psalms rose out of David's real experience, but through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, his writing transcended his own experience and went further. It was a bit extravagant and a bit exaggerating of his experience, but perhaps even he didn't realize it. But he was speaking very specifically of things that did happen literally to Jesus.

And so, David, we know, was a type of Christ. We're told that in various ways in the Bible. David was a type of Christ.

He was the shepherd king of Israel, and so was Jesus the shepherd king of Israel. And there's much about David that is seen as a foreshadowing of Christ, and that same applies to his psalms. Much of what he experienced and described in the psalms, and things that came out of his mouth about his own experience, were really a type of what would happen to Christ.

So that we find David saying in Psalm 2, But the New Testament writers say, well, this really applies more specifically to Christ. And that is really Jesus speaking. Now, David could say that and mean it in a certain sense, but not as literal a sense as Jesus could say it and mean it.

And so, we will see this phenomenon in the psalms that we would call messianic psalms. The speaker often is speaking about a real-life situation of his own, but really, the Holy Spirit is giving him speech that applies more specifically and more clearly to a future person, the Messiah, who we now know was Jesus. But, of course, in the days the psalms were written, they didn't know who it would be.

I'll give you a list, if you'd like to write them down, of some of the psalms that we would call messianic psalms. There are four of them in particular that are called kingly psalms, that speak of the kingdom of Christ. Those four are Psalm 2, and Psalm 45, and Psalm 72, and Psalm 110.

Those four in particular speak of the messianic kingdom, that is, the royalty of the Messiah, and the greatness of his kingdom. These are those psalms that really sometimes, to some people's mind, enter into the issue of the millennium, because there are those who look forward to this kingdom being exactly as was described in Psalm 72, for example, being literally fulfilled when Jesus comes back. Others, like the apostles in the New Testament, saw these as a reference to the present kingdom that Jesus has established.

So, these kingdom psalms, there are four of them in particular that are considered to be specifically about the kingly glory of the Messiah. Now, there are other psalms that don't specifically talk about his kingly glory, but do talk about his life in one sense or another, and especially his suffering. And let me just give you a list of psalms, including the ones I just mentioned, that do speak about the Messiah principally.

And there are others, there are many times where a psalm will have a passage that's messianic, but the whole psalm would not be considered messianic. But these are the ones that are primarily the messianic psalms. I already mentioned Psalm 2, but added to that is Psalm 8, Psalm 16, which is quoted by both Peter and Paul about Jesus.

Psalm 22, of which we already spoke. The 23rd Psalm, which is, The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

Psalm 24, Psalm 40, Psalm 41. I already mentioned Psalm 45. Psalm 68 and 69.

And we made reference already to Psalm 72. Then we have Psalm 87, 89, 102, and as we mentioned, 110. And finally, 118.

Now these are the psalms that, more than others, really seem to picture the Messiah. And I think we will study them as a group eventually here, but that is as a group of psalms. But we will find that there are other passages in other psalms that are shorter, maybe a verse only, that are quoted in the New Testament as being messianic.

So, sometimes only one verse in a longer psalm, or a set of verses, will be clearly messianic. And it will be as though God has hidden a sort of messianic message in a piece of literature where it was not expected or it was not recognized before the apostles were given their special insights on such things. So, there are the messianic psalms, and perhaps those are the most important to us, because Jesus is the most important thing in our life.

So, of all the different kinds of psalms, the messianic ones would, to us, be perhaps the most intriguing and the most important. But there are other important groups. One group is called the penitential psalms.

Penitential speaks of being penitent, or repentant. They are written by David or someone else whenever they have sinned and are repenting. These psalms are very valuable to us as well, because they put into words certain feelings that we all have and which we all need to have and need to express at times.

And they sort of give us a divinely inspired set of words to put our repentance into words. Now, we don't have to pray according to these psalms particularly, but they do help. If you're feeling guilty and you're feeling repentant of some sin, reading these psalms often will express the very things that are on your heart.

