WISDOM FROM PSALMS
I love the Psalms. I have read them most every day now for several years.
They were written over a period of several hundred years by many people: David, Moses, Solomon, Asaph, the sons of Korah, and several whose names we will never know. When I read the Psalms I am encouraged because these writers were all imperfect people but they cried out to God in their distress and pain and He heard them and delivered them.
Psalms 34:6 (NKJV) This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.
We all have our favorites. Psalm 23 comes readily to mind. Psalm 91 is a close second. The Book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible and the most quoted in the New Testament.
In this message I want to look at how authors used psalms to deal with their emotional struggles by speaking to themselves with the promises and character of God.
Psalm 3 A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.
1 Lord, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me.
2 Many are they who say of me, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah
3 But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
4 I cried to the Lord with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah
5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Arise, O Lord; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah
David is filled with fear. His emotions are running rampant.
ME I don’t know about you, but my emotions get me into trouble! My gifts, temperament, and personality lend themselves to emotion. I am an emotional person! I run the gamut. I cry easily; I laugh loudly; I often am fearful; Worry harangues me almost daily. I love deeply yet anger regularly invades my life. I value relationships, but as I have been told, have a big doghouse. If I am not careful, emotions will rule my life! Although I am usually a positive person (as most sanguine are), negative thoughts and emotions rise up and ruin my days.
Examples: “Cancel today, lack of interest.”; “There has to be a better way to start the day than getting up.”; “God can’t be this good.”
WE What about you? Do you struggle with negative emotions? Are you often led to doubt the goodness of God because of trouble or fear or worry? I believe that this soulish element creates trouble for many of us. When we live according to the dictates of our emotions, or the faulty reasonings of our minds, we are not being led by the Holy Spirit!
Romans 8:14 (NKJV) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Galatians 5:18 (NKJV) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Watchman Nee observed that believers who are not walking led by the Spirit will automatically be led by their emotions. Sometimes reasoning and discipline will intervene, but the default setting is emotion.
So many of our choices are dominated by emotion. This is the root of effective salesmanship. Have you ever bought something that you didn’t need or could afford? Why? Emotion. You fall in live with something and just have to have it! How many of our bad decisions have been because of our emotions? James says that this is the root of all temptation and conflict.
James 1:14 (NKJV) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
James 4:1–3 (NKJV) Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
GOD We need wisdom to know the difference between our emotions and the Spirit of God. How do we get that discernment? The book of Psalms.
Psalms has two main practical applications.
First, it served as the hymn book of praise and worship for the Hebrew people. Most people did not own a copy of the Scriptures so psalms were set to music to aid in memorization. They were used in private and public worship and meditation.
Second, Psalms explores the complete range of human emotion and how to deal with it.
Psalm 139:23 (NKJV) Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;
Let’s look at another psalm.
Psalm 6 To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. On an eight-stringed harp.a A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O Lord–how long?
4 Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!
5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my supplication; The Lord will receive my prayer.
10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.
Psalm 42 and 43, originally one psalm…
Psalm 42 To the Chief Musician. A Contemplationa of the sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
5 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.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me– A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!
2 For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Here David is talking to himself! This is the essence of using the truth of God to address your own soul. We are commanded to do this in the New Testament.
Ephesians 5:18–19 (KJV) And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Colossians 3:16 (NKJV) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
ACTION STEPS
1. Let the Psalms dwell in you. Read, memorize, meditate…
2. Read Psalms everyday.
3. Read specific Psalms that mirror the emotions you are feeling.
4. Turn the Psalms into prayer.
5. Talk yourself happy!
Hit home. Ty
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