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Please open with me in your Bibles
to Psalm 22. I'm going to be passing out a
short, rather skeletal outline to the talk tonight. If people
want to take notes, they're welcome to do that on this. And while
these are going around, I'm just going to read Psalm 22. We sang
it. And as we take up the subject
of Christ, Our Lord Jesus in the Psalms. Certainly, there's
not a better place to start than to hear the words of Psalm 22
to open up the study. To the choir master, according
to the Doe of the Dawn, a Psalm of David. My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving
me from the words of my groaning? Oh, my God, I cry by day, but
you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yes, you
are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In our father's view,
we trusted. They trusted and you delivered
them. To you, they cried and were rescued. In you, they trusted
and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me
mock me. They make mouths at me. They
wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him
deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights
in him. Yet you are he who took me from
the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast. On you
was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have
been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths
at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted
within my breast. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the
dust of death. For dogs encompass me. A company
of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and
feet. I can count all my bones. They
stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among
them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do
not be far off. You owe my help. Come quickly
to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword.
My precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the
mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the
horns of the wild oxen. I will tell of your name to my
brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord praise him. All you offspring of Jacob
glorify him and stand in awe of him. All you offspring of
Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted and he has not hidden his face
from him but he has heard when he cried to him. From you comes
my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before
those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be
satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise
the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the
earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families
of the nation shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to
the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of
the earth eat and worship. Before him shall bow all who
go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself
alive. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the
Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim
his righteousness to a people yet unborn. That he has done
it. Psalm 22 was written by King
David. But it's clear as soon as you
start this song that David speaks of experiences that reach far
beyond his own experiences. And certainly as the New Testament
takes up this song, we see clearly that David, in the spirit of
Christ, was prophesying of Christ, of his sufferings on behalf of
God's people and on the victory over death and sin that Christ
would accomplish through that crucifixion on our behalf. And
so there's perhaps no better place to start to see the fact
that the Psalms speak so clearly of our Lord Jesus Christ and
that in the spirit of Christ, David and those writers of these
inspired hymns looked forward to that day when Christ would
come and truly fulfill all that was written therein. And so we
can now take the Psalms on our lips knowing that Christ is the
one who brings their truest fulfillment and in whose spirit we can sing
them to the praise of the salvation that he has purchased for us.
Please pray with me briefly as we begin. Lord God we pray for
this study that it would be profitable to the edification of your church
that we would learn to see the Lord Jesus Christ displayed for
us in this altar and that we would be able to sing these songs
knowing that in the Lord Jesus Christ they receive their fullest
and surest fulfillment and that in union with him we can sing
them with all our hearts is the expression of our faith and trust
in you and we pray this in Christ's name. Well a couple of things about
what this study won't be to sort of narrow down our focus over
the coming weeks. It won't be an in-depth study
on the arguments for exclusive psalmody. Pastor Reese excellently
dealt with, I think it's one of those amazing little providences
that this morning Pastor Reese dealt with Colossians 316 almost
as a preamble to the discussions over these following weeks. We
won't be discussing exclusive psalm but certainly that will
be an issue that will come up for the more we see Christ in
the Psalms the more we will want to take those songs on our lips.
And it also not be a technical study of the Psalter dealing
with you know forms of poetry structure and language. But rather
I wanted to pick up on a point that pastor he spoke about later
on in the sermon this morning and that is the spirituality
of our worship. In other words worship is primarily
an issue of the heart and not simply a matter of correct form. We sing the songs yes and and
we sing them because we believe God has commanded us to sing
them but that in and of itself is not sufficient reason to take
up these songs on our our lips. It doesn't just singing the songs
themselves doesn't give God pleasure. It's when those songs are sung
from a heart that's overflowing with love and obedience towards
the one who has redeemed us. Then those songs take up their
fullest meaning in our worship. And so I hope this study of the
songs to be encouragement for all of us as we sing the songs
that we would understand more and more how our Lord is displayed
within them and how we can take them on our lips as our own testimony
of our faith and love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Whereas many
see the Psalms as being unfit for the worship of the New Covenant
Church, I hope to show throughout the course of this study that
they are in fact the only songs that are sufficient, fully sufficient
for New Covenant worship because they are the only songs in which
we can take the words of our Savior, the inspired words of
Christ, upon our lips in union with him as he leads us in our
worship. And in terms of the apologetic
for our practice of exclusive psalmody, I also hope to show
that it's not simply a matter of a couple of texts that command
us to sing the Psalms exclusively in worship, but rather that the
entire flow of redemptive history is leading us to the point to
see the Psalter as the messianic hymn book for God's people, the
church. And so as we begin, I believe,
does everyone have the sheets that does make it all the way
around? I have an introduction and I actually, there's a phrase
on there that may be hard to understand. I actually meant
to write it in English, but must've done it quick enough that it
came out in another language. Does anyone know what that phrase
means by chance? Or has ever heard it in another
context or might be able to guess at its meaning? Cantare amontis est. Keith, yes. Good job. It can be translated a couple
of different ways but you could translate it only the lover sings
or perhaps singing belongs to the lover. And I wanted to start
out by just taking a brief look at why we sing in the first place.
You know apart from singing the songs why is it that God has
commanded his people to sing it all. Why do we sing in worship. And I quoted this phrase it's
actually from. the church father, Augustine,
singing belongs to the lover. And because we have a couple
of young lovers in the midst of our congregation tonight,
we have the privilege of more than one engaged couple in our
midst, or at least halves thereof, especially with Matthew and Rachel
here. I wanted to ask you guys a question. Did life change when you became
engaged? Yes, of course it did. Are you
happy to be engaged? Yes. All right, and my third
question. Are you satisfied and content
being in this state of engagement? Well, you just told me life changed
when you're engaged and you're happy to be engaged. What do
you mean you're not satisfied staying in the state of engagement?
Matt, why not? Because you want to get married,
right? It's a provisional state of affairs,
right? You've got your pilgrims on your way to a greater state
of existence. You don't want to stay there
forever. I can testify to that as well. I was engaged a few
weeks ago and My fiance lives on the other side of the country
and we won't see each other again until days before the wedding. In many ways, it's a miserable
state of affairs. I wish the wedding could simply
be tomorrow and then we could be done with it and be married.
