Day 258: Psalms 18–20 | 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, I'm Lee, welcome to day 258. Today we are in Psalms 18 through 20. Gonna look at three Psalms today. I really, really enjoyed studying for these Psalms and reading these Psalms myself. Hopefully you've already done the reading. If you have not done the reading, you wanna go ahead and stop this video, pause the audio. Do the reading. This podcast is not designed to be a substitute for you reading the Bible, but a supplement for your daily Bible reading. If you need a Bible reading plan, you can find one of those at thebaldapartment.com or somewhere, okay? Get on the Bible reading plan. Read Psalms 18, 19, and 20 for all of us who have done the reading for today. Shout out to you, good job. We're gonna dive into today's episode. Like always, I'm gonna give you context clues, which are gonna just help you to understand the cultural historical context of the Psalms in question. And then we're gonna dive into some nerdy nuggets,

and then I'm gonna leave you with a timeless truth. So context, okay? We got three Psalms today, Psalm 18, 19, and 20. First thing I wanna point out is we kinda got Psalm 19 sandwiched in here because Psalm 18 and Psalm 20 are both going to be royal or Messianic Psalms, okay? Royal or Messianic Psalms. Now Messianic Psalms, when people hear that, they typically hear, oh, these are Psalms about Jesus. Yes and no, sometimes Messianic Psalms do have a fulfillment, an ultimate fulfillment in the person, life, ministry, teachings of Jesus. But sometimes when we talk about Messianic Psalms, a Messiah is just the word for king, anointed one, all right? So David is a Messiah and he is prefiguring the ultimate Messiah who will be none other than Jesus Christ. So in today's Psalm, Psalm 18 and Psalm 20, these are royal or Messianic Psalms because they are a really an inside look as to the king's relationship with Yahweh, okay? The royal relationship that the king has with Yahweh, okay? So Yahweh has a different relationship with the king of Israel than he does with anybody else, right? So we're gonna look at that. And then sandwiched in between Psalm 18 and Psalm 20, we're gonna have a Psalm of praise, okay? So Psalm 19 is gonna be a Psalm of praise, praise in God for his character and his nature. Last little caveat, Psalm 18 isn't just a royal

or Messianic Psalm, but it's also a war Psalm. So we're gonna get a lot of themes, a lot of vocabulary centered around the fact that God Yahweh has empowered David to triumph in military victory over Israel's enemies, all right? So massive, massive theme, okay? Last little layer of context here is just for Psalm 18. Psalm 18 is almost copy and paste verbatim also found in second Samuel chapter 22. So if you look at the title for Psalm 18, it says to the leader, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, he said, and then we get the whole Psalm, okay? If you go to second Samuel chapter 22, which I have pulled up in a logo spiral study software, second Samuel chapter 22, it says, David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, he said, okay? And you're gonna get this exact same song, this exact same Psalm is here in second Samuel chapter 22. It is also right here in Psalm 18, essentially copy and paste it. So if you're like, I really wanna know like more or greater context for what's happening. then just go right over to second Samuel chapter 22, and it gives you the moment or the events that precipitate and prompt David to say these words or to sing these lyrics, okay?

Let's dive into some nerdy nuggets, okay? Psalm 18, I'll actually just kind of start reading Psalm 18. I love you Lord, oh Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, okay? So my fortress, these are military words. Let's keep going, my rock, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge. You can think, remember David is in a cave, he's hiding from Saul, like, but for David, he's like, it wasn't just a cave, man, I was hiding in the presence of the Lord. It wasn't the cave that kept me safe, it was God that kept me safe, okay? My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, okay, more military language. And the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, okay? The word stronghold, it's a military word. I call upon the Lord, he's worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompass me, the torrents of perdition, assailed me, 'cause this is just all ways to say, I was about to die, okay? Verse six, in my distress, I called upon the Lord, to my God, I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. I love what David is doing, 'cause the temple hasn't even been built yet. But he's saying that that's where God heard him from,

from the temple. At this point in David's life, he hasn't built a temple yet. There's still, God is still in a tabernacle. So this is what I mean by, I've said this on multiple days now, as we've been in the Psalms. The Psalms are pro-David and pro-temple, okay? Pro-Jerusalem, pro-Judah. And for anybody who's been rocking with the podcast for a while, you know that there's political turmoil between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. So when I say pro-Judah, I mean politically pro-Judah. All right, then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundation also of the mountain trembled and quaked, because God was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, okay? So this is where God, God's nostrils are going to come in. So all this language, smoke went up from his nostrils, devouring fire from his mouth, glowing coals, flame forth from him. This is a poetic retelling of these battles that David has won. David is saying, it wasn't just me on the battlefield with my sword or my shield or me hiding in a cave. No, God was my rock. God was my fortress, God was my stronghold. And from his temple, he heard my voice. This temple's not even built yet. What else? The earth reeled and rocked, okay?

