Full text of Zac Poonen’s teaching on ‘Book Of Psalms (Part 2)’ which is part of the popular series called Through The Bible.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Zac Poonen – Bible Teacher
We will continue our study in the book of Psalms.
We now move to the third book of the Psalms, which begins in Psalm 73.
PSALM 73, again I would just like to quickly go through some of the really good verses in the rest of the Psalms.
Psalm 73 deals with this big question: Why do the wicked prosper and why do the righteous people suffer? It is a question that many, many people have asked through the centuries. And Asaph, who wrote this Psalm, many of the Psalms in this section are written by Asaph, the song leader. And he is very honest and he says in verse 2, my feet almost slipped. There is an honesty in the Psalms, which is why the Psalms are so good to read. People are absolutely honest. There is no pretense there.
I almost slipped. I had questions. I was jealous of the prosperity verse 3 of the wicked. And he says, at one time I thought, what is the use, verse 13, keeping my heart clean. It is a waste of time living a holy life.
But, he says, I kept quiet about it. I kept these thoughts to myself. Verse 15, I didn’t tell anybody. If I had told anybody, then I would have offended a lot of other younger believers.
See, a lot of people, sometimes when they have doubts, they are so foolish. They go around airing it. And afterwards, maybe five years later, they get the answer to that. But in those five years, they have destroyed the faith of so many people with their doubts. If you have some doubts, keep it to yourself. Don’t stumble other people. There is an answer for it.
You know where the answer is? He says, I couldn’t understand it, verse 16, until I went into God’s presence. Then I understood. Some of those things that cause you doubt, there is an answer to it. You may not know it because you are so far away from God. The closer you come to God, the more you get an answer.
There are many things in my past life I never knew what the answer was. As I have come closer to the Lord, I have begun to understand the answer to many of those questions that plagued me. But when I had those doubts, I didn’t go around talking about it with weaker believers.
And he discovered that God has set these wicked people in slippery places, verse 18.
Now this beautiful verse in verse 25, this is one of the finest verses in all the Psalms and perhaps in the entire Bible…
Psalm 73:25, the psalmist says to the Lord at the end of it, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? There is no one and nothing on earth I desire beside Thee. If you can keep that before you all your days, I tell you, you’ll be a worshiper and you’ll be a most useful servant of God, man or woman, young or old.
If you can say, Lord, You’re the only person I desire on earth. I don’t desire anything or any person other than You.
My heart may fail, verse 26, but God is the strength of my heart. This is a good verse for those who have weak hearts or who have heart problems to say, God is the strength of my heart. My heart may fail. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Remember these verses. Someday you may be asked to call, asked to pray for somebody who’s got a heart failure and you’ve got a verse ready for him.
PSALM 74, the psalmist is concerned about the destruction of the ruin of God’s church. Lord, verse 4, Your enemies are roaring in the midst of Your church. Your enemies have got into your church. They have put up their ensigns.
They have defiled your holy place, verse 7. They have burnt up the synagogues.
And here is the mark. It’s very important for you to notice this. It’s the only verse in the Bible that teaches that. One mark that God has forsaken a people is, verse 9, we don’t have a prophet in our midst anymore. You don’t send us a prophet anymore. When God doesn’t send you a prophet, it’s a pretty bad state you’re in.
When God gave up on Israel, He never sent them a prophet anymore. For 400 years, from the time of Malachi to John the Baptist, there was no prophet. We don’t see any prophet. We don’t see any miracles, verse 9.
God is a God who answers prayer, does wonderful things. God is a God who sends you prophets. So please remember that. Be thankful when you get answered prayer. Be thankful if you have a prophet coming and speaking to you.
PSALM 75, don’t look for promotion from man, verse 6. Promotion doesn’t come from the east or the west. It comes from God…
verse 7: God is the one who exalts and God is the one who puts down. Don’t look for exaltation in the church to man. Don’t think a man can give you a ministry. God can give you a ministry.
Psalm 76, verse 10, the wrath of man will praise You, surely. Which means, O God, even all the anger that people have, which they show against me or against others, you will make it to bring praise to You. Ultimately it will work for good. That’s why we are not bothered when men are angry.
Psalm 77, verse 13, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. If you want to find out God’s way, get into the most holy place. You can’t find it hanging around with the outer court believers. You know there are some believers, all they know is forgiveness of sins. The rest of the time they joke and they laugh.
Okay, PSALM 78 is a historical looking back upon the past, the way God led them in the past.
Marvelous things verse 12 God did in Egypt, and He split the rocks verse 15 in the wilderness, smote the rock verse 20, the waters gushed out, man ate angels’ food verse 25, and so on.
