Counseling In The Psalms (part 1)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our loving and gracious Father, we ask you, Lord, to illumine our hearts and minds this morning as we open your scriptures and as we look at you, look to you for wisdom.

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In Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay, who here wants to be wise?

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All right, that should be the desire for all of us. And you have a two -sided handout in front of you.

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And we'll go through most of it today, but we may not finish it all. So next week we will hopefully finish.

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When I was a little kid, I used to like, I liked to read a lot of story, you know, fiction.

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And one of the books I read was this, there was this young guy who was working in a library, very dull, you know, he just would plod along and make a lot of mistakes.

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And then it was a sci -fi book. I don't read sci -fi, but when I was young, I read everything. And something happens, there's like a chip that this alien puts in his brain.

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He doesn't know about it. But all of a sudden he can see things clearly. He can see, you know, millimeter differences.

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And then he goes to the library and he starts reading everything in the library. Now math equations become like, you know, art.

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He can just start to see how they all fit together. And, you know, then he, of course, he goes and saves the world.

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But, you know, that's like every kid's dream. You know, you're like not good in sports.

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You just can't get your work and then something magically changes. And now, you know, here you are, Superman. Is that what wisdom is?

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What is wisdom? Maybe we can ask that question as we get started. What do you believe wisdom is that we all want to be?

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Wise. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

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Psalm 111. And in fact, that's the theme of our Sunday school this morning.

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We're going to be looking at how acquiring wisdom or being wise involves having the proper fear of God.

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Now, but let's still talk about wisdom. How does that look like? What does, well, fear of the

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Lord gains wisdom. How would someone who is wise live? Or what is wisdom, a definition of wisdom?

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Yes, Brian. Excellent.

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So I think there are two terms there. One is knowledge and the other is wisdom. It's not just going to the library and being able to understand everything that is out there, but rather being able to apply that knowledge in the right way, in a

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God -honoring way. And that's basically what wisdom is. It is to be able to apply that wisdom.

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Good definition, Brian. And I think another illustration may be helpful for us before we get down here.

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Can you think of some people who are very wise in the Bible? Ants, yes.

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And why are ants so wise? They do what they are meant to do and they're very industrious and they do not slack off like some of us do.

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And when you think of some of the other animals that prepare for winter, right now it's nice and sunny and it's nicer to be playing ball, but they'd rather be storing up for the time when they know there will be no food and they are prepared ahead of time when from a human perspective, it seems like it's better to be having fun, but there are some things that are coming that they are aware of and they are preparing, applying themselves rightly to that.

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Bruce? Yeah, I was actually thinking of the preparing for the winter part, which is not really the ant example.

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I forget what other creature is commended for that. But yeah, that was what

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I was actually going for. But I think there are some things even, like I think there are some things from the animal world we can learn from.

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In Proverbs, there's a lot of things God made things in a certain way. And I think humans can learn from it by saying, well, animals really don't sin in a sense.

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They're not made in God's image and they're not tainted by the, well, they're not responding to God in a sinful way.

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Although the corruption of sin is upon all of the world and the world itself is groaning, waiting for redemption.

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But man, unlike that ant, can be lazy. He is made to work, but he can say, well,

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I choose not to. And so I think in that aspect, you can learn from the ant. So did you have something?

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Solomon, yes. And that's the example I wanted to just use and then we get into this material.

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So when we think of Solomon, there's a lot of things he did. And one of the things that stands out, especially for children, is that whole arbitration of the baby that is living.

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So you have two mothers, one baby has died. And how do you decide which baby belongs to which of, the living baby belongs to which mom?

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And there, as you can see, difficult problem. It's just, he says, she says, she says.

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And then Solomon appeals to something that most people don't, which was, what is the natural mother's instinct for the baby?

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You know, I mean, when I read the story first time, it didn't strike me, that's where I should be going.

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And then he does it in such a powerful way. He applies that knowledge in such a way as to bring out the truth in a very dramatic way that the entire nation was able to see and honor the king for the wisdom.

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And once again, when you think of Solomon, he asked God for wisdom and it was from God that he received that wisdom.

