Our Father in God, we thank you for another day. And though some of our regulars are elsewhere today, we pray for your blessings on them, wherever they are, and for your blessings on us here today. We pray, Lord, that you would continue to teach us more of your word, especially here, the Psalter, and that you would be honored in it and that we would be edified. and grow in our knowledge and thus application of your word. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, we have been, of course, looking at the structure here of the Psalter. And we were almost finished looking at some of the different points in book two. Let's see, can I get Phillip or Matthew, one of you guys, to make sure everybody has one if they don't. We've, on our handout here, been looking at book two, and we looked last time at, excuse me, some of the kings, and the sections of the kings here. We looked also at some of the enemies. that are addressed here, especially 53 to 60 and the last few there before the final psalm. And so we just started the section there in regard to the summons and the respondents. This is actually a chiasm. Psalm 49 and 52 are connected, and Psalms 50 and 51 are connected. This is one of those times where it's obvious that there is somebody outside of the original author that put these things together, because you have a Psalm 49 written by one of the sons of Korah, and then you have the Psalm of Asaph, and then you have two written by David. And so you have three different authors writing about three different issues. Psalm 51, I'm sure, is the most familiar to us, as David writes about his sin with Bathsheba. And yet the final compiler puts it together in this chiastic way to make this point. And so as you see there on your handout, you see the two summons followed by the responses. And so if we look, Excuse me briefly at these, if you turn to Psalm 49. And again, here, my purpose is just to touch on these points. Certainly when I preach on them, I'll make more points here in this way. But if you look at Psalm 49 and verse one, you might recall, as I mentioned here a couple weeks ago, that in book two, as you go through the book, There is more and more focus on the nations, addressing the nations. Well, this is the first of those. And so verse one, hear this all peoples, give ear all inhabitants of the world, bow low, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom and so forth, right? Incline to, I will incline my ear to a proverb and so on. So the psalmist here, is addressing the nations and basically is saying, hey, listen to this wisdom. Hey, listen to what I have to say. Well, what does he have to say? Well, if you look at the remainder of the Psalm, he talks about wealth in particular. Wealth cannot save. And when we die, we can't take things with us. So here's his, his emphasis, but he also says that death is overcome by God. And so, notice there in verse six, they're trusting in their riches, okay? And you see about even people dying, for he sees wise men die, verse 10, likewise the fool. Okay, it almost sounds like Ecclesiastes there a bit. Note some of the wisdom here, we could call this a wisdom psalm. Verse 16, do not be afraid when one becomes rich. Verse 17, when he dies, he shall carry nothing away. And so here's the theme of this. This summons to the nations to understand this wisdom. So let's turn to Psalm 52 now. And this is a Psalm of David. And notice Doeg the Edomite. I remember the context here. This is first Samuel chapters 21 and 22. David had fled to a Himalaya and got to show bread and so forth. Well, Doug overheard all this, went and told Saul and came and killed all these priests. So here now David writes about these things. Verse one, why do you boast in evil? Oh, mighty man, the goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor and so forth, right? He went to tell Saul about these things. And notice here you have someone from the nations, an Edomite, who is not heeding the summons to be wise. And note the connection, especially in verse 7. Here's a man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. Psalm 49 talks about don't trust in riches. Well, here's a man who did, someone from the nations who did. So you see how Psalm 49 and 52 go together here in this way. Are there other themes? Of course there are. Are there other points? Yes. But in this way, we can see this connection and why the final compiler put them together in this way. Then if you look, excuse me, at the middle two, Psalm 50, here now, Psalm of Asaph. And notice this time, God is summoning the heavens and the earth. Verse one, the mighty one God, the Lord has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. And then you see how he's going to come. Verse four, he shall call to the heavens from above to the earth that he may judge his people. And so verse seven, here are my people. I will speak. Oh, Israel, testify against you. I am God, your God. So God is summoning the heavens and the earth, and then he's speaking