Day 283: Psalms 93-95 | 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. (gentle music) Emily, welcome to day 283 here. On the Bible Department podcast, I'm your host, Dr. Manny Orango, and I'm super excited to dive into what's honestly about to be a collection of Psalms, okay? From Psalm 93 all the way to Psalm 100 is a solid block of Psalms and will probably be in this block of Psalms for the next couple of days. I think probably the next three, if not four days, I can't remember how the Bob Reading Plan actually breaks down, but buckle up because we are gonna be in this collection of Psalms for the next couple of days. Now, if you have not done the reading for today, which is Psalms 93, 94, and 95, then I want you to go ahead and stop this video, pause the audio and go do the reading. Read Psalm 93, Psalm 94, and Psalm 95, and then come on back when the reading is done. For those of us who have done the reading, let me give you some good news and some bad news, all right? I'll give you the bad news first. The bad news is that there's no context for any of these Psalms,

not just today's Psalms. You probably will notice this, right? If you look at Psalm 93, there's no heading. If you look at Psalm 94, there is no heading. And if you look at Psalm 95, there is no heading. Well, if you cheat a little bit and skip ahead, Psalm 96, no heading, Psalm 97, no heading, Psalm 98, the only heading that there is a Psalm. Thanks, very, very helpful. Psalm 99, no heading. Psalm 100, a Psalm for giving grateful praise. And that's gonna end this whole block. And then we're gonna start at Psalm 101, which is of David, a Psalm, okay? So from Psalm 93 to Psalm 100, this is a solid unit, okay? This is a collection within book four, all right? So here's the first thing that I wanna say, it's the bad news. There's no context, there are no headings here. No context, that's the bad news. The good news is that because this entire block has no context and the context of the Psalms are very similar, actually we can begin to deduce that the context of all these Psalms is the same, all right? So we don't have context, no headings for the individual Psalms themselves, but because the contents of the Psalms are very, very similar, most scholars, I mean all scholars would agree that these Psalms 93, 94, 95, 96, 97,

and the eight and nine, 100, that these eight Psalms make up a literary unit in order to be understood together. They actually have the same context, which is the celebration or the enthronement of the reign of Yahweh, all right? The celebration or the enthronement or even the ascension of Yahweh to His throne, okay? The theme here is the reign of Yahweh. Now, we don't know exactly which cultural moment that is being celebrated in. We really don't know, we have no idea, okay? So we don't have a ton of context, but we have a shared theme, okay? Now, we know that there is no context for all of the Psalms, okay? Psalm 93, 94, 95 are the Psalms that we have today. We're gonna dive into some nerdy nuggets as it relates to these Psalms, okay? First, Psalm 93 is gonna start, let me go ahead, flip back. Psalm 93 is gonna start out with these words. The Lord reigns, the Lord went reigns, Yahweh reigns. By the way, just extra nerdy nugget. Anytime you see LORD, all caps, that is your English translation telling you that the Hebrew word Yahweh is there, okay? Y-H-W-H, okay? Typically, in a Hebrew Bible, just four dots. The Jewish people would not dare to write the name Yahweh, okay?

It was too holy, according to their understanding and their theology. All right, sometimes I'll end up teaching, you know, what was standard or what was normal in the Jewish world. And people will walk up to me like, "Hey, why don't we still do that?" And I'm like, "Because we're not Jewish." I'm like, "Because we're Christians." Anyway, that's a whole other episode for "Home of the Day." Now, Psalm 93 starts with, Now, you're gonna begin to realize, as you read the next couple of days, that that repeated phrase is gonna be found all the way through this section, from Psalm 93, all the way to Psalm 100. Actually, I want you to go to Psalm 96 verse 10. Okay, Psalm 96 verse 10 says this. Say among the nation, the Lord reigns. Okay, I want you to go to Psalm 97 verse one. The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad. Let the distant shores rejoice, okay? I want you to go to Psalm 99 verse one. Psalm 99 verse one, what do you think it's gonna say? I think it's gonna say something about God reigning. That's right, Psalm 99 verse one, the Lord reigns. Okay, so this whole section from Psalm 93 all the way to Psalm 100, we don't have context, but we do have a consistent message, a consistent theme that is this. The Lord reigns, Yahweh reigns.

