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Doug Webster on the spiritual discipline of prayer, specifically the Psalms as Jesus’ Prayerbook.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Well, good evening everybody. Good evening and welcome to our 3rd TalkBack of the summer. If you've not been to a TalkBack before, just a quick kind of breakdown of how we, how we do things. First, there is the talk that's 45 minutes of a talk on a particular topic. Then we take a little break, you get some more cake, you come back over here, sugar it up with a lot of questions and we have a time of Q and A, kind of based around the talk and some questions that have come up, from that.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, what I would encourage is that, kind of, as as we go along throughout, the evening to be writing down some notes, either, pen and paper, if you want to pull out your phone and and jot some notes down, so we can have the time of q and a, later on. And so, the q and a is always my favorite part where there's a lot of interaction and we get to dive deeper into different areas. And so, make sure you stick around and then have some questions ready to go for that. My name is Jeff. I'm one of the pastors at Redeemer Community Church.
Jeffrey Heine:We meet, over in Avondale, at 9, 11, and 4:30 on Sundays. And so if you don't have a church home and you'd like to, come visit with us, I'll be preaching on Sunday about loving your enemies. So a nice softball, for for Sunday. But, so tonight, few people have had so much of an influence on me, when it comes to what it means to be a pastor as Doug Webster has. Doug is going to be sharing tonight, on, the topic.
Jeffrey Heine:We've we've been going through some spiritual disciplines this summer And, and tonight, we're gonna be looking at the Psalms as kind of this this pathway into prayer and how Jesus interacted with the Psalms, as a way to, find that unity and fellowship, with the father. And so, I started at Beeson Divinity School, right around the same time as as Doug moved from San Diego, out here to become a professor of preaching, and, pastoral theology. That was in 2007. Before coming to Beeson, he was, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of San Diego from 1993 to 2007. And, and I not only got to spend some of those 1st years, working on my MDiv with Doug, but also, going back for my DMIN a few years later.
Jeffrey Heine:It was a very special time, for me, and very pivotal and and I know, that there is there's a lot that we're gonna be able to dig into tonight that's gonna be profitable for you. That's our prayer, is that God would use this time to speak to you, to to lead you into, following Christ with all that you are. And so if you would join with me in welcoming Doug Webster.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Jeff. Thank you. Well, it's really nice to be with you this evening and to to be able to share with you about the Psalms. The Psalms, oh, for the last 4 years, have become something of a passion for me. You know, I'm at the age now where I contemplate what it would be like to start over as a pastor.
Speaker 2:When I meet with young pastors, which I do quite often, sometimes it it does dawn on me that, wouldn't it be great to start all over? To start with, sort of the experience of the years, and be able to live into, that future, I turned 68, last week. So I don't think that's gonna happen. I don't think I'm gonna start over. But I wish that 4 years into my pastoral ministry, I had caught a vision for understanding the Psalms.
Speaker 2:And over the years, I've preached the Psalms. I've been in the Psalms devotionally. I've thought about the Psalms. But I never really took hold of them passionately. I never designed to sort of see what the flow of the Psalms were and to grasp something of the totality of the Psalms.
Speaker 2:I don't know what you have been reading devotionally. Some I grew up reading the daily bread. And, you probably have not seen or heard of that little pamphlet. Oswald Chambers, my utmost for his highest, was something that I read. I would study biblical books and make notes in notebooks.
Speaker 2:But I I don't really think I appreciated the Psalms. I don't think I appreciated the Psalms as Jesus's prayer book. It didn't dawn on me that these Psalms, our 150 Psalms, were prayed by Jesus. And in a way, that makes all the Psalms messianic, And not just the ones that stand out, like Psalm 2 or Psalm 110, that speaks specifically, prophetically of the coming of the Messiah. Not all those royal psalms that we speak of in terms of the son of David fulfilling the vision that was, felt for David.
Speaker 2:But Jesus prayed all these Psalms. And as you begin to pray them and think of them in the light of Jesus praying them, the gospels really come alive. And you begin to sort of coordinate and correspond those psalms with what Jesus was experiencing. Jesus alluded to the psalms more than any other Old Testament book. The Psalms permeate the gospels, and they permeate the epistles.
Speaker 2:Now, I have a son who, our middle child has always been fascinated by the ocean. I mean, it helped to grow up in San Diego. And he was a professional lifeguard in Southern California and took to surfing, and then became a professional lifeguard in Costa Rica. And I can't imagine Andrew living any other place than by the ocean. He knows the ocean fairly well.
Speaker 2:He doesn't particularly like boating, but he likes being in the ocean. And so, he surfs with dolphins, helps people with stingray bites. He's, saved 100 of people, literally, from dangerous rip currents in, Death Beach in Dominical, Costa Rica. And I guess it it kind of dawned on me that the Psalms are a bit like the ocean. You can never tame the Psalms, but you can learn how to navigate them.
