We'll read Psalm 150 at the end. No way that we can read all of the scriptures we're going to refer to, but Psalm 1, what a fantastic introduction to this altar. 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 shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit and 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. Father, we thank you for your word. And as we look at this magnificent collection of Psalms, I pray that you would enable me to clearly communicate the purposes that you have for this Psalter and that we would grow in our appreciation and understanding of how to use it better. We thank you, Father, that you love your people enough to give us this gift, and we continue to worship you as we look into this gift. And so we pray for your blessing in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let me begin as we look at this book of the Psalter by giving you a few fun facts about the book. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, containing 176 verses. Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible, containing two verses. And so the Psalter has the longest chapter, it's got the shortest chapter. Psalm 117 is also the middle chapter in the entire Bible out of a total of 1189 chapters. Psalm 118 verse 8 is the absolute center of the Bible. It states, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. What a great verse for our day and age. Did you realize that there are duplicate songs? A lot of people don't realize it, but there are. Psalms 14 and 53 are word-for-word identical descriptions of fallen man, but there's a reason for the duplication. They are needed in terms of the structure of the book. They are needed in both Book 1 and Book 2. All of Psalm 108 is included in Psalm 60, and all of Psalm 70 is included as part of Psalm 40. And I've got other statistics that are on the bottom of page four. I'm not going to go over any of those this morning but I hope I can present this book in such a way that you will come to appreciate it more and the next time you read through this book have kind of a guideline that will help you to understand its purpose a little bit better. Martin Luther called the Psalter a little bible and the summary of the Old Testament. And he said that because it contains everything that you find in Genesis through Malachi. Now, Athanasius went further, and he said that it was, quote, an epitome of the whole scriptures, and Basil called it a compendium of all theology. Were they exaggerating? Well, actually, most scholars don't think they were exaggerating at all. E. S. McKittrick says, in the Psalter, we find concentrated all the truths which are elsewhere elaborated and enforced in all the divine word. It thus possesses an internal completeness not found in any other single book in the inspired volume. Thomas Scott said, there is nothing in true religion, doctrinal, experimental, and practical, but will present itself to our attention whilst we meditate upon the Psalms. Now I'm gonna be referring to the handouts that I've given to you, and if you're listening sick at home, if you go to the Gary's announcements that he sent out this past week and every week, there's a link in there that has all the outlines every week that we go through, but I'm gonna be referring to that a number of times. And if you take a look at the first page of your outlines, On the last line of each book summary, you will see that I have listed Psalms that have typically been identified as Messianic Psalms. These are Psalms that clearly point to Jesus. And the ones that are at the beginning, all evangelicals agree. These are clearly Messianic Psalms, but you will notice after the first set that there are some verses in parentheses that are the New Testament quoting Psalms that point to the Lord Jesus Christ. So why are those Psalms not messianic? They should be. So I actually agree with scholars who say, no, we ought to include a little bit broader list of messianic Psalms than just the ones that are traditionally given. After all, the New Testament is an inspired commentary. If it says this points to Jesus, we ought to take it at face value. For example, Hebrews 1, clearly says, but to the Son, he says, and then he quotes three Psalms, one of which is Psalm 102, and says, that's messianic. It's pointing to Jesus. And yet, the more you dig into the Psalter, the more you realize that even the ones that I have listed on each of those summary points is not adequate to show what points to the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, it is impossible to read Psalm 72, which doesn't appear in any of those lists there, and not realize that every line of that points to the Lord Jesus Christ. You read the commentaries and it's prophecies about Christ and His kingdom. So how do you tell what is messianic and what is not? Well, there are structural clues that link Psalms together thematically. For example, there are couplet songs. Those are two songs that are structurally linked tightly together that interpret each other, and where one is messianic, the other is going to be messianic as well. Likewise, there are chiastic groupings of psalms where the parallels are going to be similar to each other, so that's going to help clue you into that. And there are a number of books that have been written on these structural features that help us to interpret the Psalms. My absolute favorite book along these lines was published just a few years ago by O. Palmer Robertson. He's a Reformed writer. It's called The Flow of the Psalms. This guy is an absolute genius in drawing out the clear structures that are written all over the Psalter. Now I think book five is where he's weakest and there have been some improvements on that, but even in that section is very, very helpful. Now he is one of many authors who show that Psalms one and two are a couplet that were designed to introduce the Psalter and both point to the same man. Okay. So when Psalm one begins, 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 scorners." It does not use the Hebrew term adam, which could refer to any human or to humanity as a whole. Instead, it uses the Hebrew word ish together with an article to indicate that it's pointing to a specific individual male. And Fletcher points out that no human however godly, has ever matched up to what this psalm calls for, he says, however, when one reads Psalm 1 through a Christological lens, Jesus is the man, ha-ish, and only in him does this psalm find its ultimate expression. He is the man who is devoted to and delights in God's Torah with a teachable spirit. Only Christ exhibits preeminent discipleship as he learns how to best live life by meditating on God's Torah and calling others to follow his example. Put differently, Jesus, the