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And today we're gonna be looking at wisdom in us in different areas. So we're gonna pick a few

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Psalms where we can say, what are some areas in my life that I need wisdom for?

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As you know, in the series, in the Psalms, we've been looking at counseling. So someone comes to you and they're struggling with an area where maybe they're making foolish choices, or maybe it is yourself.

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You're struggling with certain areas and you just don't know what the wise action here ought to be.

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And I think today's Sunday School will hopefully point you in the right place, which is always to begin with the fear of God.

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And then we will spend some time in the Psalms to see how that works out. How do you draw this wisdom out of the text?

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So let's begin by looking at wisdom in terms of the fear of the

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Lord. What is this term, fear? I have that in your outline. First, the definition has both fear and reverence.

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There is something about God that causes finite creatures to want to shrink back.

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There is something that is just awesome, awe -inspiring about God that makes you want to shrink back.

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But at the same time, there is also something just so compelling about God that draws you close to him.

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And so when we think about fear, I want to just use those three aspects that are found under your first point, under A, under definition.

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We're going to look at those three terms that are first used in the Bible. The first major category is this term yare, which is terror or anxiety, great feeling of apprehension.

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And this is the term fear in the common sense of the word. In fact, I think I had this when

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I was doing my college. I was staying with unbelievers and I had different scriptures.

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And one of them was about the fear of the Lord. And they were like, why would you fear God? You normally love

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God, but does fear really come into worship of God? And so that's normally very confusing.

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And most people normally look at this terror that you have with fear and stop there.

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But one of the places where you can... An illustration of this would be like in Jonah 1, 5, the mariners were afraid and each cried to their

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God because they knew that they were going to be dead soon. Their ship was sinking and they were in terror because they knew they were going to die.

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And that's the kind of terror that yare normally refers to, the first major category. The second category there talks about the reverence of the

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Lord. And this one is, for example, in Mount Sinai, when you're looking at the people

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Israelites are gathered around, you can see the visible presence of God. And the people see that, and they are both again drawn and afraid of God.

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They know that they cannot approach this Holy God on their own. And yet there is something that is just tremendously inspiring about this

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God that draws them to him. And I think these two terms are not to be separated when we think of the fear of the

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Lord. There is a sense in which God is fearsome and he is wrathful. And through Christ, we now have this way of admiring and appreciating and being awe inspired by this

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God. So we want to make sure we recognize what there is a fear and there is a reverential fear. And some of the texts that bring this together are like, for example, in Joshua 4, 14, when

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God exalts Joshua, just like he did Moses in the presence of the people, the people stood in awe of him.

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And there was that same kind of reverential fear that they had because of God. Now, when we think of the fear of the

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Lord, many of the texts that we look at are normally in the Old Testament. And we might be thinking, is this because they still didn't have

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Jesus, that they had this fear? Should we not have a fear of God?

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I'll just give you a few texts so that way you can make sure that that is not true.

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Some of the Old Testament texts we have are in Deuteronomy 13, four, we shall walk after the

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Lord, your God, and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. Ecclesiastes 12, 13 says the end of the matter when all has been heard, fear

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God and keep his commandments. You also have that in 1 Peter 1, 17. If you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deed, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

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And then again, the same book, 1 Peter 2, 17, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear

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God, honor the emperor. To have a right attitude toward God is crucial for the

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Christian life. And this attitude that we are gonna be looking at here is called fear of God.

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Now, you might think, especially when you say, unbeliever should have a terror of God, whereas a believer should just have a love of God.

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Now, normally what we're thinking is this, as a believer, I am justified and I am glorified.

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Because I'm justified, I am all covered. That is true, I don't have to pay for my sin.

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And therefore, I'm seeing myself in my position as a Christian, and so I don't have to worry about living life in the middle.

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And that's not what the Bible says. There is a time when we will be perfect, we will not sin, and that's called glorification. There is now when, as a believer, you are justified and none of your sins are counted against you.

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But God is very interested in this process of sanctification where we are made into the image of Christ.

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We all know that we still have sin, we struggle with sin, and God calls us to a life of holiness. And how is it that we are to be transformed in the image of God?

