Day 269: Psalms 51-53 | 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) Family, welcome to day 269 on the Bible department podcast. We're gonna be looking at three Psalms today. We're back with some Psalms of David. All three of the Psalms that we've got today are Psalms of David. And we're gonna be looking at Psalm 51, 52 and 53. If you have not done the reading, I promise you these are amazing Psalms. All three Psalms are honestly really fun to read. So go ahead and do the reading and then come on back. If you need to stop this video or pause the audio, do so and read the three Psalms that are assigned to today's reading plan. All right, for those of you who have done the reading, we're gonna dive into context clues and then Nerdy Nuggets. And then we're always gonna get into our time as truth. Now, we haven't gotten some of David's Psalms in a long time. And we're gonna get two Psalms today that literally tell us the context of the Psalm right in the title or the heading. So that's awesome.

So let's tackle Psalm 51, okay? It says, "For the director of music, a Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba." So the title or the heading of this Psalm tells us the exact context, tells us exactly what took place. Now, if you need a background for this, you can find this entire story. In second Samuel chapter 11, starting in verse one, all the way to chapter 12, verse 20. For those of you who may not know, okay? The story starts that in the springtime when kings go off to war. So David is supposed to be with all the other kings going off to war. But it says this, that David remained in Jerusalem. So we already know this is already bad. We don't need to know what happens next, but the setup is definitely for something bad to take place. And if all the men are off to war with the king, then it would mean that it'd be natural for women to be bathing on their roof 'cause they know that there aren't many men in Jerusalem. And the only person with a house who's the house is high enough or elevated enough to see Bathsheba would be David. And David inquires about this woman who he sees bathing.

He asked his servants, who's that? And they let him know that's Uriah's wife. And not even like they say, hey, that's Bathsheba. Nope, that's Uriah's wife. And David calls for her anyway. A lot of people would argue that David rapes Bathsheba. A lot of people would say that David commits adultery with Bathsheba. Either way, it is a sin, she gets pregnant. And David calls Uriah from the front lines, tries to get Uriah to have sex with his wife, to try to convince Uriah that this baby is his and not David. And when that does not go according to plan, Uriah literally refuses to have sex with his wife. David sends Uriah back to the front lines with a letter telling the commander of the army to make sure that Uriah dies in battle. And so not only does David commit a sin of adultery, a sexual sin of adultery, but then commit murder. And whoo, that is just tough, man. And so the prophet Nathan approaches David and has a parable. He says, man, there was a man who had so many lambs. But then somebody came to his house and he was during a banquet and he went out and got the one lamb that his neighbor had. And what should be done of this man? And David goes off like, man, you know, he's got to pay it back, you know,

all these consequences and Nathan just goes, you are the man, right? You have concubines, you have so many women that you have access to Uriah had one wife that he loved and you went and stole that which belonged to Uriah. And so Nathan confronts David about this sin and this psalm is what comes out of that confrontation. And I would argue that this is one of the most famous psalms of David, up there with Psalm 23. I would say Psalm 23 and Psalm 51 are probably "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have my sin and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with his lip and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be wider than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from your sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation to grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God, my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You, God, will not despise. May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, and burnt offerings offered whole. Then bulls will be offered at your altar. And that is Psalm 51. Now, I'm pretty sure in studying 50 plus Psalms, I've not read an entire Psalm. And the reason I read that entire

