Day 269: Psalms 51-53 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny
2. 0:02Orango. Welcome to the Bible department
3. 0:04podcast powered by Arma. We are walking
4. 0:08through the entire Bible in a year. You
5. 0:10can go to the description or the bible
6. 0:13department.com to download a reading
7. 0:15plan and join the journey.
8. 0:18[Music]
9. 0:24Family, welcome to day 269 on the Bible
10. 0:28department podcast. We're going to be
11. 0:29looking at three Psalms today. We're
12. 0:32back with some Psalms of David. All
13. 0:35three of the Psalms that we've got today
14. 0:37are Psalms of David. We're going to be
15. 0:40looking at Psalm 51, 52, and 53.
16. 0:44If you have not done the reading, I
17. 0:46promise you these are amazing Psalms.
18. 0:50All three Psalms are are honestly really
19. 0:53fun to read. So, go ahead and do the
20. 0:55reading and then come on back. If you
21. 0:57need to stop this video or pause the
22. 1:00audio, do so and read the three psalms
23. 1:03that are assigned to today's reading
24. 1:06plan. All right, for those of you who
25. 1:08have done the reading, we're going to
26. 1:10dive into context clues and then nerdy
27. 1:12nuggets and then we're always going to
28. 1:13get into our timeless truth. Now, we
29. 1:15haven't gotten some of David's psalms in
30. 1:19a long time, and we're going to get two
31. 1:21Psalms today that literally tell us the
32. 1:23context of the psalm right in the title
33. 1:26or the heading. So, that's awesome. So,
34. 1:29let's tackle Psalm 51. Okay, it says,
35. 1:32"For the director of music, a psalm of
36. 1:34David, when the prophet Nathan came to
37. 1:37him after David had committed adultery
38. 1:41with Ba Sheeba." So the title or the
39. 1:46heading of this psalm tells us the exact
40. 1:48context, tells us exactly what took
41. 1:51place. Now if you need a background for
42. 1:54this, you can find this entire story in
43. 1:562 Samuel 11 starting in verse 1 all the
44. 2:01way to 12 20. For those of you who may
45. 2:04not know, okay, the story starts that in
46. 2:07the springtime when kings go off to war.
47. 2:09So David is supposed to be with all the
48. 2:12other kings going off to war, but it
49. 2:15says this that David remained in
50. 2:17Jerusalem. So we already know this is
51. 2:20this is already bad. We don't need to
52. 2:23know what happens next. But the setup is
53. 2:26definitely for something bad to take
54. 2:28place. And if all the men are off to war
55. 2:31with the king, then it would mean that
56. 2:33it'd be natural for women to be bathing
57. 2:36on their roof cuz they know that there
58. 2:38aren't many men in Jerusalem. And the
59. 2:40only person with a house whose the house
60. 2:43is high enough or elevated enough to see
61. 2:46Beth Sheba would be David. And David
62. 2:50inquires about this woman who he sees
63. 2:51bathing. He asks his servants, "Who's
64. 2:53that?" And they let him know that's
65. 2:56Uriah's wife. Not even like they say,
66. 2:58"Hey, that's Beth Sheba." Nope, that's
67. 3:00Uriah's wife. And David calls for her.
68. 3:04Anyway, a lot of people would argue that
69. 3:06David rapes Beth Sheba. A lot of people
70. 3:09would say that David commits adultery
71. 3:11with Beth Sheba. Either way, it is a
72. 3:14sin. She gets pregnant and David calls
73. 3:17Uriah from the front lines, tries to get
74. 3:19Uriah to have sex with his wife to try
75. 3:22to convince Uriah that this baby is his
76. 3:26and not David's. And when that does not
77. 3:30go according to plan, Uriah literally
78. 3:32refuses to have sex with his wife. David
79. 3:35sends Uriah back to the front lines with
80. 3:37a letter telling the commander of the
81. 3:40army to make sure that Uriah dies in
82. 3:42battle. And so, not only is does David
83. 3:46commit a sin of adultery, a sexual a
84. 3:50sexual sin of adultery, but then commits
85. 3:53murder. And uh, woo, that is just tough,
86. 3:57man. And so, the prophet Nathan
87. 4:01approaches David and has a parable. He
88. 4:04says, "Man, there was a man who had uh
89. 4:08so many lambs, but then somebody came to
90. 4:11his house and he was throwing a banquet
91. 4:13and he went out and got the one lamb
92. 4:16that his neighbor had." And uh what
93. 4:18should be done to this man? And David
94. 4:20goes off like, "Man, you know, he's got
95. 4:23to pay it back. You know, he's all these
96. 4:25consequences." And Nathan just goes,
97. 4:27"You are the man, right? You have
98. 4:30concubines. You have so many women that
99. 4:33you have access to. Uriah had one wife
100. 4:36that he loved and you went and stole
101. 4:39that which belonged to Uriah. And so
102. 4:42Nathan confronts David about this sin.
