Day 265: Psalms 39-41 | 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) - Hey, Emily, welcome to day 265. You know what that means? We had 100 days left, hello, that's crazy. You've made it so far. Welcome to day 265. Soon and very soon, we'll be saying day 365, isn't that crazy? So, today we've got three Psalms. We've got Psalm 39, 40, and 41. Hey, if you've done the reading, good job, we'll dive right into context clues and know the nuggets in our timeless truth. If you haven't done the reading, hey, stop the video, pause the audio, go, do the reading. Really, really, really interesting Psalms that we've got in front of us today. And we are at the close of book one. Okay, we're at the close of the first book of Psalms. Remember, way, way, way, way, way back when I told you that Psalms isn't just a book, but it is a collection of Psalms. The book of Psalms is kind of different than any other book of the Bible. It doesn't function like a book that you would just read through.

And so even the way that we're engaging the Psalms for this study, isn't the natural or normal way to engage Psalms? Like, think about it. If you found a hymnal at church, you wouldn't just read through it, right? You would select a hymnal based on what the sermon is or based on what's happening in church, or based on the holiday, whether it's Easter or Christmas. So the Psalms are all designed to be sung at certain moments. And for the most part, I've tried to give you context on when those Psalms are sung, but I just need everybody to know we are walking through the Psalms in not the most natural way, right? Like we're reading them, you know, Psalm by Psalm or grouping of Psalms together. So you're doing great, you're doing awesome. If you haven't read the assigned Psalms for the day, go do that, come back. I promise you'll have so much more context on what we are talking about. Let me give you some context on these three Psalms. Oh yeah, sorry. Way back when I told you there are five, five collections of Psalms. And so Psalm number one, all right? Psalm one, all the way to Psalm 41

is the first book of the Psalms, okay? And then tomorrow we'll start book two, which will be Psalm 42 all the way to Psalm 72, okay? So we've just studied 41 of the Psalms and these first 41 Psalms all encapsulate like book one of the Psalms. Tomorrow we will start our journey into book two. In the same way there are five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, there are five books of the Psalms because the Psalms are designed to bring the Torah to life. Okay, bring the Torah to life. So all right, let's talk about the specific Psalms and I'll give as much context as I can to kind of help us out. Let's start at Psalm 39. When we go to Psalm 39, there's gonna be a heading. It's gonna say this, for the director of music, for jettison, a psalm of David, for jettison. Well, who's jettison? I'm so glad you asked. Jettison is mentioned two times, first chronicles chapter 16, verse 41 to 42, and first chronicles verse chapter 25, verses one to three. All right, when we go to first chronicles chapter 16, verse 41 says this, "With them were hymn and jettison "and the rest of those chosen and designated by name "to give thanks to the Lord, "for his love endures forever."

Hymn and jettison were responsible for the sounding of the trumpets and symbols and for the playing of the other instruments for sacred song. The sons of jettison were stationed at the gate, okay? So jettison is an MD. He's a worship leader. He is assigned to the task. He's joining the rest of the Levites when the people of God, And it says this, if you go all the way up to verse 40, says to present burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly, morning and evening, in accordance with everything written in the law of the Lord, which he had given Israel with them were he, men, and jettathon, okay? So this is happening during offering time. First Chronicles 25 is another place where jettathon is mentioned. First Chronicles, chapter 25, and starting in verse one, David together with the commanders of the army set apart some of the sons of Asaph, even in jettathon for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, liars, and symbols. And I've even found this today. There's so many worship leaders who really have a prophetic gift on their life. These gifts tend to go together.

