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Seeing the Psalms as a Unified Book · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I am really glad you were here with us today.
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  It's good to be back. For those of you new to the
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  show, here's the deal. We're two Protestant Christians
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  who really enjoy digging into theology.
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  We come at this from a Reformed perspective, which means we look
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  at the Bible through the lens of God's sovereignty and grace.
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  And we well, we often check our math against the Westminster
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  Confession to keep us on the rails.
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  That's right, we like to see how the old confessions apply to
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  modern life. We want to have a respectful,
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  you know, uninterrupted exchange of ideas.
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  Right, no shouting matches. Just thinking.
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  Today we are doing a deep dive into a book that I suspect every
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  single person listening has opened at some point.
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  Maybe you've memorized parts of it.
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  Maybe you've cried over it. We're talking about the Psalms.
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  The hymnal of ancient Israel, right?
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  But we aren't just reading them, we're looking at the
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  architecture of the book. We're using Interpreting the
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  Psalms, an Exegetical Handbook by Mark de Futado, as our guide.
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  A really helpful guide. And we're going to try to answer
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  a question that sounds simple, but the answer actually changes
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  how you read the entire Bible. It really does.
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  It shifts the Psalms from being a collection of greeting card
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  verses into a coherent theological argument.
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  It's a massive shift. To set the stage, I want to
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  share a story from the author Mark Futato.
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  I love this anecdote because anyone with kids or anyone who
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  has met a kid will understand this immediately.
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  Oh yes, he talks about his son, who's about 3 years old at the
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  time. The.
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  Age of Destruction. Yes.
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  Oh, absolutely. So the inevitable happens.
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  The kid breaks something valuable in the house, a vase, a
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  plate, something like that. And his mom comes in, probably
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  with that look on her face, and asks him what happened.
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  And the boy, in his defense says, and I love this phrasing,
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  he says, I didn't do it by meanly, I did it by
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  accidentally. By meanly versus by
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  accidentally. You know, grammatically it's a
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  disaster, but philosophically, that's a really sharp
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  distinction for a toddler. It is.
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  He knew that intent matters. He wanted her to know there was
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  no malice, no design behind the destruction.
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  It just happened. Chaos, not conspiracy.
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  Precisely. But Futado takes that little
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  phrase from his son, and he applies it to the Book of
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  Psalms. And this is the question we're
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  wrestling with today. Is this collection of 150 poems
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  something that happened by accidentally?
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  Meaning, is it just a random anthology?
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  A grab bag of spiritual songs someone found.
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  Right. Did someone just sweep up 150
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  prayers from the floor of the temple over 1000 years and
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  staple them together? Or was it done by meanly?
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  On purpose. Was it done on purpose with a
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  specific design and a unified message?
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  And that's the mission of this deep dive.
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  We want to demonstrate that the Psalter is not a random playlist
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  or an iPod shuffle of emotions. It's a carefully structured
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  book. It's a masterpiece with a
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  blueprint. Let's unpack that because I had
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  to be honest with you, that is not how I was taught to read the
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  Psalms. I I think for most of us, myself
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  included, the way we read the Psalms is purely functional.
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  It's isolated. What do you mean by functional?
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  Well, I use it like a medicine cabinet, you know what I mean?
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  If I have a headache, I take ibuprofen.
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  If I'm feeling sad, I open Psalm 23.
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  If I messed up big time and I feel guilty, I go to Psalm 51.
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  If I'm happy and the sun is shining, maybe Psalm 100.
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  Yeah, I treat it like a pharmacy for my mood.
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  That's the typical evangelical approach.
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  And I want to be clear, we aren't saying that's wrong.
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  No, not at all. The Psalms are designed to meet
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  us in those emotional states. They cover the full gamma
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  dilation, depression, anger, tranquility.
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  You should go to them for comfort, right?
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  But if we stop there, we miss the bigger picture.
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  If you only read the chapters of a novel that match your current
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  mood, you're never going to understand the plot of the book.
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  That's a great analogy. If I only read the sad parts of
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  Lord of the Rings. When I'm sad, I miss the fact
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  that the ring gets destroyed. Right, you miss the whole point
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  of the story. You miss the whole point.
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  And the Psalms have a plot, but it's hard to see because the
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  authorship is so scattered. That's one reason we feel like
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  it's random. Right, let's talk about the
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  timeline. We have Moses writing Psalm 90.
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  That is what, 1400 BC? Roughly, yes.
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  The Exodus era a long, long time ago.
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  And then you have Psalm 137 by the rivers of Babylon, which is
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  clearly during the exile. That's 500 or 400 BC.
