Day 294: Psalm 123-125 | 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. 0:24Family, welcome to day 294.
9. 0:28We are in Psalms 123 to 125. And if you
10. 0:33haven't gotten the reading done, how
11. 0:34about you go do that? Go ahead and get
12. 0:37business. Go get the reading done. Short
13. 0:40psalms. I mean, honestly, in my Bible,
14. 0:43it's one page. Like literally just this
15. 0:46little page. And all three Psalms fit
16. 0:48with with some room to spare actually.
17. 0:50So, three short Psalms. How about you
18. 0:52get the reading done and then watch the
19. 0:55episode. So for everybody or listen to
20. 0:57the episode, for everyone who's
21. 0:58listening to this, not watching this.
22. 1:00All right, for everyone who has done the
23. 1:02reading for the day, we've got three
24. 1:05more psalms or songs of ascent. If you
25. 1:10weren't here yesterday, I explained that
26. 1:12the context of all 15 of these psalms
27. 1:16from Psalm 120 all the way to Psalm 134
28. 1:20are psalms of ascent. Okay? And so these
29. 1:24psalms would have been sung as pilgrims
30. 1:28traveled from the Jewish diaspora or
31. 1:31from the land of Israel to Jerusalem for
32. 1:35three annual festivals. And those three
33. 1:37festivals are Passover, Pentecost, and
34. 1:41the feast of tabernacles. All right,
35. 1:43that is the context. That's going to be
36. 1:45the context for the next couple of days
37. 1:48to be honest. So now let's dive into
38. 1:50some nerdy nuggets. maybe some some
39. 1:53concepts or some thoughts or some facts
40. 1:56just about the verses uh that you may
41. 1:58not have come to on your own. Okay, so
42. 2:01let's start with Psalm 123 says this. I
43. 2:04lift up my eyes to you. All right, so
44. 2:07that should immediately perk up our
45. 2:09ears, right? Our antennas should be
46. 2:12going off. I lift up my eyes. Well, that
47. 2:14sounds really, really, really familiar
48. 2:16to Psalm 121, which says, "I lift up my
49. 2:20eyes to the mountains or to the hills.
50. 2:23Where does my help come from?" And
51. 2:25remember, we decided yesterday that the
52. 2:29help does not come from the hills. It
53. 2:31doesn't come from the mountains. It
54. 2:32comes from Yahweh. That these two things
55. 2:35are not synonymous, but whatever the
56. 2:38opposite of synonymous is, Anton, is
57. 2:41that a word? Is antonymous a word? I
58. 2:44don't know. They're not synonymous, but
59. 2:46they're actually juxtaposing each other.
60. 2:48So the hills are not Yahweh. Most times
61. 2:51we merge them and we just assume that
62. 2:54Yahweh is coming on the hills to help.
63. 2:56Okay. So now we get the justosition of
64. 2:59Psalm 121 and Psalm 123. I lift up my
65. 3:03eyes to you. To you who sit where?
66. 3:07Enthroned in heaven. Not on the hills.
67. 3:11You are enthroned in heaven. As the eyes
68. 3:14of slaves look to the hand of their
69. 3:17master, as the eyes of a female slave
70. 3:20look to the hand of her mistress, so our
71. 3:22eyes look to the Lord, to Yahweh our
72. 3:26God, till he shows us his mercy. The
73. 3:32just talk about utter dependence on the
74. 3:35Lord. as a slave looks to the hand of
75. 3:38his master, so so do your servants look
76. 3:41to your hand, God. And so where is
77. 3:43Yahweh? Uh the the now at this point,
78. 3:46the pilgrim has made it to Jerusalem.
79. 3:49The pilgrim has made it to the temple.
