Message Description

Teaching Pastor Dr. Terry Thomas continues the message series "Ascent" exploring Psalms 120–134. Together, we’ll reflect on the journey of rising—whether in personal growth, spiritual depth, or relational connection—embracing challenges, celebrating triumphs, and discovering deeper lessons along the way.

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Hey, some pretty spectacular pictures there. That one, that last one of the guys climbing up, that was me. I fell down right after that. Turned into a giant snowman.  

Hey, good to have you here. And, today we're continuing a series called “The Psalms of Ascent”. These are 15 Psalms that you find in the Book of Psalms, big book, the book of Psalms, 150 Psalms altogether. If you look at Psalm 119, it has 22 sections to it. So, there's a lot in the Book of Psalms, and we're looking at a piece of it. And these Psalms, if you've been here in the past, maybe, you know, in the last couple weeks, you've been hearing a little bit about this. And by the way, if you missed last week's talk on Psalm 127 that Kirk did, it was spectacular. You can watch it online. It was really, really good. I advise you get a chance to listen to that.  

These Psalms, these 15 Psalms that are called the Psalms of Ascent, these are Psalms that the Jewish people used to sing together as a community as they went on a trip up towards Jerusalem for these three festivals that happened over the course of the year. These festivals, they sort of happened in the early spring, and then in the early summer, and then in the late fall. That's when they took place. And in a certain sense, the celebrations and the coming up was a little bit about the seasonal thing, too. You know, it was about that process, that method of growth, where it goes from little things to big things, you know? And so a little bit of that was what was going on there, is people would celebrate that, and that would become a regular part of their, you know, life experience.  

And these ones that we're listening to, they're called the Psalms of Ascent because Jerusalem, where they went up for these temple celebrations is on a big hill, maybe the biggest hill in Israel. And so everybody who went to it from, no matter what direction, you kind of had to go up the hill to get there, to ascend it there. But also, you know, the temple was on top of the hill, and some people think, I don't, you know, know about this, but some people think the temple had 15 steps on it up to the entrance of the temple. And they thought that maybe these 15 Psalms were kind of, you know, organized so that they could, like, liturgically, some rabbi or priest had this idea, I guess, to sing one of the Psalms as you went up one step and so forth. I’d take you a while to get up to 15 steps to sing all the Psalms. But anyway, I really don't know whether that's the case or not. And after all, it's not in the Bible or anything. It suggests that that's the way.  

And the book of Psalms was a book of these songs that were put together anyway after the return from the exile in Babylon, you know? So it was a late addition in many ways. And yet it had a number of songs, by the way, that's what they are. They're worship songs. They're musical. The Psalms are songs, musical poems, and it had a bunch of them that were written by David and a couple by Moses and by Solomon and some other famous worship leaders, and some of them anonymous and so forth. But it was put together as a kind of celebration piece for people to be used in worship and to be used in their experience of, you know, in these particular ones used in their experience related to these pilgrimages that people would make three times a year.  

Now, here's the deal. Here's what I'm figuring it's like, the ones we're looking at, at least, the ones we're looking at were more or less like, these are songs that, you know, when you go on that vacation and you got that long car drive, and so what do you do? You go out and you get, in the old days, you used to get that cassette tape of your song list. You know, the songs that you really loved, for when you were on the long ride. By the way, for you guys, cassettes were these little things. They're like this. You put them in a machine and your music taped. 

Anyway, so, yeah, they would listen to them, you know, did you have this stuff like this? Anybody have something like this? You had your little set, you know, you got in there. Baby, baby! Come on, Smokey? He lived centuries ago. So anyway, you know, and if you're by yourself too, that's when you really let it go, huh? How many, when you're taking that long car ride, you go, oh, you love to sing those songs? They come on you. Well, maybe. I'm guessing it was a little like this. You know, people were going. They were walking. They were going up there and the family started singing the Psalms. They're these musical hymns, you know, and by the way, why wouldn't you? In many ways, because this is a great idea on God's part to have a big book and a Bible be the songs. Because you know what? They're easier to remember. Songs that when you sing them seriously, how many of you know, all the songs come on the radio now? You know all the words to the songs. Nobody told you to memorize them, but you heard them long enough, you know them, and so you can sing along with them and you remember what they're about.  