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  Correct. So we're talking about 1000
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  years of history between the first and last Psalms being
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  written. That is 1000 year spread.
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  It feels like walking into a library and grabbing a book from
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  the Middle Ages and a book from last week and assuming they're
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  telling one story. It seems impossible.
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  It does feel that way, but Fitado argues that there was a
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  final editor. Someone, probably around the
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  time of Ezra, sat down with all these scrolls and arranged them.
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  And just as the apostle John wrote his Gospel with a specific
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  purpose, remember John 20.31. These are written so that you
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  may believe. Right.
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  John tells us his agenda. He puts it right there in black
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  and white. The editor of the Psalms had an
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  agenda too. There is an argument being made
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  by the order of the poems. OK, I'm skeptical, but
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  intrigued. If there's no forward written by
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  this editor, no introduction by Ezra, where do we look for this
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  agenda? Where's the proof?
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  You look at the front door, you look at the introduction.
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  Futado argues that Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are not just the first
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  two songs on the album, they are the introduction to the entire
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  book. OK, play devil's advocate for
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  me. Is there actual evidence for
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  that in the text? Or is this just scholars seeing
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  patterns because they want to see patterns?
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  That is a fair pushback. We don't want to engage in
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  conspiracy theory theol right? But look at the physical text.
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  Open your Bible. Look at the title above.
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  Psalm 3. OK, I'm looking.
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  It says a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son.
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  Right, it has a superscription. Now look at Psalm 4.
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  Psalm 5. Scan through book 1.
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  To the choirmaster, a Psalm of David for the flutes.
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  They all have these little technical notes, almost like
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  stage directions. Now go back to Psalm 1 and Psalm
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  2. What are the titles?
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  There aren't any. They're orphans.
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  No Psalm of David, no musical instructions.
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  They stand apart from the collection that follows.
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  They are visually set aside as the entryway.
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  Interesting. So the layout itself is a clue
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  that's. Subtle, and they're linked
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  together internally. The first word of Psalm 1 is
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  Asher. Which means blessed or happy.
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  And how does Psalm 2 end? Look at the very last phrase.
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  Blessed are all who take refuge in Him Asher.
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  It forms an envelope you have blessed at the start and blessed
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  at the end. Bookending this introduction,
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  they also share keywords. The concept of the way appears
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  in both. The concept of perishing appears
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  in both, and There's a fascinating contrast in the
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  Hebrew word haga. Haga.
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  That's the word for meditate, right?
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  In Psalm 1, yes, the righteous man Haga meditates on the law
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  day and night. OK, but in Psalm 2.1 it says why
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  do the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain?
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  That word plot? Don't tell me.
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  That's Haga. No way.
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  So the righteous are meditating on God's truth, and the nations
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  are meditating on rebellion. Same word, different object.
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  The editor is tying these two Psalms together to say here is
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  the choice. Two ways to live, two
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  meditations. This is the gateway to the whole
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  Psalter. And the message is what?
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  Psalm One gives us the purpose instruction.
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  Psalm 2 gives us the message the Lord reigns.
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  OK, I'm sold on the introduction idea, but before we dig into the
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  specific meat of Psalm one and two, zoom out for me.
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  You mentioned the book has an architecture.
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  I think many listeners might notice in their Bibles that it
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  says book one, book 2, and so on.
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  Yes. The Salter is divided into 5
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  distinct books. And this isn't something a
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  modern publisher just added. Oh no, this is ancient.
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  Book 1 is Psalms 141, book 2 is 4272, book 3 is 7389, book 4 is
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  9106, and book 5 is 107150. And how do we know where those
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  breaks are? We know where the divisions are
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  because each section ends with the doxology.
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  Doxology just means a word of praise.
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  Right, It does. For instance, look at the end of
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  Psalm 41. It says, praise be to the Lord,
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  the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, Amen
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  and Amen. OK, you find a version of that
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  precise formula at the end of the first four books.
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  It's like a little chapter marker.
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  And Book 5 ends with Psalm 150, which is basically one giant
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  explosion of praise. Correct.
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  Now here is where it gets really fun.
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  Why 5 books? Why not?
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  Or why not ten? I have a feeling you're going to
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  tell me it connects to another famous set of five books.
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  You guessed it, the Pentateuch. The Torah.
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  The first five books of the Bible.
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  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, The books
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  of Moses. So what's the connection?
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  There's an ancient Jewish tradition.
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  It goes back way before the time of Jesus that says as Moses gave
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  five books of laws to Israel, so David gave five books of psalms
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  to Israel. That's a beautiful symmetry.
