Psalms Study

Connect Group Series

WEEK 1 - Psalm 1

Finding the Blessed Life

If you walk through any bookstore and do a basic computer search, or if you listen to the radio or a podcast, you will find that we are all searching for keys to how we can live our best life possible. Answers abound ranging from the right job, diet, vacation, partner, hobbies, etc. Psalm begins with the staggering claim that such a life awaits the blessed man. Keep reading if you have always wondered what makes a man blessed.

Read Psalm 1

Verse 1: The Blessed Man Rejects
The description of a blessed man starts with the negative. Though it might seem odd, it makes sense when you think about it. If you want to find the right path, the first step is getting off the wrong one.

Psalm 1:1 starts by telling us three things that the blessed man does not do.
1. Walk in the counsel of the wicked
2. Stand in the path of sinners
3. Sit in the seat of scoffers

The list above describes ways people depart from God. Psalm 1:1 tells us pursuing blessedness starts with rejecting all three.

Rejecting Bad Ideas: “Counsel of the wicked” – who you listen to. Who do you consider as experts, mentors, and role models?
Rejecting Bad Actions: “Path of sinners” –The voices you listen to will ultimately become the people you follow.
Rejecting Bad Company: “Seat of scoffers” –Who you listen to becomes who you follow, who you follow becomes who you identify with, and who you identify with becomes who you are.

Verse 2: The Blessed Man Delights
The easiest way to avoid bad company is to focus on the source of blessedness. The blessed man delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.

Verse 3: The Blessed Man Described
The lives of those who learn to delight in and meditate on the word of God are compared to a tree planted by a river. This Psalm promises we will notice three results:

Fruitful: “Brings forth its fruit in season” – The word of God will make our lives fruitful. Our focus is on drinking in the Word and trusting that God will produce the fruit in us that He desires when the time is right.
Fulfilled: “Leaf does not wither” – A withered leaf is a sign of disease, malnutrition or lack. A life filled with the word of God will not know such lack. We’re not exempt from hardship or difficulty – but in the midst of hardship he will provide.
Effective: “In whatever he does, he prospers” – When we become the people God intended for us to be, we will know what true prosperity looks like, to prosper means not getting all the success, money, and status you desire but achieving all that God has laid out for you to do.

Verse 4-6: The Blessed Man Contrasted
In contrast to the blessed man who is rooted and prosperous, the wicked man is disconnected.

Rootless: “Like chaff” – Having no roots & blown by the wind.
Defenseless: “Will not stand in the judgment” – When he is called to account for his life choices, no leg to stand on.
People-less: “Nor in the assembly of the righteous” He does not have a community to support him.
Lifeless: “The way of the wicked will perish” ¬– Ultimately, the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Concluding Thoughts:
True joy and fulfillment are found in God and in becoming who He created us to be. We read the Bible not to learn Bible facts or religious trivia, but to see how God has revealed himself first to Israel (Old Testament) and through Jesus (New Testament). Remember that you are reading the Bible to know God more. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you as you read. Expect to be encouraged, challenged, equipped, and nourished.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What is the link between thinking, doing, and belonging (v.1)? How do they build on each other? How can this work for good and evil?

2. What does it mean to delight in the law of the lord and to meditate it day and night? How can we tell what consumes our thoughts? How can we learn to get our minds chewing on God’s word?

3. What do the three promises of fruitfulness, fulfillment, and effectiveness mean? How are they sometimes misunderstood?

4. What does it mean that the wicked are disconnected? Who are they cut off from?

WEEK 2 - Psalm 8

What is Man?

In September 1977, Nasa launched Voyager 1 to study the outer solar system. On February 14, 1990, after completing its primary mission and preparing to leave the solar system, NASA engineers turned its camera around and took a final picture of earth from a distance of almost 4 billion miles before it left the solar system for good. The picture is called “A Pale Blue dot” because that is all the earth looks like from that distance. In 1994 the astronomer Carl Sagan described the lesson he took from the picture, concluding: “The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.”

It is true, we are not as big or important as we think we are. But that does not mean our lives are meaningless. We ought to ask ourselves how we can possibly matter in a universe so vast. Psalm 8 addresses this question head on. It humbles us by making us consider our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. It then shows us that our significance is not found in who we are on our own, but who we are because of what God has done.

Read Psalm 8

Verse 1-2: Who God Is

The Psalmist does not just see the earth’s grandeur, he sees it for what it is - a revelation of the grandeur of God. A better translation could read something like:

“Your splendor above the heavens is praised by infants and babes. You have established power because of your foes to make the enemy and the vengeful cease.”

The point is that the power and majesty of God is so obvious in the universe, even a baby could see it.

Verse 3-4: Who Man Is

The Psalmist then moves from considering God to considering himself.

When man sees how big and powerful the world is, he realizes how big God is, and…
How small man is - against such grandeur, man shrinks to insignificance.
With such a vast universe it is impossible to think that anything we do matters at all.

The Psalmist summarizes in two verses the exact sentiments of Carl Sagan. Fortunately, he doesn’t stop where Sagan did.

Verse 5-8: Who Man is Because of God

Thankfully the Psalm doesn’t end in verse 4. Verse 5 begins with words of contrast “yet you.” Man, by himself, is an insignificant animal on an insignificant planet orbiting an insignificant star… Nobody knows we are here. Nobody cares - “yet you.” Our significance is found not in who we are by ourselves, but in who God has made us to be.

Verses 5-8 contain four sentences with God as the subject. They show us what God did for us. They show us the significance God bestows on us.

God Gives Us Value: “You made him a little lower than God” – God created us in His image and because of this a human life has value. He made us just a little lower than him. Other animals look down at the earth and their food and feel content; we look up to the heavens and see God. The reason is because He made us to be close to him.

God Gives Us Honor: “You crowned him with glory and majesty” – We look at the universe and see the glory and majesty of God. The Psalmist says that God has crowned us with the same majesty. Not that man is perfect or even good most of the time, but he is startlingly different and amazing.

