Introduction to the Psalms 01:07
- Tim Mackie is leading a 90-day series on the Book of Psalms.
- The Book of Psalms is the second-longest book in the Bible.
- The purpose of the series is to teach God’s people the language of prayer.
- The Book of Psalms has been teaching the language of prayer for over 2500 years.
- The language of prayer includes lament and confession.
Importance of Emotions in Prayer 04:38
- The Psalms teach us the importance of our emotions in our prayer life.
- Many of us grew up around settings where we stuffed our emotions.
- Others grew up around settings where we gave full vent to our emotions.
- The Psalms teach us a middle way about expressing our emotions
90-Day Reading and Prayer Journal 03:06
- The Bible Project has created a 90-day reading and prayer journal for the series.
- The journal assigns two Psalms to read and pray through each day.
- The purpose of the journal is to help us form a habit of daily prayer and praying through the scriptures.
- There are guiding questions and space for personal reflection in the journal.
Importance of Emotions in Prayer 04:38
- The Psalms teach us the importance of our emotions in our prayer life.
- Many of us grew up around settings where we stuffed our emotions.
- Others grew up around settings where we gave full vent to our emotions.
- The Psalms teach us a middle way about expressing our emotions
Importance of Prayer in Our Connection to
God 01:46
- The purpose of cultivating our personal connection to God is about prayer.
- The practice of prayer is not a simple thing.
- Learning to talk to God and Jesus requires practice.
- The Psalms help us learn to pray through the scriptures.
Inviting the Church to Join the Journey
01:23
- The series is not just a teaching series on the Book of Psalms.
- The series is an invitation for the whole church to grow in their prayer lives.
- The Bible Project wants to help the church reinvigorate their prayer lives.
- The series is about cultivating our personal connection to God through Jesus.
Introduction to Psalm 3 07:15
- The video will explore different prayers generated out of different emotional experiences from the 150 prayers and songs in the Bible.
- The video will explore Psalm 3 and what it means to pray through our fears.
- Fear is a huge human emotion that often comes up in circumstances where we are out of control or in danger.
- Fear is one of the most primal human emotions and is often the first emotion we experience as human beings.
- The video will show how David processed through his fears in Psalm 3 and how it can be a model of prayer for us.
David’s Terrifying Experience 07:59
- Psalm 3 was generated out of a life experience that David had.
- David was terrified because there were people who wanted to kill him.
- Fear is a normal response to danger and a natural part of being human.
- Fear is an important emotion to process through in prayer.
David’s Prayer 08:11
- Fear is a feeling that needs to be processed intentionally before
God. - Prayer is about sorting through the cause and effect of our emotions and how they relate to our view of God, ourselves, and other people.
- Prayer is pouring out our whole mess in God’s presence.
- Psalm 3 is a prayer of David that shows how to pray through our fears.
- David drew attention to all the things that he was totally freaked out about in his prayer.
- Praying through our fears means not denying them or letting them take over our lives but facing them and processing them before God.
David’s Terrifying Experience 07:59
- Psalm 3 was generated out of a life experience that David had.
- David was terrified because there were people who wanted to kill him.
- Fear is a normal response to danger and a natural part of being human.
- Fear is an important emotion to process through in prayer.
The Language of Prayer 12:13
- As followers of Jesus, we need to cultivate a personal connection to Him through prayer.
- Learning the language of prayer involves learning how to pray through our fears.
- Denying our fears and stuffing them will destroy us, while giving in to them and letting them take over our lives will also destroy us.
- Praying through our fears is the way to face them and process them before God.
Conclusion 12:48
- Psalm 3 is a model of prayer for us to process our fears.
- The video will look at how David processed through his fears in
- Psalm 3 and how it can be a model for us.
- The video will explore the story behind Psalm 3 and how David processed through his experience.
Importance of Cross-Referencing 13:49
- When reading a psalm with a note about a story, it’s important to cross-reference and read that story in the books of Samuel.
- This helps to illuminate the background of why David would say the things he did in the psalm.
Example: Psalm 3 14:09
- Psalm 3 is a prayer of David when he fled from his son Absalom.
- During this time, Absalom formed a resistance army and staged a successful coup against his father.
- David had to flee his own house, the city he established as the capital, and he was running into the hills with a few hundred people while being chased by an army of 12,000 foot soldiers.
- This was a time of fear and unknown for David.
