(The five part study (video, audio and notes) with Psalm 89 is available here)

This Psalm 89 study entitled “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” was divided into five sections with the various subtitles.

Part I: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints” Psa_89:1-13

Part II: “I go to prepare a place for you”Joh_14:2 Psa_89:14-23

Part III: “In my name shall his horn be exalted” Psa_89:24-29

Part IV: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” Psa_89:30-45

Part V: “for the time is at hand” Psa_89:46-52

Godly fear and reverence of our great Creator is the starting point and focus of this first part of Psalm 89 verses 1 to 13 and it helps set the stage as to what God is working in the hearts and minds of His children who are blessed in this age to read, hear and keep the sayings of the prophecy (Rev 1:3), which is another way of saying “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound”

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

The “joyful sound” is nothing short of hearing the voice of the true shepherd and being able to perceive and understand the will of God (Joh 10:27 , Eph 5:17). God’s people are granted to believe the blessing and honor and incredible privilege that He has given His little flock to be those kind of first fruit children whose names are written in heaven (Luk 10:20) and who He is going to prepare a place as we’re told in Joh_14:2 “I go to prepare a place for you”

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

The second part of this study is very much about that commitment that God has to His people to build that place within our heavens through Jesus Christ who is our hope of glory today as He gives us the power to go from glory to glory and mature through Jesus Christ the Vine (Col 1:27 , 2Co 3:18 , Joh 15:5)

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

In the third part of the study we look at how God’s faithfulness toward us, which is revealed in the immutable promises that He has made, gives us hope by which we are saved (Heb 6:18 , Rom 8:24) as we are dragged to Christ and are given the eyes to see the exceedingly great and precious promises that are given to us so that we can overcome the world within and without (Joh 6:44 , 2Pet 1:4). We are learning how we can labour to enter into this hope-filled rest of our high calling that God has given the elect to press toward together in this life (Php 3:14). Many verses that are discussed bring out and expand on the idea of why it is that “In my name shall his horn be exalted”.

Heb 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The subtitle of the fourth part of the study is “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed”, as this section of the Psalm has a strong emphasis on overcoming and enduring through the fiery trials that take us from being disciples to being disciples indeed (Joh 8:31-32). It is only God who can bring about this maturity and is why we are told that boasting is excluded by the law of faith (Heb 6:1-3 , Rom 3:27). These admonition are there to encourage us to be prepared and armed with the mind of Christ so that we can maturely deal with the fiery trials (1Pet 4:12), or the grace that chastens us, which God  promises every son and daughter that He is receiving in this age (Heb 12:6).

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3 And this will we do, if God permit.

Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

The last part of the psalm has a great sense of urgency to it as we look at the parallel with the words of Christ in (Rev 1:3) which read “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” God’s people know that this ‘time is at hand’ statement of Christ is speaking of every generation that has been granted to read, hear and keep the sayings of this prophecy, and this is why as stated at the beginning of this post, the title of the study is “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” which words reiterate the same blessing pronounced in Revelation 1:3

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

(The five part study with Psalm 89 including audio, video and study notes is available here)