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  I've never heard that. Before it frames the Psalms as a
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  second Pentateuch, it suggests that the Psalms are not just our
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  words to God, they're God's words to us.
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  They are Torah. They are instruction for the
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  believer, meant to be read alongside the Law of Moses.
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  That is a huge shift in perspective.
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  If I think of the Psalms as Torah, as instruction, then when
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  I open them I am not just looking for a mirror of my own
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  feelings. I'm looking for God to teach me
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  something. Precisely.
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  You're looking for guidance, for wisdom, and that leads us right
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  back to Psalm One. If the Psalms are a second
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  Pentateuch, it makes perfect sense that Psalm One acts as the
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  preamble to that instruction. Let's focus on Psalm one then.
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  This is the instruction for happiness and holiness, but we
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  need to define some terms because law sounds a bit heavy
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  to modern ears. When we hear law, we think of
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  speed limits and tax codes. It sounds restrictive.
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  We do. We think of it as a burden, but
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  the Hebrew word is Torah, and in wisdom literature, which is the
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  genre of Psalm one, it really means instruction or teaching.
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  More like a user manual for life than a list of rules.
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  That's a good way to put it. And by the time the Psalter was
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  compiled around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the phrase
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  instruction of the Lord or Law of the Lord was synonymous with
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  the five books of Moses. So the listener take away here
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  is that the Psalms invite us to meditate on God's instruction to
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  find true life. And that life is defined as
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  happy. The text starts with Asher.
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  Oh, the joys of Siva. Or happy as the man.
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  Happiness is such a loaded word. I mean, from Freud to CS Lewis
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  to the Declaration of Independence, everyone is
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  looking for it. It's the universal quest.
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  But the Bible's definition feels different from the world's
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  definition. The world says happiness is a
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  feeling you get when you buy a new car or fall in love.
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  Which is fleeting. It's circumstantial.
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  In the Psalms, Asher isn't just an emotion that comes and goes.
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  It's a state of being. It's objective.
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  What do you mean by objective? It means living life as the
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  creator intended. It's not just feeling good, it
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  is being in a right standing where life works.
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  Think of it like a machine that is well oiled versus one that is
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  grinding its gears. One is in a state of Asher, the
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  other is not. That makes sense.
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  Futado uses the imagery of the tree versus the chack to explain
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  this. And I think we need to slow down
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  on the chaff part because most of us don't work on farms.
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  We don't. We buy our bread in plastic
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  bags. We have no idea what chaff is.
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  Right. So explain the contrast first
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  the tree. The tree in Psalm 1 is planted
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  by streams of water in the Middle East.
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  That is everything. Water is life because of that
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  source. It's characterized by vitality.
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  Its leaves don't wither. That's endurance.
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  It survives the dry season and it bears fruit.
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  That is significance. It feeds others.
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  It has a purpose. It's alive, it lasts, and it's
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  useful. You got it now the chaff.
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  What exactly is chaff? When you harvest wheat, you have
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  the kernel, the heavy part you can eat, and you have the husk,
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  the casing that is the chaff. It's dry, flaky and weightless.
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  So how do you separate them? To separate them, farmers would
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  throw the wheat into the air. On a windy day, the heavy kernel
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  falls straight down to the ground, but the wind just.
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  It just blows the chaff away, so.
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  The chaff is defined by being weightless.
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  Insignificant. Exactly.
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  It's dead, it is transient, the wing blows it away and it's
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  useless. The Hebrew word avad is used
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  here for the wicked meaning to perish.
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  It implies coming to nothing. That is actually terrifying.
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  The wicked life isn't just bad or evil in a comic book villain
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  sense. It's meaningless.
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  It vanishes it. Evaporates.
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  The righteous life has weight. It leaves a legacy.
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  The wicked life is just dust in the wind.
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  There's nothing to it. So if the goal is this heavy,
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  significant happy life, the means to get there is holiness.
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  But again, we need to be careful with our definitions here,
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  especially as Reformed thinkers. We get nervous if we start
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  saying you have to be holy to be happy because it sounds like
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  we're earning our salvation. Right.
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  It triggers our works, righteousness, alarm bells, and
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  that's a good instinct. We need to be clear, Psalm 1 is
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  not about how you get saved. That is justification.
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  This is about how the saved person lives.
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  This is what the reformers called the third use of the law.
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  Break that down for us. I think that's a really helpful
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  category. The first use of the law is to
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  show us our sin. It's like a mirror.
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  It shows us we need a Savior. The second use is civil, to keep
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  order in society, to restrain evil.