God Gives Us Work: “You make him to rule over the works of your hand” – God made us in his image, He made us amazing, He also made us useful. This is a part of the image of God and the glory of God on us. He invites us to collaborate with Him.

God Gives Us Responsibility: “You have put all things under his feet” – God did not just give us work, He gave us responsibility. We are in charge - we have power to do great good or great evil. We have to learn to exercise our authority as an act of stewardship.

Concluding Thoughts:

See Yourself as God Does: You are neither the center of everything nor the pointless afterthought of a blind universe. You have glory, honor, significance, and a role to play in the world but you are not the source of any of it.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the size of the universe? When? What were you doing? How did it make you feel? 2. Why do you think we tend to act more important than we are?
Have you ever felt insignificant in the overall scheme of things? When? Why? What helped you in those moments?
What does it mean that our value comes from God? 5. How can we learn to live in gratitude instead of arrogance? In the knowledge that God sees us instead of feeling abandoned and alone?

WEEK 3 - Psalm 19

Declaring the Glory of God

This Psalm starts out by describing the glory of God in nature. The second half of the Psalm describes in detail the importance of the law of God. It seems like such an odd transition that some people do not see the connection, maybe even wondering if it is two different poems. But they are not. This Psalm is not about nature or the law. It is about God and how He speaks to us. The reason these two things move us so much is that they are ways that God reveals himself to us. Through nature and the law, we hear God calling us. And we have a choice to make in how we respond.

Read Psalm 19

Verse 1- 6: God Revealed in Nature

All creation testifies to us that there is a God. It is a silent testimony to the greatness of God in creation, and the wisdom of God in putting everything where it belongs, and the love of God in assigning to each a task in which He can take joy.

A Silent Witness – Day and Night “pour forth speech” yet “there is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard.” The testimony of the heavens is speech without speaking. It is not like a person shouting to get our attention.
Everything Where It Belongs – The focus of the next section is on the sun. It has a job to do: “Nothing is hidden from its heat.” And also, it takes joy in doing what it was made to do: “it rejoices like a strong man to run his course.” This also reveals God to us. He creates everything for a purpose and puts each part of His creation where it can do the good it was made to do and where it can take joy in being who it was made to be.

Verse 7-13: God Revealed in his Word

The one thing that seems unable to find its place and take joy in it is man. We need the law of God to heal our brokenness and correct our rebellion. The author proceeds in the next few verses to discuss the transformational potential in studying the Law.

Verse 7 - 8 : The Law Restores - Restoring the Soul/Rejoicing the Heart – The law of God is not an arbitrary or external set of rules intended to ruin our lives. The goal of the law is restoration: restoring us to the purpose, fulfillment, and joy we were always made for.

Verse 7 - 8: The Law Illuminates - Making Wise the Simple/Enlightening the Eyes – Because of our sin, we are blind to the truth. The purpose of the law is to wake us up to the true nature of things.
Verse 11-13: The Law Protects - Through the law, God is able to protect us. When we go off course, it warns us (v11). It keeps us on the right path by rewarding us (v11). It shows us those areas of our lives where we keep messing up but do not see it (v12). It frees us from the domination and slavery to sin.

Verse 14: God Revealed in Me

If that’s where the Psalm ended, it would be enough. But there is one final verse. In this verse, the Psalmist asks for his own voice to be added to those things that declare the glory of God. The heavens declare, the law declares, now may my words and my thoughts also declare the glory of God. He knows that there is no stability or security in life apart from God.

Concluding Thoughts:

The consistent message of the Psalms is that those who truly desire to find the God revealed in nature will discover the full revelation of what they are seeking in the pages of scripture. But even the pages of scripture themselves are not the endpoint. Studying scripture shows us who God is, what He has done, and what He desires us to do. If the truth of God only stays in the pages of scripture or between our ears but never makes it into our hands and feet, we fulfill the words of Paul in Romans 1:22, “claiming to be wise, they became fools.” We are invited to seek and serve God, to conform our lives to his word, to please Him in all respects, and to trust that in doing so we will have our souls restored and we, like the sun, will find our place in His creation: a place of service and of joy.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

What does it mean to hear the heavens declaring the glory of God? Have you ever heard it? When? Where? What did it show you?
What is the connection between nature and the law? How can we seek God in both?
How does the law restore and illuminate our lives?
How can we make our lives pleasing to God? 5. What does it mean to call God our rock and our redeemer?

WEEK 4 - Psalm 23

The Good Shepherd

The best event at the rodeo has got to be Mutton Bustin’. Who doesn’t love little kids riding sheep like they are bucking broncos? What is interesting is how to get the sheep to run like crazy. As if a small child clinging to their backs was not enough. Bulls buck because of a leather strap wrapped around their waste. Broncos buck because the cowboy is spurring them in the shoulders. But a sheep runs to go be with another sheep. Normally a cowboy stands at the center of the ring holding a sheep. When the gate opens, the sheep with the kid on its back sees the other sheep and runs to stand near it. Sheep are odd animals, they are weak and fragile, they are needy and nervous, and they are problematic and difficult - that is exactly how the Bible describes us. The good news is that God knows what we need and desires to be that for us. As we look closer at Psalm 23, look for the way it describes attributes of God we can rely on when we are feeling our most sheepish.

Read Psalm 23

Verse 1-3a: The Good Shepherd Provides

Because God is a good shepherd, He will make sure we have what we need.

We will not lack nourishment (green pastures), rest (He leads me beside quiet waters), or restoration (He restores my soul).
He does this because He knows our nature and knows our needs.
Jesus said something similar to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:31-33:

So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

We can be free from anxiety because we have a good shepherd who knows our needs and knows how to take care of us.

Verse 3b: The Good Shepherd Leads

The Good shepherd does not just feed the sheep, He leads them where they need to go.

He goes before us (He guides me) and He goes with us (for you are with me).