Well, that's what the Psalms are. They're songs. They had meter and rhyme and images. Hey, you know what else was great about them is that they were intentionally emotive. You know what I mean? That's why even today, anybody can read the Psalms and feel connected to them. There might be other Old Testament passages or whatever that maybe you can't quite figure out what they're about or, you know, you don't relate to right away. But you start reading the Psalms and it won't take you very long before they'll touch your heart, you know, because they're that. They're that emotive thing. They're that way of a metaphorical way of connecting with God, you know, and it's kind of a cool kind of a thing,  and that's why they're important. 

They organized the Psalms after they came back from Babylon and put them all together. And they put them together in a certain structure and certain psalms appear. That's why we have these Psalms of Ascent. They're all together, these 15 that were sung and were related to those things. And they have an order to them. And you can see that and so forth if you look at it. But the book of Psalms as a whole is like that, too. And it gives you an idea about how they put it together, gives you an idea about what its purpose was and what it was about.  

For instance, let me just show you this.

Here's how the Book of Psalms begins. This is Psalm 1. Let me read you Psalm 1. This is how it starts. It starts like this:

“Blessed is the one 
who does not walk in step with the wicked 
or stand in the way that sinners take 
or sit in the company of mockers, 
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, 
and who meditates on his law day and night. 
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, 
which yields its fruit in season 
and whose leaf does not wither— 
whatever they do prospers. 

Not so the wicked! 
They are like chaff 
that the wind blows away. 
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, 
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” 

So how does this start off? Starts with a great metaphor. You know, here's what it's like. You get ready, because God's going to reveal to you in a way that's memorable and emotive and one you can connect to. You know, he's gonna give you stuff to meditate on day and night, the same way we meditate on some songs and things that mean a lot to us. Day and night, you're gonna meditate on the law day and night. You know what happens if you meditate on the law? You become blessed. Blessed is the man. By the way, our hymn this morning, our psalm this morning, begins with the word blessed. You know what the word blessed means in Hebrew? Happy. Happy. And here's what it says. The guy who meditates on the law of the Lord, day and night, he's happy. He's like a tree. He's like a tree growing by that stream of living water. And whatever he does, he prospers. He's solid, man. Hey, matter of fact, you know what? I got an idea. 

We're getting here. February. It's February, early February here, all right? And you know, I don't know if you heard, but the groundhog said that you should read one of the Psalms at least every day this month. Punxsutawney Phil said that this morning. And, you know, seriously, why don't you do this? Why don't you take the month of February and commit yourself to reading the book of Psalms? You know, it'll take you, you read five or six, you know, a day, you'd be able to get through it. It wouldn't be that hard. And you know what I'm telling you right now? You connect to them. It won't be long before they'll be speaking to your heart. You'll be remembering things. You'll be using images in your conversation about it. You'll think about it. It'll be. You know what? You'll be like a tree. Everything you do, you'll start prospering. 

By the way, Psalm 2, which, again, is one of those Psalms they put right at the beginning so as to give you a picture of what these are. The whole thing is about, the whole book's about. It goes like this: 

Why do the nations Conspire and the people plot in vain. The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers against the Lord. The. Against the. Against his anointed One. 

Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters. Well, the one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them, and he rebukes them in his anger. And he terrifies them with his wrath, saying, I have installed my king in Zion on the holy hill, and I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son:

“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.’ 

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: 
He said to me, ‘You are my son; 
    today I have become your father.’”

You ever know Jesus showed up at that baptism? That's what God said, this is my son. You know you're my son. He says, and today I have become your father. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance. Talking about Jesus here:

“Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron ; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.’ Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. 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.”

Hey, you get the point. It starts off with, why don't you be wise and be happy and meditate on God's law day and night, and you become like a tree. And everything you do personally will prosper. Then it goes right away, the second thing. Oh, yeah, and those crazy nations who think they're really something. I'm God, you're not. I'm laughing at you. What a big deal you think you are. 

