Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 48 | Date: August 14, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

In this initial series of lessons from the Psalms, our purpose is not to, first of all, expound the Psalms, although I have done a little of that and will do some more of that, and then particularly launch into that in time to come. But the purpose of this Sunday evening series is to help us learn how to read and understand the Psalms, so that when you read it at home, you’re able to profit more from it. The Psalms, as I’ve mentioned, are, I think without question, the most popular part of the Scriptures to Christians for their devotional reading, and the point of this is to help us learn how to read more profitably.

This stems from my studies over last year with Dr. Bruce Waltke, who has done more work on the Psalms than most anyone else in the world, and I’ve profited immensely from that, done lots of extra research and reading beyond that, and worked together. By the way, the book that we’re producing, we’re told from the editor now, will come out in early June next year, so looking forward to that.

But what we’re doing in this first part of the series is teach how to read and understand more profitably from the Psalms. So we began by looking at the historical setting with David bringing the Ark to Jerusalem and with the Psalm singing that was established. We’ll talk more about that this evening. And we then looked at the poetry of the Psalms.

And I emphasized several things there. One, to watch for the symbolism that’s in poetry and so dominant, such a dominant part of poetry. Be alert to that. Because the Psalms are poetry, they’re often terse and brief, and they say in little and sometimes symbolic language the point that they’re trying to make, and it just requires that you stop and consider it carefully. It’s not like narrative where you can read through quickly and get to the point. But the Psalms require that we read more meditatively and think: now, what is the significance of this symbol and this brief statement and so on?

And then I emphasize in particular that with poetry, in Hebrew poetry, the mark of it is not rhyme or rhythm. The mark of Hebrew poetry is its parallelism. And so what is important to notice first of all, when you read the poetry, is note that the verses have one line and then another, one line and then another, and the two lines are parallel to one another in some way. And it becomes our responsibility, if we’re going to read profitably, to understand what is the relation of the second line to the first. How is it? Is it restating? Or is it adding something? Or is it making the same point by way of contrast, an opposing point of view? But recognizing that parallelism, it’s called, is fundamental to reading profitably from the Psalms.

And then we looked at the next step, and that is to recognize that the Psalms are not primarily about you. The Psalms are primarily about the king. David is prominent in the Psalms, and the Davidic kings are prominent in the Psalms, and you see that with the emphasis often in the Lament Psalms, for example, where the author talks about his enemies that are all around him, and many falling by his side, but it won’t affect him; the enemies won’t defeat him.

All of that reflects the fact that it’s not just Joe Israelite or some other pious Israelite who’s writing the psalm; it’s the king. The king’s enemies are the nations. The author’s enemies in the psalms are nations. This is not just Joe Israelite. This is the king. It’s in view, and we should recognize, if we’re going to read profitably, that the psalms primarily are about the king. They’re not about us, and we risk over-individualizing the Psalms if we don’t recognize that. And what’s so important about that then is recognizing that it’s the Davidic King who is in view. That then becomes, in the bigger view of Scripture, prospective of the Davidic King to come, the Lord Jesus. And we see that all throughout the Psalter and through the Scriptures as well in a larger way. And we’ll talk about that more, that they are prospective and deliberately prospective of the Lord Jesus, the Davidic King par excellence.

The Temple Setting of the Psalms

Today, then, I want to look at another area of study that’s important to recognize when we read the Psalms, and that’s the temple setting of the Psalms. And just to give an overview and to point out, then, from the Psalms how that is so dominant in the Psalter, and then to read that as Christians, recognizing it in the larger picture of things. And so we’ll begin with Psalm 48.

A superscription, a psalm, a psalm of the sons of Korah. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king, within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress. For behold, the kings assembled, they came on together. As soon as they saw it, they were astounded, they were in panic, they took flight. Trembling took hold of them there, anguish as of a woman in labor. By the east wind you shattered the ships of Tarshish, as we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever, Selah. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God and our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.”