80. 3:51And there's now a clear contrast where
81. 3:55uh in Psalm 121, there's a temptation to
82. 3:57look to the hills. In Psalm 123, the
83. 4:00focus of the eyes is where? to the
84. 4:03throne of Yahweh which is in heaven. The
85. 4:07focus of our eyes should not be to the
86. 4:09hills but to heaven. Not to the
87. 4:11mountains but to Yahweh himself. Not to
88. 4:15idols but to the throne where God is in
89. 4:20power where he governs. Okay. Now have
90. 4:24mercy on us Lord. Have mercy on us for
91. 4:26we have endured no end to con of
92. 4:29contempt. We have endured no end to of
93. 4:32ridicule from the arrogant of contempt
94. 4:37from the proud. All right, beautiful
95. 4:39psalm. We don't look to the hills, but
96. 4:42we look to the to you who sit enthroned
97. 4:45in heaven. So that clear contrast, hills
98. 4:49versus heaven. Hills versus heaven. All
99. 4:52right. Psalm 124. Now, this is an
100. 4:55earlier psalm of David from a time in
101. 4:58Israel's history where he defeated the
102. 5:00Philistines. Okay? And that defeat of
103. 5:03the Philistines and the words that were
104. 5:06written as a response to the defeat of
105. 5:09the Philistines have been taken from
106. 5:12from that time in Israel's history and
107. 5:14have been put here in the Psalms of
108. 5:17Ascent or in the Songs of Ascent. Okay.
109. 5:20Here we have another earlier psalm of
110. 5:22David that had been interwoven into
111. 5:25these pilgrimage psalms. In the original
112. 5:28context, this psalm was written by David
113. 5:30after defeating the Philistines who had
114. 5:32continued to be an existential threat to
115. 5:35Israel despite Saul and David's clear
116. 5:37victories over them. Here, David gives
117. 5:40thanks to Yahweh for the victory and
118. 5:43leads the people in response to thank
119. 5:45Yahweh in turn. together they clearly
120. 5:47state that Yahweh provided the victory
121. 5:49in battle. And here's what's
122. 5:51fascinating. The the poetic license here
123. 5:55likens the situation between Israel and
124. 5:57the Philistines to the floodwaters or
125. 6:01the chaos waters of Genesis. Here's what
126. 6:04it says. If the Lord had not been on our
127. 6:07side, let Israel say, if the Lord had
128. 6:10not been on our side when people
129. 6:12attacked us, they would have swallowed
130. 6:14us alive. What swallows people? Well,
131. 6:17the earth can swallow people, but also
132. 6:19the sea can swallow people. Uh, so it
133. 6:21starts, this imagery starts when their
134. 6:23anger flared against us. The flood would
135. 6:26have engulfed us. So if you're, if you
136. 6:28were questioning whether or not
137. 6:29swallowed was about the sea, here we go.
138. 6:32The flood would have engulfed us. The
139. 6:34torrent is another word for chaotic sea
140. 6:37waters would have swept over us. The
141. 6:39raging waters, another's uh synonym,
142. 6:43would have swept us away. Praise be to
143. 6:45the Lord who has not let us be torn by
144. 6:48their teeth. We have escaped like a bird
145. 6:51from the fowler's snare. The snare has
146. 6:54been broken and we have escaped. Our
147. 6:56help is in the name of the Lord. And by
148. 6:59the way, our help, that word is aair.
149. 7:01Okay, that's also the word that God uses
150. 7:03for Eve. I will create a suitable helper
151. 7:07for you. So when women are called the
152. 7:11helpmate of the man, that is not a
153. 7:14disrespectful or denigrating term.
154. 7:16Because if it was disrespectful or
155. 7:18denigrating, then we couldn't call God
156. 7:20our help. Okay? God is our help cuz he's
157. 7:23strong. He's our help cuz he's mighty
158. 7:26and majestic and awesome. My wife is
159. 7:28able to be my help because she's strong,
160. 7:30not because she's weak. My wife is able
161. 7:32to be my help because she's brilliant,
162. 7:34intelligent, strategic, and and so this
163. 7:37is no not at all a disrespectful or
164. 7:40denigrating term. And we have to rid
165. 7:43ourselves of our own social location or
166. 7:47our cultural context and enter into the
167. 7:49world of the Bible when interpreting the
168. 7:51Bible. All right? It says, "The maker of
169. 7:53heaven and earth." So again, we get
170. 7:56creation verbiage at the top of the
171. 7:58psalm and then we get creation verbiage
172. 8:00at the end. Okay, the maker of heaven
173. 8:02and earth. So what's going on here?