The whole thing, and only when He slew them verse 34, then they sought Him.
Verse 36, true of many believers today, they flattered Him with their mouths, they told lies. But verse 38, He was full of compassion. Verse 39, He remembered that they were flesh.
But verse 42, they did not remember that when He delivered them from the hand of their enemy.
Verse 53, He led them on safely and He gave them David verse 70, to be their leader who guided them verse 72, by the skillfulness of his hands.
It’s a good Psalm which reminds us that we must often look back and think of the wonderful things God has done for us in the past and think of the times we have rebelled and been unfaithful so that we have a spirit of gratitude to God.
PSALM 79, again a concern about the church being destroyed. Verse 1, Lord, Your holy temple has been defiled. Please do something.
Help us, O God verse 9 for the glory of Your name, for Your name’s sake.
Verse 11, let the sighing of prisoners come before You.
A prayer to God by people who are concerned that the church should be kept pure.
PSALM 80, a beautiful expression, verse 1, O Shepherd of Israel, You who dwell in the midst of the cherubim, shine forth and lead us on.
Verse 17, Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man, whom Thou made strong for Thyself, referring to Christ and also referring to us. Say, Lord, let Your hand be upon me so that I can be a witness for You in this generation.
Psalm 81, verse 10, lovely verse, Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Why you do not have? Because you do not ask.
Open your mouth. Ask. Open it wide. Lord, I want this. Ask for great things, like William Carey said, ‘Expect great things from God so that we can attempt great things for God.’
And the Lord says in verse 13 and 14, Oh, it’s one of those few places where we read, Oh, like we saw in Deuteronomy.
Oh that My people had listened to Me. If only they had listened to Me and walked in My ways, I would have verse 14 quickly subdued all their enemies. I would have solved their problems. I would have delivered them, Oh that they had listened to Me and trusted Me.
Psalm 82, verse 6, is a verse that Jesus quoted in John 10:34, I have said that ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.’ Jesus was quoting that verse to the Pharisees. You know, it doesn’t mean we are gods. It’s showing us the position we have as children of God.
PSALM 83, this is talking about all the people who have tried to destroy Israel in past years, who have said, verse 4, Let the name of Israel be wiped out. There are many nations that have tried to do that even in the last century. They never succeeded. Through the years, they have not succeeded. People have tried to wipe out the church. The Roman Empire tried it. So many people have tried it, but it’s never succeeded. The church continues to stand for the Lord. The Jewish nation survives so that, verse 18, all men may know that Jehovah is Most High over the earth.
PSALM 84, The sparrow has found a house, the swallow a nest, verse 23. Blessed are those like those birds who spend their time in Your house, and those who live in the most holy place will always be praising God.
Verse 6, Even when they pass through a time of weeping. The valley of Baca is the valley of weeping and sorrow. They fill it. They make it a well. They make it a spring. In the place of sorrow, they produce glory to God, a spring that springs up.
They go from strength to strength, verse 7.
A lovely verse, verse 10, the psalm of the sons of Korah, A day in Your courts standing with Moses is better than a thousand. I’d rather be a doorkeeper standing with Moses in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness with our father Korah, because the earth is going to swallow them up right now. They were very grateful for having been delivered from the tents of wickedness, and they say, verse 11, the last part, a beautiful promise. Please listen to this. No good thing will God withhold from those who walk uprightly. You must know these promises of God’s word. These are the promises that help us, that encourage us to follow Jesus.
PSALM 85, a cry for revival, verse 6, will Thou not revive us again, O Lord? Your people are grumbling and complaining. Send us a revival of joy and praise.
Verse 8: I will hear what the Lord is saying. The Lord will speak peace to His people.
Verse 10: Mercy and truth are met together on Calvary. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other on Calvary. God’s mercy and truth met together, the righteous demands of His law and His mercy. Righteousness and peace with God and men, speaking of Calvary.
Psalm 86, verse 11, Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name. Here is a prayer that my whole heart, which is going in different directions, will be united to have only one desire: to fear God.
PSALM 87 says of Zion, verse 5, This is of the church, it will be said, ‘This man and that man was born in her’. The Lord, when He counts up the people will say, ‘This man was born in Zion’, in the church.
All my springs, verse 7, all my joy comes from the church. I value God’s people.
PSALM 88 is another Psalm where He says, Lord, You have allowed — You have made me, verse 8, in the middle, like an abomination to the people of the earth, and I am suffering.
He is praying, Lord, why have You cast out my soul? Verse 14. I am afflicted from my youth up. He is speaking about a man who has gone through deep sorrow.
Verse 3, my soul is full of troubles, and He says, Lord, deliver me before I go into the grave. After I die, how can I praise You?
Lover and friend, verse 18, You have put far from me. It is like a Messianic Psalm about Jesus, what He suffered when He walked through this earth, and that is the pathway that we will have to go also.
PSALM 89 is a Psalm of God’s tremendous faithfulness. It is talking about Jesus again, verse 27, I will make My firstborn higher than the kings of the earth.
A lovely verse is verse 7, God must be greatly reverenced and feared in the church, and He must be had in reverence. The church must be a place where God is reverenced.
And that is the end of Book 3. It ends with verse 52, Blessed be the Lord forever and ever! This is a Psalm written by a man called Ethan the Ezrahite. We really do not know who he is. He is one of those people who wrote a Psalm inspired by God.
Now PSALM 90 is the one Psalm that is written by Moses. It is the fourth book, and I said there is some connection with NUMBERS, the wanderings in the wilderness. And he is the one who says, Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. The Psalm of Moses, and he is the one who says a thousand years, verse 4, are like one day. It is not Peter who said that first. It was Moses who said it first.
A thousand years are like one day.
And Lord, verse 8, You have set our iniquities before You our secret sins. He is talking about all the years in the wilderness.
And verse 10 is not saying, it has been misunderstood I think by many people as though God will allow people to live only up to the age of 70 or 80, because the man who wrote it himself lived up to 120. But he is thinking of the people in the wilderness. Lord, these young 30, 40 year old people who came out of Egypt, who should be living to a ripe old age like me of 120, they are all perishing. They are 70 years old and they are dying. They are 80 years old and they are dying in the wilderness, because it was a judgment, because they did not enter Canaan. That is what he is referring to.
So he says, Lord, a wonderful verse, two wonderful verses, or three wonderful verses.
Verse 12, first of all, teach us to number our days, to know how few they are, so that we can spend our days acquiring wisdom.
Second verse (verse 16), Lord, let Your glory — let Your work appear to Your servants and Your glory to their children. Let me see more of the work You do, Lord, and Your glory.
And the third verse, verse 17, let the beauty of the Lord be upon us. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. That is based on that verse.
PSALM 91 is of course a wonderful Psalm. I wish I could spend a whole session on it. It is dwelling in the secret place of the Most High.
You know, the most wonderful thing is to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. The shadow of the Almighty means God is going in front of me and I am just walking in His shadow.
And I trust in the Lord. He will deliver me from all the snares that come in the daytime and in the nighttime.
I will put my feet, verse 13, upon the devil.
God will answer me. Verse 10, no evil will ever befall me. People may trouble me, they may kill me, but no evil, no evil, no sin need rule me. He will keep me. He will put the devil under my feet.
When I call unto Him, He will answer me. Verse 15 and 16.
I just want to mention something which may be a bit humorous, but you know, nowadays a lot of people think that they don’t understand godliness. They want shortcuts, you know, like instant coffee and instant tea. They want instant holiness and so they go to a meeting and somebody lays hands on them and they fall back. And people think this is the Holy Spirit.
See, in the New Testament when people fell before God, they fell with their face down before God. That’s worship.
What is this falling down and showing your feet to God? That’s not worship. It’s an insult.
Supposing I come here and I show you my feet. That’s insulting you. I believe it’s an insult to be like that. I’ve seen people when demons are cast out of them, they fall down flat. The Holy Spirit doesn’t do that. So if ever you go to a meeting like this, don’t be scared because there’s a promise here.
Verse 7, a thousand will fall on one side and ten thousand on your right hand, but it will not come near you. It has never come near me all my life.
Okay, PSALM 92 is another wonderful Psalm about people who can be fruitful even when they are old. Don’t think you can serve the Lord only when you’re young. I want to serve the Lord even if I’m ninety years old. It says in verse 14, even in old age, they will bring forth fruit and they’ll be flourishing. When it says they’ll be fat, it doesn’t mean they’ll eat a lot and become fat. That’s not the meaning. That’s not a good thing. It means that they will be full of oil and anointing. It’s a word connected with anointing. They’ll be anointed and flourishing even when they are old.
PSALM 93, wonderful verse, verse 5, holiness is becoming of your house, O Lord. This is what should characterize God’s house, holiness.
PSALM 94, verse 12, Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, whom You teach out of Your law. It’s a blessed thing to be disciplined and chastened by the Lord.