103. 4:46And this psalm is what comes out of that
104. 4:50confrontation. And I would argue that
105. 4:52this is one of the most famous Psalms of
106. 4:54David up there with Psalm 23. I would
107. 4:57say Psalm 23 and Psalm 51 are probably
108. 5:00some of the most well-known Psalms of
109. 5:02David that we have in the entire book of
110. 5:04Psalms. It says this, "Have mercy on me,
111. 5:07oh God, according to your unfailing
112. 5:09love, according to your great
113. 5:11compassion. Blot out my transgressions.
114. 5:13Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me
115. 5:17from my sin. For I know my
116. 5:19transgressions, and my sin is always
117. 5:22before me. against you. You only have I
118. 5:25sinned and done what is evil in your
119. 5:27sight. So you are right in your verdict
120. 5:30and justified when you judge. Surely I
121. 5:33was sinful at birth, sinful from the
122. 5:35time my mother conceived me. Yet you
123. 5:37desired faithfulness even in the womb.
124. 5:39You taught me wisdom in that secret
125. 5:41place. Cleanse me with hissip and I will
126. 5:44be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter
127. 5:46than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness.
128. 5:49Let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
129. 5:52Hide your face from your sins and blot
130. 5:55out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure
131. 5:58heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast
132. 6:00spirit within me. Do not cast me from
133. 6:02your presence, or take your holy spirit
134. 6:04from me. Restore to me the joy of your
135. 6:07salvation to grant me a willing spirit
136. 6:09to sustain me. Then I will teach
137. 6:11transgressions your ways so that sinners
138. 6:13will turn back to you. Deliver me from
139. 6:16the guilt of bloodshed. Deliver me from
140. 6:18the guilt of bloodshed, oh God, you who
141. 6:21are God my savior, and my tongue will
142. 6:24sing of your righteousness. Open my
143. 6:25lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare
144. 6:27your praise. You do not delight in
145. 6:30sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do
146. 6:32not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My
147. 6:34sacrifice, oh God, is a broken spirit, a
148. 6:37broken and contrite heart. You, God,
149. 6:39will not despise. May it please you to
150. 6:42prosper Zion, to build up the walls of
151. 6:44Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the
152. 6:46sacrifices of the righteous and burnt
153. 6:48offerings offered whole. Then bulls will
154. 6:52be offered at your altar. And that is
155. 6:55Psalm 51. Now I'm pretty sure in
156. 6:58studying 50 plus psalms, I've not read
157. 7:01an entire psalm. And the reason I read
158. 7:03that entire psalm is because it is an
159. 7:06outline for repentance. And we'll get
160. 7:08into that in our timeless truth. But the
161. 7:11question is not if we will sin. The
162. 7:13question is when we'll sin. All have
163. 7:16fallen short of the glory of God. Uh we
164. 7:19all make mistakes. We all sin. And when
165. 7:22we sin, Psalm 51 should be our outline
166. 7:25for how to return to intimacy with God.
167. 7:29How to not run away from God when we
168. 7:31feel shame about our sin, but how to run
169. 7:33towards God when we feel shame about our
170. 7:36sin and when we feel conviction. So
171. 7:38Psalm 51 is um not just contextually
172. 7:42true, but it is timelessly true. And
173. 7:45we'll dive into that in a little bit
174. 7:46when we get to our timeless truth. All
175. 7:48right, let's tackle these other two
176. 7:50Psalms that we have here. Psalm 52. Only
177. 7:5313 Psalms have a historical context
178. 7:56title attached to them. Obviously, Psalm
179. 7:5851 was one of them. Psalm 52 is another
180. 8:01one. Okay? And here's what's remarkable.