model disciple, calls all people to be his disciples, to pattern his routine. So Psalm 1 does apply to us, but we can only achieve the call of that psalm by union with the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will be more fully described in the second pillar. of the introduction, Psalm 2. Those two belong together, they interpret each other, and the whole Psalter stands on those two Psalms. And there are other Psalms that simply do not fit us in isolation from the Lord Jesus. They don't. For example, Psalm 24 says, who may ascend into the hill of Yehovah, or who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, and then he goes on to give other descriptions of a perfect man. Well, how do we ascend into heaven perfectly? Well, it's in union with Jesus. It's only in his righteousness that we can do so. He is the one human who had absolutely perfect heart, absolutely clean hands. And the way the Psalter is structured, we would be forced to that conclusion anyway if we took the structure seriously. For example, already in Psalm 14, he tells us there isn't any human who has clean hands and a pure heart. None whatsoever. Let me read that to you. He describes humanity with these words. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good. No, not one. Well, that means that the only way that Psalm 24 can be fulfilled in us is through the Messiah. He is the man with clean hands and a pure heart. And by union with him, we too can approach heaven as perfect. So it's important that we see all of the Psalms as reflecting Jesus in some way. He bore the sins of his people because they are his body. The church is his body. And he confesses those sins in this song. He redeems his people and he presents his people as part of his body to heaven. So Richard Belcher, Daniel Fletcher and many other Reformed scholars show that every single psalm without exception was written with a Christological focus, and they prove, I think very, very convincingly, that the New Testament itself calls us to read the Psalter through the lens of Jesus. Hebrews 1 says that Jesus sings those psalms in the midst of his brethren, in the midst of the congregation. And he does so as the head and representative of the church. So there's a sense in which the entire Psalter is Christological, richly Christological. Now there are some Psalms when people read through it and say, well, Pastor Kaiser said, this is all the prayers of Jesus. How on earth could this be the words of Jesus? Let me just give you one example. How on earth can Jesus pray Psalm 40 verse 12? It says for innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart fails me." Well, take a look at page one of your outline, book one summary, look at the Messianic Psalms, and you will see everybody, every evangelical scholar agrees Psalm 40 is a Messianic Psalm. So that means in some way Jesus must be able to pray that Psalm, and he can. He said that because he bore the sins of his people, and he was indeed overwhelmed with the sins of his people in the garden of Gethsemane, sins that were more numerous than the hairs of his head. You see, as the head of the body, he's united to the body. He represents the body, and he can confess the sins of his body on behalf of the body to Christ. So one scholar asked this. How is it possible that you and I and Jesus Christ can pray the Psalms at the same time? In the Psalms, the Son of God, who became man and who carried all the weakness of the human race in his own flesh, pours out the heart of all humanity before God, stands in our place, and prays for us. He has known torment, pain, guilt, and death deeper than we have. It is really our prayer, but since he knows us better than we know ourselves, And since the things he accomplished for us, he accomplished as a man, it's also really his prayer. And it can only become our prayer because it is ultimately his prayer. Now, the only quibble I would have with that scholar is I utterly disagree that Jesus represented the human race. He represents his church, right? It's his body. But we are united to Jesus. Jesus is united to the elect. And that is how Jesus could pray the Psalms, all of the Psalms, when he worshipped in the synagogues while he was here on earth, and how Hebrews says he continues to sing the Psalms in the midst of his brethren, in the midst of the church today. So this scholar concludes with this question, who prays the Psalms then? He says, David prays them, Jesus prays them, you and I pray them. Hopefully, you're getting a little bit of a feel for how we can approach the Psalter Christologically. And there are good books out there that help us dig deeper. David Fletcher's got a wonderful, he's another Reformed scholar, a wonderful book called Psalms of Christ, The Messiah in Non-Messianic Psalms. I love that title. The Messiah in Non-Messianic Psalms. Or books like James E. Adams' book, War Psalms of the Prince of Peace. Now those two books go in much deeper detail on how we can very consciously pray these psalms in light of our union with Christ, in light of our union with the universal church. But let me finish this section by showing that the Psalter contains a much more detailed biography of Jesus than any other Old Testament book. And this is just going to be a bare bones introduction to what the psalms say. Starting in eternity past, his eternal sonship is affirmed in Psalm 2, where Jesus says, Yehovah said unto me, you are my son. And in Psalm 45 and other Psalms, where the son's eternal Godhead is affirmed. His incarnation is foretold in Psalm 40, where the son says, a body you prepared for me, unlike other humans. that are described in Psalm 58 verse 3 as estranged from God from the womb, as being sinners from conception, Jesus is different. Psalm 22, Psalm 71 both say that Jesus trusted God in the womb and had perfect fellowship with God in the womb. Psalm 22 goes on to prophetically have Jesus say, my mother bore me, but only speaks of a heavenly father, no earthly father. So this is a different birth than other births that are out there. Psalms is describing. Hebrews 1-6 by inspiration says that Psalm 97 verse 7 commands all the angels to worship Jesus the moment Jesus is born into this world and in Luke 2 we find the angels obeying that command. They all gather, they worship Jesus. Again it shows that it is a different kind of a child. He is divine but he identifies with us in our conception, our being in the womb, our Childhood, toddlerhood, teen years, our adult years, he identifies with his people. Though he is presented as the son of God in Psalms like Psalm 2, Psalms 8 and 80 speak of him as the son of God. This is Christ's favorite title, I mean the son of man, Christ's favorite title also used in the book of