A. The Value of the WordB. The Vitality of the WordC. The Victory of the Word

A. The Portrait of the Sovereign (Psa. 97:1-6)B. The Prostration before the Sovereign (Psa. 97:7-9)C. The Praise for the Sovereign (Psa. 97:10-12)

1. Questions about prayer (20:1-2)2. Questions about prophecy (20:1-4)3. Questions about lifespan (20:6a)4. Questions about why God blesses us (20:6b)5. Questions about truthfulness (20:8)

1. Assyria's ignorant pride (19:11-133)2. Assyria's sinful pride (19:1ff)3. Assyria's blasphemous pride (19:22,25,27-28,35-37)

1. Samaria is seditionist Israel & judges & cursed Israel2. Samaria resettled with foreign transplants3. God cursed these people for their impiety/religious corruption4. Sennacherib improvised as high priest to reset Samaria's religion5. Yet paganism had no power to make Samaria palatable to God

1. The songs of both David & Asaph2. The decline of temple worship post David & Solomon3. Psalm-singing has always had its detractors4. Hezekiah's reform led to psycho-spiritual gladness5. Applications

1. God's unique strength/wrath is terrifying to the unbeliever2. Middle east politics at the end of the 8th century 3. The transition from Ahaz to Hezekiah4. Sargon to Sennacherib in Assyria5. Applications to our lives today

A. Flurry of Israelite kings fall (2 Kgs. 16 & 17)B. Assyrian power rises (2 Kgs. 17:5ff)C. God explains the cause of His judgments by listing Israel's faults 1. Theological (7) 2. Ethical (8) 3. Individual/private (9) 4. Multi-cultural/global (11) 5. Refusal to heed prophets (13), subjectively (14), objectively (15) 6. Worshipful (16, 17) 7. Summary (18)D. Kingdom/political consequences (20, 21, 23)