You know, I can remember one time, I was, one of my professors was talking about the sovereignty of God, and he talked about a sermon that he gave once about God's sovereignty, his control, his greatness and his awe and so forth. And afterwards, a woman came up to him and he said, you know, after you'd made that sermon, I felt this big, My professor said. I said to her, too big. Isn't that the point? It's about God. It's not about us. You hear a lot about if you were going to be blessed by the Lord, you want to fear him. 

You hear fear in those first two. Both of those first two things, fear. Hey, by the way, it's not the kind of fear of like, ah, you know, oh, he got me. He scared me. I'm a little shocked, but it's not that kind of fear. It's not a frightening kind of fear. You know what you want? The fear that's being called upon for us to be able to express. It's the fear of what a famous theologian, King Rudolph Otto, called the mysterium tremendum, the tremendous mystery. You know, it's that awesomeness of God who is so big, so grand, so spectacular that in comparison to him, we're in awe, we're overwhelmed by it. It's a fear that sort of rolls over us and overwhelms us to that we recognize.  

Hey, you know, one of the reasons why it might be a good idea for you to read the Psalms over the next month, you know, make a commitment to it. That'd be a good thing. You can meditate on God's word that way day and night. You could become somebody who's happy. You can become somebody who begins to fear God in that sense of being overwhelmed by him. You could start to have that experience of building into your own life. You know, one of the reasons why it'd be good to do that is because it would be good for you. Now, I'll tell you this right now. You know what I think a lot of people, the only reason why they read the Bible, well, other than the fact they feel compelled to or something, they think God will strike them dead if they don't. But, you know, I think they read the Bible because here's what they want. They want God to solve their personal problems. And so that's what they read the Bible for.  

We use a little article in a class that I teach. It's called “Reading the Bible like a Grown Up Child’. And in there the author says this, he says, you know, the Bible is not for solving your personal problems. And I know that when we read that and we talk about it in class, students always say, what? The Bible's not for solving your personal problems? Why would I read it then if it couldn't resolve my personal problems? And we go back and forth, we have discussions about what he means and blah, blah, blah. 

And I remember one time we were having this discussion. This one woman finally puts up her head. She says, I think I know what he means. I said, what do you think it is? She says, I think here’s what he means. I think what he means is the Bible is not about you, it's about God. I was like, bingo. You know, it is not. It's not that the Bible can't be helpful in helping resolve our personal problems. That's not the issue. The question though, the the issue is, is the Bible about us? Or is it about God? And I think what it's trying to lay out here is it's about God. It's about trying to welcome us into an experience of seeing what God was like.  

Hey, by the way, if you flip to the end of the book of Psalms, that was the beginning, there's a bunch of Psalms sort of basically praise Psalms that are at the end of the book of Psalms. And let me give you an idea of what they're like. Okay, here's Psalm 148. Towards the very end, it says:

“Praise the Lord from the heavens; 
praise him in the heights above. 
Praise him, all his angels; 
praise him, all his heavenly hosts. 
Praise him, sun and moon; 
praise him, all you shining stars. 
Praise him, you highest heavens 
and you waters above the skies. 

Let them praise the name of the Lord, 
for at his command they were created,
and he established them for ever and ever— 
he issued a decree that will never pass away.” 

Hey, by the way, we. When you begin to hear this Psalm and read this Psalm, it's reminiscent of the story of creation found in Genesis 1. Matter of fact, the same order of the creation of things is found in Genesis 1, is found in this Psalm 148. You can see the things that have already been talked about right here. The sun and the stars and the water above. That's the kind of stuff right after day one, day two of Genesis 1. Then it says this: 

“Let them praise the name of the Lord, 
for at his command they were created, 
and he established them for ever and ever— 
he issued a decree that will never pass away. 

Praise the Lord from the earth, 
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, 
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, 
stormy winds that do his bidding, 
you mountains and all hills, 
fruit trees and all cedars, 
wild animals and all cattle, 
small creatures and flying birds..” 

That's just the way old Testament Genesis 1 talks about the creation. Then it goes on and says this:

“...kings of the earth and all nations, 
you princes and all rulers on earth, 
young men and women, 
old men and children. 

Let them praise the name of the Lord, 
for his name alone is exalted; 
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. 
And he has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his faithful servants, 
of Israel, the people close to his heart.”  

And he has people close to his heart. These are the people close to his heart. Yeah. You know what you feel? You feel in this passage from the beginning of the book to the end of the book, that it's a picture. What God's trying to do is he's trying to welcome us into an understanding of who he is. And you know what? He's a personal God who wants to, every day, have you, meditate with him about things that he'll speak to your heart. He'll be personal, and he'll grow you up like a tree. And you'll be, you know. 

But you know what? He's bigger than that. He's overwhelming. He's so overwhelming, you might be afraid of it. In a sense, you’d be awed if you really knew how big he was, how spectacular. And that's why, hey, the nations sit at his feet. They make plans against him. Oh, give me a break. I'm God, you know, he mocks them, he laughs at them, he scoffs at them. Seriously. I'm the one who by His Word, set the nature of reality in place. I'm the Creator out of nothing and the sustainer of all things, moment to moment. I'm a pretty big deal in your life, in the life of everything. And what I do? What do I do? I welcome into you meditating about who I am and what I've done and what life's supposed to be along that way. That's the Psalms. 

Hey, read the Psalms this month. You know, let them speak to you. Get excited about it. You know, go on YouTube, sing a couple of them with people, you know, if you want to. You know, I mean, it'd be a great experience for you. All right? The God who's personal and the God who's cosmic, and he welcomes us. That's what the Psalms do. These ones who ascent as we're going up to these people are going up to worship them, and they're singing some Psalms to remind them what they're doing, what they're all about, and they can hardly wait. And, you know, that's what we're talking. 

This is Psalm 128. I'll read it for you again. This is what it says:

“Blessed are all who fear the Lord...” 

By the way, when you hear the word fear the Lord, you know, you realize this is what they call a wisdom Psalm. And there are different kinds of Psalms. Some Psalms are laments. Laments are ones that are like, by the way, there's a lot of laments, because that's our life has a lot to lament in it. It's about struggles that we're having, things that we struggle with, that God wants us to surrender to him, to speak to us, to meet our needs. In the midst of all. 

We'll sing a song about that later on this morning. A spectacular song about that. But, you know, there are laments, there are thanksgiving Psalms. These are the ones that have us celebrating the stuff that God's already done in the past and the things that he promises to do into the future. You know, there are what's called wisdom Psalms, Psalms that'll help you to become a wise person. You're blessed if you're wise, you're happy if you're wise. 

Wisdom Psalms helping you become wise? It’s got nothing to do with intellect in the sense of being a smart person. Okay? It's not like, you know, they'll help you become smarter if you read these. No, no, no, no. You know what wisdom is? Wisdom in the Bible is the ability to make good decisions in different contexts. It's knowing what to do in one context, the right thing to do in it so that you can experience how life was meant. You know why? Because if you meditate on God's law and you recognize he's the one who set all things in place from the very beginning, he's organized things. The law of the nature of reality is dependent upon him, and he wants to share that with you so that you can be wise. Not because you're such a big deal, but because he is. So that you can experience what life was really meant to be like, and you can be happy as a result. And this is a wisdom song. 

Here's what it says. Happy is the person who fears the Lord, who recognizes their place, who walks in his ways. It says that's like meditating on his law day and night. Walks in his ways, tries to be a person who lives consistently and faithfully. Then it says this. 

“You will eat the fruit of your labor; 
blessings and prosperity will be yours.”

Okay? You'll eat the fruit of your labor and blessing and prosperity will be yours. By the way, there's a group of Christians, maybe Christians, who believe in something they call the Prosperity Gospel, sometimes called the Health and Wealth Gospel. You know what their assumption is? Life's all about them. That's what it's about. And so what they think is “name it and claim it.” All you gotta do is, you know, God wants you to experience the best possible life that you possibly could. So as a result, just say no to physical problems of any kind and say no to financial problems of any kind. God will bless you with good health always, and he will give you a great fortune in prosperity. And their assumption is that that's because that's what Jesus died for, Jesus died in his atonement is to take care of the curse in regard to health and wealth. I'll tell you right now, that ain't the Gospel. It's not what? The Prosperity Gospel is not the gospel. 

