let us turn then to God's word
in 2nd Samuel the second book of Samuel chapter 23 and I'll
read the first two verses 2nd Samuel 23 now these be the
last words of David the son of Jesse said and the man who was
raised up on high The anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet
psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,
and his words was in my tongue. And really these words at the
end of verse 1 and the second verse where we read of David,
The sweet psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the Lord
spake by me, and his words was in my tongue. the sweet Psalmist
of Israel we often try to preach from the book of Psalms what
I want to try to do tonight is to make some more general remarks
with regards to that remarkable book and so the theme really
is that of the significance of the Psalms that's a subject matter
the significance of the Psalms David the sweet psalmist of Israel
said the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his words was in my
tongue David then is here marked out as the sweet psalmist and
we know that he was a man with a certain poetical gift he was
a man of deep emotions we certainly see something of that in the
opening chapter of the second book of Samuel upon the death
of his great friend Jonathan and King Saul. Remember that great lament that's
recorded there how David lamented, it says, at verse 17 in 2 Samuel
1. He lamented with this lamentation
over Saul and over Jonathan, his son, Also he bade them teach
the children of Judah the use of the bow. Behold, it is written
in the book of Jason. And then the lament, the beauty
of Israel is slain upon thy high mountains. How are the mighty
fallen? Tell it not in Gath. Publish
it not in the streets of Ascalon. Lest the daughters of the Philistines
rejoice. Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised
triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there
be no dew. neither let there be rain upon
you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty
is vilely cast down, the shield of Saul, as though he had not
been anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain,
from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan, turn not back,
and the sword of Saul, return not emptied. Saul and Jonathan
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they
were not divided. They were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions. You daughters of Israel, weep
over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other delights,
who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the
mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? O Jonathan, they
were slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my
brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been
unto me. thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women how
are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished is it
not evident that this was a man of deep emotion a man with a
real poetic spirit and of course it is so evident time and again
in what we find in the book of Psalms and so we read of him
here as the sweet Psalmist of Israel, but it's not David who
speaks in the Psalms, is it? As he says in verse 2, The Spirit
of the Lord spake by me, and his words was in my tongue. In the Psalms we have the actual
words of God himself, the words of the Lord. Well let's just
make some general remarks concerning the book of Psalms. Firstly to
say something concerning the structure of that book. I'm sure
you're aware there are in all 150 Psalms and 73 of those are
specifically ascribed to David and there are also anonymous
Psalms but their content would suggest that David is also the
author the human author of those Psalms and so David is responsible
really for over half more than half of the book of Psalms and
we often refer to it then as the Psalms of David because so
much of it was written Now, in the Hebrew Bible, those 150 Psalms
are subsequently divided into five books. The first book consisting
of Psalms 1 to 41, the second 42 to 72, the third 73 to 89,
the fourth 90 to 106, and the fifth book, 107 to 150. And a Jewish commentator makes
the observation that as Moses gives us five books of the Law,
so David gives us five books of the Psalms, because the five
books of the Law are the first five books of Scripture, what
we call the Pentateuch. from Genesis through to Deuteronomy. Whereas there are five books
of the Law, so the Jews would say there are five books of the
Psalms. And it's interesting, if we follow
those divisions that I just remarked on, at the end of each of those
five books, each time the end is marked by a doxology and amens. For example, Psalm 41 verse 13
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting
Amen and Amen and then the second section which ends with the closing
verses of the 72nd Psalm Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel
who only doeth wondrous things And blessed be His glorious name
forever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen
and Amen. The prayers of David the son
of Jesse are ended. And then Psalm 89 and verse 52. Blessed be the Lord forevermore.
Amen and Amen. Psalm 106 marks the last psalm in that
fourth book and there in 106 in the words of verse 48 we read
thus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to
everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. And then the amazing thing is
that when we come to the very last book, which runs, remember,
from Psalm 107 to 150, well, the whole of the 150th Psalm
might be said to be a doxology. Remember the words of that Psalm?