I don't have any like theological rule for that. It's just kind of like an anecdotal thing, okay? So we can see jettathon is set apart for the ministry of prophesying that there's something about singing. And when you hear prophecy, I don't want you to think foretelling. I want you to actually think a prophetic gift is a gift of encouragement, it's a gift to build up, it's a gift of discernment. It's a gift that begins to bring direction into someone's life. So it's not about foretelling, like I know your future, it's about foretelling, it's about I know the truth. And a lot of times people that have prophesied to me, they know the truth. They know, man, you're really called to be a senior pastor. Man, you're a man of integrity, they know the truth. So often when we think about the truth, we're thinking about things that we're ashamed of. Like, oh, you're gonna say something that I don't want another person to know. But I think a lot of times when we think about the truth, we actually mean the opposite of whatever the lie of the enemy is. So the truth is typically very, very encouraging. Okay, so this is why a prophetic gift should be encouraging. The New Testament is gonna say that prophetic gifts are edifying, which means they build up.

Okay, so if someone's using a prophetic gift and it's tearing people down or it's discouraging people, they may even be saying words that are true, but in our spirit, that's just not the kind of spirit that builds people up, okay? So singing, playing instruments, leading worship in song, prophesying, I've just noticed that these gifts just go together, okay? So that's just context on the heading. They'll be getting Psalm 39, okay? So that's just, who's Jonathan? Here we go. First Chronicles 16 and first Chronicles 25 gives us context for this character here. Last context clue we'll give and then we'll get into some nerdy nuggets. Psalm 40 and 41, the big thing that we need to remember is that these Psalms are closing book one, okay? So we are gonna see that these are perfect Psalms to close this first movement of this collection of poetry. Psalm 40 and 41 will close out the book and we'll talk about why this is a perfect close to this first book. All right, let's get into some nerdy nuggets. Psalm 40 is gonna mark a massive shift and I want us to put that shift in the context of the fact that we are closing out book one of the Psalms, okay? So there's a massive shift from the beginning of the book of Psalms up until this point,

there's been this theme of believing for and waiting for the deliverance of Yahweh. Tons of lines on, I'm waiting for the Lord. God, but my trust is in you, my hope is in you. I won't be put to shame by waiting on the Lord. We wait to see the day of salvation. We're longing to see the day of deliverance, right? That's been a massive theme, almost like there's tension and that tension is about to get resolved, okay? So I want you to think about each Psalm is gonna resolve itself like a good song always has a good resolution at the end, but the entire movement of the Psalms functions that way as well. And where there's been this longing, longing, longing, longing, longing, longing, longing, longing. It's like, man, we've carried this longing for 40 chapters and now the deliverance and the salvation that we've been believing for and waiting for. In Psalm 40, we are finally praising God for it. So we get an immediate shift. So I want you to look at Psalm 40. We're gonna start reading in verse one. I waited patiently for the Lord. Yeah, you've been waiting patiently for the Lord for 40 Psalms, okay? 40 Psalms have been, I've waited, I waited, I waited, I waited, I waited. Okay? heard us. Yes, he has. He drew me up from the desolate pit out of the mirey bog and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. So now, instead of this longing, long,

long, we have a clear testimony. The longing is over. The waiting is over. What has God done? God drew me up from the desolate pit out of the mirey bog and set my feet upon a rock and he made my steps secure. This is this testimony of David's life. And honestly, this is the testimony of anyone's life that has experienced the salvation of God. Like I was lost. I was in despair. I was stuck in a desolate pit. I was in the mud. I was in the clay and God pulled me out. I want to read it in the NIV. He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. Verse four, "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside the false gods." Well, this has been the consistent theme throughout the entire first book of the Psalms that the person who trusts in the Lord won't be put to shame. If there's like a repeated theme that's been here all the way through the Psalms is that the person who puts their trust in the Lord won't be put to shame, won't be put to shame, won't be put to shame. And what do we find? Finally at chapter 40, the person who's been waiting on God has been delivered. Many, verse five, "Many, Lord, my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you. Were I to speak and tell of your deeds, there would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering? You do not desire. But my ears, you have opened." This is the lesson that Psalms is teaching us. Psalms and sacrifices you don't desire. I mean, we'll give them to you, but that's not really what you want. Not in comparison to ears that are inclined to hear. But offerings and sin offerings, you don't require. Then I said, "Here I am. I have come and has written about me in the scroll, I desire to do your will, my God. Your law is within my heart. Uproclaim your saving acts in the great assembly." Say, "I want to tell about your salvation." And then how does chapter 40 end? It ends full circle. But as for me, I'm pouring meaty. May the Lord think of me, "You are my help and my deliverer. You are my God. Do not delay. Do not delay. Wait a second. I thought that God finally met your need. I thought that God finally delivered you. I thought that God finally, like you waited on the Lord." And then he attended to your cry, like he answered your prayer. And here are the psalmist's again. No, I'm back in the position of a petitioner. I'm poor. I'm needy. I need the Lord to think of me. God, don't delay. So now the psalmist is back waiting again. We've come full circle.