And by the way, in case you wonder whether that's the case, look at the life of Jesus and see whether that's the life he lived. Okay? There's no way you would try to claim that that's the life Jesus lived. And yet, as we try to imitate him, we certainly would live a different kind of life. Okay, but what is prosperity? Well, it's a sense of contentment. It's a sense of, you know. You know what it says here? It says right here, it says: 

“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, 
 who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; 
 blessings and prosperity will be yours.”

You know what prosperity? Prosperity isn't you get as much as you want. Prosperity is you get as much as you need. The Psalm before this that Kurt talked about, last week in 127, you know what it says? Vain is the person who stays up all day and all night trying to figure out how to get more and more and more. They're wasting their time. The person who trusts the Lord knows what they do. They get a good night's sleep because they know that God's going to take care of them. He'll meet their needs. Prosperity is not about, wait a minute, you know what these Psalms are? The Psalms says it's about, blessed is a man who fears the Lord. Happy. Happy. Maybe that's the question we ought to ask ourselves here this morning. 

What does it mean to be happy? Well, I'll tell you this. You know, some people, if you ask them what it means to be happy, you know, it's kind of like this. If you ever did a thing where somebody said, hey, if you had found the genie with the lamp and you had the three wishes, you know, to make yourself happy, what were the three things you would wish for? And I can give you a guess as to what the three things most people wish for right away. Here's the first thing. A lot of money. Billions of dollars, cause the assumption is the more money you have, the happier you will be. And so that's the first thing. A lot of money. You know what the second thing is? I want a really attractive person to love me and marry me. Okay? They gotta be really good looking. In other words, they gotta fall all over me. They gotta. It's basically about me. It's not about them. You want somebody who just, like, worships you, you know, it's like narcissism. You know, I gotta have that person who just feels so good about me and can't wait to know, wants to meet all my needs. It's all about me. And that's what I want. I want that kind of relationship. Want a lot of money. I want that person who worships me. Okay, and then what's the third thing? Power. I want power. I want to be able to control things, make sure things happen. You know what I'm saying? Make that kind of stuff happen. I asked a guy in the earlier service today, if you can't get a superpower, what would your superpower be? He said, shape shifting. That's a superpower. All right. Being a shape shifter. Why do you want to be a shape shifter? Exactly. 

Power. Isn't that what it's about? The ability to get done, to manipulate things to make sure that it happens the way that you wanted to see it happen? I think when people think being happy, that's what they want. They want money, they want people to worship them, and they want power. However, when I knew I was going to talk about being happy, I went to the Harvard website and asked a question. What do people really research? Of course. Research of what? People really who are happy. Really, what actually makes people happy. I got the list. Wanna hear it? Yeah, sure. Okay. 

Here you go. Here's the things that the research says that actually makes people happy. Right. Number one, Positive social relationships. That is far and away. The thing that more than anything else makes people happy is that they have good relationships with other people, particularly the people that are close to them. Family relationships, close friendships, things like that. That's the thing that makes most people happy, is good relationships.  

You know what the second thing is? Engaging work. Engaging work. That is doing something. Giving your time, giving your effort to something that you think is worthwhile, something you think that is important. Something that you think is contributing to the common good. Hey, by the way, you know that God who created the world and he organized all things. He laid out. He spoke his command and organized the nature of reality. He organized all of reality. He organized business and he organized engineering and he organized nursing and he organized education and he organized the arts and he organized play and he organized. He organized everything. You know what he wants to do? He wants to invite you. We call it in, he wants to invite you into a place where you meet your passions and the needs of the world are met together and you engage in that. That's what engaging work is. Engaging work is something that you feel like you're being called to. 

I read a book once about work, and, you know, one of the greatest lines in the book was this. They said, if you really want to know what engaging work is, this is what it is. It's the work that you come home from at night and you're so tired that you need to sleep. You know, from work, from doing what you're doing. And you fall asleep and you dream about what you might be able to do in that area the next day, how you might be able to serve and bring something forward, spectacular the next day. That's what makes somebody happy. Good social relationships, engaging work. Wait till you hear the third one. 