Scripture tells us that Jesus can help us because he went through everything we must go through.

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

Verse 4: The Good Shepherd Protects

Sheep are easy targets for predators and it’s important that the shepherd protect his sheep.

Two instruments of protection: “Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.”
The rod was used to ward off attackers.
The staff was a typical shepherd crook used to round up sheep, and discipline unruly ones.
God promises to protect us from outside attacks and from ourselves.

Hebrews 12:7, 11

Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Verse 5-6: The Good Shepherd Blesses

The final series of images in this Psalm drop the shepherd metaphor but continue the theme of a God who acts like a shepherd.

Verse 5a - He blesses us with victory: (He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies) This is a victory celebration. Paul says in Romans 8:37 that in Christ we are “more than conquerors.”

Verse 5b - He blesses us with honor: (You have anointed my head with oil) Anointing with oil was a symbol of respect. Just as we saw in Psalm 8 how God bestows glory on us, here too we see God bestowing honor on us.

We may act like sheep, but we are not “just” sheep to him.
God is not constantly rubbing our noses in our inadequacies or failures.
He treats us like the father treats the prodigal son in the parable in Luke 15

We are not our weakness or our failure. We are who God says we are. And he crowns us with honor and anoints our heads with oil.

Verse 6 - He blesses us with devotion: (goodness and mercy will follow) Both words refer to the loyalty and devotion God has for His children. Even when they forsake He does not forsake them. God’s devotion will follow us all the days of our lives. He will never give up pursuing us. The Psalm concludes with the promise that God will never abandon us.

Concluding Thoughts:

Knowing Leads to Trusting: None of us follow perfectly. As Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all went astray like sheep, we all have turned to our own way.” We do this because we think we know what will make us happy. And once we wander off course and get lost, we think that we will be in trouble so we stay gone longer than we want. But the more we know about the character of the Good Shepherd, the more we will trust Him. Trust that His ways are best. Trust that He loves us. Trust that even when we wander, He wants us to come home.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

In what ways is calling people sheep a fitting analogy?
Which attribute of the Good Shepherd is most important to you right now? Why?
Which attribute is hardest for you to believe or accept? Why?
How might God protect us from ourselves? How is this a comfort?
What are your thoughts on God’s devotion to us? Can you think of other examples of God’s faithfulness and devotion?

WEEK 5 - Psalm 32

Seek Forgiveness, Find Life

At the center of Christianity is the promise of forgiveness. Though the idea is central to the Christian message, many people have bad ideas about what forgiveness actually means. Some believe forgiveness is just God overlooking our sins, or God paying off a debt that we cannot pay. Some even view it as God’s boot camp, like He forgives the debt and then drills the error out of you.

The first view misunderstands the nature of sin, thinking it doesn’t need to be removed. The second view misunderstands the scope of forgiveness by failing to realize that forgiveness means the removal not just of the stain of sin but also of the power of sin in our lives. The third view misunderstands the character of God. God is love, even when (perhaps especially when) he is pulling us out of sin. If we believe any of these bad definitions of forgiveness, it could result in us hiding: Trying to hide our sin from others and from God, hiding because we think we can handle it, or hiding because it’s no big deal. We hide it because we are worried that God will do worse to us when he finds out.

The Bible talks about forgiveness in a couple of dimensions:

Justification: The removal of the PENALTY of sin
Sanctification: The removal of the POWER of sin
Glorification: The removal of the PRESENCE of sin

What would it look like to recover the Biblical view of forgiveness? Psalm 32 is a celebration of God who loves us enough to rescue us from the destructive power of sin and who longs for us to run towards Him not away from Him when we stumble and fall.

Read Psalm 32

Verses 1 -2: The Joy of Forgiveness

We sometimes think a person is blessed if he is rich, successful, or healthy. This Psalm says blessedness comes from experiencing forgiveness. Why?

Look at the words used for evil in these verses:

Transgression (v1) – rebellion against God
Sin (v1) – turning aside from the right path
Iniquity (v2) – a distortion or deviation from the will of God.

Now look at the words that describe what God does to those things:

Forgiven (v1) – comes from a Hebrew word which means “carried” like a burden being carried for you or “lifted” like a burden lifted off your shoulders.
Covered (v1) – hidden
Counts no iniquity (v2) – not to count or to add to a ledger
As Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way.” Sin is a burden, a stain, and a debt. Everyone of us is burdened by sin, stained by sin, and enslaved to sin. That is why forgiveness is a source of joy. Forgiveness lifts the burden for us, covers the stain, and cancels our debt. He does this out of his deep love for us. I John 4:9 says “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
So the first verse of this Psalm could be rewritten: “How blessed is he who experiences the Love of God!”

Verses 3 - 4: The Danger of Hidden Sin
The psalmist knows firsthand the freedom of forgiveness because he has felt the oppression of trying to conceal his sin. This next section refers to a time when he refused to acknowledge his sin before God. The result was that his sin ate him up.
Sometimes we fail to fully realize why God hates sin. He hates sin because He loves us. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” When we engage in sin, we receive death. Death is the internal and consistent consequence of sin. That is why God hates it and wants to separate us from it. Refusing to acknowledge our sin is also a refusal to acknowledge what sin is. It hardens us, makes it harder for us to yield to God, and ultimately, we begin to experience the death God desires to free us from.

Verses 5 - 7: The Freedom of Confession
We hide because we think we are in trouble. We run from the One who is eager and able to deliver us from the destruction that we have created and perpetuated. We run because we like our sin. But we also run from God because we are worried about what He might do to us in His anger.

The psalmist finally stops running. What he finds is forgiveness and a God who wants him to be free from the burden of sin. He realizes that God is a hiding place, a safe place to run in times of trouble. God preserves us. God delivers us...even from ourselves...especially from ourselves.