They are prayers to God for mercy and for forgiveness. And there are a number of them. I'll give you a list of them right now.

Psalm 6 is the first of them. Then Psalm 32, which by the way is believed to have been written when David had sinned with Bathsheba. As well as Psalm 51, which was written on that occasion, certainly.

And also Psalm 38 and 39 are penitential. And Psalm 102 is a penitential psalm. It's also a messianic psalm.

And Psalm 143. Those psalms in particular are penitential and therefore there are seven of them. And they will give us sort of a picture of true repentance.

For instance, Psalm 51 is very famous. The title on it says that this was written by David when he had sinned with Bathsheba. And many of the lines in it really are words that we adopt when we repent because they say it so well.

They just show the heart of a true penitent. And so those psalms, we're going to say those as a group also. Then there are psalms, ten of them, that are usually called, referred to as Hallelujah Psalms.

Because they begin with the word Hallelujah and most of them end with it too. That is in the Hebrew, Alleluia, which means praise Jehovah. Alleluia means praise Jehovah.

And of course, most of the psalms are written in praise of Jehovah. But some of them, ten of them in particular, specifically begin with the word Alleluia. And most of those ten end with the word Alleluia also.

So the beginning and first and last words in these psalms are Alleluia. So they call them Alleluia Psalms. They are Psalm 106, 111, 112, 113, 135, and the five psalms numbering from 146 to the end of the book, to 150.

146 to 150. You can see that all of these, with the exception of the first of them, is in the last of the five books of psalms. So that the last of the five books of psalms is more Alleluia oriented than the other previous books.

Okay, and then there is a group of psalms that I won't go into detail on how we justify them. But I've mentioned them before and you've heard me make reference to the Imprecatory Psalms. Imprecatory.

How do you spell Imprecatory? Exactly the way it sounds, of course. I-M-P-R-E-C-A-T-O-R-Y. Imprecatory.

This word Imprecatory comes from the word Imprecation, which may not help much for you to know. Imprecations are basically calling down curses on someone. Calling down curses on the wicked.

Praying for someone to fall. Praying for someone to be judged and to be cursed. And these particular psalms often are the ones that give Christians the most trouble, philosophically.

We read them and we say, now this is inspired writing. But yet it wouldn't seem to express the heart of God. Is God not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance? Isn't it so that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked? Yet why does God inspire these writings, which actually ask for the wicked to be punished and cursed and for everything to go wrong in their life and in some cases even for their children to suffer for their crimes? We just think that doesn't sound very Christian.

And we will talk about them as a group, but let me just say this at first. David and the other writers were not exactly Christian. They didn't have the access, as we do, to the teachings of Christ.

He had not yet come yet. Therefore, their light was somewhat less than ours. And we might expect them to have certain attitudes that are less than Christian.

The reason Jesus came was to give us more understanding of what Christian attitudes are than was given previously. That's one of the reasons he came. Other reasons, too, of course.

But we must realize that the expressions here are written by pre-Christian people. But that's not some kind of a cop-out, because we still have to acknowledge that God inspired these writings. And the best way to explain it, as briefly as I can, because I'll do some more at length when we actually get into the Infractory Psalms, is that God has a love for justice, and also he has a love for mercy.

He loves mercy, but he also loves justice. His desire is to let mercy triumph over justice. That is, if justice demands that a person be put to death, God would rather show mercy.

Nonetheless, he has to show justice as well. And the Infractory Psalms are written basically asking God to do the just thing. I've mentioned before that if a criminal is punished, it's not necessarily the loving thing to do the criminal, though it might be, because it could teach him an important lesson.

But even if it never did him any good, it is nonetheless the loving thing to do for the innocent public. A man who's a killer, you know, like Charles Manson or someone like that, it's not a merciful thing. It's not a loving thing for a judge to let him go.