Daniel. Now I want to read at length an abbreviated biography of Jesus by E.S. McKittrick, so that you can get a little bit of a feel for how Christological this book really is. He says, all the usual names applied to Jesus in the New Testament are given in the Psalms, except the name Jesus, and it is given frequently in substance if not in form. Now what does he mean by in substance? Well, Jesus' title of Christ, which is the Greek form of Messiah, which just simply means anointed, is used in 12 Psalms, and there are 31 Psalms where Yehoshua, the Hebrew spelling for Jesus, is used. Anyway, continuing to read, he says, his trust in God and obedience to him are beautifully set forth in the whole of the 18th Psalm. His moral beauty in the 45th, thou art fairer than the children of men. Likewise, his anointing of the Holy Spirit, Grace is poured into thy lips. His life of self-sacrifice is shown from the 69th psalm by the Apostle Paul. For Christ also pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. In this psalm, we have his passionate devotion to God's service. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. His taking sinners into union with himself, a truth which underlies the whole Psalter, is stated in the 22nd, as interpreted in the Epistle to the Hebrews, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. His rejection is mentioned in the 69th. I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother's children. They that hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was foreshadowed in the eighth song. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength. And in the 118th, blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah. The conspiracy of his foes against him is in the 31st. They took counsel together against me. They devised to take away my life. His betrayal by one of the 12 is foretold in the 41st. As he himself pointed out, he that eateth my bread lifteth up his heel against me. The manner of his death is foretold in the 22nd. They pierced my hands and my feet. Even the disposition of his clothes is mentioned. They part my garments among them, and upon my vesture do they cast loss. His cry of desertion was in the opening words of the psalm, in which they are followed by the most accurate and pathetic description of the whole crucifixion scene. The 69th adds another line to the dark picture. They gave me also gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. That his bones should not be broken, as were those hanging on either side of him, is predicted in the 34th as applied in John's gospel. A bone of him shall not be broken. His dying words were from the 31st. Into thine hands I commend my spirit. His resurrection is foretold in the 16th, as cited in Peter's sermon at Pentecost. Thou wilt not leave my soul into Hades, neither wilt thou give thy holy one to see corruption. His ascension also is mentioned. Thou hast ascended on high. God has gone up with a shout, Jehovah with the sound of a trumpet. His kingdom and his ultimate triumph are described in the familiar 72nd Psalm, and his coming and judgment in the 50th and 98th. Our God cometh and doth not keep silence. He calleth to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge his people, for he cometh to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. In these revelations of Jesus and the Psalter, there is this advantage over all others. He speaks mainly in the first person and tells us his own feelings while working and suffering and dying for our redemption. And these revelations are chiefly in the past tense as if to indicate that they were intended more for the gospel age than that for which they were written. Now, there's much more could be said about Jesus, but I thought that was so well written I just had to read the whole thing verbatim. But not only is the Psalter incredibly rich theologically, containing every doctrine of the Bible, it's also a prayer book. It is a medicine chest that brings healing to our soul. It is a arsenal of imprecatory psalms that can be used against satan it is a A volume that expresses our longings our fears our joys our doubts and other emotions in a way that shows hey god Identifies with us. He cares for us. He understands us, but it resolves those emotions in worship So it's a worship book as well but what I found most intriguing and this is what i'm going to spend the remainder of the sermon on is the inspired order of the Psalter. This is something that has just blown my mind. This is just incredible. And I'm going to use the diagrams on pages two through four to guide you in seeing the beautiful structure of the book. It's crystal clear that the Psalms were written thematically. They're ordered thematically, not chronologically. How do I know that? Well, there are many, many reasons. Let me give you two. If you turn over to Psalm 90, take a look at the inspired title there. Psalm 90 says a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Well, Moses lived 365. He died 365 years before David was even born. And yet most of David's Psalms are included before this. So they're out of order. But Psalm 90 is put here for a very, very specific purpose. We'll look at that purpose later on. But David's own Psalms are deliberately put out of order, even within each book. Now take a look at Psalm 70, verse 20. Psalm 70, excuse me, 72, verse 20. That verse says, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Well, that tells us that Psalm 72 is the last psalm that David wrote. And yet, take a look at the inspired title of Psalm 86. It says, A Prayer of David. In Psalm 101, and 103, and 108, and 110, a whole bunch of other psalms later on in this book were written before Psalm 72. So his last psalm is very deliberately put earlier than psalms that he had written earlier in his life, and I'm glad that God put these out of order. Ezra the scribe was a prophet, and he ordered these by God's inspiration to perfectly convey what the New Covenant community needed to understand. The Psalter, well, let me give you another example. Psalm 51 was written eight years after the events of the very next Psalm, Psalm 52. So Psalm 52 is written before Psalm 51. So these are some of the clues that are strewn all throughout the Psalter to make it crystal clear God arranged the Psalter thematically, not in the order that they were written. And it was done through the inspiration of Ezra. Now sometime you can read it for yourself. 