Day 270: Psalms 54-56 | 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 270. We are gonna look at three of David's Psalms today here at the Bible Department. I'm super, super excited. Hey, if you haven't done the reading today, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go do the reading. Today we are reading Psalm 54, 55 and 56, three short Psalms. These would also be like Psalms of Lumet. And so they're probably not gonna get you fired up, but they're important, they emphasize and they express the full spectrum of human emotion. We're gonna dive into some of those human feelings today. All right? So if you have done the reading, let's dive in. Let's get into context clues. Like every day, I'm gonna give you context for what we're reading. And then we're gonna dive into some nerdy nuggets, maybe some things that you wouldn't have picked up if you're reading on your own. And then we'll end the episode with a timeless truth. So context clues, like you probably are aware of

at this point, we've looked at 53 Psalms. There are these headings at the top of the Psalms, okay? So Psalm 54 is gonna have one of these headings. I'll read it straight out of my Bible. It says for the director of music with stringed instruments, a maskle of David. So we know that this is something written by David. And then it gives this little phrase. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, is not David hiding among us, right? I'll say that one more time. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, is not David hiding among us. So that is the context for this Psalm, okay? David writes this Psalm based on that life scenario. So where is that life scenario found? I'm so glad that you asked. It is found in 1 Samuel chapter 23 verses 14 to 25. 1 Samuel chapter 23 verses 14 to 25. And of course, I've got Psalm 54 pulled up in this Bible, but I've got 1 Samuel chapter 23 pulled up in this Bible. And so if we go, you can go ahead and read. I'll read it straight from my Bible. 1 Samuel chapter 23, we can start reading at verse 14. David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the desert of Ziph. Here we go. He worked Ziph, okay? And if you go day after day, Saul searched for him,

but God did not give David into Saul's hands. While David was at Horsesh in the desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. Okay, so Saul is adamant about trying to murder David. This is not a game. Okay, David is on the run for his life. He is desperately trying to not die at the hands of Saul. And then if you drop all the way to 19, the Ziphites, okay? Went up to Saul at Gibbia and said, is not David hiding among us? So obviously that is the exact heading that we have at the top of Psalm 54. Okay, is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horsesh on the hill of Hakala, south of Jeshamon. Now your majesty come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for giving him into your hands. Talk about like not knowing how to mind your business, okay? The Ziphites have nothing to do with this, but they're scared to be on the wrong side of history. Well, unfortunately, or ironically, they do get on the wrong side of history. Okay, they did pick the wrong side, okay? But what they don't want is Saul and his raiding army to come into their territory and for them to be disloyal to Saul. The only problem is that God has already selected David. And so in this scenario, loyalty does not look like loyalty to the old king, but it looks like loyalty to the new king that God has anointed and that God has appointed.

And so we get a whole psalm now about these Ziphites who betray David. And so this is how the story ends. This is 1st Samuel chapter 23, verse 27. K, Saul comes down. He's literally pursuing David. They're literally on a mountain. The Philistines are raiding the land then Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines That is why they called this place Selah Hamal Akkoth Hamal Akkoth okay, and David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of And getting all right, so that is 1st Samuel chapter 23. Obviously this psalm Okay, 1st Samuel 23 is what inspires the psalm that we have here today psalm 54. Okay, so that's Context David is in distress. David's on the run. This is probably the most Stressful probably top three most stressful experiences of David's life I just want you to imagine being a commander in the army being the king's son-in-law being the best friend of the crown prince being a military hero being the person that has killed the the famous enemy Goliath and then all of a sudden your leader is so jealous of you and so full of evil and hatred that he's throwing spears at you with the palace You eventually have to leave leave your wife and your friends and your family and everyone that you know To just be chased around the wilderness like a wild animal I mean, this is just a hard season of David's life in this very hard season Produces some gut-wrenching psalms. Okay, Psalm 54 starts out save me. Oh God by your name Venocate me by your might hear my prayer. Oh God. Listen to the words of my mouth arrogant foes are attacking me ruthless people are trying to kill me people without regard for God surely God is My help the Lord is the one who sustains me that verse right there surely the Surely God is my help that word help. Here's a nerdy nugget for the day is Azair that's the same word that that the Bible is going to use to describe Eve as a helper to Adam And so that word is in no way shape or form denigrating or like dishonoring God actually describes himself in that way