Speaker 2:And Andrew will say that, you know, the problem with tourists and the ocean is that they think of the ocean as one big swimming pool. And they don't realize that it's alive. It's alive with energy. It's alive with a lot of wildlife. And he said, if they really knew what was in the ocean, they wouldn't get near it.
Speaker 2:Well, we're not spiritual tourists. I don't think you know, the sun, the ocean can look very beautiful. But it's one thing to sort of look at it. It's another thing to engage it. And I think, if I have any message for this evening, it is to invite you to engage the Psalms.
Speaker 2:Begin however slow you want, but begin to realize that here in the psalter, Jesus's prayer book, we have a wonderful resource for understanding the complexity of evil, for understanding the depth and majesty of god, for getting into the deep end of doxology, and the deep end of pain, and the deep end of lament. And to pray the Psalms with a not with so much a a deck of cards mentality. You know, I I, you know, shuffle, split, shuffle, bridge, and deal, lament, imprecatory, praise. That's kind of how we deal with the Psalms. But what would it be like if you begin to understand the flow of the Psalms from one Psalm to another?
Speaker 2:What I'd like to do tonight is to talk a little bit about the Psalms, and then to kind of get into a few Psalms, talk a little bit more about the Psalms, and then finish with Psalm 73. Gregory Niese called the Psalms soul carving tools. And I know what it's like to grow up at a home where tools were valued. My father was a mathematician. And now, the slide rule is in museums.
Speaker 2:But he I remember him toting his slide rule by avocation, though. He was a carpenter. And he loved working with wood. I grew up with a feeling of the value and the importance of tools. And his favorite tool was a wood carving lathe.
Speaker 2:And that lathe would run on an electric motor. You know, the lathe to a furniture maker is like what a potter's wheel is to a potter. And, you set that up. Wood is locked in, variating rotating motor. And with a handheld carving tool, you carve out that, furniture, table leg.
Speaker 2:It's quite it takes a lot of skill to match 4 legs, when you're doing it by hand like that. Well, my dad, was able to do that and learned how to do that. I see the Psalms functioning something like that, as soul carving tools, that we really should know. We should know something more than Psalm 23, or Psalm 1 or Psalm 8 or Psalm 19. We really probably need to know the Psalms better than we do.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the conviction that I've come to about myself. And I was real I'm really old to come to that conviction. John Calvin entitled the Psalms, An Anatomy of All Parts of the Soul. That somehow the the Psalms kind of work like an MRI. They're a spiritually diagnostic tool.
Speaker 2:And they require they really do require deep thought and sustained commitment. And that's not very pop popular and I think our kind of multitasking, disoriented, distracted culture. If you choose to get into the Psalms, you're being counter cultural just in doing that. But I think that they are essential tools for our spirituality. I think the Psalms should be looked at as as kind of like our mother tongue, not our second language.
Speaker 2:I had a a student friend when I taught in Toronto, Canada, who, he and his family went to France as missionaries. And the family of 4 made a vow that they would not speak a word of English when they got to France. And they they fulfilled their vow. For 4 years, they didn't utter a word of their mother tongue, in the home or anywhere. They only spoke French.
Speaker 2:And then they came back to Toronto. And he said all 4 of them were dealing with psychological problems, because it seemed now like to speak their own language was guilt inducing. Well, I would like us to get to the stage where praying the Psalms and thinking along the lines of the Psalms was like our mother tongue, our home language. To neglect the Psalms is like refusing to speak our mother tongue. Instead of going to the Psalms like you go to a medicine cabinet, to pull down Tylenol, or aspirin, or something like that.
Speaker 2:Which is how, you know, the sort of the Hallmark card greeting, approach to the Psalms. I think it'd be better if we really began to pray the psalms, one psalm after another. Now one of the things I wrestle with is, to what degree do you work at explaining and understanding the psalm? And if you work too hard at that, will that take away from the emotion and the power and the passion of the psalm? Does explanation get in the way of understanding the psalm?
Speaker 2:And I don't think it does. I've worked on a 150 messages, sermons, essays, call it what you want, on each of the Psalms. And I almost think I could start over. And the explanation, the understanding, and historical grammatical exegesis of those psalms has only meant that they make more sense to me, and are more meaningful to me, and more important in my own spiritual life. I found it really interesting, a book by, Jonathan, not Jonathan, John Feinberg, who teaches at Trinity Theological Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois.
Speaker 2:He wrote a book entitled, Deceived by God A Journey Through Suffering. And Feinberg did his master his MDiv thesis on the book of Job. He did his master of theology thesis on theodicy, explaining God in a world of suffering. And he did his PhD on the problem of evil. He spent 10 years studying deeply the issues having to do with suffering.
