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Songs of the King and His Kingdom | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. Welcome back to the Deep Dive.
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This is where we take a whole stack of material, theological
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studies, articles, commentaries, and boil it all down so you can
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get the core of the subject quickly and thoroughly.
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And today we are opening up the Book of Psalms.
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A book many of us feel we know really well.
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Right. But we're going to be looking at
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it from a slightly different angle.
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We're not treating the Psalter as, you know, just a random
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collection of songs or poems. Instead, we're working from an
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analysis that treats it as a single, carefully constructed
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theological work. So our mission here is to get a
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handle on how the Psalter is organized, why its structure
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matters so much for God's covenant plan, and of course,
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how the whole thing points straight to Jesus Christ.
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And for a lot of us, the Psalms are the go to place for, well,
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for raw emotion, right? That place we turn for intense
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joy, or where we find words for our sorrow when life just feels
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like it's falling apart. It is intensely personal.
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It is, but the source material we're using makes a really
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striking claim. It argues that while all of
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human emotion is in there, the Psalms are at their core a call
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to praise the Lord for a specific reason.
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Because the Lord reigns, the whole book is defined by God's
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absolute sovereignty and the anticipation of His salvation.
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And that focus is just so key. I mean, you're right.
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These are writings that capture the full spectrum of human
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experience. The cry of one person feeling
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totally alone or the shared grief of the entire community.
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Yeah. But the sovereign rule of the
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Lord is the anchor point for all of it.
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That relationship, even in the depths of sorrow, is always
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directed toward this fervent, unreserved joy, even if we only
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get hints of it in this life. And the way we see that
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direction is through the book's structure.
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That's it. The architecture of the book
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itself is a huge canonical clue to its message.
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When you look at the shape of the Psalter, you see a clear
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structural movement. For what?
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To what? It starts out very heavy with
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lament, with struggle in the first couple of books, but it
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moves, and very deliberately, toward this overflowing
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adoration, this doxology, by the end.
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So the journey is built right into the arrangement.
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It is, and it demonstrates A theological certainty that the
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final reality of the Lord's presence will absolutely
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overcome pain, sorrow and any opposition.
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OK. So that structural design, that
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movement, that's the lens we need to use.
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We're not just looking at individual Psalms today, we're
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studying the book as a whole narrative.
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Let's let's unpack the structural design and see how
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the editors put this guide together.
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The first thing, and we really have to view the Book of Psalms
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in its final canonical form, is the way it was handed down to
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us, you know, complete with all its divisions and its titles.
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And the most obvious structural element has to be that five book
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division. That's the starting point.
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So you have book one which covers Psalms one through 41.
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Then book 2 is 42 to 72. Book three runs from 73 to 89, 4
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is 90 to 106 and the final section, book 5 is one O 7 to
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150. And this isn't random.
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The source material points out that Jewish interpreters have
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long seen this as mirroring the five books of the Pentateuch,
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the Torah. Right, and that comparison is
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telling. What does it tell us?
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I mean, if the Psalter is structured like the Torah, what
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does that say about its purpose? It sounds like it's much more
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than just a collection of prayers.
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It's almost like a second Torah, a guide for life under the
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covenant, not just a response to it.
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That's a great way to put it. The Psalter functions as divine
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instruction in how to be devoted.
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The Torah tells us what God requires.
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The Psalms teach us how to respond to God in every possible
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situation, all while we wait for the Torah's promises to be
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fulfilled. And to really drive home this
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idea of an intentional journey, each of those five books ends
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with a doxology. A formal expression of praise.
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Yes, and it essentially signals the Lord is praised Amen and
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Amen before the next section picks up.
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So those doxologies aren't just, you know, feel good endings.
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They are structural bookends. They're telling the reader, OK,
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this part of the story is done. And no matter what struggles
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were in this section, the right response, the final response,
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must be adoration for the reigning God.
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Precisely, and Speaking of structural context, we also have
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to include the superscriptions. The titles, the little
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historical notes you see above, many of the Psalms.
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Yeah, the ones that often attribute them to David or give
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a setting like when he was fleeing from Absalom.
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We have to see those not as some later edition, but as canonical
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parts of the Psalms themselves. They provide a narrative
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framework. So when we read Psalm 3 and the
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superscription tells us David wrote it when he fled from
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Absalom, his son, the King's personal experience becomes a
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sort of template. It helps us understand and how
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the righteous King and ultimately the Messiah deals
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with opposition even from within his own family.
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And that leads us straight to the Davidic thread that runs
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through the whole book. 73 psalms are attributed to David.
