Psalms serve as a vital resource for anyone wanting to grow as a disciple of Jesus amidst the challenges of life. In this podcast, I explore how the Psalms not only reflect the life of David but also encompass a diverse range of authors and experiences that resonate with our own journeys. By reading Psalms in a structured way, we can uncover their profound insights into discipleship, encompassing all aspects of human emotion and interaction with God. I share an expanded definition of discipleship that emphasizes the importance of actively learning to follow Jesus in our daily lives. Ultimately, I hope this discussion encourages us to embrace the Psalms as a means to deepen our relationship with God and understand what it truly means to follow Him.

Takeaways:

• The Psalms provide guidance for being a growing disciple of Jesus in daily life.
• Understanding the diverse authorship and context of the Psalms enhances their relevance today.
• Discipleship requires more than just following rules; it's about a continuous relationship with Jesus.
• Psalms express a full range of human emotions, offering a model for honest communication with God.
• The structure and themes of the Psalms reflect various life experiences, from joy to lament.
• Reading Psalms continuously helps us learn how to integrate faith into every aspect of our lives.

Links referenced in this episode:

• bible805.com

PLEASE NOTE— The transcript for this podcast is A.I. generated and though it has all the content, sometimes has odd breaks, spelling, and spacing.

For an almost exact copy of the text, go to the www.Bible805.com site for downloadable NOTES or to the www.Bible805Academy.com for FREE downloadable and editable Notes, Discussion Guide, Audio and Video files, plus the original PowerPoints—for your personal study or all you need to teach the lesson.

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An overview of Psalms for Today how to be a growing disciple of Jesus 24:7 no matter how crazy your world is,

Psalms obviously go along with the life of David. Yet there's so much more to them. They are arguably one of the favorite books in the Bible for many people.

When we think of Psalms, we often think of David, and though he did write more of them than anyone else, there is much more to them than the simple songs of a shepherd boy, including a a great variety of authors, a long time span of composition, and large variety of content in the Bible. 805 Through the Bible reading plan I have you read one every other day, not scattered primarily throughout the lifetime of David, as many plans do.

I do this for quite a few reasons.

I've discussed that elsewhere in the video and the podcast and all that sort of thing on the Bible805 website, where I tell you why I put the plan together in the way that I did. But more importantly, because in reading them this way, you'll see the value of Psalms for specific areas of your Christian life.

In this lesson we're going to look at what psalms teach us about discipleship. First, I want to give you an expanded definition of discipleship.

Though keeping Jesus commands is a good start, that's just really kind of a limited one because for many just keeping his commands mean 1. 1. You make a decision to trust Jesus as your Savior, and for a lot of people that's mostly so you won't go to hell when you die.

You show up at church once a week. You do Bible reading of short passages in devotionals, or it's limited to what you hear at church.

You hear a little Bible reading here and there and you figure, well, that's enough for the week and you tithe maybe, or at least give a little bit and you don't do anything illegal. Now there's nothing wrong with any of these things.

Those are all good actions and they really are the expectations foundation of behavior for any believer in Jesus. But to be a disciple of Jesus involves more. Here is an expanded view of discipleship that I really like.

It comes from Dallas Willard where he says we need to clear our minds about what discipleship is. Here's his definition.

A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control or knows a lot of things.

Disciples are simply people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. Here's my comment. I absolutely love that little statement. Constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus.

And that is discipleship. 24, 7 And Psalms will help us see what that means and how to put it into practice. Here's another related comment from Dallas.

The final and complete blessing and ultimate good the sunam bonum of humankind comes to those with lives absorbed in the way of Christ. Life in the presence of God.

This all pervasive definition of discipleship, of life constantly revised to serve Jesus and constantly living in the presence of God, is what both the Old and New Testaments summarize when they say in the following verses, and I'm going to read each of them to you in both the NIV translation and the Message translation. The first one is in Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5, where it says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.

And the message puts it this way. Love God your God with your whole heart. Love him with all that's in you. Love him with all you've got.

We're to love God with every part of us. And the Psalms will give us a picture of what that means and they'll help us do that. Now here is how we're going to do that in this lesson.

First we'll talk about the Psalms themselves, the details of their structure, their history, who wrote what, when, all that sort of thing. Then we'll tie them into disciples discipleship. As we look at how the Psalms are a continuous dialogue with God in every part of life.

Anger, joy, confusion, fear, lament, all of life. All of that constantly rearranging of our lives that Dallas Willard talks about is brought before God in the Psalms.