Speaker 2:And then his wife, Patricia, who had never really done any theological graduate school, was diagnosed with Huntington's disease, a brain deteriorating disease, a genetically induced brain deteriorating disease. And she walked out of the doctor's office with that diagnosis, repeating to herself counsel from the word of god on how to handle suffering. She went home, and she began to read all the Psalms having to deal with suffering and grief and and those aspects of of life, and writing them down. She found comfort in those Psalms guiding her thinking. And that, in contrast to John, her husband, who completely fell apart with this news.
Speaker 2:And he said it was as if he knew nothing, nothing at all about God's wisdom when it came to suffering. Whereas his wife with no theological education, but a deep spiritual commitment, which I would you know, has been nurtured over the years in family and in church, so much so that she felt at home with the Psalms. She, in that situate now, I know. It's I think it's a lot harder sometimes in our relationships when the close friend or the spouse is the one suffering. And we, ourselves, would find it easier to be the one suffering than to watch our loved ones suffer.
Speaker 2:I realize that. There is that dynamic. But John admitted that he knew 0 about what god would have him do in the midst of this. And Patricia, without any of the education, yet was so wise in the things of God, and in her grasp of the Psalms. You can have a lot of years of training for pastoral ministry, but not be as wise as the 80 year old in the congregation, who has learned, really, to pray the Psalms, and to be nurtured by god's word in that way.
Speaker 2:The Psalms are our invitation to dialogue with god. Whatever our situation, whatever our emotions, I think we can find it in the Psalms. The Psalms are the word of god and our words to god. Most of the scriptures speak to us, but the Psalms speak for us. It's really, in a way, the most incarnational book of the bible, because it is the word of God, but it is our words, both being inspired by god, the words of the psalmist and the words of god.
Speaker 2:Alan Ross says that no other book of the bible takes hold of the heart of the believer like the book of the Psalms. Joni Eareckson taught us, says the Psalms wrap nouns and verbs around our pain better than any other book. Some of you, I'm sure, on Netflix have watched Michael Pollan's, Defensive Food. Maybe? No?
Speaker 2:In that, he's a journalist. And he looks at food. He looks at lots of issues. But in his, Netflix clip, In Defense of Food, he really does a number on our Western diet. And he says all those middle rows in the grocery store are commercialized, marketing, packaged products that are shouting at us all their good things.
Speaker 2:But he says the real food is in the produce section. And he has this interesting line. The quieter the food, the healthier the food. In so many places in this in the grocery store, it's shouting at you. Buy me.
Speaker 2:And you'll have a healthier heart. Buy me. And you'll have lower cholesterol. But he says, go to the produce section, and nobody's shouting at you. But that's the healthy food.
Speaker 2:And that analogy, I'd like to get more psalms in our diet. I think it'd be good for the soul. It would strengthen us. But the Psalms aren't gonna shout at you, and they're not packaged for consumption. But they are there.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. I, in Luke chapter 24, when Jesus encountered, first, the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And he, you know, he they're they said that their hearts were burning within them as he opened the scriptures. And then he encountered all the disciples, and he said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms.
Speaker 2:And then he opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures. Well, let's, if you've got your Bible, that'd be great. If you've got your phone or a device that you can look up Psalm 1, terrific. I wanna just look briefly at Psalm 1, 2, and 3. And the whole purpose of this is maybe to get you in the mood for the Psalms.
Speaker 2:Now, this is a 3 legged lectern. It's a tripod lectern. I'm gonna suggest to you that Psalm 1, 2, and 3 are the tripod introduction to the book of Psalms. Oftentimes, we've spoken of Psalm 12 being the, the dual introduction, the binocular introduction of the book of Psalms. But I'm gonna suggest to you that Psalms 1, 2, and 3 are, so that they serve as kind of a preface to the Psalms.
Speaker 2:I'll read Psalm 1. Listen carefully, this is God's word. 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.
Speaker 2:Not so the wicked. They're 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. It's a great psalm for introducing the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 2:Because of the beginning, blessed is the one. Psalm 2, if you are able to look at that as well, it concludes with, blessed are all who take refuge in him. So Psalm 1 begins with is contained in here, Psalm 1 is deeply personal. And Psalm 2 is very political and very public. Psalm 1 places human flourishing intention with human depravity.
Speaker 2:Psalm 2 places human rebellion, intention with God's sovereignty. But I'd suggest you both Psalms are messianic. Well, let me read Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers band together against the lord and against his anointed one, saying, let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.
Speaker 2:Well, the 1 in heaven laughs. The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger. He terrifies them in his wrath saying, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.
Speaker 2:I will proclaim the lord's decree. And then he, Yahweh, said to me, you are my son. Today, I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron.
Speaker 2:You will dash them to pieces like pottery. Therefore, you kings, be wise, be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the lord with fear, and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he'll be angry, and your way will lead to your destruction. For his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Speaker 2:Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Psalm 1 is personal. Psalm 2 is political. Psalm 1 is looking at the individual person's life. Psalm 2 is looking at the nations.