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That clearly stamps the entire collection with a kingly
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messianic identity. So the Psalter is really
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concerned with the rule of God's anointed.
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One it is. It's about how God's dominion is
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worked out on earth through that king.
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And that Davidic focus allows theologians like James Hamilton,
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who is cited in our sources, to map the whole structure onto
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redemptive history itself. So how does that reading
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breakdown by book? Well, it creates this compelling
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narrative arc that really does mirror the history of Israel's
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kingship. Books one and two, for example,
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are intensely focused on David's own life, his reign, his fights,
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the immediate hopes that were tied to his dynasty.
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They set the standard for what a righteous king should be.
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OK. So that's the ideal.
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It's the ideal. But then Book 3 slams you into
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the wall of failure and devastation.
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This book is just saturated with community laments.
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They talk about the temple being destroyed, the covenant
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seemingly broken. It mirrors that crushing
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discouragement of the exile when there were no more Davidic kings
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on the throne. And that's the crisis point.
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If the whole Psalter is supposedly leading us to praise,
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Book 3 is the moment where that hope seems totally lost.
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I mean, if David's line failed, where does that leave God's
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promise? That is the big rhetorical
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question the Psalter is asking, and Book 4 then gives the
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immediate theological answer. It bridges that pessimism of the
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exile with a renewed O. How does it do that?
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It starts by looking back to Moses and the original Exodus.
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It assures Israel that Yahweh will fulfill his promises
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because he is eternal and He is faithful.
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It points toward a new exodus, A certainty that God's pattern of
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redemption will be repeated, but this time perfected.
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So the shift from David in Book 2 to Moses at the start of Book
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4 is meant to stabilize the reader.
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It shows that God's faithfulness was there long before the
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covenant with David and will continue long after David's
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dynasty appears to have failed. That's it.
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And that foundation allows Book 5 to become the grand
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culmination. It's a celebration of salvation,
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but a salvation that's accomplished through a new and
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perfect David, the coming King. And it's just marked by this
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escalating corporate praise. You can even see that certainty
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in the smaller groupings within the books, like the Psalms of
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Ascent, Psalms 120 to 134, which are all clustered in Book 5.
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They celebrate that ultimate return from exile, that
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pilgrimage back to Jerusalem. Right, and the full realization
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of the blessing promised to Abraham, which is nothing less
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than the renewal of creation and God dwelling with his people.
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And then there are the royal Psalms, Psalms 93 to 100.
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They're located in Book 4, which you called the Turning Point.
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And they are central to that renewed hope.
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They're not celebrating a human king.
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Their focus is the declaration. The lore reigns not just over
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Israel, but over the whole world.
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This affirmation of Yahweh's universal, eternal sovereignty
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is the only thing, the only theological truth, that can
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overcome the national crisis we see in Book 3.
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OK, that sets the canonical stage perfectly.
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To really get the weight of this structure, we have to go all the
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way back to the beginning, to the front door of the Psalter
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Psalms 1 and 2. Psalms one and two are
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absolutely positioned as the gateway.
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They give you the theological framework you need to read the
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other 148 songs. They are a very carefully
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crafted literary pair. And Psalm 1 and kicks things off
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by putting the Psalter squarely in.
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The Wisdom tradition doesn't start with a prayer or a song,
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but with instruction. It defines the blessed man, the
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righteous life. Yes, it gives you a stark
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choice, a binary opposition between two possible paths in
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life. The righteous man, he refuses to
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associate with the wicked. He won't walk in their counsel
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or stand in their way or sit in their seat.
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His whole orientation is different.
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Completely different, and his defining characteristic is his
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delight, his satisfaction, and it's found in one place, the
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Torah, the instruction of God. And it's not a casual
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interaction with the Torah. The text says he meditates on it
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day and night. That word for meditation, haga,
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is so good. It has this sense of a low
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murmuring or rumination. It's not just intellectual
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study. It's constantly going over the
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instruction, internalizing it, making it part of you.
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And the result of that kind of life?
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Stability The condition of this righteous person is 1 of
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stability. They aren't tossed around by
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every circumstance. They're like a tree planted by
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stream of water, something that yields fruit in its season and
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whose leaf doesn't wither. They can withstand spiritual
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drought. While the wicked, on the other
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hand, aren't just presented as morally bad, they're unstable.
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They're like chaff that the wind blows away.
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They're going to perish in the judgement.
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The 2 paths run parallel, but they never meet.
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One leads to life, the other to destruction.
