Introduction to the Psalms, Part 2 | Adult Sunday School

Let's find a seat and we'll get started with adult Sunday school class. Okay, this is part two of the lesson that we started last week. I'll wait till everybody comes in and gets settled. Maybe shut some of those doors in the back and then we'll pray.

And just a reminder before we pray, next week Jeff Miller will be teaching adult Sunday school class. I won't be here next Sunday. And Dave Rich will be preaching for me in the worship service. Let's bow our heads.

Oh Father, the fingerprints of your redemptive history of your design, of your purpose and intention are all over, not only creation, but also over your word. And we can come before a book like the Psalms with the complete confidence that it has been written by the spirit of God through men and that you have preserved that for us.

That there is even in the structure of the Psalms a story to be seen, a purpose to be revealed. And we are grateful that we can give this time and our attention this morning to understanding and seeing this purpose.

So we pray that to that end, that your spirit would guide us in our hearing and in my speaking and that you would be glorified through our time and our meditation here spent in your word, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

The Psalms as Poetry, Testimony, and Worship

All right, so last week we looked at the Psalms as poetry. We talked a little bit about the structure of the Psalms, sometimes individual verses and Hebrew parallelism. We talked a little bit about the Psalms as a testimony to God's grace and the profound value of the Psalms to us as an instruction in worship, some of the theology of the Psalms.

Today we're looking at the Psalms as a book, at the structure of the Psalms. And just out of curiosity, does anybody, and I know that even in introducing this and then asking this question, obviously the answer is gonna be revealed even in asking the question, but does anybody know what the first book printed on American soil was?

It was the book of Psalms. It was called the Bay Psalm Book. It was printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640, which was only 20 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. And that was the first book printed on what is now American soil.

It's not the first book printed in the Americas because there were books printed earlier than that down in like Argentina and Chile and a few places in South America, but that was the first book printed on what is now American soil, the Bay Psalm Book.

And a copy of that Bay Psalm Book from that original printing sold in 2013 for $14 .2 million. Incredible? All right, before we talk about the structure of the Psalms, let me get one thing off of my chest real quick.

When you refer to the book of Psalms, we refer to it as the book of Psalms when we are referring to multiple Psalms, we talk about Psalms one and two, Psalms 23 and 24, Psalms five through 10, et cetera.

But when we talk about Psalm 23, it's singular. This is my pet peeve. People who ought to know better, people who teach, people who are on podcasts, people who preach refer to Psalms 22. It's not Psalms 22, it's not Psalms 23, it's Psalm 22.

It's like a book of hymns, right? When we say, we don't say turn to hymns 212 and we'll sing how sure a foundation, we don't do that. We say turn to hymn because it's individual or singular 212, not hymns 212.

The same thing with Psalms. It's not Psalms 119, it's Psalm 119, an individual Psalm. You used up all your questions last week, do you remember this? I will allow this one time. Yes, Revelation is another one.

It's not Revelations 116. It's the book of the Revelation, so it's Revelation 116. Yes, so if you want to be slapped, come up to me and refer to a Psalm as Psalms. Discipline yourself to get that right because it grieves me when people get it wrong and I just think you ought to know better.

You sound like a complete idiot when you talk like that. Okay, here is the overarching principle of Psalm interpretation and the Psalter or the Psalms as a whole. This was given to us by Jesus in Luke 24, 44.

Now he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Notice there Jesus used it correctly, multiple Psalms. Like he knew what he was doing. Notice there that Jesus says, this is after the resurrection, he is talking to his disciples and he is telling them that everything that is written about him in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Those were the three divisions of the Old Testament. The law of Moses, you had the prophets and then you had the poetry. There were other ways of dividing the Old Testament. You could speak of the law and the prophets and that would also incorporate all of that but this is a handy sort of threefold division.

You have the Psalms which would have been the other poetry sections, Ecclesiastes, Job, et cetera. You have the law which was really covered the law and the time under the old covenant law. So it's Genesis through 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah and then you have the prophets which is the last part of the Old Testament.

