“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” This phrase characterizes what is meant to be the supreme effect of reading the Psalms. Psalms is comprised of 150 songs that span from Moses to the post-exilic period and they reflect a vast array of human experiences such as joy, sorrow, abandonment, atonement, tears, renewal, refuge, rest, war, peace, fear, failure, hope, evil, love, lamentation, praise, and judgment. The focus of the Psalms is worship through all the events and ups and downs of life. 

Okay, open to the book of Psalms. The theme of the Psalms is worship. I think the phrase, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, characterizes what is meant to be the supreme impact on a person's life, that it would bring forth praise. And I think that's why the very first word in the entire book of Psalms is the word happy, Blessed. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night." It comes out this way because the Psalms are designed to lead you to happiness through love for His Word and through worship.

And in this case, worship in song, because the word Psalm is really a very simple Hebrew word that just means song, the kind of song that you sing. I was reading Arthur Goldberg's dedication to John Calvin's commentary on the Psalms, which he wrote on October 20th, 1571, and I was very taken by the words, the breath and the profundity of these words, and how helpful they are to help us understand the book of Psalms. I'll just read a section of his introduction. He says, it contains details of the national history of the Jewish people, records of particular portions of the life and experience of individuals and predictions of future events. Each of these heads embraces a wide field.

They include illustrations of every religious truth which is necessary for us to know, exemplifications of every devout feeling which it is our duty to cherish and examples of every spiritual conflict which it is possible for us to experience. We meet with many disclosures of the greatness, majesty, and the perfections of the only true God, His government of the world or His special care over His people. We meet with the varied exercises of the regenerated soul. And behold it, at one time offering up fervent supplications to the hearer of prayer, at another celebrating his perfections and works, at one time giving utterance to the ardent breathings of the love of God and trust in him, at another time struggling with unbelief and corruption, at one time mourning under the divine chastisement on account of sin, at another rejoicing in a sense of forgiving mercy and enjoying the peace which passes all understanding. We have presented to us many wonderful predictions concerning the Messiah, His humiliation, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension to His Father's right hand, His work in heaven as the intercessor of his people and his authority as universal king, the effusion of the influences of the Holy Spirit, and the conversion of all nations to the faith of the Gospel.

In short, we have unfolded to our view the final judgment, the gathering of the righteous to God in the eternal exclusion of the wicked from happiness and from hope. So I think he covers the basic range of what you read about in the book of Psalms, and so when you read it, you know, consider just the various unusual and normal parts of life that you experience. Here's why this is so helpful. Psalms is designed to help us to worship through all the events of life, Not just the ones that we might deem to be pleasant, but all the events of life. And that's why the very first word in the book of Psalms is the word happy or blessed.

There are so many themes in these 150 songs. You know, They span from Moses to the post-exilic period. And you'll read of joy, sorrow, abandonment, atonement, tears, renewal, refuge, rest, war, peace, fear, failure, hope, enemies, evil, love, lamentation, praise, judgment. It covers the whole cycle of human experience and emotion. You have songs that capture the experiences of David.

Now many people think that Psalms is the longest book in the Bible. It's a long book, but it's not the longest book in the Bible. If you take the Hebrew words that are in the books of the Bible, Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible with 33, 002 words. Genesis is the second longest with 32, 046 words and Psalms is the third longest with 30, 147 Hebrew words. It's interesting if you ask what's the longest book in the Bible?

To most Christians, they'll say Psalms. Well, they're close. It's the third longest book in the Bible. The Psalms are very useful for prayer. They lead you to pray the things that are locked in your heart.

They bring up the things that you ought to be praying about. They sort of expose your heart and I would just so highly recommend you using the Psalms for prayer. I do that. Almost every morning I'll meet the Psalms to help me to pray. I put my wife to bed with this reading of the Psalms.

I try to read her a psalm every night just before we go to bed. And they're designed to comfort you, to correct you, to cause you to pray, and they really to help you understand who you are and how you're doing. They're so helpful. Now let's talk about the genre. They are of the genre of poetry, and this is without question, you know, one of the greatest poetical books in the Old Testament.