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And the structure of the Psalter itself links this obedience to
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the ultimate goal. If you pair Psalm One with Psalm
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150, that thundering conclusion to the whole book, you realize
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something. The ones who are ready to praise
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the Lord with all that exuberance, with dancing and
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loud clashing cymbals, are the ones who adhere to the
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instruction of the Torah. Wisdom leads to worship.
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OK, so Psalm 1 defines the righteous life.
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But then Psalm 2 immediately throws us into what feels like a
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political, even a geopolitical crisis.
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It shows that this righteous life has to be lived out under
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the reign of God. It does.
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Psalm 2 immediately shows you the wicked from Psalm one.
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But now they're on a global scale.
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They're the nations and the peoples, and they are conspiring
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together against the Lord and against His Messiah, His
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Anointed 1. And here's that interesting
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parallel with Psalm One again, instead of meditating Hugga on
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the life giving Torah. They're meditating using the
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same Hebrew word hunga, on what is vain, on a plot that is
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doomed to fail. They want to break the chains of
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God's rule. That verbal link has to be
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intentional. Oh, absolutely.
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The contrast lays out a basic theological truth.
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The only way to avoid meditating on rebellion against God is to
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fill that mental space with God's instruction.
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But their resistance is completely futile.
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And then the scene shifts to the heavens.
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Right, Yahweh is enthroned, and his response to their plotting
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is just, well, it's mockery. He laughs at the schemes of
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these earthly kings. Why?
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Because he has already installed his chosen King, his son on
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Mount Zion, his holy hill. This is the official
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installation decree of the King. And this installation isn't just
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local, it has a universal scope. The decree quoted in the Psalm
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extends the new King's domain to the entire planet.
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Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your heritage,
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and the ends of the earth as your possession.
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Which takes us right back to the Abrahamic promise that through
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Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
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So the two Psalms together act as a hinge for the whole book.
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They're saying that a righteous life is defined by keeping the
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Torah, but the flourishing that the Torah promises can only be
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achieved when people submit to the reign of God's anointed
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King. It's like the pair is setting up
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a prophecy for a new leader who can perfectly embody the law of
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the king. It creates this eschatological
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hope, this forward-looking expectation.
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I mean, the current King David, he may be anointed, but as we're
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about to see, he's deeply flawed.
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So the Psalter keeps asking this question, who will be the
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perfect righteous man of Psalm One?
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And who will be the perfectly ruling king of Psalm 2?
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The answer has to point outside the historical scope of the Old
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Covenant. And this is where we transition
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from the historical framework of the Psalter to its final
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canonical fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Yes, from the theological perspective of our source
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material, Jesus of Nazareth is the complete and final answer to
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both questions. He is the only one who fully
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delighted in the Torah and kept it without any fault.
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He is the ultimate righteous man of Psalm One.
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His entire life was one of perfect obedience.
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And at the same time he fulfills the messianic destiny laid out
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in Psalm 2. The New Testament is explicit on
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this. Acts 13.33 when Paul is
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preaching. And also in Hebrews one they
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identified Jesus as the Son whom God installed as the rain Lord
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in Christ. And they pinpoint the moment of
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that installation. It's not at his baptism or his
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anointing, but definitively at his resurrection.
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His resurrection, then, is the divine act of enthronement.
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It is. It's the moment he is seated on
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the Heavenly Throne and takes possession of the nations.
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It's how the blessing promise to the world becomes a reality
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through his reign. So submitting to Yahweh's
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Lordship means keeping the Torah?
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Yes, but it has to be understood as submitting to the reign of
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the Lord's anointed King Jesus, who is himself the living Torah.
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And that dual requirement, perfect obedience and sovereign
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rule, sets the stage for the rest of the Psalter, which so
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often shows David's own inability to meet that standard,
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which just drives the reader to look for a greater king.
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OK, let's move into that canonical narrative of David's
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struggle, starting with Book 1. Book 1, which is Psalms 1 to 41,
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is almost entirely a collection of Davidic players.
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So it has this very strong atmosphere of conflict, of
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kingship under pressure, and it starts right away with the
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tension that Psalm 2 described. You see that conflict
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immediately in Psalms 3 through 7.
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David's enemies are everywhere, gathered to destroy him.
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And this isn't some abstract theoretical enemy.
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It includes those closest to him, like his own son Absalom.
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It's a perfect illustration of how the wicked always resist
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God's appointed rule. David is constantly crying out
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for God's judgement and vindication.
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And this constant cry for deliverance really reinforces
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the vulnerability of the anointed King.
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David embodies this conflict between the righteous and the
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wicked on a national scale. He begs the Lord to act for the
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sake of His own name, trusting that Yahweh will rise up and
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execute judgement on the plotting nations and rebellious
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people. OK, but then right in the middle
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of all this intense conflict, these prayers for judgement
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against enemies, we get Psalm 8, the creation Psalm.
