Key word: Praise
As we travel across America in our automobile, especially on the older highway systems such as Route 66, there often is only short distances between towns and cities. But if you are driving across states like Kansas, Nebraska, Montana or the Dakotas, you can travel great distances with no towns, or even gas stations, Psalms is kind of like that. It is by far, the largest book in the Bible with 150 chapters varying from two verses to 176. It is a collection of songs and prayers, gathered from the time of Moses to Solomon and beyond – covering several centuries. David wrote approximately half the Psalms but there are numerous other contributors. Unlike driving across desolate places in America, the Psalms, while extremely long, is a virtual oasis of heart-felt prayers, cries to God for help, thanksgiving and songs of praise. The Psalms, somewhere, touches on every circumstance and emotion we experience, so, no wonder it is so loved by God’s people. In the end, it is a book about praising and worshipping God, thus our key word is praise.
Because of its length, Psalms is divided into five books, each ending in a doxology of praise. And so, unlike our previous stops along the biblical Route 66, we will spend five days observing these five books within the book.
Book 1 – Psalms 1-41 is largely the prayers of David, and the first Psalms to capture the main theme of the Psalter. Psalm one lays the foundation for the blessed life – the life looked on with favor or delight by the Lord. Such a person shuns false people and counsel, and embraces, even delights in the word of God (v. 2). Psalm two instructs us, however, that what mankind ultimately needs is Christ. In the best known of the Messianic Psalms, we find humanity ranging against the Lord (vv. 1-3), and the Lord’s reaction to such defiance (v. 4) and the sending of His son for our redemption (v. 7).
Key verse: Psalm 1:1-2 – Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.