David is not saying that God is beneath him. David is saying that God is strong enough to actually help him And so when the Bible says that women are called to be a help mate to men That's not like a disrespectful or denigrating term. It's saying you're strong enough to actually be a help And so that's actually a word that is so esteemed that God uses it for himself Let evil recoil on those who slander me in your faithfulness destroyed them Let it let let there be backlash let let it recoil back on them the evil that they mean for me God let it go ahead and backfire on them. I will sacrifice the free will offering to you I will praise your name Lord for you are good. Here we go. I love this. This is verse seven It's my favorite you see how it starts in chapter 54 verse 1 as save me. Oh God by your name vindicate me by your might. It's it's asking God to save It's asking God to vindicate, but by the time we get to verse 7 you have Delivered me now you will deliver me you have delivered me It's already in past tense by the time we get to the end of the psalm David has already moved from Please Lord deliver me to you have delivered me. I'm already delivered from all my troubles And my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes It's funny when me and my wife are battling through infertility. I just begin to say on the cross Jesus said it is Done not it will be done. No, it is done It is paid for so the healing that we need in our physical body so that we could produce children It was purchased on Calvary like I'm not waiting for God to actually do anything. I Have to walk in the full measure of what has already been done You can see David doing the same process right here in Psalm 54. He starts out with save me Oh God by your name, but then by the end of the Psalm. He realized I'm already saved. I Have been delivered you have delivered me from all my troubles. All right Let's dive into Psalm 55. Let's give context for Psalm 56. Actually, this will be helpful Okay, so we're gonna skip Psalm 55 really quick. We're gonna go to Psalm 56 and The context for Psalm 56 is first Samuel chapter 21. So this is a nerdy nugget that I want to throw at you Okay, the Psalms are not recounting what happened in David's life in chronological order Okay, so things are not in chronological order because remember the context for Psalm 54 is first Samuel chapter 23 So we're going back to chapters in Samuel and we're gonna read like what actually happened.

And we can read it right here in the heading of Psalm 56. It says this, for the director of music to the tune of a dove-on-distant oaks of David, a mictam, okay? So we've got a mictam because of Nerdy Nugget, we're actually about to get a bunch of mictams, okay? There are five mictams in book two. Remember, we're in book two of the Psalms right now. And so Psalm 56, all the way to Psalm 60. So 56, 57, 58, 59, 60 are all gonna be mictams. Now, before I even get into the context, I'm gonna give you a Nerdy Nugget, okay? The word mictam, I may have said this on a previous episode, could mean two things. I'm gonna kind of read this from my iPad. There's two Hebrew words that mictam can be based on, okay? The first is ketem, which means gold. Okay, that's the Hebrew word for gold. So a lot of people kind of refer to these mictams as golden Psalms, okay? Due to the similarity of the name to the Hebrew word for gold, which is ketem. But this is not thought to be a good translation, very popular, but I don't think it's a good translation. There's a more likely, okay, to come from the Hebrew word katemu, katemu, which means to cover, okay, to cover. This same idea can be found in the covering in a sense of like atonement, like your sins have been covered. Now, this image is more likely to be about covering the lips, okay? So that this is a secret Psalm or a silent prayer