174. 8:04Okay, Yahweh as always is sovereign over
175. 8:08the floods of chaos and the God who
176. 8:10brings order into chaos, defeats the
177. 8:13chaos of the Philistines and brings
178. 8:15order to Israel. So I want you to begin
179. 8:17to see, doesn't really matter what form
180. 8:20chaos takes, God knows how to conquer
181. 8:23it. And so there's a link between Yahweh
182. 8:26as creator and creator as conqueror. And
183. 8:31what does Yahweh conquer? He conquers
184. 8:33chaos. He crushes chaos. By the way, if
185. 8:36you haven't grabbed my book, Crushing
186. 8:37Chaos, you should. But because this
187. 8:39theme is everywhere all over the
188. 8:42scriptures, Yahweh is described as a
189. 8:46chaos conquering, chaoscrushing God. And
190. 8:49here the Philistines are just another
191. 8:51form of that chaos. In terms of the
192. 8:55pilgrimage, this older psalm fits
193. 8:56perfectly into the story so far. The
194. 8:58farway Israelite returns to Israel,
195. 9:00rejects the false place of worship, goes
196. 9:02to the true temple in Jerusalem. And
197. 9:05there he looks to the heavens and cries
198. 9:07for mercy. And here in the psalm, we
199. 9:10have a testimony of that mercy. Yahweh
200. 9:13enthroned in heaven, creator of heaven
201. 9:15and earth is by the side of Israel and
202. 9:19saves them from their enemies. Okay,
203. 9:22Psalm 125. Okay, our last psalm to look
204. 9:26at for the day. Let's see how many nerdy
205. 9:27nuggets we can come up with. Family, the
206. 9:30wait is over. My brand new book,
207. 9:32Crushing Chaos, is out now and available
208. 9:36everywhere books are sold. Literally
209. 9:39today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble
210. 9:42and I signed a bunch of copies at a
211. 9:44physical location. So, you can grab this
212. 9:47book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you
213. 9:50can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or
214. 9:52anywhere books are sold and grab a copy.
215. 9:56If you enjoy reading the Bible from an
216. 9:59ancient perspective, if you understand
217. 10:01that the beauty of scripture is actually
218. 10:03knowing it in context, then you'll love
219. 10:06this book. And if there's any chaos in
220. 10:09your personal life, I think that reading
221. 10:11the Bible from an ancient perspective
222. 10:14can actually help to crush the chaos in
223. 10:16your life. I think this book is going to
224. 10:18be a New York Times bestseller. I really
225. 10:20do. I think we wrote a good one. I think
226. 10:22you should get a copy today. All right,
227. 10:25back to the episode. Psalm 125 is
228. 10:29geographically coded. So, it starts out
229. 10:31with these words. Those who trust in the
230. 10:33Lord are like Mount Zion. Mount Zion is
231. 10:37the central mountain, the highest
232. 10:39mountain, okay, in Jerusalem where the
233. 10:41temple is. Mount Zion, which cannot be
234. 10:44shaken but endures forever. As the
235. 10:46mountains surround Jerusalem, so Mount
236. 10:49Zion is in the center and mountains
237. 10:51surround. This is true. If you go to
238. 10:53Jerusalem, what you'll begin to see is
239. 10:55Mount Zion, the temple mount is in the
240. 10:58middle of the city and the and the city
241. 11:00is surrounded by valleys and surrounded
242. 11:02by hills and surrounded by mountains.
243. 11:04And so geographically the city is very
244. 11:07very hard to conquer because it is uh
245. 11:11you've got the any army that would
246. 11:13invade the city has to go down into a
247. 11:15valley and up out of a valley and ascend
248. 11:18a hill just to attack a city. That's
249. 11:21very very very very very very difficult.
250. 11:23As the mountains surround Jerusalem so
251. 11:25the Lord surrounds his people both now
252. 11:28and forever. So think about how safe
253. 11:30Jerusalem is because of its natural
254. 11:32geography. The psalmist is saying,
255. 11:34"Well, that's how safe God's people are,
256. 11:36man. Even if we didn't have these
257. 11:38mountains or natural defenses, even if
258. 11:40we didn't have high walls, Yahweh would
259. 11:42be enough. He'd be able to protect us.