And Jesus is saying here in all of these divisions, there are things that are written about him. Now the Psalms consist of five separate books. And by the way, when we say that the Psalms speak of Christ, what do you think I mean by that?

Do you think that I mean that there are a few individual Psalms that speak of Christ? So for instance, if I asked you, are there references to the Messiah in the book of Psalms? You would say probably, yeah, I think Psalm 2, something about God putting his king on Mount Zion.

If memory serves, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They gambled for my garments and for my clothing. They cast lots and they pierced my hands and my feet and my bones are out of joint and my tongue clings to the roof of my mouth.

So it's obviously a messianic Psalm. You think of another one? Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord has sworn that you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Any others? Psalm what? Psalm, oh, can you prove the resurrection from the book of Psalms, the resurrection of Christ?

That's Psalm 16. Remember, that's what Paul did and Peter did when they went into the synagogue. They pointed to Psalm 16 where David said, you will not allow your holy one to undergo corruption. And then Peter says, David wrote that, but David was corrupted.

And therefore, David must have been speaking about somebody other than himself. And therefore, this one who did die and God did not allow it to see corruption, this one is the Christ and he now has been raised just as you are all witnesses to these things.

So Psalm 16, so we got Psalm 2, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, 23, and 110, right? There are a few others. In fact, I would submit to you that everything that is in the Psalms in some way points to Christ. And I'm gonna try and make that case for you today.

This is not to say that every individual statement can be interpreted as applying or describing Jesus Christ. But I am saying that the Psalms themselves and far more of them than we typically think are actually Christ speaking or they are about him.

All right, the Psalms consist of five separate books. So when you turn in your Bibles to the book of Psalms, the book where there are more than one Psalms, and you can turn to Psalm 1, right? The very beginning of the book.

The Psalms consist of five separate individual books. So you'll see before Psalm 1, the title Book 1 there. If you were to turn over to Psalm 41, between Psalms 41 and 42, you would see Book 2. And this, what I have here on the screen is the structure of the book of Psalms.

There are five individual books. And as you're reading through the book of Psalms, you will see that before Psalm 42, you see Book 2. Before Psalm 73, you see Book 3, et cetera, all the way down. And there's varying numbers of Psalms in each of the books.

It's not divided up evenly like that, but it is divided up. And there is a purposeful structure to this arrangement, not just in the order of the individual Psalms, but the order of the Psalms in each book.

In other words, these books of the Psalms are arranged in a theological order, which I'm gonna show to you here in just a moment. But within each one of these books of the Psalms, the Psalms themselves are arranged in a particular and intentional order, an order that is intended to reveal something about the theology of the book of Psalms.

Some people think that the Psalms is just a collection of individual hymns or worship songs put together without any kind of order. In fact, for years, that is how I viewed the book of Psalms. But there is a structure to the book.

And as we saw last week, there's a structure to the individual Psalms, sometimes the individual verses, but then there is a structure to the way that these Psalms are collected into these books. And then there is a structure to the series of books themselves.

The structure and the arrangement of the books point to Christ. In order to see this, I want us to focus for a moment on Psalms 1 and 2, which really introduced this book. And Psalms 1 and 2 serve as sort of a gateway to the Psalter.

And I want you to imagine Psalm 1 is the doorpost on one side, Psalm 2 is the doorpost on the other side. And these two Psalms, Psalm 1 and 2, are the ones through which we walk into the rest of the Psalter.

And so what those Psalms teach us and the way that they are structured and the way those two Psalms go together, they are separate Psalms, but they are connected in such a way as to give us an idea of what the rest of the book is about.

And this is where you see the intentional design of the book of Psalms. So Psalm 1 describes the ideal man. And if you're keeping track of what each of these books is about, I haven't shown you that just yet.

I will here in a moment. So don't start writing down book one is about this because you're going to be really confused by the time we get to what book one is actually about. Okay, Psalm 1 describes the ideal man, the man of the word or the righteous man who is blessed by God.

And that is why we have in Psalm 1, how 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 in his law, he meditates day and night.

Now that describes the blessed man. Notice how the Psalter begins. This is the man that is blessed, the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He is the righteous man, the blessed man. He does not pursue wickedness.