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His
mighty axe. Praise Him according to His excellent
greatness. Praise Him with the sound of
the trumpet. Praise Him with the psalter and harp. Praise
Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments
and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that
hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. And some
would even say that the last five Psalms from 146 to that
150th psalm, the 50th psalm. All of those psalms are really
a great doxology of praise. All of them, five of them, concludes
with the word Hallelujah in the Hebrew, which of course is translated
Praise ye the Lord. It's a remarkable book then,
the book of Psalms, when we begin to consider something of its
of its structure, its contents. Now, let me just remark on each
of the five books further. Book 1, which covers Psalms 1
to 41. Now, all of these Psalms, except
Psalm 1, Psalm 2, Psalm 10 and 32, that's four Psalms, all of
the rest are specifically attributed to David, and it is likely that
the other four, although there's no title describing them to David,
but they all, the whole content of that first book, they're all
Psalms of David. Then book two, Psalms 42 to 72,
well, certain of them are said to be specifically for the sons
of Korah, Psalms 44 to 49. Psalm 50 is ascribed to Asaph,
but then others again we're told are Psalms of David, Psalms 51
to 65, and the Psalms 69, 70, and 72 is over a psalm for Solomon or a psalm
of Solomon but there in that second book we have other names
being introduced besides the name David and then when we come
to the third book psalms 83 to 89 well certain psalms there are
all ascribed to Esau Psalm 86 is said to be by David,
88 by Heman, 89 by Ethan. And again, there are other Psalms
in that section that are said to be for the sons of Korah. And then when we come to Book
4, we remember that the first Psalm there, Psalm 90, is of
course the prayer of Moses, the man of God. Moses' psalm, Psalm
90. But again, Psalms 101 and 103
are said to be by David. And then other psalms in that
section, it runs from 90 to 106, others of the psalms are simply
anonymous. And then in the last section,
from 107, Many of them are anonymous but
there are some 14 Psalms at the end in that last section that
are all ascribed to David, specifically 14. You can check those yourselves. You look from the first one is
Psalm 108 and then several others follow, 14 in all are said to
be written by David. Psalm 119 of course is the longest
of all the Psalms and it's in the form of an acrostic poem
it's built around the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and it's
generally reckoned to have been written by David again and then
the Psalms 120 to 134 are the songs of degrees or the songs
of ascents which were sung as the people
would go up to Jerusalem, up to the tabernacle, up to the
temple for the great Jewish festivals three times every year or the
males were to appear before the Lord and they would sing these
songs of ascents. But what of the content of these
various books Well, some say that Book 1, the content is more
personal, Books 2 and 3 are more national, they're speaking of
Israel, and then 4 and 5 are Psalms that are more liturgical. But there are, of course, various
opinions with regards to the content, as you can imagine,
if ever you consult commentators, they'll all have their different
opinions. It could be said that with regards
to those books in the main, book one is principally doctrinal,
book two is mainly experimental, book three is historical, book
four is prophetical, and book five is jubilant. It's praise
and worship and certainly as I've already intimated there
at the end of course we We have those final five Psalms that
are a peon of praise unto God. Well, that's remarks with regards
to the general structure of the Book of Psalms. Secondly, I just wanted to say
something with regards to the titles or the superscriptions
that you find in the front of the Psalms. And You're probably aware that actually
in the Hebrew Bible those titles form the opening verse of the
psalm and that clearly indicates to us that they're not words
that have been added by interpreters or commentators. but the titles
are part of the sacred text, the inspired word of God. And what is the purpose? What's
the purpose of the titles? Well, often the titles declare
quite specifically who the author is. So, as we've already said,
we have many that are clearly written by David, but other names
are mentioned. Asaph, for example, is also mentioned,
and others. But besides declaring the authorship,
the human author of the psalm, I'm sure you're aware that many
of those titles also give certain historical details. They tell
us something about the circumstances, the situation in which the psalms
were read. And there are 13 titles in which
we have that historic detail. and they run from Psalm 3 to
Psalm 63. That's the range but you'd have
to go through the various Psalms but you'll see if I counted correctly
there are 13 Psalms from 3 to 63 which give us in the title
certain details with regards to the circumstances under which
the Psalmist was moved to write such words. And of course those
historical details are very useful to us in understanding how it
was that David came to express himself in such a fashion. It
wasn't that God was simply dictating words to David and David was
writing down words like a sort of amanuensis, somebody was writing
for someone else, no. David is having to express himself
out of the depth of his experiences and the circumstances which God
in his providence had brought him into. So those details, the
historic details are important. But then, there are also other
Psalms where in the title we have liturgical remarks which indicate
how the Psalm was to be used in the service of God in the
worship of God I've already referred to 120 to 134 which are songs
of degrees which were sung as we say as they were going up
to Jerusalem for the solemn worship of the Lord God of Israel and
Psalm 30 for example the title tells us it belongs to that time
at the dedication of the temple. Psalm 92 is said to be a psalm
for the Sabbath, a psalm for the Sabbath day. But then as
there are those liturgical titles, not surprisingly we find a good
number of the Psalms are addressed specifically to the chief musician. There are 55 that are thus titled. These then would be Psalms used
in temple worship and David of course was the one who initially
brings the the Ark up to Jerusalem, and there he pitches the tent
of the congregation, the tabernacle, with the Holy of Holies, where
it had to worship God. We read that passage in 1 Chronicles
chapter 16. And what David did on that occasion,
sacrifices and so forth, and how David then delivers this
great psalm, the verse 7 of that chapter. On that day David delivered
this first psalm to thank the Lord and he delivers it into
the hand of Asaph and his brethren. Asaph and his brethren. Who are
these men? What's the significance of these
men? Well, later on in chapter 25
of 1 Chronicles we're told, Moreover David and
the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of
Asaph, and of Heman, and of Geduthun, who should prophesy with harps,