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It feels like a pause, a moment of reflection.
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It steps back from the politics of Zion to remember humanity's
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original role from Genesis 1 to rule the world and display God's
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majesty. Why is this creation reflection
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placed right here? It's placement is so deliberate,
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it shows us that David's rule, the rule of the anointed king,
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is the highest expression of the human Adamic task.
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Humanity was created to rule the world for God to make his
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majestic name known. And David, the people of his
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time, saw a glimpse of what that rule was supposed to look like.
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But just a glimpse. We know David is a limited,
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flawed ruler, which is why the New Testament connection here is
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so important. It is the book of Hebrews sees
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Psalm 8 fulfilled only in the risen Christ.
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Humanity failed and it's Adamic task, but Jesus, the true Son of
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Man, after his suffering and death, was exalted as the
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Messianic King crowned with glory and honor.
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Humanity will only realize its intended role to rule the world
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when they belong to Jesus and share in his future reign.
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So it connects creation, kingship, and future redemption
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all in one short reflection. As we keep moving through Book
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One, we hit this deep tension about the requirement of
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righteousness. Psalms 15 and 24 famously asked
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that question, Who can live in God's presence?
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Who can stand on his holy hill or in his sanctuary?
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And the answer is incredibly demanding.
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Only the one with clean hands and a pure heart, the righteous
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and the innocent. That is the impossible standard.
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It defines the kind of person who is qualified to live in
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communion with a holy God. But then, just a few songs
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later, in Psalm 25, David himself admits his failure.
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He confesses part of my guilt, for it is great.
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He knows the demands of the Torah, but he knows he can't
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perfectly meet them. And yet in the very next Psalm,
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Psalm 26, David stresses his own integrity.
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He says things like, I wash my hands in innocence and go about
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your altar, O Lord, this back and forth, this confession of
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huge sin one moment and then a claim of integrity the next.
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It's striking. It's a canonical tension, and
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it's designed to direct our hope forward.
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While David was genuinely devoted and sought to act with
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integrity against his enemies, the only one who could perfectly
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embody that integrity, the one who could walk into Grapp's
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temple with genuinely clean hands and a pure heart, having
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committed no fault, was Jesus Christ.
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The tension itself points to the need for a perfect king.
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And this tension seems to come to a head in the description of
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the suffering king in Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is, you could argue,
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the high point of Book 1's messianic foreshadowing.
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It's this dramatic pivot between the deepest despair you can
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imagine, an absolute, assured confidence.
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It starts with that agonizing cry.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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David describes his suffering in these incredibly vivid physical
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terms. His bones are out of joint.
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His strength is dried up. His enemies surround him like
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ferocious bulls. He feels completely abandoned.
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But then the song shifts, and it shifts sharply from verse 22
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onward. The despair is just gone,
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replaced by this sudden pledge of praise and a declaration of
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universal deliverance that goes way beyond anything David
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experienced in his own lifetime. The shift is prophetic.
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The deliverance he foresees promises that all the ends of
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the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.
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Not just Israel, but all nations, he says.
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For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the
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nations. This connects David's personal
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suffering directly to the fulfillment of the Abrahamic
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covenant. And of course, we know this is
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realized in Jesus. He quoted that opening line on
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the cross, experiencing that ultimate sense of being forsaken
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by God, and he was delivered through the resurrection, and as
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a result he now receives the worship of the nations.
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Book 1 then finishes with this recurring theme of the temple
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and a deep longing for God's presence.
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David says in Psalm 27 that his one intense desire is to dwell
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in the House of the Lord all the days of his life, just to gaze
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upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
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And our source material makes a careful note here about the
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temple's ambiguity. It's not as straightforward as
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it seems. Yes, the temple is presented as
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both a physical building in Jerusalem and at the same time
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the earthly manifestation of a heavenly, non localized temple.
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The yearning for the sanctuary is at its heart a yearning for
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the immediate, unfiltered presence of God's royal rule and
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his protection. And that kind of presence leads
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to the exuberant adoration you find in Psalm 29, the voice of
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the Lord thundering in holiness. David's rescue as king can't be
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separated from Israel's salvation, and this whole
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narrative is perfectly fulfilled in Christ.
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OK, moving into book 2, which is Psalms from 2 through 72, the
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focus stays messianic, but there's a linguistic shift that
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our sources flag as being significant.
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That's right, it's the shift in the primary name used for God.
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In book 1, Yahweh, the covenant name is used most of the time.