Speaker 2:And you get this binocular view of that which is personal and that which is historical. Psalm 2 being salvation history, Psalm 1 being the depth of wisdom and meaning. Psalm 1 describes the person whose delight is in the law of the lord. And on that law, he meditates day and night. Now who has done that to the highest degree and in the best way?
Speaker 2:Who do you know who's delighted in the law of the lord, who meditated on that law day and night? Well, I think our greatest example of that would be Jesus, that Psalm 1 describes the Jesus way. And upon that law, he meditates day and night. And then the psalmist gives us a vision for success. You and I have lots of different visions of success floating in our brains, But the vision the psalmist gives is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither.
Speaker 2:Whatever they do prospers. Then the contrast, well, not so the wicked. And that's a kind of binary division that takes place in this song. You know, there's a lot of different ways to divide people, rich and poor, strong and weak, black and white, educated, not educated, old and young, Republican and Democrat, many ways to divide humanity up. But of all these divisions, all of these divisions will fade in significance.
Speaker 2:And the psalmist illustrates the one way that will last as long as heaven and hell, This division between those who are righteous in god and those who are apart from god. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. The lord watches over the way of the righteous. Pastorally, I think there's great strength in contemplating what way you're on, what road you're traveling, what path you're walking, and whether or not you're in step with God in the spirit or in step with the wicked. I do think the only way we can really help people is by following the path that god has given to us in the Jesus way.
Speaker 2:And that the way to know Christ is to become like Jesus, to delight in the law of the Lord, and upon that, to meditate day and night. Interestingly, you know, this idea of meditate has the idea of sort of the sounds, the murmuring, the sighs that come from really delighting in something. Have you ever seen the movie, What About Bob? Do you remember that scene where Bob is eating on the back porch, and he's being served mashed potatoes and corn on the cob? And he starts, Well, at the embarrassment of myself, that captures something of delighting in the word, where there's almost sort of a a sigh.
Speaker 2:But what I find so interesting that the psalmist did, that David did, was to, why do the nations conspire, Psalm 2, and the people's plot in vain? It's the same Hebrew word, plot, as in Psalm 1, meditate. It's the same word. And so while the nations are plotting against god, and the sighs and the murmurs and the groans that come from that is compared to the sighs and the groans and and the murmuring that comes from meditating on the word. Our family pet, Maggie, 14 year old golden retriever, you give her a bowl of dog food, and it's consumed in seconds.
Speaker 2:You put it down. And before you put the bag away, it's gone. But you give her a bone, and she's on that bone for days, savoring it. And this is the image that the psalmist uses of really savoring the word of God, of getting into it. And I hope for a minute you don't think that you kind of need a professional career in church work in order to savor the word of God.
Speaker 2:Because as the people who have taken me in pastoral theology, I really do believe in the priesthood of all believers. So son of man in Psalm 1, fulfilling what it is to be, to have experienced human flourishing in god's will and under god's law and by god's grace. Psalm 2, an image of the son of god, who is made, who is given the authority of, the king who rules. You are my son. Today, I've become your father.
Speaker 2:Ask me, and I'll make the nations your inheritance. The ends of the earth your possession. It probably would take a while. I'd probably have to preach on Psalm 2 to explicate it in a way that is really helpful. But you see the comparison.
Speaker 2:Son of man, son of God. And the third part of this, this tripod, Psalm 3, we quickly leave this vision of an enthroned god who rules the nations so much so that he laughs and scorns at their rage, a picture of god in control sovereignly. And then Psalm 3, lord, how many are my foes? How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, god will not deliver him.
Speaker 2:But you, lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the one who lifts my head high. I call on the lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep. I wake again, because the lord sustains me. I will not fear, though tens of thousands assail me on every side.
Speaker 2:Arise, lord. Deliver me, my god. Strike all my enemies on the jaw. Break the teeth of the wicked. From the lord comes deliverance.
Speaker 2:May your blessing be on your people. Now, the superscription, which is the italicized part right under the psalm in most of your versions, a psalm of David when he fled from his son, Absalom. So after this glorious beginning, both personally, as well as publicly, Right away, the psalter throws us into the challenge of David's life. This is a psalm that is written in the light of David being betrayed by his only by by Absalom, one of his sons. And by the way, Absalom means Abba?
Speaker 2:Shalom. What a name. Abba shalom. Father, peace. My father is peace is what Absalom's name means.
Speaker 2:But because of David's sin, and because of the hell he put his family through with Bathsheba and killing Uriah, and the the disruption that plagued David's family because of that, and Absalom eventually rising up to take the throne from his father, David. The son who is named my father is peace my father is peace is the one who rises up against him. And David has to leave Mount Zion, leave Jerusalem, leave the temple, leave the palace, and walk down the Kindred Valley, up to the Mount of Olives. And he's weeping as he goes. And Shammai, one of the sons, one of the relatives of Saul, is hurling rocks at David as he goes.
