I teach a weekly Bible Study in our church on Wednesday nights and this week we are in the Book of Psalms. It is the longest book in the Bible and sits in about the middle of the Bible, for location. This is the one Book in which mankind, you and I, express our joys, our fears, our wonderings, our confessions, our hopes, and our faith in almighty God that makes it a little different than the other books of the Bible. You see, in this one book, we do not read the phrases that say, “and the Lord said”, or, “and God sent this message to the people of Israel”. We do not see where God makes any direct contact and conversation with mankind at all! But what we do see, and what we do experience, is the very presence and love of God expressed throughout the book, as it comes about through our hearts and through our spirits. You know, sometimes God speaks “in that still small voice” that’s not audible, but is spoken deep within our hearts, which is exactly what we get in the book of Psalms. For the whole book is strictly mankind’s expression of the deepest needs and joys of his heart unto the heavenly Father. Whatever expressions you have, whatever emotional needs that you have, whatever fears, whatever needs of guidance and forgiveness and love that you have, they are expressed in the book Psalms. The whole book is simply Man’s communication to God. As I said, God doesn’t speak directly like He does in the other books, but He speaks silently and succinctly to the very core of our hearts and being. And He lets us know, in all kinds of ways, that He cares for us, for you and me.
Let me give you a few examples. In the eighth chapter of Psalm (and the word is really “singular” and not “plural”), the writer looks up at the glory of the heavens, expressing just how great and majestic God is, but then he “brings it home” when he realizes that God, in spite of all that He has made, is genuinely interested in him, the individual. “In all that You have created”, he says, “what are mortals that you should think of us, and mere humans that You should care for us? For you make man only a little lower than God, and You crowned him with glory and honor, and put him in charge of everything that you have made.” I ask you, why in the world would the God of creation, the God who made the stars in the sky, the moon and the planets, the plants and animals, why would He, who is in control of everything, think to give us such responsibility? Look at the mess we make of everything, yet God entrusts the care of His creation into our hands! What kind of trusting God is this?
In the sixteenth Psalm we learn that “the Lord is our Master! Every good thing that we have is from Him!” And then we learn that “the Lord, Himself, is our inheritance, and our cup of blessing!” Put that one in your thoughts! He is our inheritance? An “inheritance” is a blessing, a gift that is coming to us. It certainly is nothing that we deserve, but it is given to us out of love. What did we do to deserve that? Then the writer says, “I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me.” The writer of Hebrews in the New Testament tells us that “He will never forsake us, nor leave us.” When you hear those “bumps in the night”, you can look up and know that God is right there by your side.
