Sermon Series
Week 1
Psalm 1 | God's Law
AIM Commentary
Ancient lens
What’s the historical context?
Wisdom Song
It is not too far a stretch to imagine an eager young person sitting at the feet of a well-seasoned elder and receiving the words of this Psalm, “In life, there are two ways to walk. We can delight in God’s law…
Discussion Questions
What is the significance between the blessed person whose delight is in the law of the Lord and the wicked person who is like chaff driven away by the wind? Does this seem too stark a delineation or maybe overly simplified? Why do you think the Psalmist uses…
Sermon Resources
Key Quotes
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God created man for nothing else but happiness.
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The Hebrew word Torah does not signify order but orientation. It is not a law, it is the way, the road along which a common enterprise is possible.
Key Illustrations
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The Movement of the Psalms
Walter Brueggemann writes that the movement of the psalms is from orientation to disorientation and then to new orientation. The psalms give us a language for transformation in desert spaces: we move from a particular view of ourselves, God, and the cosmos until suddenly we are disoriented by a sudden illness, pregnancy loss, a busted-up economy, being passed over for a job, news of global inequality, racial violence, and even the numbness of our own souls.
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“The Psalms Found Expression in His Innermost Feelings”
In 1977, at the height of the Cold War, Anatoly Shcharansky, a brilliant young mathematician and chess player, was arrested by the KGB for his repeated attempts to emigrate to Israel. He spent thirteen years inside the Soviet Gulag. From morning to evening Shcharansky read and studied all 150 psalms (in Hebrew). “What does this give me?” he asked in a letter:
“Gradually, my feeling of great loss and sorrow changes to one of bright hopes.” Shcharansky so cherished his book of Psalms, in fact, that when guards took it away from him, he lay in the snow, refusing to move, until they returned it. During those thirteen years, his wife traveled around the world campaigning for his release. Accepting an honorary degree on his behalf, she told the university audience, “In a lonely cell in Chistopol prison, locked alone with the Psalms of David, Anatoly found expression for his innermost feelings in the outpourings of the King of Israel thousands of years ago.”
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Biblical Meditation
Biblical scholar Nahum Sarna (in On the Book of Psalms) points out that the mediation mentioned in Psalm 1 (The man who “meditates on [God’s] law day and night”) is “not engaged in meditation and contemplation, such as required in some mystical systems and traditions.” (38) Instead, the kind of individual study in question is, “reading aloud, rote learning, and constant oral repetition.” (38) Silent reading was uncommon in the ancient world and even the Hebrew word for “to read” also means “to proclaim.” This method of study was common between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and even China. Sarna adds,
Study of the sacred text—torah—was not just an intellectual pursuit or matter of professional training, but a spiritual and moral discipline. It was the authoritative guide to right behavior. Constant repetition and review “day and night,” functioned to incorporate its values within the self so that they became a part of one’s own being, consciously and subconsciously guiding one’s actions. (39)
Sarna concludes that this is why study of Torah was so important—a sacred duty—rather than an “elitist enterprise.” Studying aloud was not only intellectual, but an act of worship.
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
- Adapted from Psalm 1 (BOCP)View
Leader: Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of
the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
People: Their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and they meditate on his law day and night.
Leader: They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither;
People: Everything they do shall prosper. So Lord we cry out for your help to obey all your ways.
Leader: Come, let us worship the Lord!Adapted for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: BOCP The Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the USA Church Publishing IncorporatedScripture quotations marked (BOCP) are from The Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the USA (1979). Public domain.
Prayer of Confession
- Inspired by Leviticus 26:14-46View
Pastor: Oh God, we have not listened to you, and we have not walked in all of your commandments. We have spurned your statutes, and our souls have abhorred your laws.
All: I have not followed you in your commandments, and I have broken your covenant. The sin in my heart and in my life has caused panic and heart ache—both in me an in those around me.
Pastor: Even after you have shown us grace and mercy, we have walked contrary to your commandments. We have not listened to you, and we have continued to walk contrary to your direction.
All: I confess that I have sinned; all the generations in my family have sinned. I humble my heart before you, O God. You have kept Your covenant even when I have broken it. Remember me with grace, O Father.
Personalizes ESV translation.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Assurance of Pardon
- Psalm 33:18-22View
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
We wait for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our hearts are glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
Amen.
Adapted for corporate liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Benediction
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As you go forth from here, may you go forth with the heart of the Psalmist, in humility, seeking the will of the Lord in all you do, and in confidence, knowing that the Lord is our rock and redeemer.
And may the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you this day and forevermore. Amen.