Verses 8 - 11: The Promise of Guidance
Sometimes we treat forgiveness as if it is the sum total of the Gospel Message. We treat it like the end of Christianity. But forgiveness is the beginning! Sure, it is the end of the old life of rebellion. But it is the beginning of a new life finding joy in following God. God doesn’t just save you FROM sin. He saves you FOR something else. He has a place for you in His kingdom, a place where you will find all the joy, purpose and fulfillment you were trying to find on your own. Verse 8: “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go.” God will guide you towards the path that He always had for you.

God does more for us than point us in the right direction. He goes with us and guides us as we go. He promises to lead us. Sometimes he leads us like a father leads a son: “I will instruct you...teach you... counsel you...with my eye upon you.” Other times he must lead us like a farmer leads a mule: “whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check.”

The life of following God will be one of frequent stumbles and falls. It is good to know that He never leaves us or forsakes us. Even when we are being stubborn and difficult like mules, He still leads us. That is what v10 means: “the lovingkindness of the Lord shall surround him.” God will remain faithful and devoted to us, leading us towards righteousness, even when we are being rebellious little mules.

Concluding Thoughts:
Why do people run from the law in TV shows, movies, and in real life? Normally it’s because the only other choice is to turn yourself in and go to prison. In our spiritual life, we act the same way. We run from God fearing what He will do to us. This psalm teaches us that we should run to God not from Him. What we fear God will do to us, sin is already doing to us. God wants to save us from sin’s destruction and point us towards the gladness and joy that He made us for and that are found in following Him. In short: seek forgiveness, find life.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

What are some bad or incomplete views we have of forgiveness?
Why do we run from God or attempt to hide our sin from Him?
Have you ever experienced the joy of forgiveness?
What does it mean that forgiveness is the beginning not the end of following God? 5. How does God lead us? How can we tell when He is leading us?

WEEK 6 - Psalm 40

What Are You Waiting For?

“What are you waiting for?” This phrase is normally used as a motivational phrase to get us off our backsides and get to work. But sometimes we don’t know what to do, or maybe there is nothing to be done. We are just stuck. It could be anything from a health crisis, to a family emergency, to a vocational dead-end, or a financial obstacle. Such moments can leave us confused, alone, anxious, and desperate. We live in a go-get-em, do it yourself culture that promises us everything instantaneously. We find waiting for anything difficult. We find waiting for God especially difficult. But God has a right time for things, and His timing is perfect. Psalm 40 isn’t a lecture about why we should wait on God. It is a psalm of praise to God thanking Him for deliverance. It shows us what the psalmist did and what God did for him.

Read Psalm 40

Verses 1 - 3: Realize What Waiting Looks Like
The psalm starts out by recounting how God has already acted in the life of the writer. The psalmist shows us both what he himself did, and what God did for Him.

What Man does

Cry Out (v.1) – Though the first words of the psalm are “I waited,” it is not the first thing that he did. Before he waited, he cried out to God. Before we wait on God, we must tell God what is in our hearts.
Wait Patiently (v.1)– There is the word… “wait.” None of us like it. What to do while waiting brings to mind ideas of “being bored,” “killing time,” or “distracting ourselves.” Waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing. God coordinates everything, works all things towards their proper fulfillment and knows the right time for everything to happen.

What God does

He hears (v.1) – We can trust that when we pour out our hearts to God, God hears us. He takes special notice of each of us and is acquainted with the details of our lives.
He rescues (v.2a) – He promises that sin won’t have the last word in our lives. He will lift us up out of the pit.
He establishes (v.2) – More than just remove us from the bad situation, he promises to place our feet on secure footing. God does more than save us FROM evil. He saves us FOR the good that He has for us.
He restores (v.3) –Not only does God promise to rescue us from evil but He also promises to restore us. The phrase the psalmist uses is: “He put a new song in my heart.” God changes the tune we are singing - our sorrow, frustration, bitterness, anxiety, and sadness will be turned to praise.

Verses 5 - 12: Realize who God is
In opposition to the proud or pursuing a lie (v.4), this psalm shows us a picture of who God is and why He is worthy of trust.

A God Who Does Great Things (v.5) - We will renew our confidence to wait on God as we remember the “wondrous deeds” God has done for us. “I will proclaim” is what praise is and why we are encouraged to start our prayers with it.
A God Who Delights in Relationship (vs.6-8) – The psalmist says “Sacrifice…you have not desired; My ears you have opened.” God doesn’t want us to go through the motions of religious ceremonies. He is a personal and relational God who wants to “open our ears” to hear His word and be in relationship with Him.
A God Who Calls Us to Witness (vs.9-10) – When God does great things for us, he calls us to proclaim it. If remembering is telling yourself, witnessing is telling others. This is what “giving God glory” means. It is showing other people what happens when you trust God with your life. It is giving other people evidence that God does what He promises and is worth waiting on.
A God Who Never Wearies (vs.11-12) – The psalmist reveals that he is in trouble again and needs help. Why? “my iniquities have overtaken me.” He draws near with confidence…he is confessing his sin and relying on a God who never tires of showing us compassion and mercy. He never tires in delivering us from our sin.

Verses 12 - 17: Realize who you are
The psalmist concludes with a picture of who he is. Unless we see ourselves correctly, we will have a hard time seeing others or God correctly either. Probably one of the most important statements in the Bible of the nature of man is contained in v17: “As for me, I am poor and needy.” Life is hard and we often don’t have what it takes to deal with it. The good news is that we are invited into relationship with a God who does have what it takes and loves us very much. True fulfillment begins when we have come to the end of our rope and acknowledge our inadequacies and realize that we need to wait on God - So we head back to verse 1 and start all over again.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Why is it hard to wait on God? What are some bad ways we deal with not wanting to wait on God?
Do you have an experience of waiting on God and seeing his perfect timing revealed?
How can reminding ourselves of the good things God has done fill us with confidence to trust Him?
What does “giving God glory” mean? Why is it important? Who is it for?
What does it mean that God never wearies in showing us mercy?

