Video Transcript: Songs of Confidence

Bringing to a conclusion or looking at the individual types of Psalms. Remember again  that there are a variety of different forms of expression throughout the psalter, the 150  Psalms of the Old Testament, we've looked already at individual laments, songs that are  sung in times of distress or difficulty, particularly by individuals, communal laments,  which give voice to the whole of the community, the nation, when being overrun by  enemies or disaster happens or in current times when something rather striking takes  place that we have not been able to make sense of hymns of praise in which we shout to  the glory of God, songs of confidence in which we speak our trust in God and God's  deliverance or God's continued care for us royal Psalms, which celebrate the ruler in  Jerusalem as a representative of the true King of Israel and the True Lord of heaven and  earth. The psalms of Zion which speak in glory of the place where God comes down to  earth and establishes righteous rule that then kind of extends and spreads to all nations.  The thanks Psalms, which focus in a special way on what God has done, and will  continue to do in our current setting. And wisdom was priestly instruction, wisdom,  which is gathered through the experiences of life in relation to God and passed along to  others of successive generations. One last type of psalm to think about is songs of  confidence. And these are probably the ones that become the most striking or important  to individuals along the way. Notice how many of these there are. These are Psalms  which declare our trust in Yahweh, they declare our trust in God sometimes because of  what God has done. And sometimes in circumstances where we don't know what's  happening, but because of the way that God has acted in the past, we will continue to  find our confidence in him in the future. Probably no Psalm is more familiar than Psalm  23, a Psalm of David, probably when he was very young was still a shepherd boy was  out tending the sheep. He compares his relationship to God with that of the sheep's  relationship to him as a shepherd, a psalm that we love the Lord is my shepherd, I lack  nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quiet waters, he  refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths to for his namesake. Even though  I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and  your staff, they comfort me, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my  enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This  is maybe the most familiar of all of the Psalms, more people probably respond to this  one than any other particular psalm. Among all the 150. It may be one of the earliest  among the Psalms, one that David wrote when he was still quite young. It gives us  themes that respond to the situations of his life as a shepherd in the wilds of Judea as he  wandered after the sheep and led them to places where they would find food and water.  It's rich in metaphors, all of which provide an analogy between the competent shepherd  who cares for and protects his sheep. And God who is viewed as an even more  competent and caring and protecting leader when it comes to looking after us. So we  find ourselves confident we find ourselves at peace we find ourselves secure, even when life is troubling. And that's why, because of the references to death and eternity in the  Psalm, this Psalm has become a favorite one at funerals and in situations of great 

distress. Another one of the songs of confidence, Psalm 124. If the Lord had not been on  our side, let Israel say if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us the flood would have  engulfed us the torrent would have swept over us. The raging waters would have swept  us away. Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have  escaped like a bird from the fowler's snare. The snare has been broken and we have  escaped Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, a song of  great confidence. This is one of the Psalms of Ascent one of the 15 pilgrimage psalms  that have been sung by those traveling from the distant reaches of ancient Israel, right on up to Jerusalem for either the Passover, the feast of weeks, or the Feast of Booths, the  Feast of tents. Those are the three annual pilgrim festivals. And they required the  attendance and presence of all the Israelites to travel to the temple and spend some time  in Jerusalem. And notice that the themes of the song speak to the deliverance of those  who are traveling from attackers who might come from the caves in the hillside from the mountains above. These things would represent what was going on in the lives of those  who first sang them as they wandered through some pretty dangerous places. According  to the title for this song was written by David. So there's a lot of similarity between this  Psalm And Psalm 23. Each of these two Psalms credit Yahweh for being the great  delivering provider, and both confidently expressed delight in God as Savior and  protector. I should mention here, that there are a number of names by which God is  known. We know this generally, but it happens specifically in the literature, the choice of terms in the Hebrew language, El or Elohim, mean God are great God, the one overall,  there are a variety of ways and expressions of those in which those terms are put in  conjunction with others, the Lord of Sabbath, the Lord of battles, the Lord of Armies,  those kinds of things. But the term that is translated, at least in our English Bibles as  Lord in small capital letters, as is true in this psalm, is the Hebrew term YAHWAH. And  YAHWAH is the name God gave to Moses, when Moses first met him at the burning  bush, the name that means I am who I am, or I will be whom I will be, or I am the one  who will be there with you. It's the covenant name for God. It's the name by which we  say, we trust you, God, you are our God. And that becomes the key theme in these songs  of confidence. Probably, alongside Psalm 23. The psalm that others know well is Psalm  139. Again, it's a Psalm of David. It's probably one of my favorite psalms in all of the  book of Psalms, I love them all. But sometimes there are ones you attach to more fully,  and this happens to be one of mine. You have searched me, Lord, and you know me, you know, when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my  going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways before a word is on my  tongue, you Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before and you lay  your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me too lofty for me to attain,  where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence, if I go up to the  heavens, you are there, if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the  wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide  me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the 

