Route 66: Psalms - Navigating the Poetic Heart of the Bible

Negative Testing Testing Good Alrighty.

Good evening family.

It has been a couple of weeks since our last evening service and it's been about four months for me since I last did one of these.

So I want to thank you in advance for your patience, because I am feeling a bit rusty.

But for those of you who are here for the first time or if you're joining for the evening series, we've been doing a series called Route 66, or book by book through the book of books, and what we're essentially doing is looking at each book of the Bible in thematic strokes, looking at each book and doing a large overview, and as we do that, we're basically understanding this bigger picture that the Bible creates for us.

Two weeks ago, pastor Doug led us through the book of Job and for anyone who wasn't here, I highly recommend you give that sermon a listen.

It was honestly one of my favorites.

So if you're in a season of rest or in a season of suffering, that sermon will often offer a lot of wisdom and encouragement on how to deal with situations of anxiety or unknown.

So I highly recommend checking out the sermon that Pastor Doug did two weeks ago, for tonight I have the privilege and the daunting task of taking us through one of the biggest books, or the biggest book in the Bible the book of Psalms.

I hope you brought your sleeping bags, because we're doing 150 chapters.

Obviously we're not doing 150 chapters, but I do pray that after tonight's overview you'll have a greater appreciation for the book.

So, before we get started, please join me for a word of prayer.

Before we get started, please join me for a word of prayer.

Gracious Father, it is indeed a pleasure to gather as your people and to worship you.

We ask, o Lord, that you would open our eyes so that we can behold wonderful things from your law, and I pray this, o Lord, in your Son's name Amen.

If you have a Bible with you, turn with me to Luke, chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Luke, chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Now I know you're wondering aren't we doing the book of Psalms?

We are, but I just wanted to give us a little snapshot of the destination, kind of like a director giving you a taste of what the end is going to look like.

I want to do that for tonight.

So, luke 24, and I'm just going to be reading verses 36 to 44.

As they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst.

He said to them.

Peace to you.

But they were startled and terrified, as though they were seeing a ghost.

Why are you troubled, he asked them, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Look at my hands and my feet that it is I myself.

Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.

Having said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

But while they were still amazed and in disbelief because of their joy, he asked them do you have anything to eat?

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.

He told them these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Take that last verse, start in your back pocket and we'll come back to it at the end.

Now let's go to the book of Psalms.

So for this evening, we find ourselves probably in one of the most appreciated books in all of the Bible.

It is a book that speaks so pointedly to the human experience.

It is a book that we turn to when we need encouragement.

It is a book of those famous words that probably even non-Christians know that the Lord is my shepherd.

It is also a book that so plainly stands out from the rest of our Bible because when you look at it in our modern translations, you're not met with long paragraphs of genealogy and narrative, but instead you're welcomed with concise couplets, stanzas and verses.

You're met with imagery that stirs the imagination and that moves the heart.

That stirs the imagination and that moves the heart.

You can say that this is the language that the Lord uses to woo the souls of his people.

Like a poet, the book of Psalms, as Matthew Henry once said I'm going to modernize it brings us into the sanctuary.

It draws us from conversation with men, with the politicians, philosophers or disputers of this world.

Another commentator says this literary sanctuary in the scripture, the place where God meets his people in a special way, where his people may address him with their praise and lament, in the same way that the sanctuaries of the Old Testament, primarily the tabernacle and the temple, were considered to be the physical center of the people of God.

So too is the book of Psalms in the middle of the Bible.

I thought that was beautifully put.

So in the same of the Bible.

I thought that was beautifully put.

So in the same way.

The Bible was written over a long period of time with various authors.

The book of Psalms is the same.

The book of Psalms has 150 chapters.

47 of the chapters have anonymous writers.

We have one chapter written by Moses, one written by Ethan the Ezraite, two by King Solomon, 12 by the sons of Korah, 12 by Asaph and 73 by King David.

