Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are starting a new series at Horizon called Soul Food.

Over the coming weeks we will be considering some of those habits and practices in the Christian life that feed and nurture our faith.

I think most of us who have been Christians for a while know that spiritual growth doesn’t just happen all by itself.

And I also think that most of us who have been Christians for a while know that every single one of us have experienced times in our life when faith sort of feels stuck and stagnant.

So, this is a great reminder for us that the Bible shows us some ways to help keep our faith building up in the right direction.

Usually when we want to discover what the scripture says we take a magnifying glass and really get in there for a closer look at the text.

Today we're going to do just the opposite.

Considering the issue of prayer, we're going to use the text for today and, instead of taking a closer look, we're going to take a farther look.

So let's begin by looking at a few Psalms and then keep backing up away from them until we learn a little something about prayer.

This week here at Horizon we are set to launch our 40 Days of Prayer.

So, I thought today would be a good opportunity to get us off on the right foot together by considering in today’s message what it means for us to pray.

What is prayer?

Why do we pray?

How do we become better at praying?

The best way for us to get at this idea and practice of prayer is to begin with the Psalms.

The 150 Psalms included in the Bible are more than just a collection of poems and songs.

These were Israels’ prayers.

Maybe the best place for us to begin is by taking a look at how the Old Testament Israelites would pray.

And to know that, we need to take a look at the Psalms.

Today I’m going to use Psalm 42 and 43 as our example of prayer as we find it in the Bible.

Let's take a look at a couple feature of this Psalm that can help us understand what this prayer means.

There are three sections to this Psalm.

We can tell that by the common refrain that separates the sections from one another.

You can see that refrain in Verse 5, in verse 11, and again in chapter 43:5.

Sons of Korah | captivity prayer

The author and timing of this prayer show us a Levite priest from the lineage of Korah assigned to perform regular duties at the temple in Jerusalem.

This priest has most likely been captured and taken into exile to the kingdom of Aram, to the north.

Joshua 21 tells us that the “sons of Korah” lived in towns directly outside of Jerusalem.

2 Kings 12 tells the story of an attack on Jerusalem during the reign of King Joash that likely resulted in some of the inhabitants of those towns being taken into captivity.

Verses 1-4 make up the first section of the Psalm and paint the picture for us even further.

Verse 4 tells us that the psalmist desires once again to be home performing his temple duties by “leading the procession to the house of God.”

Each of the three sections echoes the hints that the psalmist is taken from his home and is exiled among a foreign nation.

Verse 3 says, “men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'”

In the second section we see it in verse 9, “I say to God my Rock, 'Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?'”

And in the third section we see it in 43:1, “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.”

With each time that the psalmist repeats his case there is a move from complete hopelessness to trust in God for salvation.

This sense is shown in the repeated refrain that comes three times through the Psalm.

The psalmist acknowledges his heavy and saddened soul because he longs for the presence of God again, but consistently concludes that he will trust God and put is hope in God resulting in praise for the God that will save him.

We see this hope stated again in the third section beginning at 43:3, “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.”

Middle verse 6 | “therefore I will remember you”

There's one more detail I want us to see in these Psalms.

There's an extra verse in that middle section.

It's an extra verse in the middle section that breaks from the pattern where we find the main point.

It's verse 6, “my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.”

Mount Hermon, by the way, is on the northern boarder of Israel; right against the land of Aram, where this psalmist was possibly exiled to.

The psalmist again acknowledges his downcast soul and says “therefore I will remember you” The solution to his problem, the source of his hope, the point of his prayer is to remember God.

But what specifically about God is he remembering?

Hold that thought; we'll get back to it.

Prayer is answering speech

Division of Psalms into five books

Now let's shift gears a bit.

To pull some insight and meaning from this Psalm we don't need to look at it closer, but look farther.

Maybe the picture of the Psalms as prayers makes more sense the further we back away.

So let's consider psalms 42 and 43 and start to back away and see what's there.

If you happen to have a Bible open to Psalm 42, look at your Bible.

Right above where it says Psalm 42 what does it say?

It says “Book II: Psalms 42-72.”

Did you know that the Psalms are divided into five books.

Each of the five books ends with a common theme.

They all end with a verse that says “Praise be to the Lord” and some form of “Amen and Amen.”

Those verses signal us that a new book of Psalms is coming.

That’s what we see right at the end of Psalm 41.

But why did the Israelites divide the Psalms into five books?

What was the reason for this arrangement?

Prayers to give Israel a means of expression to God

To begin to answer that question we need to remind ourselves again that, for Israel, the Psalms were not just songs and not just poetry.

For God's Old Testament people the Psalms were prayers.

These five books of Psalms were Israel's prayer book.

This is how, for centuries, people expressed themselves to God.

The Psalms were how they prayed.

Tucked right in the middle of our Bibles are the secrets of prayer; the instructions for how we are to express ourselves to God; of how we are to pray to him.

It's all there.

There are Psalms of praise, Psalms of thanksgiving, Psalms of lament, Psalms of hope, Psalms of confession.

Everything is here.

You know, throughout the centuries there have been different fads of prayer.

In our own time there has been the popularity of what is called dunamus prayer literally meaning “power prayer.”

Maybe some of you remember a book that was popular about 15 years ago called The Prayer of Jabez with all it's accompanying paraphernalia such as the prayer of Jabez journal, the prayer of Jabez Bible, the prayer of Jabez coffee mug, the prayer of Jabez key chain, and the prayer of Jabez teeshirt.

These fads of prayer come and go.

But for thousands of years, Israel expressed itself to God by praying the Psalms.

Let's figure out what that means.

There are five books of prayers that make up the Psalms.

Author Donald Miller plays around with the idea that the five books of the psalms are corresponding responses to the five books of Moses.

For old testament Israel there were five books of the law.

And then there were five books of prayer to give the people a proper expression of response back to God.

There certainly is not any kind of grid or chart that matches up each individual psalm with a particular section of the first five books of the Bible.

It just doesn't work that way.

But the idea is fun to play with and it serves to illustrate the point we are going after this morning.

Supposing that book II of the psalms constitutes a prayer of response to the second book of the Bible.

Exodus 1 says, “Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them...So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor.”

-- Psalm 42, “My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'” Exodus 3, “The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land.”

-- Psalm 43, “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.”

Remember the question we left with the psalmist from verse 6, “My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you.”

We asked what specifically is the psalmist remembering?

He remembers God's salvation from Egypt.