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And that's one of the keys to doing that is to have this right fear of God.

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Now, if you're honest with yourself, you will know that you have competing desires, competing inclinations in you.

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As a believer, you do know that you wanna honor God, you wanna follow after Him. But as someone who is still in the flesh, you will have desires that want to go your way, your will over God's will.

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And how is it that you can apply yourself to the things of the Lord to please

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Him and put your pleasures behind you? And that's basically what we're gonna be looking at here because anytime you are in a place where you need counsel, it is very often that you have chosen to take yourself and your desires and to place them in front of you.

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And very often, this comes so deceptively that you are not saying, I'm choosing this over this. It is rather that your life has been patterned maybe in a certain way that ungodly desires have formed the path that you are following.

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And you need to go back to the Word and God shows you who He is and what it is that pleases

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Him that makes you realign your life and then walk in a way that pleases Him. And the fear of the

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Lord plays an important role in that. And there are some psalms that are called the wisdom psalms.

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And I have a list of those further down that just show you what are called, commonly called wisdom psalms by scholars.

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And the way each of these psalms goes about is by showcasing who this

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God is, how we are to hold Him in fear and reverence. And as a result of that, what are some of the things that God changes the lives of believers who follow after Him?

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And like I said, we'll pick up a few of these psalms today to unpack this. And in your outline, point number two,

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A, let me just read that out for you. Wisdom literature recognizes and establish order in the world that rewards virtue and industry while bringing justice to evil and sloth.

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Some of those books, there are the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job. And I want to kind of spend a few minutes here before we move on to our text, because I think as evangelicals, sometimes we can be a little not properly balancing what

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God says about godly living. We want to be very careful to not interpret what

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I just said to say, God has an order, there is justice. And so there is reward for good and retribution for evil.

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And so I just keep doing good and then God rewards me for it. And we all know that that is not the biblical mindset.

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An unbeliever doesn't just come and say, okay, if I obey my parents, I don't cheat in my taxes and I do what is good, then

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I need to have a blessed, happy, fulfilled life. That's not what the Bible says at all.

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And we make it very clear that what is truly good is only obtained by faith in Jesus Christ.

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We are all desperately evil. There is none of us who can obey God's law perfectly. And the result of our state of disobedience before God is condemnation in hell.

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And there's only one way of hope for this person. And that is by faith in Christ and to believe in him and to be right with God by faith and not of our works at all.

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And yet we know that in God's character, there are certain things that are holy. He has built this world with justice as its fabric.

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And God calls upon believers to live in a way that reflects God's holiness, in a way that honors what

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God honors and to put away those things which are unpleasant. And so the

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Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job, they actually talk about things. These are not equations.

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You do this and therefore you will have this. But these are general principles that undergird God's universe. And so when we follow what

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God has revealed to us as good, there is consequences that are good.

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And if you go and murder someone, there is consequences to those actions as well. And that's basically what the wisdom literature actually bring out to us and to show this is who

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God is. This is the character of the world in which we live and we ought to conform to what pleases

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God. So that's the point A out there. The second point we have there is, wisdom literature instructs one how to live life in accordance with God's word.

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It teaches us by principle, how to be holy, how to please the Lord and how to imitate his values.

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There are some Psalms that I've listed out. Psalm one should be very obvious. We're gonna be spending some time in it. It talks about the way of the one who is blessed, who follows after God and the way of the one who is wicked, who will perish.

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When we think about this order in this world, my first point was about all human beings have something called a conscience.

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There are some things that they all know that is good. There is some things that they just inherently know that is wicked. They will, we in unbelief can choose to suppress what is good and choose to indulge in what is wicked only because it is pleasing to my flesh.

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But how do you know what is good and what is not good? It is only because God has revealed what is good to us in his word.

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It is always God's word that is a basis of determining what is good. We live in a culture where good and evil are upside down and just being nice to people seems to be what is good, even if you are sending them all the way down into perdition.

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And so the Psalms will always exalt God's word. So these Psalms here,

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Psalm 119, for example, just extols God's word because it is in God's word that we find what is good and what pleases

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God and God's revelation in order for us to imitate what is good.

