Finding Order in Chaos: The Eternal Authority of the Psalms

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:06:50] Praise you. Praise you when something's good. They know how to praise you in the valley of the shadow of death because you're still Lord. In the worst of our situations, you are God. When we feel most forsaken, you are the Lord. You are the faithful God. When we feel that we have no good thing in our hands, every good and perfect gift comes from you. Could you just give him a midweek praise? Yeah, that's it right there. Not everybody knows that.
[00:07:33] to do that they know how to do something on a sunday morning but a midweek that's another kind of sound i've been through some stuff in the beginning of this week and i wasn't sure if i
[00:07:46] knew how to praise him but i think i'll bring him a thursday afternoon praise thank you hallelujah praise to god you are worthy you are the lord of your people oh hallelujah hallelujah you can be seated children i'm so glad you were in here i love your sound when you worship the lord
[00:08:17] i love the way you lift your hands i love watching theo when he's got his hands up and just glorifying the name of the lord i love listening to the trumpet that you blow i love walking over
[00:08:31] here and oh it's beautiful it's a marvelous thing to have generations making a sound joining the um you have seen perhaps on social media some of our our people in israel we've got 40 plus
[00:08:58] in israel they had to fight to get there to new york to leave from new york and then the flight there and that there's been one challenge after another and then of course as it was for me a
[00:09:16] month ago I had to leave abruptly because of Iran and the threat of war but the Lord was good and sustained and it was delayed I'm so grateful this morning throughout the night and then to this
[00:09:39] our morning I think going back and forth with with our leadership Pastor Debbie and Pastor Kaylin. Pastor Kaylin worked for a ministry. She stepped back a little bit towards the end of the year simply because of Hadassah, her daughter, and the demands of mothering and not wanting to
[00:10:00] miss moments and seasons. But in her ministry with Eagle's Wings, which is an extraordinary ministry, she's helped dozens of tours get their flights scheduled, get their itineraries planned. So she's so good at this but as we were watching and increasingly watching as we're doing even now
[00:10:22] with the inevitability of war with Iran but the timing is not inevitable and that's important and so I felt good sending my wife my daughter my son-in-law and 40 of the best people I've ever
[00:10:44] pastor to Israel and they along with the group that went two or three years ago, 33, now a quarter of our adults in this ministry have walked in that land. I don't know that we truly began to grasp
[00:11:07] the supernatural prophetic pivotal significance of that. It shows God even though he's omniscient, It proves that he can trust us with understanding about what's going on in the world prophetically.
[00:11:23] Israel and Iran.
[00:11:25] There was an earthquake today.
[00:11:28] 5.5 in Israel.
[00:11:30] I mean in Iran.
[00:11:31] Iran is the newer name.
[00:11:33] It used to be called Persia.
[00:11:36] And we just stepped into Adar.
[00:11:39] And I wrote something to our people and then I put it on my own page.
[00:11:42] About Adar.
[00:11:43] This month of Adar.
[00:11:43] It is the month when Esther called a three-day fast to bring down a lying political figure named Haman.
[00:11:53] And today there was a 5.5, you can't make this up, 5.5 earthquake in the exact spot where Esther was ruling.
[00:12:07] Not just Iran, but the city, the city in Iran.
[00:12:15] and so we have been watching carefully the situation as I shared with you before I don't believe this president regardless of what you think about his politics I could not care less but this I do know about him he despises war not
[00:12:31] because he's a morally superior person he just despises he sees war as a failure we could have made a deal we could have saved money he looks at war as a failure he had rather bankrupt a company company a country than to bomb
[00:12:47] it and so going to war you can lose people you can lose time you can live anything as a businessman this is just a complexity that we ought to be able to avoid so he's going to do his very best beyond what anything I would try to do
[00:13:00] in his negotiations trying to make sure we don't go into war now he's been told by his cabinet that the U.S. will be ready by Saturday night. We've got a ship that is coming in the U.S. to be there Sunday. So this weekend it could happen. And so I had said to our team,
[00:13:21] I said, my number one priority is information. I need to know if we said today we're going to leave now, what have we got to do to convert tickets? When can we get a flight? When can we
[00:13:34] leave, where would we land? Because I suspect we would have to go through Europe instead of a direct flight. And again, that's not saying, and this is what I want you to know. This particular
[00:13:47] trip, there's been more spiritual warfare. I fell to the year a month ago. I shared with you that when I was in, when I was in Israel, just getting to the wall and the rain that was coming
[00:13:56] this way, not this way, it was coming this way. And the turbulence, the upheaval, the spiritual violence, it was extraordinary. I had to leave. I was on my way to Tel Aviv, got a call. You need
[00:14:05] to go back to Jerusalem, pack your things. We've got a flight ready for you to get out. The fellowship did everything it could because I wanted to go to Shiloh. I wanted to go to Bethel.