Psalm is because it is an outline for repentance. And we'll get into that in our timeless truth. But the question is not if we will sin. The question is when we'll sin. All have fallen short of the glory of God. We all make mistakes. We all sin. And when we sin, Psalm 51 should be our outline for how to return to intimacy with God. How to not run away from God when we feel ashamed about our sin, but how to run towards God when we feel ashamed about our sin. And when we feel conviction. So Psalm 51 is not just contextually true, but it is timelessly true. And we'll dive into that in a little bit when we get to our timeless truth. All right. Let's tackle these other two Psalms that we have here. Psalm 52, only 13 Psalms have a historical context title attached to them. Obviously, Psalm 51 was one of them. Psalm 52 is another one. Okay. And here's what's remarkable. Only 13 of these Psalms have this. And what's remarkable is we have two of them side by side. Okay. And Psalm 51 and Psalm 52 book two, by the way, of the Psalms. Book two is unusual in that it has eight of those 13. So the majority of the Psalms that even have some kind of historical context title are found right here in book two of the Psalms. We have two normal titles to begin with to the choir master and a mask of David, then followed with another episode from David's life. It says this, when doing, okay, the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him David has gone to the house of a Himalayk. Now, there's this passage or there's this moment in first sandwich chapter 22 verses six to 23. You can look it up on your own. Okay. When David is on the run from King Saul, the story is told, like I said, in first Samuel chapter 22, verses six to 23, in this story, David and his men were aided by a Himalayk, the priest in the community with him at knob. Saul is later informed, okay, that a Himalayk helps David by an Edomite mercenary named Doeg. Saul then challenged the priest about this treachery or a lack of loyalty, okay, like treason. You could think when you think the word treachery, you can think treason. This act of treason and condemns him to death. Doeg is the one who carries out the execution, healing a Himalayk and 85 priests with him. As well as men, women and children of knob, only one priest escapes this slaughter and that priest's name is Abbey author, the son of a Himalayk. Abbey author is going to become David's Priest and Wendy. Abby author is gonna become the high priest. Another little nerdy nugget is that Abby author is the last of Eli's descendants to be priest or to be high priest.

Remember the prophecy that Samuel has that night that he can't sleep. And he hears a voice of the Lord and Eli tells him, "Say speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." God begins to tell Samuel that Eli's line is gonna be totally wiped out. Well, that doesn't happen immediately because God has always got a grace and process. But Abby author is going to be the last priest in Eli's genealogy, okay? So that's Psalm 51 is a psalm of repentance. Psalm 52 is kind of a Psalm where David's really letting doe egg have it, okay? Why do you boast of evil? You might a hero. Why do you boast all day long? This is a diss track. Pretty much a diss track. This is Kendrick Lamar torch and drink right here, okay? Psalm 52. You love rather than, you love evil rather than good falsehood rather than speaking the truth. You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue. Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin. He will snatch you up and pluck you up from your tent. He will uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous will see and fear and they will laugh at you saying, here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold who trusted in his great wealth

and grew strong by destroying others. So this Psalm is, I guess we could call it like an imprecatory Psalm. So we have one Psalm of David, that's a Psalm of penitence. And then we have a Psalm of David that is a Psalm that is essentially saying that doe egg deserves to die. And that David would do it if he had the opportunity. And then Psalm 53 is a Psalm of wisdom. It's actually an identical repeat of Psalm 14. So when you got time, compare Psalm 14 to Psalm 53. Or if you thought to yourself, this sounds familiar, that's because Psalm 53 and Psalm 14 are identical repeats of each other. Both are wisdom Psalms, which contrast the fools who do not hold God in their thoughts to the wise who do, okay? As in Psalm 14, heart would mean thoughts and reason rather than affection and emotion, okay? There are two differences between the otherwise identical Psalms. Firstly, Yahweh of 14 is here replaced by Elohim, okay? So the titles or the names given to God are different. So we get Elohim swapped in for Yahweh. There are two differences between the otherwise identical Psalms. Firstly, Yahweh of Psalm 14 is here replaced by Elohim. So in the English, Lord becomes God, okay? Whenever the Bible says capital L O R D, that means that the Hebrew word there is Yahweh. Whenever the Bible says God,

that means that the Hebrew word there is Elohim. So this makes 14, chapter 14, Psalm 14, a more intimate Psalm in that God's name, his covenant name is used. Whereas in Psalm 53, his title is used. Secondly, verse 14, five to six is rewritten in Psalm 53, okay? So here's what it says in Psalm 14. It says, "For God is with the generation of the righteous, you would shame the plans of the poor, but Yahweh is his refuge, okay? That now gets changed to this. For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against him, you put them to shame, for God has rejected them." All right, so we get three Psalms here. We get a Psalm of repentance. We get a Psalm of vengeance. And then we get a Psalm of wisdom, okay? That wisdom Psalm starts out in verse one of Psalm 53. A fool says in his heart, "There is no God. They are corrupt and their ways are vile. There is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone is turned away, all have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one." So Psalm 53 is a massive Psalm of wisdom. All right, with that, you got contact, you got nerdy nuggets. Let me give you a timeless truth for the day. Family, the weight is over.