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In Book 2, Elohim, the more generic term for God, takes
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center stage. What does that change signify?
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It seems to reflect a broadening of scope.
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It's a signal that the themes of salvation and sovereignty are
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moving beyond just Israel's national borders and looking
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toward a more universal application.
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And this book opens with Psalms 42 and 43, which are likely one
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single unified lament. The theme is this intense
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longing for God's presence, driven by a despair over being
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separated from the temple. The psalmist expresses this
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longing so powerfully as a deer pants for flowing streams, so
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pants my soul for you, O God. This separation is a kind of
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torture for him. The pilgrimage to the temple was
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meant to be a moment of spiritual renewal, but now the
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great thirst is for God's presence itself, not just the
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physical building. This really sets the stage for
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the rest of Book 2, which tries to define where God's presence
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truly is. The book thing gives us a
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blueprint of the ideal king in Psalm 45.
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Psalm 45 is a royal wedding song, and it describes a king
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who wins because of his inherent righteousness and beauty.
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This sketch of the perfect ruler is picked up directly by the New
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Testament in Hebrews 1.8 to 9 as proof of the deity of King
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Jesus. He is addressed as O God, and
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His reign is declared to be eternal.
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Wow. And not only that, but the
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daughter, the foreign wife who joins the King, finds its
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fulfillment in the inclusion of the Gentiles, the church, into
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God's covenant family. Book 2 is definitely widening
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the vision. And that wire vision is
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reinforced by the City of God Psalms, Psalms 46 and 48, which
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promised security based entirely on God's dwelling place.
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These Psalms assert that God lives in the midst of his
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people, in the city of God, His holy habitation, and this
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promise of divine residence means they don't have to fear.
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Even if the world around them dissolves, even if the mountains
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fall into the sea, God is an invincible fortress.
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The source material links this assurance directly to the New
21:05
Heaven and New Earth described in Revelation 21 and 22, where
21:09
the entire cosmos becomes the city of God, the place of His
21:12
dwelling. And this book culminates in
21:13
Psalm 72. This is Solomon's prayer for the
21:16
royal son, and it acts as a final, glorious summary of the
21:19
hope expressed in this whole section.
21:21
Solomon prays for this king to achieve universal dominion.
21:25
May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the
21:27
ends of the earth. This is the comprehensive hope,
21:31
the crushing of the serpent's head, the perfect execution of
21:34
justice, the complete fulfillment of the Abrahamic
21:36
promise, all realized through the Davidic line.
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Book 2 then closes by dedicating the entire collection up to that
21:43
point as Davidic, meaning the promises will be fulfilled by an
21:46
error. And that brings us to Book 3,
21:48
Psalm 73 to 89. This is the low point, the
21:51
valley despair, the canonical crisis.
21:54
We should probably spend some time here, since this book
21:56
really justifies the ultimate hope that comes in books 4:00
21:59
and 5:00. It does.
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The section correlates very strongly with the devastating
22:03
experience of the Babylonian exile on the Dispersion.
22:06
It's dominated by community laments, often attributed to the
22:09
families of Asaph and the sons of Korra.
22:12
The descriptions are just harrowing.
22:13
Sanctuary is burned, the walls are broken down, and there's
22:16
this palpable sense that God has abandoned his people.
22:19
So this is more than just sadness.
22:21
It's a deep crisis of Covenant where God's promises seem to
22:25
have failed completely. Psalm 73 captures the personal
22:29
side of that struggle, the struggle of a faithful believer,
22:31
Asaph, facing this crisis. Asaph is wrestling with
22:35
theodicy, the question of God's justice.
22:37
He looks around at the wicked, and they're healthy, they're
22:39
prosperous, they seem to have no trouble at all.
22:42
He confesses that his own feet almost slipped.
22:44
He found their prosperity so dispiriting that he nearly gave
22:47
up on his faith. So where does he find his
22:49
anchor? It's not in looking for justice
22:51
in the world, but in going to God's dwelling.
22:54
He says that when he finally entered the sanctuary of God, he
22:57
understood the truth. The glory of the wicked is
22:59
temporary. It's evanescent.
23:01
They're set on slippery slopes. And that realization stabilizes
23:05
him completely. He concludes that nothing in
23:07
heaven or on earth can compare to God.
23:10
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth
23:13
that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,
23:16
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
23:20
The faithful believer, despite the current crisis, will in the
23:24
end be received into glory and will experience God's presence
23:27
forever. But the communal devastation is
23:29
still very real. Psalm 74 describes the utter
23:33
destruction of the sanctuary. The signs are everywhere that
23:36
God has forgotten them. Right.