WEEK 7 - Psalm 51

Create in Me a Clean Heart

In the Early 1900’s, the London Times asked educated people from around England to write essays on the subject of “What’s Wrong with the World?” One person they contacted was Christian writer and thinker G.K. Chesterton, an author known for his deep thinking and sharp wit. In response to the Times request, instead of an extensive dissertation on the evils of the world and what he suggested they do about it, Chesterton simply responded:
Dear Sir,
I am.
Yours,
G.K. Chesterton

What Chesterton realized is that everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change themselves. Everyone thinks they know what the problem is. But no one thinks that they are part of it. Only brokenness over our sin will move us from looking to excuse our sinful acts to desiring a cure for our sinful nature. Psalm 51 is written from such a state of brokenness. It reflects the Biblical process of repentance and longing for God to fix what is broken inside.

Read Psalm 51(NIV)

Verses 1 - 2: Appeal to God for Help

The Psalms are full of appeals to God to help in fighting against a foe stronger than ourselves. Psalm 51 is an appeal to God to fight the sin that is at war in ourselves.

The Basis of Our Appeal – Our appeal is based not on our goodness but because of who God is. Three attributes are specifically mentioned:

Mercy: The psalm starts with a plea for God to be “merciful.” Mercy means “not getting a bad thing you do deserve.” Grace means “getting a good thing you don’t deserve.”
Lovingkindness: This word is better translated “covenant faithfulness” and refers to God’s devotion or commitment to us, even when we are not devoted to him.
Compassion: The word here refers to the feeling of a mother for a baby. It means God understands our circumstance, God has sympathy on our weakness and brokenness.

The Nature of Our Appeal – What is asked for is not deliverance from external evil but rescue from the sin inside. Sin is described using 3 terms that help gain a window into what sin really is.

Transgression – This word literally means rebellion, and refers to “willful, self-assertive defiance of God.”
Iniquity – has at its root the idea of being bent or twisted. It refers to how we sometimes sin by distorting things to make it what we want or our tendency to wander off the course God has for us.
Sin – is the word most used throughout the Old Testament and is analogous to a similar Greek word in the New Testament, both of which mean “failure hit the target.” Settling for less than what God has set as the standard.

Verses 3 - 5: Confession of Sin
After asking for God’s help, the psalmist admits why he needs it.

Sinful Acts (v.3) – The psalmist starts by admitting his sinful acts. That is the definition of guilt: awareness that we have done something that we shouldn’t have. Guilt is the way we know we are on dangerous ground. It is the soul’s equivalent of pain (I.e. – pain of a flame or hot water). Psalmist solution: go to God with it!
Against God (v.4) – When we go to God with our guilt, we realize that He is right to be offended by our actions. When David says, “Against You, You only, I have sinned,” he isn’t saying that no one else has a right to be angry at what he did. What he is saying is that because God’s law has been broken, God has a right to be angry and involved.
Confession of Sinful Self (v.5) – “I was sinful at birth” and “sinful from the time my mother conceived me” means that his sin is a product of the sinful person he has always been. We do what is in our hearts. We sin not on accident but because we are sinful. This is what the psalmist acknowledges.

Verses 7 - 12: Desire to Be What God Wants
The psalmist brings his guilt before God and earnestly desires for God to make him new again. This process begins with purification and ends with complete restoration.

Purification (vs.7-8) – More than having his debt canceled, the psalmist wants to be purified in the innermost part of his being. Hyssop is a type of plant used for sprinkling water or blood in an area to make it ritually pure or clean again. The longing is not just to be good enough but completely clean from all spot or blemish. True repentance longs not to be excused or accepted despite the impurity, but longs to be purified.
Healing (v.9) – Next the psalmist longs for joy to return. He trusts that what God has done to him, even in inflicting pain on him, is for his good and will ultimately lead to his joy. Like a surgeon who must cause pain and perhaps even break bones in order to heal, God only ever hurts in order to help. That is why the psalmist prays “let the bones which you have broken rejoice.” Hebrews 12:5-11 deals with God disciplining us as sons out of love. It concludes with, “11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
Recreation (v.10) – The penitent prayer continues. Give me a new heart, a clean heart, help me start over. And give me a spirit that won’t give up. The psalmist realizes that he has been scarred by sin and that he is weak in the face of it. He longs for God to do for him what he cannot do himself. Remake him in his innermost being.
Restoration (v11-12) – He finally expresses his desire to maintain fellowship with God. The psalmist longs to be close to God, and to be restored to full fellowship. He longs for God’s presence to be with him. He reveals that there are at least two things that flow from being full of God’s spirit: 1) joy and 2) support. We will be glad and we will be strong, not in ourselves, but in the power of Him who dwells in us.

Verses 13 - 19: Desire to Do What God Wants
So many times, we try to do stuff for God before we become who He wants us to be. After getting right with God, the psalmist provides a list of things that people with renewed spirits can be used by God to accomplish.

Teach (v.13) – You can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t teach what you don’t know. We can’t teach others about God until we know Him. Once the psalmist has learned first-hand about the love and mercy and goodness of God, he is in a place where he can show other people the way to God.
Worship (vs.14-17) – Worship is not trying to earn God’s favor or get God’s attention. It is declaring to God who He is and what He is worth. Not because He needs it, but because we do. Once we have walked the path of Psalm 51, we are able to offer God the humble testimony of our broken and changed hearts. Worship will not become an event but a life that we live.
Expand (vs.18-19) – The last two verses of this psalm have perplexed some scholars. They seem disconnected and tacked on. What does building the city walls of Jerusalem have to do with what has come before? But hopefully by now the connection is obvious. We all want to do great things for God. We want to expand His kingdom. But we can’t build His kingdom until we are a part of it. God will do great things through us only after he has done great things in us. He has work for us all to do in His kingdom. The first work is that we submit ourselves humbly to Him.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Why do we try to hide our sins? What attribute of God do we have the hardest time believing? Why?
What is the difference between wanting to have our sins excused and wanting to be cleansed from them?
What is the difference between confessing sinful actions and confessing a sinful self?
Have you ever seen or experienced someone failing, like David, while trying to do great things for God because they failed to focus on their relationship with God first?
Have you ever experienced the discipline of God and learned to praise Him for it and see His goodness after the fact?