to Israel. And the primary theme here, in this psalm is that the people were insincere in their religion. They're just going through the religious practices outwardly, you could say. And notice, especially there, excuse me, verses eight and following, talking about the sacrifices Verse 12, if I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and so forth. And so they were treating the sacrifices as if God needed food. That's what you do with pagan gods, not with the real God. And so he talks about the wicked and hating instruction and so forth. So here's the context. Here are Israelites who are rejecting the Lord, just going through the motions, you might say. Psalm 51, then, corresponds to this. We know the story, obviously, David and Bathsheba and so forth. Here is an Israelite who, you might say, went through the motions, at least for a time. Even with his sin with Bathsheba, he was still going to temple, offering and bringing sacrifice and so forth. So he was, you might say, missing the point. If you look at Psalm 51 verse 16, he talks here about the sacrifices. You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. And so, like we see in other places of scripture, it's not that God doesn't want sacrifices. He just wants them to be done sincerely. And so that's what David is emphasizing here in verse 17. So if you look back then at Psalm 50, and note especially verses 8 and following, I already called your attention to that a little bit here about the sacrifices. And then note especially as you look at verse 14, it says, offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. And then if you look at the last verse, verse 23, whoever offers praise glorifies me. To him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God. So here's an emphasis on sincere religion, basically. And so David connects in those ways. If you look also in verse 18 of Psalm 50, it says, when you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers." Obviously, David committed adultery, but he was also a thief. He stole the wife, and then he stole the husband. So again, in these ways, we can see why the compiler put these together. Again, there are other themes, clearly, but here's how we can link them together. All right, any questions here on this chiasm? Yes. Well, these middle two, Psalm 50 and 51, As important as it is to address the nations, it's more important to address God's people and call for sincere religion. So that'd be your main theme. Okay, well, let's then now turn to Psalm 73. And this is the beginning of Book Three. So on your handout with these various diagrams, you come to the next page here that shows book three. Okay, so what books are in book, or which Psalms are in book three then? What's it say? Okay. So I'm 73 to 89. And what does Robertson say about them? What's his key word here? All right. Devastation. All right. as a brief comment. Basically, this section talks about going into exile. Now, like with Book 2, the key theme here to start us is the theme of God's name. As I've said probably hundreds of times over the years, if you know the name of God, in that particular passage that's going to help you to interpret the message. So in book two, the name of God that is emphasized is Elohim, God, not Yahweh, which is the opposite of book one. Well, here in book two, it's both. Psalm 73 to 83 still continue this Elohim theme in terms of the name of God. 47 times the name is used versus Yahweh, which is 13 times. Now again, remember the normal pattern in scripture is you have about 7,000 times the name Yahweh is used in the Old Testament, and Elohim is used about 2,600 times. So note your ratio there. This is obviously very different. And so that's the point. That's what they're trying to communicate to us here. Note this emphasis on God. Now in book two, you remember, we saw a few psalms or parts of psalms that connect to book one. Some of them are identical in language, except for the name of God is different. Well, you don't have that here in book three. But nevertheless, you still see this emphasis. Now, for the remainder of book three, Psalms 84 to 89, now things switch around. Yahweh is used more often than Elohim 31 times to 16 times. Again, it's not consistent with the ratio throughout the rest of the scriptures. But still, Yahweh is used about twice as much as Elohim. Books four and five continue that pattern where Yahweh is used more than Elohim. So what's the point? Yes, Matthew. We do split it, yes, because there is a definitive change once you get to Psalm 84. Okay. And you can see it's after that major pyramid. And so the pyramid is obviously the focal point here of Book 3. And so after it, then you return to the Yahweh emphasis. So, what do you think would be the emphasis here, right? Our context here is going into exile. Why do you think Elohim would be emphasized in the first part, and then Yahweh in the next part? There are some theories that would make some sense. Yes, Heather? Okay. Okay, all right, that's