Arch of Prayer

Let’s open our bibles together and find with me Psalms chapter 1. As you find Psalms chapter 1. Would you stand as we read the word of the God. This morning I would like to focus on Psalm chapter 1 verses 1-2, and If you do not mind. I would like to skip over to chapter 2 and finish our reading together in verse 12. I wont read all of Psalm 1 and 2, but I do want to give two anchor points to where the Lord has been leading me this week.

So, Psalm 1: 1-2, and Then flip the page and find with me Psalm chapter 2, verse 12. Say amen when you’re ready. Psalm 1 1 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, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Now flip over one chapter and find chapter 2 and head all the way to the end of chapter 2 and find with me verse 12. 12 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. And all of God’s people said together, Amen. You may be seated.

Today we begin a new series called, Summer in the Psalms. I still believe that the Lord is leading us into being commitment to prayer. And to be honest with you, I still believe prayer is where we need to be as a follower of Christ, but also as a church. Over the course of the summer, what we will be diving into is the practicality of having a tangible prayer life.

Meaning, to have a prayer life that is real, and it's growing and thriving and taking us even out of our comfort Zones to be men and woman of prayer. So, Let’s ask probably one of most important anchoring questions into this series… What is the book of Psalms? The book of Psalms as we just witness is found in the Old Testament. And it’s full of these lyrical poems written by multiple authors.

Most of us know that King David wrote many of the Psalms.. My favorite Psalm, Psalm 42 which is as the Deer pants for the stream… it was written by David. King David, If I remember has wrote a little over 70 of the current known Psalms. Asaph wrote twelve, Korah wrote around 10 and even David’s son, King Solomon, is known to of written one or two of these Psalms.

So, Psalms are these lyrical ancient hymns of God’s people. there are a total of 150 Psalms in the book of Psalms and these 150 Psalms are organized into five different books or 5 different sections within this one book. I would like to give you, kind of a mental picture of how I personally see the book of Psalms in my life. I see mentally the book of Psalms as this amazing rose garden of prayer.

Because there is so much we can find and learn in the book of Psalms that can help us with daily life. I believe every situation any person will deal with in life, there’s a Psalm for it. The best way to explain how I see this rose garden is from a book I ‘ve read a little from this week on roses. This book is called, “A Book about Roses”..

can you guess what this book was about.. (Ha ha)!! It was written by an Anglican priests who’s name was, Samuel Reynolds’s Hole. Samuel was well known throughout the UK in the mid 1800’s for having the most amazing rose garden. People from all over the UK would ride to see his garden and ask him, how they could imitate his rose garden. So, in 1869 he wrote a book to share with others on how to care for rose gardens.

Listen to this excerpt about faith and roses… he writes: “Over time these roses of faith with great care become beds of beauty. Beds of roses, with fountains of roses, banks of roses, bowers of roses, hedges of roses, edgings of roses, pillars of roses, vistas and alleys of the roses. There are White Roses, Striped Roses, Blush Roses, Pink Roses, Rose Roses, Carmine Roses, Crimson Roses, Scarlet Roses, Vermilion Roses, Maroon Roses, Purple Roses, Roses almost black, and Roses of a glowing gold.

What a diversity, and yet what a harmony, of outline!” This is how I imagine what the garden of prayer is like in the book of Psalms. It’s a place with all these amazing roses laid out in difference colors and presented in different ways. It’s like each rose and each color of a rose represents each life’s trial we face. And every time we are triumphal at coming into the garden of prayer with a lament, or an issue.

God just pulls out the thistle of doubt, and fear, and sin, and replaces it with a rose of joy, and the rose gentleness, and compassion. And before long, after a life long pursuit of being in the garden of prayer, we find beds of roses, and fountains of roses. And I love even the thought that once a rose is planted in my life, I’m share the seed of faith, love and joy, down through the ages and into the next generation.

And can you imagine the aroma of walking through a rose garden like that? Just filled from one edge to the other with beautiful roses giving off their beautiful aromatics that just draws in life. So, the book of Psalms is this book of expressed worship and when we open up this book of Psalms, what we find is that is a garden of encouragement, and praise, and worship that illuminate with it’s beauty, the greatness of our God, They affirm His faithfulness to us in times of trouble, and they remind us of the absolute centrality of His Word.

And.. they point us to this amazing relationship with Jesus. But, Unless we intentionally walk into the garden, we will never experience the full capacity, beauty and aroma of prayer. NO, we must come and enter into and experience the garden for ourselves. So, where do we begin? Well think of this. We must enter into the garden of prayer through the archway. This is a picture of the entrance into Disney land.

No one can experience first hand Disney without first coming into the park. Yeah, we can admire it’s beauty from afar. We can admire the beauty in books and magazines and websites, We can admire and watch the excitement of those coming in and out of the park but there is nothing like actually experiencing the flying dumbo’s, or the haunted mansion, or the paddle boat ride, or even seeing the joy in our kids faces without experiencing the park itself.

