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HopeLives365

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2024: Psalms

Mark Finley

01 How to Read the Psalms

02 Teach us to Pray

03 The Lord Reigns

04 The Lord Hears and Delivers

05 Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land

06 I Will Arise

07 Your Mercy Reaches Unto the Heavens

08 Wisdom for Righteous Living

09 Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

10 Lessons of the Past

11 Longing for God in Zion

12 Worship That Never Ends

13 Wait on the Lord

Welcome back to our Sabbath School studies.

And the book of Psalms reveals a Christ who is our defender, who is our refuge, who is our fortress, who is our solid rock, and who today we will see is our shepherd and our covenant-keeping God and our suffering Savior.

We will see today a Christ who died for us, who lives for us, who's coming again for us.

Let's pray as we jump into lesson number 9.

Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts for Jesus.

We thank you for the opportunity of serving him.

I pray today that you would be with us as we study, give us divine insight into your Word, we pray in Christ's name, Amen.

The Psalms reveal Jesus, Jesus who is our shepherd, Jesus who is our defender, Jesus who is our refuge, Jesus who is our fortress, Jesus who is our solid rock.

In fact, that reminds me of the memory text for today, Psalm 118 verse 22 and 23.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

Now, you will remember that Peter quotes that psalm and applies it to Jesus.

For example, if you take your Bible and turn to 1st Peter, we find Peter quoting Psalm 118 in 1st Peter chapter 2.

Peter is talking about this spiritual house and that every 1 of us are living stones, refined and polished, nurtured by the grace of God, shaped by the Spirit of God.

And he says in 1 Peter 2, verse 6, "'Behold, I lay in Zion.'" We read that, didn't we, in Psalms.

"'A chief cornerstone, elect and precious.' He goes on to say, "'The stone which the builders rejected "'has become the chief cornerstone, "'a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense.

So Peter is pointing out that to those who reject Christ, who reject his love, who reject his grace, who reject his mercy.

For those who turn the backs on Christ and rebel against him, he becomes this stone of offense.

But for those who accept him, He's the chief cornerstone, the 1 upon whom our full weight can be pressed.

You know the chief cornerstone in the temple at Jerusalem was a large stone that could bear the weight of the temple.

If that stone was not secure and crushed the whole temple would fall, but the chief cornerstone could bear the tons and tons and tons of weight that were crushing down upon it.

He says, cast all your care upon him because he cares for you.

Christ bears us up in our trials, our difficulties, our temptations.

We're reading there from the introduction about Christ's person and ministry.

Almost all aspects of his work in the plan of salvation are seen in the Psalms.

The topics revealed in the Psalms include, now notice, Christ's deity, his sonship, his obedience, his zeal for God's temple, his identity as the Good Shepherd, and his betrayal and his sufferings.

No wonder why Jesus quoted from the Psalms when he was showing that he was the Messiah to those that were on Damascus Road.

Jesus quotes from the Psalms, and he quotes from the Psalms for 1 specific purpose, to show his identity, to show that he was the Messiah.

Luke 24 verse 44 says, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled that were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

Well today in our study we're going to see some of the things that were written about Christ in the Psalms that concern his deity and his plan of salvation.

We'll understand more fully why Jesus quoted the Psalms to those that were walking with him on Damascus Road.

On Sunday's lesson the title is The Divine Self-Sacrificing Shepherd.

When you think of the shepherd in the Old Testament, The shepherd was 1 who was constantly with his flock.

The shepherd was 1 who would give his life for the flock.

The shepherd was 1 who would protect the flock and feed the flock and care for the flock and guide the flock.

What psalm comes to your mind when you think of the Good Shepherd?

The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.

Let's take a look at that psalm and compare the wording of the psalm to the ministry of Christ.

Now the word for Lord there is Yahweh, the supreme God, the sovereign God, the eternal God.

What a wonderful thing to know that the sovereign, supreme, eternal God is interested in you and me.

Because of the grace and the goodness of Christ, he satisfies the longings of our heart, we need not want.

Now sheep don't lie down, they typically stand up when they eat, but here the shepherd says the sheep are so calm, they're so free from stress that they lie in relaxation there in the middle of the green pastures that are lush.

We, unstressed, in the middle of trials and difficulties, can rest in His love and care.

So here's a picture of Jesus the Good Shepherd, who is our eternal sovereign Lord, who relieves us from stress.

He refreshes us as we drink of the water of life.

Notice what it says in verse 4, "...Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil." I walk through the valley.

You may be facing difficulties and challenges.

But the Bible says, though I walk through the valley, God's gonna get you through this.

It says, Your rod and your staff comfort me.

In the Bible, the rod is a sign of divine authority.

You remember it talks about in Psalm 2 where Jesus breaks down his enemies, he crushes them with his staff.

What about this, or rather the rod is a sign of God's power.

The staff, see the rod was long, slender, strong.

The staff had a crook on it, so if the sheep would wander, the shepherd would reach out with that crook and pull and get it around their neck and pull them back.

The crook, the staff or the crook, a symbol that Christ will pull you back when you drift astray, that he's gonna keep you on the straight and narrow path.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

You prepare a table before me." What a shepherd he is, preparing the good things of life for us.

Remember in Psalm 68 it says, forget not all his what?

You know, I had a good lesson in shepherding.

I was taping for Edith's Written Television a series of programs in Laodicea.

In those days the University of Pamulkole had not begun excavating Laodicea, so it was a pretty wild place.

And we were out there taping, and we taped some where the ruins of the old stadium, and there were some Roman aqueducts, and it began to rain.

Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2024: Psalms

09 Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

Transcript

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