It might be merciful to Manson himself, but it wouldn't be merciful to the public. And God has to take into consideration what his love demands that he do for the world, not just for one individual. Of course, he loves every individual, but certain people, because they will not repent, become a danger to society, and therefore his love for the rest of the world requires that he bring justice upon those people, that he take them out of circulation.

And so it is actually in accordance with God's love that he shows justice. The only reason he foresaw justice many times is for the sake of the criminal, for the sake of the sinner, to give that person a chance to repent. The Bible says that God gives a space to repent to those who are in sin.

But that space, for that period of time, has a limit. And if people do not repent during that period of time, then God must, out of his love for the innocent humanities that are affected by this man's crimes, God must take them out of circulation and bring justice upon them. And so a cry for justice is not unchristian.

Paul himself uttered imprecations. Did you know that? We will find some imprecatory statements that Paul made. An example we've already come across is Galatians 1, 8 and 9. He says, if anyone preaches any other gospel than that which is preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Well, that's an imprecation. And also in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, I think in verse 22, he says, if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, or accursed. That's another imprecation.

There are times when an imprecation is in accord with Christian thought. Christianity doesn't, and being a loving person doesn't mean that we just have a mushy, warm, fuzzy feeling toward everyone, no matter how wicked they are. It means that we have a love for the things God loves.

And we have a hatred for the things God hates. And there are certain, that we try to have patience with the wicked as God has patience with the wicked. But we also realize that it is righteous and good that God should judge and do justly toward the wicked if they will not repent.

And I believe the imprecatory psalms reflect this Christian attitude. Basically saying, God, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your will is that sin will not reign in the earth.

Therefore, if there are men who are in sin who will never repent, and who are just bringing disorders and moral chaos to your created realm, get rid of them. Thwart their plans. Bring your judgment upon them.

And this is not an unchristian attitude, though, again, we don't hear that much teaching about it. We'll talk about it more when we get to the imprecatory psalms. But one thing I'd like to do is take them in groups first.

That is, I'd like to take all the psalms of a certain type when we come to the first of that type. For instance, when we get to Psalm 6, we come to the first imprecatory psalm. Or not 6. Psalm 2 utters judgment, but it's not exactly calling for judgment.

It's warning about them. There's a difference there. The first imprecatory psalm might be Psalm 35.

There's a large number of them. But there are imprecations, short imprecations that appear in some of the earlier psalms. Like Psalm 6 has an imprecation in it.

But we wouldn't call that an imprecatory psalm exactly. Psalm 6, for instance, is a penitential psalm. And when we get to Psalm 6, we'll just look at the penitential psalms for a while.

It might take a couple of classes to cover them all. But the idea being that we can focus on one concept more in depth if we take all the psalms of that type. When we talk about the messianic psalms, Psalm 2 is the first of them.

So when we get to Psalm 2, which seems like it won't take us very long to get there, hopefully. When we get to Psalm 2, we'll take an excursus to look at the other kingly messianic psalms of the same type. So that we can put together all the psalms on one subject to help us get the total picture.

That's going to be our plan of attack. And then, of course, any psalms that don't fall into any of these categories, we'll take them in the order that they come to us. So that's what I plan to do.

In fact, I'd like to start with a group of psalms which are represented by Psalm 1, the first representative of this group. I didn't give this group because it's not a large group. But there are certain psalms that speak in praise of God's word.

Now, the psalms are largely praises of one kind or another. And many of them praise God for his attributes or his creation or his great works that he's done in delivering Israel out of the hand of Egypt or out of their enemies. A lot of psalms praise God for one thing or another.

But there are some that specifically praise him for his word and praise his word and speak of the value and the virtues of his word. Now, like all the other types of psalms, this type is represented by individual verses throughout the psalter. You'll find a verse here and a verse there that talks about how wonderful God's word is.

There are three psalms in particular that stand out to my mind as I read through the book of psalms that speak and focus primarily on the words and the benefits and the glories of the word of God. These would be Psalm 1, Psalm 19, and Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible. I would like, if possible, in this morning's classes, to talk about the first two of those psalms.