1 Peter 1 verses 11 through 12 says that The canon was arranged and it was ordered for the New Covenant. They knew that they were writing it for the New Covenant community, not for themselves. For them, it was arranged differently. But for the New Covenant community, it had to be arranged this way. Why? Because it was foreshadowing the kingdom of Christ, and we'll look at that in a bit. So what is the topical arrangement? How does each psalm relate to the Psalter as a whole? What kind of flow is in here? Opalma Robertson's book the flow of the Psalms is probably the standard work showing the order and the arrangement that Ezra gave by inspiration There are other books that have been built on top of that have added to that I don't think at least I've not found it anything that's replaced it very fascinating work I puzzled and puzzled on how to Present this intricately structured book to you and I finally came to the conclusion that I can't, at least not adequately. So this is an advertisement to just pick up O. Palmer Robertson's book, The Flow of the Psalms. But I do want to at least give you an introduction to convince you that there is an order, an arrangement that is here. And first of all, I'm going to give you an overview to the book as a whole. Book one, is the confrontation between David and his enemies and it foreshadows the confrontation between Jesus and the world when he came into the world. Book two is a book on missions to the nations and gives David's goals that all nations will eventually sing praises to Yehovah. But David foreshadows Jesus giving the Great Commission, discipling the nations in New Testament times. Book three is labeled Devastation by Robertson And it deals primarily with the destruction of the temple, Israel's exile, the temporary time when even Daniel and others said the church would be defeated. Now is not the time for their defeat. But back in the first century, yes, they were defeated. They were almost completely overthrown by the enemies of God. And that was the time of the great apostasy when they, the faith was almost extinguished. And yet, in this book, there is a pleading with God to restore the Baxlan church and give victory to the church once again. So in terms of Christ's redemptive kingdom, it foreshadows the great tribulation of the church, the great apostasy, and the subsequent casting away of Israel in AD 70. Book four begins with the restoration of the church, more missions, and the maturation of the church over a long period of time. And then book five deals with nonstop victory of Christ's kingdom until there is a fullness of the nations worshiping God after Christ has completely won the war, which leads to a crescendo of praise and hallelujahs in the last five Psalms of the Psalter. So that's kind of an overview of where the Psalter—we'll look at that in more detail later. But I want to first of all show that there are details of structure within each section that also help us to interpret groupings of Psalms. People have recognized that Psalms 20 through 24 is a set of kingship Psalms Where both Yehovah and Messiah are described as kings over all the earth But in that set of kingship Psalms, there's an a b c b a structure you guys are used to chi isms, right? well There is a parallel between four of the Psalms, but the center, the peak, the most important focal point of that set is Psalm 22. And Psalm 22 tells us how Messiah is going to rule, how he's going to gain all of the earth. Well, Psalm 22 begins describing the crucifixion of Christ, especially beginning with those words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The second half of the psalm shows what flows out of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, it's the growth of the church, growth of the worldwide kingdom, until finally the entire earth is incorporated into his kingdom. And so, if you take a look at the first chart on page two, you will see these fun groupings of psalms that are called by Robertson, pyramid songs, because they go to a peak and then come down from that peak. But the peak that I'm talking about right now is not even in that chart. Robertson says there's many peaks, many chiasms within the overarching chiasm that your chart shows you. And Psalm 22 is at the center of that song. So the structure of that mini-chaism shows that the cross and the resurrection are the key to Christ's kingdom success. It will not be imposed by the sword. It will organically grow through the gospel. Let me give you another example of how structure interprets the meaning. There are numerous couplets where two psalms are tightly linked together with each side of the couplet being needed to interpret the other. For example, there are three places in the Psalter where there is a law psalm describing the beauty of God's law. They call them Torah Psalms, if you're reading in the books. A Torah Psalm and a Messiah Psalm are coupled together structurally where one interprets the other. And so we've already looked at Psalms 1 and 2 are that way, but Psalms 18 and 19 are couplets, as are Psalms 118 and 119. Now, I was really surprised by that last couplet. That's just something I discovered this past week, and I started looking at other scholars, and yeah, all of them say, structurally, those are coupled together, even though Psalm 119 is much, much bigger. So here's what Robertson says on the significance of the three couplets of Torah psalms with Messiah psalms. He says, as a consequence of this threefold coupling of a Torah psalm with a Messianic psalm, the principal point is repeated three times over in the Psalter. Both Torah and Messiah are essential for God's people. Law cannot function properly in the life of God's people without Messiah, and Messiah can be properly appreciated only in the context of the Lord's law. Law and gospel must be joined together if God's people are to experience the full, blessed condition that comes from the Lord. Okay, so you can see just the structure itself helps you to show you can't interpret the one without the other. Let me give you one more example. This time, how a kind of a psalm helps to interpret the meaning of the psalms around them. Acrostic psalms, you know what an acrostic psalm is, right? It uses either the same letter or a different letter of the alphabet for each line or each verse. Well, acrostic psalms are sprinkled through the Psalter, but they are not sprinkled haphazardly. You can see a beautiful arrangement of other kinds of psalms, perfectly symmetrical with these acrostic psalms. We're not going to get into that. It gets really technical when you get into those kind of levels. So suffice it to say, these acrostic psalms are boundary markers that help to interpret all of the Psalms related to them. And I'll just give you one example of how two acrostic Psalms do this. Quoting from Robertson, these acrostic Psalms function in a variety of ways. Being carefully spaced, they divide these two largest books of the Psalter into smaller sections. Often they provide structural framework for the books. Acrostic Psalms 34 and 