Speaker 2:And Abishai, David's one of David's soldiers, says, well, just let me wipe Shammai out. And David says, no. If my own son is rebelling against me, we'll just let this guy go. Now who repeats that journey? David walks from Jerusalem, a high point, down the Kindred Valley, up again to Mount of Olives, leaving in retreat from Jerusalem.
Speaker 2:Bareheaded, no sandals on his feet. Jesus will retreat will will repeat and in reverse that same journey from the Mount of Olives at Gethsemane, through the Kindred Valley, and up into Jerusalem on his way to the cross. And in Psalm 3, you really have a powerful picture of the suffering servant of god. For David, you could say in part he deserved it. It was a rebellion that he sort of brought on self because of his own brokenness and his own sinfulness.
Speaker 2:And yet he was the lord's anointed one, and he was confident that the lord would restore him. And David's prayer was that Absalom would be restored, that the rebellion would be put down, and that Absalom would be welcomed back. And you know the if you know the story in first Samuel, Absalom ends up being killed by David's troops. And they thought they were bringing great news to David. We've put down the rebellion.
Speaker 2:We've killed Absalom. And David is brokenhearted. He looked forward to a victory that would include the life of his son restored, instead of his son being taken away from him. Ties in, doesn't it? God giving up his son.
Speaker 2:While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God and that's why I think Psalm 3 is Psalm 3. It has to be seen in the light of this, salvation history story, where God himself enters into our redemption and our salvation. And in a way, David's life is something of a foil, a type, in contrast to the power of this unfolding salvation story. Did Jesus interpret it that way to the disciples?
Speaker 2:The 50 days before the ascension, was that part of the account, part of the story? Don't you see the parallel between David and Absalom and between my father and the son? I think there's a lot in the Psalms for us to grasp, but we have to kinda line them up. And there's certain ways that we can line them up where I think they come to mean more to us. If you line them up in the light of the global church, you will begin to see that all those sort of dark, hard, evil, wrestling, complex psalms, these imprecatory psalms, these curse psalms, you can begin to understand how our brothers and sisters in North Korea, or in parts of China, pray.
Speaker 2:We pray them in the light of the global church. Sometimes we have to get out of suburbia and into the church, global, in order to appreciate the breadth and depth of these Psalms, in order to enter into them. On any given Sunday at Redeemer, somebody is going through their deepest, darkest valley on any given Sunday. And so those Psalms that, you know, you just I don't I don't identify with that Psalm. It doesn't mean anything to me.
Speaker 2:But it will identify with them. And on any given Sunday at Redeemer, somebody is feeling the most blessed that they've ever been blessed before. Maybe the birth of a child. It may be an engagement. It may be any number of things, but you're just feeling like, wow.
Speaker 2:The lord couldn't bless me more now if he tried. And that's where Psalm 150 or Psalm 100, these Psalms that just are ecstatic with praise to god come through. I think sooner or later, in a span of life, you can identify with every psalm. Or you know brothers and sisters in Christ who can identify with that psalm. But you kinda have to learn how to line them up and understand that you pray the Psalms not selfishly, there's a bigger question than asking, I how does what does this mean to me?
Speaker 2:No. The bigger question is, what does this mean to the church? What does this mean to the worldwide body of Christ? What does this mean to us? You know, the the Psalms work in the bedroom.
Speaker 2:The Psalms work in the study. But first, they work in the sanctuary. And first, they work in the worldwide body of Christ. And that will lead us to pray for people that we would not normally or naturally pray for, because the Psalms become a sort of a And when we're out of words, which so many of us, myself included, so easily become out of words when it comes to prayer. The Psalms provide the words.
Speaker 2:We were talking about Eugene Peterson. And one of the things that I've liked so much about Eugene Peterson is that he's given me words to describe pastoral ministry that I don't have, don't know how to come up with it. And he he nails it and expresses it. That's why he's so quotable, because he gives me words. Well, the Psalms give us words.
Speaker 2:Words to express our heart. Words to express our soul. How much time, Jeff, have I taken? Probably enough, haven't I? Okay.
Speaker 2:Let's do one more psalm, and we'll do it fast. Psalm 73. It's one of my favorite psalms, and I don't know if what that says about my angst level. But it's it's such an encouraging psalm to me. I call it the ark of devotion.
Speaker 2:Psalm 73, it begins this way, surely god is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold, for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Asaph is a worship leader. He's responsible for 12 Psalms in the psalter.
Speaker 2:He was the worship leader under David, under Solomon. He was a worship leader, and his descendants were worship leaders for a long time. He has an edge in all of his Psalms. He must have been a kind of on edge worship leader. And he begins with a truism that rolls off the tongue.