These eight Psalms are all about the rule and reign of Yahweh. That is what we are talking about in this little mini collection of Psalms inside of book four, which is a collection of Psalms within the wider book of the Psalms, which is a collection of Psalms. This is like Psalms section. It's like a dream within a dream within a dream. Yeah, Psalms collections of Psalms within collections of Psalms within collections of Psalms. Psalms section. All right, Psalm 93 to 100 focus on one singular theme, the reign and rule of Yahweh, the king of the earth. These Psalms are all about that one singular theme. And this is David's legacy, all right? This is David's legacy. I need you to realize that although Yahweh has always been king, Israel has consistently failed in her history as the bride of Yahweh and as the nation of Israel, they have consistently failed. The Hebrew scriptures are actually the testimony of the failure of Israel to acknowledge Yahweh as the reigning and ruling king of the universe. That is the story of scripture is Israel's failure to worship Yahweh in Him alone, to live according to that truth, okay? And this is the legacy of David, okay? The reality is that Yahweh was already king of Israel. Deuteronomy established that, okay? Deuteronomy establishes that Yahweh is suzering,

Israel is vassal, but in the time of the judges and in the reign of Saul in so many other moments, that kingship was not acknowledged, was not recognized by Israel. So now in the Psalms, the Psalms as a whole, but definitely in this collection of eight Psalms, we see in here Israel recognizing the kingship of Yahweh over them proclaiming that he reigns and so therefore submitting to his authority as we will continue to see this is the true significance. This is the true legacy of David's reign. David makes Israel recognize the reign of Yahweh. David makes Israel recognize the reign of Yahweh. Unlike any other king, unlike any other leader, unlike any other ruler, David is adamant that the people recognize Yahweh as their king and recognize the reign of Yahweh. This is why David is a man after God's own heart, not because he's moral, not because he's holier than anybody else, but because he is adamant that the people recognize the reign of Yahweh, okay, and worship him as such. Yahweh has always been king, but Israel has rarely behaved based on that reality except here in the Psalms, okay? Psalm 94, okay, that's all we'll say about Psalm 93. Ah, I'll say this about Psalm 93. One last thing about Psalm 93. You can begin to see mythological language again. Starting in verse, which verse is this? Starting in verse three.

The seas have lifted up, Lord. The seas have lifted up their voice. The seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters. Mightier than the breakers of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty, okay? So we're gonna get that sea, sea, sea, waves, water, thunder, all that language. that tamed the chaotic ocean, that tamed the waters of Genesis chapter one, verse two, and established order over the chaos. That is the God that we are talking about. Okay, so that mythological language that probably a lot of us may be uncomfortable with because we're used to thinking about God, not in mythological terms, but in factual terms, because we define truth a little bit differently than our ancient counterparts to find truth, maybe thinking about God in mythological terms is just a little like weird for you because that feels like fantasy or a fairy tale or like not real or not true. But here it is, and you're gonna see it all throughout the psalms, you're gonna continue to see mythological language. All right, Psalm 94, if Yahweh is king, okay, if he's suzerin one of the twists that the Hebrew Bible is gonna put on that idea of suzerin is that Yahweh is also husband. Okay, this is not true for any other kings, you know what I mean, or gods,

but this is uniquely true for Yahweh, that he is suzerin, he's king, he reigns, but he's also husband. So he is going to enact vengeance and he's going to be jealous when his people are unfaithful to him. It's not just that they are being unfaithful vassals, they're being unfaithful wives, they're being an unfaithful wife to him. So there's an added layer and level to the metaphor, okay? So what do we get in Psalm 94? Psalm 94 starts and the Lord is a God who avenges. Okay, I actually wanna see how the NRSV says it. Psalm 94 in the NIV says you're a God who avenges. Not as strong as we're gonna read it in the NRSV. Psalm 94 verse one, NRSV. Oh Lord, you got a vengeance. Some, for some reason avenge doesn't carry or pack the punch that vengeance carries, okay? You got a vengeance, shine forth, rise up. Oh judge of the earth, give to the proud what they deserve, oh Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked egg salt, okay? So vengeance, God has got a vengeance. Why is he a God of vengeance? He's a God of vengeance because he's not only a king, he's also a husband. Now in order to kind of understand this, I got into an Uber yesterday and for whatever reason, my Uber driver, her name is Tamika.

She was kind of saying like, you know, sometimes women's cheat, women cheat. Men cheat, women cheat, everybody cheat. You know what I'm saying, talk people cheat 'cause they gotta get their needs met. She was kind of talking about cheating. And I said, well, I've never cheated on anybody. You know what I mean? I don't cheat, you know? And 'cause cheating is kind of cowardly. And I was like, yeah, I just, I'm, you know, I'd rather break up with somebody than cheat on them. Like that's just, that's moving like a coward. You know, don't be scared, just tell a person, hey, like this relationship's not working out and then break up with them. Stop being with them, you know what I mean? And then she was like, well, what have you married? I'm like, then go get marriage counseling, figure out, you know what the issue is. And she was like, yo, why may be cheating on you? And I was like, ma'am, if my wife is cheating on me, somebody would die. I literally looked at the woman in her face and was like, no, somebody would die. And she was like, what? That's crazy. That ain't Christian bull, ain't you a pastor, blah, blah. And I was like, ma'am, do you have a Bible?

