Day 275: Psalms 69-72 | 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. (electronic music) The family, welcome to day 275 here on the Bible Department. Podcast, my name is Dr. Mani Orango. And we are ending book two of the Psalms today. Typically we do about three Psalms. We study, look at, examine about three Psalms at a time, but today we're gonna look at four Psalms because it is the end of book two. So tomorrow we'll be cracking open, cracking open, book three of the Psalms. So hopefully you have read Psalm 69, 70, 71 and 72, Psalm 70, pretty sure it's Psalm 70. Yeah, Psalm 70 is super, super short. So I hope that you've done the reading. If you haven't done the reading, I strongly urge you. I encourage you to stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done so that you have proper context for what we are gonna discuss in today's episode. All right, like every day we're gonna start out with context clues and I'm gonna give you some nerdy nuggets and I'm always gonna leave you with a timeless truth 'cause these are not videos that are designed to be history lessons. These videos are designed to help you to understand the book that we've been given by God called the Bible and understand the author of said book.

So always we'll leave with a timeless truth. So I'm gonna give you context as much context as I've got, okay? I can't create context for things that we don't know the context for. So Psalm 69 is an individual lament of David. Now that is all we know. We can try to make a best guess, but all we know is that this is an individual lament of David. Psalm 70 is another individual lament. However, this is also designed as a memorial offering Psalm. That's right, a memorial offering Psalm. There is a kind of sacrifice in the Bible. That's a memorial sacrifice or a memorial portion of certain sacrifices. You can get the context for this in Leviticus chapter two verse two. Leviticus chapter two verse nine. Leviticus chapter two verse 16. Leviticus five verse 12. Leviticus six verse 15. Leviticus 24 verse seven. And numbers chapter five verse 26, okay? There's a memorial portion for certain sacrifices. And not only is this an individual lament, but one of the things that we're supposed to lament is our own sin. And so this Psalm is supposed to accompany an animal sacrifice

or it's supposed to accompany the grain offering that at times accompanied an animal sacrifice or even replacing them if the petitioner could not afford to sacrifice an animal. So in some cases, if the person offering their offering to the Lord couldn't afford an animal, they would only give a grain offering. And so that is the memorial portion of the offering. It's the grain, okay? Never the actual fat from the animal, but the grain, all right? We'll get into why this is important later, but that's Psalm 70, Psalm 71. We've got another individual lament. Now, a lot of people believe that this is an old man. He's an unnamed old man. He may be the old man from the Cracker Barrel logo. Who knows? I don't know. That's funny. We got that old logo back, okay? I know that anyway. So this is an unnamed old man that is recounting God's faithfulness. That's what's happening in Psalm 71. And then, till we get three individual limits back to back to back, Psalm 69, 70 is 71. And then to end book two, we are gonna get the first and only psalm of King Solomon. That's right. The first and only psalm of Solomon.

And this is going to be a royal psalm or as we have grown to refer to these, a messianic psalm. Now, messianic doesn't mean that it's prophesying about the person of Jesus. Messianic simply means that the Messiah is God's anointed one, aka. anointed one, okay? Christ means king, okay? Or lowercase M Messiah, like there are multiple lowercase M Messiahs, even though there's only one uppercase M Messiah. I think you get the point. All right, so that is as much context as I can give for these four Psalms that are concluding book two. Let's dive into some nerdy nuggets, okay? Psalm 69 is going to get quoted three times in the New Testament. We're going to look at two of those particular quotations, okay? This long psalm is an individual lament of David who has faced much injustice in his life, but whose sense of injustice for others is still strong. It contains two particular lines that will be used by the gospel writers centuries later about the son of David, okay? Psalm 69 verse 9 says this, "For zeal for your house has consumed me." This is David's word, zeal for your house is consuming. This is going to get used in the book of John, okay? By John the gospel writer in chapter 2 verse 17 when Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple, the disciples, when they see him do this, remember this line from King David from Psalm 69 and see that Jesus shares his great, great, great, great, great ancestors zeal for the house of Yahweh. John sees this as David prophesying through this Psalm about the son of Yahweh, okay? About the son of God and about David's actual descendant named Jesus. Now here's a side note. Paul is going to use the other half of that same verse. It says this, "And the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me when writing of Jesus' example of taking on the burdens of others in Romans chapter 15 verse 3. But although Romans chapter 15 verse 3 is in the New Testament, it's not one of the gospels, okay? So two verses are going to get used in the gospels and that is for zeal for your house has consuming and also Psalm 69 verse 21 says this, "And for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." Now we're going to get this one in all four gospel accounts. This line is used by all four gospel writers. This can be found in Mark chapter 15 verse 23, Matthew chapter 27 verse 48, Luke chapter 23 verse 36, and John chapter 19 verse 29. All of them use this line as a prophecy when Jesus is given sour wine to drink while he's on the cross. It is another example

