A Estrutura e Teologia dos Salmos (Dia 2 Parte 2) | Rev. Palmer Robertson (com slides)

[Music] we could we open in and could we open in prayer it's opened in prayer father your word is such a treasure it gives us so much joy to discover the truth that is in the bible give us the grace to receive it into our hearts as well as into our minds give us great zeal to teach it and preach it to others bless these men as they prepare for the gospel ministry is give each one of them special gifts for the special calling that you have for them keep for christ's sake amen just a word about african bible university and i should introduce my son murray john murray robertson very nice to have murray traveling around with her with me he keeps me out of much trouble we have three universities degree granting universities in three different countries in africa we started in liberia west africa 40 years ago then we went to malawi in southern africa and thirdly uganda in central africa africa their four-year degree granting universities everyone every student majors in biblical and theological studies [Music] but they also are equipped in a secondary emphasis no creatures there are paid enough to support themselves and their families so by being trained in these areas they can support their families but also minister through these other areas so they can become teachers of schools [Music] they start with nothing and risk everything the schools are very small of 100 200 but we are attempting to raise up what we call servant leaders for christ in africa but in some ways the the african countries south of the sahara are a lot like what i understand is happening in the latin american countries [Music] do you use this phrase latin american how do you speak yes latin american american latina okay massive growth in christianity [Music] many pastors who have never had one day of training some of them do better than others we do have the health and wealth people and they get a very strong training in reformed theology [Music] [Music] in uganda presbyterian is very recent very early very young now just since the 1980s yes she wants to come all right yes right started in the 1980s there was a a pastor who you know was preaching to about a thousand people any the spies were converted by the preaching and in those days they would simply stuff someone in the trunk of an automobile and drive off and cut them into body parts and sell them back to their families this the spies came and told the pastor it's time yes time for you to leave with sugar yes a little sugar please so he escaped he went back to uganda and founded the first presbyterian church in uganda but presbyterianism had been there from the very beginning [Music] because one of the first missionaries was presbyterian though working with the anglicans okay so in africa the door is wide open thank you you can preach anytime anywhere and people will listen many of our students are muslim and background that have been converted we feel it's a great opportunity i cannot speak about latin america but this is africa's hour the growing edge of christianity maybe god would call some of you is [Music] now let's look at book five now you have a very interesting introduction introductory song [Music] but every one of the five books begins with one or two introductory songs now look at psalm 107. notice how book four ends psalm 106 47 save us o lord our god and gather us from the nations what is this prayer at the end of book 4. gather us from the nations well it's the cry of the people in exile that god would bring them back from their exile [Music] now look at the way book five begins psalm 107.

verse one give thanks to the lord verse two let the redeemed of the lord say so verse 3 those he has gathered from the lands from east and west from north and south now if we can go to the next slide first is lighting so we're consummation now these colors you see they don't all mean something but they're different devastation is dark maturation is green for growth and obviously if book five is consummation the color must be golden the golden streets right moving toward the climax now the next slide so here is we're looking at the the structure of book five and it begins with an introductory song psalm 107. now what you would expect in the consummation and that's what you have five climaxes in book five yeah it's a thing is a climax of torah messianic coupling of psalms this is not the first time there has been a coupling we haven't dealt with this but it's very evident blessed is a man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly but his delight is in the law the the word torah we think of too narrowly as purely law legalistic teaching [Music] i believe you're going to be going through psalm 119 is that in your preaching class yes it is okay each one of you is going to get a segment right what a wonderful experience you're going there i wish i could be there and listen and then make some criticism in uganda i i do teach preaching you and when when the students are prepared to to do their preaching i call it chop chop use the oh what a wonderful sermon you preach fast oh what a lovely song so you should be very very thankful for that time when somebody begins to chop chop your assortment okay but psalm 1 is torah but psalm 2. kiss the son blessed are all those who trust in him law and gospel [Music] muslims [Music] if you have gospel without law you have libertinism freedom to do anything so the two opening psalms couple as the they're like two great pillars by which you enter into the temple of the psalter torah and messiah law and gospel where does it come again psalm 18 and 19.