uttered to Yahweh in times of distress. So there's not a golden Psalm as some scholars and theologians would maybe, you know, talk about, but this is more of a secret Psalm or a silent prayer. And you can see that, like these are Psalms of distress. Okay, the things that all three of these Psalms today have a common Psalm 54, 55 and 56, is that these are Psalms that come from a season of David's life where he is literally on the run for his life. He is scared that he is going to die. He is a political refugee. He is being hunted by a very powerful, very, very emotionally unstable and mentally unstable, tormented, demonically tormented, probably actually schizophrenic king named Saul. And Saul has all the power of the nation to throw at hunting David. The fact that David survives is a testament to God's grace and covering on David's life. And so we're going to get these Psalms where David is covering his lips to offer up to God these silent prayers while he's in the middle of the stress. So I'm 56, okay? I dipped into some nerdy nuggets and now we're back in the context clues. Most of the episode I move from context clues to nerdy nuggets the time is truth, but today we're kind of going back and forth between context and nerdy nuggets and context clues and nerdy nuggets, but you're a pro.

You've been rocking with me for 270 days now, so you're good. It says this, "For the director of music to the tune "of a dove on distant oaks, of David, a mitt tam, "when the Philistines had seized him in gath." All right, so let's go to first Samuel chapter 24, okay? Sorry, first Samuel chapter 21, first Samuel chapter 21. I don't know why I said chapter 24, but it's first Samuel chapter 21. And we are going to start reading. Verse 10 says this, "That day David fled from Saul "and went to Aikish king of gath." Now, if you remember, Goliath is from gath. And so literally, you kind of have to be crazy to go to the very hometown of the hero that you killed, okay? But the servants of Aikish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? "Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances? "Saul his slain as thousands, David. "His tens of thousands, David took these words "to heart and was very much afraid of Aikish king of gath." So he pretended to be insane in their presence. And while he was in their hands, he acted like a mad man, making marks on the doors of the gates and letting saliva run down his beard. Aikish said to his servants, "Look at the man. "He is insane. "Why bring him to me? "Am I so short of mad men

"that you have to bring this fellow here "to carry on like this in front of me? "Must this man come into my house?" Now, why is David even in gath? Well, he's in gath because there's no safe place in Israel for him to be. The thing that precedes or precedes this story is that David is at a place called Knob and he says to a hemilec, the priest, And he gets Goliath's sword and what's gonna happen? There's an edamite, okay, named Doeg who is going to go snitch. This whole Psalm 54 to 56 should be just like the Psalm for the snitches, okay? 'Cause literally it's just a bunch of people snitching on David, like he's here, he's here, he's here. And because Doeg, the edamite snitches on David, what ends up happening is that David has to flee, okay? And so that's the reason that he's even in Gath in the first place, okay? And then after Gath, he escapes to the cave of a double and he's just on the run, on the move, no home, no rest, no predictability to his life, just literally on the run, just living day by day, trying to survive, okay? And so out of this, we get just Psalms of anguish, okay? Remember, I told you in chapter 54 verse seven, so Psalm 54 verse seven kind of ended with you have delivered. Well, guess what, we're gonna get that again. Look at Psalm 56 verse 13, okay? Psalm 56 verse 13 says this,

for you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling that I may walk before God in the light of life. So chapter 56 or Psalm 56 starts with, be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies aren't heart pursuit. All day long, they press their attack, my adversaries pursue me all day long and their pride, many are attacking me, okay? So it's like, please pursue me, be merciful or please have mercy on me, please pity me, please rescue me. And then we go from be merciful to me to you have delivered me from death. We move from present tense to past tense. This is already done. By the time he gets to the end of the Psalm, he's acknowledging you've already delivered me. You've already done the thing that I started this prayer asking you for. It's already done. And I just wanna encourage anyone who prays on a regular basis. Your prayer should follow the same pattern. Lord God, would you please give us kids? You've already given us kids. God, would you please heal us from cancer? The cancer is already healed. You have healed me. I got a good friend whose dad did have cancer. And he felt like their family had a promise from God that this dad would be healed of cancer.