light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will  be will shine like the day. For darkness is so light to you. For you created my inmost  Being You knit me together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I am fearfully  and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was  not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in  the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body all my days. were ordained for me. were written before written in your book, before one of them came to be. How  precious to me are your thoughts? Oh god, how vast is the sum of them? Were I to write  them count them they would outnumber the grains of sand when I awake. I am with you. If only God you would slay the wicked, away from me, you who are bloodthirsty they  speak of you with evil intent your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those  who hate you, Lord, and abhorred those who are in rebellion against you, I have nothing  but hatred for them, I count them my enemies. Search me, O God and know my heart.  test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive weigh in me and  lead me in the way everlasting. Along with Psalm 23. This is one of the most widely  known and often quoted Psalms. It's a Psalm of David. And especially those themes of  being knit together in our mother's womb and our days being ordained for us before  every one of them came to be not being able to flee from the presence of God. And that  being a comforting thing for God will be with us wherever we go. There David is very  personal about his trust in God, he reflects on every dimension of his personal existence, giving God the sovereign credit for shaping and caring for it, without any sense of  feeling limited or bound within that knowledge as if, who are you to spend so much time looking after me? No as a sense of delight that someone, Wow Who am I, to receive  such attention from the very Creator of the universe. In fact, the final stanza show that  David has gained God's values, so that those who are enemies of God have become  David's enemies as well. And that's hard for us sometimes to conceive of that we ought  not to hate anyone. But there's a sense in which those who hate the things of God are in  opposition to all that is good and right. And we ought to not hate them, perhaps as  individuals, but certainly hate what's going on in their lives and hate the outcomes that  they are seeking in rebellion against God. God's enemies become our enemies. If God  has enemies, we have enemies too in that sense, not that we go out and and annihilate  others, but that we certainly sense the rightness of the right and the places where the  right is not championed. The very last line in the psalm are a powerful prayer seeking to  conform fully to the goodwill of the one who is creator, who is sovereign who has  Redeemer, who is lover, who is friend who is companion, and who has my best interests  at stake. Along with the psalms of praise. These are among the most numerous in the  book of worship found in the Bible, the Book of Psalms, and this echoes the dominant  themes that we need to express in our own relationships with God, praise and  confidence. The one breeds the other and the other arises from the former, we praise  God because we are confident that God will be with us. While it's stated in many ways,  including the very individual expressions of deliverance that we find in each of the  psalms in particular, there is a common theme to all of these psalms, and that's a great 

trust in God, no matter what the current circumstances may form around me. And this  great confidence leads to great faith, great hope, an optimistic view about the present as  well as the future our times are held in the hands of God. These testimonies are directed  to two types of hearers in particular, first of all, God is the one who is the object of the  Psalms. The Psalms are direct prayers of praise and thanks for deliverance in the past,  and confidence about the future benefits that will happen out of this relationship. But  these psalms are also secondly meant to be sung in front of and with other people, so  that the experiences of deliverance and confidence of the one giving testimony me who  speak these words can be shared and affirmed and in fact, multiplied by others, so that  they can deepen our confidence mutually in God. The Psalms become the voice that  resonates as others pick up the same kinds of themes. These are the songs of confidence  that come from one voice one mouth, and generate multitude of amplitudes as others  pick up the themes and resonate with the goodness of God that they can sing as well.  Again, if you'd like to read more about the Psalms, you can look in my book Hear Me  Oh God, and also in my book, Covenant Documents, Reading the Bible Again For the  First Time.