Snapshots...of the Journey | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

And I'm going to tell you right up

front, I'm really excited today. The

weather is warm. The school buses are

off the road for a few months, and we're

starting a new series. We're calling the

series Snapshot, and we're going to look

at a few psalms over the summer. Now,

let me tell you why we're calling it

Snapshots. My guess is many of you have

a photo album or multiple photo albums

on your phone. And when you go to the

album, you can then scroll through lots

of pictures. So, we're going to approach

the book of Psalms as if it's a giant

photo album.

150 pictures in the in the photo album.

150 snapshots. Now, each week we're

going to kind of pick up another

snapshot, look a little bit at the

context, what's going on, explain the

background, and see what we can learn

from it. Now, today is going to be a

little different than the rest of the

series because we're going to look at

the entire album. I'm not sure if you

ever realized this, but the book of

Psalms was actually put together very

intentionally. Lots of different

authors, 150 psalms, but it's put

together intentionally. The first psalm

was written to be the first psalm. It

was supposed to introduce all the

others. The last psalm wraps up the

whole collection and it was intended to

be the last psalm. So what we're going

to do today, we're going to look at the

first psalm that introduces the book in

a sense and we're going to briefly look

at the last psalm that shows the

destination where all these psalms are

leading. Then we'll take a couple of

minutes to look at Psalms 2 through 149,

not not in detail, 2 through 149, and

we'll look at some of the ups and downs

the road traveled. Well, as we get

started, we're going to read Psalm 1.

So, if you have your Bibles, your phone,

whatever you use, and turn to Psalm 1,

and we're going to use as our heading,

choose the path that roots you. Choose

the path that roots you. Now, follow

along as I read Psalm 1. Blessed is the

one who does not walk in step with the

wicked or stand in the way of sinners or

sit in the company of mockers, but whose

delight is in the law of the Lord and

who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by

streams of water, which yields its fruit

in season, and whose leaf does not

wither. Whatever they do prospers. Not

so the wicked. They are like chaff that

the wind blows away. Therefore, the

wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the assembly of the

righteous. For the Lord watches over the

way of the righteous, but the way of the

wicked leads to destruction.

Now, right away, we see in Psalm 1

that the author mixes his metaphors. So,

if you remember from high school or

college when you were writing something,

you're not supposed to mix your

metaphors. Well, I don't think the

psalmist ever got that message because

he mixes the metaphors. We need to walk.

We need to choose the path that is going

to lead to the destination we want. He

starts with the metaphor of roads. There

are two roads, two ways and two

destinations. So therefore, choose the

road carefully because the road you

choose leads to a destination. The one

road leads to the destination of

blessedness.

The other road leads to the destination

of brokenness. So the one road is the

road that we would all choose. The other

road is the road that none of us choose.

But we often lose sight of the

destination. We don't believe what the

Bible says and we think, well, you know

what? The the road that leads to

brokenness really seems like it's going

to lead what I want. And the road to

blessing, it seems like it's real tight.

I don't want to walk that way. Who are

you going to believe? You have a choice

which road you're going to walk. The one

road leads to the destination of

blessedness. The other road leads to the

destination of brokenness. Therefore,

choose carefully. Now, that sound rather

instructive on the two roads right at

the beginning. First of all, we learn

there are only two roads. There aren't

three roads. There aren't five roads.

There aren't 50 roads. There aren't an

infinite number of roads. Right away, we

have a a contradiction with our culture,

right? our culture, the messages we hear

all the time. No, no, no. There are lots

of different roads and they all lead to

the same destination.

Psalm one says, and the Bible says, no,

there really only two roads. There's the

right road and all the wrong roads. Now,

you've got a choice which road you're

going to choose, but make sure you

understand you choose the road you want,

but once you choose it, you cannot

choose the destination that that road

leads to. So, that's the one metaphor.

all about roads, all about ways, all

about destinations.

Well, it's almost as if the psalmist

then uh gives up. I'm trying to write

about these two different roads. Uh

choose the way that roots you. I tried

to make the point speak to both sides of

the metaphor. Then he talks about trees,

right?

Look at verse three.

That person that chooses the right road.