Being engaged is a wonderful thing, but it's meant to lead
to something far greater. Here's another question, Keith,
maybe you can ask this one too. Does anyone know the answer to
question 94 in the shorter catechism? What is baptism? I won't put you on the spot again.
Baptism is a sacrament wherein the washing of water in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit doth signify
and seal our ingrafting into Christ and partaking of the benefits
of the covenant of grace and our engagement to be the Lord's. As Christians, We have a certain
engagement to the Lord Jesus Christ as well. He has accomplished
salvation on our behalf. He has united us to himself by
the work of the Holy Spirit and applied redemption to us. But
we look forward to a greater state of affairs don't we. We
are not satisfied fully and content being apart from him. It's one
of the chiefest desires that the spirit works in us upon regeneration. that we long to be with the Lord
not simply by faith as we await him but in that eternal state
of affairs when he will bring us to himself and ask his church
he will consummate that relationship that he began with us by sacrificing
himself on the cross and rising up to the right hand of God for
the glory of his people. We're pilgrims in this world.
And as we think about singing to the Lord, there's, I believe,
a theology of longing and engagement in the Bible. And the psalms
are given to us as psalms that we sing to God as we express
our desire to be with him in the fullness of salvation, not
simply believing upon him by faith as we do in this life,
but looking forward to that day when not only will we embrace
him by faith, but we will embrace him by sight as well, as we will
see him as he is in our glorified and resurrected bodies. The Psalter
you could call the inspired pilgrim's hymnal. They shape and sanctify
our piety as we learn to walk with Christ more and more throughout
the pilgrimage of this life. The Psalms are first and foremost
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, as they are inspired by his spirit
And they speak of him and his work, and they become our words
through our union with him as we take them on our lips. And
they are more than anything, a way that we exercise our spiritual
affection for Christ as we await the day when he comes to take
us to himself. Singing belongs to the lover.
I'm going to read a short passage from First Peter, chapter one. There in in verse six Peter says
in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary
you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness
of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it
is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ though you have
not seen him you love him. Though you do not now see him,
you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible
and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the
salvation of your souls. It's a ridiculous thing in the
eyes of the world. Faith is a glorious mystery that
you would love this savior whom you've never seen. And that you
would rejoice in his work that you were not there to witness.
And yet that faith and that love and that rejoicing in his work
is no more shown than in that example to be the work of the
Holy Spirit in your hearts. And we take the Psalms upon our
lips as testimony to our longing to be with Christ. We sing because
Christ first loved us. And as Pastor Reese said this
morning, When you are loved as much as Christ has loved us even
to the sacrificing of his own body on our behalf there is no
more proper outcome than to lift praise and glory and honor to
him through song. Lovers don't simply speak about
their love but their hearts sing. That's that's the great example
that God has woven into the very fabric of creation. to show what
happens when the Spirit gives us these spiritual affections
for Christ. We can no longer simply talk
about salvation, but we sing about salvation because singing
belongs to the lover. We often miss a simple but profound
fact about the Psalter. Whereas most of Revelation constitutes
God speaking to men and women, the Psalter is a book filled
with men speaking to God. We have a book of the Bible that
constitutes God's people lifting their praises back to God as
they think about this great salvation from which they have been purchased
from death and sin. God gave us the Psalms so that
through faith and love they would be the words of our praise that
we would lift to him. Another church father Athanasius
of Alexandria. You may know him. He lived in
the fourth century A.D. as a theologian who was involved
in defending the deity of Christ against the Arians, a group of
early heretics in the Christian church that denied the eternal
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote this about the Psalms
in a letter to a fellow minister. Do not let anyone amplify these
words of the Psalter with persuasive phrases of the profane and by
profane he means uninspired. And do not let him attempt to
recast or completely change the words. Their expressions are
superior to those we construct for it is the spirit who speaks
in the saints to render assistance to us. See God has not left us
to our own imaginations to construct songs of praise to lift to him.
But rather, through the Spirit of Christ, he has given us the
very words of our Savior, inspired by the Spirit, that through our
union with him, we might unite our voices with him and sing
praise back to the one who has saved us. And so, as we continue
on in our study this evening, there are two primary questions
that I want to ask concerning the Psalter. One, what role does
the Psalter play in the canon, and what is its relationship
to the rest of the Bible? And two after we've answered
that question are the songs appropriate vehicles of praise for new covenant
worship. And so I think the next heading
on your outlines be something like the development of Messianic
expectations in the Old Testament. First thing I want to do is if
we're ever to understand how to see the Lord Jesus Christ
in the songs. We have to understand what exactly
were the messianic expectations of God's people at this time. And so very briefly, we're actually
going to walk through the Bible, beginning in the garden and going
all the way up to Christ's incarnation and look briefly and hopefully
build a robust case for the way in which the Old Testament saints
knew about the Lord Jesus Christ and had a very clear idea about
the work that he was coming to do. In a lot of modern scholarship,
there's, I think, a fear of anachronism when we talk about the messianic
expectations of Old Testament believers. We look at the New
Testament and the way in which it interprets the passages of
the Old Testament as clearly being messianic. But then a lot
of people will say, well, we can't really know for sure that
that's exactly the way that the Old Testament believers took
it. And so there becomes a greater and greater gap between our knowledge
of the Messiah and then how we look back upon the Old Testament
saints and wonder about what it was they knew about the Messiah.
