I invite you to take your copy of scripture and turn to Psalm 1. If you're using one of the Bibles that we provide for you, you'll find our passage on page 448. Psalm 1. As you're turning there, I'll just mention that over the last two or three years I've found myself in kind of this rhythm where each year I have preached a portion of the book of Psalms and then a portion of the book of Acts. And so I've done that over the last few years. Of course, there's been some other series and other sermons mixed in, but each year a little bit of Psalms, a little bit of Acts. And I'm planning to do that, Lord willing, in this next year. And so if I were to give kind of a general theme for the preaching ministry of the church for this next year, it would be the people of God on mission for God. The people of God on mission for God. And when I speak about the people of God, I'm referencing how we individually and corporately relate to God in all the twists and turns and ups and downs of this life. And that's what we discover in the Psalms. And when I speak about the mission of God, I'm speaking about how we individually and corporately as a people are faithful to God's mission to make disciples of all nations. And that's the book of Acts. So the people of God, Psalms, on mission for God, the book of Acts. And this morning, as we've concluded a series in Acts, not too long ago, we looked at Paul's second missionary journey. We now are going to start another series in the Psalms. But this morning, instead of just going to the next psalm, preaching the next psalm, because I've been working consecutively through the psalms for a number of years, instead of just going to the next psalm this morning, I'm going to attempt to do something that I've never done before. and that is preach one sermon on the whole book of Psalms, okay? So you can pray for me, and maybe more importantly, you can pray for yourself, because whether this goes well or not, you're gonna have to endure it. So this morning, one sermon on the book of Psalms. And we're gonna start in Psalm 1, all right? So I'm gonna read for us Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on His law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank You and praise You for the book of Psalms and just how precious and dear this book has been to so many Christians throughout the centuries. Lord, we pray that You would teach us now by Your Spirit, and we pray that we would know something more of Your glory and wonder and beauty through the Psalms, and that we would be moved as the Psalms compel us to do so, to worship You. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Well, the Bible is divided into two Testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. And in the Old Testament, the book of Psalms is the longest book in the Old Testament. It's compiled of 150 Psalms, which actually makes it the longest book in the entire Bible. But not only is the book of Psalms the longest book in the Old Testament, it is arguably the most popular book in the Old Testament. If you've ever gotten one of those little pocket New Testaments before, you know, it'll include the New Testament, but then oftentimes there's one Old Testament book in the back of that pocket New Testament. And you know what book it is, right? It's the Psalms. Because the Psalms have been so beloved by Christians throughout the centuries. And Psalm 1, which I just read here a few moments ago, has been identified as the gateway to the Psalter. That is the introduction to the entire book of the Psalms. So Psalm 1 is an invitation, as we just read here, for you and me to pursue being like the blessed man here in Psalm 1, the man who is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does, he prospers. But the question is, how can we be such a man? How can we be such a woman? How can we be this blessed man, this blessed woman? And the psalmist tells us, right, in verse 2, by meditating on the law of the Lord day and night. Now the law of the Lord here could be understood in a number of different ways. One, we could take it as referring to the first five books of the Old Testament, which was known as the law because it was written by Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The law of the Lord also could be taken here as referring to the whole Bible, and I think it's appropriate to see it in that way as well. But also given the fact that this is the first psalm in the book of psalms and it's introducing the book as a whole, I think we can also understand the law of the Lord here to be referring to the book of psalms itself. The 150 psalms that the psalmist here is now going to be presenting us with. And here in psalm one, what the psalmist is saying is these psalms that are now coming to you in this book of psalms, meditate on them day and night. And you will be like this blessed man. This blessed man who bears fruit in season and out of season. This is what I want us to do this morning in our time together. I want us to meditate on the law of the Lord. And in particular, meditate on these 150 Psalms that are included here in this book. And as a result, by the grace of God, we will know something. of the blessing of the favor of the Lord that the psalmist speaks of here in Psalm 1. Over the years as I've attempted to preach through the psalms, I've just kind of done different series in the psalms, but basically I've just preached through them consecutively, one psalm after another, and we've made our way all the way up through Psalm 106 at this point. But as I've attempted to preach through the psalms over the years, I've regularly wondered if the Psalms actually have like a purposeful order, if there's some intentional arrangement to the Psalms that tell a greater story. And this is the question that I want us to ask and attempt to answer this morning. Is the book of Psalms a random collection of 150 songs? Or are these