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But here we are and we are grateful.
We’re grateful people We’re a humble people before you Lord because we know that you are sovereign We know that you are creator sustainer redeemer of our souls We know this of you about you and we worship you Lord and you of the world we praise your name We ask you hear Jesus As the creator of the church universal that you would take your place as the pastor and the teacher of this church local And help us to understand in prayer and song and word more about you We may grow more deeply in our relationship with you It’s in your precious name we pray I am going to read a bunch of songs today, but I thought that before I read a bunch of songs I’m gonna tell you a little bit about them a little bit about the song book there are 150 songs in the song book often called the song book of the Bible or the hymn book of the Bible or even the printer book of the Bible They’ve been divided See the song book was put together by Ezra 450 BC he was gathering songs From several different authors over the course of about a thousand years He put them together into what we know as the song book He created five books of the song book and as here as we can tell there is no rhyme or reason as to how he divided them Probably he created five different books to mirror or reflect the five books of the Torah, but we don’t really know now as time progressed Scholars and so forth picked apart the Psalms and Nice biblical number they came up with seven different types of songs And these are the things that you know when we talk about where we are in the song book and all that stuff So I wrote them down so we forget any of them.
Songs of praise self-explanatory Songs of lament those are they you know it kind of hurts to be me right now.
You know where are you God type of songs?
Psalms of testimony Imprecatory songs where you are praying ill over your enemies, which you know is there of course wisdom songs, songs of the Messiah and Psalms for special occasions now.
This is where we’re going to go today We talked about Psalms of special occasions there were seven different holy days in the Jewish calendar Three of which you were called upon if you were 20 years or older I believe to make your way to Jerusalem the festival of Pentecost the festival of tabernacle and Passover and now these are the songs that were That we’re talking about for these special occasions and what we’re talking about today are the Psalms of ascent The steps for the special occasions.
Why are they called Psalms of ascent?
Because Jerusalem is on a big hill and so you enter in and the temple is up there and the city kind of goes up there like a big hill and As you enter in in your festive way I guess to prepare your heart to think about God to focus yourself on who he is and why you are there You would these Psalms became the songs that people would sing as they entered Jerusalem and made their way to the center for the holy day all right, so They were written By a couple of different people David wrote a couple of them And I believe the sons of Korah wrote a couple of them and the children of Asaph David’s worship leader wrote a couple of them.
There’s 15 of them from 120 to 134 In the song book.
So there you go There’s your overview of the Psalms and your overview of what we’re going to do today.
So today You’re going to hear everything from how Much the folks are in need of coming to the temple You know that the grind of life and oh Lord, please help me to your hear a lot of stone Imagery, right?
You’re gonna hear a lot of walking imagery You’re gonna hear all of those things and of course praise because for the reason why they are there and again Three times a year you would come and this is something that’s not middle, right?
You go on vacation you sing songs Probably some of you as adults can say can remember some of the songs you sang as a family When you travel to and fro, you know I’m not going to even try to do any examples because I’ve done 99 bottles of beer came to mind right away I just said that out loud But that is actually a How it works you would know them you would sing them special occasion special purpose So I’m not going to preach through them.
We’re going to enjoy them, but I wanted you to know what they are Now one of them is very special to me So I’m 121 was my mother’s favorite song and that was a song that she knew by heart And she would share with me and then that was the song we got all the way through her funeral And then I was going to do Psalm 121 and I was just good Choke it out.
So so I’m 121 and I didn’t know anything about the Psalms then has a very special place in my heart and I know that many of you have Psalms if That have very special places in your heart So, are you know what you’re looking for now what you’re going to hear and we are going to ascend With our brethren because it was just Passover and so figures why not it is Passover, right?
Yeah, so there we go Psalm 121 I’m reading them from the New Living Translation.
I read over them all I think the New Living Translation is a very good job with all these songs.
I’m going to read today I look up to the mountains Does my help come from there?
I told you I wasn’t going to pre.
I’m not but there’s the first images.
So that’s what they’re looking for I look up to the mountains.
We’re moving up We’re moving up to the temple of the Lord, right?
So those are the types of things that you’re listening for and the type of imagery that is portrayed in this particular these particular Psalms of ascent Look up to the mountains.
Does my help come from there?
My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth He will not let you stumble The one who watches over you will not slumber Indeed he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps The Lord himself watches over you the Lord stands beside you as your protective shade The Sun will not harm you by day.