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  But the third use is for the believer.
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  It's the guide. It shows us how to live in
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  gratitude for the salvation we've already been given.
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  Psalm 1 is third use. It's saying you belong to God.
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  Great, here is how you flourish. And the mechanism for that
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  flourishing is meditation. Haga, you mentioned earlier this
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  doesn't mean sitting in a yoga pose and emptying your mind.
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  No. The Eastern concept of
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  meditation often involves emptying the mind, silence,
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  detachment. But Haga is active.
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  It's noisy. The word is used in Isaiah 31.4
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  to describe a lion growling over its prey.
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  A lion growling that is visceral.
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  It's not peaceful. It's not.
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  Think about a dog with a bone. It's gnawing on it, making those
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  little noises that is haga. It implies a low sound.
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  It means to mutter. So if I'm walking down the aisle
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  at the grocery store muttering scripture to myself, I'm
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  actually doing high level theology.
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  You might get some strange looks near the dairy section, but yes,
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  absolutely. You're chewing on the text.
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  You're not emptying your mind, you're filling it with God's
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  Word. You are speaking God's truth to
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  yourself so that it shapes your reality.
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  I love that image. It makes it so much more
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  approachable than needing a silent retreat.
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  But I have to ask. The Psalm says the righteous man
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  delights in the law. Heffits delight, yes.
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  It sounds lovely, but what about the person listening right now?
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  Who thinks? I try, but I don't do this
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  perfectly. I don't always delight.
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  Sometimes it feels like a chore. Does that mean I'm the chaff?
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  That is a real fear, and this is where the Westminster Confession
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  and Calvin are so helpful. Perfection is not the standard
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  for the blessed man in this context.
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  That's what it is. Direction is the orientation of
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  your heart. Say more about that.
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  Calvin pointed out that uprightness in the Psalms
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  includes taking refuge in God's mercy when you fail.
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  Later, in Psalm 32, David describes the blessed man again.
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  And does he say blessed is the man who never screws up?
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  No, he says. Blessed is the one whose
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  transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
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  Right. So part of the happy life is the
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  happiness of being forgiven. It's the joy of knowing you're
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  standing with God doesn't depend on your performance today, but
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  on His covenant. Your delight might waver, but
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  His promise doesn't. That is a massive relief.
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  It has to be, otherwise Psalm one would just be a burden,
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  another law to crush us. But it's not.
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  It's an invitation to a way of life that works.
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  OK, so Psalm One sets up the purpose instruction for a happy
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  holy life. Now we move to song 2.
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  Futado says this provides the content or the message.
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  And that core message is 3 words.
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  The Lord reigns. Psalm 2 is such a cinematic
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  Psalm. It opens with this political
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  thriller vibe. The nations are raging.
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  The kings are plotting. It's the classic suzer and
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  vassal treaty context. Whoa, hold on Suzer and Vassal.
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  That sounds like a medieval board game.
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  Break that down for us. What does that actually look
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  like in the ancient world? I'm sorry, force of habit.
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  It's a key concept for the Old Testament.
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  In the ancient Near East you had great King's suzerain's who
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  ruled over lesser King's vassals.
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  Think of the Emperor of Assyria or Babylon as the suzerain.
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  The king of a small nation like Judah would be the vassal.
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  The Great King would offer protection and the vassal would
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  pay tribute and be loyal. So like an emperor and a local
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  governor? A good analogy.
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  So Song 2 pictures God as the suzerain, the great king of the
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  cosmos and the kings of the earth are the vassals and.
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  They're not happy about it. No, they are tired of paying
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  tribute. They want to break the chains.
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  They view God's rule as slavery. They say let us castaway their
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  cords. They want autonomy.
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  They want to be their own gods, and God's reaction to this
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  little rebellion is, well, it's unsettling.
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  He laughs. He laughs.
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  Honestly, that is kind of disturbing.
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  A laughing God while nations are being crushed.
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  That doesn't sound like the gentle Jesus many people
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  picture. It isn't gentle.
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  It's the laughter of absolute power.
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  It's the laughter of a parent when a toddler says I'm going to
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  run away and live on the moon. It's ridiculous.
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  It's a statement of how futile the rebellion is.
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  It is. God isn't pacing the floor
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  worrying about the election results of the geopolitical
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  situation. He sits in the heavens.
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  And in the ancient world, sitting means ruling.
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  Correct. You stand to work, you sit to
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  rule. He is enthroned.
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  He is completely in control. But then Psalm 2 introduces A
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  twist. God doesn't just rule directly
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  from heaven. He rules through a mediator.