[00:14:15] I wanted to put my head on a rock and look up into the heavens and say, what's next? But immediately, I mean like this, it said, no, it's canceled. But I said to them today, our group, I said,
[00:14:26] I want you to know something. You've had three big events in my opinion. Number one, they went to Mount Carmel now you know how much we've preached about Elijah in this house back in 2019
[00:14:39] moving all the way into the crazy when it started with the virus and the violence and the vaccine and all the drama of 20 and 21 what we we were I'd always seen myself more as a David but I ended up
[00:14:51] preaching more about Elijah they were at Mount Carmel now there's stuff up there I couldn't care less about every you know if Jesus walked somewhere they have to build something I couldn't care less about those things but if you just stand at Carmel and feel the wind blow I saw and know that that
[00:15:10] was where fire came down they made that trip to Carmel Shiloh you know what Shiloh means we're talking about Hannah and Samuel what it means I was not allowed to go this time there our group
[00:15:24] made it to Shiloh at the end of the day back what was it seven hours ago for them they arrived in Jerusalem and got to the wall where they could pray where they could touch it where they could
[00:15:39] just see not only the past of what God did through his people but the promises and so I said to them if you had to come home today which you're not you've had those three things and you're not
[00:15:51] studying history this trip you're living it because of what is happening internationally you're living history and you'll remember some of the tensions and the stresses more than you'll remember some of the sites you saw because you're a part of it. So you'll be in prayer for our
[00:16:08] people. Again, we have been actually speaking with Knesset, their Congress, Israel's Congress.
[00:16:16] I've been talking to several persons. Pastor Kaylin's been talking as well. So when we feel it's time, I was about to say we'll pull the trigger, but I'm going to use a different phrase, but we'll do what we can. But I'm wanting to know when an airport might close. This is my
[00:16:35] biggest concern and i need you to pray against it and bind it i don't think trump is going to move right now i just don't number one he's got a state of the union monday or tuesday i don't
[00:16:43] believe he wants to stand before the congress as a man of peace and say we're in war i don't think that strategically that's what he wants to do i wouldn't be surprised though if iran makes a
[00:16:54] preemptive strike so that israel and the u.s have to retaliate to where all of a sudden we're dragged into a war during Ramadan which would outrage all of Islam so just pray that whoever needs to die
[00:17:09] will die now you may not be able to do that because because you got prissy prayers I ain't got no prissy prayers and if Esther can can bring down a Haman I got no problem bringing down an
[00:17:27] Ayatollah got no problem got no problem you shooting down 30 40 80 000 people killing them trying to get out of there change it so I thank all of you who have in this time
[00:17:47] it's been me and Hadassah and she's taught me much such a good teacher I'm so grateful to Paul because he's good with her she adores him but I'm grateful to all of you who have said Bishop do you need anything and all the texts if I
[00:18:04] haven't responded it's because she's had my phone and I haven't been able to to respond and anything with a screen she i have to so uh but i'm so grateful especially to pastor christy who has just been on the front lines of every pastoral responsibility and to jim and
[00:18:23] ginger as well for visiting and looking i'm grateful for the time i want you to look around there's a lot of people who would have said well you know what we got 45 people out of town and
[00:18:30] a lot of our leaders are not even going to be there so i i don't even know if i'm going to We'll just wait until...
[00:18:35] Thank you.
[00:18:38] Phyllis, look at you sitting over there all quiet.
[00:18:44] Pastor Christy went over there to see her at the hospital.
[00:18:46] She wasn't even there.
[00:18:48] Pastor Christy, you saw somebody.
[00:18:52] He was not you.
[00:18:55] The man was not you.
[00:18:59] But I'm sure he needed prayer too.
[00:19:01] I said, get out of that place.
[00:19:03] Ain't nothing but sick folk up there.
[00:19:04] Get out of there.
[00:19:06] Pastor Christy is going to bring the breathing word of God.
[00:19:08] Father in the name of Jesus we thank you for this house for our people we thank you for those who today saw the wall that behind me we have not an extension of it but an expression of it ours is a prop I love it
[00:19:28] theirs is a promise thank you for keeping our people safe and keeping them well thank you that against any kind of a challenge or adversity you have shown yourself mighty in the midst of your people if our people indeed are watchmen of the wall
[00:19:45] that means your warriors at the wall as well and we can't say we're ready to go to war for Israel if the first sign of trouble we run there's a lot of folk a lot of friends and family I don't doubt
[00:19:59] that have made things difficult for their loved ones in Israel why aren't you home you should have got on a plane do you know how what you're putting it all those kinds of things I get that
[00:20:08] That's because they think like tourists.
[00:20:11] If this was about tourism, it would have been smart to get on a plane and come home.
[00:20:15] It's not a good tour.
[00:20:16] But these are ambassadors.
[00:20:19] And they are on assignment from God.
[00:20:21] And I thank you that they are releasing something and receiving something.
[00:20:26] Now bless Pastor Christy tonight.
[00:20:29] May the oil be thick.
[00:20:31] Lord, touch her mind.
[00:20:33] Touch her lips.
[00:20:35] Touch every part of her being to release.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:20:38] thus saith the Lord in Jesus name I marvel every time at how I have zero conversation with Pastor Kalen and yet every song that's played in the time that we walk in has something to do with
[00:21:08] the word that God's already speaking it's like the show before the show and and when I first walked in the song that was playing was about dwelling place God I could dwell all the time
[00:21:19] at your feet. And then it moved progressively into a louder sound of praise. And that's exactly what we're talking about. I'm going to go ahead and give you the spoiler alert right now in case
[00:21:31] you have to leave early. We're talking about praise. We're talking about praise from a very, you would expect it. You would expect it from this person, the psalmist. Psalms, that potent poetry that says to us things that can be in the past, things that can be in the present,
[00:22:02] things that can be in the future. In fact, there are moments when you pick up your Bible and you start reading out of the book of Psalms and you would declare you're reading a newspaper
[00:22:12] or a news feed on your phone.
[00:22:16] Just listen to the first two verses of Psalm 2.
[00:22:19] Why are the nations in an uproar?
[00:22:22] Why are the people grumbling in vain?
[00:22:25] The earth's kings are taking positions.
[00:22:27] Leaders are conspiring against each other, against Adonai and his anointed.
[00:22:34] Like that could be the opening line of the newscast on any day of the week.
[00:22:39] and it happens in every dispensation of time.
[00:22:43] So this psalm could have been written 2,000 years before Jesus.
[00:22:47] It could have been written 1,000 years ago and it's still true.
[00:22:51] It is true to its core.
[00:22:54] Other times we pick up the book of Psalms and we look at it and we think, man, that's just like my family.
[00:23:00] It's like looking through the pages of a photo album and knowing when he talks about the goodness of God, generational blessings.
[00:23:11] You look through there and you say, yep, yep, yep, yep.
[00:23:14] And then there's some moments that we look at and we don't want to identify with, don't we?
[00:23:21] But he puts it all in there.
[00:23:24] That's what I love.
[00:23:25] I dare you to go home tonight.
[00:23:28] Think of an emotion.
[00:23:30] Look up in the book of Psalms.
[00:23:33] And if you can't find it, I'll meet you back here Sunday and we'll go through it together.
[00:23:38] I promise you, every possible emotion is in the book of Psalms.
[00:23:46] In fact, not even just every emotion, almost every topic you can think of is in the book of Psalms.
[00:23:53] Listen to this.
[00:23:54] Fun fact, GSM, I love that y'all are in here tonight.
[00:23:59] I was wondering where you would be.
[00:24:00] but y'all are so good that I thought she might've gave them a study guide. They might be up there just teaching each other because that's who you are. But I love that you're in here. If you don't
[00:24:11] remember anything about the book of Psalms, remember this, it can be your greatest evangelistic tool in 2026 or discipleship tool. We are living in a culture that has to be seen and heard and felt. I'm telling you, if somebody starts telling you some kind of drama, it's in there. If they
[00:24:35] start telling you sadness and depression, it's in there. If they start telling you joy, I'm looking for promise, I'm looking for purpose, it's in there. You can take them to the pages of scripture and you can show them with certainty an example in the book of Psalms. Every topic, listen to some
[00:24:55] of these. Sinners, righteousness, nature, family, enemies, worship, lying down, rest, anger, all kinds of time, morning, day, night, work, honor, distress, sacrifices, riches, food, temple, tombs, tongues, leaders, friends, presence, angels, majesty, heavens, earth, discipline, fools, about chapter three, bones, body, shelter, shields, fear, joy, peace,
[00:25:45] rescue people, creation, blessings, justice, crying, destruction, thrones, trust, the poor, terror, distance, trouble, lust, greed, schemes, prospering, humility, oppression, security lions that's just the first 10 chapters y'all multiply that times 15 there's 150 of them
[00:26:29] and some of the themes repeat why do you think that is because we're humans and there's patterns we repeat as well and sometimes when we go back through a cycle something that we've learned brings a different outcome the second time than it did the first time.
[00:26:47] Sometimes it doesn't, and the psalmist is so quick to call that out.
[00:26:51] The Word of God, we know this, but the Word of God has an answer for absolutely everything.
[00:27:00] The son of King David, King Solomon, the wisest man in the world, says in the pages of Scripture, there's absolutely nothing new.
[00:27:09] it takes on a new packaging it might take on a new name it might have a new manifestation but the spirit of it is going to be the seed of it is going to be the same there's nothing new we have
[00:27:24] a spiritual feast at our fingertips yet we're starving imagine in the flesh what we do when we're hungry and we're distracted unfocused so you might step in the kitchen and you grab a handful of potato chips. And then you might go back and get a handful of cookies. And then you
[00:27:48] might go back and get a piece of bread. And at the end of all that, you're still saying, no, that wasn't it. I'm not satisfied. We do the exact same thing in the spirit realm.
[00:28:00] When we are unsatisfied, we reach over here for this opinion. We reach over here for this piece of information. We go over here to get this person's validation. And it is the exact same thing as what it looks like in our kitchen when at the end of all that we've consumed calories
[00:28:17] but we're not full. We're empty. Not only are we empty, we're empty and frustrated because we didn't get the outcome that we were looking for. When we truly sit in the Psalms, it is like we're having a conversation because we are. These, many people will describe the book
[00:28:44] of Psalms as a songbook and it is, but it's also at its very core, a prayer book. People pray these verses back unto God. When you can't find the words to say sometimes and you pick up the pages
[00:28:59] of Psalms and you say back to him some of the same thing that saints have been saying for centuries back to him you know there's a confidence that rises up in you that makes you know the situation
[00:29:14] has not changed but my outlook about it has it might not look promising it might not look positive but his omnipresence has changed the way I'm looking at these particulars that are a part of my situation but there's a tendency in humanity to want to throw out the old we want to get rid of
[00:29:39] anything that seems old or stale or we just think in our arrogance sometimes that if we throw our creativity upon it surely we're going to get a different answer if we bring some new flair
[00:29:54] we're going to get it it's going to be different we're always looking for fresh and innovative the book of Psalms teaches us that there's proof we can find right now answers in way back accounts
[00:30:13] the accounts might be ancient but the authority is eternal we don't have to go looking we don't have to go recreate take some stress off yourself look at what he's already said and done and do
[00:30:27] that I'm talking to myself I don't know why I'm gonna tell y'all a story about cliff notes in just a minute. In Psalm 1, literally the first verses of Psalms, he tells us the outcome.
[00:30:46] He says, God's blessings follow you and await you at every turn. When you, bullet point, don't follow the advice of those that delight in wicked schemes. Bullet point, when you avoid sin's highway. Bullet point, when judgment and sarcasm call your name on a regular basis but you
[00:31:11] refuse, for you the eternal word is your happiness and it's your focus from dusk to dawn. Why that choice of words? Where are the midnight hour friends in the house? You know you can stay busy
[00:31:35] during the day and you can have every kind of noise going on, but when dusk to dawn keeps your attention in his word, you're going to win. It's the exact same. It's like a hyperlink. You put
[00:31:47] your finger right there. You know, when you pull up something online and there's like something underlined and if you touch it or you click on it, it's going to take you to something else that's
[00:31:55] connected to something else. Some people call that a rabbit trail, but I do not. It's a pot of gold.
[00:32:01] Isn't it, Amanda? It is a pot of gold, yes.
[00:32:04] I don't know why it is that in some arenas of our lives, we just want to hurry up and get the answer by any means necessary.
[00:32:17] This is where I'm going to insert that story about cliff notes.
[00:32:20] How many of y'all are old enough to know what cliff notes even are?
[00:32:24] It has occurred to me that some people on the third row might not know what cliff notes are.
[00:32:28] so in high school when I was there there were these really thick books we were supposed to read but there was also this cool guy who had created a little pamphlet his name must have been called
[00:32:41] cliff because they were called cliff notes and you could buy those if you could if your mama would let you and you could read the quick version of what that story was going to be about and act
[00:32:55] like you read it unless you had one of those real annoying teachers that would get things for the test like what color was the girl's dress in chapter three who cares chapter three was supposed
[00:33:08] to be about what cliff said chapter three was supposed to be about this is the way we also read the bible sometimes this is the way we engage god when we're in the middle of a journey that his
[00:33:23] goal is not for us to just get the answer at the end. His goal is for us to experience it all the way through because there's going to be things we learn in the experience of it. There's going to be
[00:33:38] things that we learn about the character of God that nothing else can teach us. There's things about the order of God that sometimes make absolutely no sense. A couple of weeks ago when we were studying the commandments there's this there's this decree in the book of Exodus that
[00:33:58] says you're not supposed to wear wool and linen at the same time now some rules of God are real easy to figure out right like do not murder do not lie do you know like those kind of thing but like
[00:34:12] why if y'all grew up with a daddy that said because I said so that's the equivalent of that you just obey because it's the heart of the one who said it and why do you need to do it any
[00:34:26] different just don't wear it by this will I know that you love me because you keep my command don't have to make sense it does not have to make sense the psalmist knew this and you would think when
[00:34:45] you look at the book of psalms like of course he's a king of course he has all the money but there's some heartbreak that he makes us aware of in the book of Psalms that you would think
[00:34:56] he's living right in your family. You would think he's right there in your house. Here's some things we already know about the book of Psalms, but the way it's laid out, there's five scrolls within
[00:35:11] the book of Psalms, but it's not just like they took the number 150 and divided it by five and said, okay, each section is going to have 30. It doesn't line up like that. So the way it breaks
[00:35:23] down is even so particular that those little numbers across the bottom tell you what the chapters are, but they're sections that speak to a particular part and they're ordered that way on purpose. Now, of course we can pull out a Psalm and we can start reading it and it speaks to us
[00:35:45] right where we are. We can pull out one verse of one Psalm and it can speak to us right where we are. But God in his infinite wisdom, when he knows that our lifestyle of praise is going to come
[00:35:59] right back to that same place over and over, he leaves us layers in his word. And one of the layers are in the order of who he is. And for some of us with certain personalities, order makes us itch.
[00:36:16] We don't like order unless we're the one creating it, you know?
[00:36:21] We want that kind that only makes sense to our brain, but if somebody else self-imposes an order, we don't love it.
[00:36:29] But if we walked into the nursery right now and toys were just all over the floor, clothes were everywhere, diapers were everywhere, we would look and say, wow, this is pretty chaotic.
[00:36:39] and then whoever the person is that comes in and picks all of those things up and puts them where they need to be you have a whole different respect for that person when they get finished right you've understood that person has the
[00:36:55] gift of order they can take things and display it in a way that you can use it again it's part of stewardship that you can find things in the next place that you need them to be some scholars have actually taken you know the thing like
[00:37:12] when you're watching a crime show and you see the push pins and they have like red yarn yeah like that right there that it's it's like this goes back to this and if you look at this this footprint went over here and it probably came out
[00:37:24] of this car and it came off of this tire that's what some scholars have done with the book of Psalms to actually say I can tell you with certainty this Psalm was probably written after this activity and sometimes in certain versions of our
[00:37:41] Bible if you look across the top of the header where the chapter starts it'll even tell you that if you have certain kind of study Bibles some study Bibles at the bottom will have like a footnote and even if you're reading in the New
[00:37:53] Testament you're hearing Jesus say something it's in red you can look down at the bottom it's like oh they said that in Deuteronomy and so you go chasing it back over there to Deuteronomy like oh that's what God said
[00:38:02] at the mountain, he wasn't playing. He said that three times now. He must mean that that is a decree that's going to be forever and ever. So there are some Bible scholars who have taken
[00:38:13] all the Psalms in order, and they've actually drawn lines back to where, like you can't see this, but this is just from the first book, the one through 41. It's just a snapshot. Now, when
[00:38:30] you read Psalm 3 and it starts off talking about my enemies and it starts laying some things out right there, all of us have enemies. Like, you know, the co-worker that waits for you to get out
[00:38:47] of your car and go into work because they don't want to have to talk to you or the neighbor that don't come out to their mailbox until they see that you're already in the house. But when you
[00:38:55] know Psalm 3 is written because his own son was trying to kill him and you sit down and read Psalm 3, there's a whole other level of understanding when you know what's going on in that Psalm.
[00:39:12] I've never felt pain like that, but when I look at you and I see the way you're talking to God about it, I know there's something in there for if I have to, Lord forbid. So when you watch that
[00:39:27] kind of hyperlink, what's happening in that other column that you can't really see very well, actually tells you where the place is. So like Psalm 9, they think was written right after the victory of Goliath. When you look in Samuel and when you look in Chronicles and you read the
[00:39:45] details of that and then you go back and read what was probably like a journal situation that he was writing down and then people talk about it and they tell it and they review it
[00:39:59] and they speak it over and over it becomes so ingrained in the fabric of our faith that we know exactly what he's saying in those moments of emotion even if we haven't been in that particular situation before maybe we have been in a
[00:40:18] time of betrayal maybe we have been in a time where we lost something that was very bad. There is not a place in the book of Psalms that you can't find what you're looking for. I'm telling you, when you look at the prophets, so much will tie back to exactly what's
[00:40:39] happening. There's another snapshot from the second book, those 42 to 70-ish that are in there, And a lot of them happen during the height of David's fighting.
[00:40:58] One of them happens when Nathan comes to visit him.
[00:41:04] And you see what he writes in that moment.
[00:41:09] And we have to stop and say to ourselves, why would a loving God display these kinds of things?
[00:41:17] Why would a father or a mother tell these kind of stories on their children in their bloodline for the sake of it not happening again, right?
[00:41:29] You want to take what you've learned and learn from it.
[00:41:33] This is what the sages say.
[00:41:35] The Torah is not man's book of God.
[00:41:40] It's God's book about humankind.
[00:41:43] It's not difficult for us to understand an infinite creator who would make a home for humanity.
[00:41:49] The most difficult thing, though, is that human beings don't want to make a home for God, not a home. We don't mind a visit. We don't mind a delivery, but to make enough space to dwell
[00:42:12] is going to cost us something, right? The desire for wisdom, the desire to have a hearing heart, a hearing ear, a hearing spirit, that's actually what Solomon asked for.
[00:42:26] When he asked for wisdom, God, give me an ear to hear you.
[00:42:30] I know I don't know enough to lead these people.
[00:42:33] That kind of hunger and desire is an act of worship.
[00:42:39] When you approach God and he's trying to give you something, for you to physically take your ideas, your suggestions, your prejudices, your opinion, and lay it on the altar and let it get burnt up because you want to hear from him.
[00:42:56] you want his way and only his way that's an act of worship that kind of hearing ear that says god i want your wisdom it's just like what bishop was saying to us sunday morning we've got to be
[00:43:09] realmite people we will wear ourselves out running around in every room trying to listen for every time the door cracks open trying to listen for every conversation it will never work but when we listen through the ear of heaven, that's wisdom. It's a holiness. It's a set apart thing,
[00:43:31] just like the tabernacle and the temple were. If we say to ourselves right off the bat, Lord, let my mind be a menorah. If I align myself with the tabernacle, if I think of myself like a temple,
[00:43:46] let everything that comes through my mind shine light. Don't let darkness live in me.
[00:43:52] let my hands be tools that are about the father's business let my words that come out of my mouth that can create either hurt or help as soon as the letters fit together to make a word and bring
[00:44:08] out an excitement in somebody what kind of tools are they picking up because of the words I said are they picking up tools to help are they picking up tools to hurt that's what David is showing us
[00:44:21] in the Psalms. He could call anybody he wanted to. He could pull strings all day long, but yet he knew as the king of that country, I'm still not in control. It's all you, God. The times that I have
[00:44:36] tried to be in control, the times that I did let myself think I was the one doing it, it was a colossal disaster. And at that level, your mistakes are big. They can't be covered up. And we know
[00:44:55] right now we're in a season of God uncovering things left and right what was hidden will be revealed and what has been done in secret for his name will also be revealed in the way that he
[00:45:09] knows it needs to be revealed our gifts are from him so imagine that as like one bookend and then the glory that's supposed to go back to him is the other bookend all the stuff we put in the middle
[00:45:23] that's where the decisions are made. The gift comes from him. And then the choices become ours, right? About how we're going to use them, what we're going to do with them, how we're going to
[00:45:36] implement them in his kingdom. And they actually become books. They become chapters in our story that sit in between the gift he gave me and the glory he should receive. Those are the chapters.
[00:45:53] the holiness part the set apartness that says God I know you gave me a gift for this thing I don't seem to be using it I don't see any doors open I don't have any phone calls I don't have
[00:46:14] anybody saying here I want you to have this and it's matching up and it's resonating that space in between is when it's laying on the altar. That waiting moment is when you're reminding heaven and
[00:46:32] hell it's set apart. I will not pull it back off of there and sell it for less. I'll leave it there till he uses it or it burns up. Either way, it was his from the beginning. Those are the lessons
[00:46:54] that we learn in the book of psalms those two things here's what we know substitutions sabotage replacements ruin that's where idolatry comes from when we get tired in the waiting when i feel like nope nope nope i mean it kind of looks like what you said you were going to do
[00:47:24] I'm gonna go with it we're gonna end up like Sarah and Hagar and he shows us those lessons so early on in scripture the God of order says hey I'm telling you right now this don't work like it's
[00:47:42] an open book test all the time yet we pick it up look at it and honestly think maybe if I just shake it around and put some different perfume on it I'm sure it's gonna smell different it is not
[00:47:57] Christi in the days of the Apostles when that temple still stood and they would go in for moments of sacrifice and they would go in for moments of offering literally the chance and the prayers and the words that were being said as the
[00:48:18] sacrifices were being made are from the book of Psalms Levitical conversations that are happening that have been hyperlinked way back.
[00:48:32] And the loss of the temple in that period of time and to the heart of Judaism, I don't think we'll ever really understand.
[00:48:41] I mean, we think we would be brokenhearted if we rolled up here one day and we thought we were gonna come in and it was destroyed, it would kill our hearts.
[00:48:50] But the level of understanding that we would have to have to really understand what happened in that temple experience I cannot wrap my mind around it and and while we're talking about gifts we really weren't but we're gonna circle back there real quick this thing
[00:49:05] about leaving your gift remember when Zechariah went to the temple when he got the word about they were gonna have John the Baptist those priests in that circle would wait an entire year to have their turn of service I thought that was
[00:49:29] heartbreaking now what do you do with the whole gift when the temples not even standing what does it look like now for the promise of your bloodline that was who you were that was everything you desired that was what your family gave
[00:49:48] it all for down through the generations but how are you gonna use that gift and the answer is when they pick up Psalms. When they see it as the prophets say in little sanctuaries in their own house. When they reread those words back to
[00:50:09] themselves. When they say them over their families. When they speak them over their children. They're saying listen you don't know but this is hyperlinked way back over there. The time span of the of the Psalms probably a thousand-ish years. The
[00:50:25] The earliest one, they say, belongs to Moses, Psalm 90, because it has remnants in there of things he would know.
[00:50:34] And then we know that some of them belong to the sons of Korah.
[00:50:39] And man, when Pastor Debbie talked to us about Korah, the whole ground swallows you up because of your rebellion, yet your sons still continue to be those people who speak worship for generations, and we're still speaking it today.
[00:50:55] there's something to be said in that story. I love that story. David is traditionally linked to a little more than half we know that belong to him. When I learned facts like that, so half of
[00:51:10] them belong to him, a few belong to this person, there's still some that we don't know who they belong to, right? I don't have to know the person that was holding the pen because I believe the
[00:51:18] author wrote them all. When you believe what Paul said about all scripture is God-breathed, It's inspired. It's useful for teaching. It helps us find our way so that, look at verse 17, so that God's people may be up to the task ahead and have all they need to accomplish every good
[00:51:40] work. Like it really is all there for us. I don't have to know all the details. There's another picture that's going to show us a color version of those five spots that we looked at a few minutes
[00:51:59] ago that are broken down in scrolls and in the pain of each one of those pictures it kind of gives you an idea of this thing about order that it'll help us see those first two one to 70 ish
[00:52:16] they belong to David and his period that middle section that looks dark it was and then those two sections on the end they just flow right into each other we're going to talk about them just for a second you've been so very patient with things you already know I just want
[00:52:41] to open the drawer and take a few things out and just lay them up on the counter so we can see them again. This is what David teaches us in that first section of his. He introduces
[00:52:54] Psalms. Some people say he wrote Psalm 1. Some people say Ezra did. Again, it gets us going in what the Psalms are going to be about. It tells us up front, if you do this, this is what you can
[00:53:06] expect. You can be a tree that's planted by the water. Don't be moved. Truth can exist in tension.
[00:53:17] Two things can be true at the exact same time.
[00:53:20] It doesn't cancel out the other one, right?
[00:53:23] God is good.
[00:53:24] That's true.
[00:53:26] What I'm looking at right now is not also true.
[00:53:30] When we hear David lament in the Psalms, he's saying, God, what I see with my eyes is not what I know you are.
[00:53:41] And if I have to sit here until everything changes, you're not going to change.
[00:53:48] Truths can exist in tension, in lament, and in rejoicing.
[00:53:54] And the Hebrew people are better at that than anybody we know.
[00:53:58] It's been their story literally all of their lives.
[00:54:03] In book 2, you start to see some of the rise of David's kingdom.
[00:54:08] This is where some of those sons of Korah psalms come in.
[00:54:11] And if we start out reading the top of Psalm 42, you'll know it.
[00:54:17] Just as a deer longs for running streams God I long for you I'm thirsty for the living God Have you been in some of those places If you've seen some of those pictures this week
[00:54:32] Of where they are They understood thirst They understood hot They understood dry They understood rocky They understood hilly It's where they live So when you use language like that And then look at verse 3
[00:54:47] My tears are my food day and night.
[00:54:55] People ask me, where is your God?
[00:54:58] Sometimes it's the setup, right?
[00:55:03] They're watching your story.
[00:55:04] They're watching to see what you're going to do, but they're also watching to see when God's going to show up.
[00:55:11] If there would have been all the sound people this night, I was going to get them to play that clip that Pastor Kalen put on Facebook.
[00:55:20] I think it might have been last week where you have your Bible open.
[00:55:24] Remember, you're walking over here and you're saying, I don't know who I'm talking to, but somebody's been praying for something and you've been praying so long.
[00:55:32] You think he actually does not hear you.
[00:55:35] You think he's not listening.
[00:55:37] Oh, but he is.
[00:55:39] Whatever it is that's going on in the background that's pointing to that thing is about to get a rude awakening.
[00:55:47] That's what's happening in some of these places in the Psalms.
[00:55:50] it's not that God's asleep. It's not that he's silent. He's waiting for the fulfillment of time when all the things are lined up that the harvest can come from everything that he's fixing to do.
[00:56:02] And he's not going to leave anything out. Listen, he's full of faith in his word. He's not stressed.
[00:56:09] He's not wringing his hands. He's not worried about the timing of it. He knows exactly when it's going to be revealed. He knows exactly who's going to be there to see it. This is what David
[00:56:20] knew. He knew a lot about ruling and reigning. He knew a lot about enemies waiting in the background, but he knew a whole lot about a God who didn't slumber and sleep. Book three, the fall starts
[00:56:36] to happen. This is the hardest section of the Psalms when you try to read through them. It's also the shortest collection that's put right there in the middle. This is the song of Asaph.
[00:56:50] He was appointed and anointed by David to be a worship leader He was very instrumental in that time that the Ark of the Covenant was moving He was also instrumental at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah
[00:57:02] His descendants kept writing worship music and leading worship And this one starts out Truly God is good to his people Israel, to those with pure hearts though I know this to be true I almost lost my footing my steps were on slippery ground
[00:57:27] you see there was a time when I envied arrogant men and I thought the wicked look pretty happy to me for they seem to live carefree lives free of suffering their bodies are strong and healthy
[00:57:39] they don't know trouble like we do they're not plagued with problems like the rest of us are they got a string of pearls and pride strung around their neck they clothe their bodies with violence. They have much more than enough. This is savage right here. Their eyes bulge because
[00:57:56] they're so fat with possessions. They feel in some kind of way. There's nothing sacred. No one is safe.
[00:58:06] Vicious sarcasm drips from their lips and they bully and they threaten to crush their enemies.
[00:58:11] They even mock God as if he were not above. Their arrogant tongues boast throughout the earth and they feel invincible. Even God's people turn and they're carried away by them. They watch and listen yet find no fault in them you will hear them say how can true God possibly know anyway
[00:58:27] he's not even here so how can the most high have any knowledge of what happens here let me tell you what I know about the wicked they are comfortably at rest while their wealth is
[00:58:40] growing and growing oh let this not be me it seems I have scrubbed my heart to keep it clean and washed my hands in innocence. And for what? Nothing. For all day long, I'm being punished
[00:58:55] each day, awakening to stern chastisement. That sounds like a person who's wrestling some things out, doesn't it? That sounds like one of them dusk to dawn people. That's like, I might not say it to
[00:59:11] my church friends, but I've seen some wicked people getting away with some stuff and I don't appreciate it god what you gonna do and because we can bring to him every part of us he already
[00:59:29] knows it anyway because the bottom of that psalm says i've worked hard to scrub my heart clean it's a hard thing to ask for forgiveness when you know part of it is not on you
[00:59:43] those are the worship songs of that season when so many of them are living in exile There's no temple for them to go to.
[00:59:59] They don't even know where some of their friends are.
[01:00:03] They don't know where some of their family members are.
[01:00:07] It's a hard time.
[01:00:09] And yet they know God's right there.
[01:00:12] I don't know how you're going to do it.
[01:00:13] I don't even know if I'm going to be alive when it gets done.
[01:00:16] But it doesn't change who you are.
[01:00:20] You are still good.
[01:00:24] You are still God.
[01:00:33] Towards the end of Moses' psalm, he says you've spent many days afflicting us with pain and sorrow matched with years of unspent joy let your work of love be on display for all your servants let your children see majesty and let the
[01:00:53] beauty and grace of the lord our god rest upon us and bring success to all we do yes bring success to all that we do. Psalms reminds us not to leave too early. There's hard parts. There's holy parts.
[01:01:17] But there's hope because of who he is in our story. Hope is ahead. We've made it to the end, to book five. I love book five. So many of the Hillel Psalms are in book five.
[01:01:35] and a portion of them is what is used in festivals and celebrations in Passover and Shavuot, even in Hanukkah sometimes is that section.
[01:01:47] There's also a part of them that they walk as they ascend Zion.
[01:01:55] There's a whole set that they say over and over again.
[01:02:02] And then these last five pieces are like when you go to a concert and you know you've heard some of the oldies and goodies, you've heard some new ones, and then you're waiting for the end and it just like keeps getting better and better and
[01:02:14] better. It keeps rising. That's what these last five are. 146 to 150. That's the ones, right?
[01:02:19] They're the encore. They're called the Hallel Psalms as well. And there's something that is rhythmic about all of them in the sense that they start with the word hallelujah way in in hebrew it would be a command to worship but sometimes in english we use the word hallelujah as like
[01:02:44] the actual worship unto god hallelujah what it actually means in the original language is I command you to join in worship.
[01:02:54] Hallel-lu-Yah-weh.
[01:02:58] So it begins that way.
[01:03:01] And then it starts talking about all the different ways.
[01:03:05] This is Psalm 148.
[01:03:06] It starts talking about all the different ways the psalmist is commanding things to praise.
[01:03:15] Not just people.
[01:03:19] But the psalm starts with praise Adonai from the heavens.
[01:03:22] Praise him in the heights.
[01:03:24] Praise him, all ye angels.
[01:03:26] It starts with sky things way up above us.
[01:03:31] Praise him, all his armies.
[01:03:33] Praise him, sun and moon.
[01:03:34] Praise him, shining stars.
[01:03:36] The stars literally dance the same path every day, back and forth.
[01:03:42] The stars that do not get out of order because he called them into being and created them, because he knows them all by name, They just march in a pattern over and over.
[01:03:55] You know the ones that don't march?
[01:03:57] Planets.
[01:03:59] You know what planets are called in the Greek?
[01:04:02] Wanderers.
[01:04:05] God has a heart for wanderers.
[01:04:11] And so these created celestial beings that are only created, we get the answer to why they should praise in verses 5 and 6.
[01:04:24] Let them praise the name of Adonai because he commanded and that's what they were created for.
[01:04:32] He established them forever and ever and has given a decree.
[01:04:37] Some verses say law that they must conform.
[01:04:42] He starts with as high as he can go and then reminds everything up there.
[01:04:48] There's still a thing higher than you.
[01:04:53] The angels are simply messengers at his command.
[01:04:58] Praise him.
[01:04:59] and if they have something to praise about how much more do we with the blood applied then he moves to the land praise Adonai from the earth sea monsters and watery depths fire and hell
[01:05:15] and snow and mist storm winds that obey his word the chaos that seems like man can't control it yet God can speak to it and it'll stop I command you to praise mountains and every hill fruit trees
[01:05:33] and cedars wild animals and livestock creeping reptiles and all peoples flying birds kings of the earth princes rulers young men and women old men and children look at what he does he starts with the tall things the strong things the wild things the powerful things
[01:06:05] all the way down to those things that would be considered not powerful old and children let them praise the name of Adonai for his name alone is exalted his glory is above both earth and heaven this is the verse I want us to see in the English it says he has
[01:06:40] increased the power of his people granted praise to the faithful to the descendants of Israel a people close to him look at it in the complete Jewish Bible he has also exalted the Karen of his people that means horn have you seen a bull after they know they've won
[01:07:13] you know how they pick their head up and they raise their horn up in the air this is not the kind of horn that is used like a shofar it's not used like a musical instrument this is the kind
[01:07:28] of horn that says you are victorious this is the kind of horn that says I've snatched it off of your enemy and I'm raising it up the horn of his people the praise of all the ones who were
[01:07:45] willing to be faithful and lay it on the altar and leave it there even if it meant it was going to burn up even to the generations and the descendants of Israel the people close to him
[01:07:58] hallelujah in those moments when power feels so elusive to us he's made us a promise I've already got the victory in my hand I'm already lifting up the horn of my people for the faithful one and guess what you're not even going to be tired and worn out from the
[01:08:30] battle. You know why? Because he's done it. He's done it. The kind of God that David knew in the book of Psalms. Would you stand and worship with Paul? This will be our benediction.
[01:08:50] So many of you might know this by heart, but I hope it just burns a little bit deeper in your spirit knowing there is not anything above the heights or beyond the heavens that don't
[01:09:05] follow his command there's nothing beneath us that can sneak up and shock us or hurt us or surprise us that he's already not stomped on and he holds the horn of victory for his people thank you god