And if you'd like to be turning in the scriptures, you can turn to Hebrews chapter one today, Hebrews chapter one. Although today's sermon is really a concluding or one of a concluding sermons on the Psalms that we've been studying together. Your throne is forever and ever. The psalms fulfilled in God's anointed King and in our lives is what we'll be talking about today. So we've studied all 150 psalms together. And now that we've done that, I'd like to take a more high-level look at what God is accomplishing by giving us these songs. They aren't merely to be studied and then put on the shelf. I actually believe some final reflections on the Psalms are most fitting as we approach Christmas. So let's just ask together today, what are the Psalms designed to do to us and in us and through us? What are the Psalms designed to do to us and in us and through us? Or to ask the same question another way, what are the Psalms designed to do in human history? There's so much we could say in answer to that question. But I'd like to suggest an answer that I think puts us on the right track to exploring all the riches of what God has in mind in giving us the Psalms. And I think I can give that answer to you in just one word, although it represents a lot more than that, and that is Hebrews. The letter to Hebrews, to be exact, pardon me, I would say it this way, when you have hidden the Psalms in your heart, you get Hebrews. It works out this way. We're taking another historical example, you might say, inspired by God, of course, from many, many years after the Psalms themselves were written, but showing us exactly where the Psalms are taking us, how they work, what they accomplish in our lives. When you hide the Psalms in your heart, you get the doctrine that Hebrews teaches, and you get the life that Hebrews is calling us to live. Now, one of the reasons I say that is that the letter to the Hebrews is thoroughly imbued with the Psalms. By my count, there are 23 quotations and allusions to the Psalms in Hebrews. Now, it can always be debated what exactly, quotations are fairly easy to see. He's quoting, this is what the text says back there. Allusions, maybe we can debate sometimes exactly what counts as an allusion or exactly what doesn't. But multiple times, 23 times by my count in the letter to the Hebrews, we get a direct allusion or a direct quotation of the Psalms. That's quite a bit. But even beyond that, more than the mere number of references to the Psalms that's so impressive here in the book of Hebrews, it is how thoroughly the argument of Hebrews is the outworking of the Psalms. That is, you can tell, and of course this is all under God's direction here, but you can tell the author of Hebrews has simply internalized all that the Psalms mean and is working that back out in the lives of his hearers. by God's providence, us today. We are able to see what God intends to accomplish through the Psalms by looking at the book of Hebrews. So to back up here a little bit, the theme of the Psalms, you might say, is really the same as the theme of the entire Bible. If you were to try to encapsulate what all the Psalms themselves together are saying, you would say it's the glory of God displayed in the reign or the kingdom of God enacted by his anointed king. His anointed king saving his people and judging all evil. The Bible itself as a whole tells us how God is working to bring glory to himself by establishing his rule of loving sovereignty and fellowship with men and by dwelling with them forever. And the Psalms are a concentrated expression of that very truth. But the Psalms, we have to recognize, written as they were in Old Testament times, are a foreshadowing of what becomes clearer later. They are pointing us to something that is going to be worked out in God's good plan. What is that that becomes clearer? I would say, in a word, Jesus. If you follow correctly the path that the Psalms mark out, you are going to come directly to Jesus. And that's what I wanna draw our attention to today as we appropriate to ourselves what God has been teaching us in the Psalms. I have two main points here. The first one is simply, Jesus is exalted as Lord. Jesus is exalted as Lord of all. This is the heart of the Psalms. If you get nothing else out of the Psalms, this is what you need to get. In fact, if you don't get this out of the Psalms, then you've missed what the Psalms are all about. Jesus is exalted as Lord. So you must recognize that the Psalms point to Jesus as the Christ. This one, Jesus, the son of David, is the Messiah, the Christ. And it's interesting to see how many times people read the Psalms, study the Psalms, and miss that very point. One example that I was contemplating recently was the example of a a very well-versed scholar of Hebrew. His name is Robert Alter. He's a professor in the Graduate School and Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Over the last 20 years or so, I can't even remember. He actually produced his own translation of the entire Old Testament. And it's a very popular translation, actually. And in it, you certainly can see all of his scholarly skill come out. It's a fascinating work that he has done. Very, very knowledgeable, obviously, in Hebrew and ancient literature. Pardon me. As you read his translation, and I, for my study in the Psalms, obviously consulted it some and read from that some. As you read his translation and his notes, he steadfastly, pardon me, refuses to see any Christological connotation in the Old Testament, including the Psalms. Now, perhaps that doesn't surprise us from one, from a Jewish background, but that is, and you can tell a very intentional work. There is no reference to Jesus here, and there couldn't be, according to his way of thinking. In fact, one reviewer of his whole translation of the Old Testament recently called it this, the ABJ move. That is, anybody but Jesus move. This