And if we're to understand how Christ is in the Psalms and why
it's appropriate for us and fully sufficient for the new covenant
church to sing these songs. We're going to look at exactly
what it was that the Old Testament saints knew about the Messiah. So turn with me in your Bibles
back to Genesis and we're going to go to chapter three all the
way back to the beginning. Okay, now some time for some
participation. When God created Adam in the
garden, we're going to start with Adam. What was it that Adam was created
to be? When you look at chapters two
and three of Genesis, and also taking into account all of revelation
concerning Adam, what was Adam created to be? There's actually not a black,
maybe a dark green? Any ideas? What else? So, strangely, we put a bit of
a vice-regent. He was the ruler in the name
of God. You could say, King and God's
right hand. Vice-regent, is everybody familiar
with that term? Matthew's genealogy, or is it
Mark? It's Mark's genealogy. Luke, son of God. Adam was created as a son to
be the father of many sons. He was the son of God so that
there would be many sons who would be image bearers, who would
spread the glory of God over the face of the creation. What happens next? It's bad. The fall, right? The fall. And what happens to what Adam
was created to be because of the fall? The image is shattered. The creation
now rebels against Adam, even though he was created to exercise
dominion over it. That kingship is lost. And the
son of suns going back to, instead of producing image, fully glorious
image bearers created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness to
cover the earth with God's glory. Adam can only bear sons who are
now at enmity with God, wherein the image of God is broken. and
instead of spreading this perfect image of God's glory of the creation,
it's spreading this image that is broken and shattered and at
enmity with God and in rebellion against Him. Okay, so the fall
happens, but then something else happens, right? Look with me
at Genesis 3.15. God doesn't leave humanity in
this wretched state that humanity has plunged itself into because
of the fall. Read with me in verse fifteen
of chapter three. And this is God speaking to the
serpent and cursing the serpent. God says, I will put enmity between
you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and
you shall bruise his heel. This verse is often called the
very first evangelical promise of the Bible, because it's that
first promise where God says to his people, sin and death
is not the end of the story. Something else intervenes into
the fall into the darkness of humanity. And it's promised here
in chapter or in verse 15 of chapter three. And so look at
this promise, and I want to list exactly what it is, the contents
of this promise and what it says about salvation. And so go ahead
and raise your hand when you're ready. Just things that are promised
here in verse 15 of chapter three. Okay, great. So there's, there's going to
be conflict. Between which two parties? Between
Satan and the woman. It's kind of reversed. Yeah,
seed of Satan. This is kind of rickety. Now,
some translations may have offspring. The Hebrew there is specifically
seed, which is important. So seed of Satan, seed of woman. Great. Conflict. What else? So not only will there be a conflict,
and I guess along with that comes the destruction of Satan as well,
right? The destruction of the serpent. Not only will the serpent
be destroyed, but the one who will destroy the serpent will
do so at great personal cost to himself. How do you know that's
the case? Right. Now, when your heel gets
crushed, I mean, that's a very painful injury, debilitating
injury. But what happens when your head
gets crushed? They die. Right. It's destruction. So,
we know that the seat of the woman... Sorry. The seat of the woman will destroy
the serpent. And he will do so at the cost
of great personal suffering. Now, I'm going to stop writing
on the board for right now. Not the most efficient way to
do this. But I wanted it to be visual. And I will write that
up on the board. Destroy serpent at great personal
cost. What else do we know about salvation?
from these facts that we have compiled so far from Genesis
3.15. You know, one thing we know is
that there is going to be salvation, that the gods aren't going to
scrap everything. Exactly. Are you going to accomplish
salvation for yourself? No. Who's going to accomplish
salvation for God? The serpent. Yeah. Did Genesis 3.15 say anything
about any of us in this room accomplishing salvation to strike
the seed of the serpent? and thereby saving God's people.
No, from the very beginning, God's promise of salvation terminated
on a person who would come to destroy the serpent. And we had
no part to play in that serpent-destroying procedure, so to speak. It will
be entirely the work of this promised seed who will do so
at the cost of great personal suffering. We must therefore receive the
work of this promise. Savior by faith. It's not a matter
of us accomplishing it through our own designs through our own
efforts or through our own words but rather it is faith as we
look to the one who does it on our behalf. Do you see why we're going through
Genesis 315 what a robust expectation of the work of salvation that
they have from the very beginning. The very first evangelical promise
included the knowledge that there would be a conflict between the
seat of the woman and the seat of Satan, that this promised
seed would destroy the serpent, that he would do so at great
personal cost and suffering. and that it would be a work that
is done outside of ourselves that we must therefore believe
in if we are to partake in its benefits. Even from the very
beginning, it wasn't simply Christ as this glorious political figure,
but it was Christ as the suffering servant of God who through his
own personal suffering would destroy Satan. And we find this
very clearly echoed in the book of Hebrews, just to jump all
the way forward to the New Testament, briefly, and chapter two. Since therefore the children
share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the
same things, seed of the woman, that through death, great personal
cost and suffering, he might destroy the one who has the power
of death. That is the devil. the serpent
and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to
lifelong slavery. Now that you might want to write
that verse down where Hebrews chapter two in verse fourteen.
We're going to be coming back to that verse in a second. And
so we haven't even gotten out of Genesis three fifteen and
we already know that there will be a messiah who will destroy
Satan at great personal cost and suffering to himself. And
that, therefore, the object of faith is not what we can do to
save ourselves, but it's faith in the one whom God has promised
to do the work of salvation on our behalf. I mean, that's a
that's a robust knowledge of who Christ, who the coming Christ
would be. The theologian John Owen said
this about the passage we're looking at now, Genesis 315.
This, then, was the essence of the Adamic or post-lapsarian
theology. When he says that, he's speaking
specifically about this promise of Genesis 3.15. Within it lay,
as it were, the embryo of the whole doctrine of salvation for
sinners. Subsequent clarifications would
all be matters of degree. The whole was founded on divine
promise, which, being clarified during the journey of the church,
at length was fully revealed in the gospel. So what Owen is
saying is that basically we get the whole shebang in Genesis
three fifteen in embryonic form and that is God reveals his covenant
subsequently throughout the history of the Old Testament. It will
only be building upon what has been established from the very
beginning and giving greater and greater clarity to God's
people as they await the promise who would destroy the serpent.
Well, let's move ahead now to Genesis chapter 12, flip there
with me. And in Genesis chapters 12 and
15, we have God coming to another great father of our faith, Abraham,
and adding these clarifications to the covenant promise. And
as we look at Genesis 12, and we'll move a little more quickly
now. What is it that's added to this promise of Messiah given
in Genesis 315? What does God promise to do for
Abraham? Right, there's a reiteration.
