Day 256: Psalms 12–14 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Hey, Emily. Welcome to day 256 here on the Bible department podcast. Today, we are diving into three additional Psalms. Three more Psalms, Psalms 12 to 14, Psalms 12, 13 and 14. It's gonna be great. If you have not yet done the reading, stop the video, pause the audio, go do the reading and come back because unless you have done the reading, you actually don't have context for what we're talking about. Because this podcast is not designed for me to go line by line through every single word of what you've read. It's really designed to be an overview to give you context clues, some nerdy nuggets and autonomous truth, which I'm gonna do today and every day. So if you've done the reading, I'm proud of you. Let's dive in. Let's first start with some context. I'll give you a context clue for chapter 12, chapter 13 and chapter 14. The really cool thing about today's reading is that we've got three different kinds of Psalms in today's reading.

So we actually get to look at three categories of Psalms, which is really, really, really cool. Psalm 12, I would actually classify this as a social justice Psalm. One of the big verses here, chapter 12, verse five, says this. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say with our tongues we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is our master, because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up. Says the Lord, okay. So the outcry of the poor has the ability to cause God to rise up, okay, to defend the cause of the widow, the orphan, the foreigner. So I would classify this as a classic social justice Psalm. That's great. And as long as our understanding of social justice remains biblical, it's great. The moment it becomes secular, I think it gets off the rails. So when we think about social justice to me, as long as we've got some biblical guardrails, I'm all about it, okay. Second, Psalm 13, verse three is an individual lament, okay, an individual lament, this is King David giving a personal lament, okay. And we'll dive into some nerdy nuggets for Psalm 13 later on in the episode.

And then Psalm 14, okay, is a wisdom Psalm, okay. So just like Psalm one, okay. We haven't had a wisdom Psalm since, you know, we really dove into Psalm one, but Psalm 14 immediately starts out with, you know, fools say in their hearts, there is no God. They are corrupt, they are abominable deeds. They do abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise who seek after God. So this is a classic Psalm of wisdom, okay. So that's some 30,000 foot context for you as you engage with these Psalms. We've got a classic social justice Psalm, we've got a Psalm of individual lament, and then we've got a wisdom Psalm that we haven't seen one of these since Psalm one, okay. So we'll dive into all of those. And with that context, let's actually dive into some nerdy nuggets, okay. So let's start with our first nerdy nugget. So on chapter 13 verse three has a really, really, really great word. I love this word, this is super, super granular, okay. It says, consider and answer me, oh Lord my God, give a like to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death. Okay, so listen, individual lament. David is clearly going through something that is difficult, and we don't know

the exact circumstance that David is going through. But the Psalm starts like this, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, oh Lord, my God. That word, consider. That is a very, very, very popular word in the prophets, okay? So in the massive section that we just left on this podcast, in the prophets, the Lord will typically say, through the prophets, consider the state of your lives. You're suffering because of idolatry. Like consider, like just, like come let us reason together. Okay, that word, consider, is actually a word that's not typically used by humans to God, but is used by Yahweh to as people when their lives have fallen into disrepair, when their lives have fallen into despair, when they're dealing with plague and pestilence, and when they're dealing with famine, and when they're dealing with drought, God will typically say, consider your ways. Like is it not your worship of Baal and Asher and false gods that have led you to this state of suffering and poverty and lack, okay? So, but here David is actually saying to the Lord, hey, consider, like, can you consider my life?

And you may not realize that that's kind of what David is doing, but he's saying, I'm not an idol worshiper. Like, I don't worship false gods. Like you constantly are asking people to consider their actions and God, I'm asking you to consider me. I'm asking you that would you look down and would you judge rightly? Would you be the God of justice? Don't let my enemy be exalted over me. Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes. And my enemy will say, I prevailed. My foes will rejoice because I am shaken. And I love how before the psalm ends, it always turns. But I trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt beautifully with me, okay? So, psalms of lament always have this equation of honest, an honest plea telling the Lord, this situation is tough. I'm full of sorrow, I'm full of anguish. I'm depressed, I'm sad, I'm overwhelmed. I'm confused, I feel abandoned. But the psalm never ends there. And I think that's a great timeless truth even. I know we're not at the timeless truth yet, but at the timeless truth, you can be honest with God about how you feel about what's going on with your sorrow.