individual Psalms arranged in a purposeful order that tell a larger story that God intends for us to see and understand? I would say that most people approach the Psalms as individual devotional poems, or singular worship songs, or stand-alones that are to be read and understood without any reference to the Psalms that come before or the Psalms that follow. And there is some truth to this, and many read the Psalms in this way to great benefit. In fact, when I plan these Psalm series, oftentimes I'll do so in the summer because people are often traveling in the summer and they kind of are in and out, and it's a little bit easier when you're preaching through the Psalms because each individual Psalm in one sense can stand alone. You don't necessarily have to know what's come before or what's coming after. It's not like preaching through the book of Genesis where one paragraph builds on the other because you're going through a story or a narrative. Or like Romans where one sentence builds on another because a prolonged argument is being made throughout that book. So there is some truth to this, that the Psalms in one sense, each of them can stand alone on their own. But interpreters at the same time have wrestled with this question throughout church history. How are these Psalms arranged? Is there some order? Is there some purpose or intent in their arrangement? For example, the early church father, Augustine, confessed that, quote, the arrangement of the psalm seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, which hath not yet been revealed to me. So Augustine was saying, I see hints of it, I see indications that there's some arrangement here, that there's some larger story that's being told, but as I attempt to press into it, I can't discern exactly what it is. Well, in the last 150 years or so, there's been a lot of work done on this topic. And I believe there have been some fascinating insights that reveal, to a much greater extent, an understanding of how these Psalms have been arranged and the purpose in their arrangement. And so for that reason, I hope this morning that we will be able to press into this and to some extent unlock this mighty mystery that Augustine spoke of, that he sensed and longed to understand. I will say up front that what I'm going to share with you this morning is not original with me by any means. I am leaning on the work of so many other men who are much smarter than I am. You probably don't care who these people are, but I'm just going to mention some of the names so I give credit where credit is due. Jim Hamilton is one who I studied with at Southern Seminary. Gerald Wilson, Gordon Winnem, Bruce Waltke, Fred Zaspel, Christopher Ashe. I'm leaning heavily on the insights that these men have seen in the Psalms in this message this morning. Now as we begin to understand what is this overall message, I want to just point a few things out about the Psalms that are important for us to understand. One is that the book of Psalms is divided into five books. Okay, so you've got one book, the book of Psalms, and many of you know this, but it is divided up into five books. So if you look at Psalm 1, which I just read in your Bible, and you look just above Psalm 1, you should have in your Bible there a title. In my Bible, it's in all caps, and it's in bold, and it says Book 1. And if you were to go through the Psalms, you would find Book 2, and Book 3, and Book 4, and Book 5. And then many of the individual psalms contain a title, or sometimes it's referred to as a superscription. And the title tells us something about the author of the psalm, so who wrote it. Or it might tell us the historical context of the psalm, in which context was this psalm written. Sometimes the title tells us both. It tells us the author and it tells us the historical event related to the psalm. So if you just go down to Psalm 3, just scan down the page there in your Bible, you'll see that Psalm 1 does not have a title, Psalm 2 does not have a title, but Psalm 3 does. The title in my Bible is in all caps. It reads, A Psalm of David. So David wrote this psalm, we assume. when he fled from Absalom his son." That's the historical context. David was fleeing from his son who had betrayed him. Now, what I believe we'll see this morning is that when we take into account the content of the Psalms and the titles of the Psalms that gives us a sense of the author and the historical context in which they're written, and the arrangement of the Psalms in these five books that a story emerges that we are intended to see and understand. Now from a historical perspective, I'll say that the story is this. The story told is the story of Israel from King David to the destruction and exile of the nation within the hope of a future restoration through a new David. So that's the story I believe that's being told through the Psalms. The story of Israel from King David to the destruction of the nation with the hope of a future restoration through a new David. If I were to put it devotionally, practically, I would say it this way. The call of the book of Psalms is a call to praise and hope in God, who redeems His people through the promise of an anointed King. Now, let me see if I can show you this in the Psalms, okay? So we're going to start, we're just going to work through each book, and I'll try to show you this story. We're going to start with books 1 and 2 and we're going to consider them together because I think they go together. So book 1 spans from Psalm 1 to Psalm 41. And book 2 spans from Psalm 42 to Psalm 72. You'll see that in your Bible if you flip through. Now, some of us might assume, because David writes many of the Psalms, some of us might assume that all the Psalms were written by David, but that's not true. In fact, many of the Psalms were not written by David. But most of the Psalms in Book 1 and Book 2 were written by David. In fact, over 75% of them were written by David. So in Book 1, 37 of the 41 Psalms are written by David. And in Book 2, 18 of the 30 Psalms are written by or associated with David. So Book 1 and 2, this seems to be an indication that these two are to be considered with one another because you have strong emphasis on authorship from David. And then, this is interesting, Book 2 ends with a psalm that's entitled, Of Solomon. Now of course, Solomon was David's son who assumed the throne after David died. And of Solomon could mean that Psalm 72 was written by Solomon, or it was written by someone who was speaking about Solomon. And I think that is more likely. It seems that Psalm 72 would have been written by David. Speaking of Solomon. This is the last psalm in Book 2. And in fact, Psalm 72 ends with these words. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. So it seems that the compiler, the editors who were putting together these psalms, who were organizing them into these books and putting the books in order, they wanted us to see at the end of Book 2 that there's a strong division here. These are the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, and they are ended. So books 1 and 2, there seems to be this clear division. Now what is the content of these psalms? There's a heavy emphasis on David and on his life. What is the content of these psalms? Well, although they're not arranged in chronological order, they essentially tell the story of David's life. One author has referred to them as a poetic commentary on the life of David. They basically tell the story of David's life that is recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel. I know that our cohorts have been working through 1 and 2 Samuel, which tells chronologically, historically, the story of David's life. And these Psalms here, many of them correspond with that story and are a poetic expression of what David experienced. And what we find over and over again is that in these Psalms, David is lamenting. David's crying out that the Lord would save him and deliver him from his enemies. Whether it's King Saul, or it's the leaders of other nations, or it's his own son Absalom. David is crying out for the Lord's salvation and deliverance. But these laments don't finally give way to despair, but rather they're marked by this kind of confidence, this sense of hope that the Lord will in fact save David because David is His anointed one, His chosen one, and ultimately He will be delivered. The stage for this story is actually set in Psalm 2, so look there at Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way. For His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." This is the promise that the Lord will protect and bless and defend His Anointed One, and that His Anointed One will be victorious. Now if you want to see how this practically plays itself out in David's life, turn to Psalm 42. In Psalm 42 verses 5 through 11, we read these words. Psalm 42. Verse 5, why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon from Mount Mazar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers, all your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries haunt me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Now of course, it is verses like this that we find in the Psalms that have made these poems, these spiritual hymns so beloved in the history of the church. It is this authenticity, this honesty, this vulnerability and rawness that we can so easily identify with as we experience trials and troubles in our own life. In so many ways, David's life encapsulates the life of a Christian. You know, the Apostle Paul said to some of the early churches that he founded in the book of Acts, he admonished them saying that it was through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God. And of course, this is the experience of the Christian life. Many of you are living this and walking this even this morning. Yes, God is good to us and has blessed us and given us so many good things in this life for which we should be grateful. And the Psalms speak to that. But at the same time, the Psalms recognize and we know by experience that life is full of disappointments and frustrations and losses and regrets. And I will let you know that the longer you live, actually the more you come to realize this. And David and the Psalms in particular, they teach us how in the midst of these trials, in the midst of these disappointments, in the midst of these losses and grief, they teach us how to be honest with God and with one another about these struggles. And not only how to be honest, but at the same time to have a joyful hope in God as we look to Him in faith. It's been said that the Psalms are, quote, a spiritual diary of the praying David. Or that the Psalms are the prayer book of Israel's anointed king. Can you imagine that? It's one thing to read the story of one's life and the different trials and struggles and difficulties that they experienced. It's a whole other thing if that person dies. And you're told that you're to clean out the house. And you go to the house and you start unloading all the clothes and cleaning the closets, and you come across that person's prayer journal. And you open it up, and you are able in that prayer journal to be exposed to the times when that person poured their hearts out before the Lord in the greatest of joys and the deepest of sorrows. And that's what the book of Psalms is for us. David pours his heart out before the Lord, and we get an inside look. And of course, not only were these the prayers of David, but these become the prayers of David's greater son, the Lord Jesus. As Jesus grew up in a Jewish home, these would have been the prayers that He was taught. These would have been the prayers that He memorized. These would have been the prayers that Jesus prayed when He was agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. When His