Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction to the Psalms Book 5

Every emotion of the heart is Reflected in the Psalms with words that express our deepest and strongest feelings.

They provide comfort and joy, leading us to the place where worship flows.

Psalms is divided into five books, mirroring the five books of Moses that form the Old testament.

Together they convey the depth of our longings and fears, joys and celebrations, becoming a mirror to the heart of God's people in our quest to experience God's presence.

and strongest feelings.

They provide comfort and joy, leading us to the place where

worship flows.

Psalms is divided into five books, mirroring the five books of Moses that

form the Old testament.

Together they convey the depth of our longings and fears, joys and

celebrations, becoming a mirror to the heart of God's people in our quest to experience

God's presence.

Book Five of the Hebrew poems, the Deuteronomy Psalms.

These ancient poems celebrate God's Word and emphasize his praise,beginning with the extolling of God's constant love and encouraging of his people to let everyone know about it.

This book is anchored by the longest of the poems, , which draws our attention to the Word of God, celebrating it and lifting it high for all to follow.

This collection also encourages everyone everywhere to shine with praise for God's goodness and mighty deeds.

Even when the writers petition the Lord for help, worship is still only a breath away.

God's Word and emphasize his praise,beginning with the extolling of God's constant love

and encouraging of his people to let everyone know about it.

This book is anchored by

the longest of the poems, , which draws our attention to the Word of God,

celebrating it and lifting it high for all to follow.

This collection also encourages everyone

everywhere to shine with praise for God's goodness and mighty deeds.

Even when the

writers petition the Lord for help, worship is still only a breath away.

God's Extravagant Love and Astonishing Faithfulness , , ,

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Book Five of Psalms gives us such an expression by drawing our attention to the extravagant love and astonishing faithfulness of God.

extravagant love and astonishing faithfulness of God.

The psalmist launches into his exposition of the heart of God by recounting how God broke through and delivered his people.

Out of the agony of their despair and darkness, starvation and thirst, Israel cries out, "Lord, help us!

Rescue us!" ().

And God did.

Time and again.

God's extravagant love and astonishing faithfulness compelled him to hear the prayers of his people, and he came with might and strength.

broke through and delivered his people.

Out of the agony of their despair and darkness,

starvation and thirst, Israel cries out, "Lord, help us!

Rescue us!" ().

And God

did.

Time and again.

God's extravagant love and astonishing faithfulness compelled him to

hear the prayers of his people, and he came with might and strength.

Guess what?

He still does.

King David needed God to display his extravagant love and astonishing faithfulness again, so he appealed to it.

He also trusted it.

In the midst of pain, his soul was quiet and confident because of the heart of God.

astonishing faithfulness again, so he appealed to it.

He also trusted it.

In the midst of pain,

his soul was quiet and confident because of the heart of God.

:With this psalm the members of the community call one another to give thanks for God’s enduring “steadfast love,” which he has shown not only to the people as a whole but to the particular members as well.

The distinctive feature of this psalm is its four accounts of people in distress (“some,” vv. 4, 10, 17, 23), whom God rescued.

Because the psalm concerns gratitude for Judah’s return from exile (v.

3), it is likely that these four accounts describe the activities of members of the tribe of Judah in their exile.

Some scholars think that these are four descriptions of the same group, but the activities of the groups are different enough to make it easier just to take these as four ways in which God’s people have been scattered away from their Promised Land, to which God has now brought them back.

Key repetitions in the psalm include: after the initial invitation to “give thanks to the Lord” (v.

1), the psalm describes how each of the four groups cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them (vv.

6, 13, 19, 28), and it calls on them to thank the Lord (vv.

8, 15, 21, 31).

The theme of God’s “steadfast love”—his enduring kindness toward his people and his willingness to forgive them even in the face of their rampant unfaithfulness—recurs throughout as the topic of thanks (vv. 1, 8, 15, 21, 31) and meditation (v.

43).

With this focus on the restoration of the exiles, the psalm is at first glance more concerned with the thanks of the whole community than of any individual; at the same time, the persons who sing this have themselves received the benefits of the deliverance, so that the individual gives thanks as a member of the community.

Even though this psalm begins a new book of the Psalter (see note on 106:48), there are clear connections with .

For example, in 105:44 the Promised Land is the place God gave to his people that they might serve him there faithfully; 106:27 brings in the prospect of exile from the land for the people’s unfaithfulness, and the prayer of 106:47, “gather us from among the nations,” is presented as being answered in 107:3.

More broadly, all three psalms reflect with praise and hope on aspects of sacred history.

for God’s enduring “steadfast love,” which he has shown not only to the people as a whole

but to the particular members as well.

The distinctive feature of this psalm is its four

accounts of people in distress (“some,” vv. 4, 10, 17, 23), whom God rescued.

Because the

psalm concerns gratitude for Judah’s return from exile (v.

3), it is likely that these four

Exposition

O GIVE thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

1. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.”

It is all we can give him, and the least we can give; therefore let us diligently render to him our thanksgiving.

The Psalmist is in earnest in the exhortation, hence the use of the interjection “O,” to intensify his words: let us be at all times thoroughly fervent in the praises of the Lord, both with our lips and with our lives, by thanksgiving and thanks-living.

JEHOVAH, for that is the name here used, is not to be worshipped with groans and cries, but with thanks, for he is good; and these thanks should be heartily rendered, for his is no common goodness: he is good by nature, and essence, and proven to be good in all the acts of his eternity.

Compared with him there is none good, no, not one: but he is essentially, perpetually, superlatively, infinitely good.

We are the perpetual partakers of his goodness, and therefore ought above all his creatures to magnify his name.

Our praise should be increased by the fact that the divine goodness is not a transient thing, but in the attribute of mercy abides for ever the same, “for his mercy endureth for ever.”

The word endureth has been properly supplied by the translators, but yet it somewhat restricts the sense, which will be better seen if we read it, “for his mercy for ever.”

That mercy had no beginning, and shall never know an end.

Our sin required that goodness should display itself to us in the form of mercy, and it has done so, and will do so evermore; let us not be slack in praising the goodness which thus adapts itself to our fallen nature.

2. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

Whatever others may think or say, the redeemed have overwhelming reasons for declaring the goodness of the Lord.

Theirs is a peculiar redemption, and for it they ought to render peculiar praise.

The Redeemer is so glorious, the ransom price so immense, and the redemption so complete, that they are under sevenfold obligations to give thanks unto the Lord, and to exhort others to do so.

Let them not only feel so but say so; let them both sing and bid their fellows sing.

“Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”

Snatched by superior power away from fierce oppressions, they are bound above all men to adore the Lord, their Liberator.

Theirs is a divine redemption, “he hath redeemed” them, and no one else has done it.

His own unaided arm has wrought out their deliverance.

Should not emancipated slaves be grateful to the hand which set them free?

What gratitude can suffice for a deliverance from the power of sin, death, and hell?

In heaven itself there is no sweeter hymn than that whose burden is, “Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood.”