He does not do wickedness. He does not go after the counsel of the wicked. And instead, he is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither.

And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so. They are like the chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor the sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. That is an imprecatory promise, right? The beginning of the book of Psalms, it is contrast between the righteous man and the wicked.

The righteous man is the one who walks in the law of the Lord, not in the counsel of the wicked. So there is this intentional contrast between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous man flourishes.

The righteous man walks according to the word of God. His delight is in the law of the Lord. He is the one who prospers. He is the one who flourishes. But the wicked are not so. The wicked will be driven away.

They will be destroyed. The way of the wicked will perish. So here, the wicked are introduced at the very beginning of the book of Psalms. They're introduced. And they're introduced in terms of not walking in the way of righteousness, not being blessed, and instead being cursed, and their way ends up perishing.

Now, Psalm 2, so Psalm 1 contrasts the righteous with the wicked. And the righteous man is the one who walks in the law of the Lord. Then we come across the archway, as it were, over to Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is the other doorpost to the gateway to the psalter.

Psalm 2 describes this ideal man, and it describes the ideal man in terms of him being a king. So he's the ideal man in Psalm 1. He's the one who walks in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night.

Do any of us do that? Now, we strive for that. That is our goal, to bring everything to bear underneath of the word of God, and to have the word of God inform all of that, to walk in and to delight in God's word.

That is what we strive for. But do any of us fulfill that perfectly? No, we don't. We fail to do that, right? We fail to do that. So what we really need is somebody who is a king who will represent us, who will do that very thing on our behalf.

That is Psalm 2. Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, "'Let us tear their fetters apart "'and cast away their cords from us.'".

Now, look at here.

We have the wicked are being described, and the wicked now are the kings and the rulers of the nations. And notice how the word describes them there in verse 2. They take their stand, and they take counsel together.

What is Psalm 1 about? Blessed is he who does not walk in the what? Counsel of the wicked. The beginning of Psalm 2 is, here are the people who are the wicked. They are the kings and the rulers of the nations.

So the kings and the rulers of the nations, they are the wicked ones, and they are saying, let us cast their, that is God and his anointed, let us cast their chains off of us, those things that God binds us to and expects of us.

We're gonna cast those away. We're gonna make our own rules. We're gonna walk in our own way. We're gonna pursue our own counsel. That's the idea. Instead of following after the counsel of the righteous in Psalm 1, instead, we're going to pursue the counsel of the wicked.

We're gonna do our own thing. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain.

I will surely tell the decrees of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling.

Do homage to the son that he not became angry, and you perish in the way. For his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are those who take refuge in him. So notice at the beginning of Psalm 1, very first verse, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

Then we come across the archway over to Psalm 2. Who is the blessed one? The blessed one is the one who does homage to this king. This king who succeeds in all the things that we fail to do. This king is the blessed one.

This is the king who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, but instead his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. So you have two courses being presented to you at the beginning of the book of Psalms.

The way of the righteous, the way of the wicked. Persist in the way of the wicked, and you will suffer punishment. You will be cut off, you will be destroyed. The way of the righteous, though we may pursue that, we fail to do that, but there is one king who came and did that on our behalf.

He is the one to whom God has said, because the Father's pleased with this son, he has said to this son, I will give the nations to you as an inheritance, so that all the kings of the earth will have to do homage to this king.

So here are our observations from Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. The world hates this king that has been promised. Notice that they are, the world, the nations, the wicked, the rulers of the world, they are wanting to cast off the fetters, cast the cords from us, destroy that, put that off, and go their own way, pursue their own counsel.

This is the war that goes back to Genesis 3 .15 with the promise in the garden with the serpent and the seed of the woman that there will be constant enmity between them. And so as history unfolds, you have this constant war between the children of light and the children of darkness, and the children of darkness are those who pursue after the counsel of the wicked, the children of the light are those who trust in this blessed king.

That's what the Psalms are telling us. Psalm 2 warns that judgment will come against the wicked for that opposition, and that they will perish in the way. You saw a reference to perishing in Psalm 1, verse six, and a reference to perishing here in Psalm 2, verse 12.

