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Psalms 95-97

Thursday Evening Bible Study

December 8, 2016

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Target 3300 words Video = 75 wpm

Video: Psalms Intro

The English word psalm comes from a Greek word that means “a poem sung to musical accompaniment”, or in particular, “stringed instruments”.

The Hebrew name is tehillim, which means “praises.”

The book of Psalms is the hymnbook of God’s people.

It’s also the “Him” book as well. It’s all about Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 40:8 when he writes,

(Hebrews 10:7 NKJV) Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ”

The author was talking about Jesus.

We’re going to see a lot of Jesus in the Psalms.

Soul Music

Music touches the soul. It’s “soulish” in nature. It touches the emotions.

We’re going to find every kind of emotion possible expressed in the Psalms.

For every sigh there is a Psalm.

For most of us, this is what makes the Psalms so wonderful. We can identify. We can relate.

If we were honest, even darkest most depressing Psalms describe the very things we go through day by day.

It is my prayer that as we continue on this journey through the Psalms, we won’t just look at these songs academically, with our mind, but that we may also grow as worshippers.

For most of us, this is what makes the Psalms so wonderful. We can identify. We can relate.

If we were honest, even darkest most depressing Psalms describe the very things we go through day by day.

It is my prayer that as we continue on this journey through the Psalms, we won’t just look at these songs academically, with our mind, but that we may also grow as worshippers.

Psalm 95 Worship or Complain

:1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

:1 Let us shout joyfully

sing – ranan – (Piel) to give a ringing cry (in joy, exultation, praise)

shout joyfully – ruwa‘– (Hiphil) to shout a war-cry; to shout in applause

(Remember the Marine’s “Oorah”?)

:1 to the Rock

We can look at God being our “Rock” in many different ways, but there is one specific way that is appropriate to this Psalm.

When Israel went through the wilderness for forty years, there was a “Rock” that followed them.

At one point when they ran out of water, God told Moses to “strike” the Rock, and water came out of it. (Ex. 17)

Later, when they ran low of water again, God told Moses to speak to the Rock, though Moses went and struck it anyway (Num. 20).

Paul even tells us,

(1 Corinthians 10:4b NKJV) For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

:2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

:2 come before His presence with thanksgiving

In the Old Testament times, this referred to coming to the Tabernacle or the Temple to worship God.

We know that God is actually everywhere, and since we are all “temples” of the Holy Spirit, God is actually in our lives.

Yet I think it’s an important concept that we learn to “come” before His presence.

Yes, we are already in His presence, but sometimes we simply forget. Our eyes need to be opened.

And when we come, come with thanksgiving.

:3 For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.

:4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also.

:5 The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.

:3 the Lord is the great God

If you’re struggling with some reasons to worship God, take a step back and think about who He is.

He is greater than any other so-called “god”.

He is the Creator. Our Creator.

:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

:6 let us worship and bow down … kneel

worship – shachah – to bow down; prostrate oneself

bow down – kara‘– to bend, kneel, sink down to one’s knees

kneel – barak – to bless, kneel

Lesson

Surrender

If you haven’t noticed, a very appropriate posture in worshipping God is to go down on your knees before Him.

We see this as surrender to God.

Sometimes what we call “surrender” isn’t really surrender.

Illustration

A Mexican bandit made a specialty of crossing the Rio Grande from time to time and robbing banks in Texas. Finally, a reward was offered for his capture. An enterprising Texas Ranger decided to track him down. After a lengthy search, he traced the bandit to his favorite cantina, snuck up behind him, put his trusty six-shooter to the bandit’s head, and said, “You’re under arrest. Tell me where you hid the loot or I’ll blow your brains out.” But the bandit didn’t speak English and the Ranger didn’t speak Spanish! Fortunately, a bilingual lawyer was in the saloon and translated the Ranger’s message. The terrified bandit blurted out, in Spanish, that the loot was buried under the oak tree in back of the cantina. “What did he say?” asked the Ranger. The lawyer answered, “He said, ‘Get lost, you turkey. You wouldn’t dare shoot me.’”

I guess things get kind of messy when someone gets between us and God when we surrender (like that lawyer above)

We need to learn to not let anyone come between us and God.

Worship requires that we put our eyes on the Lord and not think too much on what others around us are thinking.

God is our audience. Surrender to Him.