PSALM 95, middle of verse, last part of verse 7, today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart, quoted in Hebrews chapter 3, a verse that we must remember every day. The Bible says in Hebrews 3:13, exhort one another every day. That means listen to God’s word every day. Either you listen it through somebody preaching to you or you listen to it by listening to a tape or you listen to it by reading a book or best of all, you listen to it by reading the word of God and the Holy Spirit speaking to you every day because it says in Hebrews 3:13, if you don’t listen to it, 24 hours is enough for you to be a backslider. Exhort one another daily, lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
PSALM 96 speaks about the coming of the Lord and His judgment.
Verse 13, Before the Lord, because He is coming, He is coming to judge the earth, He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with His truth. He is going to judge the world and He is going to judge His people. Don’t forget that. He is going to judge the unbelievers and He is going to judge the believers to see how they lived.
PSALM 97, verse 10, you who love the Lord, hate evil. If you really love the Lord, you must hate evil with all your heart. You cannot say you love Jesus if you don’t hate evil.
Now there is a lot of difference between avoiding evil and hating evil. You know, here is a man, I avoid him. Here is a man, I hate him. You know there is a difference. Sure. So some people avoid sin. Those are the people who very often fall into it. The way to overcome sin is to hate it.
The Bible says the one who hates his brother is a murderer. When I hate a sin, I murder it. You who love the Lord hate evil.
PSALM 98, here is a repetition of what we read in verse, Psalm 96, verse 9. The Lord is coming. The Lord has made known His salvation, verse 2.
Therefore, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, verse 4, all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise with trumpets, verse 6, and cornets and make a joyful noise.
Let the floods, verse 8, clap their hands because the Lord is coming. In other words, there should be a spirit of praise in our hearts, always expecting the coming of Jesus Christ. And when the Psalmist wrote it, he did not understand it so clearly as we understand it today.
PSALM 99, VERSE 5. Worship the Lord our God at His footstool. The footstool is the earth. Worship Him at His footstool.
PSALM 100 is a Psalm which is just full of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, and verse 2 especially: Serve the Lord with gladness. Don’t just serve the Lord. A lot of people serve the Lord. But it says here, serve the Lord with gladness. Always rejoicing in your service for the Lord.
I’ve seen people who serve the Lord and they are grumpy and sad. I want to say it to tell you absolutely honestly and I’m not pretending. Every year as time goes on in my own life, it has become a greater and a greater joy to serve the Lord. It’s never boring. It’s never a pain. It’s never too much to live for God, to serve Him. It’s a joy. May you be a testimony like that.
PSALM 101, David says in the last part of verse 2, I will walk — I will behave myself, he says, first of all, in a perfect way and especially in my house.
Verse 2, I will walk inside my house in a perfect way. I believe the Lord’s servants need to say that. I will conduct myself wisely, not only outside to get a good testimony, but in my house I will walk with a perfect heart. That means if I hurt my wife, I won’t wait till tomorrow to ask her forgiveness with a perfect heart, I will go and say, I’m sorry, please forgive me.
If I punished my children wrongly, I will ask their forgiveness. If I have a servant working in the house and I was a bit angry in what I said, I will go and ask forgiveness from that servant. Please forgive me. I’m sorry the way I spoke to you.
See, to live in your house with a perfect heart — your financial dealings, your bank accounts, your financial transactions which you got in your house, walk with a perfect heart there. That is the secret of ministry.
PSALM 102, here’s a picture of salvation, verse 19 to 21. God has looked down from the height of His sanctuary and beheld the earth to hear my groaning as a prisoner and to lose me those who are appointed to death. Why did He lose me? So that I can go around now declaring the name of the Lord and His praise.
That is the purpose with which He delivered me. And not only me, verse 28, the children of Thy servants shall also continue and their seed (grandchildren) will also be established before Thee. This should be our goal, you know, to teach our children also the ways of the Lord and make them teach their children the ways of the Lord.
PSALM 103 is a very well-known Psalm. It says about the benefits we have received. One thing that David could not say was, he could not say bless the Lord who gives me victory over sin. He could say Bless the Lord who forgives all my sins. Verse 3 which proves that forgiveness is available under the old covenant, who heals all your diseases. That was also available under the old covenant.
What were the things available under the Old Covenant? Benefits, verse 2. First of all, forgiveness, verse 3. Second, healing. Third, redemption from hell. Fourth, His mercies satisfied with good things means material blessings. Fifth, physical health, not just healing but your youth is renewed like the eagles.
Basically, it was forgiveness, healing and material blessing. This is Old Covenant. Bless the Lord and forget not all His benefits. Now if you got all these things and you preach this as a gospel, Jesus can forgive you, Jesus can heal you, Jesus can give you all the good things in life, materially bless you. What are you preaching? You are preaching what David preached one thousand years before Christ.
