Thank you, worship team, and thank you, Luke, for standing in, did a wonderful job doing so. And so Pastor Adam preached the message this morning, so we can go home. I'm just joking. He gave some things that I'm like, oh, I'm gonna say that, oh, I'm gonna say that. So now you know the answers to the questions whenever I ask a question, so you better not get them wrong. No, I wanna start off this morning asking you a question. How many of you like music? Okay, I thought about this. You can put your hands down. How many of you don't like music? Anybody? Now, it's an interesting thought to think about. I know we have some people that they just love music a lot more than others, but I wonder if there's anybody that just does not like any music whatsoever. Maybe a theory could be posed that music was put into the heart of man by God. The enjoyment of music, the desire for music, is something that God created in us. I don't know. I'm not saying that's a biblical theology that you take to the bank. I'm just saying it's a theory, a question maybe to think about. Music is important. I am someone who, while I don't listen to music as much as I used to, I really enjoy music. I grew up probably being the one in my family that probably liked the music the most. One of my brothers did play guitar very well. But I was the one who always wanted to make sure wherever we were going, whatever we were doing, had music playing. Drove my wife crazy when we first got married because I had to have music going all the time. I just enjoyed music. And still do to this day. Why do you think, have you ever thought about that? Why do we enjoy music? What does music do for you? I know there can be a range of answers, but I think on its basis level, I think music affects us. It affects our emotions first and foremost. We can say that information from the music does come in, and that's why we need to have a guard against certain types of music, right? Because there is information, there is messaging that comes through lyrics and that kind of thing with music. So there's definitely messaging that comes through in the lyrics of music, but many times, how many of you have ever had this experience? You've listened to a song a lot, And then you pay attention to the words. And you're like, ah, what am I listening to? Have you ever, no raise of hands on that one. But what does that tell you? It tells you that one of the things that music actually bypasses first many times and affects us in first and foremost is our emotions, our affections. God created us with emotion. Our emotions are not a bad thing. That's part of our makeup. That's part of how He created us. And music is one of those things that connects with our emotions in a very quick way. Why do I start off talking about all of these things with music? Because, as you know, we're jumping into the book of Psalms, and the book of Psalms is the music book, the hymnal of the Bible. I struggled with the title for the message. I sort of went with this one. It's Psalms, the worship guide to the Bible. The worship guide to the Bible. This is going to be a very different type of message. Whenever I normally start a book study or a book series, I do like to spend time normally with an introduction. And when it's a New Testament letter, I can get a lot of the introduction information through maybe the first verse or the greeting that the writer of the letter will give you. This is a little bit different. Why do I think that it's important to spend this much time with this much introduction information? Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I grew up in an area where, in a culture where there wasn't a whole lot of background given. And because of not much background is given, there was a very shallow understanding of scripture and the particular scripture text that you may be going to. And so I give a lot of weight. I take it very seriously that the context of where you're at matters greatly. And so for that reason, I tend to do a message before I start a book on the introduction to the series, but this is very different. Now, when I studied this, I had to cut out quite a bit. I mean, think about it. If I tried to come with just giving you the introduction information, then began preaching Psalm 1, We'd be here for quite a long while, because I cut out quite a bit of stuff, and I still have seven pages of notes with just introduction. And that's not even getting into the first Psalm. So, it's gonna be a tad different. My goals this morning for this message is, number one, to get you excited, for you to have this anticipation and excitement for jumping into this study. Number two, I want to give you some information and hopefully some information of maybe something about the Psalms that you did not know yet, that maybe you had not realized at all. And number three, I want to end this morning with the value, the importance, leave you with a deep conviction of why the Psalms are essential for our worship. Okay, so a couple of quotes here on the Psalms as I look through these. Warren Wiersbe, who I enjoy reading after his commentary, says, with a whole heart to tell Him the truth and tell Him everything, and to worship Him because of who He is, not just because of what He gives. They show us how to accept trials and turn them into triumphs. And when we failed, show us how to repent and receive God's gracious forgiveness. I think that's very true. The first note that I have for you this morning, it comes from the, on the slides, the expositor's Bible commentary said this about the Psalms. The Psalms mirror the faith of Israel. And then we receive windows that enable us to look out on our brothers and sisters in the faith of more than 2,500 years ago. They invite us to experience how God's people in the past related to Him. They witnessed to the glory of Zion, to the Davidic covenant, to the fidelity of God, to the exodus and conquest traditions, to God