Now, poetry is all over the Old Testament, very rarely in the New, however. There are only five Old Testament books that don't seem to have poetry in them. They are Leviticus, Ruth, Ezra, Haggai, and Malachi. And all the rest of the Old Testament books contain poetry. Kenneth Boa and Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book summarizing the books of the Bible, and they say in that series that, quote, fully one-third of the Hebrew Bible was written in poetry.

It's astonishing to consider how much of the Bible is written in poetry. Well, there are several that we could point to. Job is one of the great poetic books. It teaches us how to suffer and how to understand the hand of God in times of reversal. You have the book of Psalms which brings us into the heart of human emotion and the various experiences that we have and God's desire and His design for leading us to happiness, to lead us to that blessedness that the very first word of the book speaks of.

You have the book of Proverbs that is designed to teach you how to live skillfully through the wisdom that only comes from the fear of God. You have Ecclesiastes that shows you how to find meaning in life no matter what happens to you. You have the Song of Solomon which explains the passions of love between a man and a woman, which is figurative of Christ and his church. So there's much poetry in the Old Testament. These very, very long books that I just spoke about are almost all poetry.

Now there are various types of Psalms that you'll encounter. There are various contours. I'm not going to list every poetic device here, but There are a couple I'd like to draw your attention to. One type of psalm is the acrostic psalm, and there are nine acrostic psalms, and the acrostic psalms use the Hebrew alphabet as the organizational outline. The most famous, of course, is Psalm 119, where every section is headed by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with the letter Aleph, Beth, Gemel, Dalet, and proceeding after that to the end of the Hebrew alphabet.

But you'll find acrostic psalms in Psalm 9, 10, 25, 34, 111, 112, 119, and Psalm 145. And this, I think, bears witness to the organizational structure of the writer of the Psalm in order to help us to understand that there's a kind of a logical sequence and an orderliness to it. I think it bears witness to the fact that there ought to be an orderly method for dealing with your sorrows, with your challenges. There are ways that you walk through in your mind as you get through life. And the acrostics help us to see the sequential orderly way.

You know, if you're caught in some sorrow or some great disappointment, here's what you should not do. Just kind of emote. Just kind of go from one random thought of yours to another. No. Order your sorrows and the interpretation of them according to the sequences of godly reasoning.

You'll find this kind of reasoning there. So you have the acrostic Psalms. Also you have imprecatory Psalms. The imprecatory Psalms call down judgment or calamity upon the enemy. And you know when you read them you wonder, should I be praying this about that person that's bothering me?

You know, and the answer is probably no. Albert Barnes, the commentator, comments on the imprecatory Psalms. He says, perhaps there's no part of the Bible that gives more perplexity and pain to its readers than this. Perhaps nothing that constitutes a more plausible objection to the belief that the Psalms are the productions of inspired men than the spirit of revenge, which they sometimes breathe, and the spirit of cherished malice and implacableness which the writers seem to manifest." Well, you know, you can say different things about the imprecatory Psalms. You could say, well, it's because of the Old Covenant.

People were just so far less godly in the days of the Old Covenant. The Holy Spirit hadn't been poured out. So you just need to understand that those Old Covenant writers wrote about things that a New Testament Christian would never experience. Some people say, no, they are just reflections of the imperfection of the humanity of the psalmist. Others say that they're all prophetic.

Here's how I would encourage you to think about them. They are declarations of God's judgment. The imprecatory Psalms bring judgment upon God's enemies and you find these imprecations in Psalm 7, 35, 40, 55, 59, 69, 109, 137, 139, and 144. But they all call for God to judge, and they're not for men to fulfill. They focus on sins which God hates and they really are callings for the judgment of God to come down.

I think we should Consider them in light of Romans 12 19 which says, don't take your own revenge but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord. So these are not prayers that you should pray against those people who are bothering you. They rather are prayers to God that he would destroy his enemies. He's wise to destroy his enemies in his own time.

He will bring down all his enemies at some point. Usually not in your time, always in his time. We have to recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ calls down judgment against the wicked in different places. In Matthew chapter 10, verses 14 through 15, Is it a good example? There is an appropriate sense in our own souls where there ought to be a hatred of the wicked.

Psalm 101 verses 3 & 4 say this, I hate the work of those who fall away. It will not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will know no wickedness." It's appropriate to hate the works of the wicked. Psalm 139 verses 21 and 22 say this, Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. So there is an appropriate sense of the hatred of actually the wicked and the wickedness that they perform. It's not really perfectly accurate to say, you know, I hate the sin and love the sinner.