Speaker 2:Surely, God is good to Israel, to those who are impure to heart. Easily said. That's point 1 on this arc of devotion. And that point 1 is true, but it's like a platitude. It hasn't sunk into the soul, the goodness of god.
Speaker 2:Surely, god is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me and he's looking around. This is an in house. This is an in Israel kind of psalm. He looks around, and he looks at the beautiful side of evil, the people who look like they've really made it, and are successful and powerful.
Speaker 2:They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They're free from common human burdens. They are not plagued by human ills. Therefore, pride is their necklace.
Speaker 2:They clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity. Their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff, and they speak with malice. With arrogance, they threaten oppression.
Speaker 2:Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore, their people will turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. And they say, how could god know? Does the most high know anything? This is what the wicked are like, always carefree.
Speaker 2:They go on amassing wealth. This is the beautiful side of evil, not the ugly side of evil. He's not talking about the criminal or the thief or the prostitute, or the pimp. He's not talking about that kind of evil. He's talking about the successful person, the athletic, the photogenic, the intelligentsia, the bourgeois.
Speaker 2:He's talking about those that are at the top of their game. And he's feeling like a fool. And, you know, the analogy that that I that I'll use that I would use with a group of teenagers would be, it's like going to high school and not having sex, and feeling like you're a fool, while your peers seemingly are having a great time with their sexual freedom. That puts it in, for the high schooler, a frame of mind that is parallel to what Asaph is feeling. I've been a fool.
Speaker 2:I'm leading people in worship who don't really feel like worshiping. They're showing up, but they don't really care. I could be building a palace. Instead, I'm writing Psalms. And he hits bottom.
Speaker 2:Surely, in vain, I have kept my heart pure. In vain, I have washed my hands in innocence. All day long, I've been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. He's in moral pain at the discrepancy between the life that he would like to have, but that seems to be denied him and the life that other people live in rejection of god, but seem to have. Surely, in vain, I've kept my heart pure.
Speaker 2:In vain, I've washed my hands in innocence. And his first line of defense, given that pit, is, if I had spoken this way, I would have betrayed this generation of your people. So what's the first line that keeps him from caving? It's the relationships. The fact that he would be letting friends down and family down and maybe children down.
Speaker 2:And just that thought, that thought comes into his mind. If I had done this, I would have betrayed this generation of your people. And when I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of god, and there I found their final destiny. In other words, in worship, in the context of the people of god, in the light of the word of god, he realizes that his small picture in which he sees the beautiful side of evil is not the whole picture and is not the ultimate picture. Surely, you placed them on slippery ground, you cast them down to ruin, and suddenly, they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors.
Speaker 2:They're like a dream when one awakes. When you arise, lord, you will despise them as fantasies. When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and I was ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. And now he's feeling repentance for what he thought, for what he contemplated, how he had analyzed society, what he had thought about himself, and what he had thought about god.
Speaker 2:And now he's coming out. Surely, god is good to Israel, those who are pure in heart, filled with moral pain, coming to the end of himself. If I had spoken like this, I would have betrayed this generation of people. Surely, you have put them on a slippery ground. I understood this when I entered the sanctuary of god.
Speaker 2:Yet, I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward, you take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
Speaker 2:My flesh and my heart will fail, but god is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. That's sort of the equivalent of for me to live as Christ and to die is gain. That's kind of the, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me. That's kinda the Old Testament equivalent to this New Testament statement.
Speaker 2:Those who are far from you will perish. There is a theology of judgment here. You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it's good to be near god. Verse 28.
Speaker 2:I've made the sovereign lord my refuge. I will tell of all your deeds. So where are you on the ark of devotion? At step 1, with the platitude, surely, god is good to Israel, to those who are fear in heart. Step 2, but as for me, my feet had almost slipped.
Speaker 2:I envied the arrogant. Are you at the bottom with the moral pain, comparing the beautiful side of evil to what? You're a fool for following Jesus? Have you come out of that and up to, But as for me, it's good to be near God. I've made the sovereign lord my refuge.
Speaker 2:I will tell of all your deeds. Amen? My bottom line here tonight is just to see if I can encourage you, encourage you, to take the Psalms. Let's pray. Lord god, thanks for this opportunity to speak about the Psalms.
Speaker 2:I pray that, your holy spirit would work in such a way as to encourage us all to be guided in your word and to be strengthened by it. Together, we praise you. In the name of Christ our lord. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. If you all wanna, grab some more drinks and snacks, get your questions ready, and we'll be back in just a couple of minutes. Alright everybody, if you want to make your way back over. If you want to make your way back over. The way that we'll, be doing the q and a, I'll I'll kind of run around with the microphone.
Jeffrey Heine:If you wanna raise your hand for a question, we'll get a mic over to you, and then we'll go from there. Is there is there someone that wants to be bold and daring and be our our first question of the evening? Alright.