messiah right in the middle of book 40 book one with 41 verses of 41 psalms right in the middle there dividing this big book into two pieces psalm 18 and psalm 19. [Music] psalm 118 is a mess one of the three most quoted psalms in the new testament and psalm 119 you know what it's about 176 verses about the torah i speak to the league this is one of the and this divides the this big long book this is one of the this is the one of the major breaking points in book five but now i want you to do some thinking it's a very strange thing this is to do some thinking why at this point do you have this strong emphasis on the torah working [Music] the book five is dealing also with their situation in exile they have been living with no holy city they cannot offer sacrifices without a priesthood so what do they do they substitute torah for temple they yes study for sacrifices and even today the the diaspora the jews distributed all over they're committed to the study of the torah so that no longer do they worship at the temple they're scattered among the nations but they commit themselves to study the torah myself you remember what jesus said a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth but here is obviously the climax of messiah and torah couplings next slide next we have a climax or focal messianic song we have a number of psalms in the book of psalms that focus on the messiah in various ways many of the psalms can be easily related to in anticipation of the messiah or the messiah's kingdom or but you do have these focal messianic songs you can write down these songs [Music] for example 22. [Music] but among all the 150 there are three psalms that are quoted more than any other in the new testament [Music] what would you say we've discussed some of them already three psalms most quoted in the new testament 119 110 110 1 10 and 1 18.

now two is a part of the two introductory songs to the whole of this altar um and the other two psalms that are most quoted in the new testament are found in book number two liberal and in these two psalms you get some introduction into the messiah that are quite distinctive this you remember jesus cites this in the last week of his life oh we know the answer to that question messiah obviously is david's son well why does psalm 110 say david writes as the king jave says to adonai i thought messiah was david's son but he says psalm 110 says says to david's lord sit at my right hand until i make your enemies the footstool of your feet so whose son is messiah um all the time the truth had been there all the time and then you go to verse 4 psalm 110. the lord has sworn you are priests forever yahweh is warned you are a priest forever according to the order of melchizedek this same person who is david's lord seated at the right hand of god he's also a priest a priest forever assembly after the order of melchizedek do you remember what happened to good king uzziah he was trying to set a good example he tried to go into the temple and offer sacrifice and what did he get for him leprosy in the middle of his forehead where he could not have it he died a leper in a or in a separated house says messiah is both king [Music] and psalm 118 you study it and get your your bible out and notice all the places that that's quoted in the new testament so climax of messianic songs in book 5. third climax next a climax of acrostic song [Music] these are these two acrostics here are just absolutely wonderful now how many letters in the hebrew alphabet what does littlest enough you know if you're going 22.

how many verses in psalm 111 what is versatile songs how many verses 22 victories how does that work well you have a half letter or a half verse for each one of the letters of the hebrew alphabet um that would get you up to 20. but you still need two more so the last two verses have three letters of the hebrew alphabet thing three and notice 111 and 112 both have the same number of verses if you're going to memorize anything in hebrew from the psalter begin with psalms 111 and 112. you've got the help of the hebrew alphabet little short psalms and they will bless your heart but both of them have the identical phrase in verse 3 his righteousness endures forever in verse in psalm 111 it's talking in psalm 112 it's talking about the servant the righteous servant of the lord the the righteous disciple his righteousness endures forever in other words okay just clarifying one word in particular okay verse three and verse of psalm 111 is righteousness endures forever verse 3 of 112 his righteousness endures forever 111 it's the lord and then it talks about the generosity of the lord and the generosity of the man who fears the lord paul the apostle wants to drive home the generosity of disciples of jesus christ first he talks about our lord jesus christ who so generously gave himself and then he's quote psalm 112.