The Psalms actually contradict that. There is a godly way for the hating of the wicked. Psalm 119, 104 says, I hate every false way. Psalm 5, 4 through 6 says, For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight.

You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the deceitful man. The next time you hear someone say, God loves everyone, you need to quote them Psalm 5 4 through 6. God does not love everyone.

He does actually hate the wicked and we've got to somehow understand that. The Lord Jesus Christ quotes some of the imprecatory Psalms. For example, Psalm 69, 4 is quoted in John 15, 25. 69, 9 is quoted in John 2 verse 17. Psalm 69 21 is quoted in Matthew 27 24.

These are imprecatory psalms. The apostle Paul quoted Psalm 69 as well in Romans 11 verses 9 through 10. So it would be inappropriate for us to think that the imprecatory psalms are no longer considered in the New Testament era. As you go through and look for a few phrases, one phrase is this, to the chief musician. There are 150 psalms, fully one-third of the Psalms contain these words.

The word selah occurs 71 times. Selah, most people think, is a marker to encourage you to just stop and think. Don't keep going. Just consider what has just been said. And the idea is something remarkable has just been uttered.

Stop and let it sink in. Don't move on to the next thought yet. Let's talk about the authorship of the Book of Psalms. There are approximately 50 percent of the Psalms written by David. There are multiple authors.

The primary one, of course, is David, but Solomon wrote some. The sons of Korah, Asaph, Moses, Ethan, the Ezraite, and there are 25 other Psalms that don't have an author listed. So when you think about the Psalms, don't only think about David, because there are many. Let's talk about the time of writing. One of the fascinating parts about the book of Psalms is that the span of time is significant.

From around 1420 B.C. From the time of Moses, all the way to after the end of the Babylonian captivity to about 430 BC. Authors of Psalms are included in this testimony. The Psalms were sung. They were meant to be sung.

Now wouldn't it be nice to know what it sounded like? I wish we did. It probably would sound funny to us, but we don't know how they sounded. I wish we could sing the Psalms verbatim. The way that they were written, but we can't.

The Psalms were sung in two different temples. They were sung in Solomon's temple and they were sung in the second temple that was constructed after the Babylonian captivity. Now I've listed some key verses here. These are some of my favorite Psalms. I'm gonna walk through some of them, hopefully all of them, before we're done here today.

Let's talk about Christ in the Psalms. The Psalms are marked by many messianic Psalms. There are dozens of allusions to Christ that He is the King, that He is the Servant, that He is an Intercessor, that He is obedient unto death, that He's the Creator, that he's the cornerstone, that he is eternal. All of these things are communicated in the Psalms. The Lord Jesus Christ quotes from Psalm 22 and 33 and of course David and Solomon are types of Christ.

So the Lord Jesus is going to be found in many, many of the Psalms that you read. Okay, let's look at the outline. There are five books, five divisions in the Psalms, and the first division covers Psalms 1 through 41. This is called Book 1. Now one author, the editor of the Brown Bible, says that these divisions also have various themes.

So book 1, he says, has the theme of instruction. The second book, book 2, which covers Psalm 42 to 72, the theme is prophetic. The third book, Psalms 73 to 89, the theme is consolation. In book 4, Psalm 90 to 106, the theme is petition. And in book 5, Psalms 107 to 150 are Eucharistic or they are for Thanksgiving.

So you'll notice those themes in those various books. Well, so let's begin with Psalm 1. Psalm 1 sets the stage for all the other Psalms, and it declares that true happiness comes from God. And In the midst of a broken world full of tragedy and failure, there is a way out. There is a way to happiness, and that is by loving God and His Word.

And that's why we read, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season." Well this is the probably the most common psalm other than the 23rd Psalm, but In this psalm we learn the secret of happiness and that is you must break away from the ungodly and you must delight in the law of the Lord. Turning away from the laws of man, the voices of man, and turning toward the laws and the voice of God. This is the key to all happiness.

And So a person must, if they ever hope to be happy, they have to make a break from this world. They have to break away from this unhappy world that they've been born into. Now David is not talking about isolation from the world. He's talking about insulation from the world and that insulation happens through what you love. You are protected by what you love And it brings to the surface this critical matter in life that David identifies here.