And then this afternoon to talk about Psalm 119 all by itself. And then we'll go on to Psalm 2 next time we get back to the psalms. And then we'll talk about Messianic psalms.

And that's going to be my approach. The last time I taught through the psalms in the school, we didn't do that. We just kind of went straight through.

It was nice to do that, but the problem with doing something like that, for instance, is that when we come to the first imprecatory psalm, I just feel compelled to explain it. Why this is okay? Why is it okay to say these things about people? And then we'd read several more psalms. And then we'd come to another imprecatory psalm.

And I would feel like people pretty much need to be refreshed on why that was okay. And every time we hit an imprecatory psalm, I had to give the same introductory information about imprecatory psalms. It would be much more valuable if I could just give that information in depth one time and then cover those psalms that are of that type.

Then we won't waste time going over that material again and again and again every time we hit one of them. And so I'm trying to find ways to conserve time and also to implement our learning. Let's look at the first psalm.

I believe in the time remaining to us in this class, we can actually cover the first psalm, not as deeply as we might wish, but sufficiently deep to get the message of it. I'm going to read it through first, since it's very short, only six verses. It says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Now, this psalm divides into two equal parts, three verses each. The first three are a description of the godly man. The last three are a description of the contrast between that man and the wicked.

And perhaps the thesis statement would be found in the last verse, The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Meaning, of course, that God has a very different opinion and attitude and policy toward the godly than he has toward the ungodly. And that might be what the whole psalm is seen to be about.

On the surface, it appears largely just to be a psalm about good people versus bad people. What a good man is like, and what a bad man is like. But there is the reference in verse two, particularly, to that which I believe is the core of the difference between these two men.

And that is that the good man is one who meditates day and night on the law of God, or on the word of God. To David, of course, the law, which was the Pentateuch, was his Bible. And the men of his day, who really wanted to prosper and be like a tree planted by rivers of water and so forth, were men who had to give much attention to the law, or to the word of God, and they'd meditate on it.

And I believe that the first three verses are basically describing the fruitfulness of a man who makes the word of God his meditation. Therefore, this psalm is in praise of the virtues of the word of God. And that the latter description of the wicked man, it says the wicked man is not like that.

The wicked are not so. The ungodly are not so. In other words, here's a description of a man who does not meditate on the word of God.

He does not make the word of God his rule of life, and does not apply the laws of God to his conduct. Therefore, he is as described here. So, I believe that even though we have here largely just a contrast drawn between godly and ungodly people, the real issue here is in verse 2, where the thing that makes the difference between them is one follows the word of God and makes that his meditation.

And day and night, he's constantly seeking to bring his life into accord with the word of God, whereas the other man is not. Now, let's go verse by verse. The first three verses, as I mentioned, are about the godly man.

And the first things that are said about him are negative things. They're actually positive in the sense that they are good things, but they are things he does not do. Verse 2 tells us what he does do, but verse 1 tells us what he does not do.

A lot of people think of religion as mainly don't. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Well, true Christianity does have a lot of thou shalt not.

There are a lot of commands that tell us what not to do, but there's also something positive that must be done. And this psalm gives us both sides. A godly man is one who does not do certain things, and he does do other things.

And those things are very different, and bear different kinds of fruit from each other. The things he doesn't do are described like this. He walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

He does not stand in the way of sinners, and he does not sit in the seat of the scornful. Now, I believe there's, in these three verbs, an intended progression of thought. First of all, we see the man walking.

He's not walking in the counsel of the ungodly. Next, we see him not standing, and next, not seated. And the implication is that the ungodly are walking according to the counsel of the ungodly.

They are standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of the scornful. And this blessed man, the man who is said to be blessed, or the word blessed means happy. Happy is this man.

