Psalm 22
First Christian Church, Owensville, IN
Bart W. Newton, Preaching Minister
A video of this online-only sermon may be viewed by clicking on the following link: “Introduction to the Psalms: Prayer Book of the Bible.”
(Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.)
• My earliest memories of reading the Bible on any regular basis was when I was a young teenager. I read from a little pocket New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs published by the Gideons and distributed to us at school when I was in 5th or 6th grade.
• I do not remember why but it was the Psalms and Proverbs that I gravitated to in that little Bible.
• For those of us who have memorized any Scripture at all, perhaps most, if not all, have memorized John 3:16, Genesis 1; The Lord’s Model Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13, and at least part of Psalm 23 (Twenty-third Psalm).
• For example, I’ll begin each verse or passage just mentioned and you all finish out the verse:
• “For God so loved the world…
• “In the beginning…
• “Our Father who art in heaven…
• “The Lord is my shepherd…
• “He maketh me to lie down…
• Very rarely does one attend a Christian funeral and not hear the 23rd Psalm read either during the service or the graveside committal.
• We’re going to spend a few weeks learning about the Psalms and from the Psalms.
• When it comes to my teaching the Psalms from which I’ve just really begun to learn myself, I’m indebted to many: God the Father, Christ the Son of Whom they speak and Who prayed them, the Holy Spirit who inspired them; the Psalmists who authored them; the scribes who penned, copied and preserved them, the ancient librarian(s) who organized/catalogued them into the order in which we have them for very specific reasons; the church of Christ which is nourished by them; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, particularly from his little book Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, Walter Brueggemann who authored Spirituality of the Psalms (Buy it, read it, mark it up! Only 77 pages); Dr. Jody Owens who led the intensive Psalms Learning Retreat I attended the last week of this past July; and some man from the Gideons who distributed to my 5th or 6th grade class.
Prayer
• [Introducing his exposition of the Psalms:]”We have now before us one of the choicest parts of the Old Testament, wherein there is so much of Christ and his gospel, as well as of God and his law, that it has been called the summary of both Testaments. ”
― Matthew Henry (via https://www.leadershipresources.org/blog/quotes-about-the-book-of-psalms/)
• “In the Psalms, God gives us the words to give to Him.” --Bob Martin, former Johnson Bible College professor & campus chaplain
• Why did Bob Martin say that?
• “The Psalms has proven to be the most reliable pastoral and liturgical resource we have in Scripture. Generation after generation has turned to the Psalms, in season and out of season, as a helpful resource for conversing with God about the things that matter the most” --Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Palms
• Now what does Brueggemann mean by liturgical?
• Compare Acts 13:2: While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (ESV)
• With Acts 13:2: While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for the work to which I have called them.” (AMP)
• Worship is the “service” of the people when we gather to praise and honor God
• Liturgy = “service” or “work of the people. Usually translated “worship” or “ministry.”
• Now maybe we might understand a bit better why we call our gatherings a “worship service” and why we follow some kind of worship order or liturgy.
• As Jody Owens said, good liturgy is permeated with Scripture, including the Psalms. And because liturgy is rooted in Scripture, liturgy helps us remember God!
• Example: Did you know that there is a church hymn in Philippians and Colossians? Philippians2:6-11 and Colossians1:15-20. (CSB & NIV written in verse.) These were sung in the worship services as part of their liturgy to help Christians remember some of the basic and most important doctrines of the church. They sang theology!
• Over the centuries, the Psalms has helped the church worship and has been a consistent part of many churches’ services or liturgies.
• If you assembled with FCC 20-25 years ago, you’ll remember that Sunday school use to follow the worship service. At the conclusion of SS, we reassembled around the sanctuary and closed by reciting by memory Psalm 19:14: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (ESV)
• We dismissed thinking about God—Who He is and of Whom we desired to please in our thoughts and speech!
• In many faith traditions the Psalms are not just read aloud but are sung! (Sandy Patti—"Thy Word”)
• In fact, you can find all 150 Psalms set to music, often to hymn tunes familiar to many of us!
The Bay Psalm Book
• The first book printed in British North America!
• A metrical translation of the Psalter, printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• It was to be used for the purpose of singing the Psalms in the churches of God!
• “The words hymn writers and liturgists put on our lips in worship affect us profoundly: they teach us what to think and feel, all the more effectively as they are put to music so we can hum them to ourselves whenever we are inclined.”--Gordon Wenham, The Psalter Reclaimed
Transition: Why now should we familiarize ourselves with the Psalms and their purpose for the church?