The third one is social altruism. That is giving things away. It turns, get this, it turns out that the thing that makes people happy isn't getting things, it's giving things. That's what really makes people happy. Not getting them, but giving them.  

There's a fourth one that talks about good health. Well, of course. Why wouldn't good health be on that list? Because you'd want to be able to be in good shape, to be able to have those great social relationships and to be involved in that engaging work and to be able to give things away. Be committed to altruistic acts with people that you love and people you don't even know. That's what makes people happy. 

Not money, not being adored by everyone, not having power in the sense that you can make things happen according to the way that you want them to do. But good social relationships. By the way, these hard people are not like Christians reading the Bible, trying to figure out what these things say. They're out doing research of people who are genuinely happy and simply reporting what it is. What a shocker that it should be in congruence with the nature of reality.  

You can see God going like this. I told him, so what do you expect? Wait a minute. It gets better. Listen to this one here. It says, you know, blessed, happy are the people who fear the Lord. That is, people who sense his awe in from the littlest things in the creation to the most complex things in the creation, okay. Who walk in accordance with his ways. That as they try to build social relationships, they try to be engaged in their work. They try to commit themselves to altruistic acts within the nature of society. They'll eat the fruit of their labor. They'll experience that the blessing of that and the prosperity in it. Their needs will be met. They don't have to worry about that. Their needs will be met because that's the way God wants things to be able to go, okay? 

And then you know what else it talks about? The happy man is like, your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. What? How come the first thing that goes to then is after that is big picture your wife. I'll tell you why. Because for a happy life, you better have a happy wife. That's right. It's a big deal. Key social relationship. To make sure that it works, you gotta make sure of that. And here's what God's willing to do. He's willing to give you that. The man who's willing to try to walk by his ways. He tries to figure out how he can build a proper social relationship, a primary one, with his wife. It starts on a very personal level. That's why I told you there's something in the Bible for everybody. Something for today. Your wife and you gotta figure out how.  

Men, listen to me now. Hear me. Hear my voice, all right? You gotta figure out how to be good to your wife. Seriously. I've learned from reading dozens of women's magazines in the dentist's office, okay? What women are really looking for? Men. Listen to it. Hear me. Hear me now. You know what they're looking for? They're looking for men who will listen to them and try to understand and appreciate their experience. They want you to listen to them seriously. You know, they want to be heard. They want to know that you care. They want to know some. It's about that. Well, it shouldn't be a big shocker, but that's what it's about. And I'll tell you what, after reading these things and knowing that God's gonna bless you with a wife that's like a beautiful vine, okay? I want to make sure that that's what I'm doing. I'm taking care of my wife. I'm listening to my wife.  

So I practiced listening to my wife. I'm gonna give you a couple of examples of this, man. You maybe can appreciate some of these things just sort of the way in which, if you listen, it really makes a difference. So here's one. For instance. The other day, my wife said, what rhymes with orange? And I said, no, it doesn't. See, I was listening to what she said. I didn't ignore her. I was listening to it. I told my wife that I'm having a party at my house. We're watching them all. You know, I said to my wife, honey, you know, I really like Beyonce. She looked at me, she said, well, whatever floats your boat. And I said, honey, that's buoyancy. Because I listen to my wife, okay? I take the things that she says very soothing. The other day my wife asked me, did you eat all my chocolates in the kitchen closet? I said, no, I ate them on the couch. I listen, listen. 

And by the way, if you listen well enough, you can resolve things. You're starting to lean away from each other. Anyway, if you start listening, you can resolve some serious problems sometimes in your relationship. My wife and I were arguing about it. She kept saying to me, what are we going to put in that empty drawer in our dresser? And finally I said, put a sock in it. No, I didn't. I did not. I did not say that would be the wrong thing to say, okay? Now, the other day, my wife did say this, though. She said. She goes, I just need a little piece of quiet while I make dinner, please. And I said, okay. So I took the battery out of the smoke alarm. Those are all yours now. You can do with them what you will. 