:7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.

:7 the sheep of His hand

Dating back to the time of Abraham, the people of Israel were a nation of shepherds.

Shepherds know that sheep are not all that pleasant of animals to take care of.

I hear sheep can bite.

They are also extremely dumb.

Your mother used to say to you, “If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?”

Sheep actually do that.

Back in 2005, this hit the newswires:

450 sheep jump to their deaths in Turkey

Apparently the shepherds had taken a break to eat breakfast, and when they got back to the flock, one sheep had jumped off a cliff, and 1500 followed.

Only 450 actually died because the pile of fluffy sheep bodies got so high that the late sheep jumpers didn’t have to jump that far.

And then there’s this:

Video: Sheep in a hole

Even though you might not be flattered that God calls us “sheep”, you ought to be amazed that He calls Himself our “Shepherd”.

He will care for His flock.

(Isaiah 40:11 NKJV) He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.

:7b Today, if you will hear His voice:

:7 if you will hear

This is not a future tense. It’s more like…

The Hebrew is an “imperfect” tense.

The Septuagint has an aorist subjunctive here.

“Today, if you should hear His voice”

:8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

:8 the rebellion … the day of trial

rebellion – meriybah – strife, contention

trial – maccah – despair, test

These were the names of actual events and places in the Old Testament – Meribah and Massah.

The Israelites were running low on water, and rather than ask God for help, they just complained. They claimed that Moses had led the people out of Egypt just to die in the wilderness.

God gave instruction to Moses about that “Rock”, and the place got a name. God said,

(Exodus 17:6–7 NKJV) —6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

The Psalmist is talking about this moment.

:9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work.

:10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’

:11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

:10 they do not know My ways

God struggled with the Israelites throughout the entire forty years of wandering in the wilderness because of their grumbling and lack of faith.

Keep in mind, the Israelites in the wilderness had NO EXCUSE for doubting God’s presence with them. They had been delivered from Egypt. They had lived through the amazing, scary, and miraculous plagues. They had crossed the Red Sea on dry land.

They had no excuse for not trusting God.

:11 They shall not enter My rest

God said this several times of this generation of people who refused to trust God.

(Numbers 14:23 NKJV) they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.

Lesson

Grumble or Worship

We have a commentary on this passage in the book of Hebrews:

(Hebrews 3:7–19 NKJV) —7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

This has all been a quote of our Psalm 95. Now for the commentary…

12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

He mentions “Today” because he’s building his teaching off of the text in Psalm 95.

We can play a part in each other’s lives when it comes to how we trust the Lord.

We can be as the Israelites were, hear the complaining and grumbling and just echo that same lack of faith.

Or we can learn to encourage each other to trust God.

As long as it’s still called “Today”, we have the chance to hear His voice and to encourage each other to trust God.

14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,

This sounds kind of scary to me.

It sounds as if we can lose our “Promised Land” if we stop trusting in Christ.

15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Unbelief is the ultimate reason why a person doesn’t make it into heaven, though our passage gives us the remedy to counter this.

So what’s the whole point of the Psalm?

Go back to the beginning of our Psalm.

We need to make a joyful noise to the “rock” (vs. 1)

We need to come before God’s presence with thanksgiving (vs. 2)

We need to “worship and bow down”. (vs.6)

We express our trust in God through our worship of Him.

We also need to be hanging out with each other, encouraging one another so our hearts don’t get hard.

We need to trust Him.

Songs

These are the Gates

Come Let Us Worship

These Are The Gates

tran: D G D/A A/C# D G D/A A/C#

D G D/A A/C# D G D/A A

These are the gates to the Kingdom

D G D/A

These are the courts

A/C# G A

of the everlasting King

CHORUS:

And we enter in with

G A D

Praise and thanksgiving

We enter in with

G A D

Praise and thanksgiving

G A

With praises on our lips

G/B A/C#

Thanksgiving in our hearts

G A /C# D

In loving worship of our Lord

We are the temple of the Spirit

We are the apple of His

Ever-loving eye...