They will perish in the way, so there is a way that leads to perishing, there is a way that leads to blessedness. Now these two Psalms contrast, these two Psalms contrast in a number of points, and I want to put them up on the screen, you can see them here.

In Psalm 1, how 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. Then you go to Psalm 2, the kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together.

There's a contrast in the counsel, the counsel of the wicked, and what the counsel of the wicked brings in Psalm 2. And then there is a contrast of the blessed man, how 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.

Look at Psalm 2, verse 12, do homage to the son that he not become angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled, but blessed are those who take refuge in him. Okay, so you begin, see how the Psalms begin with a proclamation of blessedness, the one who walks in the counsel of God, and keeps his law day and night.

And then in Psalm 2, you have the one who is blessed is the one who takes refuge in this king, whom God has anointed. And then there is a contrast here with perishing in the way, Psalm 1, verse 6, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.

In Psalm 2, verse 12, do homage to the son that he not become angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled, now blessed are all those who take refuge in him. Okay, so we have a contrast between the forbidden counsel or the counsel of the wicked, which we are forbidden to take, and then the blessed man is the one who does not take that counsel, and instead pursues the law of the Lord, and the wicked then perish.

So this idea of sinning, and therefore being judged and perishing, that's how the book of Psalms begins. So what would you expect for the rest of the Psalms? You'd expect to see some imprecations in there,.

Wouldn't you?

Some developing of this idea of blessedness and wickedness, a counsel of the wicked, counsel of the righteous. You would expect to see maybe these themes developed as the Psalms unfold before us. They do tell a story.

The wicked have set their desire against God and his word. They hate truth and they hate righteousness. They do not walk in his counsel. The wicked, by the way, are not passive observers to this, but they are actively at war against God, against his king, and against his kingdom.

That is how the Psalms are introduced. They therefore cannot be blessed, but rather the wicked must suffer destruction because they pursue the counsel of the wicked. They cast off the fetters of God, and therefore, if they do this, they are doomed to this destruction because this is what they deserve, and they have been warned about this at the beginning of the Psalms.

Blessed is this man. Perish will be this man. That's the warning, so then we would expect these themes to be developed through the rest of the book. The blessing of God on his people comes through this king that is introduced to us in Psalm 2, and the judgment of God comes on those who are at war with this king that is introduced to us in Psalm 2.

That make sense? The blessing of God is upon those who walk in the way of this king introduced in Psalm 2. The judgment and wrath of God is poured out against those who are at war with this king that is introduced to us in Psalm 2.

Now, who is the king of the Psalms? I think this is obvious. It's obviously Jesus. I'm not gonna defend that. I'm just gonna state that. He is the one who is called the Son, the Son of God in Psalm 2.

He's also called David's son in 2 Samuel 7. 2 Samuel 7 is the covenant that God made with David where he promised to David, I will seat one of your descendants upon your throne, and he will rule the nations, and there will be no end to his kingdom.

His kingdom will be continually blessed for he will be the righteous son of David. Solomon obviously was not that son, though some elements of the Davidic covenant apply to Solomon. Not all of them do.

Not all of them could, but David has promised another son who would come from his line to whom this kingdom, this eternal and worldwide kingdom would be given, and so that is the king that is described in Psalm 2.

So the rest of the Psalms are about this king and his kingdom and about his subjects. This king then is the blessed man of Psalm 1. Jesus is. He is the blessed man of Psalm 1. He is the son of Psalm 2, and he is the one to whom the kingdom is going to be given, and his subjects, this king's subjects, are promised an eternal kingdom.

Now, that is the background for the structure of the book of Psalms. 2 Samuel 7, the promise to seat a descendant upon David's throne, and then David, as he is speaking in the book of Psalms, we have descriptions of this king.

So we have enthronement Psalms where the enthronement of this king is described for us. We have wedding Psalms where the wedding of this king is described for us, and the wedding Psalms are Solomon speaking about him and his bride, but then you get the sense that there is another bride of this coming king who is also going to enjoy a betrothal and a feast with this king who is to come, and then we have Psalms of ascent and worship and Psalms which describe the coronation of this king and Psalms which describe the triumphs of this king.