so also you should manifest your generosity and your righteousness that endures forever so this is a climax but the ultimate climax obviously of acoustic psalms is 119. there's one two three and here's the fourth acrostic song in book 5. very deliberately [Music] this is the last of eight davidic psalms see right down here final davidic collection psalm 138-145 is the final editor of the psalter he says you know david was the one who really got all this started wouldn't it be proper to have a recognition of david at the end of the book of songs so either he takes him from the first collection and he has eight psalms of david as the pen ultimate collection and isn't it appropriate that the last of the davidic psalms is an acrostic song yesterday now the next slide now here we get into something called poetic pyramids and i i can't get into all the detail of this or the time that we have i you know you can study it for yourself somewhat or or have access to my book on the on the structure of the song yeah what is a poetic pyramid well it's a grouping of songs that have a similar theme a uniting [Music] and an even number of psalms on either side always an uneven number four on one side four on the other and one in the middle you go back to book one and you have five kingship song after psalms one and two there's no mention of kingship or sun until you get to psalm 18.

and then reflecting on psalm 18 you have 20 21 22 23 and 24 all kingship songs some videos 23 and 24 are yahweh kingship songs and 22 joins together messianic psalm and so no mention of kingship in all of this previous area only five kingship songs grouped together [Music] you're familiar with psalm 22 it begins my god my god why have you forsaken me that is messiah's kingdom but we usually are so overwhelmed by that that we don't read the rest of psalm 22. there is a poetic pyramid of hallelujah psalms this is the initial hallelujah grouping two hallelujah psalms here two hallelujah psalms here the pyramidic song 15 songs king's psalms psalms of a sin song the central psalm is a that reflects particularly on the promises of david that are reflected in solomon's experience about the house of the lord now that means there are seven psalms on this side and seven psalms on this side these are all songs of a sentence how many davidic psalms on this side of psalm 127. how many psalms of david on this side how many songs over here that have no author indicated [Music] now this is the key question how many uses of yave on this side of psalm 127.

a contest how many uses of the word the name [Music] three more three is mine seven more mice nine but there's nine in there i don't know what's significant about nine um not where's 14 how many tribes in israel 14. how many apostles of the tribes and 12 of the apostles those now how many uses of yahweh do you think is on this side 24 uses of yahweh over here 24 uses of yahweh over here now the question why why would there be all these uses of yahweh in these psalms of a sense where they are sending to and what do they expect to happen when they get to the temple and they offer their sacrifices bless you and keep you sing lord make his faith shine upon you and be gracious unto you yahweh lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace so they shall set my name on the sons of israel and i will bless them you know so as they're reciting these psalms of ascents they're anticipating how many times is the priest going to say the name yahweh over them 48 and it's very interesting you studied these psalms of ascent and in about uh 12 of the 15 some of those phrases yahweh bless you and keep you yahweh make his face shine upon you yahweh bless you they're inherent in these psalms of ascent now i wrote all this up and said perhaps this is an insight into the structure of the psalter and submitted it to a high level old testament you know magazine your [Applause] [Music] and what kind of response did i get he fought for his white school history that's absolutely ridiculous i don't know it looks pretty obvious to me you don't have to be persuaded but this is this is the climax if i'm unless i'm imagining it the climax of the poetic pyramids [Music] and how much richer would be our preaching and teaching if we could get into the structure that helps us reinforce it like the five kingship songs 22 24 you see them as a grouping and it enriches so we go finally to the last of these uh climaxes and the last of the climax has got to be hallelujah i know this is more a pentecostal word than a presbyterian but we need to claim this word as presbyterian now you would assume that this word is all over the bible right where do you find hallelujah in the old testament is it anywhere in the pentateuch yeah what about the historical books of the old testament joshua through kings [Music] what about the prophets hallelujah occurs in the old testament only in the book of psalms hallelujah and it occurs only at the very end of the fourth book for the first time the last three psalms of the fourth book for the first time introduced 104 105 106. and it has a pattern like this ends with hallelujah ends with hallelujah begins and ends with hallelujah and then when you get to book one of book five begins with hallelujah begins with hallelujah begins hallelujah now you have to check those out because the translations will sometimes be pray say praise the lord rather than hallelujah there is also this psalm 135 also uses hallelujah but the climax is here the last five each one of these last five songs begins and ends with hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah isn't that appropriate now where do you see hallelujah in the new testament [Music] is it in the gospels the book of acts where is it the book of revelation is it in the letters to the seven churches no no only in revelation chapter 19.