My brand new book, "Crushing Chaos" is out now and available everywhere books are sold. 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. Now, there are some people who definitely think that Psalm 51, when David says that, "Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." Okay, a lot of people would disagree with that. No, you've sinned against Bathsheba, you've sinned against Uriah, you've sinned against a lot of people. A lot of people would say that maybe this Psalm is being written while David is in this moment where the baby that Bathsheba has gets pregnant with via David that God is going to kill this baby. And a lot of people would argue that this line is there because really what David is saying, he's not saying he has not sinned against Bathsheba. He's not saying that he hasn't sinned against Uriah. He's just saying, God, I'm the only one that deserves the punishment. Don't punish Bathsheba. Don't punish the baby. Just punish me. Is another interpretation for these lines. Also, another thing that I want to point out is this, verse 5, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." That line right there has made a lot of people come to the conclusion that David is not a legitimate son of Jesse, but an illegitimate son of Jesse. This also kind of bolsters the point because when Samuel comes to anoint the next king and asks Jesse, "Hey, we're all your sons." Jesse shows Samuel all of his legitimate sons, which would have made sense, doesn't make sense to show the prophet your illegitimate son. But we all know how the story goes. Samuel's not interested in any of these legitimate sons. He's actually there for David. And in this Psalm, David is reminding God that, "Yo, I've been sinful for a long time, man. I was sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely I was sinful at birth." And then ultimately, there's a couple of things that I want to show you in this, our time was truth for the day. Psalm 51 provides a remarkable guideline for true repentance and the fruit that follows when we truly repent. Number one, this is verses 1 and 2, "We get a cry out to God for mercy based on his unchanging love, not based on my good deeds in the past, not based on anything." No, God, I want your mercy because of your unchanging love. I don't deserve anything, but I know that you have unchanging love.

My friend was telling me a story where his wife had gone out of town and left him with like four of their kids. And one of his youngest kids who was four years old at the time was just acting a fool, just like would not listen, just off the rails, just super disobedient. The dad had promised his kid's ice cream like at the beginning of the day. And by the end of the day, the son who was acting off just being super disobedient said, "Are we still going to get ice cream?" And the dad, my friend, says, "Do you think you deserve ice cream?" Like, "Dude, you've gotten in trouble most of the day. Do you think you deserve ice cream?" And the kid says, "No, but you love me." Yeah, I love that. "Do you deserve ice cream?" No, but you love me. What does that kid understand? That kid understands the same thing David understands in Psalm 51. That forgiveness that's about to happen is not according to what I deserve, but it is according to your unfailing love. Your unchanging love, okay? So number two, there's an acceptance and confession of sin. God cannot heal what you hide. So you can't be lying about sin and think that God can forgive you for it. So God eventually obviously gets David to the place of forgiveness and reconciliation because he is accepting and confessing his sin. And then verses 7 to 12, there's a desire to be cleansed, forgiven, and changed. Which, again, that is part and parcel of real repentance. Do you desire to be cleansed, forgiven, and changed? And then lastly, verses 13 to 19, we get real change and testimony. in an increasing desire to worship, okay? I think that when we repent in the right way, in a Psalm 51 way, in the model that we have here in the scriptures, that there's always a testimony of how God uses it for the wider community, okay? So, we ran over our context clue, our nerdy nugget, and our timeless truths, this model for how David repents is not just for David, or just for the generations directly following, it's actually a good model for you and for I, because, let me say again, it's not about if you're gonna sin, it's when. We all are committing sins against God all the time. It may not look like murder and rape, but there's still areas of our life that don't look

like Jesus because there's active sin in our life. And so, a road map, if you're like, I don't even know how to talk to God once I sin. I'm just so ashamed, I don't know what to say. How about you really dive into Psalm 51, 'cause I really think it'll give you helpful language for how to begin to talk to God about the sin in your life. And that is timelessly true, forever and ever and ever. All right, family, tomorrow we've got day 270. We're gonna be looking at Psalms 54 and 55 and 56. Psalm 54 to 56. It's gonna be amazing about you. I hope that you enjoy reading those Psalms. I'll enjoy creating the content on tomorrow's podcast episode for sure. Love you guys so much. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you're not on a streak, I'm still proud of you, but I also want you to get on a streak. So how about you do that? All right, family, I'll see you tomorrow, right here for day 270. 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 thebobaldapartment.com.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow. (upbeat music) (keyboard clicking) [BLANK_AUDIO]