The psalm has literally come full circle. So we started with the words, I waited patiently, and we end with the words, "Do not delay." So the psalmist is back to waiting. And if there's one big theme that we can highlight, it's obviously those who wait on the Lord won't be put to shame, but that worshiping the Lord is waiting on the Lord. It's not just singing songs, but it's actually waiting on him and declaring, "Even if I don't get an answer from him, I'm not going to go to other sources because I care not just about getting my need met, but who meets my need?" And God, you're the only one who can meet my need. There's no one else. There's no other source. You alone are the one who can meet my needs. And my faithfulness in relationship to you is seen by my steadfastness, my resolute behavior when it comes to not allowing anybody else to meet my needs. I'll kind of make that plain. You know, my dad, I never really knew of my dad was a Christian or not because my dad battled with a drug addiction. And I don't know if my dad loved God more than my dad just wanted to be sober. And so for a season, my dad was going to the mosque because he was like, "Man, you know, when I go to the mosque, man, I won't be getting high." And so my dad didn't really care about worshiping God. And his only goal was to not get high. But when I lived in Uganda, I lived in Uganda for five months. They would tell us that like people come to church, struggling with infertility, and if God didn't heal them and give them kids, they would go to the witch doctor. And the witch doctor would get them pregnant. And because for them, they didn't care about whether or not their child was a gift from God, they just cared about having a child. And this is the heart of idolatry. It's when there's something that we want, and it's a good thing. I want to be free from drugs or I want children. So we want a good thing,

but then we allow sources that aren't God to give us that good thing. See, I don't care if it's God or Allah, our worship whoever gets me free from drugs. That's dangerous. That means you care more about getting free from drugs than you care about loving God. You care more about having children than you care about loving God. Allegiance to God says, I don't care more about the source that meets my need than I care about the fact that my need got met. No, no, no, no. I will only let God meet this need. I will not let an illegitimate source meet a legitimate need. A lot of people, they don't have illegitimate needs. They have legitimate needs. I remember there was a youth leader at our church for a long time. Her name was Pam. And she was dating this heathen dude. These guys just not saved. And I remember saying to her like, you can't date this unsaved guy. And she literally looked at me and said, PM, I know, I just been lonely for too long. I've been alone for too long. And I love God, but God gonna have to give me a pass. And she started dating this dude.

And of course, it didn't end well. Like she walked away from the Lord. She tasted and saw that God was good, but then decided, nope, I have a legitimate need called loneliness. And I'm gonna meet that legitimate need with an illegitimate source. And we've got a lot of people who try to make the source legitimate by legitimizing the need. And the nuance of, nope, that's a legitimate need, camaraderie, friendship, peace, you know, that's a legitimate need, sex, whatever it is, legitimate need, freedom from drugs, children, legitimate desire, legitimate need. But the source is totally illegitimate. And the psalmist here saying, there's only one God, not only that can meet my need, but that I will allow to meet my need. And that's the real test of worship. Not just will you sing to the Lord, but will you wait on Him to be the one who actually meets all of the legitimate needs that you have. All right, that's by the way, that's the time that's true. That's not just true here in Psalm chapter 40 and 41. That's true forever that we have legitimate needs that we try to fill in illegitimate ways. And a lot of times God doesn't have an issue with the need. And sometimes maybe I'll even say this, I'm sorry if there are church leaders who try to make people feel guilty for their legitimate needs