181. 8:04Only 13 of these psalms have this. Uh,
182. 8:07and what's remarkable is we have two of
183. 8:09them side by side. Okay? In Psalm 51 and
184. 8:12Psalm 52. Book two, by the way, of the
185. 8:17Psalms. Book two is unusual in that it
186. 8:20has eight of those 13. So, the majority
187. 8:24of the Psalms that even have some kind
188. 8:26of historical context title are found
189. 8:29right here in book two of the Psalms. We
190. 8:32have two normal titles to begin with to
191. 8:34the choir master and a masculine David
192. 8:37then followed with another episode from
193. 8:39David's life. It says this when Doe okay
194. 8:44the Edomite had gone to Saul and told
195. 8:46him David has gone to the house of a
196. 8:49Himlec. Now there's this passage or
197. 8:52there's this moment in 1st Samuel
198. 8:53chapter 22 6-23. You can look it up on
199. 8:57your own, okay? When David is on the run
200. 9:00from King Saul, the story is told, like
201. 9:03I said, in 1st Samuel 22 6-23. In this
202. 9:07story, David and his men were aided by a
203. 9:10Himch the priest in the community with
204. 9:13him at Knob. Saul is later informed,
205. 9:16okay, that a himch helps David by an
206. 9:20Edomite mercenary named Doe. Saul then
207. 9:23challenged the priest about this
208. 9:25treachery or a lack of loyalty. Okay,
209. 9:29like treason. You could think when you
210. 9:31think the word treachery, you can think
211. 9:33treason. This act of treason and
212. 9:35condemns him to death. Doe is the one
213. 9:38who carries out the execution healing
214. 9:41aim and 85 priests with him as well as
215. 9:46men, women, and children of Knob. Only
216. 9:49one priest escapes this slaughter and
217. 9:52that priest's name is Abi Arthur, the
218. 9:54son of Aheimch. Abathur is going to
219. 9:57become David's priest. And when David
220. 10:00assumes the throne and takes over for
221. 10:02King Saul, Abby author is going to
222. 10:04become the high priest. Another little
223. 10:06nerdy nugget is that Abi Arthur is the
224. 10:09last of Eli's descendants to be priest
225. 10:14or to be high priest. Remember the
226. 10:16prophecy that Samuel has that night that
227. 10:18he can't sleep and he hears the voice of
228. 10:20the Lord and Eli tells him, "Say, speak,
229. 10:23Lord, for your servant is listening."
230. 10:25God begins to tell Samuel that Eli's
231. 10:27line is going to be totally wiped out.
232. 10:31Well, that doesn't happen immediately
233. 10:32because God has always got a grace and
234. 10:35process. But Abby author is going to be
235. 10:38the last priest in Eli's genealogy.
236. 10:41Okay, so that's Psalm 51 is a psalm of
237. 10:44repentance. Psalm 52 is kind of a psalm
238. 10:48where David's really letting doe have
239. 10:51it. Okay. Why do you boast of evil, you
240. 10:54mighty hero? Why do you boast all day
241. 10:56long? This is a diss track. Pretty much
242. 10:58a diss track. This is this is Kendrick
243. 11:01Lamar Torch and Drake right here. Okay.
244. 11:03Psalm 52. You love rather than you love
245. 11:06evil rather than good. Falsehood rather
246. 11:07than speaking the truth. You love every
247. 11:09harmful word. you deceitful tongue.
248. 11:12Surely God will bring you down to
249. 11:13everlasting ruin. He will snatch you up
250. 11:16and pluck you up from your tent. He will
251. 11:18uproot you from the land of the living.
252. 11:21The righteous the righteous will see in
253. 11:24fear and they will laugh at you, saying,
254. 11:27"Here now is the man who did not make
255. 11:30God his stronghold, who trusted in his
256. 11:33great wealth and grew strong by
257. 11:36destroying others." So this psalm is I
258. 11:39guess we could call it like an
259. 11:40impregatory psalm. So we have one psalm
260. 11:43of David that's a psalm of penitence and
261. 11:45then we have a psalm of David that is a
262. 11:48psalm that is essentially saying that
263. 11:51doe deserves to die and that David would
264. 11:54do it if he had the opportunity. And
265. 11:56then Psalm 53 is a psalm of wisdom. It's
266. 12:00actually an identical repeat of Psalm
267. 12:0314. So, when you got time, compare Psalm
268. 12:0514 to Psalm 53. Or if you thought to
269. 12:07yourself, "This sounds familiar." That's
270. 12:09because Psalm 53 and Psalm 14 are
271. 12:12identical repeats of each other. Both
272. 12:14are wisdom psalms, which contrast the
273. 12:18fools who do not hold God in their
274. 12:21thoughts to the wise who do. Okay? As in
275. 12:24Psalm 14, heart would mean thoughts and
276. 12:28reason rather than affection and
277. 12:29emotion. Okay? There are two differences
278. 12:32between the otherwise identical psalms.