23:38
But even in that devastation, the response is a call to God to
23:41
remember his covenant and to act for the sake of his own
23:44
reputation. The Psalmist reminds God of the
23:46
Exodus, how he crushed the mythical sea creature Leviathan
23:49
and dried up the sea. So that acts as a pattern.
23:52
It's a pattern. What God did in the first
23:54
Exodus, he must do again to bring about future salvation.
23:57
They are relying entirely on God's historical faithfulness.
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And this crisis finally hits its peak in Psalm 89.
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This Psalm just perfectly encapsulates the dramatic
24:06
tension of Book 3. It really does.
24:09
Psalm 89 starts out by beautifully recounting God's
24:12
eternal promise to David's dynasty that his covenant
24:15
faithfulness will stand forever, that David's throne will be
24:17
established like the sun. It's the sure Word of God.
24:20
The psalmist seems completely certain.
24:22
But then. But then the tone just abruptly
24:24
shifts into this desperate lament.
24:27
The psalmist cries out because Israel's current defeat, their
24:30
shame, their broken walls, their king deposed, it makes the
24:34
Davidic covenant look completely nullified.
24:37
The King's crown has been profaned, thrown to the ground.
24:40
God's promise appears to have failed.
24:42
The Psalm ends with this desperate existential question,
24:45
doesn't it? How long, O Lord, will you hide
24:47
yourself forever? Remember how short my time is?
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They are demanding that God remember His own word and act
24:53
for His people so that the eternal promises He made to
24:56
David can become a reality. The deep despair of Book 3 is
25:00
just so palpable it functions as the ultimate literary and
25:03
theological setup for the glorious resolution that begins
25:06
in Book 4. Yes, and Book 4, Psalms 90 to
25:10
106 gives the thematic answer to that crisis of covenant.
25:14
The structure is designed to bridge the pessimism of the
25:16
exile with renewed optimism by centering everything on Yahweh's
25:20
eternal sovereignty. And the book opens
25:22
strategically, not with the Psalm of David, but with the
25:25
only Psalm attributed to Moses, Psalm 90.
25:28
That placement is so important, it immediately roots the
25:30
expectation of restoration. In the original Redemption
25:33
story, Moses reflects on the transients of human life, how
25:37
short it is, how futile, all because of sin.
25:40
He prays that God will teach us to number our days wisely so
25:43
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
25:45
A famous verse. It is, and Moses asks, that
25:48
God's steadfast love would satisfy them so they might
25:50
rejoice and be glad. And then, significantly, he
25:53
prays that God would establish the work of our hands.
25:56
This is the prayer that human effort, which is cursed by sin
25:59
and mortality, would finally be made fruitful by divine
26:02
blessing. So this reminds the reader, God
26:04
acted under Moses to bring about the first Exodus.
26:07
The Psalter is shaped to show that the redemption that Moses's
26:10
generation saw, the deliverance from bondage, will be realized
26:14
again in a new, ultimate Exodus. And if Psalm 90 establishes God
26:18
as the everlasting dwelling place, Psalm 91 provides the
26:22
immediate assurance of refuge for those who trust in Him.
26:26
They are promised divine protection and salvation because
26:29
they rely on that everlasting God, and this confidence leads
26:32
directly into the core theme of Book 4.
26:34
Which is the centerpiece? The Royal Psalms, Psalms 93 to
26:38
100. These directly answer the
26:40
despair of Book 3. The crisis is solved not by a
26:43
human king, but by affirming that Yahweh alone reigns.
26:47
That signature phrase is repeated over and over.
26:49
The Lord reigns. You see it in Psalm 93.
26:52
Psalm 99. This is the great corrective
26:54
after the failure of the Davidic line.
26:56
Salvation comes from Yahweh alone.
26:58
He's eternal. He is unchangeable and therefore
27:00
He is fully able to rescue Israel from exile and fulfill
27:03
His Word. And this sovereignty isn't just
27:05
limited to Israel's political borders.
27:07
The Royal Psalms affirm its universal reach.
27:10
Exactly. God is the King of all the
27:12
earth, That's Psalm 97. His glory is to be proclaimed to
27:15
all nations, That's Psalm 96. This is the clear indication
27:18
that the new Exodus, the definitive act of salvation,
27:22
won't just be for Israel. It will embrace all nations,
27:25
finally fulfilling the promise to Abraham through a cosmic
27:28
display of God's rule. And this certainty of God's
27:31
reign leads directly into the practice of temple worship.
27:34
Psalm 100 is that famous call to enter God's presence with
27:38
Thanksgiving and praise. Right, because holiness benefits
27:41
the House of this reigning king, as Psalm 93 says.