Okay, remember now, everything that Adam lost and that's promised
again in Christ, we now see it being rebuilt throughout the
subsequent covenant relationships. Because God promised Abraham
a son, right? Through whom he would be the
father of many nations. So you have a, maybe to use a
different quote, you have a reiteration of this, of what Adam was created
to be. And it's being re-established
in Abraham. Abraham's promised a son. And
he's given the promise that through you, all the families of the
earth will be blessed. What else does Abraham promise? Has he maybe promised a little
arid plot of land in the Middle East? He's given a promise of
land, right? God is rebuilding the creation
over which he purposed his image bearers to have dominion. Abraham is given a promise of
land, and he's also given the promise of universal blessing,
that through that nation that he has promised, and through
those sons, all the families of the earth would be blessed.
So, you see, God is continuing to expand this promise. and the
expectation that through this Messiah, all that Adam lost would
be regained a thousandfold by this promised Savior. Thinking
forward again to Moses and to the covenant made with Israel
at Sinai, how is this promise expanded even yet further? What
is Israel given that is an expansion of these promises? Maybe let's
say in relationship to the promise of Well, first of all, that promise
given to Abraham is realized. Worship is once again localized
on the earth. They are brought into the land
and given dominion over the land of Israel as the promised land.
How about relative to image bearer? As you think about righteousness,
what is Israel given at Sinai that would be an expansion the
concept of an image bearer as the display of God's righteousness. Yes the royal law of God and
that's huge because that law that Israel was given in Sinai
would be the very law that the seed of the woman would come
to fulfill perfectly and so be the fulfillment of all righteousness
on behalf of God's people. The land promises fulfilled God
once again is dwelling with his people. in the tabernacle. Remember
that in the garden, we left one thing out of the original list
here with Adam. He's image bearer, he's king
over creation, he's the son of God from whom many sons will
come, but he's also a covenant creature. And that sounds like somewhat
of a dry phrase. What I mean by that is, he was
created in covenant with God to have intimate fellowship with
him. God made man differently than
he made rocks and trees and animals and fish and everything else
in creation. He made man to be in intimate
covenant with him. And that again was something
that was lost, and something that was promised in the Messiah
to be restored. And so this is in part restored
at Sinai, when God promises once again to dwell in the midst of
the people in the camp, in the tabernacle of the Holy of Holies.
And then later on when the temple is built, this will be expanded
even further. And now we get to David, and this is sort of
Where we've been heading this whole time because the Psalms
are what they're the songs of David and so understanding the
messianic expectations at the time of David is crucial to see
the way in which they saw Christ exhibited in the Psalter. Turn
with me then to 2 Samuel chapter 7. This is the great chapter where
God comes to David. David is desiring to build a
house for God. But God comes to David through
the prophet Nathan and says to David, you will not build a house
for me, but I will build a house for you. What else? From your guys' knowledge of
2 Samuel 7, how again are these promises expanded in the Davidic
covenant? When God makes covenant with
David, What exactly is promised to David in this covenant that
we find in chapter seven. Let's read together beginning
in verse twelve. Actually, the sentence that begins
halfway through verse 11. Moreover, the Lord declares to
you that the Lord will make you a house. Remember, covenant creature
intimacy. God is promising David a house.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,
I will raise up your offspring. After you. Who shall come from your body
and I will establish He shall build a house for my
name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son when
he commits iniquity. I will discipline him with the
rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast
love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I
put away from before you and your house and your kingdom shall
be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established
forever. So when this promise is made to David, it promises
a succession of sons after David who will continue the line of
kingship in Israel and that God will never take away the steadfast
love that he's promised to David. But it looks beyond Solomon,
who of course is the temporal fulfillment of this promise.
He's the son of David who continues the messianic line in the kingship
of Israel. It looks far beyond Solomon and
all the sons who would come after David because it promises an
eternal throne, not a throne that would last for a generation
and then be forfeited by disobedience, by idolatry, but rather a throne
that would be established forever. And so we have in the Davidic
covenant, this messianic promise that was given in Genesis 3.15
becomes very specific. You could maybe say static in
the sense that it becomes localized on one particular family. The
family of David now becomes the vehicle by which God will bring
about this seed of the woman who will be the king over God's
creation. The Son of God who will bring
about many sons to God's glory. The one in whom the image of
God will be restored and who will restore the intimate covenant
relationship with God that Adam was meant to have in the garden. What don't we know about Christ
up to this point in history except that he hasn't yet been revealed
to God's people. But all of our soteriology, the
fact that salvation will be accomplished outside of ourselves, that we
will have to trust in this seed who will accomplish salvation,
not through our obedience, but through his obedience, through
his suffering, he will destroy the seed of the woman. And throughout
Old Testament history, this promise is being built and expanded and
clarified until we get to the point of David when we find out
that this seed of the woman will come from David's line. And now
turn with me briefly to Luke chapter one to follow up our discussion of
the Davidic covenant. There's the most beautiful expression
of how this is fulfilled when the angel Gabriel comes. Verse twenty seven of chapter
one to a virgin. betrothed to a man whose name
was Joseph of the House of David and the Virgin's name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the
Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled
at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might
be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive
in your womb and bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and he will be called the son of the Most
High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father,
David. And he will reign over the house
of Jacob forever and of his kingdom, there will be no end. All that's left by the time Christ
comes is for Gabriel to say to Mary in your room, by the power
of the Holy Spirit will be conceived the one whom the faithful of
Israel have been waiting for, the one to whom the eternal throne
that was promised to David will come to reside in perfection
for all of eternity. If you think about the time between
David and the coming of Christ, all the prophetic literature
and how these promises are expanded, what you see in the prophets
is that They have all of these earthly types and shadows to
work with the temple in Jerusalem, the Davidic kingship, the sacrifices,
all of these symbols that were pointing forward to Christ, and
they begin to pull and bend and stretch that imagery as far as
the earthly types will bear. You have at the end of Ezekiel,
that description of the temple. And Ezekiel, as he thinks forward
to the building of God's kingdom through Christ in the Church
of the New Covenant, he can only describe it as this grand temple
that exceeds feasible construction schematics. He's overwhelmed
as he thinks forward to the church and all he can do is take this
earthly type and and bend and stretch it. When Isaiah speaks
about Jerusalem he says all the nations will flow into Jerusalem
to praise God. Well Jerusalem was a rather small
city at the top of a rather small hill in a rather small country
in the Middle East. And yet as Isaiah thinks forward
to the new covenant he sees all the nations of the earth pouring
on all the kings pouring into Jerusalem to praise God. And
so they're taking these earthly types and they understand that
they're pointing forward to something greater, but they only have the
language of the types to work with. And so they're bending
it and stretching it. It's almost like birthing pains
of the types and shadows as time gets closer and closer to the
coming of Christ. And then, of course, Christ is