And that is that when you identify with scoffers, when you embrace their opinions, when you are involved in their activities, you need to recognize what that means. And this happens to us. We're so attracted by the world that it's difficult for us to make a break from it. And we want to identify with the scoffers. It's the most dangerous thing that we can ever do.

We identify with them in their opinions, their activities, their hair, their clothing, whatever it might be, their occupations of time. And what David is saying in Psalm 1 is that if you ever hope to be happy, you have to be able to make a break from the ungodly. And he tells what will happen to the ungodly. The ungodly will be destroyed. Okay, so that's Psalm 1.

Let's go to Psalm 19. Everybody should memorize Psalm 19. Psalm 19 breaks into two parts. It begins with a song of praise for God's glory in the heavens. And then it turns to God's glory in His Word in verse 7.

And so the psalm divides into these two great portions, and this is so worthy of memorization. He speaks of first of all just how the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork and how all of nature declares that the majesty of God. As you walk through this world, being able to glory in creation is something that if you miss it, you miss so much that God has for you. And here this psalm just directs us to lift up our eyes into the heavens and see the glory of God. And then the second half begins with these words, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. And he goes on, some of the most beautiful words that describe the beauty and the power of the effectual nature, the life transforming energy that comes from those who bring the Word of God into their hearts and they cherish it, they savor it and it changes everything. It gives warnings on the one hand but it also is sweeter than honey in the honey comb. It's more precious than fine gold.

So that's Psalm 19. You know, you've got many years ahead of you. Memorize Psalm 19. Memorize Psalm 1. In fact, I want to recommend that you memorize all these that are on this list.

These are all Psalms that I was hoping that my children would grasp as they were growing up. These Psalms are very familiar to my children. I felt they were pivotal to understand. Then there's Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm and in it David actually utters the words of Jesus Christ on the cross.

It's a prophetic Messianic Psalm. It opens with these words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear.

And in the night season, and am not silent. Here, this prophecy of the suffering of the Son of God on the cross has many practical meanings for us, But one of those meanings is this, is that Jesus Christ suffered for us. When you feel that you have been forsaken, you feel that you have no help, then recognize that Jesus Christ himself experienced that. And as a result, he's a compassionate and faithful high priest that when he sees you in your despondency, When He sees you and you feel so alone, when it seems like there's no help and you're groaning, He understands you. He understands.

He's been there. And then there's Psalm 23. My mother taught me this Psalm. She used to say it to me night after night when I was a little boy, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the quiet waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." These are some of the most seminal words of comfort that the human soul can ever consider. You know, I love to read this psalm with different inflection points.

Like for example, just the very first line, You could read it with the emphasis on the Lord or you can emphasize that He's my Shepherd. So that's Psalm 23. Psalm 27. Again a Psalm that has come back to help me and comfort me many times in my life and I'm so grateful for it. It comes to mind often.

Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war may rise against me. In this I will be confident.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High. He shall hide me." What a marvelous Psalm. This is another one you should memorize. It'll help you, but it speaks of the protective work of God toward the worshiper of God, to the one who finds himself in his tabernacle, the one who goes into the secret place and seeks and there's such a great benefit that's promised here.

These words in verse 8 I love. When you said, seek my face, my heart said to you, your face Lord I will seek. That's Psalm 27. Psalm 34, one of my favorite Psalms. I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears." What a marvelous help.

Then Psalm 42, 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. You know, there's nothing more helpful in our hearts as when our hearts pant for God, and we thirst for God. We should pray that in God's providence he would grant us this panting in the first opening of our eyes in the morning, in the first sense of consciousness as we move into the day, that we've become aware that our soul longs for God, that when we awake either in sort of the night watches as David spoke of them, or awake in the morning to move into the day, that we would find our soul panting for God. There's nothing more helpful to a person's life than to have that, and I just think we should pray that God gives us a great measure of it as we go through this life to start the day with a vision of the majesty of God.

Psalm 46, this was a psalm I wanted my children to know. God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, Though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, Selah, there is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.

God shall help her just at the break of dawn." There are times of trouble ahead for every person. And to have Psalm 46 in your heart could be very helpful. You know, I memorized Psalm 46 because of an event that happened in a very dear family to me, one of the pastors of the church that I grew up in. At one point, the family was going down the road, and they found themselves in a terrible, fiery car wreck. And it killed their mother, their godly mother.