37 bracket four Psalms of the innocent sufferer. These four Psalms are then followed immediately by four Psalms of the guilty sufferer. As a consequence, a pastor who was aware of the bracketing function of Acrostic Psalms 34 and 37 could be significantly helped in counseling persons struggling with either innocence or guilt in response to their suffering. Now, I know it's a little bit technical. Believe me, it's not nearly as technical as what the books get into. I just wanted to give you enough so that you could be convinced, yeah, There is a purpose for the arrangement of the Psalter. And this is an aspired arrangement. But the overall flow of the book is really what I want to focus on for the remainder of this sermon. I already gave you a brief overview. Let me spend the rest of the sermon giving you the broad arrangement of Psalms 1 through 50. So in the Psalter, there is a introduction and there is a conclusion. Psalms 1 and 2 are two pillars that all by themselves introduce all the major themes of the Psalter, or most of them. And as those themes are unfolded within the Psalter, they provide more and more appreciation for the grace of God's kingdom, ushering us into more and more wonder and amazement and praise until there is a veritable hallelujah chorus in the last five chapters of the Psalter. So two Psalms form the introduction, five Psalms form the conclusion. In the introduction, Psalm 1 introduces us to the two streams of mankind. Okay, there's unbelievers who are only united to the first man, Adam, and there are believers who are united to the perfect man, Jesus. Psalm 2 then introduces us to the warfare that exists between those two camps, and it prophesies Jesus will eventually conquer all enemies and put them under their feet. So those two Psalms clue us into the direction that the whole Psalter is going to be going. And it's going to be going there because the Messiah is at the heart of those two Psalms. Book one as a whole shows the fallen nature of mankind and of creation and of the inevitable conflict that arises between those two groups of people that Genesis 3.15 speaks of as the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman. And by the way, you will see from my analysis of Book 1 on page 1, Book 1 has a lot of the themes of Genesis in it, and even the ancient Jews saw that there was a very significant relationship between the first five books of the Bible, those are the books of the Pentateuch, and the five books of the Psalter. So book one corresponds to Genesis, and if you look at the diagram of book one on page two, that's the green graphic there, you will see on that graphic there are three pyramid formations. Got that there? Three pyramid formations in there. These are a series of parallel psalms that lead to a peak, and at the top of each peak you will see three creation psalms, psalms eight, 19, and 29. So those three creation Psalms present the fallen creation of Genesis, but it's a creation that is still being carefully preserved by God for a coming redemption. Though the author of that particular chart that I stole off the web, well, I didn't steal, I borrowed it off the web. I'll give it back to him. No. It's used by permission. But anyway, that guy, he's primarily pointing it to David. Well, it does. David was a type though, right? He is the anointed, which is the word for Messiah, but he's just a small M Messiah. And David is pointing forward to a second David, Jesus, who will deal with this messed up creation. And I want you to notice on that chart the progression that is in those major groupings. So still looking at those three pyramids there, it progresses from enemy Psalms in Psalms 3 through 14 to kingdom Psalms in Psalms 15 through 24 to temple Psalms in Psalms 25 through 34. This then leads to spiritual warfare Psalms in the rest of the book. So just looking at that chart, you could ask yourselves, we have been commissioned to engage Satan in spiritual warfare. And these imprecatory Psalms are one of those things. How can we successfully engage in spiritual warfare? Well, we certainly can't do it as unbelievers. You know, in Acts 19, the seven sons of Sceva, they tried and it didn't work. You know, the demons overwhelmed them. So how do we do that? Well, it's only as we ourselves are transformed from enemies, that's the first section, into citizens of Christ's kingdom who submit to his rule, that's the second section, and who worship in his holy temple, that's the next section, can we have the power over the devil with those imprecatory psalms. So that's kind of the flow of book one. And I'm going to point out that book one, again at the top of page two, only highlights a few of the intricately interweaving structural features of book one. But at least I think that chart, the reason I used it is it beautifully showcases what Messiah would face. He faced enemies just as David faced enemies. And by the way, page one, you'll see that the key word for book one is enemies. Now, if you're looking and study Bibles, most study Bibles will put man, the word man, as the key word for book one. It is not. Yes, man occurs 47 times, but that's nothing unique. It occurs, let's see here, 134 times in the Psalter. It's what kind of man that Jesus is confronting that is the key there. And so book one presents fallen man at enmity with God. That's the message of Jesus, fallen man in need of a Messiah. That's the message of book one of the Psalter, fallen man in need of a Messiah. Jesus came into the world and the world did not receive him. As Robertson notes, no fewer than 30 of the 41 psalms that constitute Book 1 make specific reference to these enemies of the psalmist. Of the remaining 11 psalms, 3 imply the presence of enemies and 5 refer to death. So that means that 38 of the 41 psalms in Book 1 are focused on the hatred and the opposition that Christ's enemies give to him. Yes, there is a Messiah. And yes, there is a remnant that remains faithful to the Messiah. And though there is pain, yes, there is faith. It's not totally absent of faith. There's clearly faith in God's victory as this book progresses. And so the book ends with a doxology of faith in Psalm 41, verse 13, which says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. Now it gives that doxology of faith, not because things are looking cheery, They're not looking cheery at all. It gives it because the promises of God are so secure that they can live by faith despite enemies being around them. By the way, I should point out that all five books end with a doxology. If you go through the RPCNA, we have been going through the RPCNA hymnal singing every single one of them several times, and you come up to these little doxologies, well, At the end of every book, there is a