because sometimes in our passion to preach and help people to manage and steward their legitimate needs, we can make those needs feel like they're illegitimate. And the reality is that the need is not illegitimate, but the way that we're going about getting it met is illegitimate. And sometimes we can preach against the need or the desire, but I don't think God preaches against the need or the desire. I think He preaches against the source or how we could begin to meet our own needs. And I think that's the issue. Sambley, 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 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 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 41, Psalm 41 is gonna appear like a psalm of lament, but when we get down to verse 12, okay? When we get to Psalm 41, verse 12, everything's gonna shift. So everything's been like a psalm of lament, but it's actually not a psalm of lament because everything's gonna change. but you have upheld me because of my integrity and set me on in your presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. And those words right there, amen and amen, bring a close to the first book of the Psalms. Book one, Psalm one, all the way to Psalm 41, ends with these words, amen and amen. So this appears to be a psalm of lament. We get all kinds of classic moments of lament, but really when we get down into it, Psalm 41 is actually not a psalm of lament, but it's a psalm of thanksgiving. And so book one of Psalms ends with praise and thanksgiving and it ends with these words, amen and amen. All right, our timeless truth is actually brought to us by Psalm 39. Teaches us to count our days. These can be really difficult words.

Psalm 39 kind of has some themes of Job, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, all mixed in. Psalm 39, it says this in verse four. Show me Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. God let it be ever before me just how short life is. Just how quick life goes by. You have made my days a mere hand breath. The span of my years is as nothing before you. Then that sound like Ecclesiastes, vapor, vapor, right? Like as when it's a cold day and you blow breath, as fast as that like vapor that's visible disappears, that's how quick life is. You have made my days a mere hand breath. The span of my years is as nothing before you. Why? Because God's eternal. So compared to a being who's eternally present, past and future, our life is but a hand breath. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. Okay, so what's the great equalizer? The great equalizer for all of us is that life is a vapor, life's a breath. And why is that a time is truth? Because time and the scarcity of time helps us to make the most of our days. I don't know if you've ever watched this movie, it's called The Old Guard, came out on Netflix a couple of years ago. The Old Guard II, the sequel, came out maybe a couple of weeks ago.

It's about these beings that are eternal. And one of the things that they long for is death because as long as there is no death, there's no appreciation of the time that they have with loved ones that death actually gives us this massive appreciation. My son won't be for forever. I won't be in this season forever. There are certain things that we have to hold as holy. And so the psalmist says he's actually asking a pretty deep philosophical question in Psalm 39. And that is Lord, help me to really grasp just how fleeting my life is. 'Cause if I think, oh, I can fix that tomorrow, or I can fix that tomorrow, or I can fix that tomorrow. No, wisdom says tomorrow's not promised to you. Today is the day of salvation. Get right with God today, repent today, confess today. Be honest about your sin today. Don't put off for tomorrow what can be done today. And you've gotta take advantage of the time that you have today because a lie of the enemy is, oh, you can fix that some other time. You can kick that habit another time, or you can make amends of that person later. You can reconcile later. But actually wisdom says, no, teach me Lord to know how fleeting my days are so that I could take advantage of the time that you've given me as a gift.

And I love these wisdom psalms because I love wisdom. And so I love the fact that worship and wisdom go hand in hand. And we begin to see that the more and more we study the psalms in depth. All right, tomorrow is day 266. We've got psalms 42 to 44, okay? 42 to 44. So Psalm 42, Psalm 43, Psalm 44 is what we've got on the docket tomorrow. Day 266 is gonna be fantastic. We'll officially be in book two of the psalms. Can't wait to see tomorrow if you're on a streak. I'm so proud of you. If you're not on a streak, Dr. Mane is still proud of you. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow, peace. - Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, To learn more about the show, head to thebobbledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. (static) [BLANK_AUDIO]