the Creator, Redeemer, King, and to Yahweh as the divine warrior. We see an interplay of many different motifs and emphasis. which, when isolated, help us to understand better the Old Testament as a whole and its bearing on the New Testament. All of that is true. All of that is very true. When we come to Alan Ross and his commentary on the Psalms, and his introduction said the Psalms were used to inform doctrine, inspire sermons, and provide the main resource for the development of the spiritual life. Pastor Adam was talking about what the Psalms, every emotion that is experienced, you can find the psalmist expressing that and going to God with it in the Psalms. And I think about this, many of you know that I do a lot with, I research a lot, I study a lot in the area of the mental health or counseling, psychology, that kind of thing. Whatever you want to, moniker you wanna give it. And I really do think that maybe the neglect of the Psalms, I know that there's a lot of reasons on why the influence of secular theories and psychology has really taken over not just the church, but the culture. I could spend two whole lessons on describing the history of that and why that is. I'm going to give you one reason that has to do with the Psalms. I think the neglect of the church with the book of Psalms is one of the reasons why many in the church have such mental distress. I think that if we understood and went to the Psalms regularly and it was a regular, healthy diet of the Psalms, I think that it would really affect our mental state and how we dealt and approached and triumphed in this life. And you'll understand that as we go through this because we're going to see the vice grips of life being put to those that are writing these Psalms and how they reacted to it. Praying these prayers, many of the Psalms are not just songs, but they're prayers as well, and singing these hymns were recognized to be essential to the spiritual life of believers, especially any who would lead the churches in devotion. Martin Luther said this, you may rightly call the Psalter a Bible in miniature, in which all things are set forth more at length and the rest of the scriptures are collected into a beautiful manual of wonderful and attractive brevity. The church is missing one of its richest experiences if it ignores the book of Psalms or relegates it to a routine reading and a service without any explanation. I'm going to read that again. The church is missing one of its richest experiences if it ignores the book of Psalms or relegates it to a routine reading and a service without any explanation. And so let that not be said of us. One of the things beginning with this year that Daniel is working on with our music team and going to continue is instituting and incorporating more psalms in the corporate worship, that we are singing these songs of the Bible. A couple of little factoids about the Psalms. Of course, Adam already gave you one. What was that? What is the longest chapter in all of the Bible? Any of the kids tell me? Were you listening? This is easy. Nobody's gonna say anything. Faith. Psalm 119. You know how many verses it has? 176, that's good, okay. How many chapters? It's the longest book if you categorize it that way. How many chapters does it have? Buzz, 150, how about this? Psalms also has the shortest chapter in the Bible. Caroline, Psalm 117. Yes, somebody got it this time. All right, how many verses does that have? Two, it has two. All right, so you go from Psalm 117 with two verses to two Psalms over, 176 verses. Okay, good job guys, good job. All right, so there's a little bit of Psalms biblical trivia for you. Psalms is the most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament. Of the 360 Old Testament quotations or allusions in the New Testament, 112 of them are from the Psalms. That's roughly about 31%. Some have mentioned this as the theme verse of the Psalms. I don't know if you could actually come up with a theme verse of the Psalms, but turn with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. And this is what many have said was the theme verse of the psalm. Psalm 103, verse number one. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. If there could be a theme verse of this collection, of this book, Maybe it would be that. Bless the Lord, O my soul. What do you have in that verse? First you have worship and praise being directed where? To God. And then you have the identification of where that blessing and praise, that worship, actually is originating from. Where? The soul. And that is a key understanding as we track through this book and see the interactions between these different writers of these songs and God is what is going on in their soul. The soul is often neglected. The soul is often misunderstood. And so the direction of praise comes from the soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. And again, returning back to the focus, to being centered on God, bless His holy name. So, let's get into some of this information here. First of all, the title. Where did the title come from? The Book of Psalms. What is this? Well, in the Hebrew Bible, the word that was actually used to categorize this is the word telepheme. Understood, sort of translated, is the book of praises. We don't call it the Book of Praises, we call it the Book of Psalms. Where did that come from? Well, in the Latin Vulgate, the Latin verb, or the Latin word that is used is psalmi. In the Greek, that word is transliterated as psalmoi. And so whenever the translators of the King James, they stuck with the Latin and the Septuagint there, and they transliterated that word into psalms. And therefore, Psalms literally means songs sung with musical accompaniment. Now, I could get on a rabbit trail here and talk about different denominations or religions that believe that there should be no musical instruments done in church with their music, and you ask, what do you do