No, seriously, what a gift a solid relationship is. And you, man, you ought to take care of it. You know, in the NIV. This Bible that I have, NIV Study Bible, there's a footnote on this particular verse about your wife being like a vine plant. Listen to what the. This is literally what the footnote says. 

It says this. A faithful and fruitful wife. A vine is a symbol of fruitfulness and perhaps also sexual charms and festivity within the house. That's what I'm talking about. All right? I mean, come on. I mean, if you want to see that symbolism played out, I suggest you guys go home and read the Song of Solomon, chapter 7 tonight, all right? Seriously. I mean. I mean, okay, you can be happy if you. After that, it says, your wife is like a fruitful vine in the house and your children are like olive shoots around the table. Olive shoots don't grow from seeds. They grow from the plant that's already there. That's why a little stem comes up and a new plant starts to grow like that. And by the way, in ancient Israel, all olive trees and were very, very important for food, but also for something else. Also for the oil that they got from the olive plants that allowed them to use it for light. It was used for candles, and for matter of fact, it was the stuff that was used in the temple. So even in seeing this, you're singing about the light of, it's a light of revelation, a light that lets you see it. That's the kind of metaphor that. That's being done here.  

And I gotta tell you this, my kids have taught me a lot. But if you're willing to be humble and you're willing to watch and you're willing to look, you can learn a lot. They're like shoots that grow up, you know, I'll tell you this. Maybe this one here suggests that maybe more than one shoot grows up, you know, like 10 or 12. I don't know whether you can handle that or not with your kids, but it's a beautiful thing. Okay, it goes on and it says this. This, this is the one. This is what makes somebody happy, this person who fears the Lord. The Psalm ends with another interesting kind of two verses, and it says this: 

“May the Lord bless you from Zion; 
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem 
all the days of your life.” 

May you see your children's children and peace be on Israel. You know, the way this Psalm ends, it ends like this. It basically says, as the people are going up to this celebration of who God is and what he's done over for them over history, they're celebrating the God who's incredibly personal, who can make them happy through the easy things that you can do in everyday kind of stuff, of building good social relationships and. And being altruistic and being engaged in your work. And so God, his ways are, you know, complex and depth. 

You can become a wise person if you begin to fear him and try to be that. But you know what else happens when you go? The closer you get, you realize you're part of something bigger than just you and your family. On the way up to the ascent, up to the temple, you realize you're part of a church community. You're part of a body of believers, a party group. You know, we talked about inviting people to become a bigger part, a more central part, a more active and lively part of the church. That's what this is saying too. You know what the happy person does? The happy person is involved in the community of believers. Intimately involved so that they have deep social relationships with those people as well. 

And not only that, as you get close the community of believers, as you go up towards Zion, it says, but not only that, you begin to see what's going on in Jerusalem. It says, Jerusalem's the city. And so you know what happens? You know what the wise man, the happy man gets? You know what the guy who basically builds good social relationships and is engaged in his meaningful work and is willing to give of himself in an altruistic way. He sees the community as something worth investing in. And so God's willing to make that community be a light on a hill and be a spectacular place for people to be able to live.  

And then it says this, hey, and don't rule out the country as large, the whole nation. Maybe you missed a point here. God is not just interested in your personal relationship with him. He's interested in that. But it's always bigger than that. He's inviting you to a bigger world. Yeah, he wants to make you that tree by the living water, but he wants to have you be involved in every aspect of life that he has intricately put within the creation, no matter what it is. He invites you to be part of your family and social, personal relationships, but also part of a bigger community of like minded believers in the church. He invites you to be an active and light and salt to the community that you live in. And he hopes that the work of you people together will have a difference in the world, in the nation and within the world. And he says, and I can make this happen and you'll be happy if you're part of it. Because you know what? I'm God and you can count on me. 

Let's pray for a second: 

Lord, thanks. Thanks for your word. Thanks for the encouragement of it. Thanks for the realness of it. And Lord, we're honest. We want to be happy. Make it so. In Jesus name. Amen. 

 

This transcript was automatically generated. Please excuse errors.