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So we will use these Psalms to impart wisdom to those who are in need and especially to ourselves.

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And the point C, wisdom literature exalts a study of the word of God.

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In fact, in Psalm 1, we look about the delight of the person is in the law of the

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Lord. Here is someone who is just studying, meditating on it day and night. And that is basically what

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God calls to in terms of understanding what is pleasing to God. And once again, with Psalm 1, we see in point

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D, there is a contrast between the righteous lifestyle of those who follow after God and that of the wicked.

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So there are consequences of looking up to God and seeking what he says is good and living our lives.

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So you can see the life, the fruit of such a person who follows after God. And then you can also see the lifestyle of those who would follow what pleases themselves in which is contrary to what

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God has revealed. Now, when you see these things, you coming up to point number

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F, there are, the wisdom literature has varied counsel.

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So there are various areas where we are lacking in wisdom, where we act foolishly, where we think that this is what is normal.

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And then the word of God comes alongside and says, here is what pleases God. Here is what you ought to do.

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Here is the right application of knowledge in order to give you wisdom, to act in a wise way. And some of those examples are listed there.

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The first one is the importance of confession. Again, we will be looking at one of these

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Psalms later, but why do you think confession is important? Is that something, how does confession even relate to wisdom?

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Exactly. We all like to think that we would not sin, but we all do.

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And the moment we sin, the Bible calls us to repent, to confess our sins before God.

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And like I said, the word confession really means, I agree with God that what I've done is wrong. And that is a crucial part of living here on earth.

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And the quicker we get into our head, there is a wrong way to live in a Christian life. And when you're young Christians, most of us struggle with this.

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I know I did. I get saved. I'm so passionate. I'm just following everything God says. And then suddenly

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I fall into sin. And then I'm thinking, I know, am I even saved? How did this happen to me?

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And then you either you're in denial or you're just trying to cover it up and say, no, that, or I just say, oh, now that I've sinned, let me just continue.

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What's the big deal? There's no point in trying to avoid the sin because I can. That's not what the Bible says.

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So the Psalms on confession bring it to the point where you say is, you know, here is what

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God has ordained for you while you live here on earth. There is gonna be times when you sin and you need to agree with God.

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And then it's not just, I agree with God and move on. Most non -Christians think, oh, Christians, they just go into this confessional, say this thing and then move on.

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That's not what confession, true confession is. And we will see that when we get there, but that's crucial for our life here on earth in order for us to be right with God, to enjoy

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God while we are not yet glorified. The second one there is the importance of repentance,

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Psalm 32. And again, there, David just works this through. You know, when I do not repent, my bones are in agony and the hand of God is upon me.

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There is something that happens in a believer's life when you are in sin that you do not recognize when you are an unbeliever.

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You could just continue to enjoy sin as an unbeliever, but as a believer, until you come to the point of repenting your sin, you will see the chastisement of God's hand upon you.

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And so if you are struggling with something and you don't know why, maybe the wisdom that you need is to properly repent and come before God as David did.

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The other one is the importance of overcoming envy. Very, very easy for us to get trapped in this.

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Why would this be an easy sin to fall into? Psalm 37, for example, we are living in a world where while God has ordained this fabric, there is certain things that are good, there are certain things that are evil.

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This is not yet the place where God's will, we still pray for God's will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

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There is gonna come a time when God is gonna come here and rule here as the king, and there will be no one who disobeys

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God. But today, when you look at the world outside, the ones who are prosperous are most often those who are shrewd in the world's ways.

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Those who twist the rules, who make the rules as it seems best to them, and they survive and they make tons of money and their children seem to be very happy, whereas those who are normally suffering are those who wanna honor

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God and follow his rules and they get kicked out of their homes.

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Now, when you look at that, it is very easy, like the Psalmist struggles with putting your eyes on the things in the world and say, why is these things?

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Maybe even it doesn't even have to be outside in the world, it could be even inside the church. You look at someone and say, oh, you know, why is this this way?

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Maybe someone is not living in a godly lifestyle, but maybe they seem respected. And he's like, why is this the way that it is happening?

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Shouldn't God establish justice the way I see it today? And then the Psalmist has some real sharp counsel to set our hearts in line with his.