We experience the park with the hearing the laughter and joy, and seeing the people watch their kids run and giggle with delight, and tasting of the amazing dole whip treats and churros. We smell the amazing aroma’s from street car vendors and places to eat. We feel the excitement first hand deep within our hearts as we see the characters we cherish and love. But no one can experience those things first hand unless unless they drive through the archway to go into the park.

It’s the same with the book of Psalms. To experience the Psalms and to enter this amazing garden of prayer, we first must begin by coming through the archway. For Disney, when driving through the archway it sets the tone for everything we would experience. You’re expecting to experience Magic and imagination as you drive through the archway. If the Psalms are the garden of Prayer, then Psalm 1 and 2 are the archway into the garden.

How can we have a more intimate and meaningful experience in the garden of prayer? Well, it begins with the first half of the archway. The first half of the archway comes from Psalm 1: We enter the garden of prayer with the word of God on our hearts and minds. Psalm 1 reminds us of 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, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” The writer reminds us that the word of God is essential to coming into the garden of prayer.

Psalm 1 reminds us that we must delight in the word. We delight in the law and we meditate on his law. So, how can we delight in the word of God? Well it begins by asking God to give us new tastebuds on the tongue of our heart as we meditate with our mind his glorious word. When our kids were little. We would feed them all kinds of baby food.

Peaches, and green beans and spaghetti. And it was always kind of funny when we would try to feed our kids a food They didn’t like, we would watch them spit it out. We would scoop it back off of their lower lip with the baby spoon and then shove it back in. They didn’t like the mashed up green bean baby food. But we knew it was good for them.

I also think of the period of time when Gabriel was in his chicken nugget phase. Every where we would go, it was always chicken nuggets. We would go to the zoo, chicken nuggets. We would go to the fair, chicken nuggets, we would send him to Nana’s.. chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. And you can imagine I had to have a talk with my mom about that one. Then, one day.

Gabriel decided he was going to try a hamburger. And he ate that hamburger and his face lit up and he was like, wow this is sooo good. Of course, mom and I was like. We’ve tried to feed you hamburgers before. And he would go, yeah but now I love them. Something clicked and now his taste buds rejoiced over hamburgers. Why do we struggle reading the word of God…

I think it’s because our hearts crave every thing else the world has to offer and it’s got to learn to crave the goodness of God’s word. A recent survey from 2021 found that only 11 percent of Americans read the Bible daily. 11%! But yet, 56% have a desire to read the Bible. The sad news is this: the study shows a consistent decline in that 11% and a decline in the desire to read it.

So, what we learn is that over time, our taste buds change. But are they changing to desire or to reject the word of God? The Psalmist wrote in 119 verse 103, “How sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:103) He also wrote, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18) He prayer was that he would desire Spiritual eyes to see the glory of God, or for God to give him spiritual tastebuds on the tongue of his heart, because to taste and see that the Lord is good, is a gift from God.

We do not naturally hunger for, and delight in, God and his wisdom. We do not naturally seek the goodness of God and delight in him. For many, when they come to the word of God they spit out the wisdom because it goes against their personal wisdom. It goes against theirs desire. But when we are able to open up our bibles, what we need is to learn to lay down our need to be strong, smart and independent.

We must learn to have focused affection and prayerful dependence, and God gives the understanding. and the comfort, and the healing for all wounds. Even lingering bitter wounds. He gives us the breakthrough in fighting sin, he gives us the insight for difficult relationships and situations, and one of the greatest realities and most of all, we obtain an awe inspired and wonder of beholding His beauty over and over and over.

Think of this, God is not only sitting next to us when we read His word, but he’s within us, for those of us born again by His spirit. And so, to walk into this garden of prayer, we need to have a heart and mind that finds delight in God’s word. The second half of this archway comes from Psalm chapter 2 and it’s this: We enter into the garden of prayer with Christ on our minds.

If we delight in God’s word, we must also delight in God’s Son. Matthew Henry’s commentary interprets Psalm 2, verses 1–6 as viewed as threats against Christ's kingdom. It’s a continuation from Psalm 1. If you notice, Psalm one begins with a positive, delighting and meditating on God‘s word, and it follows this path of concerns for those who reject his word. Those who are wicked will be scattered like chaff in the wind, those who are wicked walk the path of destruction, those who are wicked will be judged.

Then you get to chapter two and it continues on this path of threats against God’s kingdom. But then it begins to get better because. Verses 7–9 Shows us a promise of Christ to be the head of this kingdom, and verses 10–12 as counsel to all to serve Christ as the head of the church and head of this kingdom. What we realize in Psalm 2 is that God’s kingdom is going to be established with Christ as King.