then of the words of David being reflected in the life of Jesus. It underscores how important David is to the whole biblical story. It is in many ways his story as it is the story of the son of David, okay? So much of who Jesus is as the Messiah is set up by David. David is in many ways the type and shadow of Jesus, okay? By David's kingship, by his dynasty, by devotion and loyalty to Yahweh, his king, by zeal for the temple and by his worship and words that shape the life in ministry of the son of the king, okay? So David's a big deal, okay? Last thing I'll say about Psalm 69 and then we'll keep it moving is that Psalm 69 verses 34 to 36 give us an insight into how these Psalms were sung and the participation involved, okay? This Psalm is an individual event. It is one voice, yet it ends with a corporate voice, okay? With lines of corporate praise to God, this was likely written so that there would be a moment for the crowd to join in the Psalm, making it congregational in nature. The choir would lead then all the people would end the Psalm praising God together, okay? He has a nerdy nugget from Psalm 70, okay? This is another individual event and it is difficult to first see any connection with the memorial offering that we find in the title. There is perhaps one part though that I think we can see a connection. Chapter 70 verse 5, Psalm 70 verse 5 says this, "But I am poor and needy, hasten to me, O God, you are my help and my deliverer. O Lord, do not delay." Now, who is it who's going to give a grain offering as opposed to an animal sacrifice? So this little nugget right here of I'm poor, the petitioner saying I'm poor, I'm needy. And the heading that says that this is connected to the memorial offering in some way is how we know that this memorial offering was always a portion of a grain offering. For many rituals and sacrifices, there could be an element of grain that was also offered and for those a portion would be burned on the altar as the memorial portion, the part given totally to Yahweh. But there would be another important reason for offering grain and that would be if you could not afford the animal sacrifice

that would be necessary for that particular offering, for the particular offering that was being made, the truly poor and needy would offer grain as sacrifice and so a portion would be given to Yahweh as a memorial. Perhaps then, that is why this psalm is connected to being a memorial offering, but also being connected to being poor and needy, that they would be remembered by Yahweh their salvation. His salvation was not just available to the rich and the powerful like David, but to all who were loyal to him. And that's just beautiful that God allows poor people, people who are truly impoverished to have an option so that they could be included in the sacrifice. I think that's just absolutely incredible. One other thing that I wanna take note of and we're gonna go back to Psalm 69, this is what makes David so revolutionary is that although he's living in the Old Covenant or an Old Testament system and he's desiring to build a temple where there's gonna be sacrifices, he begins to say things like this, I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves. What gives David the audacity to think that he can please God by singing as opposed to actually offering God sacrifices?

It's almost like two things are happening. David knows like the blood of lambs and bulls and goats don't actually appease God. They appease our guilt, but they don't appease God. Second, this is temporary. Like there's gonna be a day where we're not gonna offer animals anymore, but we are gonna continue to sing. And so it's like David has this understanding that what really pleases God is worship. And even if worship is not the actual sacrifice of a bull or an ox, that there's still a heart posture of worship that pleases God. And it's verses like this, Psalm 69, verses 30 to 31 that 100% drive me to believe that not to believe, but to understand why David is described as a man after God's own heart. All right, Psalm 71 is a psalm of individual lament, individual lament and obviously, if you read it, it's written by an old guy. We don't know what old guy, but there are a couple clues here in Psalm 71 that the person writing it is pretty old, okay? Number one, this is in verse nine. Do not cast me away when I am old. I don't think that's random. Like I think the man is like, hey Lord, I know I'm getting old. All right, don't cast me away. All right, I was, I've been praising you for a long time,

but now I'm getting old. I still got, I still want to worship you, but don't cast me away now that I'm old, okay? Then verse 17 says this. Since my youth God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds, even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. And honestly, I could give a timeless truth right here. Like verse 22, I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I will sing praise to you with the liar, holy one of Israel, my lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you, I whom you have delivered. I mean, I want to be an old man, like in church, just skipping and laughing and dancing and praising and singing. Like, and telling of God's works the next generation. Like, I want to be this old guy, okay? I want to be the old guy from Psalm 71. And I think it's really, really special. Like, I've been in a couple of churches that are genuinely intergenerational and multi-generational and have generational diversity. And when people in their 70s and 80s are still like crying in God's presence and still have a soft heart towards God. Oh my gosh, like it's so moving. has not gotten stale for them. It's the same as seeing old people who are still in love.

You're just kinda like, yo man, that's goals right there. Like I wanna be old and still in love with my wife. And in the same way, I wanna be old, still in love with the Lord. Okay. 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 & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & 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 72 is a royal psalm celebrating the king and his reign. And so Yahweh, the true king whose power and authority rests on the king. So there's two layers of meaning. The king is being celebrated, but who's the real king?