All right, again, our purpose here is to show the original setting of the Psalms in relation to the Temple and their use in Israel’s worship. The Temple was situated on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Psalm 48 celebrates that, and that’s what we’ll be talking about this evening. By way of background, I want to rehearse a couple of things that we saw at the outset of these studies, and that is the background of the temple itself.

At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses instructions concerning the construction of the tabernacle, an ornate tent-like structure that would be the centerpiece of Israel’s worship in ancient Israel. That tabernacle, as you know, had three major sections. At the center of it was the most holy place, or the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. This represented God’s presence. This is his throne—his throne room. The ark is his footstool; he is there. And then inside the ark there is, among other things, a copy of the law of God. That was significant because God is the king in Israel. He’s the true king, and he rules by his will, his law, as expressed in the law given to Moses on Sinai.

And there’s a copy of that law, the Ten Commandments, there in the ark to symbolize God’s rule by His law, that His kingdom is a righteous kingdom. That, by the way, is a unique feature in the ancient Near East. There’s nothing like it in the neighboring nations, but this is God ruling by His law and His righteousness that is expressed in it.

Well, that tent, that tabernacle, was carried with Israel through the wilderness, the Ark of the Covenant representing God’s presence that was carried along in the military campaigns with Joshua as they entered into the land to express God’s powerful presence among his people as they took the land that God had promised to them. The tabernacle, you remember, finally found a home in Shiloh, and then finally during the time of Eli, the ark was captured by the Philistines. It was finally taken to Kiriath-Jearim, and then the tabernacle itself was taken then to Gibeon. And the Ark remained in Kiriath-Jearim for a long time throughout Saul’s reign until David then came and brought it to Jerusalem. And we saw that in 1 Chronicles 16. He prepared this tent on Zion for the Ark to be brought.

And now the Ark had been brought to its new home in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and that was important for David because this symbolizes God’s presence, and David understood very well that God, not David, God was Israel’s true king, and it was important for him to bring the Ark there to demonstrate that. You’ll remember then that in 2 Samuel 7, David had plans to build a temple, an ornate temple for the Lord. He had himself a great palace to live in, and he thought it was only right that we build a temple now for God. And God said, no, it won’t be you who makes the temple. It will be Solomon who builds the temple. And so Solomon then constructs the temple for the new home for the Ark of the Covenant. And then the tabernacle and its furnishings and all were finally brought to the temple then in Jerusalem under Solomon’s direction.

So the Ark now has a permanent home in this permanent structure, this great temple structure that we’ll talk more about this evening. And all of the personnel had come then to Jerusalem to serve; the tabernacle personnel had come to Jerusalem then to serve there. Now because the Ark is in Jerusalem, both when David brings it and later when it finds its permanent home in the temple itself, because the Ark is in Jerusalem, Jerusalem becomes a holy city. So you see the expression of the holy city; we see some of that here in Psalm 48. It’s a holy place. Solomon’s temple ensured that it would be a permanent home. It was there for centuries. And this was the centerpiece of Israel’s worship.

The Symbolism of the Temple and Worship

And the Psalms now are steeped in that setting of the temple, and sometimes the earlier Psalms before the temple, during David’s time, before the temple proper was constructed. I think we saw as well something of the function of the Mosaic system of worship. The Old Testament worship was marked by an elaborate liturgy. There was the temple, there was the priesthood, there was the sacrificial system, there were the offerings, there was the religious calendar. The temple itself was sacred space. Everything on the outside was profane, would be the word for it. The inside was holy; the outside is profane.

And all of the temple and all of its functioning inside the temple and the system of worship was highly symbolic. Everything about it was symbolic. The overall concern in it was how a holy God would dwell in the midst of a sinful people. And so the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant is there, and the system of worship is developed to demonstrate how a holy God can dwell with a sinful people. And of course with that, the focus is on sacrifice, and the substitute is offered, and making sacrifice for sin, and of course all of that is prospective of what we find in the New Testament in Jesus.