And quaked, so there's an earthquake, okay? The mountains trembled. Smoke went out from his nostrils, glowing coals, flame forth from him. Did these things literally happen? No, but what David is saying is God fought our battles for us. This is a poetic way to say, he bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode our cherub and flew. He came swiftly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness, his covering around him. His canopy thick clouds, dark with water. It's describing a war scene, okay? Did Yahweh literally do this? No, Yahweh didn't literally do this. And he says, the Lord also thundered in the heavens in the most high uttered his voice. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them. That'd be my enemies. He flashed his forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen. Which means all the dry, the water was dried up and he could see the channels of the sea. He flashed forth lightnings and routed them. The foundations of the world were laid bare. You can begin to see Samuel, the book, the books of First Second Samuel tell us about these battles that David has won. These victories that David has had, okay?

And the context in the title right up at the top says, "So the leader, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies and from the hand of Saul." So all this conflict between David's enemies and Saul is in the historical books or the form of prophets, books like First Second Samuel. And none of it includes thunder and lightning and any of this stuff. But David is saying, no, no, no. That was happening behind the scenes. It was not just me and my men fighting in the dirt or fighting in the soil or fighting against the Philistines or fighting against Saul or running away. No, no, God was doing all of this. for the timeless truth. But I think a lot of us should have this perspective that David had, that the story that history tells and the story that my soul sings out to the Lord is different for, you know, sometimes I'll say, you know, God gave us a miracle. My son is a miracle. And then people start asking questions and I'm like, oh, we did IVF. And they're like, oh, then it wasn't a miracle. And I'm like, yeah, you don't understand, you know, get it in terms of the facts of history, we did IVF. But in terms of the story that my soul sings to the Lord, it's a total miracle.

And David's doing the same thing. If you just look at what happened historically, there was no thunder, there was no lightning, there was no cherubim, there were no angels, there was none of that. This is almost the Psalm is almost apocalyptic in nature because the word apocalyptic means unveiling that there are things in the spiritual realm that's happening that our natural eyes can't see. And when God gives us an apocalypse, he gives us a revelation of the things that our natural eyes cannot see. And a lot of times when God gives us an apocalypse, it's not to tell us about the end of the world, but it's to open our eyes to the spiritual realm that's happening all around us. This is kind of what's happening in the Psalm. I think it's really dope. I actually really, really like it. One little nerdy nugget that I wanna key in on, when David says smoke went up from his nostrils, okay? That is verse eight of this Psalm, of Psalm 18. Smoke went out from his nostrils, okay? Nostrils and wrath are connected ideas in the Hebrew Bible. A lot of times, writers in the Bible are gonna say that God, that Yahweh is slow to anger, okay? Slow to anger. And in Hebrew that exact term is Eric Apayim, okay? Eric Apayim, slow to anger that God is Eric Apayim. And those words, Eric Apayim actually mean long nostrils.

So when the Bible says that God's slow to anger, that's not just a translation, but an interpretation. If it was to get translated perfectly from Hebrew to English, it would just mean God has long nostrils. But none of us would know what that means, okay? Because it's a Hebrew idiom. And so the Bible interpreters or the translators, they don't just translate it, they interpret it, okay? And when they interpret it, they're saying he's slow to anger. So there's this connection when God is Eric Apayim, he's slow to anger, which means he has long nostrils. But then when steam or when smoke come out from his nostrils and he's a fire-breathing dragon, it's he has built up wrath over time and that wrath is finally released on his enemies. And David is saying for all of the nations that have opposed him, God finally responded in his wrath, okay? So that's a little nerdy nugget. One other thing we can actually now go to Psalm 19, okay? So that's the last nerdy nugget from Psalm 18. And now we're gonna go to Psalm 19. I really love Psalm 19. By the way, Psalm 18 is super long, okay? It's like the Psalm that never ends. But Psalm 19 starts with this, okay? The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day, poor, they pour forth speech. And night to night declares knowledge.

There is no speech nor are there words, but their voice is not heard. Their voice is not heard. Yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens, he has set a tent for the sun. So this is all about creation. And here's the nerdy nugget that I wanna pull out of Psalm 19 is that according to like kind of Hebrew, I would say tradition, rabbis would say, there are two books that God wrote. The first is creation. And the second is the Torah, okay? So God wrote two books. And the creation tells of the creator and the Torah tells of the author, okay? So Paul is gonna pick up on this big time in Romans chapter one, okay? So I wanna read for you Romans chapter one verses 18 to 20. Says this, again, talking about the wrath of God. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them. Why, why is it plain? Because God has made it plain to them. How? have been clearly seen, okay? Being understood from what has been made, okay? Again, the creation tells of the invisible qualities. The visible creation is bearing testimony of the invisible