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  The Anointed 1. The Mashiach, a Messiah
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  Originally. Historically, this referred to
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  the Davidic King, the guy on the throne in Jerusalem.
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  He was God's anointed representative on earth.
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  But there is a tension here, isn't there?
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  Because historically, the Davidic kings were a mixed bag.
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  They struggled, they sinned. They certainly didn't rule the
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  ends of the earth like the song says.
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  Oh, they barely ruled their own backyard half the time.
• 18:08
  David had civil wars, Solomon had peace, but the Kingdom split
• 18:12
  right after him. Most of the kings after him were
• 18:14
  just awful. So what's going on in Psalm 2?
• 18:17
  Is it just wishful thinking? It's painting a picture of what
• 18:21
  will be, not necessarily what was happening at that moment.
• 18:24
  It's the divine job description for the king.
• 18:26
  It's the phatic. It's eschatological.
• 18:28
  It's looking to the end times. It's pointing to a future ideal
• 18:32
  king who will fulfill this role perfectly.
• 18:34
  A king who will actually rule the nations with a rod of iron.
• 18:37
  Yes, and it invites the nations to submit to Him, to kiss the
• 18:40
  Son and find refuge. And that brings us back to that
• 18:44
  closing beatitude. Blessed are all who take refuge
• 18:47
  in Him. So we have the setup, Psalm one,
• 18:50
  listen to the instructions. Psalm 2, submit to the King.
• 18:54
  Now we need to zoom out and look at the macro structure because
• 18:56
  you said this book tells a story.
• 18:58
  It tells a story that moves from lament to praise, from crisis to
• 19:02
  glory, and the pivot point of that story is devastating.
• 19:06
  Let's walk through the books. We have books 1-2 and three.
• 19:08
  You said these are about the monarchy.
• 19:09
  That's right, these three books trace the rise and fall of the
• 19:13
  Davidic monarchy. Book 1 is mostly David.
• 19:16
  It focuses on his rise, his struggles, his enemies.
• 19:19
  It ends with Psalm 41, where David triumphs over his foes.
• 19:22
  So far so good. Then book 2.
• 19:24
  Book 2 seems to transfer the hope to Solomon.
• 19:27
  It ends with Psalm 72, which is a prayer for the King, and it
• 19:30
  depicts him rule from sea to sea, fulfilling that promise of
• 19:34
  Psalm 2. It looks like it's working.
• 19:36
  The system is working. It's the golden age.
• 19:38
  It is, but then comes book 3 and this is where the music changes
• 19:41
  to a minor key. This is the collapse.
• 19:43
  This is the collapse. Book 3 ends with Psalm 89, and
• 19:46
  we need to spend a moment here because this is the emotional
• 19:49
  bottom of the entire Psalter. Psalm 89 starts out OK though.
• 19:53
  It starts with I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord.
• 19:56
  It recounts the covenant with David.
• 19:59
  I will establish your offspring forever.
• 20:01
  It sounds great. It's a highlight reel of God's
• 20:03
  promises. It is, but then around verse 38,
• 20:06
  the tone snaps. It's like a record scratch.
• 20:09
  I have it here, it says. But now you have cast off and
• 20:13
  rejected. You are full of wrath against
• 20:15
  your anointed. You have renounced the covenant
• 20:17
  with your servant. You have defiled his crown in
• 20:19
  the dust. Hear the accusation in that you
• 20:22
  renounce the covenant. The psalmist is looking at
• 20:24
  reality. Jerusalem is burning.
• 20:26
  The temple is destroyed. The king is being marched off to
• 20:29
  Babylon with hooks in his nose and he's looking at the promise
• 20:32
  and they don't match. This is the Exile, 586 BC, the
• 20:36
  lowest point in Jewish history. It is the death of the nation
• 20:39
  and the theological crisis is massive.
• 20:42
  If God promised David a throne forever and there is no throne,
• 20:45
  did God lie? Is God weak?
• 20:47
  Did Marduk, the God of Babylon beat Yahweh?
• 20:50
  That's the cliffhanger at the end of Book 3.
• 20:52
  The book closes with this agonizing question.
• 20:55
  Lord, where is your former great love?
• 20:58
  And then silence. Imagine being a Jew in exile
• 21:02
  reading that it ends in failure. The whole project looks like a
• 21:05
  failure. So how does the editor fix this?
• 21:07
  How does book 4 answer the crisis of book 3?
• 21:10
  This seems like an impossible problem to solve.