revealed to Israel. He's born of Mary and he is the
fulfillment of everything that has been promised to Israel up
to this point. I turn with me again to 2nd Corinthians. As Paul thinks about the promises
that God made to his people in the Old Testament. He says this verse 19 and 20
of 2nd Corinthians chapter one. For the son of God, Jesus Christ,
whom we proclaimed among you, Sylvanus and Timothy and I, was
not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises
of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him
that we utter our amen to God for his glory. With the work
of Christ, his birth, his suffering on the cross and his resurrection,
salvation was accomplished. Everything that God promised
from the very beginning of redemptive history and had clarified and
expanded throughout the history of Israel was fulfilled in Christ. Every promise received its yes
in the coming of Christ and his work on our behalf. Thinking
back to David, why are we talking about all this when we're supposed
to be talking about Christ in the Psalms? When we think about
David and the Davidic covenant as the most fully developed type
of the Messiah in the Old Testament in terms of his kingship and
his dominion over God's people as messianic king. It is essential
to understand David's conception of who Messiah would be to understand
the messianism of the Psalms. Because we find we find song
and we're going to look at the history of psalmody in the old
covenant in a moment. But we find its institution as
a fixed practice in the history of Israel in the construction
of temple of the temple under the kingship of David and of
Solomon. And so let's now we're going
to look at that now the relationship. Do you see the second point on
the outline the relationship between hymnody and kingship
in the ancient church. Having seen the way in which
the Old Covenant believers thought about Christ and anticipated
the fullness of his work. We're going to look now at the
relationship between the inspired Psalms of the Old Covenant and
the kingship. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
15. Rewriting rewriting back the clock for a moment. In Exodus 15, Moses and the people
of Israel have crossed the Red Sea. The Exodus event has taken
place. Pharaoh has been destroyed by
God. And yes, it has been at the cost
of personal suffering on behalf of Israel. But nevertheless,
Pharaoh and all those who sought to destroy the church have been
destroyed in the sea by the mighty hand of God. And in Chapter 15,
how does Moses respond to this event? As the first ruler of
God's people, Israel, he responds by singing a song. And we have
that recorded for us in Exodus 15, and we know it as the Song
of Moses. And so on this occasion of the
Exodus, which is the typical event for salvation in the Old
Covenant, embodying all of the typical principles of salvation,
Moses responds to this event by penning and singing this song
for Israel in Exodus 15. And now look with me at Deuteronomy
31. And we come to another crucial
moment in the history of Israel as a young church being saved
by God out of slavery in Egypt. Joshua is going to succeed Moses
as the ruler of Israel and in thirty two what happens. Then Moses spoke the words of
this song until they were finished in the ears of all the assembly
of Israel. There's another song being sung
in verse forty four of chapter thirty two. Moses says that Moses
came and recited all the words of the song in the hearing of
the people. He and Joshua the son of none. So as Moses is about
to transfer leadership of Israel to Joshua, they sing a succession
duet as it were. Moses writes the song and Moses
and Joshua sing a duet as leadership is being passed from Moses to
Joshua as they're about to enter the promised land. And so just
as Moses was Israel's first leader, he was also Israel's first hymn
writer. And he passes this to Joshua, as Joshua prepares to
take over leadership of Israel as they enter the promised land.
In Joshua chapter 10, when Joshua wins that crucial battle at Ai,
and the sun stands still as a sign of God's salvation, Joshua pens
a lyrical expression of this victory, and another song is
sung by the leader of God's people. In the period of the judges,
in Judges chapter 5, The next time we meet with song in the
Old Testament is when Deborah and Barack claim victory for
God's people. And again, they sing a duet as
the leaders of Israel in response to God's salvation. And the next
time we come to song is and if you'll turn with me there, the
first Samuel chapter 10. Saul is anointed as king of Israel.
And one of the first thing he does. as he prophesies with instruments
and with singing in response to being anointed as the king
of God's people. You see the pattern up to this
point, psalmody and hymnody in the Old Testament is intimately
connected with the leadership of God's people. Every time we
sing, we see psalms and hymns being sung and written. It's
by the leaders of Israel as they respond to the salvation that
God is accomplishing on behalf of his people. And then, of course,
after Saul, who is the next king of God's people? David. And what is the first thing that
David does after Saul is killed in battle and he takes the throne? as Israel's king. Second Samuel
chapter one. Right. He sings a song. He sings
a song lamenting the death of Saul and Jonathan. And not only
that, verse 17 of Second Samuel chapter one, David lamented with
this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, his son, and he said
it should be taught to the people of Judah. So, not only does he
sing a song in lamentation, but he commands that it be taught
to the people of God as well. His first act as king is to sing
a song, continuing this pattern of hymnody being closely and
intimately connected to the leadership of Israel. And just as the messianic
promises become fixed in David's house in 2 Samuel chapter 7,
so too does the kingly office of inspired hymnody just as we
see songs being written by the rulers of Israel throughout the
history of the church. So to now with David this practice
becomes institutionalized as it were turn with me to first
Chronicles fifteen and sixteen. If any of you were present last
week when I preached in the morning it was on second Samuel chapter
six when David leads God's people in worship as the Ark is being
brought into Jerusalem. And 1 Chronicles 15 and 16 is
the parallel passage to this event. And it focuses especially
on David's leadership of the Levitical priests as he organizes
them to sing and to play music on the occasion of the Ark of
the Covenant being brought in to the city of Jerusalem. Look
with me at verse 16 of First Chronicles 15. David also commanded
the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the
singers who should play loudly on musical instruments on harps
and lyres and cymbals to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites
appointed Heman the son of Joel and of his brothers Asaph the
son of Barakiah and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan
the son of Cushiah and with them their brothers of the second
order Zechariah, Jaziel and then on and on this list of people
appointed to sing and to play instruments. And then verse 19
the singers Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound bronze cymbals. Do those names ring a bell to
anybody? Heman, Asaph, and Ethan. Why are they familiar? Right. The Psalter has psalms written
by each of these people. And so we see them being appointed
under the direction of David to be the psalm writers for the
temple as the ark is being ushered into Jerusalem. Well, the temple's
not built yet, but we'll see shortly that psalmody will be
intimately connected with the temple worship. It may seem strange
to find David so intimately involved in the actions of the Levites. He's appointing them, he's directing
them, he's commanding them. Usually we think about the office
of king as being separate from priests, but it's important to
remember that the kingship of Israel was not a purely political
office, it was a sacred office, and it's this office over which
God is reestablishing man as king over his creation. And so
David is acting as it were the worship leader of God's people,
directing the Levites in their praise of God on this occasion. To look into this further, turn
with me back to 1 Chronicles in chapter 25. In chapter 25, there's a much
more detailed description of David's organization of the musicians. Now, this comes in a flow of
chapters, beginning in verse 22, as David is preparing for
Solomon to build the temple. If you look with me quick in
chapter 22, verse 5, David said Solomon my son is
young and inexperienced and the house that is to be built for
the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent of fame and glory
throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation
for it and then Solomon or David charges Solomon to build the
temple in twenty three. David organizes the Levites for
the temple service in twenty four he organizes the priests
And then in Chapter 25, David organizes the musicians who will
praise God at the temple. And let's read verses one through