So the person who chooses the right road

is like a tree

planted

by streams of water which yields its

fruit in season and whose leaf does not

wither. He switches metaphors. So he's

talking about two two roads lead to two

destinations. Then he says but if you

choose the right road that's kind of

like a tree being a tree. Now how do

trees work? I don't mean in detail with

photosynthesis and all that. How do

trees work? Well, it's actually pretty

simple. What do trees do? Um, the roots

suck in whatever the roots are planted

in, and then whatever they suck in

begins to produce leaves and fruit. So,

if the tree, the way our psalmist says,

is planted next to a stream or next to a

water source, the roots suck in the

water. But notice, the tree doesn't

shoot out water, right? It's not a

fountain. The tree shoots out leaves and

fruit. The roots suck in water. The tree

shoots out leaves and fruit for the

benefit of others. Um, now what do the

two metaphors then teach us? So, if he

mixes his metaphors,

what's the message of the metaphors?

Well, let me uh let me mention two. The

first one, did you notice at the end of

verse two where it says, "If you choose

the right path, if you're a if you're a

tree planted by the stream, you are like

one who meditates on God's law day and

night."

So the choosing the right path being a

tree d having the roots drink in

nourishment

starts with scripture. The right road

the tree planted by the stream it always

starts with scripture. Um now that's uh

pretty important because uh we do a lot

of time we spend a lot of time here

talking about the Bible reading the

Bible. We have ABFs on Bible, small

groups on Bible. Um, why do we do that?

Well, because we want to be walking the

right path. We we want to be planted by

that particular stream. Now, let let me

give you a little uh a little less. I I

figured out this math this week, so I

want to impress you. If you're a pilot

and you take off and you and you're only

off by one degree, only one degree,

for every mile you fly, you will be off

92 feet,

which means for every 60 miles you're

going to be off a mile. So that's due to

calculation. If San Francisco is about

2500 miles from Philadelphia, if you

leave Philadelphia and fly just one

degree off, you'll miss San Francisco by

42 miles. Probably land in the Pacific.

Now, why do we say that? Well, because

often we look at living one degree off,

living five degrees off. You know, God's

word says this. God word God's word

leads the direction scripture says to

well we're only one degree off yeah but

one degree off as you live a life before

you know it you're in the Pacific right

um one degree off makes a major

difference the longer you live the more

you travel so what what do we learn from

Psalm 1 it start the wise life choosing

the right path being rooted in in the in

the tree that produces leaves and fruit

it's planted by the stream sucking in it

starts with scripture and produces fruit

and leaves. Now, here's another lesson.

It starts with scripture but moves to

meditation. Do you notice that? Um the

person is like a tree planted but he

doesn't just read God's word, he

meditates on God's word. You see, you

may get insights from the scripture. you

you may get lots of information, but

it's not going to do us a whole lot of

good unless we integrate it into our

lives. So, we need to take the

information, take the insights we get,

integrate it into our lives. We

meditate, we think about it, we turn it

over, we wrestle it from our heads to

our hearts. You probably heard that

expression. Um, I'm a I'm a WIP

listener. No longer the morning show. I

can't stand those guys. Um, but every

once in a while, if I can't sleep, I

listen to John Johnson. He's on at night

and John Johnson have picked up what Big

Daddy Graham used to do and he has a

snack of the night every night. He's a

snack of the night and he has a theme

for each week. Well, last week John

Johnson's theme for snack of the night

was foods that are hard to eat. Now,

what he meant food that foods that you

really have to work at to eat. And so

Monday he had peanut shoes. I don't know

about you. I love peanut chews, right?

But you don't pop a peanut chew in your

mouth and all of a sudden swallow it.

You want to choke. You got to work at

that sucker, right? You got to chew it

and chew it. It gets stuck in your

teeth. You got to pick it out. It takes

a while to eat a pack of peanut chews.

Um what were some other hard foods to

eat? Gummies. Not not those kind of

gummies. Gummy bears, right? Gummy

worms. But hard. You don't just put it

in your mouth and swallow. You got to

chew it. and it doesn't really dissolve

too well. How about jerky? Um foods that

are hard. You really have to work at it.