could be talking about anybody, but we know it's not talking about Jesus. That's the way he approaches it. So I simply submit to you today that there are people who study the Psalms and indeed love the Psalms. love their beauty, love their majesty, love their poetry, love even their elevated religious feeling, love the wisdom built into them, and all kinds of things, and yet still miss what the Psalms are all about. You simply can't read the Psalms and miss Jesus Christ. They point to Jesus as the Christ. And in addition to that, you must realize that this Jesus, the Psalms point to, is Lord of all." And when I say we say that this Jesus that the Psalms point to is Lord of all, we mean that in the fullest possible sense. He is Lord of everything. Pardon me. He is the maker, the master of all things. All things were created through Him, and for Him, by Him, all things exist. And He is the very one that all the Psalms are pointing to, that they express. Pardon me. You think just of Psalm 8, to give one example here, that the writer of Hebrews is going to draw on, too, of how all the Psalms point us to Christ, and how everything about this shows that He is Lord of all. And in Psalm 8, We learn that the psalmist asks, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? What is this amazing thing that God has done in making man the object of his attention, of even his affection and saving work? And he goes on to say, yet the Lord has put all things under his feet, all things, All creation has been put under the feet of man. How could that possibly come true? It comes true in Jesus, the God-man, who then in himself fulfills all that we were made for and brings us into union with him. We share in his human nature, he shares in our human nature, and he brings us into union with him and we rule and reign with him. God puts all things under mankind's feet, precisely in and through Jesus. He is Lord of everything. Why do you think the Psalms even call upon things like snow to praise the Lord? Or rocks to praise the Lord? Because all of these things really do point to Jesus Christ. That's not just an accidental connection there. That's what they were made for. That's how they find their being. It's in Jesus Christ. He is their ultimate meaning, their Lord and master. And the book of Hebrews draws out these two conclusions we've just mentioned beautifully, when we're talking about that all the Psalms point to Jesus, specifically the man Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, and that this Jesus is Lord of all. Let's just look at Hebrews chapter one here this morning to see this drawn out. The scripture here begins by saying, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Acknowledging, looking back to all of that revelation that God had given, part of which we've been studying in the Psalms. God has spoken, and God has revealed himself many times in many ways. Yet there is coming a greater revelation, and it has come. In these last days, the days in which we now live, God has spoken to us by his Son. This is the ultimate revelation of God. The very one who shares his nature, the climax of revelation of God, points us to the absolute superiority of the Christ, the Son. Because it says here, whom he has appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Pardon me. We see here in verses 1 and 2, as this fascinating text opens up for us, we see the climax of revelation coming to us in the Son of God. And then, in verses 3 through 5, it describes God's Son for us. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He's the outshining of God's very glory Himself. He is the exact imprint of His nature. so that when we see the Son of God, we're not seeing, if you will, just a copy or a shadow of the glory of God, just some kind of an approximation of the glory of God. We're actually seeing the exact imprint of his nature. We are seeing him. And in fact, he also upholds the universe by the word of his power. This very one who is his son, whom God has shown himself in, It says, after making purification for his sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Pardon me. This son of God described here is the one who made purification for sins, who has ascended back to the right hand of the majesty on high and sat down, and so has become superior to angels, completely superior to the highest created beings, the highest created thing that there can be, and yet he is superior to it. The name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. So having established that basic truth there in verses one through four, the writer to Hebrews is going to go on, basically in three movements, with a climax, going to prove the point that he's just made. And guess what he's gonna start to pull in, or what's gonna start to come out of him under the inspiration of the Spirit? The Psalms. In fact, I think we can say he's already alluded to the Psalms. Pardon me. One of the Psalms that he's going to allude to five times in the book of Hebrews, Psalm 110, when he's spoken already of him being seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. But here he becomes much more explicit. He says, for to which of the angels did God ever say? So this is first, his first proof, if you will, of what he's just said. He's going to say, Jesus is the son of God. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Can you tell me where he's quoting from? Psalm 2, verse 7, right? You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son." So in verse 5, right away, as he reaches for what the Psalms should have been teaching, or really expounds on what the Psalms are teaching us, he shows us this doctrine. Jesus is exalted as Lord. This very one who has made purification for sins, the one who has come in the flesh, the one who has ascended to glory, He is the one who is the Son of God. And He has been enthroned through His very ascension, His resurrection and ascension to glory. He has been installed as that King. Today, I have begotten you. Exactly what Psalm 2 was looking forward to, Psalm 2 was pointing to, Psalm 2 was anticipating, believing, rejoicing in. God looks at all the nations raging in the world, trying to throw off his shackles, his chains. And what does he say to them? The Bible says he laughs, and he says to them, I have set my king on Zion. How did he do that? In Jesus. That's what he's doing. This is what we should be seeing if we understand what's going on aright. Jesus is the Son of God. The Psalms prove that. And now, again, in verses 6 and 7, he takes another movement of argument, if you will, to prove, demonstrate, develop what he's just asserted. So he says in verse 6, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels, pardon me, let all God's angels worship him. That's a citation from Deuteronomy chapter 32, but he goes on to tag on to that, of the angels, he says, He makes his angels' winds and his ministers a flame of fire. Pardon me. That's a quotation from Psalm 97, verse 7. God saying even about the angels and yet fitting that into his son, Jesus Christ. This is God's good work, but of the son, he says, and now he's going to go on to draw some more on the Psalms to show that Jesus is the righteous king and the eternal creator. Jesus is the righteous king and the eternal creator. Thank you. I do have a, I have a water here. Thank you though, for thinking of that. So in verse eight, he says, but of the son, he says, your throne, oh God is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Do you know where he's quoting from there? Psalm 45. Psalm 45, a psalm rejoicing, as the psalmist puts it, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer, rejoicing in all the glory and the beauty of this anointed king. Who is that? But Jesus Christ himself. God has anointed him with the oil of gladness beyond his companions. And therefore, he is a righteous king. And not only a righteous king, but an eternal creator. Pardon me, in verses 10, 11, and 12, he says, you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. Do you know where he's quoting from there? Psalm 102. Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27. You see, it's almost like the author of Hebrews can just draw on this whole fund of truth that's right there, even in the worship of ancient Israel, to say Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is to be worshiped even by angels, and Jesus is the righteous king and the eternal creator. And so the conclusion of all of that comes in verses 13 and 14. And to which of the angels has he ever said, and here's his climactic quotation from the Psalms, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Do you know what verse 13 is a quote from? the most quoted or alluded to Psalm in all the New Testament, Psalm 110. Psalm 110, pardon me, in verse one. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Jesus is the triumphant king over all things. Jesus is the king and Jesus is Lord of all. If you've been singing the Psalms with any faith. If you've been singing the Psalms with a desire in your heart to know God, this is where they are taking you. This is what they're training you to perceive and to understand. So that when you look at Jesus, you see exactly what God is talking about in the Psalms. You see exactly how he's bringing this all to fruition. You see it in Christ's kingdom and kingship. So I want to submit to you today that if you're going to sing the Psalms in spirit and truth, then you must exalt Jesus above all. That doctrine that Hebrews teaches grows directly out of the Psalms. Now I want to build on that point. If we've seen just even from the very opening chapter of Hebrews, how much this is the fulfillment of what the Psalms are talking about. This is exactly what the Psalms were pointing us to. Pardon me. If we want to understand what God is doing in us, to us, through us, through the Psalms, we should see that he is bringing forth the fact that Jesus is exalted as Lord. That's what the Psalms are designed to do. But I would also submit to another point, then, that maybe turns to focus more on us. That doctrine that we've just said, Jesus is Lord of all, he is exalted as Lord of all and must be worshiped as such, that must come alive in us. And that points us to the life that Hebrews calls us to live. It shows us how to bring the Psalms to fulfillment, if you will, in our lives, for us to be living in the reality of Jesus's Lordship. That tells us something important, by the way. The Psalms are not designed as beautiful of poetry as they are, as wonderful and even soul-soothing as their imagery is. The Psalms are not psychological therapy. That is, the point of you reading the Psalms is not just to make you feel better. It's actually possible for us to read the Psalms that way. as if the goal here is I feel the stress of life and I need something to make me feel better, so I'm gonna go read the Psalms. Or I'm gonna put this nicely framed Psalm up on the wall in my house and it's just gonna make it feel so peaceful in my room. Okay, that's not wrong in and of itself, but that's not the goal. That's an overflow. That's what comes after the fact, if you will, of what the Psalms are designed to do. Because you can take the Psalms that is not actually in faith of what they're designed to do. What are they designed to do? They are to bring to fulfillment in our lives our union with Christ. as the triumphant king. So I'd say as my second point here, you are enculturated into life in Jesus's kingdom through the Psalms. The Psalms are intended to promote and exalt Jesus as Lord, but they're also then designed to enculturate you into life in his kingdom. Pardon me. In order to draw this out a little bit, I'd like to think about how the Psalms function in our lives, why God wrote them in particular the way he did, as