Find a favorite Psalm and live in it.

Steve Brown:
Find a favorite Psalm and live in it. Let’s talk about that, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Pete Alwinson is a former pastor, founder of ForgeTruth.com and the author of Like Father Like Son. And he’s been teaching us all this week.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man.

Steve Brown:
Man, this week’s gone by so fast.

Pete Alwinson:
I can’t believe it. You know, worship is such a powerful topic.

Steve Brown:
We literally could spend a couple of months talking about this very, I’ll tell you what, when we first started, we’re talking about, we’re going to talk about worship and we’re going to particularly talk about the Psalms. And you’ve read some of the Psalms to us as we’ve gone through. What is your favorite Psalm?

Pete Alwinson:
You know, that is a really difficult question. But there’s so many that are,

Steve Brown:
There really are.

Pete Alwinson:
I would say one of the ones that I go to is Psalm 34, is a powerful one. Psalm 37 is one of my favorite. Delight, that’s the one I read a little bit of last time.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and fret not yourself because of evildoers. Trust in the Lord and do good.

This I go back to a lot, when I get frustrated in life.

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, he’ll give you the desires of your heart.

So, it talks to me, it speaks to me and it calms me down. And so, it’s a set of promises as well.

Steve Brown:
You know, we were talking off the air about the imprecatory Psalm.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
You know, I have, I struggle with anger. I’m better. I was known as an angry person. And I’m not anymore. So, Jesus is sanding me down. Not totally. I still struggle sometimes. You said you watch the news and you’re going to get angry. Well, I understand that we’re alike. Sometimes you can go to the Psalms and find that anger expressed, and it’s surprising. You don’t think that you’ll find it there.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. And that’s, it throws people when they see an imprecatory Psalm where David is asking for judgment upon the enemy.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
And that’s what the, and he’s calling for an imprecation. He’s asking God, judge them, discipline them. And some of the language that is used is scary to a spiritual, soft hearted person. You know, to a warrior, you’ve got to go, okay, I get it. But what’s your, what’s one of your favorites?

Steve Brown:
Well, I have, the 130th Psalm is, is one of my.

Out of the depths, I cry to the Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ear be attentive to the voice of my supplication.

If, please note, I’m not reading this. I’m doing it by memory and that’s rare for an old guy.

Pete Alwinson:
You’re a navigator. I mean, come on.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. I’m quite impressed with myself.

Pete Alwinson:
Me too.

Steve Brown:
If you should count iniquities, who could stand. You know why I like that Psalm so much? Because it’s Wesley’s Psalm, and I’m a Calvinist. John Wesley read that Psalm the night before he was converted at Aldersgate Street. And I bet he wept, because he had messed everything up. And he said, I don’t have any hope.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
I am not, I’m weak, I’ve really. And if you don’t have mercy on me, I’m lost.

Pete Alwinson:
And the call is.

O Israel, hope in the Lord. For the Lord, there is steadfast love.

It’s probably the Hebrew word hesed, covenant faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
And in that Psalm, there is.

I wait for the Lord more than watchman for the morning.

I wait, and the Psalm that follows that, I was speaking at a retired community, just two or three weeks ago. It was a wonderful time. You know, I used to say I’m going to talk to the old folks, but I’m an old folks now. And so, I told them, look, if you want to hear the truth and you and I know it, I love talking to guys like you, cause we’re old. I used to tell students, you haven’t lived long enough or sinned big enough to even have an opinion. But we have, so we can do that. And I kidded about that a lot. And then I found the 131st Psalm. One of the shortest Psalms. And I call it the old person’s Psalm.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great or too marvelous for me, that I’ve calmed and quieted my soul like a child quieted at its mother’s breast, like a child that is quieted in my soul, and then hope in the Lord forevermore.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. I love how you started this talk. And basically you said, find a Psalm and live in it. And I think that what we do is remembering that we have to remember that Hebrew literature is literature that was intended to be read and reread and reread and meditated on. And we westerners think that if we read something, we read it, okay, good, fine, got it.

Steve Brown:
Don’t ever read that again.