It’s a promise, but also a celebration for those delighting in His word, walking in His way and blessed are those who take refuge in the Son! We come into this garden of prayer delighting, and honoring and loving and seeking to have Christ above all else in our life. We find delight as we take refuge in Christ, the head of the church. So, do we delight in Christ? I ask because our life is a life that must pursue to delight in the son in all things in life.

Our sanctification and holiness is not to just receive blessing after blessing after blessing, but it’s all to lead us to the one giving out and dishing out the blessing. Holiness is simply delighting in the son to be transferred into the sons likeness. It’s simply Jesus in me, manifesting through me. It’s to lead us in praise and honor and glory for the giver and not just the gift. Do we read God’s word to find delight in the Son?

Do we pray to find God’s direction, and revelation to find the kings will in all things? I want to remind you of what I said before… I believe it is possible to read the Bible with very selfish intentions. And for the most part that is because we don’t read the Bible through prayer. remember, prayer is what interrupts our personal ambition. It redirects us back to God and off of ourselves.

One of the greatest love scriptures in the Bible is John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That’s love being given..It’s selfish of us… to only read that verse and go.. I get something… i get eternal life. Because I believe in Jesus, the son of God, i get enteral life. I have receive Jesus, so now I get eternal life.

It’s selfish of us to read that without knowing, that is not what eternal life means. Eternal life isn’t me getting life for me, eternally. Eternal life isn’t me going to heaven and playing golf for eternity. Eternal life isn’t me gaining health, wealth and comfort in this life to prepare me for an eternity in heaven. No, we can only define eternal life through Christ, through His word. What’s this gift, that we receives that cost the Son’s life?

The definition of Eternal life comes from John 17:3… “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” That they know you… Do you see it!!!! To know God is to love God. To know God is to be known by Him. To love God is to be focused on the Son, so that his glory is reflected out into the world and back to Him.

One of the greatest realities is when we pray… Our chief end is to glorify God, to know Him and to exalt the Son. That’s eternal life: to know Jesus, to know him forever, to know him with increasing knowledge, and increasing admiration, and increasing wonder, and increasing joy and increasing delight. That’s eternal life. Now reread John 3:16 with the understanding that Jesus is to always be on our mind…

For God so loved the world (you and me that is in the world), that he gave his only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in him (Jesus) should not perish (that means death away from God in hell, a part from his presence) but have eternal life (meaning a life that knows God and knows the one that God has sent.) Our life is to be reflections of his hope to a community that has no hope as we live out eternal life at this moment by admiring the son who gives eternal life and is our eternal life.

Prayer without Chrsit in mind is only prayer that aims to achieve to satisfy my longing for comfort. But!, and I say that with a big but…. If my desire is to come into the garden of prayer with Christ in mind, then my desire must not be distant from His presence, and my desire is to know more of king who rules his kingdom with love and justice , and my longing is to know Christ more intimately, not in eternity afar, not in eternity after death, but for eternity and eternity is being lived out right now for you and me at this very moment.

To walk into this garden of prayer, this rose garden of prayer, to learn from the entirety of the Book of Psalms. We must come through the archway of having delight in God’s word and delight in knowing Gods son as our king, so that we can enjoy the amazing beauty for what the garden truly is, and delight in the amazing aroma of diverse unity that we witness together as we pray together.

Do you want to know what aroma is pleasing to God? !!!! The aroma that is pleasing to God is a church, delighting in God’s word and desiring Christ above all to pray together in unity inside of the garden of prayer. Now… my final thought is this. Do we ever leave the garden of prayer.. Well, no. Our life is to be a constant life of prayer. Paul reminds us to; “Pray without ceasing,” He said, “in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Quench not the Spirit.” (1 Thes. 5:17–19.) We give thanks. We pray without ceasing. What we learn is that prayer is realizing that we are carrying the presence of God with us wherever we go. And so, our prayer life changes. We no longer pray with anxiety but we pray with calmness: Colossians 3:15-17 We no longer pray with fear of rejection but now we pray with boldness and courage. And we no longer have indifference to others and the world but we pray with compassion and to have compassion for both.

And what we find when we exit our time of prayer is that we do not get up with burdens, or pain, or anxiety, but we get up and walk a life with praise. Let’s do that today! Let’s stand together as I give our benediction. As you stand, turn with me to Psalm 150. You see, if the Psalms is a garden of prayer, and Psalm 1 and 2 are the archway.

Then the final Psalm in this book show us an example of a life that lives in the garden. Let me read it with you… Read Psalm 150 As you leave here today, praise him. Show the world why you praise him in the storm. Show the world why you praise him when life seems tough. Show the world why your love for His word and His son, our King is important…

Show the world your daily walk in the garden of prayer by praising Him, by praise the one true king, by praising Jesus with your life. Praise him… and let the aroma of prayerful unity saturate every life you come into contact with this week. Let’s pray. *