Wait for the LORD: Psalm Helps in Times of Trouble A Southern Illinois LWML Facebook Live Study – 6:30 PM April 29, 2021 128-130 (Songs of the Ascents)

How would using these Psalms while walking the last few miles on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem help to fulfill God’s plan for his people in Deuteronomy 6:7 & 11:19?

How can we continue to use the Psalms in that way today?

Psalm 128

Blessed is everyone who/ fears the Lord, * who walks / in his ways! 2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor / of your hands; * you shall be blessed, and it shall be / well with you.

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine with / in your house; * your children will be like olive shoots around your / table. 4 Behold, thus shall / the man be blessed * who / fears the Lord.

5 The Lord bless you from / ! * May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days / of your life! 6 May you see your children's / children! * Peace be upon / Israel!

This Psalm of the Ascents is also a Wisdom Psalm. Verse 1 reminds us (See Proverbs 9:10) The beginning of wisdom is ______What does that mean for us?

128:3-4) Being like a vine may not be the comparison we’d prefer, but who else is like a vine? (John 15:5)

How might you describe the blessing a husband bring to a marriage?

128:5-6) As pilgrim’s approached Zion they were reminded that blessing and Peace come from there. How is that still true for us?

Psalm 129 (They Have Greatly Afflicted Me) 1 Greatly they have afflicted me from my youth— let Israel say— 2 greatly they have afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not been able to defeat me. 3 On my back plowmen have plowed.They made their furrows long.

The first few lines of Psalm 129 seem like a strange way to start a Psalm of Praise, but there is one line here that changes this from a lament. Which line is it? (Underline it)

How and Why is that true for us all?

Psalm 129 continues (They Will Be Suppressed by God) 4 The Lord is righteous. He has cut the ropes of the wicked to pieces. 5 Let all who hate Zion be ashamed and turned back. 6 Let them be like grass on the roof, which withers even before it is pulled up. 7 The reaper cannot fill his hand with it. The one who binds sheaves cannot fill his arms. 8 May those who pass by never say, “The blessing of the Lord be with you. We bless you in the name of the Lord.”

Grass on a roof is not normal in our day, though some “Green Buildings” once again have plants on their roofs. What danger affects such plants?

Who, according to these verses faces a similar problem?

When might ancient Israel have needed to hear this promise?

When might we?

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Psalm 130 1 Out of the depths I have called to you, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the sound of my cry for mercy. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of guilt, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is pardon, so you are feared. 5 I wait for the Lord. My soul waits, and in his word I have put my hope.

When have you felt like you were buried in troubles? Has the COVID pandemic brought some of those feeling?

God directs us to “Cry for mercy” to Him, but why can we be sure that He will be merciful?

How does faith help you to wait? (See Habakkuk 1:1-2 & 2:1)

Psalm 130 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 Israel, wait confidently for the Lord, because with the Lord there is mercy. With him there is abundant redemption. 8 So he himself will redeem Israel from all its guilt.

Habakkuk helps us understand the position of a watchman on the wall. What gives us confidence as we wait?

What other historical events might the people who first shared this Psalm have had events in mind to urge them on to confidence?

In the end we see our guilt clearly, but we also know God’s answer in Jesus.