Um those would be meditation foods,

right? Those are foods that you can't

just put in your mouth and all of a

sudden they're gone. You have to work at

it. And what the psalmist says, if we're

going to benefit from starting with

scripture, we've got to move to

meditation. We've got to work on it.

Here's a little assignment.

30% of your reading. 25 or 30% of your

reading you should spend on meditating.

Now, meditation is not Think about it.

Think about it. Now, we have a little

helpful tool for you. On the way out, if

you didn't receive one coming in, you're

going to get a bookmark. The bookmark is

called Snapshots because this series is

called Snapshots. And we want you to

remember what the series is. We're going

to look at Psalms. If you turn the card

over, you'll find four questions. Those

questions are designed to help us start

with scripture but move to meditation.

Now, the questions aren't new. You've

probably heard me say these questions

often. In fact, I would say every time

you read the Bible, every time you're in

a small group, every time you're at ABF,

whenever you you should ask and try to

answer these four questions. Number one,

what is the since we're in Psalms, what

is the psalm teaching? So, what's Psalm

one teaching? It's teaching there are

two ways. One leads to blessedness. One

leads to brokenness. The the life

walking the right path leading to

blessedness is like a tree whose roots

are taking in scripture and they're

producing fruit and leaves. It's

teaching that scripture has to be

central to this life that's leading to

blessedness. What do we learn about God?

We learn about that this God wants us to

walk that right path. He's gone through

all the effort to give us his word. He

could have stayed silent. He gives us

the scripture so we can learn what he

wants and we can live our lives that

way. He created the universe. He created

us and he tells us how to live in sync

with what's happening in the world so we

can reach the destination and experience

blessedness. Now, here's a hard one.

what's it reveal about me?

Um, you see, I would say meditation

moves from

examining the scripture to allowing the

Bible to examine you.

As you search the scripture, allow the

scripture to search you. That's why I

would say 25%

of your reading time you should devote

to allowing that scripture what you're

reading to search you. If the if the

Bible is as the New Testament says

living and active, it's going to search

you. Allow the scripture to search you.

Search it and allow it to search you.

Now, here's the last question. You're

you probably are familiar with this. How

does the psalm how does the passage I'm

leading point me to Jesus? How does it

point me to Jesus? Well, we're going to

move there toward the end of the sermon.

Every sermon you hear should do that.

Every time you're reading the Bible, you

should be thinking about that. What does

it teach? What's it teach me about God?

What should it show me about me? And how

does it move me to Jesus? How is it

showing me my need for Jesus? How is it

showing me what Jesus has done for me?

How is it showing how I can give thanks

and live in gratitude to what he's done?

So, start with scripture. Choose the way

that roots you in that point. I try to

mix the metaphor. Choose the way. That's

the road, right? Choose the path that

leads to blessedness that roots you.

That's the other metaphor. The roots

suck in nourishment from scripture. And

through meditation, we then shoot out

leaves and fruit that benefit others.

Not for our own benefit, but benefit

others. So that's basically what uh

Psalm one does. All right. Well, let's

uh move on then. Choose the way um that

that roots you. Walk the way that

transforms you. Walk the way that

transforms you. Now, we're eventually

going to get to Psalm 150. Psalm Psalm

150 is the destination that's going to

fulfill you. What are all those psalms

in between? Well, when you read through

the book of Psalms, you're going to

realize there are ups and downs, twists

and turns, culde-sacs and highways. It's

all kind of in there. So, what I'm going

to do for the next few minutes, I'm

going to fly over some of those psalms

at like 30,000 ft and show you some of

the different kind of psalms that are

there. Psalms come in lots of flavors.

There are happy psalms and sad psalms.

Some psalms the author is angry. He's

ticked off. Others he's grateful.

Sometimes he's crushed. He's broken.

He's confessing. All different kinds of

psalms. It doesn't matter what you call

them. Let's fly over and look at some of

the ups and downs of the Psalms.

Walk the way that transformed you. Okay,

here's one.