And I was like, I'm gonna read Psalm. So I'm in the car. I'm in the Uber reading the Bible to this woman. Okay, I'm like, hey, this is Psalm. This is Proverbs chapter six. Okay, Proverbs chapter six, verse 30. Actually, no, no, no. I wrote down and I wanna start reading in verse 23. Okay, Psalm, why do I keep saying Psalm? Proverbs, sorry. It's 'cause we're in the book of Psalms right now. Okay, this is Proverbs chapter six, verse 23. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light and the reproof of discipline are the way of life to preserve you from the wife of another. Okay, so the father figure in the Proverb is saying, hey, you can never have sex with the wife of somebody else, or the wife of another man, never, never, never, never. Okay, to preserve you from the wife of another, from the smooth tongue of the adulterous. Okay, verse 25, do not desire her beauty in your heart. Do not lust after another man's wife. Okay, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. Lashes ain't no, lashes ain't no. You know what I'm saying? No, let her capture you with the lashes. Okay, here we go. You're not gonna like this, but this is a proverb. It says this, for a prostitute's fee is only a loaf of bread. Hey, hey, if you got a lust issue, go sleep with a prostitute.

A prostitute's only gonna cause you a loaf of bread. They're cheap, they're not even, it's not even expensive. There's prostitutes out here, go go go be with a prostitute. Don't mess around with another man's wife. Don't mess around with a married woman. Why, but the wife of another stalks a man's very life. Hey, the sin of sex, you're still gonna deal with the consequences of the sin, of having sex outside the confines of marriage, but the consequence of sleep with a prostitute is guilt, some shame. I don't know, maybe chlamydia, but you have sex with another man's wife, you're gonna die. You're gonna die. That man's gonna kill you, okay? Here we go, and typically moms don't like their husbands talking their sons this way. This is why I love proverbs. It's from a man to a man, okay? Proverbs is like, look, look, hey, let us reason together, okay? Let your dad tell you like it is. All right, prostitute's only gonna cause you a loaf of bread. But another man's wife, woo! Don't get your butt beat, you're gonna get jacked up. Okay, here we go. Next, can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one's clothes, or one walk on hot clothes without scorching the feet? So is he who sleeps with his neighbor's wife, wife? If you sleep with a married man's wife, no one who touches her will go unpunished. You don't have the same consequence of sleeping with a prostitute as you have with taking that which belongs to another man. Here we go, these are not despised who still only dissatisfied their appetite when they're hungry. Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold, that they will forfeit all the goods of their house.

But he who commits adultery, he who has sex with another man's wife has no sense. He who does it destroys himself. He will get wounds and dishonor in his disgrace, will not be wiped away. For jealousy arouses a husband's fury. I said to Tamika, I said, do you understand what the word fury means, Tamika? Said fury, if my wife were to cheat on me, then whoever she messed around with would experience my fury, fury. She's like, what would you do to your wife? I was like, divorce her, I wouldn't lay a hand on my wife, I would never, I would never touch my wife, I would never hit my wife, never. You all know who these fist would be reserved for? The idiot who thought that he could take that which belongs to me. I said, sweetheart, Tamika, let me help you, you understand something. If somebody stole my car, let me be mad at the car, I'd go find the person who stole my car. And they'd experience my fury. She's like, yeah, but it takes two to tango. She was not having, she didn't have a biblical worldview, she didn't understand the Bible. I was like, sweetheart, for jealousy arouses a husband's fury. I was like, don't call me man, call me fury, I'm gonna be, call me fury. And if that's how I feel as a husband, imagine how Yahweh feels. And so this song 94 is actually here to say, he's king, but he's also husband and he will rise up in vengeance over the nations who the people of Israel have sacrificed to their idols. He will rise up in vengeance against the nations who have taken Israel into captivity. He will rise up, they will experience his fury. And I think a lot of times we are uncomfortable with God's fury or anger because really we don't understand God's love. There is no way to have love without anger, not possible. But only people who can really get me riled up and angry are people who I love.

