PSALM 146

Psaalm 146 begins a series of praise Psalms. By Psalm 150 we've got so excited we bring in a praise band and clang cymbals! We keep running into the word “Hallelujah,” often left untranslated or rendered as “Praise the Lord.” The Hebrew lexicons indicate the basic meaning comes from “to shine” but expands, depending on the tense, to mean “to flash forth light, to praise or boast. I have some young friends who maintain it means to brag on Jesus!

In fact, the singer immediately says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul!” Soul here is the same word from Genesis and creation when man becomes a living soul. The created ones are praising – and thanking – the Creator!

Verse 2 – He will praise while he lives and has his being! I think immediately of Jesus's statement, “Night comes when no one can work.” And neither can we praise when night comes. This psalmist is building thanksgiving and praise into his lifestyle. Someone has pointed out that thanksgiving helps build faith. When we remember what God has done, we can trust that He can and will continue to lead us effectively.

Verse 3 – Don't trust people, not even the powerful, for they are mortal and cannot guide the destiny of the world and they that dwell therein. But God can. Right now the US is incredibly polarized. Yet too many on both sides speak and write as if their side brings salvation. The Bible says all humans are flawed, limited, sinful. Politics will not save us, nor will armies and diplomacy. All these issues are vitally important, but nore are ultimate issues.

Verse 5 – The true source of happiness, security, and faith the God of the Bible. He's the same on who led and commanded Jacob, the father of Israel, and all of the other heroes of the Bible. We worship the same God today, knowing even more about His nature now that He has come in Jesus Christ!

Verse 6 – He shifts from his history reference back to the general revelation of Creation. Then the writer adds a couple of new ideas: He keeps truth forever.

Truth here has its roots in firmness or faithfulness. It can also refer to the body of ethical or religious knowledge, which the OT often calls the Word of the Lord. Truth is something you can rely on, trust, put your weight down on. To keep truth means to preserve it, guard it, watch over it, even to observe it. I believe the psalmist here is stating his faith that eternal truth will win over error, evil, and the stuff today we call fake news.

He pictures God as being the ultimate avenger, making sure justice is done, that the oppressed gets a fair hearing. NIV translates this part of the verse as “He upholds the cause of the oppressed. In Hebrew there are only two words here. The first is “mishpat,” The same word can refer to a commentary by a scholar, somewhat similar to the Arabic word fatwa that we sometimes hear of an imam delivering. The word is equivalent to handing down justice. This is a promise of eventual justice to victims, the abused, and downtrodden.

God continues His care for humanity by providing bread to the hungry. He created the world with nutritious food for us. Sometimes, however, we must recognize He uses us to distribute that food. I appreciate the way the whole community supports CCA and I especially like the SBC Hunger Offering promoted in October.

And the Lord frees the prisoners. Compare this with Jesus's declaration of His purpose which includes “preaching release to the captives.” While we must declare sin as sin, we must do so in a way that shows the freedom that comes from releasing its shackles.

The next verse continues this theme by giving vision to the blind. Could this mean opening our eyes to see the world as God sees it? Further, he riases up those for whom life is a burden, bowing beneath their heavy load. God raises them up. He is a God of resurrection in many senses! Finally, He loves the righteous or the just. I read an article by a Spanish translator, who maintained the the Spanish translations tended much more often to translate “tzedek” as “just” or “justice” than do the English ones. I checked three Spanish versions in this case, and, sure enough, they each used the word “justo” out of four possible choices.

Verse 9 – The Lord continues to bbe seen as the champion of the helpless. The near east was and is a above average region in hospitality. (When you're not around the fighting.) Strangers and refugees were welcome, and in some verses commanding this, the Lord reminds them they were slaves in Egypt. He also takes care of the widow and orphan. Remember, He may choose to do it today through His church – through YOU!

Again we hit antithetical parallelism. The opposite of this is how the Lord treats the wicked. And rather than make their paths straight, he sends them down a confusing maze, where they will be confusede and ineffective in their evil.

The Psalm concludes with the strongest kind of optimism. “The Lord will reighn forever!” It's a shout, ending with Halleluyah!

Psalm 136

Remember responsive readings in church? In the back of most hymnals you find scripture with alternate verses in bold face. Usually the worship leader or pastor reads the first verse, and the audience responds by reading the bold face in unison. Whenever I could make it fit the sermon, I liked to use them, because reading aloud increases the likelihood the audience is paying attention. This Psalm works like that.

In music, especially among the uneducated classes where many could not read, there was a call-and-response type song. The leader would sing or chant or even speak out a line, and the rest would sing that same line back to him. Probably that's why in “high church” traditions most liturgies include congregational responses. For example, a common one is the priest says, “Peace be unto thee,” and his flock answers back, “And unto thee.”

Every verse in Psalm 136 has the same response: “And his mercy endures forever!” several modern translations us the term “faithful love” instead of mercy. The Hebrew word is chesed, and the most accurate is probably “covenant love,” His love for His chosen people, Israel. One Hebrew dictionary suggests these meanings: favor, good deed, kindness, loving kindness, mercy, pity. Oddly its original meaning came from reproach or reproof! Go figure.