WEEK 8 - Psalm 63

Seek God and Be Satisfied

In man’s search for meaning and significance, we recognize within ourselves a longing and a hunger for something that we can’t quite describe. So we go searching. We try thing after thing hoping it will satisfy us, but nothing ever does. Food, sex, pleasure, work, possession, while good things, are not the things that will give shape, purpose, direction, and meaning to our lives. Some people – in fact most of us – conclude that the problem is not in the thing but in the fact that we don’t currently possess them in significant enough quantities. So we gorge ourselves on the good things of life hoping it will slake our thirst, but it doesn’t. The Christian pastor and philosopher St. Augustine described this phenomenon 16 centuries ago when he wrote: “O Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Psalm 63 stands as a declaration that we are designed to find meaning and satisfaction in seeking and serving God.

Read Psalm 63

Verse 1: My Soul Seeks
The psalm begins with a declaration of need. He knows he is missing something, and he knows what that something is. Acknowledging our need is hard enough. We don’t want to admit that we need others. The truth of the Psalms is that we are “afflicted and needy”, but knowing what will fulfill the need is harder still. This psalm is a signpost to all its readers that the longing and hunger we have inside of us is only ever fulfilled in seeking and finding God.

We were made to Seek God: Paul tells the Athenians in Acts 17:24, 26-27, “24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”
We must seek him earnestly: This psalmist says that he won’t just seek God but will do so earnestly, which means doing so with our whole heart. In Jeremiah 29:13, God tells the Israelites: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” The word for “search” is related to the Hebrew word for “morning,” and refers to something you are so eager to find that you wake up early and go looking for it. Psalm 42:1-2 describes the search for God like a deer in a desert searching for water: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

Verses 2 - 5: My Soul is Satisfied
The great hope of seeking God is that we won’t turn up empty. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus told his followers “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Where to Look (v2): In verse 2, the psalmist says he found God in his sanctuary (ie the temple). We have the ability to experience the presence of God wherever we are. But when we have lost our way and feel far away from God, we should start looking for him in the places where He promises to be. For the people of Ancient Israel, one important place was the Temple. Though the Temple no longer exists, we still have Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All scripture is inspired by God.” The last phrase translates, “God-breathed.”
What Finding Looks Like (v2b5): The psalmist went to the sanctuary and had an encounter with God. We aren’t told what he experienced, but we are told the effects that it had on him:

God’s Showed himself (v2b-3a): During the experience, God revealed something of who He was. The psalmist saw God’s power and glory, as well as his lovingkindness.
God Stirred Worship (v3b-4): In response to who God showed Himself to be, the psalmist says he was moved to praise God. Worship is always a response to who God is and what He has done. The psalmist says “Your lovingkindness is better (more important, more powerful) than life.” He is so moved by God that all his other issues are swallowed up.

God Satisfied His Soul (v5): At almost the exact middle of the psalm, the psalmist declares that his soul is satisfied. The encounter with God has filled him to overflowing. When we see God, we will see who we are in the light of his presence, and it will move us to worship and to trust Him.

Verses 6 - 7: My Soul Remembers – God is present with us every day. If God whispers to us during our everyday lives, He seems to be almost shouting to us during the profound, overwhelming experiences of His grandeur like the one described at the beginning of this Psalm. We label them “mountaintop experiences”, or a “camp high,” then return to “real life.” The purpose of these experiences is to give us what we need to trust God in the hard, barren, dry places of life. This is what faith is. But it is our constant struggle that we forget. So the psalmist recounts how he consciously brings to mind the goodness of God.

He remembers Who God is (v6): “When I remember You...” When hard times hit, it helps to remember what worked in the past.
He Meditates on God (v6): To meditate means to chew on something. The psalmist says he meditated, which means he thought deeply and continually about who God is and about how what He knew about God might apply to his current situation.
He Reminds Himself of God’s Help (v7): “For you have been my help...” Sometimes we lose confidence in God because we forget that He has worked in our lives before. Remembering how God has acted in our lives can help restore our confidence that He is still at work to help and to guide.

Concluding Thoughts:
Remembering God is essential when hard times happen. Such remembrance, meditation, and gratitude will prove pivotal when we encounter hard times in life and it looks like God is nowhere to be found. God does not promise us an unending series of overwhelming experiences of Him. He gives us what we need to keep trusting and obeying and heading in the direction He pointed us.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Have you ever stuffed yourself with something that didn’t satisfy?
What are the signs that the things we are seeking in life are leaving us unfulfilled?
What does it mean to seek God? How do we do it? Where do we start?
What does it mean to be satisfied by God?
What does it mean to cling to God in the hard times? How do we do it?

WEEK 9 - Psalm 84

There and Back Again

Have you ever been somewhere that you had a hard time leaving? We have all had those times when it’s the last night of a wonderful vacation and we are sitting there in a bittersweet moment celebrating the joy we have experienced, but sad that we have to go back to the real world. Psalm 84 encourages us to re-center our lives on seeking God, and to learn to worship Him in everyday life by first worshiping Him corporately. It is told from the perspective of a pilgrim, who has come to Jerusalem during a festival, and now is contemplating the road home. He has met God in his temple and this encounter has transformed his whole life.

Read Psalm 84

Verses 1 - 4: Longing to Stay
Sometimes this Psalm is read as an expression of a desire to be able to go to the temple. But it is actually a longing to remain in the presence of God. The psalmist is saying, “I had previously been very eager to come to the temple. Now I am here, and it is more amazing than I imagined.”