The happy man is the one who does not do these things that the ungodly do. What does the ungodly do? First of all, he walks in the counsel of the ungodly. Meaning, he gets counsel and advice from ungodly people and follows their advice.

Instead of following God's advice. There are many people who have shipwrecked their Christian lives because they followed the counsel of ungodly people. Most psychologists and psychiatrists who have degrees and hang out shingles and offer their services to people are not Christian.

Some of them are. Of course, there are some in that profession, as in every profession. But the majority of psychologists and psychiatrists are not Christian.

Just like the majority of people in every field are not Christian. But that means, of course, that their counsel is the counsel that is given by ungodly men. Because they are ungodly.

They are ungodly in their private lives. Therefore, they do not have the moral judgment to give godly counsel. Psychological counsel often is very damaging and very often contrary to Scripture.

And many people who are not psychologists by trade have nonetheless studied a bit of psychology or picked up a little on the street here or there. And the counsel they'll give you, if you're looking for marriage counsel or for career counseling or some other kind of counseling, many times the people you'll talk to, including, very sadly, Christian people, will be more based on psychological principles that they believe are valid, developed by Freud or some of these other guys, more than on the Bible. And we need to be very careful not to be deceived because certain things, certain concepts, philosophical concepts, have become accepted in our society so axiomatic as though you'd think you were crazy to not follow them.

And yet, we need to always consider, is this counsel according to the Word of God? And a godly man or a blessed man, one who's going to be happy, will be the man who ignores the counsel of the ungodly. Now, a lot of times, people have ungodly parents. And when you grow to maturity, of course, your parents have a lot of opinions about what you should do with your life.

They feel, for instance, you should make as much money as you can, very often. Most non-Christian parents feel like they're most proud if their child becomes a lawyer or a doctor or a millionaire, a professional person. Now, those things may be good things to be.

But the point is that it's not a Christian value system that is sometimes being used by parents or counselors who seek to give you career advice or marriage counsel or some other thing. Many Christians, I know, have been so taken in by psychological techniques that they often don't realize that the techniques and the counsel that they give is based on principles that are not scriptural. And we need to go back to the scriptures like the blessed man does and meditate day and night on the scriptures in order to get the advice and counsel that we need for making hard decisions.

Now, of course, there is such a thing as going to godly people for counsel. But even godly people may sometimes give what is tantamount to the counsel of the ungodly because they've learned things from ungodly teachers or something. So, whatever counselor we go to, we must ask ourselves and see for ourselves whether what they are saying is according to the word of god.

The Berean Christians in Acts chapter 17 were said to be more noble than the Thessalonian Christians because when Paul spoke to them, they not only received them with all readiness, but they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. And so, when people give you advice or counsel, you should ask either yourself or even ask them, what is the scriptural basis for this counsel? How does this fit into what Jesus taught? Is there anything the Lord has said on this subject? Because if we want that blessing, if we want to be the blessed one that David says, oh, how blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, then we must avoid taking the advice of ungodly people and even of godly people who give ungodly counsel. And that's the first thing that a blessed man is not going to be doing, is walking in the counsel of ungodly people.

The second thing is he won't be standing in the way of sinners. The way of sinners would be actually in the path that they walk in. He won't step into that path even so long as to stand there, much less to walk in it.

And then he won't settle down in the seat of people who are scorners. The scornful and scorners in the Bible, especially in the book of Proverbs, you've probably noticed, usually refers to the ungodly fool, a person who just mocks at the things of God. Now, there is a progression here.

A person who first begins to walk in the counsel of the ungodly will find himself standing in the path of sinners, in the path that sinners walk on, which Jesus said is the broad path. Jesus said, strive sinners, a straight gate, or a narrow gate. The gate that leads to life is narrow, Jesus said.

The broad gate that most people go on, the broad road, is the way unto destruction. Well, the path or the way of the sinners is the way to destruction. And a person who begins to walk in the counsel of the ungodly is going to find himself on the way to destruction, the way of sinners.