with the Psalms? Because it literally means songs sung with musical accompaniment, okay? So that is the title, the book of Psalms. Next, the authorship and dating, the authorship and dating. It is literally, or is a literary collection claiming a multiple authorship by many men. Now here's the difference between this and like, say, a letter written in the New Testament. So you have the book of Ephesians, for example. The book of Ephesians was written by Paul to this direct audience. The difference between that and the book of Psalms is this is a collection of different writings that spans almost a thousand years time. So it's very different than your typical book of the Bible that we have that comes together. So let's look specifically at authorship first, and we'll look at the dating of this first. Somebody, again, a little bit more of some trivia for our young people here. All right, who is normally credited as the author of the Psalms? Can somebody tell me? I got Colin back there. David, all right, David is. And so David is, but he has not written all 150 Psalms. In fact, we're gonna get into this, but the Psalms are divided up into about five different books, okay? The first book, this is what this series is gonna contain. We're just gonna trek through book one, Psalm one through 41, okay? I'm gonna explain that in just a little bit. But of book one, David is the author of about 37 of those 41 Psalms. In its entirety, David is the author of 73 Psalms. So if Psalms has 150 chapters, or 150 Psalms, what is the direct half of that? Matthew is 75. So David is the author of almost half of the Psalms. What are some of our other authors? And I could spend a lot of time trying to identify this little list of names here that you probably can't even see. But I'm just gonna give you the names because when we get to those individual Psalms, we'll give a little bit more information about them when we get there. First one author is just called the Director of Music. Well, why? Well, you think about it. These people, a lot of these people that were in charge of the music and the worship of God in the temple, a lot of them put their talents to writing some of these compositions, okay? The third, Jeduthun. There are some speculation that this person, Jeduthun, who's the author of a few Psalms, is also the same one as you'll see in number 8, Ethan the Ezraite. So some speculation that's the same person, it's just calling his name different. The sons of Korah. Now that's an interesting one. Just the mere fact that you have the Psalms, the Korite Psalms that were written by the sons of Korah, is a very big deal. Let me just give me just a little bit of time here to explain why. The sons of Korah and the fact that they have Psalms is a beautiful picture of the redemption and the love of God. Just for the fact that they're there. How many of you remember the Old Testament story with Moses and Korah? What did he do? He wanted to overthrow Moses, and he led a rebellion against Moses. And those that followed Korah and another guy, they ended up having to face judgment, and the earth swallowed them up. Remember that story? What happens to his descendants, they did not all die. They did not all face that judgment. The sons of Korah, the descendants of Korah, were then part of their punishment because of being under the line of Korah, you could say as punishment, as they now had, they didn't have the freedom to pick any vocation they wanted. They now had to be servants of the temple for the rest of that genealogy. So what is the redemption and forgiveness you see of God? that God took them and used them to write timeless songs to God's people that are still being sung today and edifying His people today. God's forgiveness and redemption. Asaph, you probably heard that before. Asaph wrote several psalms. He was one of David's choir masters, maybe a descendant of a guy named Gershon, the son of Levi. Solomon wrote two psalms, Heman the Israelite, Ethan the Israelite, and then Moses wrote a couple of psalms. Now what about the time period? Well, if we go back to the time of Moses and writing the Psalms, we go back all the way to around 1410 B.C. was about the first Psalm written. This would be Psalm 90. to around about 430 B.C., which is some of the post-exilic Psalms that were written during that time. The majority of the Psalms were written around the reign of David and the reign of Solomon, between 1020 B.C. and 931 B.C., and that 90-year period is when the vast majority of Psalms were written. So, how did we get them to become the Book of Psalms if they're being written all over these different time periods? Well, here's what happened. So these psalms, these worship tunes were being written and they were being collected and they were used by the people of Israel. And at different times they would collect them. And they would have collections. And so then whenever Israel was actually serving God and worshiping Yahweh, who had an emphasis on God worship. And so there was great effort taken in compiling the collections and doing that. But then when you had rebellion and you had them go away from God, like during the split kingdom and those types of things, and then God sent punishment, then a lot of those Psalms were spread out. So then whenever you had probably, one of them is King Josiah, remember the eight-year-old boy that became king and wanted to return the kingdom back? That only lasted his reign, though. But there's belief that some of the collections, one of the books, were collected and compiled during that time. Another one is during the reign of Hezekiah, during the ministry of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah. And so most of Book 4 and Book 5 were probably compiled during that time. The last psalm composed would be Psalm 126. It is thought to have been recorded after the time of Israel's Babylonian exile during the return to the land of Judah around 500 B.C. Number