• 21:12
  This is the most brilliant editorial move in the Bible, I
• 21:14
  think. Book 3 ends with the failure of
• 21:18
  the monarchy. Book 4 opens with Psalm 90.
• 21:21
  And who wrote Psalm 90? Why go back 1000 years?
• 21:25
  What's the point of that? Because Moses didn't have a
• 21:27
  king. Exactly.
• 21:28
  Moses is the man of God before there was a monarchy, before
• 21:31
  there was a David, before there was a temple, before there was a
• 21:33
  Jerusalem. Who was Israel's king then?
• 21:36
  God was. God was, Psalm 90 says, Lord,
• 21:40
  you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
• 21:43
  It's a theological pivot. It says, OK, the human throne
• 21:45
  failed. The Davidic line is broken for
• 21:47
  now, but the throne in heaven, it never moved.
• 21:51
  That is powerful. It is saying our stability
• 21:53
  doesn't depend on our political situation.
• 21:56
  Our hope isn't in a human ruler. Precisely.
• 21:59
  The monarchy was a vessel, but God is the source, and right
• 22:03
  after Psalm 90 we get a cluster of Psalms 93 through 99 that are
• 22:07
  called the Yahweh Malak Psalms. Which means.
• 22:09
  The Lord reigns, they scream it. The Lord reigns.
• 22:11
  Let the earth rejoice. It's a recentering.
• 22:14
  It's a reminder of who is really in charge.
• 22:16
  So book 4 stabilizes the boat, it reminds them that God is the
• 22:20
  ultimate king. And then book 5.
• 22:22
  Book 5 is the Restoration. It focuses on the return from
• 22:26
  exile and the future. Hope it's looking forward and it
• 22:29
  builds and builds until the Hallow Psalms 146 to 150.
• 22:33
  Which is just pure praise. Pure, unadulterated praise and
• 22:36
  that last verse of the entire book.
• 22:38
  Psalm 150.6. Let everything that has breath
• 22:41
  praise the Lord. It moves from the specific
• 22:43
  Israel in crisis to the universal all creation
• 22:47
  worshipping the King. So the structure itself preaches
• 22:49
  A sermon. It acknowledges the failure of
• 22:52
  human institutions, even good ones like the Davidic monarchy,
• 22:55
  but points us to the Eternal King.
• 22:57
  And that's a specifically Reformed comfort, isn't it?
• 23:00
  The Westminster Confession talks about God's eternal decree.
• 23:03
  His plan doesn't fail just because our plans fail.
• 23:07
  The structure of the Psalms proves that God was working even
• 23:11
  in the exile. But I want to clarify something.
• 23:14
  The Psalms don't just give up on the Davidic promise, do they?
• 23:17
  They don't just say, well the human king thing didn't work, so
• 23:19
  let's just go back to spirit worship.
• 23:20
  No, they don't. And this is where the messianic
• 23:23
  hope survives the exile. Even in the midst of the
• 23:25
  wreckage, the Psalms hold on to the promise that a son of David
• 23:29
  is coming. Futado points to Psalm 132 in
• 23:32
  Book 5, yes. In Psalm 132, the people plead
• 23:35
  with God to remember David, and God answers.
• 23:39
  He promises to make a horn grow for David.
• 23:41
  OK, horn. We need to explain that metaphor
• 23:44
  because to a modern listener, a horn growing sounds like a
• 23:47
  deformity or a musical instrument.
• 23:48
  Right, it sounds odd. Think of a wild ox or a rhino.
• 23:52
  The horn is the symbol of its strength, its power to fight and
• 23:55
  conquer. So it's a symbol of power.
• 23:57
  It is. God is promising that a powerful
• 24:00
  ruler. A horn will sprout from David's
• 24:02
  stump. The line isn't dead, it's just
• 24:04
  dormant. And for us as Christians, we see
• 24:07
  the neon lights flashing here. You should Fast forward to the
• 24:10
  New Testament Luke chapter 1. Zechariah, the father of John
• 24:14
  the Baptist, is filled with the Holy Spirit.
• 24:16
  He knows the Messiah is coming, and what does he say?
• 24:20
  He says God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the House
• 24:23
  of his servant David. He is quoting Psalm 132.
• 24:26
  He's saying the pause is over, the exile is truly ending, the
• 24:30
  horn is here. And Psalm 118 has that famous
• 24:33
  line. Blessed is the one who comes in
• 24:36
  the name of the Lord. Which the crowds shouted on Palm
• 24:38
  Sunday. They were recognizing Jesus as
• 24:40
  that king. The songs provided the
• 24:42
  vocabulary for the Jews to recognize their Messiah.