And eventually, he'll be actually settled in. He'll be seated in the seat of the scorners, those people who actually mock God. You see, it starts out not mocking God at all.

A person who has a relationship with God might begin to take counsel that's not godly. Now, you say, well, why would they do that? I'll tell you from experience, because I've been in a pastoral position before where people have come for counsel, there are certain people, Christian people, who go from one counselor to another waiting to get a certain kind of counsel. There's one thing they want to do, and they're going to go to as many counselors as they can until they find one that gives them permission to do it.

Who says, yes, that's the right thing to do. And many people I've known have had sinful things that they wanted to do. They wanted to divorce their wife and take up with some other woman who was more godly, they would say, or something like that.

And they really feel like the Lord's leading them to do that. So, they go to a Christian counselor and the counselor says, no, that's of the devil, that's not godly. So, they go to another Christian counselor and he says, no, that's of the devil.

And they keep going from one counselor to another until they find one, usually a liberal who doesn't believe in the Bible or something, who'll say, well, yeah, if you're not happy in your marriage, you know, you're entitled to some happiness, you ought to go ahead and do it. This person will probably be good for you, your wife obviously isn't good for you. You know, and they give ungodly psychological counsel.

And there are Christians who, though they love the Lord, or at least believe they do, love themselves enough that they will treasure the counsel of the ungodly. It gives them permission, you see. They wouldn't necessarily want to go out and do it on their own because they'd feel guilty, but if they can feel like some counselor gave them permission to do it, they'd figure, well, that guy ought to know, he's a counselor.

But if a person begins to do that, they'll find they're in the way of sinners. They're not on the narrow road anymore. The narrow road is only maintained by keeping to the counsel of the Word of God and of those who counsel according to the Word of God.

That's sometimes unpopular counsel because it goes against the grain of our lusts. But if we want to be on the way, the narrow way, the way of the righteous rather than in the way of sinners, then we have to follow the counsel not of the ungodly but of the godly. And once a person does begin on that way of sinners, he'll find that he makes himself at home there.

That is, the way of sin at first might convict him, but the more he continues in that way, the more he gets acclimated to conviction. The more, as Paul says, his conscience is cauterized so that it's insensitive. And eventually he's settled right in there.

He's seated with them. He feels right at home among them. And that's a dangerous place to be.

The man is happy and blessed who does not end up in such a state. How does he avoid it? Well, verse 2 tells us, he avoids it by meditating day and night. He delights in the law of the Lord.

Now, to delight in the law of the Lord is an interesting statement because the law of the Lord is sometimes a little hard to handle. Especially in David's day when they ought to offer all these sacrifices and fasts and feast days and kosher foods and things like that. The law of the Lord is fairly demanding.

And it's not really any less demanding today to follow Jesus. He makes a lot of demands on us, too. But a person who has died to himself and loves the Lord with all his heart will just love the law.

Even if it's a bit difficult to keep sometimes because they love the Lord. They want to do what pleases them and they delight to find out what pleases them. Even if once they find out, they realize it's going to take a certain painful sacrifice on their part, they're just delighted to know.

I know this is true. From my own experience, I know it's true. That there are times when I would make any sacrifice to do what's right, but I just wish I knew what was right.

And reading the Bible, of course, is one way that we find out what's right. And a person who is hungry and craving to do what's right in the eyes of God will just devour the Scriptures. They'll just love them.

They'll eat them up. They'll delight in them. Even though some of the things the Scriptures say actually condemn certain courses of life that we've been involved with, yet because we want to please God, we value this information.

And we meditate day and night in it, which means, of course, that you sit and think on it. You apply it. It's something that every moment of your day, which is implied by day and night, all day long, you're applying the Scripture.

It's not just something you do on Sundays and you hear a sermon and you say, well, how does that apply to me? And then you go away. Every day of your week, and every night, too, you're looking at your own actions and seeing how they make up to the Scripture. You love the Scriptures, so you spend your time in the Scriptures.

