The Story of God:Psalms

Listen along as we cover the Psalms. See the reign of God. Live under the rule of God. Experience deeper roots for life.

Notes/Quotes:

Psalm 1:1-6 

“Psalms are companions - They are the closest friends, wisest advisors, and faithful discerners. They understand your heart and provide words when we don’t have any.” Anthony Garcia

“People who pray the Psalms will be worshiping the God who made them, and one of the basic spiritual laws is that you become like what you worship. More particularly, however, it will happen because people who pray the Psalms will be learning (whether they necessarily think it out like this or not) to live in God’s time as well as in their own, in God’s space as well as in their own, and even in and as God’s “matter”—the stuff of which we’re made—as well as in and as our own.”  - NT Wright

Book 1 - 1-41 - Distress//Confidence
Book 2 - 42-72 - Lament//Hope
Book 3 - 73-89 - Darkest of all (88)
Book 4 - 90-106 - Doubts in Light of the Lord’s reign
Book 5 - 107-150 - Declaration//Ascent//Ps119

“The introduction to the Psalter is anything but an invitation to pedantry, legalism, or self-righteousness, on the contrary, it is an invitation to be open to God’s instruction and to the reality of God’s reign in the world.” - Clinton McCann

Ps 2:1-12

John 15:1-5

Prayer is the way that all the things we believe in and that Christ has won for us actually become our strength. Prayer is the way that truth is worked into your heart to create new instincts, reflexes, and dispositions. - Tim Keller

Instead of rules to keep, there’s a path to follow
Instead of instant, bigger, amazing everything, we practice patience, seasonal, and mostly ordinary living
Instead of obsessed or overwhelmed with the future and control, we look to delight in present surrender 

 

“Almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time with Him.” - Zach Eswine

It is less important to ask a Christian what he or she believes about the Bible than it is to inquire what he or she does with it. Lesslie Newbigin

The very thing we are holding onto (control) is, ironically, the thing we most need to let go. As you and I come to understand that our God isn’t ruling as a tyrant but is lovingly guiding and instructing as a Father, we can loosen the tight grip on our lives that produces the bad fruit of fear. This isn’t “Let go and let God.” It’s “Let go, run hard toward your Savior, and learn to trust God - Trillia Newbell

Paul speaks at one point of Christians as “God’s poem,” God’s “artwork.” We are his “workmanship,” say some of the translations of Ephesians 2.10. The Greek word Paul uses there is poiēma, the very word from which the English word “poem” is derived. God gives us these poems, the Psalms, as a gift, in order that through our praying and singing of them he may give us as a gift to his world. We are called to be living, breathing, praying, singing poems. - NT Wright.