26th July 2026

Experiencing the Psalms 1 – 26/07/26 - Martin Mowat

It’s good to be back.  Charlotte and I had a really good 10-day holiday in the Gers, and we enjoyed our Sunday morning last week at TIC, where I had been asked to preach, filling in for Roger, their pastor, while he’s on holiday in the USA. It’s the church we attended for some 10 years, before being sent out as part of a 15 strong team to start a French-speaking church in Léguevin, on the west side of Toulouse.  That’s where we were for 15 years before we came here.

But it’s really good to be back with you in Mirepoix.  There’s no place like home, as Perry Como sang way back in 1954.

Thank you, hugely, Tess, Jess and Gid, as well as all of you who supported them while we were away.

We’ve been talking a lot recently about prayer, especially at the mid-week group, although for different reasons attendance hasn’t been so great in recent weeks.  Prayer is vital, but so is praise. 

We all love it when people compliment us and praise us, don’t we? And because we’re made in God’s image, I think we can safely assume that he loves it too.

So, I thought it would be logical, and helpful, if we were to have a light-weight summer series about the Psalms.  Here we go.

Once upon a time, in the hills around Bethlehem, there was a young shepherd boy who loved to sing, so much so that he even sang to his sheep.  His name was David, and as he grew older he became a gifted poet and songwriter.

One day, when he was a mere teenager, the prophet Samuel turned up, quite unexpectedly, at his family's farm, poured oil on David’s head, and anointed him King of Israel.

I can’t begin to imagine how they all felt about that, his parents and his elder siblings, but anyway, from that moment on, with the additional anointing of the Holy Spirit, his gift of writing songs and poetry took on a new level of inspiration. 

Over the next 600 years other poets were inspired by God to give voice to songs, which were later brought together to complete the collection that we know today as the Book of Psalms, the Psalter -- 150 poetic songs that lie right in the middle of our Bibles, at the very heart of them too.

They express the entire spectrum of human emotion -- fear, despair, longing, love, hope, joy, exultation and even contentment as we heard on Lectio this morning. We’ll see in a few minutes that they are fine examples to us today of how we too can voice our emotions to God.

No way are we going to be able to talk about all of the Psalms in this series, so I can’t promise that your personal favourites will be among the ones that we do look at.

We’ll probably divide them into some of those “moods” and see what we can learn from them. But today is just a general introduction and while it might seem a bit technical, it should help us to better understand and appreciate them as we go forward.

As we’ve seen, David didn’t write all 150 psalms, in fact he only wrote slightly less than half of them, 73 to be precise. 12 are attributed to Asaph, 12 to the Sons of Korah, 4 to Juduthun, 2 to Solomon, 1 to someone called Heman the Ezrahite and 1, believe it or not, to Moses. 

In fact 34 of them have no known author, sadly, and the beautiful one that we heard this morning, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked”, was one of those. We’ll be talking about that one in more detail in a couple of weeks’ time.

Those who put the book together actually sub-divided it into 5 sections, which are intended to echo the Torah, or Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and at the same time to guide the reader through from lament and crisis, to confident, universal praise. 

Interestingly, they are extensively quoted in the New Testament, coincidentally some 150 times in fact, which shows us that they were relevant and pertinent well beyond the times when they were written. Indeed, they’re STILL applicable, even to us today, which makes this series so appropriate.

I remember, as a child, the congregation reading Psalms aloud in church, and even worse, reading alternate verses with the vicar leading the service, which for me drained them of all meaning and interest. 

But Psalms are meant to be sung, and sung joyfully -- and meant to be accompanied by musical instruments. David, for example, was skilled at playing the "lyre", an instrument a bit like a harp but with only 7 strings.

I said earlier that they are poetic, but not in the way that we see poetry in the west today. They didn’t use rhyme, for example, which inadvertently makes them easier to translate into different languages.  Instead, they use tools such. as echoing and developing a thought.  For example, Psalm 103 says He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities."  Do you hear the echo? Jesus used this technique a lot in his teaching too.

Another characteristic of the Psalms is the use of imagery, comparing one thing to another. This isn’t necessarily found in every psalm, but it is, apparently, used a lot in Hebrew poetry. Imagery has a way of fixing an idea in our minds with more clarity. 

Psalm 23 is a classic example. In ordinary prose we might say with something like "God meets all our needs and protects us."

But in the 23rd Psalm “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures,” communicates these ideas through several images:
- a shepherd and his sheep,
- green pastures and still waters,
- the valley of the shadow of death,
- a table,
- an anointing,
- and an overflowing cup.
These images not only make the psalm more beautiful and picturesque, but the thoughts and the emotions that they evoke contribute to make so much more memorable and meaningful. 

Others are like hymns of praise.  Psalm 8, for example, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!. We look at that one next week.

Some are laments, like lamentations, the polar opposite on the emotional spectrum. They might begin with a complaint, but conclude with praise. In Psalm 3 David complains Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!, but he finishes up, only 8 verses later, saying, From the Lord comes deliverance, may your blessing be on your people.
    

Then there are Psalms of thanksgiving. These are similar to the hymns I just mentioned, but particularly recount what God has done, so are sometimes an answer to a lament. I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. That’s Psalm 30.

Psalms of confidence, where the psalmist's expresses their trust in God's goodness and power, are different again. Psalm 23 that we’ve just mentioned, is classic example.

There are also Psalms of remembrance which remember the great historic events, such as the Exodus in Psalm 77 The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed, or the establishment of the Davidic covenant and dynasty in Psalms 89 I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’.

Then there are Wisdom Psalms. Quite similar to literature found in Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. Psalms 1 that Janet read to us this morning is an example of that.

And finally, you might be glad to hear, there’s a category of psalms called Kingship Psalms and they focus either on the human king of Israel or on God as the heavenly king, or even both.  So my last quote is from Psalms 2

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains  and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”

And then a few verses further on, because it is just so pertinent today

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth so include presidents and prime ministers in that.
Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Amen.