Speaker 3:You mentioned that Jesus alluded to a lot of Psalms. Can you give us a specific situation and how he used 1?
Speaker 2:On the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He quotes from Psalm 22. He quotes from more Psalms than any other portion of the old testament. I think that it shapes, his understanding of his life and his death. Again, I think like Psalm 1, blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord.
Speaker 2:I think that that is a great psalm connecting with, with the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. But, I mean, Psalm 22 is a quote. That would yeah. That answers your question. I guess I could go for a long time and try to think through specific others other passages.
Speaker 2:Do you have a favorite song or a psalm that you think is especially underrated? Oh. Well, I think there's a lot that are underrated. Psalm 119, you know, is that really, really long psalm, with kind of like 22 psalms in 1. 22 Psalm 22 8 stanza sections of Psalm 119.
Speaker 2:But what's interesting about that psalm is, we normally read it and think it's very repetitive. But what's interesting is in each one of those 22, there's some new idea, some new truth about the word, and it develops that. I just find that it's so the artistry of the Psalms, I think, are something that is underrated. And and part of it is the way we preach the Psalms, I think, at times, because we reduce them down to maybe 3 points. And yet it's really an artistic expression, these Psalms.
Speaker 2:And I think we ought to do justice to the art, the metaphor of the Psalm. But do you think there's a psalm that's underrated? I want it to take. Okay.
Speaker 4:Do you do you do you have a suggestion about how to approach building your daily meditation? Like, I've known years ago, someone said read 5 Psalms a day, you go through them in a whole month. Do you have a different approach that you would segment them on a daily or weekly basis that would allow you to read through it, meditate on it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I think I'd read through them slowly. If you do you have your phones? Do you mind doing something if you have your phones? If you type in douglasdwebster.com.
Speaker 2:Trust me on this. I'm not going to, it's not a virus. Douglasdwebster.com. And go to that, and what pops up? The Psalms, Jesus' prayer book, and all 5 books of the Psalms, and my 100 and meditations and essays are there.
Speaker 2:So it's it's a nice free resource. You don't have to pay a dime. And you can download those, and you can work through them. Now they may be more complicated. So I I mean, there's a resource.
Speaker 2:This is the reflection of my 4 years of pouring on the Psalms, thinking through the Psalms, and in a way to being in the Psalm zone. You know what? I but but this is interesting. And I hope, yeah, I hope I can explain this in the context. I it wouldn't be wrong for one of you to nudge the person next to you and say, it seems like Webster just discovered the Psalms.
Speaker 2:Where has he been all this time? I constantly meet people who I didn't know knew the Psalms so well. They've been in the Psalms. And I agree. You know, the kind of spirituality that the Psalms, develop in you is kind of a quiet.
Speaker 2:You don't publicize it. You don't advertise it. But the Psalms begin to take hold, and they begin to shape who you are. But it will take a concerted study and effort. It's not a 5 minute, microwavable kind of spirituality.
Speaker 2:The Psalms don't lend itself to that. Okay.
Speaker 5:First of all, I have seen a daily I have seen or used daily breads before, just so you're know you're not alone.
Speaker 2:Oh, good.
Speaker 5:2, I don't know how big of a music person you are, but are there any particular musicians or whatever that, you listen to that sing the Psalms?
Speaker 2:There's I'm not a big music person, but I think music is a wonderful way to get into the psalms. Is it Shane and Shane? Do you know that group? They do a wonderful work in the Psalms. And my older son has put me on to to them.
Speaker 2:And they've they're really pretty true to the Psalms. So Shane and Shane, if you look that up, they've been doing it for years. And, also, the psalms are a great, you know, guide for our music and worship, in worship, if we pay attention to these psalms. You know, we use the psalms all the time. But I think they sort of glance they fly over us.
Speaker 2:We use the Psalms at the advent where I worship all the time. But I think the Psalms, just sort of with their rhetorical way about them, just sort of fly overhead. And they don't really hit home, unless you've actually really kinda worked on that psalm, studied that psalm. Memorization, meditation, and music, I think, are three ways into the psalms. And we're all gifted in different ways.
Speaker 2:If you're gifted musically, that may be the avenue in which you find the most easy access to the Psalms.
Speaker 6:I think you I think you just answered it. What if you could describe a little bit about I know the way we study scripture, but specifically getting your mind right or their mindset that you approach studying the Psalms. It used do you approach that any different way that you would say like studying Testament book, like Ephesians or Galatians? How do you how do you prepare for that, is what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:I, I think it helps just meditating on a passage of scripture. And the Psalms really lend itself to that kind of meditation. And maybe memorizing aspects of a psalm would help. I also find it really helpful to have a good commentary. It stimulates my thinking.
