Psalms: Wisdom, Praises, Prophecy

Lesson for May 13, 2018

Psalm 1, 100, 110

What are some of the artists and bands you listen to?  Think of three songs you've listened to recently.  What are they singing about?  Does their message stick with you?  Does it help you form opinions or inspire you to action?

The singers, rockers, rappers, bands, artists you listen to are the psalmists in your life.  A psalm is a sacred song.  Ultimately, anything you worship and adore, even if it is not God, is sacred to you.

The Lifeway Gospel Project author of today's lesson made the following comment:

Today, we are part of a generation that has largely forgotten how to pray and sing the psalms. Perhaps for the first time in all of church history, the psalms are no longer the bedrock for our individual devotion or corporate worship. This puts us out of step not only with the rest of church history, but the earliest Christians. The apostles quoted more from the psalms than any other book in the Old Testament. They were steeped in the rhythm, poetry, and theology of their people’s prayer book.

Have you ever been encouraged to pray and sing from the book of Psalms?
Do you know how you would do it if you wanted to try?

What can we learn from the book of Psalms? For example:
1. Wisdom to live a life right with God (Psalm 1)
2. Going to God with our troubles.
3. Praise and adoration for God as our creator, salvation, and provider of all good things (Psalm 100)
4. Confession for our sins against God (Psalm 51)
5. Prophecy of the coming Messiah, both when Jesus came the first time and when He returns (Psalm 110)
6. The value of the scriptures (Psalm 119)

Read Psalm 1

The very first Psalm encourages us to seek wisdom and guidance from God and his people.

How does God bless the righteous?
In verse 1, we are warned about leaning on the wisdom of the ungodly.  What is the progression of listening to evil that we must avoid?

What is the eventual outcome of the wicked?

What are ways that we follow the counsel of the world?

Read Psalm 100

The Psalms are songs.  That seems obvious.  Psalm 100 is an illustration of the joy of praising God, especially with other people.  We can speak and sing the psalms to God as prayer and as acts of worship.

Do you come into God's presence with singing? When we have worship time, are you wholeheartedly singing praises or distracted by other things?  What is preventing you from enthusiastically worshiping God with others?

Read Psalm 110

Psalms is also a book of prophecy.  A prophet is someone who shares a message from God.  Be wary, there are many false prophets both in history and claiming to be prophets today.  The acid test is that the prophet who truly speaks for God is not wrong, because God doesn't lie and he already knows the future.

Psalm 110 prophesies about a priest-king that would come to save us.  Jesus came as priest on earth when he offered the sacrifices for our sins.  Soon, He will return as king to rule.

Summary with a story:

Colossians 3:16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

It is a New Testament command repeated twice that we are to speak, teach, admonish, encourage one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.


We can get our counsel from the world, its music, its programming, or we can share Christian music and Christian wisdom with each other.

Action Plan
Read 1 Psalm each day, find Christian music that helps you know God's word better.