Because remember, if we are truly loved by someone, if we truly love someone, we don't hide any part of our lives from them. True love allows us to be totally who we are. The good, the bad, the faithful, the cowardly.

And we are not only free to be who we are in a relationship of true love, but we know we're completely accepted and and loved in that. That's what we see in the Psalms. It's the raw interaction between the psalmist and God.

And it's my Prayer for all of us that as we look at them, that we learn to truly love and allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus. That's what being a disciple really is all about. Now let's get into the Psalms to learn how to do it. First of all, the psalm structure and overview.

What are the Psalms? Originally, they were poems set to music.

Now some think that poetry and music can be a hurdle in understanding the Psalms, that we don't really understand how they sang things or what their poetry was like. And language can be a bit of a barrier. Psalm 119 is not an acrostic.

That means each verse starts with a different letter of the Alphabet in any language other than in Hebrews. And much American poetry does use rhyme, but Hebrew poetry doesn't. It uses parallels and other different kinds of structure.

And music is very different for different ages and cultures. But, you know, I don't really think that matters. I've read all sorts of commentaries that try to help you see the parallelism in Hebrew poetry.

And I'm sorry, I just don't get it. I think quite honestly, because the ultimate poet is God, they just work. There's something about poetry that we simply understand.

I don't think reading a psalm in any language misses out because the person reading it doesn't know the melody or the particular poetic structure.

The Psalms and other religious poetry work because ultimately they're on a heart level and in a emotional level that really goes beyond rational thought. Next, the time span and authors of the Psalms. David wrote most of them. He wrote 73 of them. Moses wrote one. One or two were written by Solomon.

That was the earliest one we have recorded. And here's how he writes in his psalm. This is Moses speaking. Lord, you've been our dwelling place throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born, you brought forth the whole world from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. And he ends with the psalm by saying, may the favor of the Lord our God rest on us. Establish the work of our hands for us.

Yes, establish the work of our hands. An application thought here. How extraordinarily God answered Moses prayer. And as we give our work to him, he asked that his words be established.

Oh, my goodness, how they have been. We have no idea, even our little words. How he will ultimately use what we create and and offer to him. Now, how did the Psalms come together?

Most likely an early collection was put together by David. We see in Chronicles especially that the latter part of David's life was spent in making detailed preparations for the temple.

And a large part of that were the assignments and detailed instructions on the music, the singers, the instruments they were supposed to use. Compiling the Psalms would have been part of that. Now, please note, this is really interesting if you haven't ever calculated it before.

His sin with Bathsheba happened when he was in his late 40s, maybe early 50s. He died at age 70. He confessed his sin, he was forgiven.

He did suffer for his sin, but he did some of his most important work in his life in the remaining 20 to 30 years of his life. And now let's look at that in a little more detail on David's work in the Psalms.

He obviously initially composed many of them when he was quite young. He fled from Saul, excuse me, during most of his 20s, for up to possibly 15 years, he was on the run.

We know this from the content that was obviously written during this time, as he again and again refers to specific actions that the historical books tell us about at that time. However, we also know from the notes he adds at the start of many of the Psalms to the director of music, a certain melody to use, etc.

And from the content in Chronicles that he did later working on them, compiling, editing, putting them in a form to share. Now, all the commentators agree that these are part of the original Hebrew text. They're not later editions.

David did put them in there when he was compiling the Psalms. Now here are some examples. They're kind of fun. Psalm 22 says for the director of music, to the tune of the doe in the morning, a Psalm of David.

Then Psalm 75, he said, for the director of music, to the tune of do not destroy. Apparently that was rather popular. He has at least three different psalms that use that. One of David, a Miktom, when he fled from Saul into the cave.

And sorry, we don't know what a miktam was. Different commentators say it was a type of poetry. Others say it meant it was a really special thing.

It's just all sorts of ideas, but we really have no idea. Psalm 60, this one is a little bit more lengthy.

It says, for the director of music, to the tune of the Lily of the Covenant, a miktam of David for teaching when he fought Aram Naharam and Aram Zoba. And when Joab returned and struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. So an important application here. And hear me please, this is so vital.

Many of you have sermons, journals, material you've written in the past.

They tell about your great adventures, lessons learned, insight gained on how God worked in your life, maybe how he worked in others lives, lessons you've put together all sorts of things. If you're winding down in the more active ministry phase of your life, I challenge you be a David.

Get to work organizing, editing, putting your learned lessons and messages in a form to share that the world can benefit from. You can do it. Today anyone can create blogs, videos, podcasts, books, any and every form of materials to share.