But there was all kinds of symbolism involved in the worship of the Old Testament tabernacle and the temple. There was the ascending smoke going up. These are the prayers of God’s people, the prayers of the priests going up. There’s the lifting of hands in the worship of the temple, both to receive grace from God and to offer Him praise as well. There’s the structure itself, intended with symbolic significance. There’s the sloping roofline and the narrowing doorways all pointing until finally you get to the entrance to the Holy of Holies itself, and everything’s directing you toward the presence of God. Only the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year. And so no one saw inside, but the details were given. And so Israel, in a sense, lived in its imagination, imagining what the priest is doing inside that Holy of Holies when he would go there once a year to offer the sacrifice.

The function of the Old Testament tabernacle was not just symbolic. It was also what we call typological. It was a type, a symbol that pointed forward to a greater reality to come. And of course, when we read the New Testament, all of that comes crashing together in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

Now, coming closer to Psalm 48, even the very structure of the temple was highly symbolic. The temple was erected—David wasn’t there for the temple, but he did write, by the way, some psalms for the dedication of the temple. Psalm 30, for example, the superscription tells us that. David has written this now for the dedication of the temple. But the structure of the building itself had symbolic significance. The architecture, the grandeur of the temple structure was designed as a statement of the greatness of God.

It’s not unlike what we’ve seen in more recent centuries with architecture. We don’t do this much anymore, but in classical Greek architecture, for example, and even we would see it in the marble buildings of Washington D.C. or whatnot. These great structures with their ornate development and their impressiveness and their greatness say something. They say something of the greatness and the permanence of it. It makes a statement. It symbolizes power and authority. And so also with the temple itself, it spoke of—it symbolized—prominence and permanence and power and authority, and it declared, in a sense, “The Lord is king. This is his house, and he’s the king.”

And all of that is then prospective as well of not only God’s kingship, but God’s ultimate display of his kingship in the great Davidic king who will come, the Lord Jesus, and establish God’s rule over all of the earth. So Zion now is the seat of Israel’s worship. It’s the site of this magnificent temple that is so impressive. And so not just the function of the religious system, the worship system, but the temple structure itself makes a statement.

Now we see that when we come to Psalm 48. This is a song of Zion. You’ll notice as we read through it, it’s a song, a song of the sons of Korah. Let’s look through some of this again. Verse one: “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.” Why is it called that? It’s called the city of our God because this is the place where the Ark resides. This is the place of God’s presence. And so, it is his holy mountain, “beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king.” The great king is not David; the great king is God himself who resides in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. “Within her citadels, God has made himself known as a fortress.”

Well, it’s interesting. Now, we have the buildings declaring permanence and power and authority and God’s greatness, declaring that God is king, and so, “within her citadels, God has made himself known as a fortress.” The true strength of Israel always was God, not their own armies, but God himself. And the temple itself was now made and constructed to declare that. Verse four: “Behold, the kings assembled, they came together, they saw it, they panicked, they couldn’t believe it.” All of this is highly symbolic language of what was declared by the building itself and what they had seen then in Israel’s history of God intervening on behalf of Israel as their powerful king.

Verse eight: “As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts.” The city of the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts, you remember, is a military term. Lord Sabaoth, not Lord Sabbath, Lord Sabaoth. We sing that, for example, in Martin Luther’s hymn that we sing at Reformation time every year. Lord Sabaoth, his name—it’s a military term. He’s the lord of hosts. He’s a lord of the armies. It has those kinds of connotations. “It’s the city of our God, which God will establish forever.” It’s expected that God, because he is here, this will be permanent, because no one can overthrow God.

Verse 9: “We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.” There’s again a hint of the symbolism in the temple. In the temple and in its various liturgies, we’re reminded of the covenant love of God. “We thought on your steadfast love, O God”—that’s just covenant love, and it’s symbolized in the activities of the temple. “As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.” God rules here. His law comes from here, is distributed from here. And so let the mountain itself, let Israel be glad and rejoice because of it.

