Psalms: Jesus our Worship
- Chp. 1-41 Genesis section: Worship our creator
- Chp. 42-72 Exodus section: Worship our deliverer
- Chp. 73-89 Leviticus section: Worship with a right heart
- Chp. 90-106 Numbers section: Worship in our wonderings
- Chp. 107-150 Deuteronomy section: Worship the living Word
The 2nd of the poetical books is the most used book in the Bible with the most chapters 150. The five books of Psalms were used as Israel’s Hymnal and span around 1,000 years written by many different authors and those who compiled them into the five sections they are now in.
- 75 of them were written by David with his wide range of human experience of shepherd, musician, soldier, and king, these would have been written over 40 years. In Acts 4:25 and Heb. 4:7 we are told that two other psalms not mentioned as David’s (Psalm 2 and 95) were also written by the king whose name means “Beloved of God”.
- 12 of them were written by Asaph whose name means the “Collector” who was a priest who headed up the worship service.
- 10 were written by the sons of Korah who were a guild of singers and composers
- 2 were written by Solomon, son of David, Israel’s third and most powerful king
- 1 (psalm 90) was written by Moses a prince, herdsman, and deliverer
- 1 (psalm 88) was written by Heman whose name means “faithful” though it was compiled with the sons of Korah
- 1 (psalm 89) was written by Ethan whose name means “enduring”
- 50 were written by anonymous writers and have been attributed to many different people including Ezra.
The compilation of these 150 psalms composed over 1000 years has not been done so based upon chronological order but they have rather been carefully collected and edited into groupings that mirror the first five books of the Bible. The key theme of all these books is worship; though that word only appears 15 times in these 150 Psalms. Other words such as praise (126), sing (55), and song (47) do appear 243 times in 150 Psalms something to do with worship is recorded. Several general observations should be made about having noted that the key focus is “worship”:
The object of worship in each and every one of these 150 psalms never changes even though the name for Him does from:
- Jehovah (630 times): A name that speaks of God’s grace to become whatever man needs.
- Elohim: A name that speaks of His might which He graciously operates on our behalf.
- Adonahy: A name that speaks of His sovereign Lordship over us and our circumstances.
Each of these names for God displays a differing concept as to His character and nature.
There is never recorded in any Psalm one incident in all the range of human emotion or endless situation that man should not worship God. No matter what the circumstance or the person involved with that circumstance both the action and the object are always the same we are to worship God!
So these five books are a collection of simple, honest human expressions of every human experience and every conceivable human circumstance. Be that profound wisdom, crippling anxiety, absurd foolishness, or uncontrollable anger the multitude of human authors over 1000 years have composed for us what was on their hearts. And time has not diminished their familiarity nor their clarity to our own hearts and cries. It is for this reason alone that the Psalms are perhaps the most read and best-loved section of the Bible as we can very much relate even if we are unable to articulate. One ancient writer observed, “What a history we would see if we could discover the place this book has been in the lives of people”.
As remarkable as that is on its own merits this book does not stop at merely recording man’s greatest experiences, raw emotions, and honest evaluations it takes all of those things that are intensely human and brings them all before the presence of God! These 150 psalms reveal that which is common to all how we feel, think, speak, and act and then place such things next to a heart that is aware of the consciousness of the living God. When reflected upon (the meaning of the word repeated 71 times Selah) the only outcome the heart can do is worship as we are brought into the character of God, the attitude of man, and His transforming love that supersedes what we cried out against in the first place.
Chp. 1-41 Genesis section: Worship our creator
This first book of 41 Psalms was written or compiled by David over 50 years ago and are songs of worship based upon God being the creator. The Psalms take us from His creation to our fall and human needs because of our fall. The very first psalm takes us to the river of life where the first man Adam was planted bringing forth fruit in its season, whose leaf did not wither; and whatever he did prospered, (psalm 1:3).
From this psalm we see that man was given a choice and that Adam and Eve chose to walk in the council of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful, (psalm1:1). The outcome of this action of Adam and Eve is to be found in the words of Psalm 2:1-3
The “nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed…” And very quickly in this struggle all since Adam’s fall we are brought the antidote in Psalm 2:7-8 “I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.” Listen again to David as he wrote of the human heart expressing its need in Psalm 4:8 “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
Or as David wrote in Psalm 6:4-6 “Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! For in death, there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.” In Psalm 7:10 David wrote, “My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart.”
In Psalm 8:3-4 David wrote of what has brought about such awareness of man’s need “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” In Psalm 14:1 we are told that “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.”
Contrast that with what David said in Psalm 16:11 “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” David appears to recognize that what God had originally intended for man was now a process that will one day be completed as he wrote in Psalm 17:15 “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.”
In Psalm 18:32, 35 David wrote of that process saying, “It is God who arms me with strength, And makes my way perfect.” “You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great.” Psalm 20:7 reminds us, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
In the beloved 23rd David declares his peace in rest because “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” In Psalm 27:4 David says, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.”
The 29th psalm in the 10th verse David reminds us of the truth that “The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood, And the Lord sits as King forever.” And because of this Psalm 30:11 declares “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness”. Psalm 32:5 David said “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah”
Is it any wonder that Psalm 34:4, 8, 18 says, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.” “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.” So Psalm 37:3-6 tells us to “Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.” Each one of these five books closes with the same ending as we read in Psalm 41:13 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.”
Chp. 42-72 Exodus section: Worship our deliverer
Here we are introduced to Psalms 42-72, 31 Psalms which corresponds to the 2nd book in the Bible Exodus. These psalms speak of our bondage to sin and our deliverance by God into a new glorious relationship. Psalm 42:5 asks the question “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.”