And then his dad died of cancer. And his way of interpreting that was that, well, now he's healed because he's in heaven. And so whether or not someone gets healed while they're alive doesn't mean that they didn't get healed. God, you have healed me. You have. Whether or not I received the physical manifestation of that healing here on earth, or whether I received the physical manifestation of that healing in the afterlife when I'm with you forever in heaven, I have been healed. And David comes to this conclusion, I have been delivered. You have delivered me. I'm not gonna keep asking you to do something that you've already done. I think our timeless truth needs to be that whatever we're asking God for, you have to move into a position of he's already done it. And I may as well praise him in advance for the thing that he's already done. Whether I see it here on earth, or whether I see it in heaven, it's already done. It's funny, I was talking to a woman at a church recently and I was just praying for people in the lobby and I said, what can I pray for you for? And she said, well, I'm already healed, but my body hasn't gotten the memo yet.

Did you love that? I'm already healed, but my body hasn't caught up with what God has said yet. And can you pray that my body would come into alignment with what the Holy Spirit has said? But I believe I'm healed. And I began to say, yeah, we're gonna pray for the symptoms to actually match up to the source of healing you already have. And you have the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who's pronounced healing over your life. And your body hasn't gotten the memo yet. Sambley, 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, 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. One other timeless truth that I wanna give you for today is that Psalm 54 and Psalm 55, we didn't talk a lot about Psalm 55, but really my big key verse is gonna come from Psalm 55 today. Let me just grab it in my Bible. Psalm 54 and Psalm 55 give voice to the personal pain of betrayal by close friends and trusted loved ones. We can all relate to this form of human and emotional pain. So I want you to go to Psalm 55 verses 12 to 14. Psalm 55 verse 12 to 14. Here's what actually makes these Psalms really, really sad. It says this, if an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were rising against me, I could hide, but it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend. You see what David is saying? Saying if it was an enemy, I could endure it. Like it'd be okay. I could hide, but the betrayal of a close friend, of a brother, of a companion, this is unbearable, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship. At the house of God, we enjoyed the presence of God together as we walked about among the worshipers. Okay, so that's verses 12 to 14. Now skip over to verse 20. My companion attacks his friends. He violates his covenant.

His talk is smooth as butter, yet wars in his heart. His words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords. One of the things that I think is timelessly true is that we're not only gonna experience betrayal or hurt by those who are sworn enemies, but we're also gonna experience betrayal and hurt by those closest to us, by friends, by people that we would have never seen it coming. And David goes ahead and gives voice to like that kind of deep personal pain. The thing that David is lamenting in these psalms in particular is not just that random people are attacking him or that wanna see him die or trying to kill him, but that people that he loves and cares for and at one point, trust it. Man, that sucks. Like that's just hard. There are some friends that I've had for decades. And there are some friends that I've had a mourned the loss of not being that person's friend anymore. And that stuff stings. And that is, there's a temptation to just put a wall of defense up. But what we see in the psalms is David's vulnerable or David's choice to remain soft-hearted and vulnerable even when there's a temptation to become calloused when there's personal betrayal in your life. And so I think that's not just relevant for David's life.

I think that's relevant for your life. And obviously that was relevant for Jesus's life. I mean, it's not like some random person betrayed him. One of his disciples that he had spent three years with betrayed him. And I think all of us have people in our life who would have never expected that they would be the person that would betray us. I've got a friend, I won't say his name, who found out that his wife was cheating on him with his best man at their wedding. Like talk about just personal betrayal, like close personal betrayal. And so for people who were walking through those kinds of scenarios, Psalm 55, Psalm 54, 55 and 56 are for you. You're not alone, you're not the only person that's walked through the pain of personal betrayal. And you're in good company, 'cause so is David, and so is Jesus. And David's words are not as relevant for him or for Jesus. They're relevant for you as well. All right, I'll see you tomorrow for day 271. We're gonna be in Psalms 57, 58 and 59. It's gonna be good. All of the Psalms tomorrow are your favorite. Yep, mitt tams. (laughs) I can't wait to see you. If you're on a streak, I love you.

If you're not, come on. It's the Psalms, dive in. I love you guys so much. 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. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]