God. So no one is without excuse, okay? That's what Paul says, so that people are without excuse. Now maybe you're someone who's like, how could God send people to hell? How can God part his wrath and God goes, well, even if they never read the Bible, guess what they are reading? Creation. The trees tell of the glory of God. The stars tell of the beauty of God. The order of creation tells of the order of this God. The intentionality of creation tells us about the intentionality of this God that we know as Yahweh, okay? So rabbis will call this the two books and you can hear this all throughout Psalm 19. It says, and then it gets to verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is clear in lightening the eyes when it says the commandment of the Lord is clear. I always say this, guess what? Don't obsess over the parts of the Bible that you're confused about. How about this? Just obey the parts that are clear, okay? The psalmist says it's the commandments of the Lord are clear. I'm not going to stress out about the parts I don't understand and use the parts I don't understand as a reason to not obey the parts that are very easily understandable. And if this happens all the time, let's say, you know, 80% of what the Bible says is clear and understandable. People will use that 20% that's mysterious or hard to understand as a reason to not obey the 80%. And it's like, well, you know, I don't know if the Bible really teaches, you know, fill in the blank. And it's like, I hear you, but you're kind of minoring. You're kind of majoring in the minors instead of keeping the main thing, the main thing, okay? The commandments of the Lord are clear in lightening the eyes. The feet of the Lord is pure and during forever. The ordinance of the Lord. So, so what happens is the top of the psalm is all about telling us about the book called creation. And the end of the psalm is all about this book called the Torah, okay? So two books. And then we get to Psalm 20, which is another royal psalm that actually gets lived out by Hezekiah in 2 Kings chapter 19 and Isaiah chapter 37. So let's go to Psalm chapter 20. And again, this is a Messianic Psalm. So we're going to see the relationship between Yahweh and his Messiah, David. Family, the weight is over. My brand new book Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and 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 going to 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. The Lord answered you in the day of trouble. The name of the Lord of Jacob protects you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion. May He remember all your offerings in regard with favor your burnt sacrifices. May He grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. May we shout for joy over your victory. And in the name of our God, set up our banners, may the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed, his Messiah. He will answer him from his holy heaven with mighty victories by his right hand. Some take pride in chariots and summon horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God. Okay, they will collapse and fall and we will rise and stand upright. Give victory to the king, oh Lord, answer us when we call. So this Psalm is all about what is the king to do when the king is in distress. Well, the king is to realize that they're not really the king, there is no one, there is no one, there is no one, there is no one, there is And because Yahweh is the king, what we do when we're in trouble is we don't go to a Syria for chariots. We don't go to Egypt for help. We don't go to other nations for military help. We go to the Lord because some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God. And you can see this, that even though David now has a lot to lose, he's got that same energy that he had when he defeated Goliath when he was a young boy, which is, you come against me and with the sword spear and javelin, I come against you in the name of the Lord God Almighty.

Hezekiah centuries later is gonna be threatened by a man named Sennacherib from Assyria. You can read all about it in 2 Kings 19 or Isaiah 37. And it looks like Assyria is going to conquer Judah, but Hezekiah seeks the Lord. And the Lord saves Israel. The Lord saves his people. And this is a picture that Hezekiah years later is walking in the footsteps of King David, that David sets this precedent, that when the nations surround you and you're in trouble, when they seed you, when there's a serious military threat, don't go to allies who God has not actually appointed to be your ally. Go to Him and look for the miracle. God will defend you. God will be the one who is your refuge in your strength. One of the massive themes here is going to be loyalty. And this is moving into our Thomas truth. Okay, so this is our Thomas truth for the day. Massive theme for all these Psalms is loyalty, that salvation, okay? The word salvation is gonna get used a ton in these Psalms 'cause God is able to save Israel from military defeat in that salvation. That salvation comes by loyalty. And that is also a New Testament idea. There's this, it's not a tiny little book. It's a good book.

It's called Salvation by Allegiance Alone by Matthew W. Bates. And he begins to argue that that word faith in Greek, which is pistis, that when we are saved by grace through faith, that word that Paul writes about pistis faith is not just belief, but it's actually loyalty. So he wrote this book called Salvation by Allegiance Alone. And so this idea that salvation comes through loyalty, through fidelity, through allegiance. That's not just an Old Testament idea. That's not just a Psalm 18, 19, and 20 idea, but that is a timeless truth. That salvation doesn't just come by me making Jesus my savior, but by me making Jesus my Lord. And what it means for him to be Lord is that I've pledged allegiance to him. I've devoted my loyalty to him. It's not enough for me to just say, yeah, I believe in God. The Bible says this, even the demons believe, but they are not saved. So believing is actually not enough. There's a lot of people who believe in Jesus as their savior, but they have not surrendered their life in loyalty and allegiance to Jesus as king. If you wanna know another book that dives into that as an idea, it's called King Jesus Gospel by Scott McKnight. So Matthew W. Bates wrote a great book called Salvation by Allegiance Alone. Scott McKnight wrote an amazing book called The King Jesus Gospel.

I think that both of those will help you round out your theology so that we're not just preaching the gospel of Jesus' savior, but actually preaching the gospel of Jesus as king. And if he's king, that means he demands and deserves our unwavering loyalty. That's our timeless truth for the day. I'll see you tomorrow on day 259. You're gonna dive into Psalms 21 to 23 tomorrow. I'll be right here, same time, same place. Can't wait to see you. If you're on a streak, you already know what I'm about to say. I'm super, super proud of you. For all the people who are on the streak, so, so proud. If you're not on a streak, today's the best day to start. How about you? Make sure that you get two days in a row and then don't break your streak. I love you so much. I'll see you tomorrow. 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 thebobaldapartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. (electronic music) You