doxology. Almost all scholars acknowledge that, and I think it's worth memorizing some of those doxologies that are in the RPCNA hymnal. Okay, so that's book one. Book two is a book of longing. It repeatedly states David's longing for the expansion of God's kingdom. We are not pessimilennialists who are content to be a defeated minority. We long for the growth of Christ's kingdom. Robertson points out that though enemies are present in book two, Though there are ups and downs and struggles in book two, there is a progression in God's kingdom that is clearly evident. This is a book where David communicates directly with his enemies and calls upon God to make those nations who are at enmity with him to submit to him. And he predicts that all of those nations will worship Yehovah and sing praises to Yehovah. That is a statement of faith. And so this is a missions book. A missions book par excellence those psalms of the nations Worshiping god make a big part of john piper's book on missions and joy And uh worship being at the heart of what missions is all about they're marvelous statements of faith So the question is can we have faith when all around us? All we see is enemies say yes We can have that kind of faith that we will have the theology of the soldier But though the subject of missions in the Great Commission is highlighted in book two, book two is only the beginning of missions where David rules in the midst of his enemies just as Jesus began his rule reigning in the midst of his enemies. There's a flow that is developing. Now I said that book two is a book of longing and let me explain that briefly. Since the kingdom is not where it should be, the whole of book two is noted for longing. Longing for God, longing for more of his kingdom to be manifested. It begins with longing in Psalm 42, very first words. As the deer pants for the water book, so pants my soul for you, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. You see longing, longing, longing. It ends with longing, even in the doxology. Very last words of Book 2. Say, 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. That's the kind of longing that should grip our hearts. Say, Lord, we want your glory to be filling this earth. We want the nations to be singing to you. We don't see it yet, but we've got a longing for this. That's an act of faith. And there are also longings for personal sanctification. There's longings for the growth of the church. And the key chapter is Psalm 63, which not only speaks of the redemption that the Messiah is bringing, but a deep longing for God that is placed in the hearts of everyone who is redeemed. So let me read all of Psalm 63 to you so that you can get a little bit of a feel for how even the central chapter is just filled with longings. Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. Thus I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches, because you have been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of your wings, I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind you. Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life to destroy it shall go down into the utter parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword. They shall be a portion of jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him shall glory. But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped. Now, if you look at the book two diagram at the bottom of page two, you'll see a long list of the enemies that David must conquer. And those enemies stand as a type of the nations that Jesus must conquer with the great commission. Now, if I were preaching through book two, I would be preaching through this whole progression. This was a necessary progression that had to happen. Now, even though there's much work that needs to be done, Psalm 72 anticipates a time when Christ's kingdom will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. It's kind of giving us a roadmap. This is the kind of stuff that needs to happen, just like Jesus gave a roadmap in Matthew 28 when the Great Commission said, this is what needs to happen. You've got to disciple all nations, make them Christian nations, make sure they're obeying everything that's written in the Word of God. This is the roadmap. Psalm 72 is a glorious promise that Christ will eventually conquer all enemies and fill this world with his shalom. But at this point in book two, it's still a statement of faith concerning the future. It has not yet been accomplished. Robertson calls book two communication because it represents communication of the gospel to the ends of the earth. I call it missions because I think that communicates a little bit better than communication. And though all of Psalm 72 is a glorious statement of faith, the doxology at the end of the Psalm I think is fabulous. I've already read it. Let me read it again. Psalm 72, 18 to 19. 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. We've gone through book one, book two, book three, which is Psalm 73 through 89, is patterned after the major themes of Leviticus. So we're going through the books of the Bible, right? Genesis, Exodus, now we're in Leviticus. So it's no surprise that this third book of the Psalter is full of references to sin, to holiness, to fellowship broken, fellowship restored, and expressed in worship. But Robertson points out that this book focuses on lack of faith and devastation to the kingdom. The original context for many of these Psalms was the Babylonian destruction of the temple and all of Israel being cast out into exile. Well, that destruction of the temple is also predicted in Leviticus, right? So again, that's a Levitical theme. Now that devastation is displayed in the two graphics of Book 3 that are found on page 3. Look especially at the second graphic at the bottom of page 3. Notice the tiny little box at the bottom left of the graphic that's titled, A Failure of Faith. Bottom left. Faith and hope are almost missing in this book. Almost missing, not completely missing, but almost. Now, at the middle of the graphic, you can see two examples of the temple desecrated. Psalm 74 deals with the desecration of the temple under Rehoboam. Then Psalm 75, the next Psalm shows the judgment that comes as a result of that desecration. Then Psalm 76 gives a word of repentance. Then Psalm 77 is a cry for help. So you can see a very logical flow there. Then that pattern is repeated in Psalm 79 through 82, but in a slightly different order. Now if that author is correct, then the heart of that pyramid is Psalm 78, which explains the reasons why this devastation happened. And it clearly gives those reasons. Robertson shows another pyramid structure that is more technical, and it's based on literary and poetic parallels. So what we've got