seven. And we'll end looking at this
passage as it sort of constitutes the high point in Old Testament
revelation as we learn about why it is that God instituted
psalmody and under what conditions it was brought into the life
of God's people. So let's look at First Chronicles 25. beginning
at the first verse. David and the chief of the service
also set apart for the service. The sons of a staff and of human
and of Jettison who prophesied with liars with harps and with
symbols. The list of those who did the
work and of their duties was of the sons of a staff Zach who
are Joseph Nethaniah and Asher Asher a lot sons of a staff under
the direction of a staff who prophesied under the direction
of the king of Jadath and the sons of Jadath get a liar very
just shy and she she may have to buy it and not a tire six
under the direction of their father Jadath and who prophesied
with the liar in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord of human
the sons of human of Bukkai, Mattaniah, Uziel, Shabuel, and
Jeremoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Elithah, Gadolati, and Romanti-Ezer. That's a lot of really hard names
in this verse. We'll go to verse five. All these were the sons
of Heman, the king's seer, according to the promise of God to exalt
him. For God had given Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
They were all under the direction of their father in the music
in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres for
the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthin, and Heman were
under the order of the king. Okay, so there's a lot of details
in these verses, and it could be very tempting as reading through
1 Chronicles in your devotion to sort of have your eyes glaze
over You know you're reading through all these names and you
just want to get through the chapter and you know and be done
trying to pronounce all of these really difficult names. But there's
a couple of really important details in this chapter as it
relates to psalmody in the period of David as the Psalter is being
brought into the life of the church in the in the worship
of the temple specifically. And there are two things that
anything stand out as being especially important. in these verses as
you're going through the names of all of these people that David
is. Exactly. So the first thing we need to
take away from this is they're not writing their own pious musings
in praise to God. They're prophesying they're under
divine inspiration. The text is very very clear about
this. three times, actually four times. They prophesied with light,
liars and with harps and with symbols. They prophesied on the
direction of the king. They prophesied with the harp
in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. We spoke a little bit
about Augustine earlier. I wanted to read a quote that
he wrote as he was in theological combat with another group of
heretics in the early church called the Donatists, Augustine
wrote, the Donatists reproach us for our grave chanting of
the divine songs of the prophets in our churches, while they inflame
their passions in their revels by the singing of psalms of human
composition, which roused them like the stirring notes of the
trumpet of the battlefield. Augustine was going through the
same worship wars that you could call them that we experience
in the modern church and here in First Chronicles twenty five.
There's nothing clearer than the fact that these men are writing
songs not of their own imagination but under the direct inspiration
of the Holy Spirit as they are prophesying in this act of praising
God and writing hymns to his glory. And is there anything
else. Another very crucial fact in
these verses that it's a phrase that's repeated at least two
or three times in this passage. And it's in reference to the
relationship between these men who are appointed to serve and
the king. Do you see that phrase is repeated
under the direction of the king. Verse two. Asaph's sons prophesy
under his direction and Asaph prophesies under the direction
of the king. And it's repeated again with
Heman and also further down Asaph, Jeduthin and Haman were under
the order of the king. Does anyone else have a slightly
different translation there? Direction, order, supervision, The Hebrew literally says they
were under the hand of the king. They're prophesying under the
hand of David the king. This is a really crucial point
that is often overlooked. Yes, the Psalms were written
under divine inspiration of the spirit, but they're also written
under the direction of David as he stands in the messianic
office as king over God's people. All the Psalms were either written
by David or they were written as they were being subcontracted
out under his supervision, under his hand, so that they all might
come under that rubric of the Psalms of David as they were
known throughout the history of the church. Turn with me now
to 2 Samuel 23. We'll gain a little clearer light
over why this is the case. And I've been going through all
these passages connecting the singing of psalms and hymns in
the history of the church with the leadership of Israel because
there's a pattern being established. The hymnody is particularly the
office of the king and that becomes institutionalized in David as
he is now overseeing the preparations for the temple worship. And as
it were, gathering together under his direction, the Psalms that
will be sung in praise to God in the temple. So second Samuel
twenty three. These are the last words of David
and there is an absolutely fascinating group of appellations that are
used to describe who David was before he dies. He actually says himself in chapter
or verse one of chapter twenty three. Now, these are the last
words of David, the Oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the
Oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. And again, we might
be tempted to see that last phrase, the sweet psalmist of Israel,
as sort of an off comment about some of David's musical proclivities,
but notice Notice this sequence of phrases that is used in reference
to David, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed
of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel. There's
a connection between all three. I think the inspired author is
recognizing that psalmody is properly the office of the king. The phrase right before that,
the anointed of the God of Jacob, Pastor Reece spoke about the
Septuagint this morning, which is the Greek translation of the
Old Testament. That verse says the Christ of God in the Greek,
that that word anointed it's Mashiach in Hebrew from where
we get Messiah and the Greek translation of the Old Testament
says the Christ of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of
Israel. Psalmody is particularly associated
with David. As he stands in the messianic
office as that type of Christ, the most fully developed type
of Christ in the Old Testament, as God's people are looking forward
to the coming of Messiah. And so if we can draw a principle
from this, if it is this, that it's the king who leads the congregation
in worship and that it is the king's own songs that the people
take upon their lips as they worship God. This may seem odd. How could it be that as David
is writing all of these songs about his own personal experiences
that they can then be taken upon the lips of God's people as their
own praise of God. Does anyone have any ideas as
to how to resolve that. How could it be that as David
is describing these events that are so intimately particular
to his struggles in his life that God's people can then take
those songs as their own praise and their own expressions of
faith. It's an important question for
us as we sing the songs. How can we take these songs on
our lips as our own expressions of faith when they were written
by by someone else who had different experiences than we do? How can
we take them as our own? Maybe a leading question to that
was, what was the relationship that the king stood in towards
the people? In the sense that the Psalms
speak of Christ through David, and that is the Christ that we
follow. And so, even though David was writing in his context, in
his experience, It still speaks to us and our experience and
where we are with Christ. Yeah, I'm not sure. No, that's
good. It's not what you were referring
that that's the difference too, that Christ is made in every
respect. So David, it's the common experience of him. So David's
experiences are our experiences that he's in the type of Christ
made like him in flesh. Yeah, that's very true and specifically
in the office of King. What happened when David took
a census of God's people. You guys remember who was who
was punished. The people right. Thousands of
Israelites died because David. And then you go ahead. And not only that, the whole
nation rejoices. That's a great example. I mean,
nowhere do you see federal headship demonstrated in modern terms
any clearer than at the World Cup. You know, we won. You won? Really? I thought, you know,
those 11 guys, you know, playing thousands of miles away won.