What is the New Covenant gospel? Jesus can give you victory over sin, Romans 6:14. Jesus can make you partake of God’s nature, 2 Peter 1:3-4. That is the New Covenant gospel. You can have the devil under your feet, Romans 16:20. But very often we do not hear this being preached. You can build a church as the body of Christ, Ephesians chapter 4.
So do not go to this old covenant gospel when you go out and preach the gospel. Preach the new covenant gospel. There are many wonderful things here which says, for example, like verse 13, He pities us as a father, He pities His children, He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust.
PSALM 104, VERSE 4, God makes His ministers — His servants — a flaming fire. That’s a wonderful verse. God makes His servants a flaming fire. If you are a servant of God, you must never be cold. You must not even be hot. You know, you touch a steel tumbler of coffee and it’s hot. No, more than that, you must be a flaming fire.
And you know, like when Moses saw that flaming fire in the bush, he stopped. And said, hey, this is different from all the other bushes. And he listened. And when you are a servant of God like that, baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire, and where God has made you a flaming fire, you’ll be different from all the other bushes in the wilderness.
And when you stand there as a bush aflame, somebody will pass by and stop and say, hey, this is different. And God spoke out of that bush to Moses, and God will speak through you to the people.
PSALM 105, here is another review of Israel’s history and a wonderful verse. Verse 15, don’t touch My anointed and don’t do any harm to My prophets. Be very careful when you speak against God’s anointed or God’s prophets. It’s better to say, I don’t want to say anything. People may ask you, what do you think about this person? What do you think about that person? I say, I don’t know. I don’t want to say anything.
You can say if you like that you disagree with his methods and the way they are doing, but don’t ever speak against any man. The Bible says speak evil of no man. There are many people, I’ll tell you honestly, many American evangelists and all who, television evangelists, whom I don’t agree with their methods at all. I don’t believe they are representing Christ correctly, but I will not speak evil of them because I’m afraid that God will not be with my tongue if I speak evil of people. Even people who I cannot understand why they do things differently, I say I will not speak evil of them, but I will say I don’t agree with their ministry and I don’t understand the Scriptures that way that this is the way Jesus wants His work to be done, but I will not speak evil of them.
Touch not My anointed and don’t do any harm to My prophets.
And then he speaks about Joseph. Joseph, it says here, it’s a wonderful verse about Joseph.
Verse 17: he was sold for a servant. His feet was in irons. Until the time came that the word of the Lord tested him, and in one, in the margin of my Bible says iron entered into his soul. That means the purpose why Joseph was put in prison was so that iron may come into his soul, so that his soul may become as strong as iron.
Until the time came that the word of the Lord tested him, there was a particular time, he had to be thirty years old. When he was twenty-eight years old he told the Pharaoh’s butler, you’ll be freed in a few days, please remind Pharaoh about me, and he forgot about it. Why? Because Joseph was only twenty-eight years old. He waited for two years. Then God reminded him. So don’t complain when people forget to help you. God’s got a particular time.
Then when the time came, verse 20, the king sent and loosed him and made him lord over his house. So that’s a beautiful verse there.
And verse 39 tells us why He gave them a cloud and a pillar of cloud and fire. The cloud was to cover them from the heat of the sun, and the fire was to give them light at night. It had a practical purpose also besides leading them into Canaan. It was to cover them all. It was a huge cloud that protected them like a shadow from the heat of the sun during the day and lit up the whole way during the night.
And PSALM 106, it says about these people, it’s again a review of history, verse 11 and 12. When the waters covered their enemies, then they believed His words and they sang His praise. When did they sing God’s praise? When they saw before them the enemies defeated. I mentioned that the other day, but I want to mention one more thing here.
What is the proof of faith according to verse 12? How do you know that you believe God’s word? You will praise Him. If you don’t praise Him, you don’t have faith. They believed, how do you know? They praised. They believed His words, they praised Him. They did not sing His praise because they did not believe His words.
Remember this, whenever the song of praise goes out of your mouth, you can be sure faith has gone out of your heart. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The mouth is the overflow valve of the heart. You know when a water tank is full, it’s got an overflow valve in these water tanks. The water comes up to there, it overflows. That’s when you switch off the pump. And that’s how we know that our heart is full.
How do you know your heart is full? Out of the fullness of your heart, praise comes out of your mouth. When they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to praise God in known tongues and in unknown tongues. That’s what we read in Acts chapter 2.
PSALM 107, a wonderful verse in verse 2, let those who are redeemed by the Lord say so. Don’t just keep quiet. If the Lord has redeemed you from the hand of the enemy. And it describes various categories of people here. Those who are hungry and thirsty and wandered in the wilderness, verse 4.