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He is still on the throne. It doesn't mean he is out of the, he is ignoring these things.

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And these are the things that the wisdom will bring. And once we have the knowledge that God gives us through the word, and then we have the wisdom of fearing

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God who has given us this truth, and then he aligns us to see things in the way he sees, and then we are no longer able to, we are no longer fretting over the circumstances that are around us.

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In fact, many of the problems, as we diagnose the troubles that we are in, and then we say, you know, what are these events that are causing us to not enjoy this life, this beautiful life

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God has given us? You can see issues like this, that the wisdom Psalms point us to, and say, is this the issue that we are dealing with?

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And if it is so, then we want to follow what God, the counsel that God has given us. Moving on to point six.

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Wisdom literature gives reasons, I'm sorry, G, reasons for disobedience that still hold true today.

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Now, when we think of our walk as a Christian, there could be three reasons why we could be sinning.

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The first one, you do not know a specific command or principles that you are disobeying.

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So maybe when you think of a relationship of a husband and wife, young newly married couples, if you are not instructed in the word about what

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Ephesians five talks about, you might just think, okay, you know, marriage is just, you know, like I say in the world, it's supposed to be a lot of fun, and, you know, my spouse will always please me, and, you know, we'll have a great time.

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And very soon you realize, your spouse is thinking the same thing as well. And so the first thing you need to know, there is knowledge, there is something about love that God gives, reveals to you in the scripture.

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And so the first thing you need is knowledge that this is not what is right.

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Your love for God is, your love for your wife is to be different than just being, expecting things to please you all the time.

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The second one is, you know the principle, but you don't know how to apply them. So you say, oh, okay,

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I know the Bible says, love your wife as Christ loved the church. You know, that's the true marriage.

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But I still don't know practically how I need to do that. Am I supposed to go on a cross and die?

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And if so, if it's figurative, what does that mean? I still don't know on a daily basis, you know.

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Oh, and then you come alongside, and I have a note there. I don't know if it's in your note.

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Actually, I don't. But for example, you go to James. The Bible says, if any of you lacks wisdom, ask

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God, and he will freely give you the wisdom from above. And you get counsel from other married

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Christians. They say, you know, wash the dishes when your wife is struggling with things, and that demonstrates that you really do care for her, simple practical ways.

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So, and you work out those specific aspects of love in the way that God has called you to.

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And the third one, and this is the most difficult one, because those of you who know the word and struggle more would probably have to deal with this, is you know what

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God says, you even know how to apply it, but then you refuse to, which is to sin willfully that I will not love.

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And I think this is the most dangerous kind. It's called the sin of the high hand or rebellion. And in the

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Old Testament, there's really no sacrifice for such a sin, because you need to confess when you ask for atonement.

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Now, those are the three types of sins that you could be going through, or the one whom you're counseling can be struggling with.

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And you want to make sure that you find out what which of these is the problem that you are in the particular area that you need help.

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So let's now look at some New Testament correlation for wisdom. You know, what does the

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Bible say about following God in the paths that he has for ordained? So I'm going to have a few texts here.

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If actually some of you want to turn to these, we can actually read them and then spend a few minutes before we move on to the psalm.

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Can someone read Matthew 5, 27 to 30? Yes, Bruce.

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So if you're a mature believer, you can basically say, well, you know, this is for unbelievers. I have a very good evangelistic verse that I can just use and just move right on.

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But if you are one who is fearful of God, you have the right view of God and his holiness and reverence for him, you would do what

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Pastor Dave often says. Summertime is coming. We live in a world where people just have no shame.

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You go to most places, clothes just come off. And then you make a covenant with your eyes and say,

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I will not observe that which will tempt me and go down this very path.

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I'm willing to cut off one of my members. I'm willing to close my eyes to turn the other way rather than let me indulge in something that would be sinful.

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And the issue again is centrally is here. Am I concerned about the holiness of God to challenge the way that most people around me think and to turn my body, my will, my affections to the way that would be pleasing to God?

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So this is just one of those texts that in the New Testament that talks about a view of sin and it doesn't have to be just in this particular case, sexual temptation.