But that's exactly right. The king stood as the federal
representative of the people. He stood in a unique position
to the people so that his experiences, through his representation of
the people, became their experiences. When David sinned that was intimately
connected to the lives of the people and when he was victorious
and when he was blessed by God that too was poured out onto
the people because of the unique relationship that the king stood
in to the church. Both his triumphs and his sins
bore great consequences for God's people. I should note at this
point that throughout the Old Testament there's a rich tradition
of private songs being sung. You see many occasions where
people in either personal or private worship are singing songs
and praising God. But when it comes to the public
worship of God's people, it's uniquely the songs of the king
that are being sung in praise to God, precisely because of
this unique relationship that the king stands before the people
as the head of God's people. His experiences become the experiences
of the people, and so they can take those words on their lips
as their very own. There's a story that I read about
as I was studying for this class. There's an Anglican bishop named
Samuel Patrick, and this would be in the year 1692, and Bishop
Patrick began to replace psalm singing with the singing of hymns
that were written by fellow ministers in the Anglican Church. And during
worship one day, he noticed that one of the servant girls was
not singing along during the singing of these hymns. And so
afterwards, he takes her aside and asks her if she was well.
And this is her response. I am well enough in health. But
if you must needs know the plain truth of the matter, as long
as you song Jesus Christ songs, I sang along with you. But now
you sing songs of your own invention. You may sing by yourselves. Maybe
a bit of a radical response, but she understands the heart
of the matter that the songs as David is writing. In the spirit
of Christ testifying to the Messiah that will come, those words became
the Psalms of Christ. And as we take those songs upon
our lips through his representation of us and through our union with
him by the spirit, they can truly become our expressions of faith
and properly as the words of Christ. They are the only words
that can fully and sufficiently express our faith. because they
are the only words of praise that were inspired by Christ
and given to his church for worship. Thinking about all these things,
I want to read again the verse that Pastor Reese preached on
this morning, Colossians 3, 16. That the word of Christ dwell
in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. How? singing songs and hymns and spiritual
songs with thankfulness in your heart to God, living the word
of Christ dwell in us richly through the singing of songs
and hymns and spiritual songs. Again, not just the form of singing
the songs, but seeing them with thankfulness in your hearts to
God, because they are the words of Christ We can take them upon
our lips and thankfulness to God and have them truly be our
personal expressions of faith to him because of our union with
Christ. And think with me also about
Hebrews chapter 2 beginning in verse 11 for he who sanctifies
and those who sanctified all have one origin. That is why
he is not ashamed to call them brothers saying I will tell of
your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I
will sing your praise. Does that last Old Testament
quotation sound familiar? So the author of Hebrews is saying
Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers and Christ says about
us, quote, and then there's an Old Testament quotation. I will
tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation.
I will sing your praise. Yeah, hint, we sang it already
tonight. It's from right smack dab in the middle of Psalm 22.
So as the author of Hebrews thinks about our relationship to Christ
as he being our elder brother and we being those sons who through
spiritual regeneration come to have a recreated image of God
being united to the king over creation and restored to that
intimate relationship with God. Christ says, and the author of
Hebrews puts the words of the psalm in Christ's mouth as his
very own words, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing
your praise. And so what I want to gather
from this large amount of information is that just as David, as the
federal representative of God's people, led the congregation
in worship using The songs of his experiences as representative
of the faith and trust of the people and also of their great
travail of faith as well. So too we are still led in worship
by our king and it's still the words of our king that we take
upon our lips as we sing back our praise in thankfulness to
God through the spirit. Perhaps one last fact to consider
tonight is. something I think has profound
implications for the use of psalmody in the New Testament Church.
And that's the late date of organization of the Psalter. So we followed
psalmody up through David and then of course When David's line
effectually apostatizes and the exile removes God's people from
the land and they return to the land of Israel. It's mentioned
in Ezra chapter three that they reinstitute singing and they're
very specific. The Psalms of David in the temple
worship when the foundation is built. There's an interesting
fact at play here that the Psalms as we have them in our present
Bibles were not organized until after the exiles returned from
Babylon. There had been collections of
Psalters. We read about a book of Jasher in which some of these
songs were recorded in. Obviously, some of the songs
date as far back as Moses, but the final organization of the
Psalter in that divinely inspired structure of five books and specific
order did not occur until the exiles had returned back to Israel
out of Babylon. I mentioned that I think this
has profound implications because the church is on the verge of
the intertestamental period where there would be 400 years of prophetic
silence. Why is it that it's at this point
in time that the Psalter is organized into its final form and gathered
together as this canonical book filled with the Psalms of David
used by God's people in praise of the Lord. Now, I think if we connect it
to this pattern that it's the king of Israel that leads the
congregation in worship using the songs of his lips as the
praise of the people. I think there's a very good case
to be made that here on the verge of the intertestamental period,
the Psalter is organized in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.