It's always a dangerous time, in my opinion, when I see Christians who don't read the Scriptures much, who don't have a hunger for the Scriptures. It says in 1 Peter 2, 2, As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby. It would seem that any baby that's healthy will have a healthy appetite, because he needs it.

I mean, God builds it into him. He's hungry because he has a lot of growing to do, and to grow he has to have a good appetite and eat a lot. And the same is true of spiritual babies, and that's what Peter's saying.

As newborn babes, we should desire the milk of the Word so that we can grow by it. But when you see a Christian, or one who seems to be a Christian, who does not have any appetite for the Word, then one wonders, are they really born again? Are they really a baby at all? Or, if they are, they must be sick. There must be something wrong.

What's happened to their appetite? There must be something wrong in their life. It's a dangerous time, any time you see a Christian who does not love the Word. When I was first baptized in the Holy Spirit, I already, even for years before that, had a love for the Word.

And I read the Word all the time when I was growing up. But especially when I was baptized in the Spirit, so many things in the Word just came alive for the first time to me, that I never wanted to be anywhere without a Bible. That's why I got this pouch to carry a little Bible.

I usually carry a bigger Bible, but sometimes it's a pain to have only one hand free, so I've got one to stick on my belt here so that I can always have one around. And I never could understand why some Christians went places without a Bible. I thought, how can they do that? Not because I thought there was some legalistic requirement that Christians must have a Bible, you know, in order to show people who they are, that they're Christians.

But simply because I thought, any time I have a free moment, I want to read. I want to know this Word, and I want to know it well. I want to know it inside and out.

I want to read it again and again and again and again. And therefore, if I have free time, what better thing could I do than read my Bible? What if I get stuck somewhere, and I have ten minutes on my hands, and I don't have a Bible with me? I just couldn't imagine it. Now, today it might seem strange, because, you know, it might seem a bit radical or something, but to me, that was just the way I felt, and I couldn't understand why all Christians didn't feel that way.

Any time I had time, I wanted to read the Bible. I wanted to know more about God. I wanted to know more about His ways, so I could live according to Him.

And I meditated day and night on the Word. I can remember times when I held jobs as a janitor, or as a mail clerk, or as a window cleaner, or as doing something that didn't require a whole lot of thought. You know, it wasn't real technical work or anything.

And I know that even without trying, the Word of God would just come back to my mind, because I was always reading it. And verses would come to my mind, and God would give me insights on them, and I would just be meditating on them at night, in the morning. And I know that, I know what He means when He says that a man like that would be like a tree planted by rivers of water.

He's going to have fruit in his life. He's not going to dry up in times of drought, because his roots go down actually into a river. The last place that a drought would affect would be the soil at the bottom of the riverbed.

And if a tree is planted by rivers of water, and its roots go down there, then the drought that will kill off other trees will not kill him off. Because he's got a source of nourishment built in. Because he's taken the Scriptures in, and he's meditating on them, it's like he's being nourished.

It says in Amos chapter 11, in verse 8, I believe it is. Maybe I better check that to make sure that's referenced. But I believe it's Amos 11, 8. It says that there is a day coming where there will be a famine.

It says, not a famine of bread, neither of a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos, Obadiah. Okay.

Yeah, it's chapter 8, in verse 11, I'm sorry. Amos 8, 11 says, behold the days come, sayeth the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

It says, and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north even to the east, and shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst, and so forth. Now, it says there's a day coming when the word of God will not be as easily available as it is now.

In Russia, for instance, that's already happened, because the Russian Christians aren't legally able to buy Bibles. They have to be smuggled into them. And it could happen here.

But in a day like that, where the famine for the word is, it's worse than a famine for bread or for water. Because Job said, I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. But you see, in times like that, the young ones and even the strong ones faint for thirst.