part of it. Okay, any other thoughts? Yeah, Matthew. Yeah, that's definitely part of it. Yeah, the nations come and judge. Both the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom's exile are mentioned here in this book. So it's not just one. You're getting on to the ideas here. Elohim, of course, refers to God. He is sovereign. He rules over all things. He is our maker. He is our creator. And so even though Israel is taken into exile, God is still ruling. That's certainly one of the themes. Yes? Yeah, yeah, definitely And that theme is more what we see in book four, but it's definitely part of what we see here. That yes, Yahweh is Israel's covenant Lord, and he's still with them. Your point fits more with book four, and even what Heather said, but that's part of it. You'll see especially there, Psalms 84 to 87, okay, What's more of an emphasis here appears to be that Yahweh is bringing the covenant curses upon his people. Okay, so it's not just that God rules the nations, and the nations are under his power and control in judging his people. But this is also part of the covenant Lord cursing his covenant people. But that's not the whole story. Like Joe's mentioning, like Heather's mentioning, there's more to it. There is some hope there. Again, book three is emphasizing more the devastation. Book four is emphasizing more how Israel is learning some valuable lessons while in Babylon, while in exile. So again, the names of God here point us in this direction with some of these themes. Any other comments or questions? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we just read some of that in Psalm 50, didn't we? That idea where they were treating God like a pagan God, and the sacrifices and so on. Yeah, definitely. We'll see that, especially in 1 Samuel chapters 13 through 15, where Saul does not say Yahweh my God, he says Yahweh your God. And I don't think that's an accident. So, hence being rejected as king. All right, let's now look at, move from this general overview to something more specific. And I've been using this language of handles. What are some handles we can grab onto? Again, the Psalter is quite large. There's a lot here. So what are some handles we can grab onto to help us see how things fit together? Well, like with book two, so here with book three, authorship is helpful for us. Maybe not quite as helpful as book two, but nevertheless, here it is. If you look at your handout, he tells you there right at the top of that diagram that Asaph wrote the first 11 of the Psalms here in this book. And then Psalms 84 to 89, he says the sons of Korah, but note he's got an asterisk there, and that's because it's not every one of them. So first you have Asaph, Psalms 73 to 83. Then you have the sons of Korah, are Psalms 84 and 85, and then Psalms 87 and 88. Now, anybody know who wrote Psalm 86? Go ahead. Yes, there you go. And then who wrote Psalm 89? Yes, Heather. All right. Now, one comment here about Ethan. If you look at Psalm 77 and verse 1, here this Psalm of Asaph, it says, to Jedethon, Now you might remember I mentioned about Jedithin and Asaph and Haman were the chief musicians established by David. And many scholars think that Ethan and Jedithin were the same person. We can't say that definitively, but it appears that it is the same person. And so Ethan was one of the chief musicians then, if that is true. So here's our first handle, look who wrote these songs. David only wrote one. That's a big change to what we've seen, right? Book one, he wrote potentially every single one of them. We know he wrote all but three and may have written the other three. In book two, as you recall, there was a huge section of Davidic Psalms, from Psalm 51 to 71. There are three in there that we're not sure if he wrote. But otherwise, these 21 Psalms minus possibly three. Here now, one. It really jumps out at us as we compare it as you keep going. In book four, you have some of the Davidic triad there. And then, of course, in book five, there are a couple sections that are David psalms, some individual psalms, and so forth. So for one psalm to be written by David is rather striking. But in many ways, it makes sense, right? Because David is the head of the Davidic covenant. His son will be the Messiah. And so when we're talking about Israel outside of the promised land, it would make sense that David would not be a part of that, not only chronologically, but also theologically. So note that point that we can get from this. All right, any comments or questions here about authorship? Yes? Right. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. So even back to what Heather was saying before about some of the positive here, even in the midst of devastation. That's right. Right. Right. Absolutely. Yes. That's right. Yes. Well, at least let's put it this way. Even though it says Asaph, it's possible it was a descendant of Asaph. They wrote it in his line. Remember, there were the three groups. So that's one way to answer your question. Certainly with the Sons of Korah, we don't know. It obviously could refer to people hundreds of years later. The fact that there are references to the exile of the Northern Kingdom leads us to say that Asaph has to refer to somebody other than the original Asaph, one of his descendants. So there's the, I guess you could say, common sense way of looking at it, as well as the specific statement in some of the songs. So yeah, that's how we would take that. Yes, Matthew. Yes, but the way the Psalms are written don't lend themselves to that. It sounds like it's happening or has happened. Okay, well the next... Let's see here. handle here is the most obvious one, and that's the pyramid. I kind of wish in this diagram that the pyramid didn't go down. That makes more sense for it to go up. But anyway, what is the central psalm here in this pyramid? Psalm 80. And how many psalms are on either side then? Yeah. Psalms 77, 8, 9, and then Psalms 81, 2, and 3. All right. The point I want to start with here on this point is, I guess you could say, a bit of trivia. And I think this trivia is helpful Not all trivia is. I would not say that what I've said here about the number of times God's name is used is trivia. This I would, but I do think it's helpful. In book three, Psalms 73 to 89, the Psalms that precede Psalm 80, there are 181 verses Now, this is in Hebrew. English is a little bit different. There are 181 verses in the Hebrew, okay? That's Psalms 73 to 79. In Psalms 81 to 89, it's 167 verses, which means somewhere in Psalm 80 is the midpoint. Anybody do their math real fast here? There are 20 verses in Psalm 80, again, in the Hebrew. English just gives you 19, that's because they put the title without a verse on it. It's Psalm 80, it's verse three in the Hebrew, and it's verse two in the English. I don't think it's all that significant which verse it is. but it's just simply the middle verse in book three is Psalm 80, in Psalm 80. Okay? Even more than that, the central letter in the whole Psalter, all 150 Psalms, the central letter is in Psalm 80. It's actually Psalm 80, verse 14, or verse 13 in the English. It's actually that word woods or forest, depending on your translation there. Psalm 80 and verse 13, mine says, the boar out of the woods uproots it and so forth. So that word woods or forest is the, has the central letter in the whole Psalter. Again, I don't think the verse is all that significant, in terms of some profound idea in that verse. But maybe the boar in the woods, the idea of devastation, maybe we can point to that. But again, at least for our trivia, the central letter is found in this word, in all the Psalter. And then there's one more connection we can make. And this, again, is just trivia. But there are, and I'll write this down here so you can see it. In the Old Testament, there are 23,213 verses. In the New Testament, there are 7,941 verses. The middle verse in all the Bible is Psalm 100, verse 3. in terms of number of verses, not number of words, but number of verses. But, if you don't add these two numbers, let's subtract these two numbers, that leaves us with Psalm 80 and verse 16. Again, and verse 15 in the English. Again, this is just trivia. You know, you can play your Bible trivia and remember these points. But isn't it interesting that three of these four things I just mentioned takes us to Psalm 80. Psalm 80 is right in the middle, not just of this pyramid, but of this book, of the Psalter, and at least in this sense, we could say of Scripture. All right. This is no accident, is the point. This is very deliberate on the part of the compiler, and again, it may have been a group of people, may have been Ezra, but they put Psalm 80 here in the middle. So what's the emphasis in Psalm 80 then? What is our main point? Well, notice how it begins. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock, you who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Stir up your strength and come and save us. All right. Now let me give you a little bit more numbers here. This is less trivia and more significant. All right. Joseph. I guess I'll come over here. Joseph is mentioned here. He is only mentioned five times in all the Psalms, which is quite surprising, actually, as important as Joseph was. And of these five times, four of them are in Book Three. Psalm 77, 16, 78, and verse 67. What we just read here is Psalm 80, verse 2, and Psalm 81, verse 6. The only other one is in Psalm 105, verse 17. Now, look at those references. Not only is this book three, but where are they found? They're all found in this pyramid. Okay. No accident. All right. Now, the name Ephraim. What's significant about Ephraim in relation to Joseph? Who is Ephraim in relation to Joseph? Yes. Yeah. And what about Manasseh, then? His other son. Ephraim and Manasseh are sons of Joseph. And so Ephraim is also found five times in the Psalms. Again, as significant as Ephraim was, Shiloh, the tabernacle, was there for her, however long, until I remember