Volume 25, Issue 8
Page 14
WisconsinChristianNews.com
A New Year Brings a New Need for Spiritual Health
By Dr. Mike Spaulding January 2025
Psalm 1 as a Spiritual Checkpoint Now, this brings us to the text of Psalm 1. How many of you have traveled recently and been to an airport? Went through the check-in process? Because it is a process now, isn’t it? I’m old enough to remember when you just walked up to the ticket counter and said, “I’m going to such and such a place,” and even if you didn’t have a ticket, you could buy it on the spot — no se- curity checks, none of that. You just got your ticket and walked right through the airport to your gate. Well, now there are all kinds of checkpoints, right? Security everywhere, and you can’t get past a certain point in the airport before you’re stopped and told you need a ticket to go further. I think about the Dayton Airport; you’re allowed to stand right there looking down a long hallway to see folks arriving, but you can’t go any fur- ther. That’s a checkpoint. Psalm 1, if you will, serves as a checkpoint of sorts. By its location, it’s the first Psalm, and as we go through it, we’re going to see that it is a gateway. The message we see very clearly here is that you cannot understand, grasp, appreci- ate, apply, or sing the Psalms for yourself un- less you belong to the congregation of the righteous. That’s a fancy way of saying, unless you are a born-again, believing Christian. The Questions Psalm 1 Poses How do I know this? Let’s look at a couple of verses, and then we’ll do a deep dive. Notice in verse 1, it says, “How blessed is the man…” And then notice in verse 6, “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous.” In order to be blessed and to be known by the Lord as righteous, something fundamental has to happen to you spiritually. In our culture as Americans, we’ve been pro- grammed — I see it in our children, and I see it in adults as well, older people who should know better — to believe that hard work always pays off. But how many of you know that’s not true? Hard work, brothers and sisters, can become, metaphorically at least, a very, very heavy ball and chain. Hard work can enslave you; it can rob you of the joys of life, and it can rob you of contentment. “If we just work harder,” the saying goes, “any- thing can be ours; the sky’s the limit,” right? Some people make the same argument within the context of education: “Education is the key to the future.” I could give you countless exam- ples of people who are wealthy and never grad- uated from high school or are running corporations today with just a bachelor’s de- gree, or people who started companies in their garages and sold them for billions of dollars. So, this notion that all you need is education to suc- ceed? That’s nonsense.
that’s how I like to use them. Jewish Poetry: Parallelism in the Psalms Many scholars classify the Psalms as poems due to their structure. If you have a study Bible, this information is readily avail- able — you don’t have to do a deep dive into any kind of resources. I’ve got a Ryrie Study Bible, which has the information that I’m about to share with you in the introduction to Psalms. Jewish poetry, especially in the Psalms, often shows parallelism, which refers to the relationship of one line to another. You’re going to see this as we work our way through the Psalms.
wrote a couple; Moses wrote a couple — which is something that some people don’t even know; Ethan wrote at least one of them; and Heman is listed as well. The Psalms cover a wide range of subject matter: praise, worship, thanksgiving, suppli- cation, intercession. They also talk about fear, sin, betrayal, frustration, anger, depres- sion, and so on and so forth. Types of Psalms There are several types of Psalms: • Lament Psalms: These are cries to God. We sang that song this morning, “I Cry Out” — that would be a good example of a lament Psalm.
A new year is ac- companied by many new resolutions, es- pecially among Americans. A large percentage of those
resolutions involve losing weight and getting healthy physically. There is nothing wrong with that. However, what benefit is there to physical health if our spiritual health is bot- tomed out? I propose two things for readers. One, let’s determine to get healthy — spiri- tually speaking. That is going to require that we discipline ourselves is a number of areas. Two, let’s determine that we will apply our- selves to praying, reading, and meditating on God’s Word daily. Let’s determine to ask God to pour out His Spirit on us and in turn, pour out that living water with the ecclesias we participate in, and toward our family mem- bers, and co-workers as He leads us. If we want to see true change and godliness in America, it must begin with our commitment to the same. Happy New Year. I’m praying for you all to reach these goals. Psalm 1 Overview: The Psalms as Israel’s Songbook The Psalms are the songbook of Israel. Let me give you an example of this point: look at Psalm 4, if you will, and notice the heading, the introduction, if you will, to the Psalm. Psalm 4 in my Bible says, “For the choir di- rector, on stringed instruments, a psalm of David.” Now, any place in the Psalms where you see that designation, “for the choir direc- tor,” that Psalm was specifically written to be a public worship song. In other words, it was to be used in Temple worship for the choir di- rector. Now, all of them, for the most part, were used in worship in the Jewish worship cere- monies, and whether it was in the temple or later in the synagogue, they were used for worship. But those with the designation “for the choir director” specifically were used in that sense. The Hebrew word for “Psalms” is “Tehillim,” which means “praise songs.” The Greek word, “Psalmoi,” from which we get our word “Psalms,” means “a collection of poems sung to musical accompaniment.” Psalm 40 is a good example of those defi- nitions: “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and hear and put their trust in God.” Many of the Psalms were songs of public worship, as I’ve mentioned. They were sung in the temple during corporate worship, but they were also the substance of personal devotion time, and
1). Synonymous Parallelism: In this form, the second line repeats the first. For example, Psalm 15:1 says, “Lord, who may dwell in Your sanctuary? Who may live on Your holy hill?” 2). Antithetical Parallelism: This is just the opposite. The second line contrasts with the first. An example is in Psalm 37:9, which says, “For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” Now, you know because you’ve been around here long enough that when you see “but,” in the Scriptures, that is an indication or an alert that a contrast is coming. 3). Synthetic Parallelism: In this form, each successive line expands on the meaning. Psalm 19:1, which talks about God's revela- tion through His words, statutes, and pre- cepts, is an example. Authorship of the Psalms The Psalms were written by people like David — 73 Psalms, for sure, are attributed to David’s authorship. Some scholars believe that up to 75 of the Psalms were written by David. You could make that argument, but I don’t think it’s something we need to divide over. Asaph wrote 12 of them; the Korahites (sometimes designated as “a psalm for the sons of Korah”) contributed 12; Solomon
• Testimonial Psalms: These are Psalms that tell others about God’s goodness and what He has done. • Penitential Psalms: These are sorrowful Psalms expressing regret for sin. • Imprecatory Psalms: These are some of the most difficult Psalms because they in- volve the psalmist calling judgment down from God upon the wicked. A lot of people re- coil at the notion that we should be calling God’s judgment down upon people. • Wisdom Psalms: These are instructional, giving insight into godly living. • Messianic Psalms: These, of course, tes- tify about Jesus. Psalm 2 is an example, where we will see that it speaks about Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself attested that some of the psalms spoke of Him. See for example Luke 24:44. In the Messianic Psalms, we see descrip- tions of the Messiah, such as: • Psalm 22: He is the suffering servant. • Psalm 23: He is the Good Shepherd. • Psalm 24: He is the exalted King and Chief Shepherd. • Psalm 110: He is the high priest. • Psalm 118: He is the stone that the builders rejected. • Psalm 2: He is the coming King.
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