Psalms

What a strange thing it is about this book.

What a strange thing it is about the prayers written in the Psalms that they have had that impact over and over and over for thousands of years.

Commenting on this story, the Catholic theologian Michael Novak notes, "It was precisely the sharp denominational divisions among colonial Americans that made the Hebrew Bible the unifying force that it was on that day and has been ever since.

It was the biblical sense of a providential and covenantal mission that has enabled Americans, past and present, to overcome their differences and to unite their individual agendas into a common destiny." So here you have it.

Written in the land of Israel, far away from the land which they heard it, written originally in the Hebrew language which none of them knew, written more than 2,200 years before their time, these three simple sentences had the power to transform the members of that Congress from a group of quarreling delegates, each concerned only about the rights of his own colony, into the United States.

As John Adams wrote to his wife, "I have never seen a greater effect on an audience than I saw on this day." And then the rabbi again.

We Jews think of the Psalms as our book, and rightly so.

But we should realize that it is the book of all humanity as well.

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

A reading from the book of Psalms You know my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor.

My foes are all known to you.

Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.

So what I hear you say is be honest, be honest with God.

One, during a season in my life, one, I lived in the Psalms.

I absolutely lived in the Psalms.

And I think that's where I began to respect David's relationship with the Lord so much because he was so honest with God about what he was feeling, what he was experiencing.

And he gave that up to the Lord and the Lord stepped right in the middle of there and brought healing and remembrance of how big he is, how faithful he is and how much he loves.

What a description.

And what about King David? The one who authored most of the Psalms.

The one about whom more is said in the Bible than any person except Jesus Christ.

He wrote, I am worn out from sobbing.

In Psalm 89, God says, I will make my firstborn the ruler of the kings of all the earth.

It's a prediction of the coming Messiah, whom God calls in Psalms, my firstborn.

And so picking up on that ancient tradition, Phrasology, that's what Paul means when he says, and he uses the word prototokos, firstborn.

He's the firstborn over all creation.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

A reading from Psalms to the choir master, according to Shushan Edith, a miktam of David, for instruction when he strove with Aram Neharaim and with Aram Zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.

O God, you have rejected us, broken our defences.

You have been angry, O restore us.

The Bible has many figures of speech, and they are easily comprehended as figures of speech.

In the Psalms, for example, there's a comforting figure which says that God shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust.

Nobody dares draw from this the concept that God is a bird.

The image of God which was placed upon man and which man lost in the fall is a spiritual image.

You find it in Numbers 14 and Nehemiah 9.

You find it four times in the Psalms.

It's there in Joel, and it's also in the book of Jonah.

God is merciful.

Now the next section, the third of these main stanzas, talks about God's faithfulness.

It says he's faithful to his promises.

Derek Kidner, whom I've often referred to as one of the best modern commentators on the Psalms, calls this section, God the Provider.

He knows four ways in which God provides for his creation.

For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

A reading from the Psalms.

To the choir master, according to Shushan Eduth, a miktam of David, for instruction, when he strove with Aram Naharim and with Aram Zobah, and when Joab, on his return, struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the valley of salt.

O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses.