Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Equipped 2026: Ladies: "Genesis in the Psalms" by Lori Boyd

Transcript

Equipped 2026: Ladies: "Genesis in the Psalms" by Lori Boyd · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

0:00
Well thank you and good afternoon everyone. It is great to see you. I'm so excited to be back at Eclipse this year.
0:09
This is just a wonderful workshop and it is a blessing to be a part of it.
0:15
And I'm just so glad to see your faces in here. I have passed out to some of you that are already sitting down a Bible verse
0:25
that I'm going to have available for you if you wanted to jot down some things on.
0:32
I know some of you like to write right into your Bible but we might be taking some little notes on things that you can maybe move into your Bible later
0:42
after we kind of go through and break apart a little psalm. We're going to do that in just a minute.
0:48
But my lesson today is seeing the book of Genesis in the Psalms and what it means for Christian women today.
0:59
Well I was thinking about this subject, Genesis and the Psalms, and wondering where I would even begin.
1:09
Do I start in Genesis with that? Do I start in Psalms with that? Where's a good starting place with that?
1:16
So I was thinking a lot about how to begin, but you know it's always best to begin with a story.
1:24
So I'm going to tell you a story first.
1:27
In July 1969, some exciting things were happening in our country, especially between the 16th and the 24th of July 1969.
1:43
On the 16th, the Apollo 11 spacecraft launched and began its mission to Mars.
1:52
And then on the 20th, the Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
1:57
And then on the 24th, the spacecraft plunged back into the Pacific Ocean.
2:07
A few days before the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, after the first step was taken on the moon,
2:17
the crew on the spacecraft broadcast live to audiences all over the world.
2:25
They were being interviewed and they were talking about their experience, and one of the astronauts on the spacecraft was Buzz Aldrin.
2:35
Some of y'all may remember hearing this, I don't know, maybe.
2:39
But Buzz Aldrin, his turn to speak came around, and he said,
2:47
over the last few days I've been reflecting on all that I've seen, and what keeps coming to mind is Psalm 8, 4 and 5.
3:02
I'm imagining Buzz Aldrin being in this environment, looking out and seeing these things.
3:10
And on that live broadcast, he said,
3:13
When I consider the heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you ordained,
3:23
what is man that you are mindful of him?
3:28
What is son of man that you would visit him?
3:33
I'm thinking about Buzz Aldrin being in this place.
3:40
We stand underneath the stars and we look up and we are just in awe with the majesty of God's creation.
3:49
And I love, and I think it's so beautiful, that Buzz Aldrin, when he was in the middle of it,
3:57
his thought was, Praise God. Praise God for this.
4:04
So I think that's a good starting point for us.
4:07
And then, with Buzz's inspiration, we will start with Psalm chapter 8.
4:14
And so I've passed out to you Psalm 8, but let us go here.
4:23
I'll put it on the screen for you to see.
4:26
We're going to read it really quickly.
4:30
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens.
4:38
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength because of your enemies,
4:43
that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
4:46
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have ordained,
4:52
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?
4:57
For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor.
5:02
You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.
5:06
You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,
5:11
the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea.
5:16
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
5:23
Before we dig into this Psalm a little bit, let me share a couple of things just to know about this Psalm in particular before we jump in.
5:32
It's a Psalm of David.
5:34
David wrote this Psalm. It's the very first Psalm of praise that we come to in the book of Psalms.
5:41
It's a unique Psalm in that every verse is directed to God.
5:49
It is a direct address to God from the beginning all the way into the end of the Psalm.
5:56
It seems to answer the question that was left for the reader or the singer at the end of Psalm 17.
6:04
Psalm 17 or Psalm 7 verse 17 says,
6:08
I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.
6:15
It's like David picked up right there and said, and here it is.
6:19
And he just went into praise with Psalm 8.
6:24
Did I miss that? Oh, sorry.
6:26
It is a chiastic structure. I don't know how many of you really love literature and poetry. I love it.
6:33
And so this is a Hebrew poetic form of writing.
6:38
And it follows this very specific pattern where ideas are presented.
6:44
They are presented and then they're repeated and then they're reversed.
6:47
And so this particular Psalm or poem follows an ABC with C being the very center idea of the poem.
6:58
And then B and A as it comes back down.
7:01
So that is just the structure of this Psalm.
7:05
It has this very beautiful poetic form to it.
7:10
And so what we're going to do, and this is going to be so hard for me because I could spend so much time doing an exegesis of Scripture.
7:20
We're going to go through this Psalm very quickly.
7:23
And I'm going to pull out some things that I think are really, really neat for you to think about.
7:29
And you can go back later and study this Psalm in more detail because we have a lot more to talk about than just Psalm 8.
7:35
But I want to point out a few things.
7:38
That's why they do the little printout just in case you want to take notes on this before you put it in your Bible.
7:45
Just if you want to use it as like a scratch piece of paper maybe.
7:50
You don't have to use it at all if you don't want to use it.
7:54
But that's what I pass them out for if you want to take notes on that.
7:59
So a couple things to point out.
8:01
Lord, our Lord, O Lord our Lord.
8:04
That first Lord here is Yahweh.
8:06
That's the Hebrew word there, Yahweh.
8:08
It's God's personal name.
8:10
And then it's followed by Lord, which is a capital L, but lowercase O-R-D.
8:15
That's Adonai.
8:17
It's two different words there.
8:19
It's the Hebrew word for Lord or for Master.
8:22
It's a title that would have been given to someone.
8:26
So it's this idea that I am addressing someone in reverence, though.
8:33
It is underscoring authority.
8:36
And so this is really, O God, I recognize your right to rule.
8:43
You are my master.
8:45
It's how that starts.
8:46
So O Lord, our Lord.
8:48
Now when you sing it, you can think it's God's name and who he is in position, in relation to me.
8:57
How excellent.
8:59
Some translations say majestic or glorious is your name.
9:04
Your name, when we talk about name, especially in Bible history, names were important.
9:10
Names were really a big deal.
9:12
They're significant because they would represent the person.
9:16
And so when we say how excellent God is your name, it is how excellent is your character.
9:23
How excellent is your very nature in all of the earth.
9:29
This is to David.
9:32
I recognize your name for all that you are in all of the earth.
9:38
You're more than just for Israel.
9:40
He is God of the whole earth.
9:43
And what I love here, too, is he says, your name in all the earth.
9:49
Whose name?
9:51
The name that is the God who is ours.
9:55
This is our God.
9:58
Makes it very personal.
10:01
Who has set your glory above the heavens.
10:05
I love this because God's glory is too great.
10:07
We can't just leave it in all the earth.
10:09
Because his glory is so great that it fills the heavens.
10:13
It goes above the heavens.
10:15
It's above all the created order.
10:18
And that's how David begins this psalm of praise.
10:21
The two lines here at the very beginning are the refrain.
10:24
So on your sheet, you can see there at the end, they will repeat.
10:28
That's a refrain that is spoken once at the beginning, again at the end.
10:32
Sometimes it's called an inclusio.
10:34
An inclusio frames a poetic work.
10:38
So let's go to the next one.
10:40
Oh, see, I'm going to have to talk a lot faster.
10:42
I'll just point out a couple of things.
10:44
If you want to take a picture of it, you're welcome to.
10:46
But we get into the next section.
10:48
And I do want to spend a minute, because sometimes we read this.
10:50
And we're not really sure what David's talking about here.
10:54
Out of the mouth of babes and of nursing infants.
10:59
This is an interesting line here.
11:03
It has caused some, just a bit of a challenge for scholars
11:09
or people who are just interested in studying a little bit deeper into scripture.
11:14
And the reason why it's been a challenge is because in the Hebrew Bible,
11:19
when it was translated to Greek, and that's the Septuagint,
11:24
the Septuagint renders the next line differently.
11:29
So out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, the Septuagint says,
11:34
you have perfected praise.
11:37
But most of our translations today say, you have ordained strength,
11:41
or you have established strength.
11:44
So what is that? That's kind of interesting.
11:47
And the reason why I think it's even more interesting is because Jesus quotes this verse
11:53
in Matthew chapter 21 verse 16, when Jesus has gone into the temple
11:58
and he sees the money changers and all of this stuff, things being bought and sold
12:04
in his father's house, and he is upset and he drives out the money changers
12:09
and he brings in and allows people to come to him then to be healed.
12:15
And in Matthew chapter 21, it says the children are running around saying,
12:20
Hosanna! Hosanna to God!
12:25
And you know who gets upset? Those chief priests and scribes get all upset.
12:30
And they come and they are angry with Jesus, and they confront him about it,
12:35
and they say, do you hear what's being said here?
12:38
And Jesus said, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants,
12:43
you have perfected praise.
12:46
That was Jesus' response.
12:49
This is the idea. And this is why it moves fine into a translation that would say
12:55
established strength or ordained strength.
12:58
Because think about babies and nursing infants.
13:03
Those are the smallest, the weakest of humanity. Little.
13:09
Maybe people, and especially maybe at that time, would kind of push them off to the side.
13:14
Maybe they thought of them as maybe insignificant.
13:18
But even the babies and the nursing infants, David says,
13:23
they, out of their mouths, God is praised.
13:28
Remember he just said, your name is excellent above the heavens.
13:31
Not only that, it is from the mouth of babies and infants.
13:35
They recognize the glory and the majesty of God.
13:42
And the reason is because of the enemy.
13:45
The enemy sees it.
13:47
And in this way, when God's strength and when his glory is proclaimed,
13:53
it silences the enemy.
13:55
It silences the avenger.
13:58
Which is what makes Matthew 21, 16 so great.
14:01
Because the chief priests and scribes, you know what they knew really well?
14:05
The Scripture.
14:08
Jesus quoted the first two lines of this stanza.
14:12
And I'm thinking that they knew what two lines came next.
14:17
Out of the mouth of babies and nursing infants, you have ordained strength.
14:20
Why? Because of your enemies.
14:24
That you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
14:27
Oh, I bet the chief priests and scribes were like,
14:30
that might be us that he's talking about.
14:34
But that is interesting right here to think about that.
14:38
Because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
14:42
I put 1 Corinthians 1, 27 over here because it's the verse that says,
14:45
God has chosen the weak of the world to make strong.
14:49
Do you know that?
14:51
The foolish things of the world to be wise.
14:54
And so I put that there as a cross-reference.
14:56
But let's just move on.
14:58
When I consider, that's observed deliberately and thoughtfully,
15:01
your heavens, the work of your fingers.
15:03
If God's fingers created the moon and the stars and the heavenly bodies,
15:09
how big does that make God?
15:12
If his fingers made those things.
15:15
David is looking and seeing all of this majesty,
15:18
the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place.
15:22
And then he says, if your fingers made those things,
15:25
and I see where I am in reference to those things,
15:29
what am I?
15:31
That you even think about me.
15:35
What is man?
15:36
What is son of man?
15:38
Those are both words that talk about man, mankind.
15:43
There are two different words that are used there.
15:46
One is Enish, the first man meaning son of man.
15:50
No, the first one is Enish meaning man.
15:52
It's kind of this mortality, this frailness of a mortal man.
15:56
And then the second, son of man, means Ben-Adam.
16:00
And you'll recognize Adam, that word, man, the son of man,
16:05
this idea that you are a descendant, we are humankind.
16:10
And what are we that you would think about us, remember us?
16:13
Who are we that you would visit?
16:15
That means give attention to us or care about us.
16:21
And so, then David says, you've made him a little lower than the angels
16:26
and you've crowned him with glory and honor.
16:30
David, I think, had in mind here, Genesis 127,
16:35
that God created man and woman in his likeness.
16:41
He's crowned you, made you a little lower than the angels.
16:44
Do you understand that?
16:46
When God made you in his image,
16:50
do you and I realize what status that gave humankind?
16:54
Where that puts us on this creation platform of all these things that he made?
17:01
But he said, this one, this creation is going to be in my likeness.
17:07
That put humankind way up here.
17:13
You have crowned him with glory and honor.
17:17
A Hebrew writer used this verse in Hebrews chapter 2 to reference Jesus Christ.
17:24
In Jesus Christ's humanity, in his humanity,
17:30
because he goes on and after he uses this verse to describe Jesus,
17:33
he says, and he was put to death for the redemption of mankind.
17:39
So then we go on to the next part and really right here, number 4,
17:44
that's the center.
17:45
That's the C on the chiastic form.
17:48
This is the very middle part.
17:50
What is man that you're mindful of him?
17:52
This is this existential question that David is wondering.
17:55
And it's the center.
17:57
And then he's going to come back down and he said,
17:59
this is from Genesis chapter 128.
18:01
You have made man, you've made him to have dominion over all the things that you made.
18:07
Your creation.
18:09
You have put all things under his feet.
18:11
Do you remember in Genesis 128 where he says now to the man and to the woman,
18:16
be fruitful and multiply.
18:18
You have dominion, that's authority.
18:20
Rule over this earth.
18:22
To subdue it.
18:24
To be a good steward of it.
18:25
To care for it.
18:28
All the sheep.
18:29
And then this is just a list.
18:30
The sheep and the oxen, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air,
18:34
the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.
18:37
I think it's just interesting that he lists some domesticated animals
18:40
and some undomesticated animals.
18:42
I think that's kind of interesting.
18:43
But the point is all things.
18:45
All things you have set under the feet of man.
18:48
And then I put on here a couple cross references.
18:52
I'll let you look at those later because those were used also in reference to Jesus.
18:56
First Corinthians 15, 27 and Ephesians 1, 22 about all things being put under his feet.
19:03
And then I underline paths of the sea because this is a scripture reference to something scientific
19:12
that was not known way back then.
19:14
But this is talking about currents, the currents of the ocean
19:18
that would not be discovered for many, many, many years after David wrote this psalm.
19:25
And then we have a repeat of verse 1.
19:29
David having said all of these things and visiting again this idea
19:34
that God is so great, majestic, wonderful, excellent.
19:41
His name is above all of the heavens.
19:45
So that's a quick exegesis of Psalm 8.
19:50
But it's just to get you so excited about this is just one psalm
19:56
of many, many psalms that are in the book of Psalms that have to do with Genesis.
20:05
So here's what I want to say before we jump into Psalms and Genesis.
20:11
The relationship between these two books is deep and it is intentional.
20:17
We saw in Psalm 8 this praise over the events that took place in Genesis 1 and 2.
20:24
But there are many psalms throughout the book that celebrate different aspects of the Genesis account.
20:30
And as we get to the end, I'm going to show you just really kind of by theme how many
20:36
and it's even just a sampling of all the ones that tell the story of Genesis.
20:41
But here's the thing, the psalmists don't retell the stories in full.
20:46
They don't rehash the whole narrative that was brought out in Genesis.
20:51
What the psalms do is they echo the theme of those stories, the idea of those stories
20:57
in worship and in prayer and in reflection as they think about who God is and what he has done.
21:05
So Genesis, if we are going to look at Genesis and Psalms, we have to think about what do we learn in Genesis?
21:15
What is the big picture here?
21:17
And that's what we're getting for these few days here.
21:20
As you clicked, we're getting a good picture of Genesis.
21:22
But I want us to ask the question, what is God doing in the book of Genesis?
21:28
Number one, when you read Genesis, what you need to recognize first and foremost is that Genesis is about God.
21:40
Genesis is about God.
21:42
The very first line of the first sentence, God is the subject.
21:49
In the beginning, God.
21:51
And then in that first chapter, almost every verse contains his name.
21:57
Sometimes twice.
21:59
You can go through the first chapter of Genesis and it's just, and God did this and God said this and God did this
22:06
and the whole thing.
22:08
And that's amazing to see that over and over in the very first chapter.
22:13
But then we get to the very last chapter of the book and we see that all the 49 chapters that followed chapter 1
22:22
have God as the focus.
22:25
And then we can see that Genesis is about God because we have these major themes that are covered in the book of Genesis.
22:32
God's power.
22:33
His plan.
22:34
His promise.
22:35
His presence.
22:37
And God's provision.
22:39
These are major themes that we see over and over in scripture.
22:43
And in a second, I'm going to kind of just give you a 30 second overview of how we see these come out in some of the narratives.
22:51
An outline.
22:53
Simple, simple outline of Genesis.
22:55
And typically it's broken up this way.
22:57
And sometimes with different headings.
22:59
Sometimes this first section, which is Genesis 1-11, I'm calling it God and the world.
23:04
Sometimes people refer to this as God and humanity, this first section.
23:09
Or the primeval history, which just means the history at the very beginning.
23:14
Genesis 1-11.
23:16
Four big things happen here in these first four chapters.
23:19
The creation of everything.
23:21
Creation of the universe.
23:22
The creation of animals, of mankind.
23:25
Then the fall.
23:26
The fall of humanity we read in this section.
23:29
And then the great flood is another big section of Genesis 1-11.
23:33
And then we have the scattering at the Tower of Babel.
23:37
Then we get to part two, which starts in chapter 12.
23:41
And I'm calling this God and Abraham's family.
23:44
Although you might hear it called something else, like the patriarchal history.
23:49
Or you might hear it called God and Israel.
23:52
But this whole section here is covering the story of the patriarchs.
23:57
So we have Abram, who became Abraham.
23:59
We have his son Isaac.
24:01
And then we have Jacob, who became Israel.
24:04
And then we have Joseph.
24:06
And we've got the story of all of these great heads of family who are the beginning of a new nation.
24:14
A nation of people.
24:16
And then we see this very important link.
24:22
Between Genesis 1-11 and between Genesis 12-50, we have this important text.
24:30
This is one of the most important texts when it comes to who we are as the family of God.
24:39
When we think of who we are as Christians, the promise.
24:44
The promise that was made to Abraham in Genesis 12.
24:48
Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.
24:53
I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great.
24:57
And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you.
25:00
I will curse him who curses you.
25:02
And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
25:09
When we go back and we think about, let me just go back here.
25:12
When we think about these things in the book of Genesis.
25:16
And we see all of this played out.
25:19
We see God's power in just speaking creation into existence.
25:23
Making man and woman in His image and His likeness.
25:26
Designating them to be responsible for continuing the work of creation.
25:31
And being fruitful and multiplying.
25:33
We see them caring for the earth, cultivating it.
25:37
He wanted man and woman to rule over it in His name.
25:41
And as His representative.
25:43
And God's desire from the very beginning in the garden was to bless them.
25:47
Was to bless humanity.
25:49
And He did. He was present with them in the garden.
25:52
And then we see the fall.
25:55
Read about the fall and the fall to sin.
25:58
Sin coming into the world.
26:00
And we see that God had a plan in the garden.
26:03
A plan to redeem and to rescue.
26:06
And ultimately to bless through the seed of the woman.
26:10
And then we have the flood.
26:11
And we see again, even after the destruction.
26:15
God's plan to rescue and to redeem.
26:17
We see God's promise to Noah.
26:19
And again His desire to bless Noah in chapter 9 verse 1.
26:23
And then no sinner is Noah on dry land.
26:26
But he's falling.
26:29
And again we see Him in His nakedness.
26:32
And in His drunkenness.
26:35
In shame before God.
26:38
But God still desires to bless.
26:43
And we see the tower.
26:44
The tower of Babel.
26:46
Prideful and deadering.
26:47
God's scattering.
26:48
But then Genesis 12 comes and there's a man.
26:51
Who is the 20th descendant of humankind.
26:55
He is 19 generations removed from Adam.
26:59
And we see God's ultimate plan.
27:02
Starting to take form.
27:03
In a way that we see it.
27:05
God's had it in His mind ever since before He spoke creation into existence.
27:10
But here we see it.
27:12
What God has in mind for all of humanity.
27:16
Is this.
27:18
His son is going to come.
27:21
A descendant through the line of Abraham.
27:25
Through Seth and through Noah.
27:28
Back to Adam.
27:30
There's going to be one that's going to come.
27:33
And He is going to rescue and redeem for eternity.
27:38
God will bless His people.
27:40
He wants to be with His people.
27:42
And we begin to see this unfold in the story that comes after Genesis chapter 12.
27:47
Here's what we have to see in Genesis.
27:50
Genesis is foundational to everything that follows.
27:56
Genesis is the opening story.
27:59
Genesis is where it all begins.
28:01
This is where we meet God.
28:02
This is where we come to know His nature.
28:05
It introduces the story of God's people.
28:07
And you know what?
28:08
Those are our spiritual relatives.
28:11
That's our family.
28:13
It's the groundwork for the redemption of humanity through Christ.
28:19
Genesis is so vitally important.
28:22
That we see how meaningful it is to us today.
28:27
The significance of Genesis in the Bible.
28:31
But then we have to take a quick look at this.
28:36
Because then we've got Psalms.
28:38
Psalms is a response in many ways.
28:44
When you go through the Psalms.
28:46
Let's talk about Psalms for just a minute here.
28:48
Major themes.
28:49
There's a theme to the Psalms.
28:52
The Psalms tell an overall story.
28:55
We pull them apart because they are individual writings.
28:59
But they paint a beautiful picture about who we are and who God is.
29:03
The Psalms have the theme of the sovereignty of God.
29:07
The nature of God.
29:08
The redemptive work of God.
29:10
The blessings of God.
29:11
The faithfulness of God.
29:13
All of these things we see in the Psalms.
29:15
Here's a few facts about the Psalms that are interesting.
29:20
It's a collection of 150 ancient Hebrew poems, psalms, and prayers.
29:25
Sometimes people like to call it a hymn book.
29:27
I don't know that I would call it a hymn book.
29:29
Because it took place over a long time.
29:32
Lots of eras are represented in the book.
29:35
They did use it for singing.
29:37
There are lots of different contributors to the Psalms.
29:40
David is the one who contributed the most.
29:43
Moses was the one who was the furthest back in history to have contributed.
29:48
Solomon wrote two psalms.
29:50
Then we have a few other authors that are mentioned.
29:53
I'm bringing this back just for reminding you.
29:57
Psalms is divided into five different books.
29:59
That was an editorial edition.
30:01
Later somebody divided these up into sections.
30:04
There are five of them.
30:05
They are divided that way because they end the same way.
30:09
At the end of every book section, there is a line that says,
30:12
May the Lord, the God of Israel, be blessed forever.
30:15
Amen and Amen.
30:17
Then it starts the next book.
30:19
You've got those five sections.
30:20
Psalms 1 and 2 you see aren't included in there in book 1
30:23
because they are considered introductory psalms.
30:26
You have Psalm 1.
30:28
This beautiful psalm about the blessing of the law.
30:34
Being a law keeper.
30:37
The blessing of that.
30:38
Then you have Psalm 2 which reflects on the promise that God made
30:43
that there would be a king coming through the line of David.
30:47
An anointed one.
30:49
It's a messianic psalm.
30:52
Those two, the law and the coming Messiah,
30:56
start us off in the book of Psalms.
31:00
There are many different types.
31:02
But the two major groups, you could probably take all the psalms
31:05
and divide them up into praise or into lament.
31:09
Into praise or into lament.
31:11
So praise, adoration.
31:12
That's where we would also put Thanksgiving underneath that.
31:15
Thanksgiving and praise, adoration, glorification and honor.
31:19
Those are praises.
31:21
Lament.
31:22
Lament is a passionate expression of grief.
31:26
It is sorrow.
31:28
It is regret.
31:29
The word comes from Latin and it means to wail or to weep.
31:35
That's the meaning of lament.
31:38
It comes from a place of distress.
31:41
And we see those as the two main kinds of psalms throughout the book of Psalms.
31:46
The significance in the Bible.
31:48
Why is Psalms significant?
31:51
Well, it doesn't only give us a list of prayers and praises that we can pull from.
31:58
It teaches us about God.
32:00
It teaches us about God's nature.
32:02
It teaches us about His law.
32:04
It is theologically rich.
32:08
We learn things about who God is in the Psalms.
32:13
The Psalms teach us how we should live righteously.
32:16
They teach us about Israel, our covenant history.
32:21
They retell events and help us to understand more about Israel's identity.
32:26
They help us to remember those things.
32:29
They look ahead for the coming Messiah.
32:33
There are lots of prophetic statements made throughout the Psalms.
32:38
And all of those we see fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
32:41
When we look back, when we read the Psalms today, we can look back and read through those
32:46
and we can see that that was talking about Jesus Christ.
32:49
That was the prophecy about Christ's coming.
32:54
The Psalms teach us how to respond to God.
33:00
In times of joy, in times of celebration, in times of distress, in times of sorrow,
33:06
they tell us that we can share that with God and that He listens and that He cares about it.
33:15
That's why Psalms is so significant.
33:18
So, Genesis and Psalms, what can we say about that?
33:23
Well, it's all throughout Psalms.
33:25
We see reflections on Genesis all throughout the book of Psalms.
33:30
I have just listed some.
33:32
And just for time's sake, we don't have time to go through and read all of them.
33:36
But creation is a big theme that we see over and over in the Psalms.
33:40
The celebration of what God made.
33:44
And so we see that over and over.
33:46
And sometimes it's just a section of a Psalm where the writer will just say,
33:51
And remember, look at all that God has done.
33:54
Look at all that speaks to His glory in creation.
33:58
There are Psalms that talk about the fall.
34:00
And they don't talk maybe necessarily about what happened in the garden.
34:04
But Psalm 51, y'all know Psalm 51.
34:07
That's David's psalm after he sinned.
34:10
In the Psalms, we see the effect of the fall.
34:15
We see this agonizing of this sorrow and this need for repentance and to be clean again.
34:28
And then we see the covenant.
34:31
We see lots of references throughout the Psalms to this covenant, this promise that God made.
34:36
And we see that listed again or talked about again in several different places.
34:42
We have places that mention directly that God being the God of Abraham.
34:48
Or God the God of Jacob.
34:51
Or the people of Israel being His people.
34:56
So we see this in the Psalms, this thinking about and celebrating covenants.
35:03
And then we see providence.
35:05
We see God's care for His people.
35:08
We see that in the way that God created and He's still caring for creation.
35:17
He's upholding it and maintaining it.
35:19
And so we see providence and God continuing to care too for mankind.
35:25
And then this, beautiful throughout the Psalms.
35:29
God and mankind in relationship.
35:32
We see the Psalms celebrating a personal relationship.
35:35
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
35:38
Or Psalm 139 when David says, where can I go?
35:42
You know where I am.
35:44
You know everything about me.
35:45
I can't know anywhere where you know that I am.
35:49
Community.
35:50
There's this celebrating in the Psalms of worship, communal worship.
35:55
Us worshiping together.
35:57
And then we have God and His relationship with Israel.
36:01
And also God and His relationship that He desires with all nations.
36:06
This view of God wants all nations to know His name.
36:14
He wants to bless them all.
36:17
And so let me wrap it up here.
36:19
I told you we had to speed through it, y'all.
36:21
I'm telling you.
36:22
What does this mean for us today?
36:24
Why do we care that we can see Genesis in the Psalms?
36:28
What does this mean for you and for me?
36:31
Well, here's some things to know about the Psalms.
36:34
Just to recap, they tell us about God.
36:36
They deepen our worship, encourage us to trust.
36:39
They give us comfort and guide us and teach us to pray and praise.
36:42
They allow for lament.
36:45
But also, where we are in this plan, in this redemptive plan, as it has unfolded throughout time,
36:54
when we go back to the Psalms and we read them and we speak them and we live them,
37:00
we are being pulled closer to Christ in doing that.