disciples betrayed Him and abandoned Him. When He was hanging on a cross and suffering for our sins. These would have been the prayers on Jesus' lips. And my friends, our lives will be all the better if we learn and know these prayers. And if we pray them to our God. Calling out to Him just as David and the Lord Jesus Himself did. This moves us from book 1 and 2 to book 3. So that's books 1 and 2. It is the story of David's life. Now book 3 spans from Psalm 73 to Psalm 89. So Psalm 73 to 89. And book 3 has actually been referred to as the dark book. Because book 3 seems to tell the story from Solomon, who was David's son, so David dies and then there's Solomon. Remember, book 2 ended with a psalm about Solomon. And now book 3 seems to tell the story from Solomon through the Davidic monarch, so the kings from David's line who ruled over the nation, to the end of the nation, and the downfall of the nation, and Babylonian exile. So that seems to be the story of Book 3. There's actually one psalm in Book 3 that is written by David, but all the other psalms in Book 3 are written by temple musicians like Asaph and the sons of Korah and Ethan the Ezraite. And repeatedly in Book 3 what we see is that the psalmists are concerned about the nation, and in particular they are concerned about the temple, because the nation and the temple have been attacked and destroyed. So for example, look at Psalm 79. Psalm 79, look at verses 1 through 4. This psalm is a psalm of Asaph, and in Psalm 79 verse 1 we read, Oh God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beast of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us." Now we see this a number of times in Book 3. And then Book 3 actually ends with Psalm 89. And Psalm 89 is a fascinating psalm because in Psalm 89 it begins with the psalmist rejoicing and celebrating in the covenant that God made with David. That God had promised that a son of David would be on the throne of Israel and rule and reign over God's people forever. But then there's a turning point in Psalm 89. As the psalmist is celebrating God's covenant with David, then he turns and he begins to lament and question God's faithfulness to his covenant. Will God be faithful to this promise? So look at Psalm 89, look at verse 33. I'm sorry, verse 34. Verse 34, this is like the Lord is speaking. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon, it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies. Now listen to what the psalmist says in verse 38, but now you have cast off and rejected. You are full of wrath against your Anointed One. You have renounced the covenant with your servant. You have defiled His crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls. You have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him. He has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes. You have made all his enemies rejoice. You have also turned back the edge of the sword and you have not made him stand in battle. You have made his splendor deceased and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. And then skip down to verses 49 to 51. Lord, where is Your steadfast love of old, which by Your faithfulness You swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how Your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations with which Your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of Your anointed. Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen. So this is the story of book 3. It's a dark book. It's the story of the rebellion of God's people that led to their destruction and the destruction of the temple. And it ends with this question, Lord, what has happened to the covenant that you made with David? Book 3 is a sad reminder of the individual and communal consequences of sin. What we see is that Israel is destroyed because of her persistent rebellion against the Lord. And of course, we should say that not all suffering that we experience in this life is the result of personal sin. We need to make that very clear. But it's also true, as we learn here in the Psalms, that there are times in this life when we experience very real and tangible consequences of choosing to walk in sin rather than choosing to trust God and to live in joyful obedience to His Word. When we endure these seasons of exile, we might call them, these seasons in which we are experiencing the real results of sin, whether it be our own personal sin or the sin of others. Book 3 here helps us make sense of this reality. Book 3 gives us expressions of lament and confession, of trust and hope as we look to God in faith. Sometimes in our own Christian lives, we might experience something like this. Maybe a Christian leader or a Christian organization or a local church will fail us. Perhaps a Christian leader disqualifies himself from the ministry. Or a Christian organization that we love implodes as a result of controversy. Or maybe a local church that we attend goes through a nasty split. And if any of you have experienced something like this, you know how difficult it can be. But understand, what's being described here in Book 3 of the Psalms is not just a particular Christian leader falling, or an especially effective organization imploding, or a well-known or beloved church splitting. Rather, this is the very chosen people of God, Israel. This is the Davidic line through whom all the promises of God are to be fulfilled. And all the salvation that God has promised to the world is to be realized. This is the temple, the temple itself where God promised to especially dwell with His people. And all of it seems to be polluted by sin. All of it seems to be rejected by God. All of it seems to be destroyed by the nations. And there is this very real question that looms at the end of book 3. Has God forgotten His promise? Where is your steadfast love, O Lord? Because everything around the psalmist at this point screams that God has