And we need to be flooding the Internet with good and godly material. Now I will have more on that coming from the Bible 805 ministry. But regardless of that, commit to do it now.

After David, again, he wrote most of them, and again Moses one of them. But the other authors, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, Asaph, and the descendants of Korah, all contributed.

Now I want to make a little note on the descendants of Korah. It's interesting that they're listed in that way because if you remember, and it's okay if you don't, Korah was one of the Israelites.

Israelites who rebelled against the leadership of Moses and who was swallowed up when the earth opened up as a judgment against his sin.

It's a good reminder that no matter what your past, no matter if you have maybe a very sinful heritage or whatever, you can serve God gloriously today. Finally, on the dating of the Psalms composition, most likely one of the last of the Psalms was written.

And after the Babylonian captivity, where in Psalm 137 it says, by the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. Now how do we get them? How did they come to be? I should say in the form that we have today.

Some compilations may have been made after David's initial organization, as more were written in the intervening years. Compilations were most likely made by Hezekiah or Josiah during their times of revival.

And most likely the complete collection that we have today and the order that we have them in was compiled by Ezra and his associates after the return from the exile in Babylon. This was the same time when Chronicles was written and the Jewish Scriptures as a whole were solidified.

There are many ways to divide and read them overall.

As we said earlier, they're prayers and hymns addressed to God, and they've been used as corporate worship in the past and are still used in Jewish and some Christian groups today, just as they are. Again, many ways to divide them, but we're going to do a little bit of a topical division and sort of little presentation of them.

We're going to focus on psalms of praise, lament, salvation, history and imprecatory psalms. That's where they say really bad things and people have problems with them. But I'll get to them in a minute.

I'm going to give you an example and then I'll have some application suggestions again on what we can learn from that particular type of psalm for our walk with God and developing all our life as disciples. Now, super important when reading and applying the Psalms, you must read the whole thing.

Many of the Psalms are a progression either of praise or an emotion, from abject pain and questioning and fear to a confident or quiet trust in God, like in the Book of Job. If you don't read the whole thing, you can easily misinterpret the verses, either in disappointment or in unrealistic expectations.

Okay, let's get into Psalms of praise and worship. In Psalm 100 in the message translation. It's kind of fun the way it puts it. It says, on your feet now, applaud God. Bring a gift of laughter.

Sing yourselves into his presence. Know this God is God and God God. He made us, we didn't make Him. We're his people, his well tended sheep. Enter with the password thank you.

Make yourselves at home talking.

Praise, thank him, worship him for God is sheer beauty all generous, love, loyal, always and ever Praise Application ideas here for your walk with God. When you don't feel like praising God or know how to praise, read a psalm. Read it out loud. You can even sing it. It's just between you and God.

Make up your own melody to the lilies of the whatever. Then think about writing a psalm. Simply let your emotions flow. Be specific though, about what God has done.

If you don't feel thankful or like praising, consider writing a psalm of praise simply as a discipline. Intentionally look at what to praise God for. Write your thanks for it and you may, the emotion of praise growing in you.

And if it doesn't, there's a whole group of psalms for dark times. These are what we call Psalms of lament, personal and corporate.

In Psalm 43 in the New Living Bible, it says, o God, defend me from the charges of these merciless, deceitful men. For you are God my only place of refuge. Why have you tossed me aside? Why must I mourn at the oppression of my enemies?

Oh, send out your light and truth, Let them lead me. Let them lead me to your temple on your holy mountain, Zion.

There I will go to the altar of God, my God, with exceeding joy, and praise him with my heart. Oh God, my God, O my soul, why be so gloomy and discouraged? The pattern here is honest discouragement.

Questions progressing to a renewed trust in God application do the same. Lay it all out before God. Ask your questions, voice your fears. God is not shocked.

He won't be upset with you, either with your actions or your bad attitudes. He already knows them. But if there's ever need to get it all out there, this is it. And then ask God for renewed hope, comfort, peace.

He does not want you to wallow in sadness. As the psalmist says, no matter how bad things look, trust in God again. I shall praise him for his wondrous help.

He will make me smile again, for he is my God. Psalms of Salvation History Retelling all or in part the history of Israel and lessons from it in Psalm 107. It's quite lengthy.

I'll just read parts of it. It's the story of how Israel sinned and God delivered them, and it goes back and forth, back and forth. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.

Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe. He gathered them from the lands, from east and west, north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no city where they could settle.

Hungry and thirsty, their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and he delivered them.

Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. Then their numbers decreased and they were humbled, and it talks about how all these terrible things happened.