the time of Samuel, and the ark was taken, and so on. Remember, the northern kingdom, its capital, was in Ephraim, after the split, there after Solomon. So as important as Ephraim is in the history of Israel, it's only mentioned five times. Three of them, here, Psalm 78, verse 9, and verse 67, and then Psalm 80, verse three. Note again, three of the five anyway here are in book three and note they're found in the pyramid. The other two are Psalm 60 verse 9 and Psalm 108 verse 9. Those two verses say the exact same thing actually. And then Manasseh His other son is mentioned three times. Two of them are in those same two verses. Psalm 60 verse 9 and Psalm 108 verse 9. And the other one I just read for us. Psalm 80 verse 3. This isn't just happen. God obviously directed Ezra or this group of men to put things together in this way, to focus on Joseph and his sons here in this pyramid. Though they're mentioned on three other places, they're clearly not a significant part of the point there, but they are here in this pyramid. Our point then is this. Look at Psalm 78 here a moment. Psalm 78, and if you look at verses 67 and 68. Somebody read that for us. 67 and 68. Go ahead, Heather. He rejected the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Bethlehem. But he chose the tribe of Judah, not Zion, which he loves. So, in this section that's emphasizing Joseph, one of the points is God did not choose Joseph. God chose Judah. God chose a descendant of Judah, and that is David. This is also probably why, if you look back at Psalm 80 and verse 2, where it says Ephraim and Manasseh, it also mentions Benjamin. Benjamin is probably mentioned because Saul was rejected as king. And so not only were Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, rejected as having a king in Israel, so too was Benjamin because of what happened with Saul. That's probably why it's listed together there. Look also then at Psalm 77 and look at verse 15. Somebody read that one for us. Notice that there's still hope for Joseph. Even though Joseph was not chosen to have the king of Israel, redemption is not just for those in the southern kingdom, but also for the northern kingdom, for Jacob and Joseph. If you turn to Psalm 81, and if you look at verse 5, somebody read that one. So here you see about Joseph and Egypt. This is in the context of God's grace to his people and so on. Maybe I'll connect it in this way. I've been reading through a history text here recently. And I've just finished reading about the Civil War. And I'm currently in the section about Reconstruction. After living in the South for, I think it was seven years, there are definitely some people who still think that the War of Northern Aggression is the right term for the Civil War. and there's still some animosity there among some. You know, it's easy for us to divide ourselves. It's easy for those of us in the North to say, we are the better, and those of the South would say the same thing. You know, in Israel, the same ideas. Those in the North were somehow better. Those in the South were somehow better. Those on the east side of the Jordan were somehow better. Some on the west side were somehow better. You know, it just depends on your perspective. But our point here is that even though David and Judah dominate the Psalms, clearly they do, Joseph is not forgotten. Yes, Joseph was not chosen to have a king, but Joseph is not forgotten. He was forsaken in some ways, but not utterly. And so this is one of the key themes of this pyramid. Joseph is still significant in God's plan. And since they went into exile, and Judah then went into exile, this point of course is significant. So here then is some of the broader thoughts in this way. We'll look more specifically at each of these Psalms and see if we can finish Book 3 next time in terms of our overview. Yes, Kathy? Yes, yes, yes, yes. You're anticipating what I'll do next time. That is just fine because we'll hear it today and we'll hear it again next week. No, that's that's exactly right. You see, in this song, these ideas restore us. Oh, God, cause your face to shine on us and we shall be saved. Verse three, that's the refrain. We're going to see a few times here in this psalm. I see it again in verse 7 and at the end, verse 19. So, yeah, very much a fitting theme for the central book in this psalter. Again, according to verses and letters. It's not Psalm 75 or something like that, as we think of 150 psalms. Okay, well, we need to quit. I see we're plenty late. So we'll go ahead and pray together then. Lord, we thank you for your word and nothing is accidental. And we're thankful, Lord, for each of the ideas, but also each of the words and each of the letters for all scripture is given by your very breath. and is profitable. Lord, we pray now that you would strengthen us for our worship together and that you would be honored in it and that you would be working among us and growing us in grace. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.