And I'll never forget the first words out of the mouth of one of their daughters. It was these words, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and the mountains slip into the heart of the sea." The Psalms are good. They're helpful. They can rescue you just in the moment of time that you never expected might come upon you.

Expect trials. Prepare for them. Memorize Psalm 46. Psalm 51, this is that great psalm of David after his terrible moral failure with Bathsheba where he cries, "'Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.'" This is the cry of a man who fell.

And he declares many things that we need to understand about sin and how we ought to respond when we fall into sin. It declares the greatness of the mercy of God and also the anguish of the soul that is experienced where there is a moral failure. It's hard to calculate the hardship and the damage that takes place, as it did with David. He was never the same again. God forgave him, but there were consequences, severe and grave consequences in his life.

And then we come to Psalm 78. This is one of the great Psalms that is designed to direct fathers in the teaching of their children. And here Asaph is the author of Psalm 78, and he's really describing what fathers should do with their children. And what they should do is they should not hide the great deeds of God from their children, but they should tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works which he has done." In other words, one of the great jobs of a father is to tell his children how great God is. His deeds, his works, his power to praise God, to be a father who has that happiness of soul enough so that what's on his mind more than anything is the majesty and the goodness of God, that He declares who God is.

It's the greatest function of a father, is to proclaim the greatness of the power of God and to tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord. There's nothing more helpful for children than to have a father or a mother full of praising of God. It's so critical that we become parents like that. You know, as you think about being a parent someday, you need to recognize that one of your chiefest responsibilities before God is to declare the happiness and the beauty of the Lord from the rising of the Sun till the time that it goes down. It's so critical.

And you know, if you're of a disposition that you don't wake up happy, pray that God will make you happy when you wake up and that you stay happy until all the end of the day because it's important for your function in the world. You're not your own and so your life needs to be shaped by the beauty of God rather than the normal inclinations of your heart. Psalm 78. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. In this library are long, Long books written about Psalm 119, volume after volume, describing this this great Psalm.

It opens with these words, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart." Oh, there it is, that word again. Blessed. Why is it that the longest chapter of the Bible opens up with that one word, blessed. Why is it when the Lord Jesus Christ, some of the most memorable words he ever spoke, he said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." This is just the disclosure of the blessedness that the Christian can experience, but how does it happen? How does he get it? He gets it by walking in the law of the Lord, seeking his law and saying, with my whole heart I have desired your law and delighted in it. And then there's Psalm 139. I think this is one of the most helpful Psalms for those who feel lost in this world.

It opens with these words, Lord you have searched me and known me. In other words, you're not lost. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from afar. So yes, there is someone who knows who you are, where you are, and what you're thinking, and where you're going, even before you think it or even before you take a step.

He says, you comprehend my path and my lying down. You are acquainted with all my ways, for there's not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together." I love these words in verse 5. You've hedged me in behind and before and laid your hand upon me." In verse 7 he says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? And the answer is you cannot go anywhere.

And verse 10 gives us such a beautiful picture of who God is to the person whose heart is turned toward him. He says, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me." It's a picture of God holding his children. So he knows who you are, he knows where you are, he knows what you're thinking, and he knows where you're going, and he's holding your hand all the way. Psalm 150, the last Psalm in this book of songs. Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty firmament, praise him for his mighty acts, Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the lute and the harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise Him with loud cymbals.

Praise Him with clashing cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And this is why the Psalms open with the word blessed. And it's fitting that it ends with, let everything that has a breath praise the Lord, because this characterizes the supreme effect of the Psalms in a person's life. It brings them into a life of blessing, where all of their thoughts, all of their experiences, all of their emotions are interpreted through the grid of the Word of God and particularly through these Psalms and how a person is able to enter into that blessedness by saying what David said, Oh, how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day.

Because those who love the law of God and who delight in the law of God. They'll be like trees planted by rivers of living water which you bring forth fruit in its season and they are blessed. These are guarantees, these are promises of God for all those who worship God according to these patterns that we find in the Psalms. So read them, use them to pray, Memorize them, feed upon them, let them explain to you what's going on in your heart and what you ought to do about it, and you'll be blessed.