three, structure. Let's talk a little bit about the structure here. Derek Kidner in his commentary on the psalm said this, and I'm going to follow it up with just a separate illustration. But he said the psalm structure is perhaps best compared with that of a cathedral. built and perfected over a matter of centuries in a harmonious variety of styles, rather than a palace displaying the formal symmetry of a single and all-embracing plan. I thought about it like this. Think about maybe someone before Beethoven's time who decided to start composing a score or composing a massive piece of musical composition, and then he never finishes it. And then another composer comes in, and a generation later, and adds to that. But in their adding to that, it doesn't take away from it. It almost is different. You see the different uniqueness from the new composer, but at the same time, it harmoniously meshes perfectly. And over 500, 600 years, different men with their talent came in, and they added to great different And at the end of that, now you have this musical score and this massive piece of artistry that can now be sung in symphonies all over the world, or played in symphonies all over the world. That is sort of an understanding of what happened with the book of Psalms. Psalms contains literary pieces that were composed over a period of about 1,000 years. These pieces were placed into many collections. From the beginning, individual psalms were collected in the sanctuary for use in regular worship, some written for the worship, and others written in individual personal experiences. So, you'll see here, here's the divisions. The first one is Book 1. Book 1 covers Psalms 1 through 41. Now, what is my goal as far as preaching a series through the Psalms? Somebody said this morning, said, we're going to be in the Psalms about 10 years. And I said, that's about right. That's about right. Because my routine is sort of this, go through the Old Testament, an Old Testament book, then we transition, we do a New Testament book, and then we go into the Old Testament. So with Psalms, we're going to go through Book 1, Psalm 3141, and then we'll go over and go into a New Testament book, and when we come back to the Old Testament, we'll pick up at Book 2. But I'm actually going to have six divisions and not five. If the Lord allows, and He is willing, and we're here the next 10 years altogether, we will go through not just books one, but book one through five, and a separate series where we will go through Psalm 119 on its own. And so that's sort of the long-term goal as far as doing this. So the next 10 years, yeah, that sounds about right. Sounds about right. But I think it'll be good. I think God will be glorified, and I think it will be worth it to do so. But we're going to just track through Psalm 1, Book 1, 1 through 41. Book 2 is Psalms 42-72. Book 3 is Psalms 73-89. Book 4 is Psalms 90-106. And Book 5, which has the most Psalms in it, about 43, is Psalms 107-150. Book 1, gathered together during the early days of the Jewish monarchy by either David or Solomon. about these divisions in these collections. Books 1 through 3 center on the covenant with David through the editorial placement of the royal psalms at the beginning and end of this collection. Psalm 1, Psalm 2 is considered a royal psalm. Psalm 72, Psalm 89. Book 4, which is Psalms 90 through 106, responds to the failure of the Davidic monarchy. We see that in Psalm 89. And refocuses hope on God's kingship. Psalm 93-100. God's goodness to the godly remnant. Psalm 91-92 and 102. And to the righteous, Davidides and Psalm 103, and God's faithfulness in creation and in the story of salvation in Psalm 104 through 106, while warning God's people to heed Him in Psalm 95, 100, and 105. Book 5 develops the themes of wisdom. We see that in Psalm 107, 111, and 112. The Torah. What was the Torah? The book of the law. All right? So what is God's Word referred to many times throughout the Old Testament? the law. This is reflected in Psalm 119. It is an emphasis on God's Word, God's law. A life of trust and obedience in Psalm 115 through 116 and 120 through 134. God's fidelity in Psalm 117 and 118. The story of salvation in Psalm 135 through 136. The exile, Psalm 137. David's as a model of godliness in Psalm 108 through 110, 132, 138 through 145, and God's kingship, Psalm 146 through 147, and closes on the epilogue of divine praise in Psalm 146 through 150. Books one through three addresses the concerns of the individuals, and books four through five addresses the community concerns. See, this is not just something for your everyday, private worship. This is also very edifying to the body of Christ. This is necessary for the church today. So get ready, let's turn to a couple of these. Each division ends with a doxological refrain. What does that mean? So turn with me to Psalm 41. Psalm 41. So let's go to the end of where we're going to end in this series, this beginning series, Psalm 41. So if you don't know, or this hasn't been reminded of you in a while, the difference between a benediction and a doxology. What is a benediction and what is a doxology? A benediction is a word of God that is a blessing to the people. A doxology is a word of the people, a blessing or praise to God. Okay, so benediction, God to the people, doxology, people to God. Each of the five books, one of the reasons why they have been categorized as so is that it appears that it ends a collection with each of these ending verses, which we consider a ending doxology. Psalm 41, verse number 13. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. Turn with me over to chapter 72. Chapter 72. This is the end of book two. Chapter 72, verse number 18. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things, and blessed be His glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. All right, turn with me over to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Psalm 89, verse 52. Psalm 89, verse 52. Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and Amen. Psalm 106. Psalm 106, verse number 48. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. And then, when you come to the end of Book 5, you have an interesting thing happen. Because it is a praise, this is sort of the, again, think about this. It's a doxological movement. If we're not just coming to the end of Book 5, but we're coming to the end of the book of Psalms altogether, then Book 5 itself's theme that carries through with it is doxology, is worship. And in Book 5, you actually have the last four Psalms are carried together as a unit, almost, as a doxology. You look at Psalm 146, it starts off, "'Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul,' and it goes down ten verses, ends with, "'Praise the Lord,' or, "'Praise Yahweh,' or, "'Praise YAH.'" Psalm 147, "'Praise YAH,' or, "'Praise the Lord,' and then it goes down to verse 20, "'Praise YAH.'" Psalm 148 begins with this, mighty, worshipful expression. Look at verse 1. Praise YAH, praise YAH from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all you stars of light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Interesting note there, if you were here with us on Wednesday night, and we were talking about angels. One of the things that maybe that we don't, and in studying this, I didn't really have a conscious understanding, and think about it quite often, but that when we gather together on Sunday mornings, and we are lifting up our voices to sing worship to our God, and we are singing in adoration, we are not alone. We are singing with an angelic host that sings with us when we praise our God. Think about that. What an amazing concept, an amazing truth there that we are praising and God is getting worshiped and receiving praise to all. The end of Psalm 148 ends with, praise Yahweh. Psalm 149, praise Yahweh. Sing to the Lord or sing to Yahweh a new song and His praise in the assembly of the saints. You go down to the end of verse nine, it says, praise Yahweh. And of course, Psalm 150. Praise Yahweh. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty firmament. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the lute and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him with clashing cymbals. Let every thing that has breath praise Yahweh. Praise Yahweh. And so, the Psalms is necessary. We cannot neglect the worship and adoration of our God, and in so doing, neglect this glorious book of praise and worship to our God. So we've looked at these divisions. What about literary types? What about types of Psalms? This gets a little bit more into the interaction of the people with God and where it is a balm and a healing medicine for your soul with whatever you're going through. First we have wisdom psalms. What is wisdom psalms? Well, pretty much what it says so. And I'm gonna give actually more information behind these things when we approach one of these psalms. So I'll go through these actually quite quickly. Wisdom psalms, royal psalms. What is a royal psalm? A royal psalm is actually a messianic psalm. Considered a psalm or a song to be sung at the royal wedding. So a song written in anticipation of the hope of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Lament Psalms. Here's one that really confounds us many times, imprecatory Psalms. What is imprecatory Psalms? Imprecatory Psalms is a psalm where the psalmist prays the judgment and destruction on God's And so many people have trouble sort of going back and forth with those, with the idea of what is in Matthew, bless those who persecute you and despitefully use you. And then you look at in Precatory Psalms, praying God's judgment and wrath on his enemies. When we get to imprecatory Psalms, we'll deal with that tension. Thanksgiving Psalms. Pilgrimage Psalms. Some know these as Psalms of Ascent. But these were Psalms or songs to be sung in hope as they were heading towards the feast days, the temple, and songs that were sung as an anticipation of hope that one day the Messiah would come and they would no longer have to go to the temple. Enthronement Psalms. What about superscriptions? There are 116 of the 150 Psalms. 116 of them have a superscription with them. Now, here's one of the main questions with superscriptions. For instance, turn with me over to Psalm 51. Turn with me to Psalm 51. Many of you know Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is a prayer of confession and godly sorrow over sin committed. It's what many people use it as, or see it as, or apply it as. But, of course, we know this is the psalm that David prays after he comes to realization about his sin. But look at the superscription in Psalm 51, if you will. a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba." So here's the question. Is that Holy Scripture? Are the superscriptions just as divinely inspired as the text itself? Well, one thing that we must admit and we must come to an understanding of is that they were not there originally when written. They were added at a later time. Most understand that they might have been added with the Masorites after the time of Christ. Some look towards before the time of Christ that some of these superscriptions were added. How do we approach them though? Should we ignore them? Much of scholarship through the last 150 years that has studied these superscriptions out have, even with some that were critical of them, have come to the conclusion that they are accurate and reliable. that we should not discard the superscriptions, but we should be able to have a reasonable trust that they are giving us the right thing. But what do the superscriptions give us? Like, for instance, in Psalm 51 that we just read, that gave us what? Historical context. Historical information and context. So sometimes the superscriptions of the Psalms do that. They give us historical context. Look with me over to Psalm 