So in the book of Psalms, David is the representative king who speaks, but Jesus is the fulfillment of what David says in the Psalms, okay? When David speaks in the book of Psalms, sometimes he is saying things that can only apply to him.

Against you and you only have I sinned and done that which is wicked in your sight. Is that David speaking for Christ? That's David speaking for himself, right? Showing that the judgment poured out upon him in his house, temporary and short as it was, was really because he did not walk in the counsel of the Lord or in the law of the Lord, meditating his law day and night, but instead he pursued after the counsel of the wicked, which is the counsel of his own heart to pursue Bathsheba, and so then David is judged for that and he confesses in Psalm 51.

So not every statement made by David or the Psalmist describes Christ, but when David speaks in the Psalms, we can generally speaking say that not only does David speak of this coming king, but there are times, not always, but there are times when David speaks for this coming king.

In other words, David is saying the thing at times that this coming king is going to say. He is not just describing this king, he is speaking on behalf of this king, which is why there are words that are attributed to David in the Psalms, which also find themselves on the lips of Christ himself, because Christ himself is the one whom David is speaking for in the book of Psalms, from time to time.

I don't mean occasionally, I mean quite often, but it's not 100 of the time. I want you to understand that. So you don't go home and read the book of Psalms and say, well, obviously our savior is a sinner.

That's not what I'm getting at. All right, Augustine said Jesus is the singer of the Psalms. So when David speaks, he is speaking not only of Christ, but sometimes he is speaking for the Christ, for the Messiah.

Derek Kinder says this, it would scarcely seem too much to infer that wherever David or the Davidic king appears in the Psalter, he foreshadows in some degree the Messiah, close quote. Okay, catch that.

Wherever David and the Davidic king appear in the Psalter, he is foreshadowing in some degree and in some way this coming king that is promised to us in Psalm 2. James Johnson says this, quote, with this in mind, Psalms are about Christ in several ways.

On the one hand, they make a specific predictions that were fulfilled in Christ. On a deeper level, the Psalms point forward to Christ through the life, words, emotions, and experiences of King David as a whole.

David is a model of the great king to come, close quote. David is a model of the great king to come. That's the theological framework now for interpreting some of these imprecatory elements. So now I want to show you that the structure of the book of Psalms, those five books which I opened with, that these five books, when taken as a whole, tell the story of this Messiah and the kingdom that he is to bring.

Okay, books one and two focus on David and his kingdom. That includes Solomon. Books three and four reflect the troubles of Israel and exile, and book five looks forward after the return of exile to the future triumph of this king, okay?

Book one and two, David and Solomon. Book three and four, the troubles of Israel and the exile of Israel, the afflictions that they suffered. Book five, post-exile, and by the way, in this structure, you're seeing all of Old Testament history basically unfolded from the time that God made a covenant with David.

When we put David on the throne, May David King made that covenant, then what you see in the book of Psalms is basically the story of Israel's kingdom foretold and described for the rest of Old Testament history.

Book One: David's Afflictions and God's Rescue

All right, here's book one, Psalms one through 41. I'm gonna give you the theme of it here in just a second. Psalms one through 41, all of these Psalms were written by David except Psalm 10 and Psalm 33.

Other than those two, all of the Psalms in the book one were written by David. The sons of Korah, sorry, the focus is on David and his experiences, his troubles, and his difficulties. Some of his difficulties were caused by the wicked, some of them were caused by himself.

David's life was hard and he faced daily foes, and so the theme or the way that book one ends after describing David and all of his suffering and affliction at the hands of the wicked and the angst that he felt and the different opposition and hostility from enemies, Psalm 41, verse 11 and 12.

By this I know that you are pleased with me because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me. As for me, you uphold me in my integrity and you set me in your presence forever. That sounded sort of a triumphant note at the end of that first book because that first book is about David and his afflictions and his sufferings.

So you have the wicked described, his angst over that, his anxiety over that, what he afflicted, what he endured. Psalm 22 is in that book. Remember, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's how David felt in the middle of the Psalm.