The quarterly does a good job of dividing the psalm into three sections. The first is similar to previous studies of His innate greatness as Creator. Next, the praise is directed at His actions in history, His establishment and protection of Israel, and finally, His personal care of individuals.

Verse 1 – good – dictionary: pleasant, agreeable, excellent, rich valuable, kind, benign, ethical – good or right.

2 – God of gods – king above all gods, any other conceivable god.

3 – Lord of lords – as above...

4 – does great wonders – difficult or impossible things

5 – understanding, skill, wisdom. Compare John 1:1 – the Word. Also Genesis 1, where God merely spoke and things came into being.

The author continues to praise God as Creator until:

Verse 10 – smote the Egyptians – shifting to history. Remember we pointed out in our first lesson that history plays a huge part in the Bible. In most world religions, their concept of deity does not include a historical god. Rather everything happens in cycles. The Bible sets out a linear history that God acts in as the Actor in Chief!The most important historical theme is the Exodus. As the US looks back to its founding fathers, so Israel looked back on the Exodus as its beginning.

He goes on in later verses enumerating the battles the Lord won for them, culminating in verse 23:

What was this low estate? Israel came from a hard-working, slave class of people.

Their leaders often reminded them of how far they had come because of the Lord's help. God saw their low estate, their desperate need. We can be sure when we travel through those floods of trouble that come now and then that He knows, loves, and is working through it for our good.

24 – Another historical reference to the many times Israel prevailed only because the Lord intervened.

Verse 25 is one of the most individually personal references in the psalms. He feeds the world. In the first place, Creation is designed to support life as biologists have shown us in describing the life and food cycles of many animals and ecosystems. “food” is the Hebrew word lechem, which you will recognize as the last part of Bethlehem, house of bread/food. Bread does not here mean a grain product, but like we use it to say “break bread with,” or to eat.

To sum up: Praise God for Creation, His might acts in history, and His constant care over us. Praise YE the LORD!

Psalm 95

This is a praise Psalm, a nature Psalm, and a wisdom Psalm.

It begins as a praise Psalm, that both encourages us to praise God in singing and worship while setting us an example of how to do that. Parts of the Psalms have been set to music, and for this one and a few others I always think of “The Heavens Are Telling,” a great choral number I got to sing in my high school choir days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u3ax0ZdnSQ

It's also a nature Psalm or a creation Psalm. The song praises God as creator of everything, from the heavens to the bottom of the sea. We too have been created by Him and belong to Him.

The wisdom part is the injunction in the last third of the piece to avoid evil. All through the Psalms this theme runs, beginning with the first. Two paths – always choose God's way, the way Jesus said was the straight and narrow. Note that when this part begins, the subject of the verbs change to first person – God speaks!

Note also the singer invokes history. Three or four of the 150 are almost entirely history sermons, praising God for His dealing with Israel. Parts of history are quoted or described in other Psalms. In this case he refers to an incident – one of many – where Israel rebelled, and God punished those rebels. Don't be like them. Follow the other way.

The author of this psalm was enthusiastic about his worship! Maybe he's the same guy who wrote #150 about loud crashing symbols! Twice he calls us to shout! I remember an old man in FBC Waco, where I attended in college. This was a solemn, dignified church, except for this guy. About once a month, the preacher said some that got two him. In a sudden deep bass voice you wouldn't expect to have that much volume, he boomed, “AMEN!” The whole congregation jumped like my dorm did when a dynamite cap went off in the quadrangle in December.

He also calls for singing, which most congregations do with variable results. He also challenges us to come into His presence. An awesome call! Literally, the word means “before His face.” To me, that strikes fear, as Isaiah felt at his call before the Lord in the temple. “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Nevertheless, the psalmist says to give thanks to that glorious God and shout for joy and singing!

Verse 3 proclaims that Yahweh is a great God and a King above all gods. Many in that day were polygamous and believed in many gods. If so, our singer proclaims they are all beneath the One Who is their King. Of course, he actually is proclaiming there is one and only One God who reigns over all.

How great is the Lord? In His hand are the depths of the earth and the height of the mountains. Another psalm that is the favorite of one of our class members who will share it with us later, askes “where can I go to escape Him? If I go to the sky, He is there. If I sleep in Hell, still He is there?” “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...”

Verse 6 calls on us to prostrate ourselves before him. (Compare to the pictures we see of Muslims on their prayer rugs before God. That's what he's talking about.) Note, btw, the parallel poetry as he repeats himself three times in Verse 6.

Verse 7 spells out the relationship (note the different kind of parallelism). He is our God/king, and we are His people/subjects. He also compares us frequently to sheep as the Bible often does. To fulfill that sheep role, we must hear Him, listen to Him, and obey Him.