How Lovely (v.1) – “How lovely” sounds like charming, or quaint. But the phrase more accurately means “How beloved.” The psalmist is saying, “Oh, how much I love this place. It is important to me to be there.”
Longed/Yearned (v.2) – “My soul longs, yes, faints” The psalmist loves the temple, he is eager to be there. In Hebrew, the words carry with them the ideas of “to crave” and “to exhaust.”
The Living God (v.2) – It is important to realize that the psalmist isn’t focused on the temple but on the God who inhabits it. The psalmist is focused on not just being in a place but meeting the living God that promises to be present there.
How Blessed (vs.3-4) – The psalmist sees birds nesting in the porches and eaves of the temple. He imagines how amazing it would be to be like them and to remain there forever. He concludes this section with a blessing on those who are able to remain.

Verses 5 - 8: Headed Back Home
He cannot stay, so he turns his face towards the road ahead of him which leads away from the temple. As he leaves, he thinks about what he is leaving and what is in front of him.

How Blessed (v.5) – “in whose heart are the highways.” The psalmist realizes as he leaves that he isn’t leaving the presence of God. His body is full of the strength of God. His mind is full of the remembrance of his time in the Temple.
Valley of Baca (v.6) – The journey home leads through the valley of Baca which can be a place of drought or weeping. The journey away from the temple can be sad as well as spiritually dry. The follower of God digs for God’s blessing and looks for God’s unexpected external blessing (springs & rain). Through this, God turns the valley of weeping to the valley of blessing.
Strength to Strength (v.7) – “from strength to strength” paints the picture of touring the fortifications of a walled city. The psalmist says in a desolate wilderness, he feels protected by God as if he were in a stronghold.

Verses 9 - 12: Longing to Go Back
The psalmist ended the previous section with “hear my prayer.” This next section contains the contents of that prayer.

Look on the Face (v.9) – He desires for God to look upon his face. He means, “I am looking to you, please look back.” There is a Latin phrase that was common among medieval Christians: coram Deo. It means “before the face of God.” We are the object of divine attention.
Better is One Day (v.10) – The psalmist appeals to go back to the house of the Lord. He values being in the manifest presence of the Lord…he’s willing to risk everything to be there for the shortest amount of time (1 day) in the lowest position (door keeper).
How Blessed (v.11-12) – This psalm concludes with a statement of radical trust in God. God doesn’t withhold good things from his children. God “bestows favor and honor”. So the psalmist ends not with longing to stay in the temple, or a lament that he has to leave, but a declaration of confident trust in God.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Have you ever longed to be in God’s presence? Have you ever felt a lack of desire to go to God? How do you handle either?
How do dry or difficult seasons make you feel about yourself or towards God? How can we learn to dig for and look for God’s blessings in the midst of such times?
How can we learn to long for his presence in gathered worship and still believe He is with us wherever we go?
What does it mean to journey in life going “from strength to strength?”

WEEK 10 - Psalm 95

A Call to Worship

Spiritual matters are often like exercise. The things God commands us to do are for our good and are things that once we have been trained in righteousness, we will desire to do. This is the point of obedience. Doing what you are supposed to do, even when you don’t feel like it will ultimately help us “acquire a taste” for righteousness. Worship is the same way. When you don’t feel like worshiping is the time you need to worship most. When we are being stubborn, selfish, stiff-necked, strong-willed, hard hearted people, the cure is to force ourselves to worship, to put the focus on God and see how He can change our hearts in the light of his presence. Psalm 95 is an invitation to this kind of worship. It is a call to worship God with your whole self – heart, mind, strength – and in the midst of it, to meet God and be transformed by Him from the outside in.

Read Psalm 95

A Call to Worship - Verses 1-7a
The first half of this psalm is a Call to come worship God with two kinds of worship. The first section (v1-5) is a call to boisterous celebration of all that God has done. The second section (v6-7) is a call to reverent contemplation of who God is. It’s interesting that multiple “modes” of worship are included. We need to learn to worship God in all the ways He asks us to.

Verses 1 - 5: Worship through Rejoicing

Come (v.1) – “Come” is an invitation to join a procession or parade of people on their way to the temple. They are dancing, singing, and boisterously celebrating the great things that God has done. Worship is a “team sport” with our destination being the presence of God!
Come into His Presence (v.2) – Get to a place where we can see God. It is about the direction we are pointed in. God is always with you, always looking towards you. Coming before His presence is to orient ourselves towards God.
Let us make noise (vs.1-2) – We are invited to be loud before God. Some may object. I worship quietly within my own heart. We need to learn to praise him out loud, not just inside, to glorify God publicly, and with our whole being.
Choose Joy (v.2) – “make a joyful noise” You may say “I don’t feel particularly joyful right now, do you know what is going on in my life?” Rarely in life are joy and sorrow not intermingled. No matter what the circumstance, find some small reason to be joyful and praise God for that. See if the joy doesn’t grow.
The Lord is a Great God (vs.3-5) – The rest of this section ends with a series of verses declaring great things about God. This give us reasons in our praise to orient ourselves towards God and choose to focus on joy – He is a great God above all other gods.

Verses 6 - 7: Worship through Reverence

Come In (v.6) – If the first “Come” in v.1 was an invitation to “Come along,” this “come” means “Come inside.” The procession has made it to the temple, and it’s time to enter. The worship inside moves from rejoicing to reverence.
Get Low (v.6) – All three words for worship used in verse 6 refer to putting our bodies down on the ground. The word means more than just get down on one knee. It means to prostrate yourself on the ground. While before we were invited to be loud before God, here we are encouraged to be quiet before God in reverence.
The Lord is Our Shepherd (v.7) – The subject of the earlier joyful celebration was the relationship of God to the whole world. The focus of our reverent humility is the nature of our relationship to Him. He is our shepherd. We are the sheep that belong to him.

Verses 7 - 11: Worship Through Obedience
After a double call to worship God, the psalm ends with almost a warning. The first two sections encouraged worshipers to bring their bodies before God and bow low. This final section reminds us to make sure we put our heart on the altar as well. If worship doesn’t lead us towards obedience it is pointless (Mt. 15:8-9). This psalm ends with some things to avoid if we desire to keep our worship from being pointless.