in here, and it's just almost impossible to diagram, you've got interweaving, interlocking structures that God, by inspiration, has put together. Even though these poems were being written at different times, he had them written in such a way that Ezra would later be able to construct them. It just really is remarkable. I didn't have time to do up a chart for that. Maybe at some point I'll be able to do that. But the pyramid that Robertson talks about is not on that chart. But it makes Psalm 80 to be the heart of the whole book, of Book 3. So he says this, this special collection of seven Psalms underscores the theme of the nation's destruction by reporting the destruction of the southern kingdom by Babylon, 586 BC, and the destruction of the northern kingdom by Assyria, 722 BC. At the same time, two messianic figures emerge as potential deliverers of those two national entities of God's people. A son of David and a son of Joseph will serve as Israel's deliverer. Now the Jews got confused. They thought there were two separate, totally different people. Robertson shows how both The political and the dying Savior, the King and the dying Savior are the same. They're the same person. Just some wonderful stuff in there. But applying this book to Messiah's kingdom, I see this as relating especially to the last days leading up to AD 70. The years between 8030 and 8070 involved the worldwide growth of the church throughout every nation of the world. Colossians talks about it, many of the Pauline epistles talk about that. But it was also the time of the greatest apostasy of the church, the greatest persecutions of the church in the world history. It was the time that the temple was destroyed, that Israel was cast into exile. These were very discouraging times. These were times of devastation, and I'm sure that the church of that era could relate to some of the Psalms in this book. This book has some of the most depressing Psalms in the entire Psalter. Very, very discouraging kind of Psalms. But people have gone through enormous loss or have gone through Apostasy, you know, they see apostasy in the church or they don't have a church they can relate to psalm 88 The psalm of him and the ezra height they can relate to psalm 89 which has more faith than 88 does but it's still depressing Robertson calls this book the book of devastation now in the original context it pointed to the time of exile and But it's not without hope. There are still promises of a future renovation that would be possible. And what made that renovation possible? Well, Psalm 80 tells us. Psalm 80 is the heart of the book, very center of the book. And Psalm 80 says, it all depends upon the man of God's right hand, who is Jesus. Now, if you look at Psalm 80, You'll see a repeated refrain. Verse 3 says, Restore us, O God, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. And he uses almost word for word the same begging for restoration in verses 7, 14, and 19. So how is God going to restore? This is a psalm saying, Lord, please, the church is apostate. Would you restore the church? How does he do it? Well, verse 17 tells us, Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. And Robertson has some fantastic material showing this son of man is Jesus. I'm not going to get into that this morning, but Psalm 80 is the key psalm. Now where the key word for book two was deliverance or redemption, just like it was in Exodus, the key word for book three is sanctuary, which fits in with the fellowship and the worship that is regularly lost and restored in the book of Leviticus. In the original context, the sanctuary has been destroyed and Israel is longing for the courts of Jerusalem. But this book is appropriate, I think, for any period of devastation to an individual family or church. It refocuses on God. Even the most depressing psalm in the entire Psalter, Psalm 88, is readjusting our focus upon God. Some people think Why would we even think there is absolutely no hope in that song? But there is the very fact that he's not just complaining to others He is crying out to god shows faith because he knows god's the only solution So to me, that's what gives hope it is saying lord. I feel hopeless By the way, some of you have gone through such deep depression That you can relate to a psalm like this where you think I just don't see the light i've had people who have gone through that kind of depression And these Psalms have ministered to them enormously. The final doxology in Psalm 89, verse 52, shows where the focus of our hearts should be when we have been restored to fellowship and holiness. It says, blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and amen. So even during a time of devastation, it's so important to have a God-centered focus. Book four, which is Psalms 90 through 106, is patterned after the major themes in numbers. Now, I don't have a graphic. that was adequate for this book, so hopefully I can orally guide you through it. This book begins with the wandering of Psalm 90, moving to conflict in the next Psalms, and then rejuvenation of the kingdom in the remainder of the book. Now, Robertson calls this book the book of maturation of the kingdom after exile. If you think of book three as the exile, Book four is the infant beginnings of that church after the exile, but with a confidence that Christ is the king. He's the king. And there's all kinds of kingship psalms, Psalm 75 to 76, 93, Psalm 95 through 99. It's a book full of kingship songs. But if this book relates to numbers, it's no surprise that this book starts with Psalm 90. Psalm 90 was written at the end of the 40 years of wandering, just as the kingdom era was about to begin. And so Psalm 90 is a feeling of grief over the wasted 40 years that they have spent wandering, but it's anticipating the rejuvenation of God's kingdom that's about to happen. So whether you think of the type as being rejuvenation under Joshua, or rejuvenation after the exile under Ezra, Nehemiah, or whether you Either way, it's foreshadowing the resurrection of the kingdom after it's almost destroyed in AD 70. It's a reconquest of the world that's going to once again begin. But this is a book that shows us that Messiah's kingship continues despite devastation, and it grows despite lack of faith in the previous section. The kingship Psalms in this book give faith to God's people in the midst of difficult times. They guarantee that his kingdom will win as long as God remains close to us as our king and does not cast us off. And the book focuses the faith of God's people upon the Lord in that final doxology of Psalm 106 verse 48, blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say amen, praise the Lord. Book five, which is Psalms 107 to 150 is patterned after the major themes