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It could be in any other temptation. Is this, am I willing to align my will to that of God and to what extent will

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I go in order to please my God rather than to do what my flesh wants me to?

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The next verse is Ephesians 5, 15 to 19. Can someone read that? If you have it, just go ahead and read.

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You don't need to wait for me. Yeah, go ahead,

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Bob. Bob.

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Yeah, it's chapter five, 15 to 19. Yeah, but go ahead, you can read. Oh, that is helpful too.

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We do want the armor of God in order that we would not. Yes. And this again goes to the core of what it means to be wise and foolish.

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So he says, not as unwise, but as wise in verse 15 and verse 17, do not be foolish.

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So we wanna ask, how does this work itself out? Verse 15 again makes it very clear.

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Wisdom is not just some meditation that you're standing up in the mountain and then you've realized truth.

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It is look carefully how you walk. It is how you live your life.

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And as we heard earlier, it's about how you apply the knowledge that God has given you. And the key there in verse 17 is to understand what the will of the

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Lord is, which is God has given that to us in his word. So we understand what God's word is, what pleases

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God, and then we just live it out for wisdom. It is not about just knowing it, but actually doing what pleases

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God. And the next one is in 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17. And I think this is very crucial, especially if you are going through a time of trial that this book is profitable for teaching instruction, correction, and training in righteousness, that this is where you need to look for help when you are in need, when you do not understand what you need to do in a particular circumstance.

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Because I think very often we would say that I believe this is God's word, but at the time of trial, when in a time of wanting to understand what is pleasing to God, am

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I willing to go here and find what God says? And when I find out what it says, am I willing to put my life on the line and follow what he says irrespective of the cost?

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Because you could be in a circumstance where it could be prudent, maybe in the worldly way, to do something maybe that's not so much in conformity to God's word.

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And then some brother or sister comes along and says, this is what the scripture says about this. And then am I willing to say, well, this is not just something that this brother is saying, but this is what

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God is saying. And am I willing to say, well, there may be some consequences in the earthly sphere for doing what

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God says, but do I really trust 2 Timothy 3, 16, which says that my

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Bible is sufficient. God's word is sufficient for every good work. The next one is in Hebrews 5, 11 through 14.

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Yes. Go by this time,

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God. Thank you.

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And I cannot reiterate this enough. The end of this passage, solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to discern good from evil.

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It's one thing to say, well, I'm a believer. I've been a believer 20 years. And now that I'm in this crisis in my family and everything is falling apart,

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I just need to go run and find the right words that I need to get help for. How much better that these 20 years that I've been studying the word, that I was learning what

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God has said, that I've been applying. In fact, the text that says by constant practice. So you are training in the word these 20 years so that when that trial comes, you are fully equipped and you are able to apply the word that God has given you during that time.

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So if not, you're still like a baby and you are gonna be still like that boat that is tossed around by every wind.

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Unless you go to God's word, you let the word of God seep in you and study your word regularly.

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And then you apply it in your life in all circumstances that you go through. The other two verses, let me just quickly read and then we'll move on.

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James 4, 17 says, "'Whoever knows the right thing to do "'and fails to do it, for him it is sin.'" It is actually sinful for us once we know what

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God says and then to reject it and do what we want. Second Peter 1, 19 through 21. Once again, talking about the prophetic word.

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You will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

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We do live in a world that is very complicated. There is very often choices that are very confusing.

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We live in a world where people have made up all sorts of excuses for what is right, for what is wrong to be called right.

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And you do need God's word as that lamp that shines in that very dark place to show you this is what is pleasing to God.

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This is what, who our God is in this particular circumstance and what he would be pleased with in your response.

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So we wanna make sure that we understand what God's word is and to say, this is what the word reveals about the character of my

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God and this is the actions that would be in honor of him. Let's move on to the next section, the rhetorical elements.

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We have certain things that we saw the first time in Psalms. The Psalms are written in poetic language so they are built in, it doesn't say, steps

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A, B, C, and D. Instead it uses poetic language that just powerfully conveys certain truth.

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And I wanna just highlight some of them because we'll be, when we're studying the wisdom Psalms, these things come over and over again.