You are the moon at night The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go both now and forever You can see why my mother would want to pray that over their son So on 122 I was glad when they said to me let’s go to the house of the Lord and Now we’re here standing inside your gates, Oh, Jerusalem Jerusalem is a well-built city It’s seamless walls cannot be breached all the tribes of Israel the Lord’s people make their pilgrimage Here they come to give thanks to the name of the Lord as the law requires of Israel Here stand the thrones where judgment is given the thrones of the dynasty of David Pray for peace in Jerusalem.
May all who love this city prosper Jerusalem may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces for the sake of my family and friends I will say may you have peace For the sake of the house of the Lord our God.
I will seek what is best for you Oh Jerusalem Psalm 123 Again we’re looking up right because we’re going up the mountain I lift my eyes to you Oh God and thrown in heaven We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy Just as servants keep their eyes on their master as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal Have mercy on us Lord have mercy for we have at our fill of contempt We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the crowd and the contempt of the arrogance Psalm 24 What if the Lord had not been on our side Let all Israel repeat.
What if the Lord has not been on our side when people attacked us?
They would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger The waters would have engulfed us at torrents would have overwhelmed us Yes, the raging waters of their fury would have overwhelmed our very lives Praise the Lord who did not let their teeth tear us apart We escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap The trap is broken.
We are free Our help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth we hear these recurring themes and another thing that you’ll notice is that the Psalms are of short length so they can easily learn and easily Repeatable so they are songs of a sense that empowering the blood right Kenzie power in the blood She runs around the house It’s fun Oh Wait, I’m sorry.
We’re not supposed to talk about blood and crosses and things like that in church people Not Okay So on 130 Here’s what I was talking about, right?
Everything is sunshine and roses, but they’re heading toward the truth or heading toward the temple of the Lord From the depth of despair Oh Lord.
I call for your help Hear me cry.
Oh Lord pay attention to my prayer Lord if you kept the record of our sins who oh Lord could ever survive in them But you offer forgiveness that we might learn to fear you.
I’m counting on the Lord Yes, I’m counting on him.
I have put my hope in his word I long for the Lord more than centuries long for the dawn.
Yes more than centuries long for the dawn Israel hope is in the Lord for with the Lord.
There is unfailing love his Redemption overflows he himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin That’s power.
That’s power right there Psalm 133 How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony Remember people are coming from all over Israel, right?
If you remember the day of Pentecost New Testament Right.
That’s what was happening And that’s why you heard people speaking miraculously in all of the languages of all the people that were there Not only Israel but those from around the world So how wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony For harmony is as precious as the anointing foil that was poured over Aaron’s head That ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon That falls on the mountains of Zion and there the Lord has pronounced his blessing even life everlasting So we talked about the Psalms and we read them individually Of course, we can divide them into the seven categories, but there is great overlap in all of them Do you not hear the old redemption story in those Psalms?
Right you hear the redeemings the salvific work of God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son in these songs and these folks No idea about any of those sorts of things But they are going to praise the Lord in the correct and appropriate way Not just for the sake of doing it But with a broken and contrite heart as scripture says and they know that they have put a lot of dust behind them They’ve had a lot of trials a lot of tribulations It’s been a while since the last holy day and Lord I’m coming to your temple and I want to spiel you and I want to Experience this and I want to experience it not just for me And this is one thing sometimes the New Testament church we forget about I’m talking a little bit about it last week It’s not in Olivia’s favor saying it’s not an individual sport.
It’s a team sport.
There’s a reason why we gather together.
I Am glad that you have an individual relationship with God from Jesus Christ Your salvation comes through faith alone.
There is no doubt about that and you are filled by God’s Holy Spirit But there is also a reason why scripture says and those who do that earn the right to be called brother children of God And we become brothers and sisters of the Most High and we gather together and this song way back Thousands of years ago is talking about how important it is to gather together and Experience the presence of the Lord.
That’s what these pilgrims are seeking as they head to the temple and it’s what we see Unally as we gather as the church and The more things change the more they stay the same how precious is the unity of these brothers and sisters Because we’re human beings and we get on each other’s earth and we don’t like what somebody says sometimes and we don’t what all those Different things are still in play.
We know that and how Precious it is when each of us realize that we are a part of something that is so much bigger than ourselves And so much bigger than any petty complaints that we might have There are significant complaints.
Your preacher is preaching heresy things are there’s Wickedness in the church that’s manifesting and what those are Issues that need to be addressed not not the fact that somebody said computer or something like that And I’m not I’m not There are those that are Worthy of being addressed and those that are not you realize that you are something bigger You are the temple of the Lord and we come together We’re coming together now for a time of communal and corporate prayer I want to just mention a few things and I think we have a story that we just cannot not tell So we’re going to tell that story but again for the sake of everything flowing Let me pray over you today.
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