Sermons on Psalms
For the next six weeks, we will be studying through Psalm 107 with a particular focus on the steadfast love (HESED) of God. This Hebrew word is one of the most difficult words to translate because of the depth and breadth of its meaning. This Hebrew word carries the sense of an enduring connection that brings life and all good things into a relationship. In Psalm 107:1, HESED is translated thirteen different ways in English Bibles—love, favor, grace, mercy, kindness, goodness, loyal-love, compassion, benevolence, faithful-love, gracious-love, steadfast-love, and lovingkindness. HESED means all of those things and even more!
As we enter into this third week of our Advent studies, let’s pause for a moment to remember that advent refers to the coming of or arrival of the Messiah. While looking at the prophecies that foretold of His coming, we have seen several, overarching themes that have arisen. The first week, we talked about hope, and that hope is to be found in nothing other than Jesus Christ. The second week, we considered the concept of peace, and determined that only Jesus is able to provide us with real lasting peace. Today, we are going to focus our attention on the concept of joy.
The sermon series that we are starting today is a four-part series called “Anticipating Advent.” Today, we will be looking at the concept of HOPE as it relates to the prophesied arrival of the Christ child. Over the next three weeks, we will look at PEACE, JOY, and LOVE respectively. The Bible reading plan that I am inviting you to join will follow along with these same concepts.
After restoring the broken-down wall of Jerusalem, the restored exiles needed spiritual direction and renewal—they needed revival. In our study last week, we noted that this process of renewal begins with hearing and obeying the Word of God. In today’s study, we will focus on the role of confessing sin in the renewal process, as well as the attitudes that foster a repentant spirit and the product of confession.
Psalm 32 was written by King David sometime after his series of sinful acts dealing with Bathsheba and Uriah, her husband. The story was scandalous, but David thought he had hidden the truth from everyone. Hidden sin is never hidden from God, a lesson that David learned first-hand. Psalm 51 records David’s prayer of repentance for all the things that he did. Psalm 32 is its companion and stresses the blessings of God’s forgiveness and the suffering he experienced because of his stubbornness in acknowledging his sin.
The idea of doctrine, according to Chuck Swindoll, “has gotten a bum rap.” He goes on to say, “Unless you are most unusual, the study of doctrine would be ranked toward the bottom [of a list of topics that most people would find interesting to study], if not altogether in last place. Compared to success principles on the home and family, ‘a serious study of biblical doctrines’ does not seem nearly as important or relevant to most evangelical congregations.” The problem is that most people don’t realize how important our doctrine is to our daily Christian walk. Our positions on doctrinal issues determine the way in which we interpret and apply the Bible whether we realize it or not.
The Spiritual Disciplines of silence and solitude—while unique from one another—go hand-in-hand. You can have solitude without silence, but it is almost impossible to have silence without solitude. So rather than spending two weeks discussing these disciplines separately, I will do my best to address them as two sides of the same coin. By definition, solitude is the state or “situation of being alone without other people.” Solitude provides believers with an opportunity to reflect on spiritual matters by removing the distraction of people and things. A few weeks ago, Pastor John preached on the discipline of community and how we need one another to grow in spiritual maturity. Experiencing community is essential to our spiritual growth, but so is being alone with God!
We will be talking about this concept of “abiding” off-and-on throughout this year. This morning, I want us this to consider the implications of Psalm 91 on “abiding” when you look at it through the lens of God’s promises and our steadfast obedience to His Word. Remember what we learned in part one of this short series: God does not promise to keep us from trouble and difficulties in this life—He promises to see us through it! So as we considered His promises to protect us in Psalm 91, do not lose sight of the fact that He is working all things—the good, the bad, and the ugly—together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
The overall theme of this psalm is the promise of God to protect those who have trusted in Him—in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Next week, we will focus on what these promises are and how they relate to life in a world threatened by a global pandemic, but the questions that we want to consider today are: “How do we understand God’s promises in Psalm 91? How do we interpret these promises in light of the teaching in the rest of Scripture?”
When we left off last week, all the men in Ruth and Naomi’s family had died while living in the foreign land of Moab. Naomi had heard that there was food back in Israel, so she decided to return to Bethlehem in hopes that God would have mercy on her and provide what she needed to be able to live. So let’s consider this next part of the story.