Now the 150 chapters of Psalms are divided into five books.

Book one is chapters one through 41.

Book two, chapters 42 to 72.

Book 3, chapters 73 to 89.

Book 4, chapters 90 to 106.

And book 5, 107 to 150.

As I mentioned earlier, we will not be covering every single chapter in this book, but instead we're going to be looking at patterns that can be seen throughout the entire book.

And as we look at these patterns, I think it will help us get to what is at the heart of Psalms.

So here are the four patterns that we're going to look at this evening.

We're going to look at patterns of praise and worship, patterns of prayer and petition.

Patterns of acknowledging the past and prophetic patterns of a person.

Number one patterns of acknowledging the past and prophetic patterns of a person.

Number one patterns of prayer and worship.

Number two patterns of prayer and petition.

Number three patterns of acknowledging the past and prophetic patterns of a person.

Time doesn't allow us to be exhaustive in each of these points, so for this evening, I'm just going to look at one or two, maybe three psalms in each of these sections and then, for further study, I will list psalms at the end of each section for study, if you're interested.

So, patterns of praise and worship.

Before we turn to a psalm, it's important to note that the Hebrew word for psalm is tehillim, which is translated to praise or praises, and the English title that we have for psalms is derived from the Greek word psalmoi, which means songs of praise.

So from the title alone, we can anticipate that this book is going to be saturated with praise.

Now, if you have your Bible, turn with me to Psalm 117.

Now, this psalm is an example of what is called a psalm of praise, or a praise psalm, or a hymn.

Now, even though Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in all of Scripture.

It gives us a very clear pattern of how psalms or praise are usually structured.

And psalms or praise can be structured in three parts.

There's a call to praise, there's a reason or a basis to praise, and then there's a repeated call to praise or a closing reflection.

Now can I have someone volunteer just to read Psalm 117?

Thanks, Mom.

So our call to praise is found in verse 1.

Praise the Lord all nations, glorify him all peoples.

Our reason or basis for worship is found in the first two lines of verse 2.

For his faithful love to us is great.

The Lord's faithfulness endures forever.

And our repeated call to praise is the final line, hallelujah, which is also praise the Lord.

Now, in this psalm our call to praise starts with the word praise.

So it's pretty easy to spot in this example.

But a formal call to praise will not always literally start with the word praise.

In other cases the psalmist will exhort to sing or rejoice or ascribe.

An example of this is ascribe to the Lord.

Psalm 29, verse 1.

Psalms 29:1

Shout for joy to the Lord.

Psalm 100, verse 1.

Psalms 100:1

Sing unto the Lord.

Psalm 96, verse 1.

Psalms 96:1

Now, in addition to the exhortation to praise or to rejoice, a call to worship will include two other elements as well, include two other elements as well.

One element is who the call is directed to.

We see that in Psalm 117, the call is directed to all nations and all peoples Praise the Lord, all nations.

Glorify him, all peoples.

And the second element that we see, in addition to the call, is the mode or the manner of praise.

This could include song or dance or instruments.

So turn with me to Psalm 33.

, psalm 33.

And let's read these first three verses Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones.

And let's read these first three verses Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones.

Praise from the upright is beautiful.

Praise the Lord with the lyre.

Make music to him with a ten-stringed harp.

Sing a new song to him.

Play skillfully on the strings with a joyful shout.

In this call to praise we see the exhortation to rejoice in the Lord and we see the call being directed to the righteous ones.

But in verses two and three we are invited with a mode of praise.

The psalmist says to praise the Lord with the lyre.

Now, it was not unusual for the psalms of praise to be accompanied by instruments in the Israelite community, particularly in temple worship.

Listen to these words from 1 Chronicles, chapter 23, verses 1 through 25.

1 Chronicles 23:1–25

When David was old and full of days, he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel.

Then he gathered the leaders of Israel, the priests and the Levites.

The Levites, 30 years old or more, were counted.