12. Sometimes they do this. Psalm chapter 12, to the chief musician, on an eight-string harp, a Psalm of David. Interesting. I wonder how many of your Bibles call it that? Alright, how many of yours says, I'm going to try to pronounce this, shiminimit, shiminit, shiminit. Okay, alright. That's probably what it should stay as. actually not settled understanding of what this is we know that it is is that it is a musical direction now our our instrumentalists that are in the band right in the worship team you know enough about music that whenever you don't just get up here so let's just let the church know they don't just get up here on Sunday morning and say hey let's sing this hymn okay let's just start singing it What do you do? You have to practice. But in the practice, you're asking questions about how you're gonna play this through your given direction. Hey, let's do this. And this stuff is still, I'm so confused about where we're gonna put this in this key and this key and this key. I'm like, what is a key? Okay, I have no idea what these keys are. All right. Do they unlock something? I don't know. But what happens is, is they need musical instructions on how they're going to approach the music. Because one thing that I did get out of my college music, musical theory class, what was that class called? It wasn't musical theory, but it was something about that, is that music is really a language in itself. It is really a language in itself. And so when they get up here to play music, they got to know how they're communicating with each other on That has not changed in thousands of years. Because whenever they were writing these psalms, they also had musical direction to give to them and say, this song should be sung this way. For instance, if it was a psalm that was probably more lament or imprecatory, they needed to give musical direction that this song did not need to be sung in a way that was communicating upbeat and joy. I started off talking to you about how music affects our emotions. Why? Because I could sit here and play certain music for you and it would elicit either happiness or sadness or contemplation. That's the same way these musical instructions, I used to have like a little thing that I would do when I was a youth pastor when I did a lesson on music with our teenagers to show them how easily music can manipulate them. And what I would do is I would have, I would line up like three songs. One, I would just be a goofy, funny song. Sometimes I would, don't judge me too harshly, I would pick a weird owl song or something like that. Some of you are like, what? Just don't worry about it, okay? Sometimes I would pick, and then I would pick a song that would sort of get them thinking about, you know, just like a love song or something like that that wasn't too spicy or whatever. And then I would take a gospel song. I would take a very strong Christian song with a powerful message. And I would do this, and I would play the song through the speakers, and I would say, I want you guys to do this. Listen exactly, pay attention to the words. And of course they started off just laughing. They're cracking up. Their emotions are being affected by what? The music that's coming through. Then I'd play the next song. Totally change in emotions. And they're like, what is John doing? This is crazy. But then we go and we shifted gears and played a Christian song. And I was like, pay attention to the lyrics. And I'd have some of them crying. And some of them would be sitting there weeping at some of the lyrics in this Christian song. And I would stop it and I'd say, what just happened? I said, you went from laughing to feeling this, to then feeling all kinds of emotions towards your savior within 10 minutes. And I was trying to get them to understand the power and the draw that music has on you, okay? Same thing goes with this. And so when you look at Psalm 12 and it says this, that word shemineth, if I'm not saying that right, actually what it was is it was sort of like a, it meant the sort of eight was the one thing about the word in the Hebrew, the ancient Hebrew definition that they get is that it means something that has to do with eight. So some sort of believe that it had to do with octaves. In other words, the eight octaves. And so it was letting them understand of the octave range that they were supposed to sing this on, okay? Others believe that that probably wasn't a thing in old ancient Jewish culture and the octave range, because that actually came around a little bit later in musical history. And so they think that it actually was something that was played on an eight string musical instrument. So in other words, it was giving musical direction that you play this song on this instrument specifically. So that's why some of your Bibles may translate that note. I think that it should stay that because I'm not sure what we're meaning there. But these notations sometimes gives the notation of with stringed instruments. That normally meant with a harp or a lyre. For flutes, Psalm 5 gives the direction for a flute, or as a lot of times, flute was the instrument for psalms of lamentation. Then there's this word that you probably are, if you've spent any time in the psalms, you're very familiar with. It's the word selah. or Selah or Salah, I don't know. However, I've heard it pronounced a hundred different ways, all right? Selah. What does this mean? Well, there's not a concrete answer that somebody has said, this is exactly what it means. There's speculation. They say that they don't accurately know, but the most common definition, and I'll be honest with you, I tend to agree with the most common understanding and definition with the word Sela, because if we're approaching this as it seems to connect all the way through the Psalms, that it's a musical book. Right? It's a hymn book for the Psalms. Well, in music, if you don't know this, you have many things called a rest. My