songs, as poems to be sung, to be recited, to be shared together. One Old Testament scholar, Gordon Wenham, points out that in ancient Mesopotamia, the texts were memorized and recited in order to pass along the culture. He writes, the main purpose of scribal education was not to produce men who could read cuneiform and recite the classic texts, but rather to pass on Mesopotamian culture. These texts served enculturation. They presented the ideal of human life as envisaged in Mesopotamia. And so he goes on, memorization and recital of these texts thus serve to transmit the values of this culture more widely among the people at large and to ensure that future generations followed it. And for that very reason, he points out, the main transmission and dissemination of these texts was oral, that is spoken, not read, but spoken, said to one another, passed along, memorized, said out loud. Their written form was not used at recitals, but simply served as a check in the scribal schools that they were memorizing correctly. His point in bringing that up in relationship to the Psalms is to say, in effect, that's what the Psalms are for. They're written differently than, say, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, aren't they? Now, do they say the same thing as those other texts? Yes, in many ways they do. They're definitely drawing on that, building on that theology, we might say, that's been revealed as God wrote, had Moses write that, right? And yet they say it in a different way and for different purposes. I would submit to you today, the Psalms are meant to enculturate us into Christ and his kingdom. Again, to quote here, they were intended to be memorized with a view to being publicly recited for the purpose of inculcating their values, right? Why were they written the way they were written? Why are they written as songs to be sung? Precisely so that we will sing them out loud to one another, so that we will inculturate ourselves into the life of God's kingdom, so we will share in this together even as praise and prayer. So they will bring up another generation to know this, to hear this, to be shaped by this. That's why they were written the way they were written. Here's another Old Testament scholar which drawing, building on that makes this point. A memorized work, that is something you've memorized, you've hidden in your heart to say it in the language of the Psalms. He says, like a lover, a friend, a spouse, a child, has entered into the fabric of its possessor's intellectual and emotional life in a way that makes deep claims on that life. Entered into your life in a way that makes deep claims on you. You might say this, the Psalms were intended to make deep claims on you, to enter into your life, to become the very fabric of your heart and your mind, especially your affections, your imaginations. The whole way you feel and think about life is supposed to be shaped by the Psalms, and it's supposed to be shaped toward the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are engaging with the Psalms, internalizing the Psalms, we might say today. Your imagination comes alive in godly ways instead of being shaped by this world. You know, one of the greatest enemies of your advance in Christ, of understanding life and feeling life in Christ, and then sharing that with others, is a malformed imagination. You don't imagine this world rightly. and the world is constantly trying to press you into its mold to feed you other ways of imagining this world than God's way. Our culture around us right now is a massive machine of trying to capture your imagination for all kinds of things apart from what they mean in Christ. How do you fight that? If you will, how does my very imagination become shaped in a different direction? not to the kingdoms of this world, but to the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. The Psalms are one very important way God has given to do that. Because they're meant to be sung, they're meant to be recited, they're meant to be shared out loud and entered into in that way. Pardon me. What happens then? Your desires become more and more for the beauty of your Savior and King. You are integrated into God's kingdom plan. You begin to think of your own life in relationship to the king and his kingdom. And then our common life together begins to look more and more like his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. And folks, I believe this becomes especially important in the present suffering of this world. The Psalms walk you through all the shadows and all the sadnesses of this present world on your way to the kingdom. And this is very much picked up in Hebrews. Pardon me. The author of Hebrews writes to encourage those who have embraced Christ in deep trial. And they're being tempted in many ways to loosen their grip on Christ, and holding fast to Him in the midst of this suffering, in the midst of this trial, these trials. Is Christ really all that we hoped He was? Is Christ really an all-sufficient Savior? Is He really superior to all angels, to all even the Old Covenant? Is His priesthood sufficient? Is everything about Him what we need? Yes. But in order to carry you through trials, you need to know more than just the facts of that, so to speak. You need the affections of that. You need to love Christ. And that's what the Psalms call you to. That's what the writer of Hebrews calls the believers to. And I think the epistle of Hebrews shows us how the Psalms should function, how they should function in our lives. Pardon me. Precisely even as he goes through his argument, in some ways you might think of the letter to the Hebrews almost like a sermon. It's very much like a delivered address to people that's combining not just doctrine but exhortation and teaching to call for action. But he keeps bringing up the Psalms. to show us how the Psalms should function in our lives. Singing the Psalms in faith through our sufferings produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope because God's love is being poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Does not Hebrews call for endurance, pardon me, It calls for endurance precisely by quoting the Psalms. If you just look over, for example, at chapter three, there is a rest for the people of God. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, it says in chapter three, verse seven, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. Pardon me And so it says take care brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we share in Christ If indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end and he keeps meditating on that very Psalm Psalm 95 Right How are we supposed to hold fast to Christ? Well, even he brings up a psalm. He tells us to exhort one another. How about this? Sing Psalm 95 together, right? And remember this and be exhorted by this as the Holy Spirit is communicating among his people and therefore shedding abroad the love of God in his heart, in our hearts, excuse me. pardon me, and then as he passes into what really is the whole centerpiece of this entire letter, beginning in chapter 4, 14, which will go all the way through chapter 10, verse 25, he draws on something implicit in what he's already alluded to, Psalm 110, and quoted from, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Jesus is this high priest. He is the one who is seated at the right hand of God. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus is this high priest. You are my son. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, Psalm 110. So hold fasting at him. Don't fall away from him. Endure, keep enduring to the end, Hebrews 6 will say. Pardon me. This is just a little taste of how Hebrews is showing us how the Psalms ought to function in our lives. I think what you get in Hebrews just to come back to the text here. What you get in Hebrews is what happens when the Psalms have become your song, when they're really working in your life exactly the way they ought to be working in your life. You know what happens? Christ becomes your king, the only king. Christ becomes your priest, the only one you hold to as your high priest. And not just, as sometimes people will say, de jure, but de facto. That is, not just legally speaking, but actually enacted, actually lived out. That's what's supposed to be happening. So think about what these psalms are calling us to. What's the goal of singing the psalms as God has given them to us? Is it not to exalt Christ as king and therefore submit to his kingship? Is it not to trust in Christ's kingship, to rehearse for ourselves and for all of God's people what a great king he is, what a great Savior he is, what a great high priest he is, one who has been tempted with all aspects of human life, like we have, and yet without sin? In fact, if you've heard the Psalms as the voice of Christ, you cannot help but resonate with Jesus knows all that we've been through. Jesus has taken our nature to himself. He's lived this life, and yet he has triumphed, and he will bring us to him. Is it not the goal of singing the Psalms to sweetly call others to take refuge in Jesus Christ alone? Put not your trust in princes. Find refuge in the Son. He sees Christ's kingship must be proclaimed, it must be enjoyed, it must be trusted. We are enculturated into the life of God's kingdom by the Psalms. And I want to point out to you today here that this enculturation encompasses your entire being, all of who you are, all of what you do. It's intended to work out in you a deep union with Christ. Because as I was just saying, the Psalms are not merely songs about Christ. They are Christ's songs. Which is why I believe the book of Hebrews can put the words of Psalms into the mouth of Christ. They're His songs. They belong to Him. He sings them, if you will, in union with His body. And they become our songs because they are His songs. And as His body, we sing together with Him in spiritual harmony. Do you realize what a gift that is? That we together here today, even as Christ's body, can sing together with Him. can enjoy that spiritual harmony as he imparts his life to us by the Spirit. Isn't it any accident that when the Spirit of Christ is at work filling people, they sing? And they sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They're sharing in the life of Christ together. And that life is overflowing together in music. And it's calling all the world to sing in harmony to God. This is how the Psalms are supposed to be functioning in our lives. What are the Psalms designed to do to us and in us and through us? What are the Psalms designed to do in human history? I think we can put it very simply today, which is why we should love to sing them together to the Lord. The Psalms are given by God to exalt Jesus as Lord of all. That's why they're given, and that's what we want to use them for. And the Psalms are given to enculturate you, all of us together, into life with Him in His kingdom. There's coming a day when Jesus will return as the King of kings and Lord of lords. There's coming a day in which all who are His people will be with Him, ruling and reigning with Him in that kingdom. That will be a time of feasting. That will be a time of joy and singing. And I really believe if we have learned the Psalms well, if they are in our hearts, so to speak, we will have been trained for that song then. We'll know how to sing. We'll know how to take our part because we'll see that the Spirit of God has been calling us to that, training us for that all the way along to be able to give our lives as living sacrifices for the glory of our King Jesus Christ. If you believe that today, Would you confess your faith in Jesus by saying together as a congregation, hallelujah, Jesus is Lord. Let's say it together. Hallelujah, Jesus is Lord. Amen.