Well, we’ve gotten to the last week in our Summer in the Psalms.  This week we’ll be looking at Psalm 37 and a “Prayer for our Worry.”  And while we’ll talk about worry (and anxiety and envy and the wicked and the righteousness … and of course, Jesus), I’ve chosen this Psalm to conclude our series because it has all the elements of the other Psalms we’ve covered this summer.  It’s part Wisdom Psalm, part Messianic Psalm, part Imprecatory Psalm, and part Promise Psalm.  It doesn’t neatly fit into any category, so it serves as a good summary of the whole series.

So, what do I hope you’ve learned from these Psalms?  Here’s some lessons I’ve adapted from Wendy Stringer, Discipleship Ministries, Grace Toronto Church, Toronto, CAN, 4/17/15, found at www.thegospelcoalition.org:

1. These psalms remind us we are desperate.

Sometimes we avoid the Psalms because they collide with how we want to think about God.  But the Psalms remind us we are in trouble … and then they help us move toward  God.  In reading the Psalms we enter a world quite different from our safe communities where we store up Bible knowledge and hoard the love and friendship of believers.  Our hearts are laid open so we might experience the desperate condition of the human race, and this fallen world.

2. These psalms remind us who is holy and who is not.

When we sing these psalms of wrath and judgment, we are forced to ask questions we might otherwise hide from: How could You, God?  How can You be so unmerciful?  But then we are confronted with an infinite, unpackaged, untamed God who does not answer to us.  It is an incredible work of faith, born through grace, that leads us to trust a God we cannot fully understand.  We do not know His ways, and we wonder at them, but we remember He is holy and we are not; He is infinite and we are not; He is mercy itself and we are not.

3. These psalms remind us we can tell our ugly thoughts to God.

Many of these Psalms were written by people who have known suffering, exile, and war for generations.  Weary and wondering if they will ever be happy again, if their song will always remain dried up and stuck in their throats, they dream of living within the safe borders of their homeland, celebrating shabbat around the table, farming their land, laughing with neighbors.  Their ideas of deliverance were bathed in blood, and they were closer to the truth than they realized.

4. These psalms remind us Christ has come to rescue us.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all over the Bible.  I want to read the Scriptures understanding that this book is about the Father sending someone to rescue us.  We see how our life of peace was earned when the violence of the Father’s wrath was poured out upon his only Son, Jesus.  Evil is ultimately defeated, destruction ultimately comes, and we are saved.

So, we’re going to finish up by looking at one Psalm through the lens of all the Psalms.  Until then, don’t worry.  It’s all going to be okay.  See you Sunday, Dr. Dave