wife explained this to me, that a full rest looks like a little upside down top hat. on the musical notes. And you have half rests, and quarter rests, and partial rests, and give me some rest. No, I don't know. But you have rest in music, and rests in music serve many different purposes. for the music. It serves purposes for the musicians or for the singers. It serves purposes for the music's communication as well, as this actually builds tension within the message being communicated in the music if we rest right here, okay? I think that's the way to understand Selah in the Psalms. When you're reading a Psalm and it comes to Selah, that the importance here is to stop and contemplate truth and on this message. Key themes. Key themes. Psalms is a cohesive collection. Now, what do I mean there? I've just spent a lot of time explaining to you that there are five books in their collections and they're sort of all not connected, right? Now I want to present to you why I think that the approach to the book of Psalms as a collective unit is a great way to approach the Psalms. You say, well, how could you do that if it was collected here and then brought in, it was collected here and brought in, and then it wasn't actually completed, you know, several different authors over a thousand years, because we have a really awesome God who did the exact same thing with this. And it all speaks with the same unity and message to us today. And I think that the same thing can be found in the Psalms. Books 1 and 2 lay out a foundation of God's program in the Davidic monarchy. Books 3 reflects the failure of the monarchy and was shaped with the exile in mind. And books 4 and 5 present the restoration and the hope for the future with the Lord as king. What do you see there? The gospel. The gospel. What do we see in the gospel? We see the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the atonement and the sacrifice of the Redeemer, and the redemption and praise and adoration to God for that gift of his son. And I think that we see this happen with the Psalms. One of the main themes of the Psalms that we cannot miss and we cannot neglect is the messianic theme. Wherever David or the Davidic king appears in the Psalter, except where he is confessing failure to live up to his calling, he foreshadows in some degree the Messiah. Look with me to Psalm 18. Psalm 18. Psalm 18 is a longer Psalm. Psalm 18 says to the chief musician of Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and he said, I will love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust. my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies." And he goes on in verse seven, then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens. This psalm is referred to by New Testament authors in many of the epistles, and it sort of correlates to 2 Samuel 22 of what was going on in David's life. Turn with me over to Psalm 41. Back to Psalm 41. Psalm chapter 41, verse number nine, says this. It says, this is a Psalm of David. Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, he has lifted up his heel against me. Okay? What is David talking about here? This is David talking about his what? Own experience. All right? Now, keep that in mind. Turn with me over to Psalm 69. Psalm 69. Psalm 69 verse 4, those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head. They are mighty who would destroy me. Being my enemies wrongfully, though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. Again, this is a Psalm of David. All right, so you see those times where David has his experience here laid out. Turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 13. These are not just David recounting his experiences, these are prophecies. All right, John chapter 13. John chapter 13. John chapter 13, Jesus and the disciples have gone to the upper room. All right, he's already washed their feet. Verse 18, he says this, I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be what? Fulfilled. He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me. What did he just quote? Psalm 41, 9. Which means what? Psalm 41, 9 was prophesying about who? Judas. All right, turn to chapter 15. Chapter 15, verse 25. Chapter 15, verse 25. But this happened, that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in their law, they hated me without a cause. Again, he is fulfilling here, showing the fulfillment of prophecy from the book of Psalms, from the life of David. The special quality, Alan Ross said, of the Psalter's messianic prophecy then is that it is lived out as well as spoken out. Turn back with me and this is where we'll start wrapping it up. Psalm 1 and 2. Psalm 1 and 2. See, I believe Psalm 1 and 2 serve as an introduction to the whole of Psalms. Psalm 1 and 2 serve as an introduction to the whole of the book. So if you had an introduction to the book and then you have the meat of the book, Psalm 1 and 2 is where you begin. Not just Psalm 1 itself, but Psalm 1 and 2. Psalm 1 is especially important as an introduction that orients the reader to receive the past prayers and praise of God's people as Scripture and as revelatory of the God of Israel. And in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that shall bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper." Psalm 1, in Psalm 1, the person of God's choice is godly, delights in God, lives by divine instruction, is wise, and is not affected by evildoers. In Psalm 2, we see Psalm 2 is this royal psalm, this messianic psalm. The messianic agent of God's choices of the house of David is adopted to be the Son of God, lives up to divine instruction, is wise, and subdues evildoers. Psalm 1 and 2 define major issues that the rest of the Psalms will develop. Yahweh's instruction and wisdom. Yahweh's justice, the happiness of the godly, sin and forgiveness, the rebellion of the nations and the wicked, the destruction of the wicked, Yahweh's protection of the godly, the Davidic