Day 264: Psalms 36-38 | 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 thebobledapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (tense music) - Family, welcome to day 264 of the Bible Department podcast today. We are looking at three Psalms, Psalm 36, Psalm 37, Psalm 38. If you've already done the reading, then good job. If you haven't done the reading, hey, stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. This podcast is designed to supplement your Boba reading not substitute your Boba reading. I promise that you're gonna get way more out of this podcast experience if you've already interacted with the text. So, Psalm 36, Psalm 37, Psalm 38, like always, I'm gonna give context, AKA context clues, then we'll give some nerdy nuggets. I definitely got a couple of those for you today. And then we'll leave off the episode with a timeless truth. Couple days ago, actually two days ago, we were in Psalm 32 and we had a penitential Psalm. It's a Psalm of personal lament over personal sin. And we're gonna get one of those again today. Psalm 38 is another penitential Psalm.

So, if you remember what I said, two days ago, about Psalm 32, all of the same things apply. And if you're watching this video and you didn't do day 262, then you gotta make sure that you wanna do day 262 'cause when we got to Psalm 32, we really looked at what should our heart towards God be when we've sinned, when we've fallen short. And we're really gonna hit that theme again today in Psalm 38 because we get another penitential Psalm. All right, let's dive into some context clues. First, Psalm 36, we're gonna get this little title right at the top of the Psalm that says servant of Yahweh. This is gonna be a description that we are going to get of David, all right? So, we're gonna get Psalm 36 and then we're in that heading, it's gonna say to the leader, that's obviously the musical director of David and then we're gonna get the servant of the Lord. And that little title right there, the servant of the Lord, this is one of the only times, I think this happens two times in all the Psalms that we get David as described as the servant of the Lord in the heading, just like in the title, okay? And this is actually kind of important, okay? Because there's so many places where other people are gonna be described as the servant of Yahweh. Like Cyrus, okay, is gonna get described as the servant of Yahweh.

Who's not even a Christian, like this is a pagan king, but he gets described as the servant of Yahweh, why? Because Yahweh is gonna use him to do his will, okay? So Cyrus is thinking he's just acting on his own accord, but really he's on Yahweh's chessboard and he's being used by Yahweh. David is essentially saying, I'm a servant of Yahweh, like I'm a pawn here. And again, this just reiterates the fact that David is a man after God's own heart, because he never positions himself as king, he consistently positions Yahweh as king and he is a servant of Yahweh. Now, messianically, that term, a servant of Yahweh is really gonna be used to describe Jesus. And there's gonna be another word that's gonna get tacked onto this, especially in the prophet Isaiah, which is gonna be the suffering servant, okay? So the servant of Yahweh, the suffering servant, the ultimate fulfillment of this little title that David attributes to himself is gonna be found in the person of Jesus. That's this little context clue. It just helps us understand more and appreciate more of Psalm 36. Second, Psalm 37 is a super long acrostic, yes. If you've been rocking with us for multiple days now or at least a week or so on the podcast, as we've dived, dove and dived, divan.

Whatever, as we have doveed, as we've divan, as we've doveed, I don't know how to say it, but as we have been diving into the book of Psalms, I bet one of the things that you've realized is like, man, there's a lot of acrostics, okay? Man, these Jewish people love these acrostics, okay? This is another acrostic, Psalm 37 is another acrostic, but it's even longer than before. Typically, you get 22 double lines, okay? Okay, but in Psalm 37, we are going to actually get 22 stanzas, four lines a piece. So this thing is just this huge. And then we're actually going to get one of these stanzas is going to be five lines, one is going to be six. I mean, it's a massive psalm. And it's just a very, very long acrostic. And by this point, everybody knows what an acrostic means. It means that the author is trying to communicate the full breadth of Thanksgiving or the full breadth of mourning or the full breadth of gratitude. It's trying to communicate the full breadth of whatever the topic is to Yahweh. All right. And then last, well, another thing that we need to know about Psalm 37 is that it is a wisdom psalm. So we're going to get themes of the wicked and the righteous. Okay. And when you think of wisdom, Psalm, you need to think a lot of these ideas that are going to get communicated in books like Proverbs are being communicated here in a Psalm like Psalm 37, but just in poetic form or in song form. Okay. So wisdom and worship really do go together. And you can begin to see that as you dig through the Psalms. Okay. Psalm 38, we're going to get another penitential Psalm, just like Psalm 32. Okay. So actually a good thing for us to do would just be to compare Psalm 32 to Psalm 38. They are both penitential Psalms. However, we're going to get a heading on verse 38, or at the beginning of chapter 38, not verse 38, chapter 38, that says this, a Psalm of David for the memorial offering. Okay. So that means that whoever's bringing a memorial offering, a whole burnt offering to the Lord, they are to sing this song as they are making a sacrifice to the Lord. Okay. So David is adding music to the memorial offering. Now, if you need context for the memorial offering, there are a couple of places where you can go to find context. Okay. Leviticus chapter two, verse two, Leviticus chapter two, verse nine, Leviticus chapter two, verse 16, Leviticus chapter five, verse 12, Leviticus chapter six, verse 15, Leviticus chapter 14,