Remember, the majority of these psalms are gonna be psalms of lament. But we get a template here for how to lament in a way that's healthy. Before the psalm is over, the psalmist David says these words, but not but changes everything. I trusted in your steadfast love. Yes, I'm confused. Yes, I'm anxious. Yes, I'm depressed. But I trust, 'cause trust isn't a feeling, it's a decision. But I trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation, even though I haven't experienced a salvation yet, even though I'm in the middle of needing salvation from you. I, my heart shall rejoice in advance because of your salvation. I know that you're gonna save me out of this situation. I know it's easy for Christians to think, every time we see the word salvation, we think of Jesus, but I wanna just get us back to, no, for David salvation would've met, hey, my enemy is being exalted over me. There's a real life circumstance where he needs God to save him or rescue him. And he's saying, but my heart shall rejoice in your salvation, even though my eyes haven't seen it yet. I remember the last time you saved me, and now I can have trust and hope in the fact that you're gonna save me out of this present scenario.

I will sing to the Lord because sometimes singing is an act of my will. I decide whether I feel it or not, whether I'm in a circumstance that has produced gratitude or not, I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. So the Psalm ends on a high note. It always ends on a, hey, life sucks, this is crappy, this is unfortunate, man, I'm overwhelmed, but I trust it in your steadfast love. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. So trust, rejoice, sing, okay? Why? 'Cause God has dealt bountifully with me. He hasn't dealt with me from scarcity. He's dealt with me from bounty. - Tambly, the wait is over. My brand new book, "Crushing Chaos," is out now. And available everywhere books are sold. Literally, today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So, you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective

can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. So, Psalm 13, that's a lot of nerdy nuggets. Okay, from Psalm 13. The one thing that I really wanted to highlight was just that word consider that the Psalm is really kind of turning on its head, the like what Yahweh has done through the prophets where the prophets are Yahweh speaking to people, the Psalms are people speaking to God. And we get that modeled really, really well with the intentional use of the word consider. Okay, 14, this maybe should have been a context clue, but you know, I'm sorry. This is a context clue. So typically I do them in order. I've given you context clues, then nerdy nuggets. But I'm actually gonna give you a good context clue for Psalm 14, verse one, okay? And you've been rocking with me on the podcast for any length of time. What I'm about to say is probably not gonna be any surprise to you, you know this. But I think it's still good to teach this and highlight this, okay? Psalm 14, verse one, we know this is a wisdom psalm,

says this, fools say in their hearts, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. Okay, you probably already know this, especially if you've been rocking with me for a long time. There are no atheists in the ancient world, okay? So if you kind of assume that there is no God, if you're gonna bring 21st century context into this psalm, then you're gonna misinterpret the psalm, okay? Because the psalmist is not saying, fools say in their hearts, God doesn't exist. That's not what's going on. There's no such thing as an atheist in the ancient world. So what is being talked about here would be functional atheism, not literal atheism. Essentially, it's the same as, you know, I remember one time I said to someone that I was discipling, I said, if you don't read, you may as well be illiterate. I'm not calling them illiterate. I'm saying, what's the point of knowing how to read if you don't use that skill by reading at least 12 books a year, okay? I would suggest that you should read at least a book a month, okay? Just, I know that, I know that's a sidebar. I didn't even ask my opinion about that, but I think that, you know, normal, healthy adults should be reading at least a book a month, okay?

I think that's good. And there's a difference between being illiterate and being functionally illiterate. Functionally illiterate is, I know how to read, but I don't do it. I don't read to which, if you're not gonna read, then what's the point of knowing how, okay? What, when we get to Psalm 14, these are people who believe in God because everyone in the ancient world believes in a God, whether it was Baal, or whether it was Asher, or whether it was Marduker, whoever, they believe in God. However, if you don't live like you believe in God, then functionally, you don't believe in God. This is about functional atheism. And I would say that even today, there is a ton of functional atheism. There are people who profess to be Christians who say that they go to church, they believe in the Bible, but really they're foolish because in their hearts, they don't live their life in light of God's existence every single day. At some point you've gotta go, it's not enough for God to exist. And for me to believe that that God exists, what wisdom does is wisdom invites God into all of the nuance and complexity of life. And I'm living my life. So, it's a good wisdom psalm.

It's not designed to give you answers. It's actually designed to make you ask questions, which is what wisdom does. Now, in the Western world, we love answers. But in the Eastern world that produced the texts that we're studying, in Eastern world, doesn't just want answers or a destination, the Eastern world really cares about the journey. And that journey is full of questions. So, the Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise. Are you wise who seek after God? They have all gone astray. They're all like perverse. There is no one that is good, not one. Have they no knowledge all the evil doers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord. There they shall be in great terror for God with the company of the righteous. You would confound the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge. So, remember in Psalm 12, we said, man, God really upholds the outcry of the poor. We're gonna see that theme here again in Psalm 14. Psalm 14 verse six, that the foolish confound the plans of the poor. But the Lord is their refuge. Who's refuge? The refuge for the poor.