The total number of men was 38,000 by headcount.

Of these, david said, 24,000 are to be in charge of the work of the Lord's temple, 6,000 are to be officers and judges, 4,000 are to be gatekeepers and 4,000 are to praise the Lord with the instruments that I have made for worship.

Listen also to these words from 1 Chronicles, 25.

This will be verse 1, and then verses 6 and 7.

David and the officers of the army also set apart some of the sons of Asaph, heman and Judathan who were to prophesy, accompanied by lyres, harps and cymbals, accompanied by lyres, harps and cymbals.

All these men were under their own father's authority for the music and the Lord's temple, with cymbals, harps and lyres for the service of God's temple.

Asaph, judith and Heman were under the king's authority.

They numbered 288, together with their relatives, who were all trained and skillful in music for the Lord.

Now, while there is debate about whether instruments or certain kinds of instruments are appropriate or not for worship.

I think what we can learn from the heart of the praise psalms is not so much the mode of worship but rather the reason for worship.

Let's look again at Psalm 33.

I'm going to read verses three to nine and let's pay attention to the basis, or the reasons for worship.

The psalmist says sing a new song to the Lord, play skillfully on the string with a joyful shout.

Here are our reasons, for the word of the Lord is right and all his work is trustworthy.

He loves righteousness and justice.

The earth is full of the Lord's unfailing love.

The heavens were made by the word of the Lord and all his stars by the breath of his mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea into a heap.

He puts the depths into storehouses.

Let the whole earth fear the Lord.

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it came into being.

He commanded and it came into existence.

Now notice how the reason for praise is tied to who God is and what he has done.

In this psalm, in verses four to five, we learn about who God is, and in verses six through nine we learn about what he has done.

This is also known as theology proper.

It is the study of the attributes and the acts of God, and there is a lot of theology proper found in the book of Psalms, especially in the Psalms of praise.

But if we were to go back to the structure of the praise psalm, I believe there is a pattern that helps us to understand what praise and worship is all about.

The call to worship is the call to worship the Lord.

The reason for worship is based on who the Lord is and what he has done, and then the repeated call to praise, or the conclusion, is praise to the Lord.

The beginning, the middle and the end of worship is the Lord, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

So what we learn from the psalmist is that true worship is ultimately not about us, but it is about the Lord.

Other psalms of praise that you can look at for your own study you can look at Psalms 8, psalms 113 to 118, psalms 145 through 150.

Now we're going to look at patterns of prayer and petition.

Prayer ought to be something that is normal and constant for Christians, and yet oftentimes it can be a great struggle, and this can be for various reasons.

Sometimes there is a desire to be formal and articulate before the Lord, and sometimes the root of that can be more so about impressing others.

We can also think that our problems are too big or too small, so we forget to pray or choose not to pray all together.

There's also the fear of sounding too repetitive and then, if you're like me, there are just some days you do not feel like praying.

In Scripture we see more examples of the people of God praying rather than words about prayer, and this is certainly the case with the Psalms.

And while there are different types of prayers in the Psalms, such as prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of adoration or imprecatory prayers, for this evening I want to focus on a couple of the laments.

Laments make up nearly one-third of the entire book of Psalms.

And the reason why I want to focus on the laments?

Because I think it's the laments that make the book of Psalms relatable.

It's the laments that we see the humanity of the writers.

I think the laments provide a pattern of what dealing with God honestly looks like in prayer.

So turn with me to Psalm 13.

Let's start with verse 1.

How long, lord, you don't have to be a Christian, you don't have to be an expert to understand the question.

How long?

We all know what it's like to wait.

I taught VBS this week and even when my kids had a general idea of what the schedule is, they were always asking me when are we going to the next station?

How long are we going to be waiting for this?

How long, lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day?

How long will my enemy dominate me Now?

I want you to keep in mind that this is the same person who said in a previous psalm I cry aloud to the Lord and he answers me from his holy mountain.