Understanding Psalm Headings 13:07
- The headings in Psalms are not always original parts of the poem.
- Some are added by Bible translators to help readers understand the gist of the psalm quickly.
- It’s important to recognize which parts are original and which are not.
Identifying Original Parts of a Psalm 13:12
- The original parts of a Psalm can be identified by specific information provided, such as “A Psalm of David when he fled from his Absalom.”
- Around 70 prayers in Psalms are connected to David, and of those, about two dozen have little notes about the stories they emerged from.
Model for Prayer 15:59
- David’s approach to prayer in Psalm 3 serves as a model for prayer.
- He identifies the source of his fear and brings it to God’s attention.
- This is a good way to approach prayer as it allows us to acknowledge our fears and bring them to God
Two Levels of Fear 16:19
- In Psalm 3, David’s fear has two levels.
- The first is a clear physical threat – 12,000 soldiers are chasing
him. - The second is an attack on his identity and sense of self significance through the propaganda spread by his enemies.
Attack on Identity 17:07
- David’s enemies were spreading propaganda that God was through with David and there was no more salvation for him in God.
- was an attack on David’s identity and sense of self significance.
- It’s important to remember where David came from and how he arrived as a king that could even have such status.
- He was a no-name shepherd boy, but God elevated him to the highest status in the land out of sheer grace and generosity.
Anxiety vs Fear 20:35
- Fear is an instinctive response to a clear and present danger.
- eeling of dread and weakness that has no clear, identifiable source.
- Fear is positive and constructive because it saves our lives, while anxiety is vague and diffused.
- Anxiety is about the wear and tear of disappointments, failures, and hardships that shatter our dreams.
- Anxiety threatens our sense of who we are and our identity.
Praying through fear 20:08
- David prays through his fear by identifying the sources of his fears.
- He has a clear, identifiable threat: 12,000 people want to kill him, but the propaganda of his enemies is eating away at his own sense of himself.
- David’s status as king and father are falling apart, and he fears that his life has no meaning if he’s not king.
- In God’s presence, he prays through his fear by calling out to God and identifying who God is to him.
God as a shield 25:2
- David prays to God as a shield around him.
- who lifts his head high.
- David trusts God to answer him from his holy mountain.
Yahweh as a Shield 26:41
- The Psalmist shifts his attention from his circumstances to God and God’s character.
- He speaks of God in metaphors and images, which is a challenging aspect of the Psalms.
- We need to read the poetry slowly and meditate on its meaning.
- The Psalmist describes Yahweh as a shield around him, protecting him from bad things.
- A shield protects the most vital part of who you are from being totally annihilated when bad things happen.
- The shield is not for preventing bad things from happening but for protecting you when they do.
- Yahweh is going to be there, protecting the most vital part of the Psalmist from being swept away in this horrible onslaught.
- The Psalmist assumes that things may get better, but they’re also likely to get a lot worse.
- The Psalmist reckons with the fact that he could die but yet can still say Yahweh is his shield.
Anxiety vs Fear 20:35
- Fear is an instinctive response to a clear and present danger.
- eeling of dread and weakness that has no clear, identifiable source.
- Fear is positive and constructive because it saves our lives, while anxiety is vague and diffused.
- Anxiety is about the wear and tear of disappointments, failures, and hardships that shatter our dreams.
- Anxiety threatens our sense of who we are and our identity.
Yahweh as a Shield of Glory 31:28
- The Psalmist says that Yahweh is his shield of glory.
- The word glory might trip some people up, but it means that
- Yahweh protects the most important part of who he is.
- The Psalmist needs Yahweh to protect this part of him.
Digging Underneath Our Assumptions
29:23
- When hardship hits our life or there’s a season of confusion or tragedy, one of our basic assumptions is that God’s abandoned us.
- We assume that God’s role in our life is to keep bad things from happening to us.
If he really was good and powerful, he would never let anything bad happen to us. - But that’s not the promise of this God.
- The promise is that when life in this broken world by human sin, the sin of other more mysterious dark powers that were at work when horrible things happen, God’s right there.
- The season of tragedy might be the closest that we’ve ever felt God’s presence before.
- This tragedy might be what draws us closest to God than we’ve ever been before.
- Suffering in the scriptures and God of the Bible sometimes rescues his people out of very difficult situations, but sometimes he doesn’t.
- Sometimes that’s precisely the tool he’s using to shape the hearts and minds in the character of people he loves so dearly.
