A Song About Victories and Defeats
Pastor Phill preaches this Sunday (November 20, 2022) on Psalm 60. The 60th sermon in the Psalm series, pastor Phill teaches us that Psalm 60 exists to instruct God’s people on how to deal with defeat. The instructions are to diagnose the problem (v. 1-5), discern the promise (v. 6-8), and depend on the powers, i.e. the amazing and sufficient power of God (9-12). Fulfilling verse 5, the Beloved Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved us from our sins! The Scripture readings from our worship service were from 1 Corinthians 15:50-57, 2 Samuel 8:9-14, and 1 Corinthians 15:58.
Discussion Questions:
- How does God discipline His people when they don’t follow His commands?
- How does Psalm 60 instruct God’s people to deal with defeat? What would this look like in daily life?
- Where else does God’s word direct and instruct God’s people to deal with defeat?
- How does God instruct God’s people when they experience rejection and/or feel as though they are rejected?
- What does God’s word instruct in our relationship with alcohol consumption?
- Where does our victory come from? What stands in our way of having God be the one that people/we go to take in the battle with us?
- How does pride impact our engagement with God and having Him be the one that goes into battle with us daily?
- What does it look like to have God be the center point and the one we go to for help regularly?
- Do you or others in your life think that God is angry with you or them and therefore doesn’t love you? What do you think contributes to that?
- How have you seen in the word and in yours or others lives where God is angry with His people and shows love at the same time? How does God engage with His people?
- How does knowing that God has fulfilled His promises in the past impact our interactions and prayer with God on future promises and present promises are true and will be/are fulfilled?
- What would be an indication in our life that we aren’t clinging to the promises of God?
- What are indications that we are discerning the promises of God accurately or inaccurately?
- How do we learn what are the promises of God? how does God reveal His character in the promises? How does God want us to engage with His promises?
- How do we depend upon the powers of God? how do we identify what the powers of God are?
- How can we identify the ways that pride is a problem in our lives? What ways can it be displayed?
- How are we to engage with God when we identify pride as an issue for us?
- How does accepting the free gift of God’s grace through Jesus help us or others with our pride and/or our struggles to think depressingly about ourselves?
- Do you meditate on the cross in a balanced way? How would you know? How can you find out if you are meditating on the cross in a balanced way?
- What does it look like to live a life of humility? What contributes to not living a life of humility?
- What does a person’s life look like when they believe and live their lives in light of the fact that God loves them?