sorry, Leviticus chapter 24, verse seven, and then numbers chapter five, verse 26. All outline, like what the memorial offering is. Okay. And so this Psalm was written to accompany said sacrifices. Memorial portions were always part of grain offerings that at times accompanied animal sacrifices or even replacing an animal sacrifice if the petitioner could not afford to sacrifice an animal. Most of the grain of these sacrifices would be given to the priests and the Levites or baked into bread for the show table within the holy place. Yet a portion of the grain is to be given to Yahweh and that it is burnt on the altar. This is the memorial offering that the title of the Psalm refers to. And the idea of adding this grain or this bread to your sacrifice is the concept that part of making restitution with God is eating with him. Okay. So the sacrifice isn't just a time where we do a bonfire. Actually, the bonfire of offering the animal to the Lord is saying, well, the fire represents the Lord eating his portion. And now I'm going to sit here and eat my portion. And this meal communicates that I am now at peace with God. I don't know if you've ever been in the middle of a meal and you've gotten into an argument with somebody. And it's almost like you just want to get up and leave the table because part of anger means that you don't really want to eat with people. Eating with people is a sign of peace. And so you and God are now at peace because you're able to sit together and eat together again. I don't know if you've ever been you know gotten in a place in life where you're like, I'm just too angry to eat. Like or like I got into an argument in the middle of a meal and it just kind of ruined my appetite. Okay. So this idea of food being a place of reconciliation and peace between you and God is a massive part of the context for Psalm 38. Okay. And we'll talk about this really when we get to our timeless truth, I promise. I'll leave us on a cliffhanger right here, but we'll pick it up and we get to our timeless truth. All right, let me give you some nerdy nuggets, our big nerdy nugget for Psalm 36. You can go to Psalm 36. We can just like read it a little. Psalm 36 verse one says this, transgression speaks to the wicked. So like, with whatever sin has to say, that'll preach right there. Deep in their hearts, there is no fear of God before their eyes, okay? And they flatter themselves in their own eyes and this is pride that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

So it's like I'm able to keep my sin a secret, okay? This is the lie that sin tells those who are wicked. The words of their mouth are mischief and deceit. They have ceased to act wisely and do good. So you can already see these themes of wisdom, right? Now Psalm 37 is gonna be a full wisdom psalm, but you can already see in Psalm 36, these themes of wisdom, they cease to act wisely and do good. They plot mischief while on their beds. They are set on a way that is not good. They do not reject evil, okay? Now we're gonna start talking to Yahweh, okay? In verse five, your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds, your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep, okay? So remember we talked about Hebrew parallelism, we're actually gonna get some really, really, really cool parallelism here in verse six, because your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, okay? So righteousness is like the mighty mountains. What's parallel with righteousness? Next line, your judgment, okay? So we get synonymous parallelism. Righteousness and judgment are synonymously parallel, but the great deep is the opposite of the mountains. So if you have two lines, we have synonymous parallelism at the beginning of the line, but then antithetical parallelism at the back half of the line, which means this song has both synonymous

