Week 3 – The Psalms & Wisdom Literature

? Have you ever felt like your prayers were too "vanilla"? ? Wondered why bad things happen to good people? ? Let's explore Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job together. ? It's time to align our hearts and find answers in God's Word. Don't miss out! ?  ? EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins. ------------- OPENING ILLUSTRATION: I remember coming home from college.  My parents kept getting into these massive fights.  It was really messing with me, I thought, “Man, I leave for college and my family falls apart.”  It wasn’t till I started paying more attention to what was going on.  Here’s how just about every fight would start.  My dad would ask my mom about something, “Did you pay these bills?”  My mom would say, “What?”  My dad would say, “I said did these bills get paid?”  My mom would say, “Did I see the Bills Play?”  “NO, DID YOU PAY THE BILLS OR NOT!”  to which my mom would yell back, “I ALREADY PAID THE BILLS, IF YOU DON’T WANT ME PAYING THEM, THEN YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF!”  It hit me, it wasn’t that my parents were mad, it was that my mom couldn’t hear my dad and when he finally got loud enough for her to hear, they both ramped up into a fight.  My mom got hearing aids and it fixed a ton of their issues… I want today to attempt to give you hearing aids for a few books in the bible that you may or may not be listening to right now that could seriously impact your life! This sermon is going to be a little different today…. Here’s how it will work… I will give you information about the book(s) Then I will give you a way it’s personally impacted my life… b The Psalms 150 poetic songs and prayers traditionally attributed to King David and other authors. It covers a wide range of emotions and themes, including praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession, and wisdom. Divided into five main sections, each concluding with a doxology or a hymn of praise. Many psalms are written in response to specific situations or events, such as battles, illness, persecution, or times of national crisis. Key themes: the sovereignty of God, importance of worship, nature of righteousness, need for repentance, and the hope of salvation. Genre: praise, lament (sadness), royal psalms, thanksgiving, imprecatory (asking for God’s judgment), and wisdom. The Psalms taught me to pray with honesty… ILLUSTRATION: If I’m really honest, my prayers used to be pretty vanilla… “God, help me with this, God thank you for that.  I was afraid to really open up and reveal my heart.  I was afraid to say, “God, what the heck!”  Until the psalms. I used to not get them.  I honestly at one point in bible college tried to make an argument that we should take them out of the bible :).  But it is the psalms that give words to the feelings we have The Psalmists are raw.  the Psalmists do not hide even the worst of their emotions. b In general, the Psalms are where human emotions are brought before God.  The rest of the Bible is God being brought before us… It is a psalm that Jesus cries out on the cross… Psalm 22:1 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?     Why are you so far from saving me,     so far from my cries of anguish? It is the Psalms that teach us that even in our dark moments God is close to us… Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. These two Psalms are positioned right back to back and are almost a cry and an answer… I find myself quoting this passage over and over again, the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing…  I lack nothing… The Psalms can give you words to bring your heart to God. b Proverbs & Ecclesiastes Proverbs: wise sayings and teachings of King Solomon and others offers practical advice for living a righteous and prudent life, covering topics such as wisdom, integrity, diligence, humility, honesty, and the fear of the Lord. wisdom vs folly literary forms: short adages, longer discourses, numerical sayings, and symbolic descriptions. designed to instruct readers in the art of living wisely and righteously, offering timeless insights into human nature and the ways of God. Ecclesiastes: written by King Solomon explores the meaning and purpose of life from a philosophical perspective. It reflects on the fleeting nature of human existence, the vanity of worldly pursuits, and the inevitability of death. grapples with themes such as the pursuit of pleasure, the quest for knowledge, the pursuit of wealth and success, and the futility of human endeavors apart from God. challenges conventional wisdom and traditional notions of happiness and fulfillment, offering a sobering critique of human ambition and achievement. ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever had your vehicle start pulling to the left or right, and you get out of alignment?  I had to take my care to Steve the other day at Goodyear to get my vehicle aligned.   As life happens it’s easy for our hearts to come out of alignment… b The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are helpful to recalibrate the human heart…  to remind us of what is important…  Listen to just a few random Proverbs… Proverbs 3:5-8 Trust in the Lord with all your heart     and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him,     and he will make your paths straight.[a] 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;     fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. What would your life look like if you just simply meditated on these words every day for a week?  If all day every day you were like, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding… Would you have the same arguments?  Would you chase after the same things you are chasing after now?  The proverbs can realign your heart… Or what about… Solomon, after trying all the world has to offer - wealth, women, prestige, and more - finds it all meaningless and concludes… Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 Now all has been heard;     here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments,     for this is the duty of all mankind. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,     including every hidden thing,     whether it is good or evil. What if you didn’t experience the emptiness of the things you currently are chasing after and chose to just chase the only one who can fill you? b The Book of Job the oldest book in the bible deals with the question of the suffering of righteous (good) people never officially answers the question of “why we suffer” I wanted to end with Job because this is the biggest question of faith most people have in our current world…  How could bad things happen to good people…? If you don’t know the story, let me tell it to you quickly.  Job is a good man, so good that God even calls him that.  In the story Job looses everything.  His children, his wealth, his business.  His skin even develops a disease and he sits in an ash pile with broken shards of pottery scrapping his skin.  His wife tells him to curse God and die.  His friends come and tell him he must have done something wrong to deserve this punishment.  Job continually claims he has done nothing wrong is frankly asks God for an answer, why in the world am I going through this?  "Do you not understand justice God?” This is a question most of us have…  God, why are bad things happening to me even though I’m trying to do what’s right… b This is not a question the bible tries to hide from, instead, it’s a question that is on almost every page of the bible… b God’s answer to Job comes in ch. 38-41 b God will tell Job the complexities of being God and managing the world and that not everything revolves around Job. b God will never give Job a true answer.  What He will give Job is Himself.   God will confront Job and show him just how big God really is… I am reminded of something Jesus said in  John 16:33 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” God’s promise to those of you who are suffering is that suffering will come in this world, but that Jesus has overcome the world.  You can have hope in Him that it will not always be like this!