Does the shift come with “Today” at the end of v 7, or at the beginning of v 8 with the call to “Harden not”? I'll let you decide, but the two reflect the two ways in Psalm 1. Merribah means quarreling, and Massah means testing. The Israelites were griping at the lack of water in spite of all the evidence of the Lord's mighty works in their behalf. They had hardened their hearts, which the psalm is imploring the reader not to do!

Though this was not the trigger for the wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, it was the same attitude that led to the fear that kept them from the promised land until that generation died out. God said they erred “in their hearts,” not in their minds. Faith is a matter of the heart and will, not only intellectural understanding. Likewise, when He says, “They have not known my ways,” He's referring to their experiential knowledge, not their head knowledge.

God pronounced sentence: They shall not enter my rest/Promised Land. Note this word “rest” because it explains a lot when reading the New Testament book, Hebrews. They didn't trust God, so He acts as if they didn't want to stay with Him. The rest fulfills their commitment and following.

Psalm 84

Many first reactions on seeing this will be, “Psalm 84? What's that?” It doesn't ring a bell like some Psalms do, but you may know it more than you think you do: Consider these  verses:

How lovely are Thy Tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!

My soul longs, yea pants for the courts of the LORD!

The sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest...

They go from strength to strength...

For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

This has been called a song of ascent or a song of Zion, because it sounds like a Psalm that pilgrims to Jerusalem might sing as they approached that city. It made no difference what direction you came from, you were going to ascend the somewhat high hill atop which Jerusalem rested. I might call this a pilgrim psalm.

LORD of hosts – what are the “hosts”? Well, it's not one who hosts a party. Hosts can refer to angels, stars, armies, angel armies. Holman uses “Heaven's armies.” All those terms would be appropriate at times. However, here I prefer the stars as I picture pilgrims singing as they approach Jerusalem as they saw the ciy rising up before them.

The birds mentioned point out how detailed God's love and provision are. Not only for humans, but for the animals God shows concern.

Verse 5 speaks of those who set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But such a pilgrimage involves more than approaching the house of the Lord. We still need to go on pilgrimage in our minds if nowhere else.

The word “happy” or “blessed” in verses 5-6 should, IMHO, be translated “blessed.” A happy person may or may not have something to do with the Lord. Blessed implies that we are receiving something from God and He is the source, not something we have done. Coming to church is coming to a building. Coming into the presence of the Living God is always life-changing!

“Dwell in thy house, ever praising – No, he doesn't mean having a bedroom in the educational building. Rather the Psalm is a testimony to those who live in the consciousness of the presence of God. There is a respected devotional history by various saints of God to this end, one even titled “Practicing the Presence of God.”

Whose hearts are in the highways – whatever can this mean. Remember John the Baptist? The “voice of one crying in the desert, 'prepare the way of the Lord.'” the one who praises God also opens doors and makes a path for others to follow. Verse 7 tells us how: though coming through dry and arid regions, they are able to break the drought with springs and early rain. I often find people on Facebook who are in despair. Their friends often jump in with reassurance and strength, and I think of Galatians 6: Bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Verse 8: their strength is in God and it grows stronger and stronger. When we bless others, we automatically bless outselves. One way out of despondency and self-pity is to find someone else and help ease their burden. In so doing you are practicing His presence and sharing it – making a highway, or at least a footpath.
The award is to appear before the very presence of God!

In the Psalms and elsewhere we find a petitioner calling out for God to hear his prayers. This may be natural since we cannot see God with  our eyes. I often have heard people say, “My prayers don't get through the ceiling.” I usually tell them, “That's not necessary. God doesn't live on the roof. He's right beside you.”

Many computer programs have a “back door,” an easy way for a programmer to log back into the program and fix problems. It occurred to me a few years ago that the “image of God” includes a “back door” where God can access us any time He chooses. Don't worry about His hearing you. He will. Just talk to Him.

In v 10 God is depicted as our shield. He defends us against evil. This is one of multiple verses meant to calm our fears. As Paul said,, “If God be for us, who (or what) can stand against us?”

“I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord.” I've often quoted this to the ushers and greeters. Did you know that most people decided whether to return to a church in the first 4-7 MINUTES they are there? Before they have heard the preacher or maybe sung the first song. The way they are received is extremely important. The usher may be the most important person/witness in the church! Read that again. Another vital person is the receptionist/secretary/personal assistant who answers the phone. I once had occasion to call a business office several times one month. The woman who answered the phone had such warmth thaat I felt she had been waiting all day for me to call. I said if I were to start a business there, I'd pay her 60K a year just to answer my phone! The one answering the phone is the first contact with the church (or business). What impression does your phone manners make? In 45+ years of pastoring I don't remember anyone coming back from vacation telling me about some other preacher's sermon. I do remember many comments on how well they were received by the church, whether made welcome or given a cold shoulder. What do people coming to your church feel?

The final verses sum up most of the Psalms, as a praise to God. A sun and a shield. Warmth and protection. He promises God will provide good things to those who love Him. Again, he concludes by saying those who put their faith in God will be blest by him!