Psalm 44:21 reminds us that God “knows the secrets of the heart.” And yet as Psalm 46:1 tells us this does not stop God from being “our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” We are told in Psalm 49:6-7 that our deliverer will not come from “Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him”
And Psalm 50:15 offers instead this exhortation to “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” After David confesses the sin of murder and adultery in Psalm 51 David declares in verse 7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
Psalm 56:8 says that God “Numbers my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?” Because of this, we are told in Psalm 59:17 “To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defense, My God of mercy.” Or as we are told in Psalm 66:20 “Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!”
In Psalm 68:19 we read “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah” And the 2nd book of Psalms ends with these words in Psalm 72:18-19 “Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.”
Chp. 73-89 Leviticus section: Worship with a right heart
The third book of 16 Psalms focus is the heart of the worshipper and the tone is set early as the psalmist Asaph wrote of a dilemma he observed in Psalm 73:1-3 saying, “Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Seeing the “prosperity of the wicked” Asaph said in verses 13-14 “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning.” It wasn’t until Asaph according to verse 17 “went into the sanctuary of God” that he “understood their end”.
Friends the benefits of a right heart aren’t temporal they are eternal as Asaph said in verses 23-24 “I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” Asaph offers a warning in Psalm 75:2, 4-5 “When I choose the proper time, I will judge uprightly.” “I said to the boastful, ‘Do not deal boastfully,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high; Do not speak with a stiff neck.’”
In Psalm 78: 4 Asaph exhorts “the generation to come to the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.” Asaph then recounts Israel’s history of neglecting God’s love which caused continual rebellion through the rest of the 72 verses. In Psalm 80:3-4, 19 Asaph acknowledges the nation’s failure and then says twice (verses 4 and 19), “Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people?”
In Psalm 81:11-13 Asaph speaks the heart of God towards Israel saying, “But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!” In Psalm 84 verse 5 the psalmist wrote “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”
Then in the 10th verse of that Psalm one of the “sons of Korah” wrote, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” In Psalm 85:9-10 we are told that “His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed.”
In Psalm 86:8, 10-11, 15 David said “Among the gods, there is none like You, O Lord; nor are there any works like Your works….” “For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name….” “But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.”
Finally, in the last psalm of this third book Psalm 89, Ethan writes in verse 8 “O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.” In verse 11 he wrote, “The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have founded them.” Then in verse 14 he said, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.”
Finally, after God speaks to them in this psalm with regards to God’s discipline the Lord promises in verses Psalm 89:33-37 “Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky. Selah” Again the third book of Psalms concludes with “Blessed be the Lord forevermore! Amen and Amen”.
Chp. 90-106 Numbers section: Worship in our wonderings
The 16 Psalms in this section seem to highlight human failure yet even through this the Psalmist finds reason to praise God as our unfaithfulness does not change His faithfulness! Take the prayer of Moses in the opening Psalm 90 as he writes in verse 8 “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.” Then in verse 12 Moses wrote, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” And in verse 14 Moses said, “Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!”
Finally, in verse 17 Moses said, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.” In Psalm 91:14-16 we read of God’s heart, “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
In Psalm 93:1-2 the psalmist notes that “The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed, he has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.” In Psalm 94:17-19 we read the promise that, “Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence. If I say, “My foot slips,” Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.”
Such truths caused David to exclaim in Psalm 101:2 “I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” In Psalm 103:2-5a David wrote “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things”.
Then in the 12th and 14th verses of that same Psalm David wrote, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Such thoughts of God’s faithfulness despite our failures caused the psalmist to write in Psalm 106:6 “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.”
Then after mentioning their failure the psalmist concludes with these words in verses 47-48 “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles, to give thanks to Your holy name, to triumph in Your praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!”
Chp. 107-150 Deuteronomy section: Worship the living Word
The final book in Psalms includes 43 psalms that speak of our resource of the Word of God and the thankfulness that the psalmist has for this inexhaustible resource and its benefits to our souls. Four times in Psalm 107 we are told “Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”
Why such repeated praise? Well because as the psalmist declares in verse 9 “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Nothing dear one satisfies the longing soul nor fills the hungry soul with goodness more than God’s Word! In Psalm 109:4b David would write concerning his accusers who spoke against him that he would, “give himself to prayer”. They would do their talking to each other about David and David decided to do his talking about them to God!
It is because of this heart that David would utter those messianic words in Psalm 110:1 “The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The psalmist tells us where he gains such perspective in Psalm 111:10 where he says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.”
In Psalm 115:1 the psalmist records, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth.” In Psalm 116:12 the psalmist wonders, “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?”
Then in Psalm 118:6, 8, the psalmist says, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?… It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” And what way can a man be more certain that the Lord is on our side than what the psalmist says in that messianic passage in Psalm 118:19, 22-24 where he writes, “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter….The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
The longest psalm in the bible psalm 119 is an acrostic poem with each stanza starting with a new letter in the Hebrew alphabet each one singing praises to the Word of God, such as verse 9 where we read, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”
Is it any wonder that with such a heart for the Word of God, the psalmist would declare in Psalm 121:1-2 “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” Clearly, the psalmist has tasted the truth of the words he wrote in Psalm 126:5-6 where he promised that “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
In Psalm 130:3-4 we read “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.”
Then in Psalm 136, 26 times after every situation the psalmist wrote “For His mercy endures forever”, again how would the author have known such truths had he not discovered them in the Word of God? Such is also the case in Psalm 139:14 where David wrote, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
David wrote in Psalm 144:3 “Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?” David also says in Psalm 145:17-19 that “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.”
Finally, we close the last book of Psalms with this 6-verse gem: Psalm 150:1-6 “Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”