This by the way is the beginning of BOOK 5. The last book, we already looked at the fourth book, (90 to 106), now this is book five. The different types of people who wandered in the wilderness and the Lord led them to the right city. People who sat in darkness, verse 10, and the Lord brought them out of the darkness, verse 14.
People who were sick, verse 19, and the Lord healed them.
He sent His word, verse 20, a lovely verse. He sent His word and healed them.
Those who were in a stormy sea, verse 25, and the Lord stilled the storm, verse 29. And let all these people exalt the Lord because He turns rivers into wilderness.
These are all pictures of our life: barrenness, darkness, stormy seas, sickness, different pictures of how the Lord delivers us.
PSALM 108, verse 1. Oh God my heart is fixed. I am only going to do one thing. It is fixed. I am going to sing and I am going to give praise. That is what I am going to keep on doing all my life. It reminds me in the olden days they used to have these gramophone records. And sometimes if the gramophone record is not good, it gets stuck. And the needle goes round and round and round and round on the same thing.
I picture this here. My heart is fixed, Lord. I am only going to do one thing. I am going to keep on praising God all my days.
PSALM 109, VERSE 8, refers to Judas Iscariot which Peter quoted before the day of Pentecost, he said, let another take his office because he was called by God. But verse 6, Satan stood at his right hand and he listened to the devil instead of having God at his right hand. Instead of standing next to God, he stood next to the devil. Be careful because when that happens, one day somebody else, verse 8, will take your ministry like Judas Iscariot.
I believe the apostle Paul took the ministry of Judas Iscariot and wrote the epistles which perhaps Judas may have written. Somebody else took his ministry.
PSALM 110, refers to the priesthood of Melchizedek, verse 4, which is quoted in Hebrews 7, referring to the Lord, the priesthood of Melchizedek.
PSALM 111, VERSE 10, beautiful verse, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It’s not Solomon’s word, it’s David’s word. He’s the first one who said it. Solomon got it from him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
PSALM 112 is a beautiful Psalm. It’s one of my favorite Psalms. It says, Blessed is the man who delights greatly in the Lord. His children will be blessed and people will see him and he will not be afraid of evil tidings, verse 7. His heart is fixed, trusting the Lord.
Light comes from him in the darkness, verse 4, and other people will see it. I believe that other people will see the way God has blessed us.
He will see his desire upon his enemies, verse 8. He is good to others. And in the Living Bible it says, people will see how God has blessed this man and they will be deeply impressed how God has blessed this man. And I believe that that’s how it should be in our life, that people around us see how God has blessed us and they are deeply impressed.
PSALM 113, the song that we sing, as we come towards the end of the psalms, you find many, many psalms of praise. See, the earliest psalms are, Lord, I’m in trouble. Please help me, please help me, please help me. And the psalms all end with praise, praise, praise, praise, praise. That’s how we should end.
You know, as we begin our life with many cries for help in our younger days and as we grow older, our lives should be full of praise. Don’t be like these old men and women who are all grumpy and always complaining. They’ve gone the wrong direction. I believe that if you’re going the direction of the psalms, you’ll be ending your days with praise.
Verse 3, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the song that we sing, the Lord’s name is to be praised for a number of things.
God who humbles Himself to look upon the things on the earth. The very fact, verse 6, that God humbles Himself to even look on the earth itself is a great thing and to be interested in the details of my life, how good God is.
PSALM 114, verse 7, Tremble at the presence of the Lord. I believe that there needs to be a far greater reverence among God’s people in our day.
PSALM 115, Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name, let all the glory come to Your name alone.
PSALM 116, another beautiful psalm. I love the Lord, verse 1, because He’s heard my supplications.
And verse 12, 13, and 14 especially, What shall I do for all the wonderful things that the Lord has done for me? I will take the gift God gives me of the cup of salvation and, verse 14, I will pay my vows in the church, in the presence of people.
Verse 18, I will pay my vows because, Verse 8, He has delivered my soul from death.
PSALM 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible, shortest psalm. And it’s just three times in that psalm it says, praise, praise, praise. And that strikes me that the shortest chapter in the Bible says praise, praise, praise. It’s wonderful.
PSALM 118 is the psalm of trusting in the Lord. Verse 8: It’s better to put your trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
They surrounded me, verse 11, but three times it says these words, in the name of Jesus I will destroy them, verse 10.
Verse 11, in the name of Jesus I will destroy them.
Verse 12, in the name of Jesus I will destroy them. This is the faith we must have.
The stone, verse 22, which the builders rejected became the head of the corner. The Lord did that. People rejected Jesus, but He is the cornerstone today. And people may reject us, but God will exalt us.