279. 12:34Firstly, Yahweh of 14 is here replaced
280. 12:37by Elohim. Okay. So the titles or the
281. 12:41names given to God are different. So we
282. 12:44get Elohim swapped in for Yahweh. There
283. 12:47are two differences between the
284. 12:50otherwise identical psalms. Firstly,
285. 12:52Yahweh of Psalm 14 is here replaced by
286. 12:56Elohim. So in the English Lord becomes
287. 13:00God. Okay. Whenever the Bible says
288. 13:03capital L O R D that means that the
289. 13:05Hebrew word there is Yahweh. Whenever
290. 13:07the Bible says God that means that the
291. 13:09Hebrew word there is Elohim. So this
292. 13:13makes 14 chapter 14 Psalm 14 a more
293. 13:17intimate psalm in that God's name his
294. 13:21covenant name is used. Whereas in Psalm
295. 13:2453, his title is used. Secondly, verse
296. 13:2814 5 uh to-6 is rewritten in Psalm 53.
297. 13:34Okay. Um so here's what it says in Psalm
298. 13:3714. It says, "For God is with the
299. 13:39generation of the righteous. You would
300. 13:42shame the plans of the poor, but Yahweh
301. 13:45is his refuge." Okay, that now gets
302. 13:47changed to this. For God scatters the
303. 13:50bones of him who encamps against him.
304. 13:52You put them to shame. For God has
305. 13:55rejected them. All right. So we get
306. 13:59three psalms here. We get a psalm of
307. 14:02repentance. We get a psalm of vengeance.
308. 14:06And then we get a psalm of wisdom. Okay.
309. 14:09That wisdom psalm starts out in verse
310. 14:11one of Psalm 53. A fool says in his
311. 14:14heart, "There is no God. They are
312. 14:16corrupt and their ways are vile. There
313. 14:19is no one who does good. God looks down
314. 14:22from heaven on all mankind to see if
315. 14:24there are any who understand, any who
316. 14:28seek God. Everyone has turned away. All
317. 14:31have become corrupt. There is no one who
318. 14:35does good, not even one. So Psalm 53 is
319. 14:41a massive psalm of wisdom. All right,
320. 14:44with that, you got contacts, you got
321. 14:46nerdy nuggets. Let me give you a
322. 14:48timeless truth for the day, family. The
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344. 15:47back to the episode. Now, there are some
345. 15:49people who definitely think that Psalm
346. 15:5251 when David says that against you, you
347. 15:57only have I sinned and done what is evil
348. 15:59in your sight. Okay, a lot of people
349. 16:01would disagree with that. Like, no,
350. 16:03you've sinned against Bath Sheba. You've
351. 16:04sinned against Uriah. You've sinned
352. 16:06against a lot of people. A lot of people
353. 16:08would say that maybe this psalm is being
354. 16:11written while David is in this moment
355. 16:14where the baby that Betha has gets
356. 16:18pregnant with via David that God is
357. 16:21going to kill this baby. And a lot of
358. 16:24people would argue that this line is
359. 16:25there because really what David is
360. 16:27saying he's not saying he has not sinned
361. 16:29against Beth Sheeba. He's not saying
362. 16:30that he hasn't sinned against Uriah.
363. 16:32He's just saying God I'm the only one
364. 16:34that deserves the punishment. Don't
365. 16:36punish Beth Sheeba. Don't punish the
366. 16:38baby. Just punish me. Is another
367. 16:41interpretation for these lines. Also,
368. 16:43another thing that I want to point out
369. 16:45is this verse five. Surely I was sinful
370. 16:48at birth. Sinful from the time my mother
371. 16:51conceived me. That line right there has
372. 16:54made a lot of people come to the
373. 16:55conclusion that David is not a
374. 16:58legitimate son of Jesse, but an
375. 17:00illegitimate son of Jesse. This also
376. 17:03kind of bolsters the point because when
377. 17:06Samuel comes to anoint the next king and
378. 17:08asks Jesse, hey, where are all your
379. 17:10sons? Jesse shows Samuel all of his
380. 17:13legitimate sons, which would have made
381. 17:15sense. Doesn't make sense to show the
382. 17:17prophet your illegitimate son. Uh, but
383. 17:20we all know how the story goes. Samuel
384. 17:22is not interested in any of these
385. 17:24legitimate sons. He's actually there for
386. 17:26David. And in this psalm, David is
387. 17:29reminding God that, yo, I've been sinful
388. 17:31for a long time, man. I was sinful from
389. 17:34the time my mother conceived me. Surely,
390. 17:36I was sinful at birth. And then
391. 17:39ultimately, there's a couple of things
392. 17:40that I want to show you in this our
393. 17:42timeless truth for the day. Psalm 51
394. 17:45provides a remarkable guideline for true
395. 17:47repentance and the fruit that follows