• 24:45
  They knew the lyrics, so when Jesus showed up playing the
• 24:47
  melody, they recognized the song.
• 24:50
  There was also this beautiful imagery in Psalms 96 and 98
• 24:53
  about the coming Divine King, and Futado explains this using
• 24:56
  agricultural imagery, which I found so helpful because
• 24:59
  sometimes Judgement Day sounds scary.
• 25:01
  It does. We think of a courtroom, A gavel
• 25:04
  and a prison sentence, and there is an aspect of that.
• 25:06
  But the Psalms view judgement differently.
• 25:08
  You have to understand the climate of Israel.
• 25:10
  It's binary. It's either wet or dry.
• 25:13
  It is. You have the dry season, about 5
• 25:16
  months of scorching heat, no rain.
• 25:18
  Everything turns brown. It's like a little death every
• 25:21
  year. Then the rains come.
• 25:24
  When the rains come, life explodes.
• 25:26
  Everything turns green overnight.
• 25:28
  Right, so the Psalms describe God's coming to judge, like the
• 25:31
  arrival of the rains when it says he comes to judge the
• 25:34
  earth. The Hebrew word shafat means to
• 25:37
  restore order, to put things right.
• 25:40
  So he isn't coming just to sentence people, he's coming to
• 25:43
  fix the broken system. Exactly.
• 25:45
  He's coming to bring life to the parched land.
• 25:48
  That's why Psalm 98 says the rivers clap their hands and the
• 25:51
  hills sing for joy. They're.
• 25:52
  Not scared of judgement? No, nature isn't clapping
• 25:55
  because it's about to get sued. It's clapping because the
• 25:57
  drought is over. The King is bringing life and
• 26:00
  restoring order to the chaos. That is such a hopeful view of
• 26:03
  judgement. It's restoration.
• 26:05
  It is the end of chaos. And that is what we're waiting
• 26:08
  for. Revelation 21 and 22, The return
• 26:10
  of the King to make all things new.
• 26:12
  I want to pivot to the major themes Futado highlights that
• 26:15
  weave through this structure. We have the Lord Reigns, but
• 26:19
  there are two supporting pillars.
• 26:21
  Refuge and the nations. These are crucial.
• 26:24
  Let's start with refuge. The Psalms are absolutely
• 26:27
  littered with this language. Rock Shield Fortress Stronghold
• 26:31
  Wings. It permeates the book, and we
• 26:33
  often read those as just nice metaphors for comfort.
• 26:36
  God is my teddy bear, right? But in the ancient world,
• 26:40
  providing refuge was the primary political duty of a king.
• 26:43
  It was part of the job description.
• 26:45
  It was if a king couldn't protect his people from
• 26:48
  invaders, he wasn't a king. He failed at his most basic
• 26:50
  task. Remember Jotham's fable and
• 26:53
  Judges 9? The one about the talking tree.
• 26:55
  Yes, the trees want a king. The olive tree says no.
• 26:58
  The fig tree says no. Finally, they asked the Bramble
• 27:00
  Bush. And the Bramble Bush, this
• 27:02
  thorny, useless shrub says, If you want me to be king, come and
• 27:05
  take refuge in my shade. Even the Bramble Bush knows the
• 27:08
  lingo. King equals refuge.
• 27:11
  Exactly. So when the saunas calls God my
• 27:13
  rock and my fortress, he is making a political confession.
• 27:17
  He is saying Yahweh is my king, not David, not Caesar, not the
• 27:21
  president. God is the one who keeps me
• 27:23
  safe. The title points out a
• 27:25
  fascinating literary technique here called finger.
• 27:27
  Joints like in woodworking? Yes.
• 27:30
  You know how you join 2 pieces of wood?
• 27:32
  By cutting interlocking teeth. They fit together perfectly.
• 27:34
  A dovetail joint or a box joint? Right, the editor of the Psalms
• 27:38
  did this with themes. In book 4 you have those
• 27:40
  kingship Psalms we mentioned. 9395 through 99 the Lord reigns,
• 27:44
  but they are interlocked with refuge.
• 27:46
  Psalms 9090190294 So. You can't pull them apart, no.
• 27:50
  The structure argues that because he is king, he's a
• 27:53
  refuge, and because he is a refuge, he is king.
• 27:55
  You cannot have one without the other.
• 27:57
  The two ideas are inseparable. That is comforting.
• 28:00
  It means his power is for our protection.
• 28:04
  Now the second theme, blessing for the nation's.
• 28:06
  I think sometimes we view the Old Testament being very
• 28:09
  insular. God likes Israel and he hates
• 28:12
  everyone else. The.