That God upholds the case of the orphan, the widow, the foreigner. All right, last nerdy nugget that I really wanna give you is Psalm 14 is gonna get recycled, okay? It's gonna get reused later, okay? So Psalm 53 is almost an exact replica of Psalm 14, okay? Exact replica, which means what happened is that later on in Israel's history, a later generation of God's people begin to realize, hey, this Psalm that was written hundreds of years ago is really applicable to what we're going through in our life right now. And so a later generation rewrote it and they only made two changes to the Psalm. So if you wanna go to Psalm 53, you can go to Psalm 53, and I want you to compare Psalm 14 as Psalm 53. And there's only two differences. The first is that Yahweh, the name of God, which is Yahweh, the covenant name, is not in the Psalm, but it's replaced by Elohim. So that's the first difference. Secondly, verse five B to six is rewritten, okay? In Psalm 53. So Psalm 14 verse five and six says, "For God is with the generation of the righteous, you would shame the plans of the poor, but Yahweh is his refuge that is the original, the remake or the remix. Psalm 53 says, "For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you, you put them to shame,

for God has rejected them." Okay, that's the remix. This tells us that Psalm 14 was reused to cry out to God in a later episode in Judah's history. This one stanza was rewritten to reflect the current crisis that this prayer was in response to, and it's possibly during a foreign invasion or a foreign siege, okay? That's just good to know that later generations are reading the Psalms and saying, we're gonna rewrite this one stanza or this one line. Then we're gonna kind of recycle and reuse this Psalm that is honestly a product of an earlier moment in Judah's history, and we're gonna now reuse it in this later moment in Judah's history. Also, just know that because the Psalms are pro-David, they are pro-Judah, and I know our whole last stretch on the podcast, we really hammered home the difference between the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel, okay? So the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, we hammered that home. So just know that the Psalms are going to reflect the Southern Kingdom of Judah, which obviously, David is the king of Judah, okay? And once that house is no longer raining, it's the Northern Kingdom of Israel that's splitting off from David's line, which is Judah. All righty, that's everything.

That is our context, Lou, that's our nerdy nugget. Got it, here we go, our Thomas true. Psalm 13 is an individual lament, and Psalm 13, David is asking God some tough questions. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? between questioning God versus asking God questions. I was literally sitting down with a couple earlier this week and the wife began to say, "I was just taught not to ask God questions," and I began to say, "Hey, there's a big difference between asking God questions and questioning God," and you can ask God questions from a place of faith, that just because you're asking God hard questions doesn't mean that you're deconstructing your faith in it, you don't believe, and that the problem is not asking God hard questions. The problem is when you already come to conclusions based on those questions and your questions aren't really questions. God can and will provide answers if you're actually asking God questions. My pet peeve at the pastor are people who tell me I'm their pastor, but then they instead of letting me help them make a decision, they already make a decision and then they really just want confirmation from me. They want me to applaud the decision that they made. But really, if I was your pastor, I would have been in the decision-making process, and so the same is true with God. If God's really God, you don't come to Him with statements framed as questions, you actually come to Him with real, honest, hard, and genuine questions, and it's sad that the atheists of our day are actually the ones asking philosophical and existential questions. When really, we need theists, we need God's people to be asking hard questions like, "Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there suffering in the world? What is going on in the world?" We should have God's people asking hard questions, and you don't have to check your intellectualism

at the door in order to become a Christian. You can become a Christian and begin to ask hard questions because He is the only one who can actually answer these questions about the meaning of life, about why they're suffering, about meaning, meaning, and purpose. God's not scared of your questions. He's not intimidated by your questions. So if there's anybody listening who grew up in a just obey, just don't ask God any questions. I would say yes obey, but you can ask God questions. Just check your motives when you're asking Him, and man, ask from a pure place. And I actually believe that God will begin to bring clarity, He'll bring answers, and more than anything, He'll begin to draw close to you with His own self-in-presence. And I actually think that's when we as Christians begin to help people who are asking hard questions to give them a revelation of who God is. But you can never get revelation if you don't ask hard questions. The best sermons that I've ever written have been the product of me asking God hard questions. And when I ask God hard questions, He begins to answer me in His word because my heart is not questioning Him, but it is asking questions. And I think that's good. I think that's healthy. And that's our timeless truth for the day. That's not just applicable for David and Psalm 13 who's asking God hard questions. That's applicable for you. That's applicable to me in the year of our Lord 2020 blank. Okay? I love you guys. So proud of you. I'll see you tomorrow. For day 257, we're going to be walking through Psalms 15 to 17. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you're not on a streak, get your life together.

I love you guys so much. I'll see you tomorrow right here on the Bible Department podcast. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]