with psalteries, and with cymbals, and the number of the workmen
according to their service. These are those who were to be
the singers in the worship of God's house, and we have mention
of Asaph, the sons of Asaph, and of him, and names that are
mentioned in the titles of the Psalms. And in the chapter, or
the portion of chapter that we did read, there in the 16th of
1st Chronicles. Remember the words at verse 4,
how David appointed certain of the Levites to minister before
the Ark of the Lord and to record and to thank and to praise the
Lord God of Israel, Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah,
Jehoiachin, and so on. These various men then who are
engaged in leading the service of worship in the tabernacle
of God. And we have those Psalms, don't
we? That are written specifically
for the sons of Korah. And remember also where in some
of the Psalms we have those Psalms. And what is said with regards
to those is that it's probably indicative of a break in the
music, a pause as it were. And as we read, I think it's
good counsel that when we come across the Thelar, we read it,
and we take account, we pause, and we ponder, we consider exactly
what it is that we are reading at that particular point. And then furthermore with regards
to these titles here we see that there are different types of
psalms. Some psalms are called Mismor
which literally means a song. A psalm and song it might say. They were clearly set to music
in the worship of God there in the temple. We see that quite
clearly in the great doxology that makes up the 150th Psalm. We know that the worship of God
there in the Old Testament was more sensual than the worship
of God that we have in the New Testament, because the Old Testament
is full of types and shadows. It's very different to the worship
that is required under the New Covenant, which is a much simpler
form of worship. Of course, that Old Testament
worship was spiritual worship. When we say it's sensual, we
simply mean it had an appeal to the senses. There's something
remarkable about it, spectacular about it. The garments that were
to be worn by the high priest and the other priests, and so
the worship. was quite different to what worship
should be under the New Covenant. And so we have these various
types of psalms. They were often songs that were
set to musical accompaniment, mismos. And then also we read
of mikta, mikta, which literally means a golden psalm. Psalms
56, 57, 58 and it's again suggested that
maybe the setting of those psalms was somewhat more elaborate than
some of the other psalms and then as you I'm sure are well
aware there are psalms that are called maskils and the maskil
literally means a psalm to give instruction a psalm that is very much for
teaching for exhorting and in the New Testament we are to exhort
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in our praises
we don't only address God of course we principally address
God he's the object of our worship but we we engage in corporate
worship we encourage one another and I do In that sense, like
the language that we have in that great hymn of Joseph Hart,
Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you. As there, you see, we encourage
one another. We can come because the Lord
Jesus Christ is that one who receives sinners. and eateth
with them. He comes, does he not, when we
worship to draw near to us and to sup with us and for us to
sup with him. So, the Masculine is a psalm
in which God's people are addressing one another, encouraging one
another as they exhort one another. Well, that's something with regards
to the superscriptions, the titles of the psalms and the general
structure of the book. thought it might be profitable
to outline some of these things. But as I come to a conclusion,
it is clear that the Book of Psalms is very much a book of
praises. That's what the word really means. It's a praise, the psalm. If any is sick, is to pray. that when there is healing and
restoring is to sing a psalm. That's what James says, isn't
it? There are praises, there are
also prayers because these psalms are very much addressed to God.
It's men addressing God with their prayers, addressing God
with their praises and yet, this is the amazing thing, It's God's
word to us. Men speak to God, and by men
speaking to God, by that means, and through their praises and
their prayers, God is coming and addressing us and speaking
to us. But as here in the book of Psalms,
men speak to God, so we recognize that the Psalms are really a
very experimental book. They're dealing with the experiences
of the people of God. And the Psalms therefore, in
a very unique way, speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ
is in all the scriptures. He has said, or he said to the
Jews whilst he was here upon the earth, search the scriptures,
in them you think that you have eternal life, and these are they
that testify of me. And so, We don't do justice to
the book of Psalms if we're not, as we read those Psalms, wanting
to discover something more concerning the wonder of the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to close by quoting that
great Ulster Presbyterian leader of the early 19th century, Henry
Cole. with a lovely statue of him that
still stands I believe in College Square in Belfast. He was the
great champion of orthodoxy in the Presbyterian Church there
in Minas Tir when so many were being drawn into awful heresy,
they were becoming Aryans, they were denying the truth of the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Cook stood so firmly for
the truth of the person and the work of Christ. And this is what
Henry Cook says concerning the book of Psalms. He says, one view of Christ,
discovered only in Psalms, is his inward life. The spirit who searcheth the
deep things of God, as in the Psalms, laid open Christ's inmost
thoughts, sorrows, and conflicts. The Psalms alone lay open the
hearts of the man of sorrows." That's a remarkable thing for
a man to say. that the Psalms, in a sense,
it's another gospel, isn't it? We have four gospels in the New
Testament that tell us much concerning Christ and a great deal about
his outward life, his ministry, and all that he endured, the
contradiction of sinners, all his physical sufferings. But
in the Psalms, Cook says, the Psalms alone lay open the hearts
of the man of sorrows. And of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ is of the seed of David, and David himself, very much
a type of Christ, and the portion that I started with and read
as a text tonight, the last words of David, the sweet Psalmist
of Israel, said the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his
word was in my tongue and how in these last words David speaks
of all that he had to endure and how his great confidence
was in that everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure
that covenant that has been sealed with the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ well What I said tonight I suppose is rather unusual,
we don't normally try to sketch out something of a whole book
of scripture, but I thought there might be some profit just to
try to say a few words concerning the significance of that great
book of the Psalms, the Psalms of David. Father Lord bless what's
been said, to our good, to his glory. Amen.