Praise the Lord, my soul. All my inmost

being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not

all his benefits. And listen, forgives

all your sins, heals all your diseases,

redeems your life from the pit, crowns

you with love and compassion, satisfies

the desire your desires with good

things. so that your youth is renewed

like the eagles. That's a happy song,

right? Thanksgiving and praise. Some of

you are right there this morning. If

this is a roller coaster, this psalm is

at is at the crest, right? You're not at

the you're not at the bottom. You're at

the top, right? Life couldn't be any

better than this. You're realizing God

did it. It's not your strength. Or if

you did to have something to do with it,

God gave you the strength, the wisdom,

the willpower. God gave you all you

needed to do it. and you're giving

thanks to God because life is better

than you could ever imagine.

Some of you are there today.

All the psalms are not there though. We

sang a couple songs this morning that

actually reflect that, right? Praise

God. Thank God. And we need to do that.

Sometimes we live life up there. But

then there are other psalms. How about

this one?

How long, Lord,

will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from

me? How long must I wrestle with my

thoughts day after day have sorrow in my

heart? How long will my enemy triumph

over me? Oh my goodness, this guy's in

the pits, right? He's no longer on the

mountaintop. He's in the pit of despair.

These psalms are called laments, sorrow,

brokenheartedness, grief. Life is

terrible. And you notice it seems like

God doesn't care. Either God can't do

anything about it or he's choosing not

to do anything about it. But either way,

life's not good.

Half the psalms,

75 out of 150 are psalms of lament,

sad psalms, brokenheartedness,

sorrow,

grief,

despair.

Half of them um we get praise and

thanksgiving. Some of you are there.

Others of you right here. You're at

You're in the Psalms of Lament. You're

in the Lord. Don't you see what's

happening? And if you see, don't you

care? Can't you do anything? Psalms of

lament. And then we have a different

kind. Look at this one. Psalm 32. Psalms

of confession.

Then I acknowledge my sin to you. I did

not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I

will I will confess my transgressions to

the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my

sin."

You know, as you're living life and

you're kind of on that roller coaster

ride or you're trying to walk that road

that leads to blessedness. Sometimes

you're a degree or so off, eventually

you come to your senses and you realize,

"Wait a minute, I'm wandering in the

wilderness here. I need to get back to

the right road, but if I get back, will

will will God forgive me? Or, you know,

I'm one or two degrees off. Am I lost

now? God said, "Well, you should have

walked the road and you didn't walk it.

So now you're screwed." No. The Psalms

of confession.

The psalmist confesses his sin

to God. And what's it say? God forgave

the guilt of my sin. Psalms of

confession. Sometimes we need that. You

come to your senses. You realize you're

off the road. That leads to blessedness.

You want to get back. What do psalm What

do the psalmist say? you can get back.

God's provided a way for you to get back

on that path. Now, here's another one

that's not really a a psalm of

confession. Check this one out.

Daughter Babylon,

doomed to destruction.

Happy is the one who repays you

according to what you have done to us.

Happy is the one who seizes your infants

and dashes them against the rocks. Boy,

somebody got up on the wrong side of the

bed this morning. What the heck is this?

Um, these are psalms of uh vengeance.

The technical, they are impregatory

psalms. Praying God, I've been wronged.

I'm trying to walk the blessed path. As

a nation, we're trying, right, Israel,

we're trying to walk that blessed path,

and our enemies are attacking us, trying

to get us off. Lord, Lord, will you take

care of them? Will you? Now, notice two

things about these kind of psalms. First

of all, you're shocked by them, right?

Wait a minute. It doesn't sound like

Jesus would ever pray one of these. Um,

number one,

the Psalms are honest.

What was the psalmist feeling? He was

angry. The psalmist is in captivity in

Babylon.

He's been taken from his country. Judah

has been destroyed. The temple's been

torn down. the people were taken captive

all the way across the desert to

Babylon. They are now slaves in Babylon.

He doesn't like and he says, "Lord,

we're your people. We're supposed to be

a light to the nations. Here we are in

captivity. We're in prison. We can't do

any of any of what you called us to."

He's honest. But here's another one that

we sometimes forget.

He does not take vengeance.

