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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2024: Psalms

01 How to Read the Psalms

02 Teach us to Pray

03 The Lord Reigns

04 The Lord Hears and Delivers

05 Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land

06 I Will Arise

07 Your Mercy Reaches Unto the Heavens

08 Wisdom for Righteous Living

09 Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

10 Lessons of the Past

11 Longing for God in Zion

12 Worship That Never Ends

13 Wait on the Lord


Don't you love the images in the book of Psalms? In our lesson number 4, titled, The Lord Hears and Delivers, we have some very beautiful images of God. He's our defender, He's our refuge, He's our fortress, He is our strong tower. And here in this lesson, we're going to focus on the fact that the God who is sovereign, who sits on the throne of the universe, cares for each 1 of us. In the first paragraph under Sunday's lesson, I read again and again, the Psalms highlight the truth that the sovereign Lord, who created and sustains the universe, also reveals himself as a personal God who initiates and sustains a relationship with his people.

Now this is vastly different than the idea of the pagan gods that surrounded the Hebrew nation. The gods of the Amorites, the Amalekites, the Jebusites, these gods were gods that demanded sacrifice, that demanded obedience unswervingly, But these gods were separate and distinct from any daily relationship with the people of Israel. The God of Israel, the God of the Psalms, is a God that wants personal relationship with his people. He's a God that's interested in their joys, their sorrows. He's interested in that which is happening in their life, in the circumstances of their life.

So when you read about the God of the Psalms, he's the God of relationship. I like the way that our lesson puts it in the second paragraph, introduction. The Psalms unswervingly uphold the truth that the Lord is the living God who acts on behalf of those who call upon him." So God is for us. God is acting in our behalf. God longs to intervene in our lives.

He longs to have a positive relationship with us. When we come to Sunday's lesson, it focuses on the 139th Psalm, My Frame Was Not Hidden From You. This is quite an amazing psalm. It's 1 of those psalms in the Bible that you read it and you take a deep breath And you say, this is absolutely amazing. You know, there are some, every Psalm has meaning and purpose, but this Psalm 139 is really an incredible Psalm.

We're going to start with Psalm 139, And I'm going to look at verse 6. David says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain it. In other words, what's in this psalm, David is saying, is so incredible.

It's far beyond anything that I can imagine. David then says, verse 7, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, that's Sheol, the grave.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you're there. So he's saying, God, wherever I go, you're there. Your presence is there. But he goes on. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

I shall say, surely the darkness shall fall on me. Even the night shall be light unto me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide me from you, but the night shines as day, the darkness and light are both alike to you. In other words, God, when I'm in the darkest moments of my life, you are there. When I'm on the mountain peaks, you're there.

When I'm in the valley, you're there. God, I rejoice in your presence. Then he says, verse 14, I praise you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance being unformed." In other words, even when I was in the womb, God, you knew me. You saw the genes and chromosomes that came together and orchestrated them. God, you know my name. You know my background. You know where I was born.

You know the house I was brought up in. You know the town that I lived in. You know everything about me, Lord, and you care for me that much. I'll praise you, God. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Then verse 17 and 18 are, I think, 2 of the most significant verses in all the Bible. Psalm 139, verse 17 and 18. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

When I awake, I'm still with you. God, how precious are your thoughts toward me. There are so many of them. You think about me so much that I can't even count the times you think about me all day. That's amazing, that the God of the universe, the God that created sun, moon, and stars, the God that spoke and Earth came into existence, that this God thinks about us, That we're not some speck of cosmic dust left on planet Earth.

But this God speaks, thinks about us. This God has us on his mind. You're on God's mind. You are in God's heart. You are in God's thoughts.

This is an amazing divine truth of the book of Psalms. Here in our lesson under Sunday, it says, God's presence is highlighted by depicting God as reaching as far as Sheol, the grave, and darkness, places not typically depicted as where God dwells. His presence also is depicted as taking the wings of the morning in the east to reach the uttermost parts of the earth, of the sea in the west. What these images convey is the truth, that there's no place in the universe where we can be out of God's reach. Though God is not part of the universe, as some believe, he is close to it all, having not only created it, but sustains it as well.

This realization of God's greatness, God's goodness, God's care is life transformational. It gives us a confidence and a security that we're not alone. Monday's lesson highlights this in the assurance of God's care. Psalm 40, verse 1 to 3, David says, God hears our cry. Psalm 50, verse 15, call on me and I'll deliver you, God says.

And then Psalm 55 verse 22, if you're carrying some heavy burden today, if there's something that's crushing out your joy, if there's something that is destroying your happiness, listen to this. Psalm 55, verse 22, cast your burden on the Lord and he shall sustain you. He'll never permit the righteous to be moved. Cast your burden upon the Lord. You see the word cast?

It means throw the full weight of your anxiety. Give it all to God. Are you carrying some burden today? Give it to God. Some heartache that's troubling you?