The people know, you have the latter prophets who are saying
the next event on the horizon is the coming of Jesus Christ.
And it's at the same time that the Psalter is finally organized
into its final form. Not when Israel was organized
as a nation, not when David was organizing Psalms in the temple,
not before the exile, but it's here, right on the verge of the
coming of Messiah, that the Psalter is organized into its final form.
As if to say, here is coming the one seed of the woman in
whom all the promises of God will receive their yes and their
amen. And the Psalter is being organized in preparation for
his coming, so that when he comes, when he accomplishes salvation,
when he ascends to the right hand of God, he will lead the
congregation of God's people in worship, using his own psalms
as the words of praise that his people will take up on his behalf
and in praise of his finished work. As we think about this
again, turn back to 2 Samuel 23. David's last words are an intense
longing for the Messiah. We read the first verse, and
I want to read the rest of those verses there. More than perhaps
anyone else, David understood his office to be a pale reflection
of the coming Messiah. And he longed with all of his
might for the day when that greater son would come and be the perfect
fulfillment of all that his office stood for and all that he prophesied
about. Everything David did was with
an eye towards Jesus Christ, including his composition of
Psalms. You read the Psalms and there
are moments when David speaks so far out of his own experience
that he can he can be thinking of nothing except that greater
son who was coming to fulfill all of which he spoke of. So
pick up with me in verse two of Second Samuel 23. The spirit
of the Lord speaks by me, his word is on my tongue, the God
of Israel has spoken, the rock of Israel has said to me when
one rules justly over men ruling in the fear of God. He dawns
on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on
a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from
the earth. For does not my house stand so
with God, for he has made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and secure, for will he not cause to prosper
all my help and my desire? Even in the composition of Psalms,
David, the anointed of God, the sweet psalmist of Israel, had
the spirit of Christ in him, preparing those hymns to be perfectly
fulfilled in the coming of Messiah. One last quote to end us this
evening, and this is from John Calvin in his commentary on Psalm
2. As he thinks about the way in
which David understood his messianic office to be prophetic of Christ. Calvin says this, but it is now
high time to come to the substance of the type that David prophesied
concerning Christ is clearly manifest from this that she knew
his own kingdom to be merely a shadow. And in order to learn
to apply to Christ, whatever David in times past saying concerning
himself, we must hold this principle. which we meet with everywhere
in all the prophets, that he with his posterity was made king,
not so much for his own sake, but to be a type of the redeemer.
I would briefly inform my readers that as David's temporal kingdom
was a kind of earnest to God's ancient people of the eternal
kingdom, which at length was truly established in the person
of Christ. Those things which David declares
concerning himself are not violently or even allegorically applied
to Christ but were truly predicted concerning him. So what Calvin
isolates for us is that whatever David speaks concerning himself
in the Psalter and remember David's hand is over all of those who
are instituted to write psalms in the temple period to be added
to the soldier. Whatever David speaks concerning
himself, he understood to only come to perfect fulfillment when
this seat of the woman would come and assume the eternal throne
of God's kingdom, which was promised to David in Second Samuel, chapter
seven. And so as we think about our
period of engagement with the Lord and as we yearn to be with
him when he comes to bring us to himself, There are surely
no better songs and songs that we can take to our lips than
those that constitutes the word of Christ. The words that he
both wrote as its primary author, the words that he fulfilled as
the object of prophecy, and also those words that are applied
to him and that he leads us in as the worship leader of God's
people sitting at God's right hand in the office of messianic
king. There are no more sufficient
songs that we can take to our lips than those that Christ has
fully fulfilled in himself and that we can sing is truly our
own as we think about our union with him and as we long to be
with him in heaven when he comes to bring us to himself. And so
we'll we'll end there. Does anyone have any questions
about anything we've gone over probably should have stopped
a couple of times along the way. But any outstanding questions
that anyone would like to ask before we end. Melodies for men
as opposed to... I mean the chanting would have
been human composed melodies as well. There were never tunes
that we have had recorded for us as inspired along with the
words. We would consider the words of
the Psalms inspired elements and the melodies would be circumstances
that unique to every age can be composed suited for the use
of God's people in every age. And it's one of the reasons the
Psalter is so universal. It unifies all of God's people
as we're all singing. I mean, think about it. We're
singing psalms that Moses composed millennia ago, that David composed
millennia ago. The same psalms that God's people
have been singing in unison for centuries upon centuries, but
at the same time having the freedom to use melodies unique to every
generation. Any questions. OK, good. I'll end with short prayer and
then we'll sing another song, but let's pray briefly. Gracious Father, we praise you
that in Christ, all of your promises to us receive their yes. That
Christ is truly the fulfillment. Of all redemption. and of all
salvation that he has accomplished it for us that we have not to
work in ourselves but we have but to look to Christ the one
who has done all the work on our behalf who is bore the unmitigated
fury of your wrath for our sake. And it was defeated sin and death
that we might have eternal life. And we praise you Lord that when
we sing the songs Sometimes they can feel like
songs written far away and long ago and foreign to us. But Lord
truly they are the words of Christ that we can take upon our lips
in union with him. And as he is our king and as
we are his people they can become truly the words of our faith
and trust in you. As he goes before us as our king
and our redeemer the author and perfecter of our faith. Help
us, Lord, as we sing, not simply to sing because we're supposed
to. We are supposed to, but it is
with joy and love as we think about the salvation that Christ
has purchased for us. And as we think about Christ
is the one who truly leads our worship and in whom we can sing
with all of our hearts, knowing that his righteousness has become
our righteousness. Even as our sins became his on
the cross, we praise you for these great truths and the privilege
to sing your word back to you in union with our great King,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray in his name. Amen.
Christ in the Psalter, Part 1
Series SRC 2010 Summer Internship
| Sermon ID | 99101126351 |
| Duration | 1:30:37 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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