Week 17: The Gospel One Psalm at a Time

Welcome to the Gospel One Psalm At a Time, our small group study for the Winter and Spring. Throughout the week prior to your group's meeting, take some time to:

1) Prayerfully read and study the week's Psalms;

2) Watch the short videos that will be posted here on our website - they are also available on PDT's Youtube channel; and

3) Answer the questions in preparation for a conversation in your small group.

It's a simply ryhthm...

First Psalm: Pray - Read - Watch - Answer - Pray.

Second Psalm: Pray - Read - Watch - Answer - Pray.

Third Psalm: Pray - Read - Watch - Answer - Pray.

My prayer this is a great season of spiritual growth for you and our church as we invest in this together!

All for Jesus!

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Psalm 131: A Calm Soul

1. What kinds of disasters, fights, controversies, or failures have you been exposed to that have led directly to anxiety, worry, fear, and dread? What has been your digital medium of choice that has regularly pulled you in and ignited a deep sense of debilitation or spiritual angst in you? Where do you feel you have started to “carry the world on your shoulders” in a way that has legitimately affected your countenance, mood, and/or perspective on life? Where have you tried to carry more than you are able to carry?

2. In what ways have you set mental, emotional, and spiritual limits for yourself? If you haven’t yet done so, write down what you think would be healthy limits for you in each of those areas, and invite someone close to you to keep you accountable for sticking with the limits you’ve written.

3. How can you be proactive about reminding yourself that your knowledge and control won’t bring this world into order? In what ways can you intentionally give yourself to quiet, calm, simple, “mind your own business” living? Is it time for you to take a social media sabbatical? If so, what would that specifically look like? Who will keep you accountable to sticking with your sabbatical and the parameters you’ve decided to put in place?

4. In what areas do you need to ask the Lord to help you so you can intentionally think, choose, speak, and act well? How are you inviting God into your relationships in a way that fosters calm and builds health?

Psalm 139: Who Knows You Best

1. Have you always felt like you know yourself better than anyone else? Why, once you factor your own sin into the equation, is your opinion of yourself something that’s generally unreliable? Because of sin, why is looking at yourself like looking into a carnival mirror of distortion?

2. Since the Bible says that God knows us better than we know ourselves, how does this comfort you? What are a few specific things from Psalm 139 that bring you peace? List them. How might Psalm 139 make you feel uncomfortable? List some of the specific language in the psalm that makes you feel that way.

3. Take some time right now to pray, “God, you search me, you know me, and you lead me. I trust your knowledge. See if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Now take some time to write down anything grievous that God exposes to you through that prayer. Repent of it before him, and trust him to lead you step-by-step each day.

Psalm 145: Living for Something Bigger Than You

1. As you think about your day-to-day life, routines, habits, thought patterns, etc., how have you made life all about you? If your friends and family took an honest inventory of your life, would they characterize you as a person who is supremely focused on your own wants, goals, plans, and emotions?

2. How has your self-focused way of living (to any degree that it might be) made you miserable? How has it affected your relationships with others? How has it produced a spirit of complaint in your life? How has it boiled down your life to a ‘me-istic’ way of living?

3. In what ways have you been personally blown away by the glory of God? How have you personally been amazed by God? Who have you talked to about the ways you’ve been amazed by him? Would your children describe you as someone who is blown away by God and his goodness? In what ways have you helped your children to see an increasingly overwhelmed and mystified wonder and awe of God?

Psalm 150: The Perfect Ending

1. Why do you think music is such a powerful and important way of praising God, and why do you think it’s significant that the final psalm of the book of Psalms points specifically to musical instruments? Why is it a fitting way to end the book of Psalms with this hymn of praise?

2. How is praising God something that can bring us closer to him? What’s the relational aspect of singing praises to him? As you reflect on this psalm and all the psalms that come before it, why is it so important that you personally praise the Lord?

3. How can our extravagant praise actually be a reflection of God’s extravagant grace? Why is God worthy of this: “Everything that has breath, praise the LORD!”?

4. Think of the specific things God has done in your life over the last several months that make him worthy of your praise. Write them down and take some time to go through them, point-by-point, and praise him for each one.