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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

Well, we're gonna dive into another Sabbath school lesson on the book of Psalms this week.

When I read that title it reminded me of a statement that I heard once that went like this, if we fail to learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it.

If we fail to learn from the past, we're doomed to repeat it.

So in our lesson this week, we will look at the past history of Israel as this history is outlined in the Psalms.

We will see at times the Lord's faithfulness at the time of Israel's rebellion.

We'll learn something about God and his graciousness and how he puts up with our mistakes.

We'll see at times that Israel praised the Lord and which is so thankful for his blessings.

We'll see other times of God's supremacy in history and how the Lord just was so supreme throughout the history and background of Israel.

So let's just jump right into our lesson.

It's our memory text, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he's done.

What do you think of when you hear that text?

1 of the things that I think of is that I want to talk to my own children about God's strength, about the wonderful way he's worked in my life.

Not only was Israel to tell their children, but their children were to tell their children, and their children were to tell their children, right down to our generation.

The first paragraph here points out really the theme of the whole lesson.

In numerous psalms, praise takes the form of narrating the Lord's mighty acts of salvation.

In other words, many of the psalms will look back at the history of Israel and see how God worked miraculously.

These Psalms are often called Salvation History Psalms or historical Psalms.

Some appeal to God's people telling them to learn from their past history, particularly from their mistakes and the mistakes of their ancestors.

They really look back and they appeal to Israel to learn from their mistakes.

Certain historical Psalms contain the predominant hymnal note that highlights God's past wonderful deeds on behalf of God's people, strengthens their trust in the Lord who's able and faithful to deliver them from their present hardships.

In other words, some Psalms look back and you see the wonders of God, the grace of God, you see the magnificent works of God and it leads you to praise God and trust his strength more.

In Sunday's lesson we look at God's unstoppable faithfulness.

When I read Psalm 78, Psalm 78 can be a little bit discouraging.

Because in Psalm 78 we find a very long psalm, 72 verses, and you find that God's people, Israel, rebelled against him.

You find that the psalm begins with, give ear O my people to my law, but you go through the psalm and it talks about the fact that Israel at times turned back and they grieved God.

Verse 40, how often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.

Their unfaithfulness, their lack of faith, their unbelief limited what God wanted to do for them.

He wanted to bring them into the Promised Land in just a few short days, couple weeks.

But yet they wandered in the wilderness 40 years.

Now it says they grieved him, they provoked him, they did not remember his power the day when he redeemed them from the enemy.

But you go through this whole psalm and what do you find?

It says, he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

So Israel was unfaithful, God was faithful.

Israel drifted from God, God did not drift from them.

They rebelled against Him, but He reached out to them in kindness, in love, in compassion.

Notice the last paragraph, before we get too judgmental about Israel, the past generations, we should consider ourselves.

Are we neglectful at times of his covenantal requirements?

The Psalm does not encourage people to rely on their own deeds.

Instead, Psalm 78 shows the futility of human will unless it is grounded in the constant awareness of God's faithfulness and acceptance of his grace.

The unsuccessful battles of God's people, that's in Psalm 78, you know, verse 9.

Psalm 78, verse 62 to 64, elucidate the Psalms lesson that human efforts, apart from God's faithfulness, are doomed to end in failure.

So all of our human efforts, our human efforts to live the Christian life, our human efforts to overcome temptation, our human efforts to resist Satan's attacks, all of those are doomed to failure if we are not dependent on God.

But in all of that, in all of Israel's mistakes, in all of Israel's rebellion, in all of Israel's turning from him, God was faithful to them, constantly reaching out in love, in grace, in mercy.

So the first lesson we learn is the futility of human strength to face the enemy without a constant awareness of God's faithfulness.

In Monday's lesson it's a more cheerful scene.

Israel looks back in Psalm 105 and remembers their history, praises God.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, verse 1, Psalm 105.

Call upon his name, make known his deeds among his peoples, sing to him, sing psalms to him, talk of his wondrous works.'" There's an old saying that says this, impression without expression leads to depression.

Impression without expression leads to depression.

In other words, express what God has done for you.

Our faith grows as we express faith, as we talk about God's wondrous works, as we talk about what he's done in our own personal lives, our faith grows.

So the psalmist says, talk of his wonderful works.

Verse 5, remember his marvelous works which he has done.

Then it tells the story of the Israel, but it goes down specifically to Joseph.

And it talks about Joseph sold as a slave, and Joseph's feet in fetters, laid in irons.

And he says the Lord allowed that trial to test him.

So when trials come, they are given, allowed by God, to test us.

And as we hang on by faith, as we do not exhibit unbelief, as we do not complain, as we do not rebel against God in the trial, But as we show faithful to God in that particular trial, our faith grows.

And Ellen White makes an interesting statement.

Here is a formula to get you through trials and to see the miracles of God.

And I'll put it in a mathematical formula.

Praise plus faith, praise plus faith plus prayer equals a miracle.

When I pray and I praise and I trust I could put it this way reverse the formula a little bit prayer plus praise plus faith or trust equals a miracle you want to see a miracle in your life talk of God's wondrous works.

When you go through a trial, pray, praise, and trust, and you watch the miracles that God's works.

Second paragraph, Psalm 105 resembles Psalm 78 that we did yesterday in highlighting God's faithfulness to his people in history, and it does so in order to glorify God and to inspire faithfulness.

Psalm 105 shows that in order to truly praise God, God's people need to know the facts of their history.

History provides both validation for our faith and countless reasons for praising God.

In my life this year I've decided to study Adventist history a little bit more, And so I was looking back at the history of the movement of the Advent movement.

Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2024: Psalms

10 Lessons of the Past

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Why Jesus Needs Closure

1h 4m

The Unveiling

Vision of Christ & the Seven Churches

47m

Captain Shackleton

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Something Better, Changing Patient Behaviour

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2nd Quarter Sabbath School 2023: Three Cosmic Messages

08 The Sabbath and the End

10m

Disappointment, Depression, and Deliverance Part 2

45m

The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker- Part 2

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Essential

03 The Cross, The Quality, The Message

42m

The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

4. Eternity Past and the Risk of God

1h 25m

Revelation Today Crusade

4. Prophecy’s Answer to the Skeptic

54m

Prophecy Made Simple

9. September 11 and the Future of America

1h 18m

Apologetics

01 Come, Search With Me

1h 3m

Sound Doctrine