Don’t Delay Obedience “Today” (v.7) – The psalmist starts this final section with the word “Today.” Right now. The past is fixed and unalterable. The future is fuzzy and indeterminate. The present is where we live. Don’t put off your obedience until tomorrow.
Don’t Avoid God “If You Hear His Voice” (v.7) – Do you really want to hear God’s voice? To hear means to obey. He calls us into relationship. He calls us to obedience.
Don’t Resist God– “Don’t Harden Your Heart” (v.8) – When God calls you, there are only two options: Receive or Resist. The Biblical term for resisting God is “hardening your heart.” You don’t want to hear so you resist.
Don’t Test God (vs.8-10) – The next few verses give a historical example of what happens when we harden our hearts and don’t obey the voice of God. The story comes from Exodus 17:7, when the people of Israel thought they knew better than God what God should be doing. Testing God is refusing to budge unless God does everything you tell him to do.
Don’t Miss God’s Blessing - “not enter into my rest” (v.11) – Though the last half of the psalm seems negative, it is important to realize the reason. God calls you to rejoice and to humble yourself to hear and obey, not because He wants to oppress you, but because he wants to bless you. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Have you ever done something you didn’t feel like doing and as you were doing it your attitude changed?
What type of worship do you feel most comfortable engaging in? What kind of worship is outside your comfort zone? How might God want to use it to stretch you?
Why is being joyful sometimes hard? How can we learn to choose joy in every circumstance?
What does it mean to be humble? How does worship help us be humble?
What does it mean to harden your heart? Have you ever experienced heart hardening? How can we keep our hearts soft?
What does it mean that God’s end for us is rest? How can we be diligent to enter that rest?

WEEK 11 - Psalm 139

To Know God and Be Known

We all at our core desire both to know others and to be known by them. That is what a relationship is. Seeking and being sought. Knowing and being known. Accepting and being accepted. Loving and being loved. Pouring into someone else, having them pour into you. The message of scripture is that God calls us into relationship. A chief attribute of being in relationship with God is, just like human relationships, knowing and being known. Psalm 139 praises God for His amazing power, but it does so by showing how that power is used by God to know us. The result is a psalm of praise for who God is, a psalm of love for being cared for by Him, and a psalm of devotion to God in response to His devotion to us. The whole psalm is a meditation on how deeply we are known by God.

Read Psalm 139

Verses 1 - 6: God knows You Because He Sees You
The first section of the psalm focuses on God’s omniscience, which means “all-knowing.” While we might generalize it and say that it means “God knows everything,” the psalmist focuses the discussion of God’s omniscience on being seen and fully known by God.

God Sees your actions (vs.2-3) “you know when I sit and when I rise” – You haven’t been forgotten. He sees your actions even when no one else does. Jesus describes God the Father as “your Father who sees what is done in secret (Mt. 6:4).”
God Sees Your Thoughts (vs.2-3) “You discern my thoughts from afar” – God sees not just our actions, but our intentions as well.
God Sees Your Future (v.4) “Even before…you know it altogether” – God knows not just where you are, but where you are going.
God Sees and Protects (v.5) “You hem me in…laid your hand upon me” – The word “hem” means “to strengthen and surround like a wall.” He doesn’t just watch, He places His hand upon us to protect and defend us.

Verses 7 - 12: God Knows You Because He is Near You
Any good relationship requires proximity. That is why the next of God’s attributes discussed by the psalmist is His omnipresence. He sees you because He is near you.

God is near you everywhere (vs.7-9) – “Where shall I go from your Spirit?” It is not that God is near you in certain places. God is near you everywhere. He is present everywhere within His creation.
God is near you to lead you (v.10)
God is near you to comfort you (vs.11-12) – You might be scared of the dark, but God isn’t. He can see in the dark and He promises that He is close. Philippians 4:5-6 says it best: “The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing.”

Verses 13 - 18: God Knows You Because He Made You
In discussions of the attributes of God, there are three big ones: omniscience (God is all-knowing), omnipresence (God is everywhere), and omnipotence (God is all powerful). In keeping with the highly personal focus of this psalm, the psalmist directs his discussion of God’s omnipotence towards the subject of God’s creation of us.

God made you on purpose (v.13) – No matter what anyone may tell you, you aren’t an accident. Sometimes we treat people like they aren’t wanted. God formed each of us, on purpose.
God made you unique (vs.14-15) – Sometimes we look in the mirror and see things we don’t like but can’t change. He “wonderfully made” you, which means He is a master craftsman and you are His handiwork.
God made you for a plan (vs.16-17) –God made you for a reason. He has a plan. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand…”

Verses 19 - 24: Responding to God’s Knowledge
Relationships are two-way streets. You can know a lot about God and still not know God. Knowing God begins to happen when one responds to Him. That’s why the psalm ends with the psalmist showing how he responds to who God is.

Pray (v.19-20) – The first thing the psalmist does is pray. The content of the prayer sounds violent, but don’t let it distract you from seeing that he is talking to God.
Obey (v.21-22) –Though it is again a bit violent, it is important to realize what the psalmist is saying: he is committed to obeying God. The psalmist clearly declares that his allegiance is to God. How did Jesus teach us to treat our enemies?
Submit (v.23-24) – The psalmist concludes how he began “Search me, O God, and Know my Heart.” There are only two choices: we can submit to God or resist Him. Let Him search you, know you, love you. He desires to free you from your anxious thoughts, to purify you from the unrighteousness that destroys, and to lead you on the path that leads to life.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

What is the difference between knowing about God and knowing God?
What does it mean to know God and be known by Him?
How does our understanding of the attributes of God change when we consider them in the context of our relationship with Him?
Which attribute do you derive the most comfort from? Omniscience? Omnipresence? Omnipotence?
What makes prayer, obedience, and submission so difficult?