• 28:12
  Fortress Israel Mentality. Right.
• 28:15
  And then in the New Testament, suddenly he decides to like the
• 28:18
  world. Yeah, but the Psalms blow that
• 28:21
  idea out of the water. They do.
• 28:23
  The trajectory of the nations in the songs is amazing.
• 28:25
  It's a story arc. Walk us through that trajectory.
• 28:27
  OK, remember Psalm 2? Where do we start?
• 28:30
  The nations are rebels. They are plotting.
• 28:33
  They are the bad. Guys right they are enemies, but
• 28:35
  keep reading. By the time you get to Psalms 46
• 28:37
  through 48 the nations are subdued.
• 28:40
  The war cease. God breaks the bow and shatters
• 28:42
  the spear. And what happens?
• 28:45
  The nations begin to tour Zion. They are looking at the city of
• 28:49
  God. Impress.
• 28:50
  They go from attacking it to admiring it.
• 28:52
  They become tourists. Then Psalm 67, the missional
• 28:55
  prayer, God bless us so that your salvation may be known
• 28:59
  among all nations. Israel realizes they are blessed
• 29:02
  to be a blessing. Their special status isn't for
• 29:04
  their own sake, but for the world's.
• 29:06
  And Psalm 87 is the one that really shocks me.
• 29:08
  The Census. It's incredible.
• 29:10
  It lists the arch enemies of Israel, Egypt, Babylon,
• 29:13
  Philistia, the places that enslaved and killed them, and
• 29:17
  God says I will record this one as born in Zion.
• 29:19
  He's given the passports. He is giving them citizenship.
• 29:23
  They aren't just conquered subjects.
• 29:24
  They are naturalized citizens of the Kingdom of God.
• 29:26
  It's a radical welcome. And then the grand finale we
• 29:30
  talked about. Psalms 96 to 100 and finally 148
• 29:34
  to 150 sing to the Lord all the earth.
• 29:38
  The final breath of the Psalter includes all humanity.
• 29:41
  So the story of the songs is the story of the Great Commission.
• 29:44
  It was there all along. It is the Psalms tell the story
• 29:48
  of the Kingdom extending from a small hill in Jerusalem to the
• 29:51
  ends of the earth. So as we wrap up this deep dive,
• 29:54
  let's synthesize what we have found.
• 29:56
  We started by asking if the Psalms were a random collection.
• 30:00
  And we have found that they are anything but random.
• 30:02
  They are structured Tor instruction leading us to
• 30:06
  happiness through holiness. They tell a story.
• 30:08
  They tell the story of the Kingdom from the fragility of
• 30:10
  human kings, David, Solomon, the disaster of the exile, to the
• 30:14
  eternal stability of God's reign.
• 30:16
  And they invite us to move. They invite us to move from
• 30:19
  lament to praise by taking refuge in the King.
• 30:21
  It's a whole worldview contained in this one book.
• 30:24
  It is just so helpful. It makes me want to start
• 30:26
  reading Eating from Psalm 1 and just work my way through with
• 30:29
  this new lens. That is the best way to do it.
• 30:31
  Don't just snack on verses, eat the whole meal.
• 30:34
  See the argument unfold. I want to leave our listeners
• 30:37
  with a final thought to chew on. We talked about how the book
• 30:40
  ends, everything that has breath, praising the Lord.
• 30:44
  That is the destiny of the cosmos.
• 30:47
  The rocks, the trees, the nation's, they are all heading
• 30:50
  toward praise. That is the ultimate reality.
• 30:53
  The universe is not a democracy, it is a monarchy.
• 30:55
  And the king is good. Praise is the direction
• 30:58
  everything is moving. So the question is, if that is
• 31:02
  where the universe is going, where does that leave us today?
• 31:05
  Are we living In Sync with that ultimate reality?
• 31:08
  Are we joining the chorus, or are we like the chaff in Psalm
• 31:11
  1, resisting the wind, trying to stand apart from the praise that
• 31:15
  is inevitable? Are we plotting A vain thing, or
• 31:17
  are we taking refuge in the king?
• 31:20
  That's the question of the Psalter.
• 31:21
  That's the choice it puts before us in the very first two Psalms.
• 31:24
  It is. I encourage you to read the
• 31:26
  Psalms this week, not just for comfort, though they are
• 31:29
  comforting, but for orientation. Let them Orient you in God's
• 31:33
  Kingdom. Amen.
• 31:34
  Thank you for listening to Reform Thinking.
• 31:36
  We will see you next time.