Psalm 3, 4.

This is also a person, the same person who said of the Lord you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and their new wine abound.

These words are coming from a man who has seen the faithfulness of the Lord.

He has experienced the joys of knowing him, and yet we see in this psalm him crying out, or you can even say complaining, in a way that almost seems that he has forgotten about who the Lord is.

Now.

Haven't there been moments for ourselves where we have seen the Lord answer prayer.

We've experienced his joy and goodness and yet, with that knowledge and experience, we still find ourselves asking the Lord sometimes how long?

This is one of the reasons why I say the laments are relatable.

Now, there are generally seven elements that make up a lament psalm and they're not strict in their order, but I do think that there are three consistent things that you'll see that can help us spot a lament.

The three things that you'll see is an opening cry to God for help.

The three things that you'll see is an opening cry to God for help.

Two, a complaint or complaint.

And three confidence in God's character.

And we can see these three things in the psalm that we just read.

In verse one, we have our cry to God for help how long, lord?

In verses one and two we see the complaints, but I think the real complaint is at the end of verse 2.

How long will my enemy dominate me?

In verse 3, we have another cry for help and in verses 5 and 6, we see confidence in the Lord's character.

But I have trusted in your faithful love.

My heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

I will sing to the Lord because he has treated me generously.

Now let's turn to Psalm 102.

This is another Psalm of lament, psalm 102.

I'm going to read verses 1 through 13 and then skip over a few verses and then read verses 25 through 28.

Psalm 102.

Lord, hear my prayer.

Let my cry for help.

Come before you.

Do not hide your face from me in my day of trouble.

Listen closely to me, answer me quickly when I call For.

My days vanish like smoke and my bones burn like a furnace.

My heart is suffering, withered like grass.

I even forget to eat my food Because of the sound of my groaning.

My flesh sticks to my bones.

I am like an eagle owl, like a little owl among the ruins.

I stay awake.

I am like a solitary bird on a roof.

My enemies taunt me all day long.

They ridicule me and use my name as a curse.

I eat ashes like bread and mingle my drinks with tears because of your indignation and wrath, for you have picked me up and thrown me aside.

My days are like a lengthening shadow and I wither away like grass.

But you, lord, are enthroned forever.

Your fame endures to all generations.

You will rise up and have compassion on Zion.

Skipping to verse 25.

Long ago you established the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you will endure.

All of them will wear out like clothing, you will change them like a garment and they will pass away, but you are the same and your years will never end.

Your servant's children will dwell securely and their offspring will be established before you.

We have our opening cry in verses 1 and 2, our complaints in verses 3 to 11, and our confidence in God's character in verses 12 and 13, and 25 through 28.

The laments serve as a reminder that life will be difficult, especially for the righteous, as we've heard today in Tao's sermon.

But the ongoing pattern that we see in the Psalms is that we can go to the Lord in our honesty, with our struggles that we face.

But the most important thing for us to do, once we have expressed ourselves, once we have made our complaints, is to simply remember who God is and what he has done.

For more laments for further study, you can look at Psalm 12, psalm 25, psalm 39, and Psalm 86.

Next we're going to look at patterns of acknowledging the past.

The psalm that we will be looking at in this section is coming from what is called the historical psalms, or you can call them a psalm of remembrance.

These psalms simply draw our attention to God's redemptive work throughout the history of Israel, and this is done so by recounting a series of God's acts.

If you're ever doing a Bible reading plan and you're somewhere in, like the prophets, or even in the historical narrative, and you forgot what has happened, these psalms serve as really good Old Testament summaries of the first five books.

So turn with me to Psalm 78.

This is the most popular one and I'm not going to read all of this, but I want us to look at a couple of things in regards to the psalmist looking at the past.

As I read verses 1 through 8, we're going to learn about why the psalmist looks at the past.

My people hear my instruction, listen to the words from my mouth.