Verse 12: “Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.” So this is the whole atmosphere of the temple. It’s filled with symbolism. The temple structure itself proclaimed its message of the greatness of God with its structure, and its impressiveness, and its gold, and its brilliant colors, and its designs, and its banners, and its artistry, and the smell of sacrifice. And all that was going on in the temple was symbolic with typological function as well, as I mentioned.

The Transformation of Worship

Now all of this is, of course, very foreign to us. We have to go back and remind ourselves what all was going on. This is nothing like New Covenant corporate worship. This is not the way we do it. Old Covenant, and what’s most striking about this is that in the Old Covenant worship system, it was almost entirely wordless—hardly a word spoken. There was one prescribed line that the worshipper, when he comes to the temple, he used to say the words of Deuteronomy 26 and verse 5: “A wandering Aramean was my father.” It’s the only prescribed words in his reference to Jacob in his wanderings. But aside from that, there are no prescribed words to be spoken in liturgy. It was all wordless. It was to be demonstrated through action, through the structure of the tabernacle, the symbolism of the sacrifices, and all of that. But nothing was spoken. It was all wordless. It was not verbally oriented. It was symbolism.

And then we saw that David changed all of that. And in 1 Chronicles 16 that we saw, he brought the ark to Jerusalem. And at the time, it was a grand affair. And it was marked by singing, and music, and musical instruments, and choirs, and all of that that accompanied it. And that then was made permanent, a permanent fixture in Israel’s worship. And so in a dramatic way, David has transformed Israel’s worship entirely. Moses is kept intact. But now we can call it “opera” has been added—the psalms, the words have been added, and the psalms are the libretto of the opera, the words to describe what’s going on.

And so now we have the same worship system, but instead of being wordless, it’s accompanied by these psalms singing by the congregation, by the choirs that are appointed, like here, the Sons of Korah. This is some kind of musical guild from Korah himself. And so this new addition was made permanent with David, and it essentially transformed Israel’s worship into a kind of opera. And David reshaped Israel’s worship then forever.

Now all of that, just in quick overview, is the backdrop of the Psalms. And I probably should have put this on a handout for you to have it. If you want to try to write down quickly, you can have some of these hints of it. But notice when you read through the Psalms, the various expressions that you come across that remind you that the setting is the temple. The use of the Psalms was not for private devotions. A pious Israelite who’d written the Psalms and was using it in his own devotional life at home—these were written for use in corporate worship at the temple.

And you’ll see that with several of these kinds of expressions. Let me give you a list of them: the house of the Lord, the holy hill, like we’ve seen. Psalm 30 was written, as I mentioned, for the dedication of the temple. In many of the psalms—it’s 55 of them, I think—we find “to the choir master.” David wrote the psalms, handed it off to the music leader, and said, “Use this.” And oftentimes, he would give further instructions: to be sung with the flutes, or to be sung with the lutes, or so on. We have songs of thanksgiving or songs of grateful praise. Those are a particular genre of psalms that we’ll look at later on in our studies. But these are used not just for an individual giving thanks, but for an individual expressing thanks in the public forum at a ceremony with a sacrifice at the temple.

We also have certain what we call entrance liturgies in some of the psalms. Like in Psalm 24: “Who shall ascend the hill of the most high?” And you have other Psalms, like Psalm 15: “Who’s worthy to enter here?” It’s almost as though there’s a Levitical guard at the temple saying, “Wait a minute, are you worthy of entering here?” And then it’ll give a list of moral requirements of the kind of people whose worship is acceptable. But anyway, these entrance liturgies themselves remind us of the temple setting of the Psalms.

In Psalm 150, very famously, we have the praise with all of the musical instruments accompanying. Again, this is a reminder of the public corporate worship at the temple. Some of the psalms are not just lament psalms, but they are corporate laments. The nation itself gathers around at the temple to sing and to lament some sad affair. Sometimes it’s the loss of a battle; the king was defeated. We find some of those with corporate laments, again reminding us of the temple setting.