That is, for thirst of the word. And people will run to and fro looking for it and can't find it. But the man who's been meditating day and night on the word of God, he'll have it there nourishing him, even in times of famine.

The tree with its roots going down into the riverbed, even in time of famine and drought, where everyone else is going thirsty, all the trees on the dry land up there are withering away. He's got his roots down in a deep place where there's hidden sources of water and nourishment. And that is because he's been meditating day and night on the word of God.

I've known so many brothers who were exactly like this. That is, when they got saved, they just kind of, they just dug into the word. And then I've known so many Christians who didn't.

And I couldn't figure out why they didn't. It made me wonder about their spiritual health, if they didn't have an appetite, because a baby should be ravenous. He's got a lot of growing he's got to do and needs a lot of nourishment.

And it seems like a Christian who's really born again and has a spiritual health about him would have this hunger. He'd delight in the law of God. He'd meditate day and night in it.

And it gives them something. It's obvious that the people who do that are not the people who end up backsliding. The people who end up backsliding generally are the people who have not really applied the word of God on a daily and nightly basis to their own lives.

And it says about him in verse 3, And he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Fruit in his season. There are certain fruits that God brings forth in their season.

We can't expect, of course, that because we start digging into the Scripture, that this time tomorrow we'll have all the fruit of the Spirit fully developed. But fruit is seasonal. It comes and it grows.

It takes a period of time to grow. But it comes to maturity eventually. And in the proper season, a man who's meditating on the word of God will have his fruit coming.

It says, Also his leaf shall not wither. Which means he won't dry up when there is a famine and a thirst for the word of God. Because he'll have it in his heart.

And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The word prosper means succeed. It simply means that God will crown the man's efforts with success.

Because God delights to honor people who delight to follow his word. It doesn't mean that every enterprise that a person does, he can guarantee that it will be successful simply by meditating on the word of God. But of course, a man who's always applying the word of God will be involved in enterprises that are inconsistent with the will of God.

Because he's applying the word of God to every aspect of his life, he might change his vocation if he realizes that his present way of life is something God can't bless. God doesn't honor. And a man like that will be doing something that God will honor.

And God will make him successful in it. The description of the ungodly is just the opposite. The ungodly are not like that.

They don't meditate on the word of God. They're not like a tree planted by water. Their leaf will wither.

They won't bring forth fruit for God. They're more like chaff, which is the undesirable part of a wheat head. When a head of wheat is broken down into its parts, you've got kernels of wheat, which are edible, and you've got the chaff, which is this light, hairy stuff that is not edible and needs to be separated from the wheat.

The wheat was gathered into barns. The chaff was usually blown away or taken off in bundles and piles into the fire. They're like chaff, which the wind drives away.

That is, they're worthless stuff that God will let go. He won't sustain them. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

This doesn't mean that the ungodly won't have to stand judgment. It means that when they do come to judgment, they won't be able to stand. They'll collapse.

They won't be able to stand with confidence before God on the day of judgment. When they go into judgment, they will not stand. The expression to stand refers to being able to maintain your position.

Like it says, that we're to put on the whole armor of God so that we can resist and withstand the evil. And having done all to stand means that in the face of opposition, we can stand because we have a secure position and a firm footing, and we're well established. But the wicked, on the day of judgment, don't have such a firm footing, and they don't have a firm position, and they will collapse, and they will not stand in the judgment.

And sinners will not be able to stand in the congregation of the righteous, which may mean that in the church, sinners are not to be permitted. That is, people whose habitual way of life is perpetually in sin, that they don't belong there in the church. So, the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the word knoweth means he observes it and cares about it.

He takes concern for it, which means, of course, he supervises it and blesses it and so forth. But the way of the ungodly, obviously God does not bless, but that way shall perish. So, in this psalm, very briefly, very short psalm, we get the value and the virtues of the word of God and what can be done to a human life by meditation on such.

And we're going to, when we come back to this, look at a couple of other psalms on a similar subject. Let's take a break now.