Pete Alwinson:
And that’s not the Bible. The Bible is intended to be read, reread, underlined, memorized, lived in, like you said, and that’s so powerful, live in it so that you actually understand it cognitively and that it begins to stir your heart. I realized that given my upbringing and sort of my training and my conservative Biblical theological background. That once I became a Christian, it was like, Oh yeah, I’m so glad I’m saved. And I give you my head. I want to learn everything. And I love knowledge for knowledge sake. I want to, you know, the whole Westminster Confession, everything I want to know, I want to learn it. And then I give you my will too, I want to live for you. I want live for you. And I’m going to make proper Biblical decisions. What took longer because of the home I was raised in and because of my temperament was, and I own this, so it’s my fault, but it took a long time for my emotions to engage and love God. I loved Him for my salvation, but to love Him and to be more effusive emotionally toward Him.

Steve Brown:
You think that’s a male thing?

Pete Alwinson:
It’s partly male too, and I think that’s why there’s a lot of guys in church on Sunday. I love to watch guys on Sunday morning. And no, Bill’s not singing over there. Steve, Steve. Yes, Steve’s singing. You know, but, but there’s a lot of guys that just don’t, they don’t engage that way. And I do believe with men that we definitely have to allow the truth to get to our heads and allow it into our hearts. I think in that way, women are probably more open to corporate worship and private worship then men are.

Steve Brown:
When it gets into our heart, it becomes worship, doesn’t it?

Pete Alwinson:
It really does. Yeah. Then it becomes not just stuff I know, but transformational realities. When you say, for instance, in your prayer, Lord, I praise you that you are a God that never changes. And as I think back on this, when I was 16, you got ahold of me and you promised me and I felt it back then that you would never leave me nor forsake me and you haven’t. And here I am, 60 or whatever and you have been faithful all those years. If that doesn’t cause a man to shed a tear at some time, or at least have a heart of emotion for God.

Steve Brown:
It got to me, you just saying that, that’s so beautiful.

Pete Alwinson:
And that’s a real thing for me. And so, you know, that he was faithful to me and has always, and I take him for granted sometimes, but this is what has to happen. We have to get it to where worship is the whole person. Not just what we know and not just the decisions we make, but the emotions that drive all of that as well.

Steve Brown:
You know how much I love the Gaithers and they’re friends but they have one song I used to just wince every time they sing it. The longer, the more I live with him, the sweeter he grows or something like that. And I used to think that’s a girly thing, I don’t like that, but it’s not, is it? I don’t know if I’d put it that way, but you just did that. And it was obvious, and I found it quite moving. And I also found that that was worship, what you just did.

Pete Alwinson:
And I think that this is what we all need. And I think it’s such a joy. You know, him Bruce Glasshead was a man that was in our church for years and years. He’s with Jesus now, but he would come up to me often after sermons. And I, when he first started doing it, I thought, Oh no, he’s going to give me a, cause he was a PhD in math. And he’s going to, he’s going to tell me all kinds of things I should have said. But he would just tell me the things that stuck out to him that, and he would be so passionate about it. And it took me a long time to sense, this man was internalizing truth.

Steve Brown:
He really was. And he did that all the time.

Pete Alwinson:
All the time. And it helped me. He was that mystic in my own church that sort of helped me to say, yeah, I got it intellectually, but I need to get it more realistically in all my being like Bruce does.

Steve Brown:
You and I both know, because we visited him, he was that way when he died. He died that way. It blew me away. He was worshiping.

Pete Alwinson:
He was.

Steve Brown:
And worship is not something that you just do because you’re having a hard time at work. Worship is something you do from the beginning to the end.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And I hope that on my deathbed, that I will die worshiping the God that I’ve served all of my life.

Pete Alwinson:
And I know that will be true of you, Steve.

Steve Brown:
Pete, thanks for teaching us this week.

Pete Alwinson:
Thank you.

Steve Brown:
Guys, I hope this has been helpful. We scratched the surface. There’s a lot more, but Google it and find out for yourself. No, don’t do that, but get a Bible and you think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Steve and Pete. With that, we wrap up this special four part series called It’s All About Worship. If you’d like to share this teaching with a friend, I don’t know, maybe your worship pastor, just swing by keylife.org and if you need, I don’t know, just one more fix of Steve and Pete, then join us tomorrow for Friday Q&A, when they’ll take a shot at answering this question. What about hypnotism? You will tune in tomorrow. You will tune in tomorrow. Well, it’s been a little while since it came out. So, you may not know about Steve’s book called Talk the Walk. So, we created a special booklet that features excerpts from that book, and we would be happy to send it to you for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to order that booklet. Or to mail your request go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the Talk the Walk booklet. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support. Giving is easy, just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950 and follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.