I will declare wise sayings, I will speak mysteries from the past, things we have heard and known and that our ancestors have passed down to us.

We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his might and the wondrous works he has performed.

He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children, so that a future generation, children yet to be born, might know they were to rise and tell their children so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God's works but keep his commands.

Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart would not boil and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

For the psalmist, looking back at the past was not information for the sake of information, but rather something that served as an impetus to prevent disobedience and to urge obedience.

Looking back for the psalmist served as a way of instruction and caution.

There's that famous quote those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The end goal for the psalmist and his hearers was communion and confidence in the Lord.

Listen to these words from Paul from Romans 15,.

For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the scriptures.

Now I'm going to read verses 13 through 19,.

And I want us to see how the psalmist looks at the past.

We just looked at why he looks at the past.

But now I want us to see how he looks at the past, starting with verse 13.

He split the sea, referring to God, and brought them across the water, brought them across the water, stood firm like a wall.

He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light through the night.

He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.

He brought the streams out of stone and made water flow down like rivers, but they continued to sin against him.

I want us to notice how the psalmist looks at the past with a biblical lens, meaning that when he makes mention of the Red Sea or the water coming from the rocks, those situations were not happenstance or some kind of scientific mystery to be solved, but rather these were wonderful acts done by the hand of God.

And then he deals with the actions and the motives of the people of Israel in a biblical way.

He doesn't sugarcoat their behavior, but he views it in light of who God is and what he has done for them.

Look again at verse 16.

He brought streams out of the stone and he made water flow down like the rivers, but they continued to praise him.

No, but they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

They deliberately tested God, demanding the food they craved for.

They spoke against God, saying is God able to provide food in the wilderness?

What we learn from the pattern found in this psalm is that taking time, taking the time to acknowledge the past, will rightly help us to remember who we are and where we have come from, but, more importantly, it reminds us of God's dealing with sin and his faithful love that endures forever.

And being reminded of those things should have a two-fold effect of sobering us but also encouraging us.

The ultimate purpose of looking back is to stir our hearts to worship the Lord for his marvelous acts, and, as fallen Christians, we need the constant reminder of the Lord's faithful acts in the past, especially when he seems to be quiet in a particular season in our life, because the Lord does not change.

For further study, you can look at Psalms 105, psalms 106, psalms 135, and Psalm 136.

Again, just to reiterate the point of the importance of looking back at the past, paul says these words in 1 Corinthians.

Now, these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.

Don't become idolaters, as some of them were.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party.

Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in a single day, 23,000 people died.

Let us not test Christ, as some of them did.

And and in a single day, 23,000 people died.

Let us not test Christ, as some of them did.

And were destroyed by snakes.

And don't grumble as some of them did.

And they were killed by the destroyer.

These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.

So wherever things he stands, must he be careful not to fall.

No temptation has come upon you, except what is common to humanity, but God is faithful.

He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

And now we move on to our last pattern this evening prophetic patterns of a person.

Now, to be honest, you can spend a lifetime on this point, and I was figuring out what to do for this point, but for this evening I'm just going to do a few things.

I'm going to zoom out and then, once I'm going to zoom out and then I'm going to zoom in, concentrate on one psalm and then bring us back to where we started.

Now, the reason why I want to zoom out is because before we started this whole series Route 66, book by book.

I want to zoom out is because before we started this whole series, route 66, book by book we did a series by Vaughn Roberts called God's Big Picture, tracing the storyline of the Bible, and the purpose of that series was to give us a general understanding of how the Bible fits together to tell one big story.

Now you can liken that series to what would be the border of a really big, complex puzzle.

Without the border, it's hard to establish and to figure out.

Be the border of a really big, complex puzzle.

Without the border, it's hard to establish and to figure out where the other puzzle pieces fit together and how they relate to the whole.

So the Bible is a big book and there's obviously a lot in it, but taking the time to remind ourselves of its borders will help us to understand what to focus on in the smaller areas and how to make sense of the parts.