of Deuteronomy. So just as Deuteronomy calls God's people to covenant faithfulness, you see all through book five calls to his people to be faithful to God's covenant law, faithful to his covenant grace, faithful to his covenant king. Psalm 119 is the central key chapter. which outlines the sufficiency and power of God's Word for the Messianic New Covenant Kingdom. His law is perfect, it's gracious, it's wise, it's transformational, it is sufficient for every facet of life and godliness. And though most of the last, most scholars list the last verse of Psalm 150 as the final doxology, and it says this, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord, I think the majority of scholars, and I agree with them, say no. All five Psalms that end the Psalter are the final doxology. They're kind of a thunderous conclusion of Hallelujah choruses. But it is what leads up to those Hallelujah choruses that explains the Hallelujahs. Now, Robertson doesn't get this very well. But I think the chart in your outline does. Robertson's an amillennialist, so he labels this section as consummation. In other words, it goes into eternity. But when you read through this, I don't see eternity in here. It is history. It is the progress of history. It's the total, complete fulfillment of the Great Commission where every nation is a Christian nation singing praises to God. Psalm 110 begins this process. saying about Jesus, he shall judge among the nations. Psalm 111 verse six says, he has declared to his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nation. So he's going all out, he's going for broke here, 100% of all, 100% of the people, of 100% of the nations praising God. That's what he's going for. Psalm 113. Says that God is sufficient for this task because the Lord is high above all nations his glory above the heavens Psalm 117 one insists this should be our aim nothing less than this in our missions praise the Lord all you Gentiles Laud him all you peoples again. That's our goal a hundred percent of the people of a hundred percent of the nations lauding God praising God Though Psalm 118 again affirms, all nations surrounded me, Christ goes on to say, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. But the destruction of the nations with a rod of iron is not the only thing that Jesus does. He also saves them, saves nations. Psalm 126 too. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. So it is par excellence, the book of Christ's victory in history, not just on the final day of consummation. And I think if I explain the beginning Psalms of Book 5, the lights will go on for why I say this. Take a look at the last blue chart on page 4. If you look at the column of blue boxes on the left side of that chart, You'll see that Psalms 107 to 119 describe the foundations for Christ's universal kingdom to be established so that the nations are discipled. Psalm 107 deals with the ingathering of the Jews into the church. So it's a specific part of history. Psalm 108 to 109 describes once again the enemies that must be destroyed by Christ in the next Psalm, Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is quoted in the New Testament more than any other Psalm. It's used to guarantee all enemies will progressively be put under Christ's feet, all without exception. And the book of Esther ties in with Psalms 113 to 118, all of which were composed by Mordecai the prophet. Now, after the magnificent reversal that we looked at in my sermon on the book of Esther, it says many Gentiles became Jews. And Mordecai, the prophet, goes on to set up the Feast of Purim, a feast that foreshadows what? The salvation of Israel, and after Israel's salvation, even greater blessing to every nation of the world. So Purim and Israel's salvation is tightly connected to these psalms. So these foundational psalms are describing something yet future to us, a time after the conversion of Israel. Then Psalm 119 gives the laws of the kingdom that will characterize the final stages of Christ's kingdom. So all of the psalms in that left-hand column of blue boxes are the foundational psalms for book five that explain the restoration of israel the messianic king and the character of his kingdom And I look at the progressive stair steps in the largest blue graphic In the book five chart big blue graphic there are stair steps there At the bottom it starts with the songs of ascent to the Psalms of warfare, of worship, to exaltation, leading to the greater David's victory, leading to infinite praise in Psalms 146 to 150. See, this is what God made His creation for, is to give these praises to God, and this is what redemption was designed to accomplish. It was to restore such glory and praise to God. And the whole Psalter is a book of books that inspires God's people to promote the exaltation of God on the earth. If you're living during a time of apostasy, the least you can do is one of the other books, long for his exaltation on the earth, right? If it's not happening. And if you're living in good times, what you should be doing according to these Psalms is keep pressing into the upward call that God has given to you in Christ Jesus. Do so individually, as your family, as a church, even pressing the nation to know God more and more. Because why? Because the goal of history is that the knowledge of God will fill the earth so deeply, it will be like the ocean water is covering the ocean beds. That's pretty deep. And so Christ's kingdom will not end until all nations fall down before him, serve him, and give him the kind of hallelujah praises that the last five psalms give. So I'll end this sermon simply by reading the final psalm. And as I do so, just imagine billions of people worldwide eventually obeying its call and glad-heartedly giving their praise to their Redeemer King. Praise the Lord. 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 a lute and a 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 everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And all God's people said? Amen. Now let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have constructed the Bible in such a way that we could dig and dig and dig and still not plummet steps. We love exploring your word and discovering new things. And we thank you for the way in which the Psalter encourages our faith, even during difficult times, it encourages our faith. And I pray that each one here would have their faith grow, their hope grow, their love for you and for the brethren grow. as they dig more and more into the Psalms. We bless you, Father, for having blessed us with this theological treasure trove. And I pray that you would help us to be Christ-centered in all that we think, say, and do. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.