260. 11:44The scepter of the wicked will not
261. 11:46remain over the land allotted to the
262. 11:48righteous. For then the righteous might
263. 11:49use their hands to do evil. Lord, do
264. 11:52good to those who are good. to those who
265. 11:54are upright in heart, but those who turn
266. 11:56to crooked ways the Lord has will banish
267. 11:59with evildoers peace be on Israel. All
268. 12:03right. Psalm 25 is communicating the
269. 12:06safety and security that Jerusalem
270. 12:08naturally uh has just because of its
271. 12:11geography and then saying that same
272. 12:13safety that same security that the
273. 12:16people in Jerusalem have because of the
274. 12:18hills and mountains. We have that same
275. 12:22safety and that same security because
276. 12:24Yahweh is our God and he's a protecting
277. 12:27strong and mighty God. And that's a
278. 12:29perfect timeless truth, isn't it? That
279. 12:31God is a protector. That God knows how
280. 12:33to fight battles for us. That God knows
281. 12:35how to keep us safe emotionally. That
282. 12:38God knows how to keep us safe
283. 12:39physically. That God knows how to keep
284. 12:41us safe financially. And that God, the
285. 12:43same way that God conquered the chaos of
286. 12:47the floodwaters in order to establish
287. 12:49land so that Adam and Eve could live,
288. 12:51that same God crushes the chaos of the
289. 12:53Philistines so that his people could be
290. 12:55safe. And so like a kaleidoscope, I want
291. 12:59you to begin to ask, well, what chaos do
292. 13:01I need this God to protect me from? What
293. 13:04chaos do I need God to conquer so that I
294. 13:08could be safe? So that I could be
295. 13:10secure. Whether that's spiritually safe
296. 13:12and secure, whether emotionally safe and
297. 13:14secure, whether uh financially safe and
298. 13:17secure, whether mentally safe and
299. 13:18secure, God does want you to experience
300. 13:21safety and security. Maybe not always
301. 13:23comfort, but safety and security against
302. 13:26forms of chaos that want to engulf you,
303. 13:29that want to swallow you up. Uh it
304. 13:32doesn't have to be an army or an ocean
305. 13:35uh for God to be able to conquer it.
306. 13:36Like we've seen, the language of the
307. 13:40wild sea gets transferred over to the
308. 13:43Philistines because David is able to see
309. 13:46the the that this isn't just an army,
310. 13:48it's chaos. Paul actually gives verbiage
311. 13:51to this in the New Testament. He said,
312. 13:52"We wrestled out against flesh and
313. 13:54blood, but against powers and
314. 13:55principalities." He's able to see that
315. 13:57behind the flesh and blood evil that's
316. 13:59real, there's an even more real puppet
317. 14:03master holding up strings to this puppet
318. 14:06with flesh and blood. And so no matter
319. 14:09what you're dealing with, I want you to
320. 14:11be able to put some lenses on, put a
321. 14:14perspective on that says, "Oh, that's a
322. 14:16force of chaos. God knows how to deal
323. 14:18with chaos." Because for whatever
324. 14:20reason, life can kind of convince us
325. 14:22that even though the chaos is different,
326. 14:24that God doesn't know how to deal with
327. 14:25it. Even though he helped you with
328. 14:27foreclosure, bankruptcy before, but not
329. 14:30cancer, both bankruptcy, foreclosure,
330. 14:34and cancer are all forms of chaos. And
331. 14:36God is a chaoscrushing God. By kind of
332. 14:40understanding how all forms of evil are
333. 14:42one thing, you begin to realize you
334. 14:45don't need multiple gods to be able to
335. 14:48attack this thing because it's just one
336. 14:50thing. And the same God that can bring
337. 14:54prosperity is the same God that can
338. 14:55bring healing because a lack of
339. 14:57prosperity and a lack of healing are
340. 14:59chaotic. And God brings order. And when
341. 15:02he brings order, everything in our life
342. 15:05that's full of chaos has to bend its
343. 15:07knee at the name of the King of Kings
344. 15:10and Lord of Lords, Yahweh, Holy Spirit,
345. 15:12Jesus Christ. And that's not just true
346. 15:15for for the time period in which these
347. 15:17psalms are written. That's not just true
348. 15:19for returned exiles or for pilgrims
349. 15:21ascending the hill of the Lord to go up
350. 15:22to Jerusalem. That's true for you and
351. 15:25that's true for me. Tomorrow we got day
352. 15:28295 here at the Bible department. We're
353. 15:31going to be looking at a couple of more
354. 15:33Psalms of Ascent. Uh we're going to be
355. 15:35looking at Psalms 126, 127, 128, and
356. 15:39129. So, we got four Psalms to examine,
357. 15:43study, look at, meditate on tomorrow. I
358. 15:45can't wait. If you're on a streak, I'm
359. 15:47so so so proud of you. For everybody
360. 15:49else, I love you so much. I'll see you
361. 15:51right here tomorrow. The Bible
362. 15:53Department podcast Studios, same time,
363. 15:55same place. Love you so much. Peace.
364. 15:58Thanks so much for joining us on the
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