But let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of God. Application to all of us. Look at your history. There's some good in it, there's some bad in it. Maybe we all have both of these things.

But take time to evaluate your life, your family. God can always help you change if you want. Ask and be obedient. Remember the sons of Korah.

From a heritage of shame to writers of Psalms God can always do exciting things in your life. Now we come to the imprecatory Psalms. The entire range of human emotions is in the Psalms, and these are some of the most difficult to understand.

But hang in there with me as we discuss that. In addition to the joy and sadness, the imprecatory psalms mean they are ones that you invoke or call down evil or curses upon a person or peoples.

Here's a couple of examples, and there's a lot more than this, unfortunately. But in Psalm 137:7 9 it says, Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. Tear it down, they cried.

Tear it down to its found foundations, daughter Babylon doomed to destruction. Happy is the one who repays you according to what you've done to us.

Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks who Pretty brutal, but Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart have some excellent commentary on this. I couldn't say it any better. Well, there's a lot of things I couldn't say any better. That's why I quote them and others so much.

But let me just read you what they say because it is excellent. And I'm quoting them through the imprecatory Psalms God invites us in your anger. Do not sin. We must fulfill the New Testament teaching.

Do not let the sun go down while you're still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

By expressing our anger directly to and through God, rather than by seeking to return evil to those who have done evil to us, imprecatory psalms harness our anger and help us express it to God.

By using some sorts of obvious purposeful exaggeration known to us from other types of psalms, we may honestly express our anger to God, no matter how bitterly and hatefully we feel it. And let God take care of justice against those who misuse us.

You won't be effective in most cases, and you may say and do things you regret if you try. Much wisdom is needed here, but we can be assured that no one gets away with anything.

Remember, let God take care of justice against those who misuse us, and he will Sometimes it's a great test to wait for God to act, but these psalms show us that nothing is off limits to God, no matter how hateful and spiteful and awful and resentful we feel. We can tell him, but we have to wait for him to act, and the timing of it's in his hands. We may want it immediately, we may want it right away.

We may want all sorts of things, but the timing is his overall applications for every emotion in life good, bad, and in between. The Psalms teach us everything is part of our life lived before God, part of growing as his disciple.

When we become a Christian, we enter into a new kind of life where God wants to touch, influence, and be a part of every corner of our lives, from our greatest joys and deepest sorrows and most hateful resentments. Let's look at a few more examples from David, and you can see how he did this with his life.

He constantly wrote about what was happening in the Psalms as a young man. Of course, we're familiar with Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, and he goes through all the difficult things.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you're with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me.

And ending of course, with surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In Psalm 8, some commentators have said he probably wrote that as a very young man sitting outside looking at the stars, where he says, o Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou visitest him for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. In the difficult years running from Saul, he did not allow himself to be consumed with bitterness or anger in the way that Saul did.

He did not ignore the horrid things happening, but his take on them and his response was so different. There are numerous ones that are like this where he talks about, as in Psalm 52. Again, he has one of those little header areas.

He says, Amaskil, A Psalm of David When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, david has come to the house of Ahimelech. And in this psalm he says, why boastest thou in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually.

Thy tongue devises mischief like a sharp razor working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, and lying, rather than to speak righteousness, you love devouring words, O deceitful tongue.

But he goes on to say, God shall likewise destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living.

The righteous will see in fear and laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

So here you see, it's a great example of an imprecatory psalm, but of turning things over to God, letting God take care of the evil that happened to him.

And when he sinned, of course, in Psalm 51, where he had an affair with Bathsheba, murdered, and that's putting it kind of nicely, murdered her husband. When he was confronted by Nathan the prophet with what he did, he immediately turns to God.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly for mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners will be converted unto thee.

Note also in his prayer that not only was he asking for himself and his forgiveness, but that he might minister to others after God forgave him. In later Psalms, again he organized for the temple worship. He didn't allow himself to be consumed with anger or bitterness.

He turned it all to praise. In Psalm 103, a Psalm of David, he says, bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. And finally, looking at psalms, looking at David, looking at discipleship.

David is not only remember the author of many Psalms, but he was described as a man after God's own heart. In the Psalms we see what this means.

One who is in constant interaction conversation with God, who develops the heart of God in his life and in that inviting God to be part of your life. Every part of life goes back to Dallas Willard's description of a disciple as someone who. And I'm going to read this again because it's so important.

Let it sink in. And as I read this to you, think how the Psalms can help you do this.

A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control or knows a lot of things.

Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their efforts to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. May our constant reading and meditation on the Psalms help us to do just that.