Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

• The Song of Deliverance- The first recorded song in the Bible is sung by Moses, Miriam and the Israelites celebrating their victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea ”I will sing to the Lord, for he has tri- umphed gloriously; he has thrown both horse and rider into the sea.” (Ex. 15:1) • The Song of the Law- Moses gave Israel the great “Song of the Law” recorded in Deuteronomy 32 “So Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people… ‘Take to heart all the words I have given you today… These instructions are not mere words-they are your life.’” (Deut.32:44-47) • Tabernacle of Worship- Moses built the tent of worship in the wilderness according to the pat- tern that God gave him. “Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glorious presence of the Lord filled it.” (Ex. 40:34) • The Song on the Crystal Sea- The first anthem by Moses at the Red Sea becomes a duet with the Song of the Lamb and is the last recorded song in the Bible: “I saw before me what seemed to be a crystal sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast... They were all holding harps that God had given them. And they were singing the song of Moses, the ser- vant of God, and song of the Lamb:” (Rev. 15:2,3) Moses begins by addressing God as ‘Adonai’, the sovereign one and then as ‘El’ the God of ab- solute might and power. He describes eternity in three ways; in human terms- “…through all genera- tions…” God remains constant while generations of mankind come and go. The word home (dwelling place) is used many times in Deuteronomy and reminds us that God himself is our eternal resting place. He is the same “yesterday, today and forever.” (Heb. 13:8) In terms of creation- “before you made the earth… ” God existed outside of creation and therefore is greater than creation. Moses is well equipped to describe God in this way as he is the author of the creation story in Genesis 1. The thought presented here is that God gave birth to his creation and there- fore is its sovereign Lord. In divine terms- “without beginning or end” - From eternity to eternity Moses underscores the pre- existence of God. Time is a brief insertion between eternity past and eternity future, only God remains constant and unchanging. I YOU ARE GOD - 1,2 Eternal Perspective “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are God, without beginning or end.” (1,2)

II A THOUSAND YEARS - 3-9 Millennial Perspective

“You turn people back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust!’ For you, a thousand years are as yesterday!” (3,4)

Even if we lived almost a thousand years like Methuselah’s 969 years, we are called ‘enosh’ or frail man and our bodies are destined to be dust. But to God who lives beyond the limitations of time, it is like a few moments. In the New Testament, Peter reverses the thought and says; “But you must not for- get, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” (2 Pet. 3:8) Moses was observing the passing of an entire generation in the wilderness and perhaps was prophetically seeing thousands of years into the future to the appearance of Christ and to the end of time. Our frail existence is likened to three things:

A watch in the night- “They are like a few hours!” (4) This is referring to the 3 hour shifts of guard duty that soldiers do in the night. It was a time of drowsiness and uncertainty.

A dream or a flood- “You sweep people away like dreams that disappear…” (5) The Hebrew word can be translated ‘dream’ or ‘flood’ both of which are brief, chaotic and uncontrollable.

Withering grass- “…or like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it blooms and flour- ishes, but by evening it is dry and withered.” (5,6) This happens in the middle-eastern plateaus, the

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