Sermon Tone Analysis

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How to be Happy in Hard Times
 
*Psalm 1:1** (KJV) *
Blessed /is/ the man…
 
I have been and I’m sure you have been amazed at the tenor, the climate, the atmosphere of our environment; of our country; of our nation.
I have watched as I’m sure you have the fall out; the residue; the smoke; the debris; the remnant of the tragedy that has befallen this country and yea the world.
And seemingly by most accounts, if not all, we have as the old cliché says “We have fallen on hard times.”
By the indicators, (speaking observationally as a reporter relaying to you what I hear; what the buzz is on TV, in the news paper, in print) and I say that legitimately because I’m obviously not speaking from a Godly or spiritual perspective parse, because I’m talking about the climate of the land, the environment in which we live: the tenor the tone of our country; of our nation; of our cities; of our homes; of our selves.
And it seems as though there is a consensus of sorts that we have fallen on hard times.
We’ve heard so many times before that we are in a war that is a different kind of war.
There is a generation now; this generation has never seen the likes of which are occurring in our nation; in our world today.
And even those of us who have memories of conflicts and memories of encounters and engagements and attacks in the past have never seen anything like this before.
The waging and the responding and the engagement into this conflict, is in a dimension; on a level that this world has never seen before.
Few if any of our conventional paradigms for engagement politically, militarily will be applicable in this time.
For, these are strange times in which we live.
Now the catch is that a believer is a citizen of two worlds.
We are pilgrims.
As the old slave song says “I’m just a po-pilgrim traveling through this barren land.”
And so, the believer is a citizen of two nations if you will.
We are citizens of this country; citizens of this land; this state etc., but we are also citizens of the kingdom.
And we are enjoined; we are exhorted; we are challenged; we are confronted with the truth of the word that says do not be conformed to this world… So, we live under a mandate that we are not to let the world conform us.
And the word conform means to squeeze; to pack into a mold.
So the exhortation in Rom.
12:2 is this, in spite of what you are going through, don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.
Don’t fall susceptible to the world’s ideology.
Don’t buy into the world’s philosophy.
Don’t look at stuff the way the world sees it.
So then it is the believer that has the exhortation of the word of God that we are not to follow the pattern, but we are to live in a spiritual counter culture; that we are in this world but not of this world.
It is with that exhortation in mind that we now see not only the reality but the possibility of being happy even in hart times.
This book of the Psalms is a unique book; it is actually a collection of individual Hebrew poems intended for use in worship.
It’s not accurate to call these Psalms chapters.
Technically each psalm is a poem or a song or a lyric in and of itself, so that it is a collection or a compilation if you will of many poems or songs that are in groups 5.
So that the first group is from Psalm 1-41; the second group is from Psalms 42-72; the third group is from Psalms 73-89; the fourth group is Psalms 90-106; and the last group or book of the Psalms is from Psalms 107-150.
150 Psalms!
Now here’s the catch; Psalm 1 begins with a declaration of faith; Psalm 150 ends with an exhortation to praise.
So, that, the book of Psalms begins with faith and ends with praise.
Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are seen as a unit and for the most part serves as the introduction to the remaining 150 Psalms.
So Psalm 1 and 2 are kind of a two part introduction.
Psalm 1, talks about the written word and Psalm 2, talks about faith in the living word.
So, Psalm 1 talks about a particular kind of a life style or the person who lives a particular life style.
And Psalm 2 talks about the coming Messiah or the living Christ (or the living word if you will).
So that it is faith in Gods word, written and living that leads us to the rejoicing and praise that is in Psalm 150.
Martin Luther said, “The book of Psalm is the Bible in miniature.
It is a synthesis of the truths of all of scripture.”
Psalm 1 opens with a declaration that begins a journey thorough 150 Psalms.
In Jewish culture the book of psalms was seen as a hymn book.
It was called the hymn book of Israel.
But what’s unique about it is that this book of Psalm had two dynamics, first of all it was used to tell and secondly it was used to teach.
So in the book of Psalm there is a series of narratives that continually tell the story of the journey and history of Israel.
It is a book that recounts and recaptures and retells the various journeys and the various sections and the various seasons and the various eras in the history of Israel.
But it is not just telling for telling sake; it is telling that it might also teach.
So it is not only the recapturing or the recounting or retelling of a story it is teaching (if you will) about the Savior.
For it is a continuous, repetitive presentation of the character of God and the relationship of God to His people.
There are some interesting things about this book of Psalms, because it covers centuries of time.
And here in lies its connection and its relevance to where we are today.
Because between Psalm 1 and Psalm 150 there is a revelation of what God did or who God is, and it is always in the context of the realities of life.
This book of Psalm contains exhortations, and blessings, devotions and prayers and even complaints.
And they are all done out of real life experiences.
I want to suggest to you that this book of Psalms speaks in hard times.
Psalm 1 begins */“Blessed is the man…”/* It is an exhortation that goes throughout the book and we’re going to look at many of them as we go along.
But, this being blessed and living a blessed life is placed in a context of hard times.
These are not just psalms and songs that were sung when people were on the mountain tops.
These are not just sunshine songs.
These are exhortations and words from God that spoke to men and women in the realities of the struggles of their lives.
They lived in hard times.
First of all, from a national perspective these psalms covered 100’s and 100’s of years.
There is a Psalm that is written by Moses.
There are many Psalms that are written by David.
From Moses to David alone was over 425 years.
So, the Psalms cover centuries of time.
It speaks of the national journey of the people of God.
It speaks of what God did and how God brought them out of Egypt back in Moses’ time back in the Exodus.
It travels with them through the wilderness.
There are psalms that come out of the wilderness experience.
There are psalms that relate to Jerusalem, and that relate to the building and the foundation of the temple.
It speaks of the national predicament of the people of God.
It also has to do with their economics.
For, it speaks of the time when they were in their captivity.
They were in exile; away from the Holy Land.
It talks about their situation {and you will see it time and time again in certain psalms} where it seems as though their very world is crumbling around them.
It talks about mountains shaking and rivers rising and winds blowing and storms and that kind of thing.
It speaks of a world that is falling apart.
Many are asking economic questions today.
There are all kinds of pundits and prognosticators and prophets and prophets of doom; analysis and historians and anthropologist and scientist who are trying to discover what in the world is going on.
Not only do the Psalms speak nationally and economically, they speak personally.
Not only are there national hard times and economic hard times in the psalms, ah, but if you stay with the psalms they speak of some personal hard times.
What is interesting about the psalms is that they are songs to be song; they are melodies; they are lyrics if you will.
These are songs that some one composed out of personal experiences.
And so you see national hard times and you see economic hard times, and you see personal hard times.
You see relationships on the rocks, right in the psalms.
You see the pain of sin; the agony of repentance.
You see hunger and thirst for God.
You see pictures painted of being away from God and far from God.
And you see lyrical portraits of a thirst for God; a hunger for God; desperation for God all in the midst of hard times.
Well, there are those who would say that we have fallen upon national hard times.
Some say we’ve fallen upon economic hard times; recession and that kind of stuff.
But if you don’t see national hard times and if you don’t have enough economic stability or economic insight to see economic hard times sooner or later you will relate to some personal hard times.
Relationships; distance from God; struggles for who you are! Confusion about decisions!
Standing at a cross road in life!
Times when it seems as though your whole world is crumbling around you! When you realize your own frailty and you look back on a life of pain that you’ve inflicted.
You look back of a life of pain that has been inflicted.
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