covenant, and the success of the Messiah. So next week we will cover Psalm 1. The week after that we will cover Psalm 2. And the week after that Pastor Adam will jump in and he will be preaching Psalm chapter 3. And we will go so forth and so on. I want to end this morning with the value of the Psalms. The value of the Psalms. We've talked a lot about this morning about the Psalms being a musical book. being the Bible's worship guide, being the Bible's hymnal. Psalms, however, is first and foremost God's Word to His people. It is first and foremost God's Word to His people. Our Lord expects His church to incorporate this portion of inspired Scripture into all aspects of Christian living and communication, teaching, preaching, devotions, and living. So number one, prayer. What is the value of Psalms? Prayer is a person's communion with God. You can find a lot of the words that you seem to struggle with to say to God. You can go to the Psalms and pray the Psalms. And the words that you need to communicate to your God are already there and written down in our inspired Scripture. Pray the Psalms. The Holy Spirit here has drawn to the life all the griefs and sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, and sure, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men and women won't want to be agitated. So, seek the Psalms in your prayers. Number two, praise. Praise is a person's longing for God and for others to be moved with the same desire for God. A lot of what I do in counseling is getting to the fact of where their desires have found their allegiance. And if their desires have found their allegiance to anything other than God, then what is the correction eventually that we need to get to that needs to be made? Those desires need to go back and be turned back to God. And what is a better way in our lives to be on guard? I've said this many times, the quote from Calvin, our hearts are a factory of idols. What better way to keep on guard from our hearts going against these idolatrous desires than to be regularly having our affections impacted by the Psalms. The Psalms have a distinct place even in Christian liturgy and our Christian worship service. Number three, the Psalms reflect the faith experience of the community of God's people before the coming of Christ. Because we see their experience as a community, we can also see how they affect our experience as the church as well. Number four, God addresses both the individual and the community. So therefore, this series is not just good for you individually, it's good for our church as a whole. Number six, the value of the Psalms lies in their connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's why I said the title of this message was The Worship Guide to the Bible, because the Psalms is another way that it all comes together and it all connects as one. The early Christians used the Psalms in explaining Jesus' ministry, resurrection, exaltation, and present rule. Jesus frequently quoted the Psalms. and taught His disciples to interpret the Scriptures in light of His coming. In Luke 24, verses 40-45, He said that, "...these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. we see Christ throughout the Psalms as well. So in conclusion, is the Psalter, the book of Psalms, primarily for public worship or for instruction? I agree with the guy, the author of the Expositor's Bible commentary who said, instruction and worship cannot be divorced from one another. If you think that worship stops whenever I begin preaching, you have a deficient view of worship. We are still worshiping right now. The Psalter provides windows. Now, here's something to remember as we track through. The Psalter provides windows into the souls of ancient saints. Their reflections are not simple, but their faith, when tried, is purified. And if I don't know about you, but if that doesn't excite you to go through this and dig in there and find out what it is there for our life and renewing our worship towards God, I don't know what will. So. Let's journey through this book one together and. Because I like to tease things, let's begin and close out the message this morning by reading Psalm one in its entirety. Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He does not see planted by the rivers of water, worth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this book. We thank You for this altar, for this divine hymnal that we have to go to. I thank You, Father, for the lives of those of Your saints that You used to put through many things, many even dark things, many even trying and scary situations that bore out of it the gold that has survived in its precious truths and infinite value that we have today, that we can come thousands of years later and mine away at these truths and have our lives transformed, helped, comforted, and ultimately restored back to a glorious worship and devotion to our Savior. So Father, we pray that You are glorified and we pray that the saints will be edified as we journey through this wonderful book called the Psalms. I pray for any of those that are in here this morning that do not know You as their Savior, that have not seen You as Adonai, as their Lord, as their Sovereign. I pray, Father, that You will convict them make the weight of their sin so heavy upon them that they must do something about it today. I pray, Father, that you will grant them faith and repentance to turn from the ways that they've always gone to their own sinful ways, that they will turn to you and see you as their only hope from eternal damnation. Father, I pray for those that are not here this morning and that's part of our church family that they couldn't make it here because of sickness or other things going on. I pray that you will heal their families. Father, I pray that you will be with us as we go about our week. That we'll cling to you and glorify you in our words and actions. We love you and give you praise.