Old Testament # 25
“Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord”
Psalms
Challenge from last week: If you haven’t already, pick a favorite hymn or Children’s Song and train yourself to think of it as a guard against unwanted thoughts.
Introduction
When I was in Israel in May, as part of the tour we went to the Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem—believed to be built on the site where Christ was born. Even though it was fairly early in the morning, the Church was crowded—restoration was taking place and we were herded in tight lines round some amazing frescos, in front of a heavily garnished altar section, and then, finally into a small entry down to the purported cave/birthplace. Right next to the entrance to the cave was a small roped off seating area and a door outside, up some stairs. I didn’t know anything was wrong with me, but someone asked me if I was OK. As I neared the cave entrance, heavily festooned with incense burners and burning candles, I experienced a panic attack—I don’t think I have ever had one before—I broke through the crowd and hared up the stairs to the open door and the blessed quiet outside in a small courtyard which led . . . nowhere. By now I was in tears and also feeling pretty stupid. I sat down in the small, open, calm area and felt a need to get out my phone and open up my scripture app to Psalm 23. Reading that psalm calmed me enough to be able to eventually go back in and find a way to bypass the crowd and join my group who by now had gone through. Why Psalm 23? It is the most familiar psalm since we have a hymn in various musical arrangements “The Lord is my Shepherd,” but traditionally, at least in Jewish tradition, the psalms are a source of solace, a means to focus on God and His goodness.
We can only dip briefly into the psalms in the time we have in our lesson period on Sunday, but maybe we can learn to appreciate these beautiful hymns of pleading, praise, and solace. Many of our hymns are based on psalms. Try to find a psalm that could become your favorite.
Since Kara is teaching this lesson, I am not going to second-guess her choices, but here are a few of my own that have been meaningful to me:
The first time I went to Israel, just for a few days (from Germany) I knew no Hebrew and had only been a member of the Church for a few years. My mother is Jewish and I wanted something with Hebrew on it. I stopped in at a small jeweler store and found a pendant with an inscription on it—Psalm 137:5 “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” I learned what it said (in Hebrew) and that was possibly the first Hebrew I had ever learned. I couldn’t read it, per se, but many years later I took Biblical Hebrew at BYU and so was able to read what I had learned phonetically.
Often quoted is Psalm 30:5 “Weeping may come in the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Here is President Nelson:
The gospel of Jesus Christ offers hope, . . . It declares joy to be part of our divine destiny. And to experience joy in the morning becomes our special challenge. The true test, . . . is to be able to look in the mirror, first thing in the morning, and feel real joy. One of our daughters, who had recently announced that she was expecting a new addition to the family, said, “But Dad, that’s the hardest time of the day for me!” “My dear ones,” I replied, “in order to experience true joy in the morning, or at any time, at least three factors are needed. You need to feel good about the people with whom you live and work—your companions in life. You must feel good about yourself—not in any sense of conceit, but simply a proper esteem for yourself, well deserved. And possibly most important, you must feel good about your relation to God and sincerely love him.”[1]
Psalm 119 is a run through the Hebrew alphabet if you were ever curious to see it. It contains a beautiful thought, though: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” President Nelson again:
To reach our objective of eternal life, we need to follow teachings in the standard works and other revelations received from prophets of God. Our loving Lord foresaw our need for guidance: “For strait is the gate,” He said, “and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it.”Few find the way because they ignore the divine road map provided by the Lord. . . . The Master warned of those who “seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol.”False gods can only lead to dead ends. If our journey through life is to be successful, we need to follow divine direction. The Lord said, “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”And the Psalmist wrote, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”[2]
Psalm 27:4 speaks to all of us who love the House of the Lord: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” But perhaps the first verse of this psalm is more familiar: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” President Monson:
May I say to all of you, . . . that as the world moves further and further away from the principles and guidelines given to us by a loving Heavenly Father, we will stand out from the crowd because we are different. We will stand out because we dress modestly. We will be different because we do not use profanity and because we do not partake of substances which are harmful to our bodies. We will be different because we avoid off-color humor and degrading remarks. We will be different as we decide not to fill our minds with media choices that are base and demeaning and that will remove the Spirit from our homes and our lives. We will certainly stand out as we make choices regarding morality—choices which adhere to gospel principles and standards. Those things which make us different from most of the world also provide us with that light and that spirit which will shine in an increasingly dark world. It is often difficult to be different and to stand alone in a crowd. It is natural to fear what others might think or say. Comforting are the words of the psalm: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”As we make Christ the center of our lives, our fears will be replaced by the courage of our convictions.[3]
Additional Material
There are no additional material hints in this week’s lesson, but I am appending a short article by noted Biblical scholar N.T. Wright on the importance of the Psalms.
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