37:05
Genesis is a story about God.
37:09
And it's also a story about hope.
37:12
It's about your hope.
37:14
It's about my hope.
37:15
God loves you.
37:17
He wants to bless you.
37:18
He wants to redeem you.
37:19
And He wants to be with you.
37:21
And the question is, how do you respond to that?
37:23
What is your response to that?
37:25
Knowing that the Genesis narrative is your story too.
37:29
All the things that happened from Genesis 1 all the way to the end of chapter 50,
37:34
that's your history.
37:36
That's your story.
37:38
That's your story of hope where it all began.
37:41
So what do you do with that?
37:44
How do you respond to it?
37:45
How do you respond to God as your Creator, to God's power?
37:50
How do you respond to God's mindfulness of you?
37:52
How do you respond to your own sin and your own need for mercy?
37:56
How do you respond to God's providence as you look back in your life
37:59
and see how God's hand has been involved in your life?
38:03
How do you respond to His blessings and His goodness?
38:05
How do you respond to His faithfulness to you?
38:08
How do you respond for His desire to have a relationship with you?
38:14
I want you to think about your response to God.
38:20
What does it demand of us when we read Genesis and we read about His power
38:25
and we read about His plan and His presence
38:28
and we read about His provision
38:30
and we read about all of these wonderful things that He has done?
38:35
He's done that for you and He's done that for me.
38:38
How do we respond?
38:39
And here is what, this is just the tip,
38:44
that if we can do these things,
38:47
we can seek Him.
38:49
We can seek Him through His Word.
38:51
We can seek Him in prayer.
38:53
We can seek Him in times like this,
38:55
where we're together and fellowshipping together.
38:57
We can seek Him in worship.
38:59
We can seek Him in nature.
39:02
We can praise Him.
39:04
We can follow the patterns that have been given to us by the Holy Spirit
39:08
through the writings of men many, many, many years ago
39:11
and we can use those, those same words to offer praise to God.
39:17
We can trust Him, even when we don't understand,
39:21
even when we are in times of lament.
39:25
We can trust that He's listening and that He's caring
39:27
and that He wants to hear from you.
39:31
And then we can obey Him.
39:33
We can obey Him because it is the way that we show Him that we love Him.
39:37
We do what He has commanded.
39:40
And one day, Jesus will come back
39:44
and God's desire to ultimately bless mankind for all of eternity
39:49
will be seen fully.
39:52
We will be able to be with God in His presence,
39:54
which He sought from the very beginning.
39:57
And what a wonderful day.
39:58
How do we respond to that?
40:00
Let's pray as we close.
40:03
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for this moment.
40:06
We thank You for this time that we have to be together right now
40:10
and to be studying and learning about You.
40:14
And God, we just thank You so much.
40:18
We thank You so much for creating,
40:20
for being a God who made the earth,
40:23
who made all the things in it.
40:25
And we thank You, God, for making us in Your likeness.
40:28
And I pray that You help us every day to live worthy,
40:33
to forgive us when we fall,
40:35
to continue to bless us,
40:37
to continue to guide us.
40:40
Lord, we thank You so much that we have Your Word.
40:42
We thank You so much that we can go into Your Word
40:45
and we can learn about You.
40:46
We can learn about Your nature.
40:48
We can learn about Your plan for us.
40:50
We can learn and see from the lives of men and women who lived before us
40:55
how You work in the lives of Your people.
40:59
We thank You and we praise You so much for Jesus Christ
41:05
and for the hope that He has brought.
41:08
We thank You for unfolding that plan
41:11
before You even spoke the world into existence.
41:15
We thank You so much for the blessing of Jesus Christ
41:18
and the hope that we have for heaven.
41:21
Lord, I pray that You be with each one of these ladies.
41:24
I pray that You be with them as they continue throughout this day.
41:27
If they're traveling home, I pray that You be with them.
41:29
Be with their families.
41:31
Lord, I pray for Your blessing on each one of us.
41:34
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
41:36
Thank you very much.