Speaker 2:It doesn't take away from the psalm itself at all. May maybe there's aspects of a commentary I don't pay attention to because of that. But, I'm helped. Derek Kinder has a too small volume, commentary on the Psalms of British, exegy. Very concise to me.
Speaker 2:It's been very helpful. There's lots of works on on the Psalms, that I think can stimulate your thinking about them, and it's helpful. Prayer, certainly, and, you know, I that goes without saying that you you pray your way into that. For me, it's also a time, a routine in life. I'm up at 5.
Speaker 2:That's what I do for an hour. Yes?
Speaker 7:You talked about how the Psalms can have a lot of different, topics like thanksgiving and lament and a lot of things. And I I find it easier to to use the Psalms for things like thanksgiving. Can you talk a little bit about, how to use the psalms for lament, as that sort of seems like a harder task?
Speaker 2:That's kind of why I I talked about lining up the psalms with the the global church in mind or with friends that are going through a difficult time. If we only prayed those psalms that are are laments when we ourselves were suffering, I'd we may not have much of a grasp of those psalms. But praying lament psalms on behalf of others that are being persecuted, the persecuted church. Thinking of those believers, I think that's, that's important. It's partly getting into the psalter and expanding your range, your, you know, your your sort of spiritual acuity, by covering Psalms that at first glance you may not be interested in.
Speaker 2:But I would encourage you that those kinds of Psalms may end up meaning a great deal to you. Like, for example, Psalm 73. You may not be there then. But if you know that that resource is there, when you struggle in that way, I think it'll be very helpful. One of the ways is just not picking and choosing your Psalms, but praying through the Psalms.
Speaker 2:When I was in Toronto, I was at a Baptist church. And I was the teaching pastor there. Every Wednesday night, 15 minutes in the Psalms consecutively. Just move through the Psalms. And, wow!
Speaker 2:That really, really helped our prayer meeting. It gave a context for it. And we just took the next psalm. You know, we do a lot of psalmectomies. We edit out of the psalm what we just don't feel will fit.
Speaker 2:I'm increasingly not at liberty to do that. I think we need it. It may not feel good right at the time, but I think it's important. Matthew Henry, famous British, preacher, he he went through the Psalms every Thursday night for 12 years in his church. 12 years every Thursday night, and he went through the psalter 5 times.
Speaker 2:Well, man, I think that church probably got the Psalms, Or at least some people did in them. It's part of the, you know, the spiritual discipline that I think is helpful. Anyone else?
Speaker 8:This is super practical, but if I was to go home tonight, go tomorrow, and wanted to start practicing this, and didn't know where to start. Do you have any suggestions on, obviously you can start at the beginning, but but is there any place that you would recommend for someone who, wants to begin and get a good picture of what the Psalms are for, and have a good starting point?
Speaker 2:Yes. Let's take the Psalms of ascent. And that's 120 121, I think it is, or 120. Psalm 120 to 134. 120 to 134.
Speaker 2:And these are the Psalms that the Israelites prayed as they went up to Jerusalem. For the Passover, feast of tabernacles, Every time they went to Jerusalem, they sang these. And, it's really interesting. There's morning, afternoon, and evening. So Psalm 120 is a morning prayer.
Speaker 2:Psalm 121 is an afternoon prayer. Psalm 123 is an evening prayer. So morning, afternoon, and evening. Five times to get to the psalm 134. And they follow a pattern.
Speaker 2:The first psalm in the sequence is, this is really tough. The second psalm in the sequence is, I really need deliverance. The 3rd psalm is, we've arrived. And you you get this sort of you don't have to read it morning, afternoon, and night. I'm suggesting that take one a day and reflect and meditate it on.
Speaker 2:And they're really very positive psalms, even when they're describing, difficulty. So I'd start there. 120 to 134. Well, thank you for being so attentive. And maybe I've won some converts to the Psalms.
Jeffrey Heine:Join me in thanking doctor Doug Webster. Thank you all so much for being here. If you haven't met Doug before or his wife, Virginia, say hello to them on your way out. Thank them for being here. And hopefully, we will see you, this Sunday, at worship.
Jeffrey Heine:So, if you would stand and I'll say a blessing for us as we go. Oh God, we are grateful that by your son you have drawn near to us and you've given us, by your spirit, the the words of the Psalms, that we might walk with you, and that we would know that we are not alone, that the the words from from your Psalms, they remind us about this community of the saints, that when one of us sorrows, we sorrow with one another, that when one rejoices, we rejoice together, And that someone else's pain and someone else's joy would be our own. We would take it in through the mind of Christ, and that we would walk together as the people following Christ. And so we pray that you would lead us by your spirit in that way, that we would be, trusting, obeying, and loving Christ all the more. We thank you again for this time.
Jeffrey Heine:Will you go with us now as we walk into a world that needs, to know of the the goodness of your kingdom? We pray these things in the name of Christ our King. Amen. Thank you for coming.