These Are The Gates / Words & Music by Terry Clark / © 1984 Clark Brothers Communications / TheseAre.doc

Come Let Us Worship And Bow Down

D G D

Come let us worship and bow down

G D/F#

Let us kneel before

Em A

The Lord our God our Maker

{repeat}

G D A

For He is our God

G D/F# Em A

And we are the people of His pasture

G A D Bm

And the sheep of His hand

G A D (Asus)

Just the sheep of His hand

Come Let Us Worship And Bow Down / Words & Music by Dave Doherty / © 1980 Maranatha! Music / ComeLet.doc

Psalm 96 Pure Worship

When David first became king of the entire nation of Israel, he conquered the city of Jerusalem, made it his capital, and then decided he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem.

David wanted to be closer to God.

On the first attempt to move it, they put the Ark on an oxcart.

As the oxcart was moving up the hill, it hit a bump, and the Ark began to slip.

A priest named Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark, and God struck him dead.

For several months, the Ark stayed at the house of Obed-Edom until David could figure out what had gone wrong.

They finally decided to read the Scriptures and found out that the Ark was supposed to be carried on poles by priests, and not be transported by stupid oxen.

They finally got the Ark procession moving again, and brought the Ark up to Jerusalem.

(1 Chronicles 16:7 NKJV) On that day David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to thank the Lord:

The Psalm that David gives to Asaph to sing (1Chr. 16:8-36) is found in the book of Psalms in parts of three different Psalms.

Verses 8-22 are the same as Psalm 105:1-15.

Verses 23-33 are basically the same as our Psalm (96)

Verses 34-36 are the same as Psalm 106:1,47-48.

The context of the Psalm is the moving of the Ark.

:1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

:1 sing to the Lord a new song!

new – chadash – new, new thing, fresh

Lesson

Fresh worship

If we’re not careful, we can get into ruts in worship and just sing what comes easiest.

When I was a kid, the more traditional churches only sang 19^th century hymns because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.

There was something fresh about Calvary Chapel because the songs were fresh and simple.

We no longer sing many of those songs because they too began to grow “stale”.

The problem is not the age of the song, or the number of times you sing it. The root problem is the heart.

Isaiah wrote,

(Isaiah 29:13 NKJV) Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

Songs aren’t “fresh” just because they’re “new”, but when they come from a heart of love for God.

:2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

:3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

:4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.

:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.

:5 the gods of the peoples are idols

idols – ‘eliyl – good for nothing, worthless

The “gods” aren’t just wooden or stone statues, they’re “nothing”.

On one hand, there is nothing real behind an “idol”:

(1 Corinthians 8:4 NKJV) Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

On the other hand, at times there is something powerful going on in idolatry, because it’s being energized by demons.

(1 Corinthians 10:20 NKJV) Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

:6 Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

:7 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength.

:8 Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts.

:9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.

:9 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

Lesson

Holy Worship

Though some commentators say that the “beauty of holiness” is referring to God, I think that the context of the Psalm, as well as the story behind it (David bringing in the Ark) make it refer to the beauty of our own “holiness”. Uzzah was struck down for his “unholy” act.

We need to worship God from a sense of holiness.

(Psalm 96:9 NASB95) Worship the Lord in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth.

David learned the hard way that not doing things correctly, like transporting the Ark on an oxcart, can cause great trouble.

When we worship God, we are confronted with His holiness, and that makes us extremely aware of our own un-holiness.

Isaiah had a glimpse of God and the angels around God’s throne…

(Isaiah 6:3 NKJV) And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”

This affected Isaiah deeply.

(Isaiah 6:5 NKJV) So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

God responded to Isaiah’s cry, sent an angel, and Isaiah was cleansed.

Before we worship (or sometime during worship), we need to check our own “holiness” and get right with God.

:10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.”

:10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns

heathen – gowy – nation, people; usually of non-Hebrew people

Lesson

Take It Outside

We ought to learn to take our worship of God outside.

In Jesus’ day, the Jewish nation had gotten to a point where they felt that they would be the only ones saved. The heathen weren’t even worth thinking about.

I find it interesting that David thinks about talking to the “heathen” about the Lord.

:11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;

:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord.

:13 For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.

:13 He is coming to judge the earth

Lesson

Judgment

Why is Jesus coming back?

He is coming back to one day judge the world.

Even though many of us stupid human beings refuse to acknowledge that we are accountable to God, notice that the sea, the fields, and the trees are all rejoicing that God will one day come back.

Paul wrote,

(Romans 8:19 NLT) For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

Every human being is accountable to God.

One day every person will stand before God to give an account of his life.