396. 17:50when we truly repent. Number one, this
397. 17:52is verses 1 and two. We get a cry out to
398. 17:55God for mercy based on his unchanging
399. 17:58love. Not based on my good deeds in the
400. 18:02past, not based on anything. No, God, I
401. 18:06want your mercy because of your
402. 18:08unchanging love. I don't deserve
403. 18:10anything, but I know that you have
404. 18:12unchanging love. Um, my friend was
405. 18:14telling me a story where uh his wife had
406. 18:17gone out of town and left him with like
407. 18:19four of their kids and uh one of his
408. 18:22youngest kids who was four years old at
409. 18:24the time was just acting a fool, just
410. 18:26like would not listen, just off the
411. 18:29rails, just super disobedient. the dad
412. 18:31had promised his kids ice cream like at
413. 18:33the beginning of the day and by the end
414. 18:35of the day the you know the son who was
415. 18:38acting off just like just being super
416. 18:40disobedient said um are we still going
417. 18:42to get ice cream and the dad uh my
418. 18:45friend says do you think you deserve ice
419. 18:47cream like dude like you got in trouble
420. 18:50like most of the day do you think you
421. 18:52deserve ice cream and the kid says no
422. 18:55but you love me you got to love that do
423. 18:58you deserve ice cream no but you love
424. 19:01me. What does that kid understand? That
425. 19:03kid understands the same thing David
426. 19:04understands in Psalm 51 that no my this
427. 19:08forgiveness that's about to happen is
428. 19:11not according to what I deserve but it
429. 19:13is according to your unfailing love,
430. 19:16your unchanging love. Okay. So number
431. 19:19two, there's an acceptance and
432. 19:22confession of sin. God cannot heal what
433. 19:24you hide. So you can't be lying about
434. 19:26sin and think that God can forgive you
435. 19:28for it. So God God eventually obviously
436. 19:32gets David to the place of forgiveness
437. 19:34and reconciliation because he is
438. 19:37accepting and confessing his sin. And
439. 19:41then verses 7 to 12, there's a desire to
440. 19:44be cleansed, forgiven, and changed,
441. 19:46which again that is part and parcel of
442. 19:50real repentance. Do you desire to be
443. 19:52cleansed, forgiven, and changed? And
444. 19:55then lastly verses 13 to 19 we get real
445. 19:58change and testimony to where uh to
446. 20:02others of what God has done in an
447. 20:04increasing desire to worship. Okay. I
448. 20:08think that when we repent in the right
449. 20:10way in a Psalm 51 way in in the model
450. 20:14that we have here in the scriptures that
451. 20:16there's always a testimony of how God
452. 20:19uses it for the wider community. Okay.
453. 20:22So, we went over our context clue, our
454. 20:25nerdy nugget, and our timeless truths.
455. 20:28This this model for how David repents is
456. 20:32not just for David or just for the
457. 20:35generations directly following. It's
458. 20:37actually a good model for you and for I
459. 20:39because let me say again, it's not about
460. 20:42if you're going to sin, it's when. We
461. 20:44all are committing sins against God all
462. 20:47the time. It may not look like murder
463. 20:49and rape, but there's still areas of our
464. 20:53life that don't look like Jesus because
465. 20:55there's active sin in our life. And so,
466. 20:58a road map, if you're like, I don't even
467. 21:00know how to talk to God once I sin. I'm
468. 21:03just so ashamed. I don't know what to
469. 21:05say. How about you really dive into
470. 21:07Psalm 51 because I really think it'll
471. 21:10give you helpful language for how to
472. 21:12begin to talk to God about the sin in
473. 21:14your life. And that is timelessly true
474. 21:17forever and ever and ever. All right,
475. 21:20family. Tomorrow we've got day 270.
476. 21:23We're going to be looking at Psalms 54
477. 21:26and 55 and 56. Psalm 54 to 56. It's
478. 21:30going to be amazing. How about you? I
479. 21:33hope that you enjoy reading those
480. 21:35Psalms. I'll enjoy creating the content
481. 21:37on uh tomorrow's podcast episode for
482. 21:40sure. Love you guys so much. If you're
483. 21:42on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you're
484. 21:44not on a streak, I'm still proud of you,
485. 21:45but I also want you to get on a streak.
486. 21:48So, how about you do that? All right,
487. 21:49family. I'll see you tomorrow right here
488. 21:52for day 270. Peace. Thanks so much for
489. 21:56joining us on the Bible Department
490. 21:57podcast. If this episode was helpful,
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