and antithetical parallelism in one verse, okay? That's verse six, your righteousness is like mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep. So these ideas are opposites, but these ideas are synonymous. If you go up a verse to verse five, your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. So, and then your faithfulness to the clouds. So steadfast love and faithfulness are synonymous parallel, synonymous parallels because we've got synonymous parallelism and then heavens and clouds are synonymous. So we've got synonymous, synonymous, synonymous, synonymous, synonymous, antithetical, okay? So this just makes the poetry really, really interesting. You save humans and animals alike, O Lord. So the next line, how precious is your steadfast love, O Lord? Okay, why does the author talk again about God's steadfast love? Because now we know what steadfast love even means, okay? This is our nerdy nugget for the day. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. So steadfast love is faithfulness. So the way that we know that God has love is not 'cause we got goosebumps, it's because he's faithful, okay? So steadfast love and faithfulness, same thing. But then your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. Wait a second, now this like an onion, the author wants us to understand what love is. So he says, love is faithfulness, but love is also righteousness.

And then last, your judgments are like the great deep. Wait a second, that's a curveball. I didn't necessarily associate God's judgments with his steadfast love. But the author is saying, no, God's steadfast love is seen in its faithfulness, it's seen in his righteousness, and it is seen in his judgments. So why does God judge, 'cause of his steadfast love? Wait, why does God, why is God righteous because of his steadfast love? Why is God faithful because of his steadfast love? And now that you know what steadfast love is, now verse seven, How precious is your steadfast love, O God? All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Now, this psalm, 100% begins to define for us what steadfast love is. And I could use this as a timeless truth because we're currently living in a society that just doesn't know what love is. We throw the word love around a lot. Well, you know, I'm in love with that person and we're in love and, you know, you can't stop love and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Love this, love that, love that, love this, you know. And everyone just kind of defines love in their own way. But God says right here in Psalm 36. Well, actually we're gonna use some Hebrew parallelism to define love.

Love is faithfulness. So whoo, if you're not faithful, So love not perfect, but it is faithful. It's faithful. What else is love? Love's righteous. So love has an element of righteousness to it. And then love is judgment. Love knows how to make good judgments. Love, love, love isn't judgment tall, but man, God judges the wicked because he's loving. And if he wasn't loving, then he wouldn't judge the wicked. But a lot of us would say, well, the wrath of God or the judgment of God means that he's not loving. No, no, no, no, no, it means that he is loving, but God's definition of love is that he's righteous. That's awesome, 'cause that's our nerdy nugget for Psalm 36. I love that. 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 book's 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. Psalm 37 verse 11 is our next nerdy nugget and we're gonna see this on the lips of Jesus. Says this, "But the meat shall inherit the land." Okay, so this is gonna be found in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, okay? And delight themselves in abundant prosperity, okay? So it's probably really good for us to know the whole context of the verse before we just go ahead and quote Jesus and think we know what he means, okay? But the meat shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. So anyone who thinks that Jesus is preaching against prosperity and is pro-poverty in the Sermon on the Mount, you may wanna come here and actually look at the context of the verse that Jesus actually quotes.

Just gonna throw it out there as a nerdy nugget. And then last, this nerdy nugget leads right into our timeless truth. And that is the context for Psalm 38, okay? Psalm 38 is an individual lament. It's a penitential Psalm, okay? We're gonna get words like for I am ready to fall. My pain is never before me. I confess my iniquity. I am sorry for my sin. I'm sorry. And these words are to accompany the sacrifice that the petitioner is making before God, okay? So we're gonna go to Psalm 38. I'm just gonna read a little bit of Psalm 38. Oh Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath for your arrows of sunken to me, your conviction, okay? Your hand has come down on me, okay? Your judgment, you judge, you're judging the sin of me. Why? 'Cause of your steadfast love. Let's go right back up to the previous Psalms that we've already studied, okay? There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. Okay, so this is a Psalm of penitence. I'm lamenting over the fact that they're sin in my life, sin in my heart.

