032208_The_12_End_Time_Psalms_of_Asaph_Matt_Candler.doc

Studies in the Book of Psalms - Matt Candler

Introducing the 12 End Time Psalms of Asaph              Page 6

Introducing the 12 End Time Psalms of Asaph

I.                   OVerview

A.                 Introduce the Book of Psalms & End Time Basis

B.                 Asaph: The Man

C.                 Asaph’s 12 Songs: His Message

D.                 Our Mandate

II.                the book of psalms

A.                 The book of Psalms the largest book in the bible, comprising 150 songs.

B.                 Psalms, Story, and the power of Music and Song

“Story is the primary way in which the revelation of God is given to us. The Holy Spirit’s literary genre of choice is story…From beginning to end, our Scriptures are primarily written in the form of story. The biblical story comprises other literary forms – sermons and genealogies, prayers, and letters, poems and proverbs – but story carries them all in its capacious and organically intricate plot.  And the Holy Spirit weaves all this storytelling into the vast and holy literary architecture that reveals God to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the way that he chooses to make himself known. Story.” [1]

1. 1. 1. 
         
         The bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is far more than a collection of commands, moral principles, spiritual guidelines, examples of obedience, or targets to ‘shoot’ for. Rather, the Sacred Scripture is a Sacred Story. The key to connecting to the scriptures is to find ourselves in the greatest story of all stories. We are not only included in the sacred story, our lives actually shape the story.
      2. One reason it is so difficult for us to connect to God’s Story in the present is because we can’t fathom that the pieces and portions of our everyday life are ‘story-worthy.’ Our common day trivialities are not our road blocks to experiencing God, they are the very on ramps orchestrated by Him. Our jobs, children, financial challenges, car wrecks, promotions, dinners, taxes, vacations, pressures and breakthroughs are not hurdles to jump over to meet with and experience God but rather pools of experience to dive into and discover Immanuel, God with us.

“…music reaches the passions without passing through the mind…those who have devoted no study whatever to listening to it are moved by it…”[2]

“Let me make a nation’s songs, and I care not who makes the laws.”[3]

C.                 The New Testament cites the Psalms eighty six times, which is more than any other book cited in the Old Testament. C.H. Spurgeon’s comments concerning his Treasury of David Collection.

“Happy he who for himself knows the secret of the Psalms. Some of them are specially notable, and have, therefore, been expounded and preached upon on all hands, but others remain almost untrodden ground in sacred literature. Where one author writes upon a portion of Scripture, write, while other passages remain almost untouched. … As most of the commentators upon the Psalms proceed in their work they become slovenly, and appear to hurriedly and think superficially, either because they grow weary of their huge enterprise, or else because they have said their best things already. Our greatest trouble is occasioned by the fact that the expounders are not impartial, but spend all their love, or at least their energies, upon favorite portions of the sacred volume, passing by other passages with scarcely a remark, as if all Scripture were not equally inspired. Of many a text we have had to sigh, “Few there be that find it.” We are writing of the Psalms, the best read portion of the Old Testament, and therefore the fact the more singular. We have thousands of writers, of one kind or another, but they go in flocks, like sheep, traversing only the same texts and passages. For want of a conscientious effort to expound the whole of Scripture, much of it lies as little considered as if it had never been written for our instruction.[4]

D.                 The Psalms are a ‘Book’ of 5 Smaller Books

42 Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “ Sit at My right hand, (Lk 20:42)

20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it’; and, ‘Let another take his office.’ (Acts 1:20)

E.                  The Book of Psalms is divided into 5 five smaller sections or books as well. The five books are each divided by a doxology. They are divided as follows:

1. 1. 1. Book 1: Ps. 1-41 consisting of 38 named Davidic psalms; 3 unnamed psalms (Ps.1, 10, 33).

13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. (Ps 41:13)

2. 2. 2. Book 2: Ps. 42-72 consisting of 8 psalms of the sons of Korah (Ps. 42-49); 1 psalm of Aspah (Ps. 50); 21 named psalms of David (Ps. 51-65, 68, 69, 70); 3 unnamed psalms (Ps. 66, 67, 71) A Psalm of Solomon (Ps. 72)

18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! 19 And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. 20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. (Ps 72:18-20)

3. 3. 3. Book 3: Ps. 73-89 consisting of 11 psalms of Aspah (Ps. 73-83); 4 psalms of the sons of Korah (Ps. 84, 85, 87, 88); 1 named psalm of David (Ps. 86), and a psalm of Ethan (Ps. 89).

52 Blessed be the Lord forevermore! Amen and Amen. (Ps 89:52)

4. 4. 4. Book 4: Ps.90-106 consisting of a psalm of Moses (Ps. 90); 10 unnamed Psalms (Ps. 91-100, 102, 104, 105, 106); and 2 named psalms of David (Ps. 101, 103).

47 Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the Gentiles, To give thanks to Your holy name, To triumph in Your praise. 48 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord! (Ps 106:47-48)

5. 5. 5. Book 5: Ps.107-150 consisting of 13 unnamed psalms (Ps. 107, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 135, 136, 137); 12 named psalms of David (Ps.108, 109, 110, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145); 15 Songs of Ascents (120-134); the conclusive sequential 5 Hallel psalms (Ps. 146-150) where each psalm features a double Hallel, one at the beginning and one at the end, in a sense responding to the last words of the previous psalm, 145:21, “…my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh shall bless His holy name Forever and ever.   

F.                    History of Psalms Interpretation

1. 1. 1. Historically speaking, the majority of all Psalms interpreters recognize: “…its rubrics (rule for conduct of a liturgical service), the headings and doxologies, as an intrinsic part of the text…having a bearing on interpretation, and the doxologies as indicating a fivefold ‘book’ division” as well as “…the Psalms as foretelling eschatological events, interpreting them of Messiah, eschatological war, the ingathering of Israel, and so on. The great exception to the general dominance of these views is the period of 1820-1970.”[5]
      2. Not surprisingly it was during this period that much skeptical liberal theology was birthed out of the 3 fold combination of (1) Darwin’s theory of evolution (Origin of Species by Natural Selection in 1859), (2) Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in 1919 and (3) two World Wars.

G.                 The Psalms are Purposefully Arranged

1. 1. 1. The predominant view of from 1800-1970 was that the Psalms were not purposefully arranged (see pervious) but were gradually accumulated and put together in a piecemeal, disorderly fashion.
      2. Psalms as Future-Predictive Prophecy Concerning Both of Jesus’ Comings
      3. 1. Texts from the Psalms were frequently used by New Testament Jewish believers to verify Jesus’ Messianic claims to fellow Jewish hearers and readers. In other words, the Psalms were understood as being future-predictive, or prophetic in nature.
         2. Jesus Himself recognized and endorsed not only the Law and the Prophets as prophetic, but also the Psalms.

44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (Lk 24:44)

3. 3. 3. 3. Jesus says that these three prophetic ‘book collections’ all testified of things concerning Jesus that must be ‘fulfilled.’ This obviously includes but is not limited to the fact that Jesus would come as the Servant to suffer at the hands of sinners before He would come as King.
         4. In the same way that the Law and the Prophets often blurred the lines of Jesus’ two comings, so also do the Psalms (for example, see Ps. 2, 22). Therefore, the Psalms still have many things to glean from that ‘must be fulfilled” concerning Jesus, especially as it pertains to His second coming.

III.             Asaph: THe man

A.                 Asaph - was 1 of 3 “chiefs” or directors (Neh. 12:46) appointed by David and the leaders of the Levites (1 Chron. 15:16-17; Heman, “the singer” and Jeduthun/Ethan were the other two)...