27:43
If you see these royal psalms as the theological answer to the
27:46
exile in Book 3, the message is one of incredible theological
27:50
stability. Yahweh can and will fulfill
27:53
every single promise even when all human institutions fail,
27:56
because nothing can thwart His cosmic will.
27:58
Book 4 then closes by balancing God's sovereignty with His
28:01
mercy. Psalm One O 3 celebrates
28:04
Yahweh's benevolent rule. He forgives sins.
28:06
He heals diseases. He is merciful and gracious.
28:09
And then Psalms one O 5 and one O 6 give a historical review of
28:13
God's covenant dealings. Psalm 105 focuses on God's
28:17
faithfulness and keeping the covenant from aborworm all the
28:20
way to possessing the land. But Psalm 106 gives the
28:23
necessary counterpoint, Israel's persistent unfaithfulness and
28:26
rebellion which led to judgment. Yet the Lord saved them again
28:30
and again. Showing that his salvation isn't
28:32
based on their merit. Not at all.
28:34
It's based on his own name and his own character.
28:36
And so the book closes, not in defeat, but with a plea for
28:40
future gathering based entirely on that proven historical mercy.
28:43
It ends with a specific petition for God to gather Israel again
28:47
from among the nations. Save us, O Lord our God, and
28:50
gather us from among the nations.
28:52
And this cry is founded on Yahweh's own self disclosure in
28:56
the original Exodus, summarized in Exodus 34.
28:59
He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
29:02
steadfast love. The covenant made with David
29:04
must be fulfilled because God's character demands it.
29:08
That faith filled plea sets us up perfectly for Book 5, Psalms
29:11
107 to 150, which is the final climax defined almost entirely
29:15
by Thanksgiving and answered prayer.
29:17
This final section is just saturated with praise.
29:20
It demonstrates the assurance that Yahweh has heard their
29:22
prayers, He is executing justice, and He will fulfill His
29:26
covenant promises. The structure tells the story.
29:29
While the first four books end with a single doxology, Book 5
29:33
ends with five consecutive Psalms devoted completely to
29:36
pure adoration. Then, right at the beginning of
29:38
this triumphal section, we hit what many would say is the
29:41
single most important Messianic song in the entire collection,
29:44
Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is the Messianic high
29:46
point. It reflects on the rule of the
29:48
anointed king, who is David's offspring, but astonishingly, is
29:52
also David's Lord. The Lord invites this figure to
29:55
sit at his right hand until all enemies are subjugated under his
29:59
feet. And he's given a unique title.
30:01
A critical one, this figure has declared a priest king forever
30:04
after the order of Melchizedek, he will triumph over his enemies
30:07
and crush them. This is the promise from Genesis
30:10
3.15, where the offspring of the woman crushes the serpent's
30:13
head, now being realized in the single Davidic and ironic
30:17
figure. A priest king role uniting
30:19
political spiritual authority that is fully realized by Jesus
30:23
Christ. Canonically, yes, Jesus's
30:26
enemies betrayed him and killed him, but the Lord raised him
30:29
from the dead and seated him at his right hand as the eternal
30:32
priest King. His ascension to the heavenly
30:34
throne is the definitive realization of the new Exodus,
30:38
the ultimate deliverance of God's people.
30:41
And following this high promise, we get the hallowed Psalms,
30:44
Psalms 113 to 118, which were traditionally sung during
30:47
Passover, celebrating Israel's redemption.
30:50
And the praise in these Psalms takes on explicit universal
30:53
dimensions. Psalm 117, which is the shortest
30:56
Psalm in the Bible, calls on all nations to praise God for His
30:59
steadfast love and covenant faithfulness.
31:02
Redemption was always aimed at the whole world, not just a
31:04
single nation. And Psalm 118 provides the
31:06
context for the new Temple. Absolutely.
31:08
It famously declares that the Davidic leader, the very one
31:11
rejected by the builders, was made the cornerstone.
31:14
The New Testament applies this directly to Jesus.
31:17
Though his contemporaries rejected him as the builder of
31:19
God's new temple, God raised him and established him as the
31:22
cornerstone of that spiritual structure, making the promises
31:25
of a new temple and a perpetual dwelling place a reality.
31:28
We also find the Psalms of Ascent in Book 5.
31:30
Psalms 1:20 to 1:30 for focusing on that pilgrimage to Mount
31:34
Zion. These songs serve a dual
31:36
purpose. On one hand, they are historical
31:39
pilgrimage songs for the return from exile, demonstrating the
31:42
restoration of Zion. But they also look forward to
31:45
the end of redemptive history, to the Lord dwelling with his
31:48
people in the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city.