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So the first one is the better sayings. So for example, in Psalm 37, 16, it says better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

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And as you can see, again, it's contrasting two things. It's better this than that and he actually uses two opposites.

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It's okay to have just a little bit, maybe of food or wealth of place where you live than having a lot of these things, which is the abundance of the many wicked.

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Psalm 37 is again one of those Psalms that talks about envy. You can wrongly be looking at plenty in the life of the wicked and then failing to see something else that is underneath those people who are doing those wicked things.

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And instead of envying them, you actually look at the danger in which they are in and then you know not to follow such a path because that path is not really a place of plenty, but it is a place of destruction.

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But again, this language that is used here, better a little than the abundance.

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That's one of the ways in which the Psalms warns us of what not to follow. It is not just a poetry, it is actually a very dangerous thing to follow the way of the wicked.

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The next one is a numerical saying, Psalm 62, 11, that says, once God has spoken, twice

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I have heard this, that power belongs to God. And again, this is a language that is meant to emphasize the seriousness of what you're hearing.

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This is crucial that you actually pay attention to what God has said. He has said this once and I have heard this twice and power belongs to God and that's the truth that is given there.

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The third one, the admonition with and without motive. Now, the Psalm that I have there is

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Psalm 34, eight and it says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

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Sometimes we read something like this, we might just move on. It's like, okay, it's not really commanding me to do something.

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But in the second half of that verse, you see, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

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Taking refuge in God has a consequence and it is you are actually blessed by finding refuge in God.

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And the first half of it is to taste and see that the Lord is good. And part of the

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Psalms is you need to actually just sit down, meditate on these texts and say, what does this mean?

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It is obviously not that you're eating God. You are actually here to enjoy the life that God has given you.

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And God is indeed good. He is beneficial in the supreme sense of the word.

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And then let me move on to the others. We need to finish quickly here. The admonitory address to sons.

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And we see this in Psalm 34, 11. Come, oh children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the

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Lord. You wanna come here as those who are children of God, but also as those who are young in your understanding.

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And then when you see what the scripture says, I mean, those of you who were here in the first service, if that is something that was just mind blowing to you, you have never heard that before, you wanna say, this is what

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God's word says. And I wanna come and be transformed by it rather than be someone who's a judge over it and say, oh, this doesn't meet my expectations.

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It's God's word that is true. And I wanna come under it. Then you have the beatitude formula.

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And again, Psalm 1 is a very good example. Blessed is he. Just like we have the beatitudes in Matthew.

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You have several Psalms that I've listed there. And then you have the rhetorical question.

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And again, Jesus uses this a lot in Psalm 94, 9. He who planted the ear, does he not hear?

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He who formed the eye, does he not see? And these are languages that are just make so, there is no answer given in the verse, but the answer is obviously yes.

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It is actually an argument from the lesser to the greater. If he makes the ear, would he not be actually be able to hear you?

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He who forms your eye, does he not have vision of everything that is done? And these are

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Psalms that are not just formulas, but they just wanna make you think. What is the nature of my

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God who hears my prayer? If he made my ear and made the ears of every single person on this earth, he is powerful enough to hear all of us when we pray to him.

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And then you have several similes as well. Psalm 1, 3, verse 4, they all talk about you're like a tree that is planted by the river.

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And what does that mean to me? You flourish in this life in God's sight when you are fed by God's word and you follow after him.

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We'll stop here and next week we will pick up the steps to follow. And then now that we have a general idea of what it means to fear

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God, how do we examine our lives in terms of wisdom? What it is that we lack and how do we need to look for God's word?

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Next week we'll pick up a few Psalms and then we will work it out in terms of how God's wisdom comes to us.

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Any questions before we close? Let's pray. Our loving and gracious father, we thank you

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Lord for revealing yourself to us in the person of your son, Jesus Christ. And we thank you for giving us your word, which is our supreme wisdom.

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Give us, oh Lord, hearts that would seek after your truth to want to please you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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We commit the service as well into your care that we would truly worship you in spirit and in truth and that our hearts would be here to exalt you and to honor you with our thoughts.