He asks God to take vengeance. What do

we read in the New Testament? God says,

"Vengeance is mine." We are not to take

vengeance. We don't live as vigilantes

looking for when people hurt us and then

we try to get No, no, no. Ours is not to

get even. Ours is not to do vengeance.

That's God's job. So what do we do? We

treat people as God as God want. We

return good for evil. We we let God take

care of the vengeance. He's honest and

he turns all of the revenge, all of the

vengeance over to God. He does not take

it himself.

Now, there are other psalms. I'm going

to mention one more. How about this one?

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me? Now, if I were

just to say that, um, who said those

words? Jesus said those words, right?

That's right. Um, in fact, that verse is

quoted a number of times in the Bible.

once in Psalm 22

and a number of times in the New

Testament in the Gospels where Jesus

quotes those words while he's on the

cross.

Those psalms are called messianic

psalms. Now, you've probably heard me

say numerous times and I believe this.

The Bible has a point and a purpose to

points Jesus. The purpose is to lead us

to him. So, all of the Bible in some

ways is pointing to Jesus. The Psalms in

some way all point to Jesus, but some

Psalms explicitly and clearly point to

Jesus. Psalm 22 is one of those. In

fact, if you have time this week, you

check this out. You read through Psalm

22. Um, I don't know this is true. I'll

check one day. I believe I think when

Jesus is on the cross,

he actually is quoting

the whole song. Psalm 22. You read

through the psalm. All of what Jesus

experiences on the cross is mentioned in

Psalm 22. He verbalizes verse one. But

as you read through the rest of the

psalm, Jesus is in his mind saying the

rest of the psalm. Psalm 22 ends in

victory even though it begins in defeat.

So what in the world's going on? Um,

some of you may be uh accountant types,

maybe you engineers, you guys, um,

everything has to be neat and in order

and right place. And so maybe your

thought is,

I wish somebody would have arranged

these psalms better than where they are,

right? Why don't we put all the happy

psalms in a group, then we'll put all

the ticked off psalms in a group, all of

the depressive psalms in a group, all

the messianic psalms in a group, and we

have all then we know where to go. Well,

that that's not what you're going to

find in Psalms. And I like that it's

mixed up

because life's mixed up, isn't it? Does

your life come you get two months of

happy songs and then you get one month

of sad songs, then you get three months

of ticked off? No. No. Life's not like

that. If your life's like mine, it's all

in the blender on high, right? I mean,

we get happiness one minute, the next

minute we're we're in the we're we're in

the pits. Then we remember what Jesus

has done. We're kind of rejoicing. Then

all of a sudden, we're ticked off at

somebody. Yeah. Life is mixed up. It's

all in a blender. And when you read

through Psalms, Psalm one gets us

started. There are only two roads. Walk

the road. Choose the path that that

roots you that leads to blessedness.

Recognize when you walk the way that

transforms you. There are going to be

ups and downs. There going to be

culde-sacs, twists and turns, but God is

leading the way. and Psalms

will give you the right words to say

regardless of what you're experiencing

at the moment.

Jamie Johnson is a is a songwriter

and um

he wrote a song

that captures that idea.

The song is called That's Why I Write

Songs. I want to read a few lines from

that. Jamie Johnson. That's why I write

songs.

You fell in love or threw it away.

You're looking for the perfect thing to

say.

You're no good with words.

That's okay.

That's why I write songs.

Might make you laugh or make you cry.

Might help you make it through a bad

goodbye.

You've been through it. So have I.

That's why I write songs.

I've buried loved ones and a few good

friends. I've held a brand new baby in

my hands.

It ain't just what I do, it's who I am.

That's why I write songs.

You ever uh

looking for the right words to say, but

you're not good with words? You ever

have feelings but you can't quite

formulate?

That's why we have psalms. You see,

psalms are they minor on God's word to

us. They major on our words to God. You

see, most of the Bible is God's word

given to us. Most of the Psalms are our

words to God. And so, just like Jaime

Johnson can say, maybe you can't put

those feelings into words. Maybe you

can't take those experiences and express

them, but some can.

And in the book of Psalms, those authors

were inspired by God.

And the psalmist would say,

"You've been through it.