• Well, last summer I read a little book by Walter Brueggemann titled Spirituality of the Psalms. I’ll come back to this again but Brueggemann points out that generally speaking, the Psalms may be divided into three categories:
• Psalms of Orientation (All is well and as it should be. Life is good!)
• Psalms of Disorientation (All is not well or as it should be. God, why won’t you do something? Nevertheless, I will trust in You!) (Time of COVID-19; civil unrest and violence, injustice, unemployment, not to mention life issues not related at all to C-19.)
• For many in the church, it feels like a time of disorientation. The Psalms help us trust God and deal with it.
• “The Psalms are honest: there is no easy triumphalism and no attempt to disguise the trials that beset believers.”― G.W. Grogan (via https://www.leadershipresources.org/blog/quotes-about-the-book-of-psalms/)
• Psalms of New Orientation (Just when I thought there was no hope, God brought me to a new, unexpected place spiritually and all is well again!)
• “Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer (via https://www.leadershipresources.org/blog/quotes-about-the-book-of-psalms/)
“It has been said by church historians that in those periods of Christian history where renewal, revival, and awakening took place and the church was at its strongest, that coincidental with those periods in church history, there was a strong focus on the psalms in the life of God’s people–particularly in the worship of God’s people.”― R.C. Sproul (via https://www.leadershipresources.org/blog/quotes-about-the-book-of-psalms/)
Gordon Wenham in Psalms of the Torah, identifies four ways the psalms functioned:
• Written as a sacred text with the intention of being memorized.
• They were written for the purpose of memorization in an oral culture.
• The written copy was used to check your memorization.
• It is my understanding that in Jesus’s day it would not have been uncommon for a Jew to have had all 150 Psalms memorized!
• The purpose of memorizing Scriptures was to pass on the values of the culture. “enculturation.”
• The Psalms are a means of forming values and transmitting the ideal of human life, the blessed life.
• The Psalms are prayed ethics that place a unique claim on the one praying.
• Psalm 7:8-9: 8 The Lord judges the peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God! (ESV)
• Psalms make extensive use of first person pronouns “me” and “I”
• Like taking a vow, they challenge us with a truth to commit to—an act or behavior to carry out or to avoid.
Psalm 119:106: I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to keep your righteous rules.
Psalm 39:1: I said, “I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle,
so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
• See also Psalm 23:4;27:8;32:5;71:14; etc.
The genre (category/style) of Psalms facilitates memorization.
• “Textualized” – we begin to embody the work we’ve memorized.
• Memorized texts have a particularly character forming effect on the memorizer.
• Example: My dad quoting from the Psalm 23 as we headed west out of town, past the nursing home, and down into the little valley: “Ye thought I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil.” Because of that routine and my memorizing it, when I’m in/near the “valley of the shadow” myself or with someone, that verse comes to my mind and helps give me peace.
• Best example is that of Jesus.
OT books most quoted by Jesus:
1. Psalms – 11x
2. Deuteronomy – 10x
3. Isaiah – 8x
4. Exodus – 7x
• “The Psalter filled the life of early Christianity. But more important than all of this is that Jesus died on the cross with words from the Psalms on his lips.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Bonhoeffer is referring to Jesus last words on the cross:
• Matthew 27:46: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
• This is a quote from Psalm 22:1. (Read Psalm 22 today!)
• Luke 23:46: Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
• This is a quote of Psalm 31:5.
“What does this mean?” asked Benjamin Kandt? “When the God-Man was enduring the trauma of the cross, gasping and grasping for words to express his agony, he recited psalms. Bonhoeffer knew the significance of following Jesus’s example in life and in death.”—Benjamin Kandt (via https://praypsalms.org/bonhoeffer-day-the-psalms-d18659ad6b7d)
• You can be certain that when Jesus quoted from Psalm 22:1, He had the rest of that Psalm on His mind as he looked forward to His ultimate victory over sin and death!
The Lord’s Supper
Luke 22: 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying,
“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
• The body of Christ given for us.
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying,
“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
• The blood of Christ poured out for us.
• Prayer
At this time of reflection and celebration, pray for yourself and your brothers and sisters in Christ to be faithful in keeping the New Covenant.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
King Jesus has died. King Jesus has risen. And King Jesus will come again.