Verse 25, Hosanna, that’s the cry they said when they waved palms. Save now, O Lord, Hosanna, I beseech Thee.
Blessed is He who comes, verse 26, in the name of the Lord. This is the psalm they quoted when Jesus came, on what they call Palm Sunday into Jerusalem.
PSALM 119, every single one of these 176 verses, at least almost every, there may be one or two which don’t have, but every single verse. There are so many lovely verses here.
Verse 9, about keeping our way clean as young people. Verse 11, hiding God’s word in our heart. And verse 18, open my eyes that I may see wondrous things out of Thy law. I don’t have time to show you all of them.
And it’s good for me that I have been afflicted; Verse 67, now I’ve kept Your word after being afflicted.
Verse 105: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Verse 130: Your word gives light. The unfolding of Your word gives light. That’s the NASB translation.
Verse 133, Lord, this is Romans 6:14 in the Old Testament. Don’t let sin have dominion over me. It’s anticipating Romans 6:14. Order my steps in Your word. That’s how we overcome sin.
The last verse, 176: I have gone astray, Lord. Please seek for me as a lost sheep and bring me back.
From PSALM 120 TO 134 are called the Psalm of Ascents. Psalms that were sung as they went up for the festivals in Jerusalem, and they were singing as they went up to the hill, praising God.
Psalm 120, He speaks about destroying this tongue, this tongue — what shall be done to you? Deliver my soul, verse 2, O Lord, from lying lips.
What shall I give You, You wretched tongue? I’ll burn you up, verse 4, you who tell lies, you false tongue, sharp arrows, coals of juniper. What an attitude to take towards our tongue as we begin this journey up to the mountain.
And as we journey up, He says, Where shall my help come from? Psalm 121. Shall it come from the hills? Shall it come from across the hills, from the Egyptians across those hills, or from the Assyrians across these hills? No, my help comes from the Lord up above who made heaven and earth.
He is the one who will never sleep, verse 4, and He will take care of me.
And daytime or nighttime, verse 6, nothing will smite me.
And we go one step higher, and we say in verse 1 of PSALM 122, I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go to the church’. My home is in the church. My home is in the midst of God’s people. Many people don’t value the fellowship of God’s people. You have to pay a price to be in the midst of God’s people. You have to deny yourself, learn to fellowship with other people who are different from you.
PSALM 123, Lord, my eyes wait upon You exactly like, verse 2, the eyes of a servant look at the hands of his master. We are to sit outside an office like the office of a director. A peon sits outside waiting for the director to push a bell, and immediately the peon goes inside and says, Yes, sir, what do you want? And then he goes and sits outside again.
And then again he pushes the bell and he goes in. This is our calling, to wait on the Lord, not to run around. Peons don’t run around the offices doing this, that, and the other. They wait on their master. Many Christians today don’t know how to wait like that.
PSALM 124, verse 1, if the Lord had not been on our side, how defeated we would have been.
But, verse 7, the Lord has broken the snare of death and brought us through into resurrection; our help is in the Lord.
PSALM 125, verse 1, those who trust in the Lord will be like a mountain that cannot be shaken. Imagine being like an unshakable mountain.
PSALM 126, verses 5 and 6, if you sow in tears in prayer, you can reap in joy.
PSALM 127, do you know who wrote this Psalm about the house and about children? Solomon. Amazing.
Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. The man didn’t keep what he said.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes in vain.
And he says, children are a heritage of the Lord (verse 3).
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. His children will enable him to shut the mouths of the enemies. Verse 5.
Our children must grow up in such a way that the enemy’s mouths are shut when they see the way we brought up our children. The man who wrote it is in hell today. So take heed. You can understand these things and you can understand it so well, but you may not practice it.
PSALM 128, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord always. Verse 1
PSALM 129 speaks about suffering somewhat of the cross.
Verse 3, the plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows, but the Lord is righteous and let them all be confounded. Verse 5.
PSALM 130, VERSE 6, My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen who wait for the morning. Can you imagine a watchman who has to stay awake all night looking after a house? What is he waiting for? He’s waiting for the morning so he can go to sleep.
And he says, Lord, I’m waiting for You much more than any watchman in the world is waiting for the morning.
PSALM 131, Lord, teach me to be humble so that I don’t exercise myself, verse 1, in things which are too difficult for me. There are many things which are beyond us, outside our boundary. Let’s leave it to God.
PSALM 132 speaks about David’s tremendous passion to build a house for God, verse 5, and how he was not given the opportunity, but he had this tremendous passion, a passion we should have to build a church.