We have some, like Psalm 48 here, which are songs of Zion, Psalm 46. If you’d like to glance back at that—that’s Luther’s psalm, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” that’s taken from Psalm 46. Psalm 84 is another. Many of them, several of them, are songs of Zion, praising the temple and its mount. Many of the psalms are written away from the temple, like David in exile, or even Psalm 137, which is a psalm written during the exile, later on, but even there you find the orientation is still back to the temple in Jerusalem—a longing to be back, or a looking back to it, or something like that.

We have some enthronement psalms, like Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, famous psalms used in the New Testament to speak of Jesus and his enthronement and his ascension. But evidently these psalms, and we’ll see some of this when we go along, these enthronement psalms were sung and written to be sung at the accession of each new Davidic king. He would come, and now the nation is gathered around at the temple with his new king being established, and these enthronement psalms are being sung in his praise. And, of course, then they are prospective of the ascension of the great king himself who would come in the Lord Jesus.

We have in Psalm 45, for example, a psalm that is written for the royal wedding. Here the psalmist writes of the greatness of the bridegroom, who is the king himself. And it talks about his greatness, and he’s going to kill all of his enemies, and he’s the most handsome of all of the men in the world, and he’s strong, and he’s mighty, and all this wonderful language about the king. And then it speaks even about his wife, which in Psalm 45 is a Gentile bride that he has taken. Again, all of that’s prospective of what we find with Jesus and his church and so on. But this, again, is a reminder of the temple setting of the psalm, that the psalm is written to be sung at the temple—in that case, Psalm 45, at the wedding of the king.

Also through the Psalms, you have mention of the offerings, feasts, public processions. You have references to the altar. You have references to the cup of blessing, which is a communal meal that they would have at the temple. You have reference to banners, musical instruments. All of this reminds us that the Psalms did not originate for private use. They were written for public use in corporate worship with Israel gathering at the temple, usually around its king, to sing his praise.

A Pilgrimage Psalm

Now, our point here is simply to be alert to that as you read through the Psalms. And let’s take another example of it. Look at Psalm 84. Psalm 84 is a pilgrimage psalm. It depicts a journey to the temple and the experience along the way. Try to follow along carefully and think in your imagination of what this psalmist is experiencing as he makes his way to the temple and then as he is there.

Verse one: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” So here we have the pilgrim, the Israelite himself, making his way to the temple, to Jerusalem for worship at the temple, and he can’t wait to get there. This is the best place on earth. “How lovely is your dwelling place. My soul faints for the courts of the Lord.”

Then verse three: “Even the sparrow finds a home, and a swallow, a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. At your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.” So even the birds find safety there. There could be no killing in the precincts of the temple. And so even the birds now find refuge. And in the psalmist sees in that some symbolism that he himself finds refuge at the temple because this is the presence of God and thus it’s a place of protection and security.

Verse four: “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Blessed are those whose strength is in you and whose hearts are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools.” Now “Baca” here in verse six means tears, crying, those kinds of tears, and so he’s saying at the temple—this is symbolic language—at the temple, tears are transformed into springs of life, expressing his joy at being at the temple.

Verse seven: “They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. The Lord God of hosts, O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob, Selah.” By the way, the word “Selah,” we don’t know exactly what that means. It’s evidently some kind of musical indicator. A lot of people think that the word means, the etymology of the word indicates, pausing to think and to consider. That might be involved. So it’s some kind of a stanza marker: “stop and think.” Generally, I think it should be read. It’s part of the inspired text. But we really don’t know exactly what it means, except that it’s some kind of stanza marker, evidently, and probably calling us to stop and reflect on what we’ve just sung.

Verse 9: “Behold our shield, O God. Look on the face of your anointed.” Who’s that? That’s the king. Our shield is our king. He’s the anointed, the one who is anointed to protect us. And so here then, the pilgrim comes to the temple, he’s gathered in corporate worship, and as they are there, they offer prayers for their king.

Verse 10 begins to reflect then on the pilgrimage while he’s there: “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.” So the psalmist looked forward to the presence of God at the temple. When he’s there, he prays for his king. He prays that God will favor the king. And then the psalmist himself is refreshed in worship in the presence of God. And he realizes that there’s no place on earth he’d rather be than in the temple in the presence of God and worshiping there.