Give it to God. Some problem that's perplexing you, give it to God. Some decision you have to make that's confusing, give it to God. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. And I love the way it's put as well in Psalm 121.

Psalm 121. The Psalms reveal that this God of the universe is our personal God. And that's the theme of our lesson this week. A hundred and 20 first Psalm puts it this way. It says in Psalm 121, verse 4 and 5.

Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. We may not think about that passage as significant as it is, the Lord is your shade. But if you are traveling in the Middle East, like I've done many times, and you're traveling in the desert, and the sun is beating down upon you and you're sweating and you wonder if you can take another step because you're so exhausted.

To find shade is to find refuge, is to find relief. It's to find an oasis in the desert. Notice here in these 4 Psalms, Psalm 40, Psalm 50, Psalm 55, Psalm 121. God hears our cry. God promises to deliver us.

He invites us to cast our burden upon him. And he says that he is our keeper. When you go through Psalm 121, you find 5 things about God. First, says he won't allow your foot to be removed. In other words, he is gonna enable you to be secure, stable.

Secondly, He said he is your keeper. That is, he is on constant alert and readiness to care for us. Third, he's our shade. That reminds us, remember the pillar of cloud that covered Israel in the desert wanderings, giving them refuge and security. He does that.

4, he's at our right hand. Now the right hand typically designates the strong hand. I happen to be left-handed, but typically the right hand is the strong hand. What he's saying is, I will be by your side. I will never leave you, forsake you.

And fifth, he says in Psalm 121, verse 6 to 8, that he's going to preserve us. Neither is the sun or the moon is going to strike us. He's going to preserve us when we go out, when we come in. This is the God that cares for us. This is the God that is interested in us.

Tuesday's lesson, the Lord is a refuge in adversity. It gives us 3 Psalms, Psalm 17, 7 to 9, Psalm 31, verse 1 to 3, and Psalm 91. Here in Psalm 17, it says, hide me under the shadow of your wings. Again, there's this picture of a hen with the little chicks protected under its wings. Then Psalm 31 talks about God as our rock, our refuge, our fortress, our defense.

He's our strength and our redeemer. But look at Psalm 91. We don't wanna miss this 1. Psalm 91, I believe, is written especially for people who will go through the greatest time of trouble in the history of the world. And it says, you dwells in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." In other words, when the sun is going to scorch in the plagues, Christ is our shadow.

I will say of the Lord, He's my refuge, my fortress, in Him I'll trust. He'll cover you with His feathers, under His wings you'll take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler You won't be afraid of the terror by night or the error that flies by day or the pestilence that walks in noonday in darkness to the destruction at least at noonday A thousand may fall at your side, 10, 000 at your right hand, but it shall not come nigh you. Only with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked. See, this is plague language.

A thousand gonna fall at your side, 10000 at your right hand when the plagues come. But God is your protector. God is the 1 who's your defender. God is gonna be there with you. And it says, because you've made the Lord who's my refuge, the most high, your habitation, no evil shall fall you.

Now get this, no plague shall come near your dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. We can have the assurance that today God is our refuge, today God is our protector, today God is our defender, today God is our defense. But we can have the greater assurance that in the coming time of trouble, we need not shake in fear, but we can have the assurance that the God that has been with us all of our life, who has never left us or forsaken us, who has been our refuge and our strong tower, that this God will be with us. Wednesday's lesson, he's our defender and deliverer. Now we digress from the Psalms just for a moment to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

And at first when 1 Corinthians 10 was introduced, I wondered why, but as I began to study it, I could see clearly why. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 uses Old Testament language, some of which comes from the Psalms, about God's greatness and his goodness and his leading of Israel. And Paul compares that with the way God leads us today. So let's take a look at it. The first Corinthians chapter 10, moreover brethren, I don't want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud all passed through the sea.

So he's saying, look, I want you to go back and I want to give you a little lesson in Old Testament history. God guided the Jewish nation. God guided the prophets. And as God guided them, he protected them from the relentless burning of the sun by putting a cloud of shade over them. He also led them through the sea.

You remember the story that miraculously the Red Sea opened, Israel went through, the Egyptians were drowned in the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. In other words, they were baptized, what does it mean, into Moses? It means that they were immersed, baptism is immersion, immersed in following their leader Moses, who represented to them at that point the leadership of God. So as the cloud moved, they moved with Moses.

As Moses put his foot in the sea, they put their feet in the sea and it miraculously opened. They all drank the same spiritual food. Remember the manna that fell down from heaven they ate. They all drank the same spiritual rock. Remember the water gushed out of the rock.

And that rock that followed them, of course, represented Christ. So what do we see here? We see a God who protects his people Israel under the cloud. We see that same image in the Psalms. We see a God who shadows his people and protects them from the relentless sun.