So have I."

That's why we have Psalms to help us do

that.

Well, we've hopefully chosen the path

that roots us and then we uh

walk the way that transforms us

and then you reach the destination that

fulfills you. Now, we've been talking

about Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 through 149.

If you turn over to Psalm 150, you get

the destination.

Psalm 150 gives us the end. The goal

that we all long for, the goal of

fulfillment. This is where the blessed

road ends.

Let me read Psalm 150. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord in his sanctuary. Praise

him in his mighty heavens. Praise him

for his acts of power. Praise him for

his surpassing greatness. Praise him

with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise

him with the harp and liar. Praise him

with the timber on dancing. Praise him

with strings and pipe. Praise him with

the clash of symbols. Praise him with

resounding symbols. Let everything that

has breath praise the Lord. Praise the

Lord.

Notice in that psalm

all the twists and turns, all the ups

and downs are now looked back on from

the end and saying,

"God, you knew what you were doing the

whole time.

You took me through those ups and downs,

through those twists and turns. They

weren't accidents. They weren't

coincidences. You were doing those

things to build me, to make me into the

kind of person you want me to be. That's

what the Psalms do.

Tell us about the two roads. Tell us

about the ups and downs, twists and

turns.

And let give for us the destination, the

destination of fulfillment. Remember the

last question from the bookmark though?

Uh

where's Jesus fit into this though,

right? How does it point to Jesus? Well,

we need to trust the savior

that secures us. Let me explain it this

way.

Did you notice the tension

in Psalm one when I read it? If not, you

really should have. Let me put the verse

up here again just in case you missed

it. Most of you probably did. Uh here we

go.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in

step with the wicked or stand in the way

of sinners or sit in the company of

mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the

Lord, who meditates on it day and night.

The blessed person starts with

scripture, moves to meditation, and

lives out those things. They've been

integrated into his or her life and

living that way, moving toward Okay,

here's the question. How many people you

know do that?

Did Moses do that? No. David? No.

Daniel? No. Esther? No. Ruth? No. Well,

did you? Heck no. Right. Well, well,

well, then nobody can reach the

destination of fulfillment.

If you've got to choose the path that

leads to blessedness, but nobody walks

the path that path that transforms us to

get to blessedness, no one's going to be

there.

That's the tension.

But there is a resolution

even in Psalms. We read it earlier. Let

me put it back up here again.

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me? So

far from my cries of anguish?

Wait a minute.

That doesn't make sense.

Jesus started with scripture. He moved

to meditation. He integrated all of it

into his life. He lived a perfect life.

He should have experienced blessedness

throughout his life. Reach the

destination of fulfillment and

blessedness with no hiccups along the

way. He's the only one ever.

But what does Psalm 22 hint at? It hints

at the resolution.

Jesus chose

the path of brokenness

so you and I can reach the destination

of blessedness.

Now, it's not in living color yet. It's

not in detail in Psalm, but boy, we

begin to see the clues, right? And if we

read the Bible back to front, we know

where it's all headed. We know that no

one walks that road perfectly that Psalm

1 lays out. Therefore, no one deserves

that destination of fulfillment except

one. That's Jesus. But he chose the path

of brokenness so that we who lived that

broken path can experience blessedness.

That friends is the good news of the

gospel.

Our savior who deserved nothing but

blessedness chose brokenness so you and

I can experience blessedness.

Trust the savior that secures you. So,

what do we learn about the Psalms in

general? Well, here's what we learn.

We're to choose the path that roots us.

A mixed metaphor.

Walk the way that transforms you. Reach

the end that fulfills you. And there's

only one way you'll ever do that.

By trusting the Savior that secures you.

That's the only way. Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks for psalms.

And even though we don't have um great

detail on how it all works out, we do

know where it's all headed,

it's all headed to Jesus, the savior

that secures us.

Lord, help us to uh wrestle with the

questions to wrestle with the scripture

and allow it to wrestle with us to move

from scripture to to meditation to think

about it wrestling with it chewing on it

so that we're able to extract out of it

all that you want and we're able to

integrate those principles into our

lives. We pray in Christ's name who

secures us. Amen.