PSALM 133, how good it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. The anointing flows down where there is such unity. They were of one soul, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them.
Verse 3, the Lord commands the blessing there.
The last of the Song Of Ascents or Degrees, PSALM 134, Bless the Lord who stand by day, stand by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands and praise the Lord. Bless the Lord who made heaven and earth.
PSALM 135, the Lord has made us, verse 4, His peculiar treasure. And there’s one verse here which says that those who worship idols, verse 15 to 18, become like them.
You know, it’s true that we become like the God we worship. If we worship idols, we become like that. If we worship a God who’s like a policeman, always trying to catch us, we’ll also become like policemen to others. But if we worship a loving Heavenly Father who’s merciful and compassionate, we will also be merciful and compassionate to others.
PSALM 136, this is a Psalm where every line almost ends with God’s mercy endures forever, something that we should always proclaim.
PSALM 137 is a Psalm about the people who came back from the exile and says there in Babylon, verse 6, I wanted Jerusalem. And oh God, let my tongue never be able to speak again if I’m not able to value Jerusalem above everything else on the face of this earth. That’s the attitude that we should have towards the church.
Lord, I detest a system which is a religious Christian system that dishonors You. I want a true church.
He says, O daughter of Babylon, verse 8, you are to be destroyed. This is contrast between Babylon and Jerusalem that we see here.
PSALM 138, verse 2, the last part. You have magnified Your word above all Your name. God’s word has been exalted above the name of God. That’s why I say take God’s word seriously. Whatever is written here, take it seriously. It has been exalted by God.
PSALM 139 is a Psalm where we could spend a lot of time. God knows us. All the days that we are to live on the earth have been written down in His book, verse 16. He has planned our life. There’s a book in heaven where the entire plan for your life is written down. Ask God what it is and He’ll show it to you page by page, one day at a time. And when you come to the end of your life, you’ll be able to look back over a life where you’ve fulfilled God’s will.
Search me, O God, verse 23 and 24. Show me if there’s any wicked way in me. The Living Bible says, Lord, point out anything in my life that makes You sad.
PSALM 140, Lord, deliver me from the evil men.
Verse 13, The upright alone will dwell in God’s presence.
PSALM 141, verse 3, Set a watch before my mouth, Lord. Keep the door of my lips. And to do that, watch my heart. Don’t let my heart turn towards anything that’s evil.
PSALM 142, he says here, this is a Messianic Psalm in a sense, in verse 4. I looked at my right hand, there was no one to help me. No man cared for my soul. We also can say that.
But I cried unto Thee, O Lord, and said, You are my refuge.
PSALM 143, verse 10, Teach me to do Thy will, Thou art my God. Your Holy Spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. What a prayer to pray. Lord, lead me to the land where I can live upright all my days.
PSALM 144 is a prayer for our sons and daughters in one verse, Verse 12: Lord, we want our sons to be like plants that are growing up beautifully. We want our daughters to be like the polished cornerstones in a palace, beautifully growing up for God like a garden and like a palace.
PSALM 145, verse 18 to 20, The Lord is near all who call upon Him. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He preserves all those who love Him.
PSALM 146, verse 3 and 4, Don’t be afraid of princes. Don’t put your trust in them because as soon as they die, what happens to that influential man who is able to help you today? One day he dies. That’s the end. Trust in the Lord.
PSALM 147 tells us what the Lord has done. Verse 5, Great is our Lord. His understanding is infinite.
Verse 3, He heals the brokenhearted. Verse 2: He builds the church. Many wonderful things that He does.
PSALM 148 is about creation, the wonderful things God has done in creation.
Psalm 148:13: His glory is above the earth and heaven.
PSALM 149 is the new song. The Lord verse 4 takes pleasure in His people. He will beautify those who are humble with salvation. If you want the Lord to beautify you, you must be humble.
And let the saints be joyful in glory and let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and the word of God, a two-edged sword in their hand to execute judgment on the devil to bind the principalities and powers.
That’s how we praise God. Praise and binding Satan go together.
And then we come to the grand finale.
PSALM 150, 13 times. Praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise… There is only one type of person who is permitted not to praise God. You know who that is? Those who can’t breathe.
Verse 6, Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Are you breathing? Praise the Lord, and keep praising the Lord. Amen.
For Further Reading:
(Through The Bible) – Book of Psalms (Part 1): Zac Poonen (Transcript)
(Through The Bible) – Book Of Job (Part 2): Zac Poonen (Transcript)
(Through The Bible) – Book of Job (Part 1): Zac Poonen (Transcript)
(Through The Bible) – Nehemiah and Esther: Zac Poonen (Transcript)
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