We see that in the Psalms. We see God leading them through the sea as their defender or protector. We see that in the Psalms, God defender and protector. We see a God who feeds his people with manna. We see a God who says, I've not seen the righteous forsaking nor his seed begging bread in the Psalms.

We also find a God who brings water out of the rock. We find that God leads his people, remember Psalm 23, by still waters. So what you're seeing here is Paul rehearsing the history of Israel, but many of the expressions that are used here are in the Psalms to remind us that God indeed is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. And he's the deliverer God.

I like the paragraph that's written here. It says, what poetic description of God's marvelous deliverance of his children from the bondage of Egypt is given in Psalm 114. So we're going to go over to Psalm 114 because you can compare 1 Corinthians 10 and Psalm 114. So we go into Psalm 114 And notice, when Israel went out of Egypt, we read that in 1 Corinthians 10, didn't we? The house of Jacob from a people of strange language, they came out from the Egyptians.

Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea sought and fled. Jordan turned back. Mountains skipped like rams. The little hills like little lambs.

What ails you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back. O mountains that you skipped. Terrible, O earth, at the presence of the Lord. At the presence of the Lord, who turned the rock into a pool of water, flint into the fountain of waters." So here, David uses poetic language to describe the majesty, the might, the power, the sovereignty, but most of all, the deliverance of God.

What he's saying in poetic language is, even at the voice of God, mountains tremble. Even at the presence of God, the Red Sea opens. God indeed was the defender and refuge of his people. He is the mighty deliverer. Third paragraph under Wednesday's lesson.

In fact, for many of God's children in all times and all places, the way to heavenly Jerusalem is fought with danger. The Psalms encourage them to look beyond the hills toward the creator of the heaven and the earth. Thursday's lesson is an amazing climax to this week because it leads us to the sanctuary, the dwelling place of God. Has different names for it. For example, Psalm 3, verse 4 calls the sanctuary God's holy hill.

Psalm 14, 7 calls it Zion. Psalm 20, verse 1 to 3 equates Zion with the sanctuary. Psalm 27, verse 5 talks about God's pavilion or his sanctuary. Psalm 36 verse 8 talks about God's house. Psalm 61 verse 4 talks about God's tabernacle.

And Psalm 68 verse 5 and 35 talks about his holy places or his tabernacle. So all these Psalms, what are they doing? They're pointing us away from earth to heaven. They're pointing us away from what is to the 1 who is. They're pointing us away from the conflict and trials and disappointments of Earth to the joy and the glory of heaven.

Second paragraph, Thursday's lesson. The refuge in the sanctuary surpasses the security provided by any other place in the world, because God personally dwells in the sanctuary. The presence of God, not merely the temple as a firm building, provides safety. Likewise, being the mountain where the Lord dwells, Mount Zion, surpasses other mountains, though in itself it is a modest hill." The sanctuary, the place where God dwells, has an open door. And you Remember in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

Let us therefore, let us what? Therefore come boldly or confidently to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can come to the sanctuary, come with all of our weakness, come with all of our sin, come with all of our frailty, come with all of our ignorance. Let us come to the sanctuary. The psalmists point us to the sanctuary, to the pavilion, to the tabernacle of God, to come into the very presence of God and find their strength and help, find their refuge, find their almighty defender.

I love the way Owen White puts it in the book, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 493. God will do great things for those who trust him. God will do what? Great things for those who trust him. The reason why his professed people have no greater strength, as they trust so much in their own wisdom.

Do not give the Lord an opportunity to reveal his power on their behalf. He will help his believing children in every emergency if they will place their entire confidence in him and faithfully obey him. We can come. Come to the throne of grace. Come to the sanctuary.

Come to the holy hill. Come to the dwelling place of God. And thereby faith enter into the Shekinah glory of God's presence. And find strength and help and refuge this week. Pause for a moment.

Pause from the anxieties of life, pause from the challenges of life. Pause from the rush and hurry of life, pause from the tension of life, pause from all your anxiety. And enter into the presence of God. Come before him. With an open heart.

Let your mind, by faith, grasp the reality. That Christ is on the throne, that he is sovereign, that he's your defender and your refuge. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, thank you that you are our defender, you are our refuge, you will never leave us and you'll never forsake us. Draw us close to you each moment.

Give us a sense of your divine presence. And help us know that in the sanctuary, in the presence of God, there is help for every trial, encouragement on life's journey, and that we can trust you implicitly. In Jesus' name, Amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org

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Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2024: Psalms

04 The Lord Hears and Delivers

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 How to Read the Psalms

21m

02 Teach us to Pray

23m

03 The Lord Reigns

24m

04 The Lord Hears and Delivers

24m

05 Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land

22m

06 I Will Arise

20m

07 Your Mercy Reaches Unto the Heavens

19m

08 Wisdom for Righteous Living

25m

09 Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

31m

10 Lessons of the Past

25m

11 Longing for God in Zion

22m

12 Worship That Never Ends

33m

13 Wait on the Lord

25m

Sound Doctrine