31:51
The act of going up to Zion signifies coming into the place
31:54
of God's perfect rule and hearing the fullness of His
31:57
Torah. And Psalm 132 ties this entire
31:59
hope of restoration back to the concrete Davidic covenant.
32:03
It does. It reiterates God's specific
32:05
promise of an eternal dynasty coming from Zion.
32:08
Jesus is the horn who sprouted for David, the faithful king who
32:11
kept God's covenant perfectly and by doing so made all these
32:14
promises of perpetual dwelling and security a reality.
32:18
The comprehensive praise of Book 5 is fundamentally because of
32:21
the certainty that Yahweh has fulfilled His Davidic covenant
32:24
for the salvation of the whole world.
32:25
So the Psalter, having tracked the righteous Man, the Davidic
32:28
King, the Exile, the new Exodus, and the Christ King, then
32:32
fittingly concludes with the final five Psalms, 146 to 150,
32:35
which are just pure doxology, A sustained crescendo of praise.
32:39
These final songs focus entirely on Yahweh, saving love, His
32:43
intrinsic excellence as creator and sustainer, and His reign,
32:47
which has no end. They move beyond history to
32:49
praise his essential character. He heals the broken hearted.
32:53
He lifts up the weak. He rules the stars.
32:55
And Psalm 150 brings the whole canonical journey full circle.
32:59
We started with the solitary righteous man meditating on the
33:01
Torah in Psalm 1, and we end with the assembled community of
33:04
that righteous man praising God with every fiber of their being.
33:08
The conclusion is just this thundering, unreserved call for
33:11
all creation to participate in adoration using every kind of
33:14
human creativity and music. The message is simple and
33:17
inescapable. Let everything that has breath
33:19
praise the Lord. The new David has come, the new
33:22
exodus is realized, and praise is the only logical response.
33:25
So if we step back and review the whole architectural argument
33:28
from our source material, we see this really clear narrative
33:31
movement. Books one and two establish
33:33
David and the Initial Promise. Book 3 is the deep crisis of the
33:38
X file questioning of God's promises are even valid.
33:41
And then books four and five deliver the triumphant answer.
33:44
Yahweh's absolute sovereignty will lead to a new David who the
33:48
New Testament identifies as Jesus of Nazareth.
33:51
That structural study confirms the certainty that the Lord
33:54
restores his people and raises up the new David who saves them
33:57
by providing forgiveness for their sins and establishing
34:00
justice. And this restoration is global.
34:03
It's tied right back to the Abrahamic promise.
34:06
God's rule extends over the whole earth, and the world will
34:08
finally see the King in his beauty.
34:11
This God centered vision makes it clear that praise isn't some
34:14
optional spiritual activity, but the glad and right response to
34:17
Yahweh's saving love. It's the ultimate reason for
34:20
human existence. And the application for you, the
34:23
learner, flows directly from that realization.
34:26
Living life under Yahweh's Lordship, whether you're in
34:28
private devotion or in corporate worship, means engaging in the
34:32
spiritual disciplines that are modeled in the Psalter lament,
34:35
absolute trust and adoration. You engage in these knowing that
34:38
the King is already reigning, and he fulfills both his written
34:42
word, the Torah, and his dynastic promises, the divinic
34:46
Covenant through Christ. What really strikes me from this
34:49
analysis is that recurring theme of the temple and how our
34:52
sources called it ambiguous, both earthly and heavenly.
34:56
The psalmist longed to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord in a
34:58
physical building that was somehow linked to the non
35:01
localized heavenly presence of God.
35:03
And that observation forces us to rethink our own context, the
35:06
psalmist. We're waiting for the promised
35:08
dwelling, since Christ is the resurrected King and the
35:11
cornerstone of the new temple, and since we operate with the
35:14
certainty that we are already participating in the heavenly
35:16
reality of God's presence through Him.
35:18
Yes. So the question for you to Mull
35:21
over, something to consider as you reflect on this structure of
35:23
adoration is this. Since we have the canonical
35:27
certainty that we are already enjoying the beauty of the
35:29
heavenly temple in the presence of the Christ, how should our
35:32
contemporary worship spaces, our services, and our corporate
35:36
gatherings physically and spiritually reflect that deep
35:39
theological certainty? A worthwhile thought to carry
35:42
forward knowing that the ultimate reality of Zion has
35:45
come in the person of the King. We hope this deep dive into the
35:48
architecture of adoration has been insightful.
35:51
Thank you for joining us for the Deep dive.
35:53
We'll see you next time.