My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness. Sorry, let's go back up. For my iniquities have gone over my head. They weigh like a burden too heavy for me. I don't know if you've ever felt just heavy, just depressed, just like there's a heaviness on you when there's unconfessed sin in your life. And where does this ultimately lead, okay? So verse 18, I confess my iniquity. I'm sorry for my sin, those who are my foes without cause are mighty. And many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good. And my adversaries, because I follow after God. Now, in a lot of other Psalms when David is talking about his foes or his adversaries or those who are plotting against him, he's pleading to the Lord to rescue him because David's righteous. He's like, I'm not wicked, I'm righteous. What's fascinating in this Psalm is that David is confessing his sin and asking the Lord for salvation at the same time. Now, I don't know if this applies to any of you, and possible things or for miracles when I know I'm on a string of kind of like living righteously. Like when I feel like, man, I deserve or I've earned, you know, favor, I've won favor with God because I haven't fallen in a sin. And so there's this comfort that I have with God because I feel like my life is right. But I love the fact that David goes, no, no, I don't have confidence to make a bold request of God because my life is right. I have confidence to make bold requests of God even when I'm asking for the forgiveness of my sins. I'll still ask God from

miracles. And I don't know if that just helps anybody else. I have had to ask the Lord to do miraculous things even when I'm in the middle of like seeking forgiveness from God. And God is so merciful and so gracious that he doesn't just give you the gift of forgiveness, but then he blesses you with the gift of whatever miracle you're believing in for as well. Like, think about it. Abraham, after having Ishmael, his only prayer should be, God, just forgive me for not believing in you, for losing faith, for probably having such with Hagar against her will. God, I need your forgiveness. But he doesn't just get forgiveness for his sins. He also gets Isaac. He gets a blessing. And that's how awesome God is that he doesn't just want to forgive you. He wants to forgive you and bless you. And maybe this is, I think this is timelessly true. Sometimes I've got faith to believe God for the impossible because I feel like I'm on a streak of not really sinning a lot. But then in other times where I feel so undeserving of God's miracles, I still have to choose to be just as bold in my prayers and asking God for miracles because theologically, I don't get miracles because I earned it by being good. I get the miraculous power of God in my life because I stay in an intimate close relationship with him and intimacy is going to require that I confess sin. And God has, God does not have unrealistic expectations of you. He doesn't need you to be on a streak of not sinning in order to bless you abundantly. God wants to bless you abundantly even in the middle of you making mistakes and falling short as long as you stay in close proximity to him. And as long as you stay humble before him and don't hide your sin or keep it a secret, but actually confess it. And the real issue with sin isn't really sin. It's shame. When you begin to realize that the backbone of sin's power in your life is shame, you become very transparent, very, very vulnerable. And you begin to realize that I cannot earn blessings from God. What I do earn is intimacy with God through confession. And when I confess and I get close to God, I'm eligible for all kinds of blessings in my life. And God wants me to pray bold prayers. He doesn't just want me to pray bold prayers when I feel like I'm on a streak of holiness. He wants me to pray bold prayers even when I'm dealing with the guilt that comes with missing the mark. And that's not just true for the author of Psalm 38, who's coming to the altar, putting a sacrifice on the altar and singing this Psalm. That's also true for you. That's also true for me. The last thing I wanted to leave us off with is that this idea of a meal shared between the sinner and God is a foreshadow here and gets fulfilled in the fact that Judas, who is about to sin against Jesus,

shares a meal with Jesus even though his heart is completely bent towards sinning against God. And in the same way that Judas gets to enjoy the Last Supper with all the other disciples, we get to enjoy a meal with God even though we have sinned against him. And the only difference between Judas and Peter is not that one of their sin was greater than the other. It's that one of them knew that God was able to forgive. And so Peter seeks the forgiveness and mercy of God, whereas Judas seeks to deal with his sin and his own power and takes his own life. And so because of that, he's not able to receive the promise that we have in Psalm 38, that God is going to give forgiveness to the penitent. All right, that's true. be looking at Psalms 39 40 and 41. I think it's gonna be great. I can't wait to hang out with you and dig into these next three Psalms together. If you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. If you're not on a streak, I'm so proud of you. I love you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. 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 thebobledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. [BLANK_AUDIO]