Reading the Psalms Today

Well, those are some samples of it to illustrate the setting of the Psalter. Now, when we read the Psalms, we need to keep in mind that we are not in ancient Israel. We’re at this point in redemptive history, and we have a whole fullness of revelation that has come since then, and so we need to read this with the big picture in mind, pointing to Christ, pointing to the gospel, pointing to the final fulfillment of it all in the return of Jesus.

The temple is the house of God, the place of God’s presence, and you remember that symbolism in the Scriptures unfolds until—the presence of God is lost in Eden. The presence of God is reestablished in the tabernacle. It’s made permanent in the temple, but then the glory of God is taken from the temple. The presence of God is reestablished now in the incarnation of Jesus, and the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. We have a fuller realization of the presence of God then in Pentecost, when the Spirit comes in fullness to indwell his people. And now we are the temple. The church becomes the temple of God, the place of his presence. And then finally, the presence of God is finally and fully realized in the final day in the presence of God himself, as we’ll read in the book of Revelation.

So when we read of the most holy place in the throne room and entering into the presence of God, and when we read those entrance liturgies—”O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who can be there? Who’s worthy to be there?” or Psalm 24, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Most High?”—we could think: I can. I can ascend the holy hill. I have clean hands and a pure heart through Jesus because he has ascended that hill for us. And when we read these things, we need to think in terms of the big picture.

When we read of hyssop—”purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean”—we need to see that symbolism reaching back to the Passover, pointing forward to Jesus. And when we pray prayers of repentance modeled after David in Psalm 51—”purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean”—we need to think in terms of 1 John 1:9: if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness because of the death and the sacrifice of Christ.

All the mentions of the sacrifice, the offerings that we find in the Psalms—all of that ought to remind us of what we find fulfilled in Jesus, particularly when we come to the book of Hebrews, but reflected throughout the New Testament, that Hebrews tells us in chapters 9 and 10 that the temple sacrifices, the tabernacle system of worship was structured in order to teach us. This was its purpose. It was structured in order to teach us, Hebrews says—to teach us that the way into God’s presence was not yet. But now we have entrance into God’s presence through Christ. And so we sing and read, for example, Psalm 100: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and enter his courts with praise.” We should think, yeah, we can do that through Jesus. We can enter into the very courts of God. Or as Hebrews chapter 10 says, let us then come boldly into his presence.

Let’s look quickly then at Psalm 87. This is a celebration of Zion as God’s favored place, His favorite place. And I think you’ll recognize some of the symbolism more quickly here. Psalm 87, verse 1: “On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of our God.” Now you probably can’t even read that without hearing the melody in your mind, right? That’s where it’s taken from. This is prospective. This is God’s presence among his people which finds its realization in the church. And so “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”—that hymn that we sing is written from the psalm, but written about the church, which is the place of God’s presence among his new covenant people.

So what we find when we read the psalms, then, is we have the congregation of Israel gathered around their king at the temple, singing the praise of the king, praying for his success, and rejoicing in the presence of God. Today, there’s a reflection of this, by the way, in Hebrews chapter 2, where Christ is pictured there as standing among his people, as sort of the worship leader among his people, singing the praises of God among his brothers and sisters in worship.

All of that to say, then, we’ve seen the poetry of the Psalms, we’ve seen that the Psalms are centered around the king, the Davidic king, but here now to say that the setting of it is in the temple, and we would read more profitably if we recognize that in the Psalms and then think in terms of the big picture. The king is our king. The temple is the presence of God, which we enjoy through our king. And recognizing that in the Psalms is important because it just shows up everywhere. It’s pervasive in the Psalter. I think partly because it’s so foreign to us, that system of worship, we sometimes gloss over it and don’t notice and see the significance of it, but try to tune into that and see that as you read through the Psalms and then think in terms of the big pictures.

All right, that’s all for that. Any questions on that? All right, let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?