Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him.” (Heb. 10:19-22)

The King/Priest wins the battle -

“The Lord stands at your right hand to protect you. He will strike down many kings in the day of his anger. He will punish the nations and fill them with their dead; he will shatter heads over the whole earth.” (5,6) In the first verse Adonai (the Lord Messiah) is seated at the right hand of Yahweh. In this verse Yahweh promises to stand at the right hand of Adonai, his appointed Messiah, until all of the nations are placed ‘under his feet.’ “For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.” (1Cor. 15:25) The subduing of the nations spiritually for Christ involves the believer to enter both the priestly work of prayer and the kingly work of proclaiming the good news of Christ. Both ministries must be active to be successful; we must pray ‘to’ and ‘with’ our Priest and then follow him as King into the battles of faith. The reference to shattering the “heads over the whole earth” is pointing to the ultimate defeat of Satan by the Messiah and his priestly army of ‘dew.’ “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Rom. 16:20)

“But he himself will be refreshed from the brooks along the way. He will be victorious.” (7)

This is a description of soldier who must drink from the various streams in the fields and mountains as they pursue their enemy in battle. Those who are in the priestly battle of prayer and the kingly battle of proclaiming Christ must follow the example of their Messiah and refresh themselves from the many brooks of spiritual worship that flow from his church. The last sentence is backed by an oath from God and a promise that he will never retract: His eternal son who is the King/Priest “…will be victorious.”

1 Spurgeon 2 Spurgeon

3 Keil & Delitzsch 4 Keil & Delitzsch 5 Spurgeon 6 Kraus 7 Spurgeon

PSALM 111: HOW AMAZING His Life-giving Presence

Psalm 111 is written as a public worship song for the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Taberna- cles and its purpose was to ‘lead away from formalism, traditionalism…to a living encounter with God of Israel 1 .’ It begins with the exuberant declaration ‘Hallelujah’, and is a twin with Psalm 112. Both are ‘acrostic poems’, each half verse beginning with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet that re- flects the glory of Jesus who is himself the ‘Alpha’ (beginning of the alphabet) and ‘Omega’ (last word of the Greek alphabet). All the letters of every language are to be used in giving praise and honor to the creator and redeemer. Psalm 112 is a private worship psalm showing us how to apply the blessings of public worship found in Psalm 111 to our individual lives. Graham Scroggie points out the parallels and different emphasis be- tween the two psalms: • “Praise the Lord” (111:1) – “Praise the Lord” (112:1) • “I meet with his godly people.” (111:1) – “godly people will be blessed.” (112:2) • “Reverence (fear) of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom” (111:10) “Happy are those who fear (reverence) the Lord.” (112:1) • “All who delight in him…” (111:2) – “…those who delight in doing his commands.” (112:1)

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