not kept His promise. That's book 3. Now, that leads us to book 4. Book four includes Psalms 90-106. Book four includes Psalms 90-106. And the theme of book four is the hope of salvation amid exile. The hope of salvation amid exile. Now I want you to see this. So Book 4 opens with Psalm 90, and you see the title of Psalm 90, it is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Now this seems strange. If you've been following the story this far, and you know something about Moses and when he lived, this seems very odd. Why would Moses appear at the beginning of Book 4? Moses lived approximately a thousand years before the nation of Israel was destroyed. But, when Moses led the people of Israel through the wilderness, there were two occasions When in response to the rebellion of the people, God threatened to wipe them out and to start over with Moses. It happened in Exodus 32 and it happened in Numbers 14. And on both occasions, Moses interceded on behalf of the people and God relented. And it's as though, the psalmist is telling this story, right? David, Solomon, the sin of the people, the destruction of the nation, the raising of the temple, and it's as though at this point, the compilers of the book of Psalm are saying, the people need an intercessor. The people need someone to plead their case before God, to ask God to show mercy so that he would relent from his wrath and his anger. And who is better to intercede for the people than Moses? And look at what Moses prays. Look at what Moses prays in Psalm 90 verses 13 to 17. Return, O Lord, How long have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to your children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Oh, my friends, isn't that beautiful? What we see in Book 4 is that God provides an intercessor for His people who are languishing in the destruction of exile. In fact, Moses appears again and again in Book 4. So if you look at the Psalms as a whole, Moses only appears one time outside of Book 4. But in Book 4, Moses appears seven times. And the last Psalm in Book 4, Psalm 106, has this to say. Look at Psalm 106, verses 19 to 23. Psalm 106, verse 19. Now remember, this book begins with Moses interceding. And then the last Psalm in the book, Psalm 106 verse 19, we have this reference. They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. Therefore He said He would destroy them had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him to turn away His wrath from destroying them." The message of Book 4, and there's much more we could say about Book 4, is that God will provide His people with an intercessor. You know, looking at Book 3, we reflected on the fact that sin oftentimes brings consequences into our lives, whether it's our own personal sin or it's the sin of others, we experience real loss, physical loss, financial loss, emotional or relational loss. And one of the temptations when we find ourselves in maybe one of these periods of exile is to conclude, well, if my sin is the cause of the pain and discomfort that I'm experiencing, then surely I can't go to the Lord and ask Him to deliver me from this. But Book 4 declares that's not true. That even as we find ourselves in the midst of exile, and in exile as a result of our own sin, God in His mercy meets us and He provides a mediator and an intercessor for us. He provided Moses for the people of Israel. And of course, He has provided a greater mediator and intercessor for us in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who voluntarily suffered the punishment for our sins on the cross and even now willingly intercedes on our behalf before the Father. And we can trust Him. We can look to Him as our great mediator, our intercessor who has done everything that is necessary to turn away from us the wrath of God so that God might turn to us in grace and mercy. This doesn't mean that the path forward will always be easy. Like Israel, sometimes the consequences of sin linger much longer than we would hope for. But if we look to Christ in faith, God will use even the consequences of our sin to teach us and transform us and ultimately to restore us and redeem us. That leads us to book five. Book five and the final book. Now, this is where we're going to start in a couple weeks when we pick up this series in Psalms. We're going to start in book five with Psalm 107. And book 5 goes from Psalm 107 to Psalm 150. But I want you to see a connection here between Book 4 and Book 5. So Book 4 ends with Psalm 106, and if you look at verse 47, there is a prayer in verse 47 of Psalm 106. This is the prayer. So this is the prayer. They have been exiled. They've been scattered among the nations. The prayer at the end of Book 4, Psalm 106 is, gather us from the nations. Bring us back to Yourself, Lord. Now, the first Psalm in Book 5 answers that prayer. Notice the response in Psalm 107 verses 1 to 3, "'Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.'" This hadn't even happened yet, but Psalm 107 speaks as though it has happened as a statement of faith anticipating the Lord's restoration and redemption. And then what we find is that Book 5, more than any other book in this altar, is characterized by praise and thanksgiving and rejoicing and giving thanks as the psalmist look forward with hope in a new David who will bring restoration and redemption. In fact, there's two clusters of Davidic Psalms in Book 5. Psalms 108 to 110 are labeled as Psalms of David. And Psalms 138 to 145 are labeled as Psalms of David. And there's a strong messianic hope within these Psalms, a sense that a new David is going to come who will bring salvation to God's people. But as I mentioned before, the thing that characterizes Book 5 the most is rejoicing, thanksgiving, praise. In fact, it's another indicator, the way that this ties into the rest of the books, it's another indicator that there is a purposeful arrangement to the book of Psalms. So, for example, each one of the books, Book 1, 2, 3, and 4, all end with a doxology. They all end, a doxology is a statement, a pronouncement of praise or worship. So, Book 1 ends with Psalm 41 verse 13. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, amen and amen. Book two ends with Psalm 72, verses 18 and 19. Now, listen to the same language. You're gonna hear these same terms. Blessed, the Lord, or Yahweh, amen. Psalm 72, verses 18 and 19. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be His glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen. Book 3 ends with a doxology. Psalm 89 verse 52, Blessed be the Lord forever, Amen and Amen. Book 4 ends with a similar doxology. Psalm 106 verse 48, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, and let all the people say Amen. Praise the Lord. Now, what about Book 5? If you turn to the end of Psalm 150, You don't get a similar doxology. Actually, you don't get the same thing there. Rather, in Book 5, what you get is a crescendo of praise in that it doesn't just end with one or two verses of doxology, but rather it ends with four psalms that are devoted to praising the Lord. They are known as the Hallelujah Praise Psalms. Psalm 146 to Psalm 150. Let me give you just a quick example. Turn to Psalm 149, and there we read, praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord with a new song, His praise in the assembly of the godly. Let Israel be glad in His Maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing. making melody to him with tambourine and lyre, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory. Let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written, this is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. And do you see here now how the Psalms have come to a crescendo, to a conclusion, because the Psalms actually begin with lament. David is lamenting, crying out to God for salvation and deliverance because of his many enemies. And then in many ways that lament swells as we come to Book 3. The dark book. As God's judgment has come upon his people because of their rebellion. But then in book four, we get this ray of light, this sense of hope that God will redeem his people through a new David. And then in book five, joy and praise burst forth as there is this sense of anticipation that yes, God will in fact bring salvation. My friends, this is the message of the book of Psalms and it is our hope as Christians. Our King, the long-promised Son of David, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, He has come. And He has won the final victory by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. And with hope and joyful anticipation, we await His return. In the Psalms, we find a story in which we can understand our own experiences. And we can make sense of our own lives. In the Psalms, really, we find the story of the entire Bible. Listen to what Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer, said, "'The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book, for it is no other reason than this. It promises Christ's death and resurrection so clearly and pictures His Kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom that it might well be called a little Bible.'" It is comprehended most beautifully and briefly everything that is in the entire Bible. It is really a fine handbook. In fact, I have a notion that the Holy Spirit wanted to take the trouble Himself to compile a small Bible so that anyone who could not read the whole Bible would have here in the Psalms almost an entire summary of it comprised in one little book." I know this is the beginning of the new year that some of you have committed to reading the Bible this year. Maybe you've committed to a Bible reading program. I want to encourage you to do that and be faithful to that Bible reading program. But if you haven't yet, and maybe that intimidates you, you can start here with the Psalms. Maybe make this a year in which you commit to reading the Psalms, to meditating on the Psalms day and night like that blessed man in Psalm 1 so that you might know the blessing and favor of God. You know, there's so many well-known and clear truths that we find in the Bible that we need to be reminded of again and again and again. But I hope that you see, even this morning as we've surveyed the Psalms, that there are always, always, always new depths, new insights that we could never finally mine. There's always new beauty, new glory, new wonder to see in the Bible. And I hope that that would motivate you even this year to read more, to meditate more, to discover more the wonder and the beauty of God and His grace and His Word. I'll close with this final quote. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died as a Christian martyr in 1945 at the hands of the Nazis, professed these words. Quote, I read the Psalms every day as I have done for years. I know and love them more than any other book. Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power, end of quote. My friends, may we know afresh the treasure of the Psalms, and may we know its power in our life and in our church. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we do praise You for Your Word and the wonder and glory and beauty of it. We thank You, Lord, for how the Psalms tell the story of Your promised salvation and redemption, how You save Your people from judgment through Your grace and mercy that is ultimately revealed in Your Son, the Lord Jesus. Lord, help us in the days to come to treasure the Psalms, to meditate upon these truths day and night, that we might be like the blessed man in Psalm 1. Lord, be with us now as we take the Lord's Supper. We pray that as we are reminded of the death of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, that we would truly worship You in glory and Your grace. And it's through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.