Yahweh's the real king. The king in question is Solomon. And as mentioned above, it was either written for an anniversary of his succession or in preparation for his son's coronation. Those are the two events that would have caused this to be written now. One of the things that I wanna make really, really clear is obviously the heading tells us that this is of Solomon, okay, right above Psalm 72. But then verse 20 may be confusing because it says this concludes the prayers of David, son of Jesse. So it's like, is this Psalm written by David, son of Jesse? Or is this Psalm written by Solomon? And the answer is the Psalm is written by Solomon. And that little verse right there, verse 20, is actually the verse that closes out book two. You gotta remember that book three is Psalms 73 to 89. So there's a whole new movement or book of the Psalms that's about to start. So that little verse, verse 20, is actually not closing out Psalm 72. It's closing out the whole entirety of book two, okay? That was a little confusing, I had it going a search through a bunch of commentaries to figure out what was going on. In my Bible, I literally wrote question mark and I was like, what is going on? All right, so here's what's happening.

Psalm 72 is highlighting the fact that Solomon's reign has been one of wealth and power and foodfulness. Says this in verses eight through 11. May he, may Solomon have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the end of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before him. And his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Sabah bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. These verses show what the obedience of David in the early years of Solomon's reign brought to Israel. Rest on all sides, riches in power. Just kings redeeming their people. Like just, I mean, not unjust, but just, right? Kings that are just redeeming their people. The nations flocking to Israel. This was Israel as it was meant to be. That one fleeting moment captured in the glory of Solomon in this Psalm, this was how they were meant to be the priestly kingdom that we looked at a couple of Psalms ago. Okay, that Abrahamic Psalm, that priestly Psalm, that harvest Psalm that we talked about. That was actually Psalm, where is it? Psalm 67. All right, this was Israel as it was meant to be. Okay, this is how they were meant to be the priestly kingdom, the center of the world.

The nations coming to Solomon and learning about Yahweh. This is Israel being a good witness. This is Israel being so blessed that they are attracting the attention of other nations who wanna now know how did you accomplish this? The answer would be faithfulness to Yahweh. Okay, this immediately gets us into our Thomas truth. There exists then two accounts of the glory of Solomon's reign. It is good that we have both because part of the Bible's job is to force us to hold two truths in tension. Two truths don't equal a contradiction. Two truths need to be hold in tension, that low key rhymes, and so, bars. It is good that we've got both accounts as they give us a more balanced picture of Solomon and what we can learn from him. Kings is going to paint a much more negative view of Solomon's wealth and fame. The good stories are there, but they are woven into a larger narrative that tells us about Solomon's downfall. His downfall was based on his riches and his fame, in many marriages to the women or daughters of kings of other nations, pagans. Yet here in the Psalms, we see those same riches in the same fame and connection to the nations in a far more positive light. In Kings, Solomon's wealth made him corrupt and brought injustice to his people. But here, that same wealth brings blessing and redemption. The message then is that it is not the wealth, the fame, the success, or any accolades that bring down fall. It's not large churches or mega churches or book deals that bring a moral failure to a pastor. That's not the problem. And sometimes in our legalistic culture, it's like we're leery of anything that looks like that.

And I'm dealing with that right now as a church planner. I won't get into that, but seriously, I'm literally dealing with that exact thing. So, it is not wealth, fame, success, accolades that bring down fall. Those things in and of themselves are not inherently evil, but rather your motives why you got them in the first place and how you use them will dictate whether they bring you down. And that's not just true for Solomon. That's true for me. That's true for you. A book deal could be a massive blessing, a book deal could ruin my life. The book deal is not inherently sinful in any way, shape or form. But whether or not it's an idol will be a test of whether or not that thing grabbed my heart. So, this is how I write things in Google Docs and I write them in my notes. The way that I write them in my notes is a little bit more devotional because literally I'm like, I'm kind of writing it for me. Holding the tension between the account of Solomon and Kings versus the one we have here in Psalm 72 is a lesson that we have to adopt for reading the Bible period because the Bible is always going to force us to hold things in tension. Wealth is never inherently good or bad. Wealth, fame, accolades, success, a mega church, none of that stuff is bad inherently. It's not good or bad inherently. Wealth is always a neutral tool. It could be a hammer that builds the life that God wants you to build or it could be a sledgehammer that demolishes even the opportunity of walking in the life that God has for you. It is a tool or a weapon based on how you choose to use it. I know there are a lot of people who just throw the baby out of the bathwater. There are a lot of people who were church hurt and instead of realizing, hey, some mega churches are toxic, some mega churches are healthy. They are verbiges.

I just don't like mega churches at all. It's like, oh, Lee, man, there's nothing inherently wrong with a mega church. There's nothing inherently wrong with a nice house. There's nothing inherently wrong with a dope car. There's nothing inherently wrong with a Rolex or a luxury watch or anything. There's nothing inherently wrong with anything. However, if the thing is an idol, now we have a problem and we get two accounts here in the Bible and I think, and these two accounts help us to actually see that the truth is somewhere in the middle and that middle is that things are objectively neutral and you add positivity or negativity to it by the way you engage with it and that's not just the truth of Solomon, that's true for you, that's true for me, that is a timeless truth. All right. Tomorrow we're diving in a book three of the Psalms. We got Psalms 73, 74 and 75. Can't wait to see you right here, same time, same place. I hope that you're on the streak. If you are, I'm proud of you. If you're not, get your life together, please. I love you guys so much. 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. To learn more about the show, head to thebobbledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You