Conclusion
- The Psalmist speaks powerful words about how Yahweh protects and shields him.
- We need to dig underneath our assumptions about God’s role in our lives when tragedy strikes.
- Suffering is an important tool for shaping our hearts and minds.
Kavod 31:57
- Kavod is a Hebrew word that means “glory” or “weightiness.”
- It is a concept that comes up all over the Bible and is used as ametaphor for something significant or important.
- Humans can have kavod too, like David who had kavod near the end of his life.
- David’s kavod was his status and position as king over Israel, but he lost it due to his poor decisions and inability to be a good father.
- David prays through his fear and realizes that he misplaced his Kavod, so he directs his attention back to God as the only thing that gives him significance, identity, and meaning.
Yahweh is My Kavod 34:31
- David recognizes that he has misplaced his kavod and confesses that Yahweh is his kavod, the thing that gives him significance,
identity, and meaning. - David’s anxiety is a symptom of the fire burning within him, which is his misplaced kavod.
- David prays through his fear and identifies his misstep, restoring God to be the in place of glory in his life.
- David is confident that God is with him and for him, even though his life is in shambles around him.
Answered From His Holy Mountain 37:35
- David is confident that Yahweh is answering him, even though he is a morally compromised failed father and king.
- Yahweh is answering David from his holy mountain or holy hill, which is the mountain of Zion.
- The holy mountain of Zion is a significant place in Jewish history and is the place where the temple was built.
- David’s confidence in Yahweh’s answer comes from the fact that Yahweh is answering him from a significant and holy place.
David’s reference to the Temple in
Jerusalem 38:20
- David refers to the city of Jerusalem and specifically to the highest hill in the city where he set up the tabernacle, the place
of God. - He says that Yahweh would answer him from the temple, which is the hot spot of God’s presence in Jerusalem.
- The sacrifices were offered in the temple, and animals were offered as a substitute for people’s sins.
- The animal bears guilt instead of the perpetrator, and the death of that substitute covers over the failure in sin of one who’s praying and looking towards God at the temple.
How the Temple gives confidence to David 39:22
- The death of the substitute in the temple covers over David’s sins and failures, which gives him confidence that Yahweh is for him and forgiving him.
- This confidence allows him to pray through prayer as followers of Jesus and go on the same journey that allows him to rest in God’s mercy and grace.
Jesus as the ultimate substitute 40:53
- Our conviction is that Jesus was the ultimate substitute, and His life and death resurrection on our behalf covered over our sins.
- Jesus absorbed into Himself what we deserve, and in His resurrection, He both provides a covering and a source of new life and grace for those who would turn towards Him.
David’s Perpetual Peace 42:04
- David has reached a place of perpetual peace, which doesn’t cancel out his emotions.
- Yahweh’s commitment to him and His love for him is stronger than death, which puts him in this place of perpetual peace.
Praying through difficult emotions 43:31
- David commits his enemies over to God’s justice and asks God to take care of them.
- David prays through his emotions instead of denying them, which is a profound act of faith.
David’s Victory Without Lifting a Finger
44:55
- David didn’t lift a finger to defeat Absalom who had an obsession with his long hair.
Absalom was a very vain man who wanted to make a statue of himself and his long hair. - During a battle, Absalom’s hair got caught in a tree, leaving him vulnerable for a second, and someone threw a spear, which ended his life.
- David didn’t let anger control him but just vented and processed his emotions before God.
Yahweh Comes for Deliverance 45:52
- Through the series of events, Absalom meets his doom, and
David didn’t lift a finger. - David prayed through and handed his anger over to God, which allowed him to cope with his anger.
- Yahweh comes for deliverance, and David prays that may your
blessing be on your people.
Finding Peace Through God 46:47
- We need to identify and dig the root of what’s freaking us out and what we’re so afraid of, and come through this experience of turning to God’s character, turning those circumstances over
to God, and turning that enemy over to God. - Anxiety and fear come from misplaced glory, where we build our sense of who we are on the silliest things and on the most meaningful good things too.
- There will come a day where every person you built your sense of worth on won’t be there.
- We need to find hope that Yahweh might not prevent bad things from happening to us, but he will protect the most vital and important part of us from being annihilated in the storm.
- Psalm 3 can say it to all of us in their different life circumstances, so let’s just ask Jesus to speak to us in the time that we have left.
- Summary from youtubesummarized.com