He says, but the Lord has not forsaken me. He has stood by me and been near the one who feels afflicted and my bones are out of joint and they pierce my hands and my feet and gamble for my garments. That's all Psalm 22.

That's David describing his own anxiety, but then when you, or his own sufferings, but then when you read Psalm 22, you kind of get the idea. David's describing what he experienced, but he's not describing what he experienced, right?

He's describing something that's beyond just him. That's what book one is about and the theme of book one is that God rescues his king from his enemies. That's Psalm 1 through 41. God rescues his king from his enemies.

I'll leave that up there for a second so you can write that down and you might want to write down all five of these if you plan on doing the homework. I'll give you some time at the end if you're interested in homework.

If you don't, then just be like Jason. Don't write anything down at all. You're not gonna do any homework.

Got it, okay.

That was me four years of high school.

All right, book two.

Book Two: God Blesses His People Through the King

Book two is Psalms 42 through 72. David is not the author of the first nine Psalms in this book. The sons of Korah wrote Psalms 42 to 49. Asaph writes Psalm 50. And these Psalms are not just about David but these Psalms in the second book focus upon God's people as well.

In the first book, the emphasis is David and his affliction. In the second book, the emphasis is on the people of God and their affliction and their suffering. The rest of the Psalms in that book other than Psalms 42 to 49 and Psalm 50 which are written by sons of Korah and Asaph as I mentioned, the rest of the Psalms are by David.

And what we see in book two is that the people and the king cannot be separated, that God blesses the people through the king. So the first one, God rescues his king from their enemies. Book two, God blesses his people through the king.

The king becomes the instrument, the channel of God blessing his individual people. Who are his people? The ones who give homage to that king, right? Psalm two, book two, that's the parallel. Do homage to the king, you perish in the way.

Blessed are those who take refuge in him. So book two of the Psalms is about how God blesses his people through this king who is the instrument of the channel of that blessing. And the theme then, sorry, Psalm 72 I should say, is written by Solomon and it describes the reign of this righteous king.

And then you sort of get the idea that the king who is behind this is another righteous one, a perfectly righteous king who was not Solomon and it wasn't David. There's another king that is to come. We're starting to get a glimpse of that by this point in the Psalms.

Psalm 72 describes the reign of the righteous king which is why you have that. May his name endure forever. May his name increase as long as the sun shines and let men bless themselves by him. Let all the nations call him blessed.

You're hearing the language of Psalm two. Blessed are those who take refuge in him. Do homage to the son lest you perish in the way, right? Take heed, O kings, take heed, you rulers who walk after the counsel of your own ways.

Do homage to this king and therefore be blessed. And then Psalm 72 ends with this proclamation. Let this coming righteous king, let his name endure forever. Let his name endure as long as the sun shines.

Let men bless themselves by him. So the theme of book two is that God rescues his people from their enemies through his king. Okay, Psalm one, God rescues his king from their enemies, from his enemies.

Book two is God rescues his people from their enemies but he does this through the king that is promised in Psalm two. The blessed king, the one whom God establishes on Zion, he becomes the channel through which all the peoples are blessed.

That's book two. Psalm two and Psalm 72 describe this blessed king and those who are blessed by him in those two books. From Psalm one to Psalm 72 is the first two books. In that Psalm one, Psalm 72, you have God, you have the psalmist describing this blessed king and his people who are blessed through him.

And those two books stand as, those two psalms stand as bookends for what are called the prayers of David. That's the first two psalms. So we have in Psalm 72, verse 20, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended.

You ever read through the book of Psalms, you get to that. Psalm 72, you read that and you turn around a couple of psalms later, you're reading a psalm by David and you think, hold on a second, I thought I just read that the psalms of David are ended.

It's because though, as we saw, most of the psalms in those two books are written by David. That's not all that David wrote. There were other psalms that David wrote, but it is believed, and I think rightly so, that these two books, book one and book two, were mostly written by David and this is speculation, but it's not speculation that is outside of the mainstream of theology on this, that those first two books were mostly written by and probably almost exclusively compiled by David during his lifetime, which is why you get to the end of book two and it says the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.