That can be confusing.

So before we look at the prophetic patterns of a person found in the Psalms, I'm going to take us back to Genesis.

So I'm zooming way way out.

Listen to these words from Genesis 3.15.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring, or seed, and her offspring.

He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.

The question of the Old Testament since the fall of Adam is who will be the one who crushes the serpent?

Who is the Lord's true anointed one, the Lord Messiah?

It can be argued that there are some prophetic patterns of the anointed one seen in each of the patriarchs Abraham, isaac and Jacob but they all eventually die.

When we get to Moses, god uses him as a primary instrument in redeeming his people from slavery, from the land of Egypt, to bring them into the promised land.

But due to Moses' disobedience, he's not able to go into the promised land and he also eventually dies.

Joshua comes into the picture and through him the people of Israel managed to defeat a lot of their enemies in the promised land that God gave them.

And it is in the life of Joshua that we have these words None of the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed.

Everything was fulfilled Joshua 21 to 45.

But eventually Joshua also dies and we move into the time period of the judges.

And if you were around when I led that study, we saw that the main problem and the theme of the book of Judges was that in those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

Israel needed a king and they eventually got one, and his name was Saul.

He seemed promising at first, but he was not from the tribe of Judah, to which Israel, it was promised that the scepter will not depart from him, judah or the staff from between his feet until whose right it comes and the obedience of the peoples belong to him.

Now, during the time of Saul, comes a shepherd boy from the tribe of Judah who gets anointed to be the next king of Israel, and this shepherd boy goes by the name of David, and this was a man after God's own heart.

Shepherd boy goes by the name of David, and this was a man after God's own heart, and he was most certainly twice the king Saul was.

Now, even though David was a great king, it was made clear early on in his life that there would be one to come after him.

The Lord made a covenant with David and said these words when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body.

I will establish his kingdom.

He is the one who will build your house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his father and he will be my son.

When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals, but my faithful love will never leave him, as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever and your throne will be established forever.

And this brings us into the last psalm I would like to look at for tonight Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 2 gives us a more detailed pattern of David's greater son and a pattern of God's future rule through this son.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Why do the nations rage in the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his anointed one.

Let's tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.

The one enthroned in heaven, laughs.

The Lord ridicules them and he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath.

I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.

I will declare the Lord's decree.

He said to me you were my son.

Today I have become your father.

Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.

You will break them with their iron scepter and will shatter them like pottery.

So now, kings, be wise, receive instruction.

You judges on the earth, serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.

Pay homage to the Son, for he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment.

All who take refuge in him Are happy.

From the very beginning of this altar, we are met with a prophetic pattern that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and his future kingly rule.

And throughout this altar we are given many prophetic patterns that foreshadow the life of the Lord Jesus in various ways.

You have Psalm 2, psalm 22, psalm 69, psalm 78, psalm 110, just to say a few, and this is likely why the Psalms is the most quoted book in the New Testament.

Now listen to these words again from Luke 24, verse 44, the words that we started with.

Luke 24:44

He told them these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

The book of Psalms is a book that leads us and shows us to what true worship with the Lord is.

And as we sing the Psalms, as we pray the Psalms, we now worship the Lord in light of what he has fulfilled through his son, jesus Christ.

Let us pray, father.

We thank you that we have the Psalms.

We thank you, lord, that we see that we are weak and that we can cry out to you in our humility, that we can complain, lord.

We are reminded of the great things that you have done for your people in the Old Testament and what you have done for us through your son, jesus Christ.

We thank you for his kingly rule.

We thank you for his intercession for us, and Lord, may we worship you for his kingly rule.

We thank you for his intercession for us and Lord, may we worship you in spirit and truth as we continue to read your word faithfully, be honored and glorified in all that we say and do the rest of this evening and the rest of this week in your son's name.

I pray amen.