This is why if you cussing people out on the road that cut you off, something's wrong with you, if strangers can get you mad, something's wrong, you actually have an anger problem. Strangers shouldn't be able to get you upset. Only the people who you love should be able to get you mad because you love them. Like, so let's think about this. If I went to my house and God forbid I found my wife's body dead and my son. You know, "I'll get another son. I'll get another wife." You would want to get me psychologically evaluated. You'd question whether or not I actually loved my wife or loved my son. Why? Because in the presence of great evil, there should be great vengeance. In the presence of great evil, there should be great fury. So a lot of times we're uncomfortable with God's anger. We're uncomfortable with his fury. Because, actually, we don't understand the depth of his love. It is his love that causes him to be jealous. And why is it that God can be jealous and nobody else can? It's because God owns you in the same way that I couldn't be jealous when I was a boyfriend, but the moment I became a husband, now me and my wife belong to each other. I'm hers. She's mine. I can only be jealous if I'm jealous over someone who is actually mine. And I am actually theirs. If my wife, if for whatever reason we got divorced and she got remarried and her new husband was trying to get my son to call him dad, I'd be like, "You better get up out of here." That's my son. And there's a certain jealousy that I'm going to have that is normal and natural because that boy's mine. He's mine. Tambly, 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 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. It's one time I kind of adopted one of the kids at the youth group as a spiritual son and his name is Jayon. And one time I took Jayon to the barbershop and he was like, "I don't want a haircut." And I was like, "I don't care what you want. You're done walking around here like nobody like you don't belong to nobody. I'm taking you to get your haircut because if I'm going to be a spiritual father in your life, you need to look like somebody takes care of you. You can't look homeless. You all look homeless. Then you're not going to have a spiritual father. Part of having a dad is a dad makes sure that you look like you belong to somebody when you're out in public. And so Psalm 94 fits under the greater umbrella the fact that Yahweh is a king according to the template of Deuteronomy, which means that he's in a covenant relationship with Israel whereby he's not only king and suzering, but also husband. All right. Psalm 95. Let me even have enough time for Psalm 95. Psalm 95 is divided in half versus one through seven. Again, continues the theme of the fact that the Lord reigns, Yahweh reigns. So verses one through seven talk about the enthronement of Yahweh. Come and bow before him. He's enthroned. And then verses eight through eleven are essentially giving a warning saying, because remember your ancestors sucked at this. They failed. They failed to enter God's rest. God said, go up to the land of Canaan and take it for I've given it to you. And they decided to not act like Yahweh was king. And how do you act like Yahweh's not king by disobeying orders? They did not obey God's orders. They decided to go rogue. And so they failed to enter God's rest. And so verses eight through eleven are essentially saying, hey, every generation is at the crossroads. Don't act like your ancestors. Be faithful. Be like David. Recognize that Yahweh is king. What's our Thomas truth for the day? Thomas truth is pretty simple. It's me to ask you this question. What is the gospel? Because the theme of these Psalms is that Yahweh is king. That Yahweh reigns. That Yahweh reigns. He sits enthroned as king over the earth and over his well, what does that have to do with you and I today? As New Testament believers, well,

I need to then ask you this question, what is the gospel? 'Cause a lot of people really don't know what the gospel is. They think that the gospel is that Jesus Christ died for the remission of your sins. So they preach, Jesus has Savior, but really that's not the gospel. The gospel is this simple message. It can be found in three words. Jesus is King. He's King. He's Lord. He reigns. So the fact that Yahweh reigns isn't just relevant for the audience of Psalm 93, 94, 95. Actually, every Christian needs to live under the understanding that Yahweh not only was King but that he is King and that Jesus has a throne next to the Father and that he is enthroned as King. And the only reason he can be Savior is because he is first King. I couldn't die for your sins, why? 'Cause I'm not the King of the universe. Only the Son of God could be Savior because only the Son of God is King. And the nature of the gospel message is this. Jesus is King. Sometimes when all we do is advertise Jesus as Savior, what that does is it gets converts. And we think that the gospel is just a form of evangelism

for new converts. But really the gospel messages for Christians and non-Christians because the gospel message is Jesus is King. And in the same way that a non-Christian needs to surrender their life to the Lord's of Jesus, there are always areas where Christians need to surrender their lives, our lives to the lordship of King Jesus. Maybe there's unforgiveness in your life, which means that area of your emotions has not been surrendered to the Lord's of Jesus. Maybe you don't die. Well, that means that area of your life has yet to be surrendered to the kingship, the lordship of King Jesus. Maybe there's areas where you don't trust Him as King. And I just hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you don't get to access Him as Savior if you don't surrender to Him as King. And so this idea that Yahweh reigns and that right now He's reigning through His Son Jesus, who is King. At the mention of that name, every name will bow and every tongue will confess. And me and you get the option of bowing our knee and kissing the ring and confessing His name. But many won't get the option of doing that. They'll have to do it by force. And so my question to you today is this, is He really King of every area of your life? Is He King over your words?

Is He King over your time management? Is He King over your emotions? Is He King when you're at your job? Or have you relegated to Him to Sunday mornings? Is He King? Because the job of the believer is to continue to live as though He is King. He's King regardless. But just like in the time of the Judges in the time of Saul, Yahweh was King, but they weren't living like He was. And then David made sure that they saw Yahweh as King. Hopefully I can be a David of sorts that will remind you. He is King, but whether or not your living surrendered is a whole 'nother question. And that's not just true in the context of Psalm 93, 94, 95. That is a timeless truth. And I hope it challenges you today. All right, tomorrow we got Day 284. I hope Tamika finds this podcast. I really do. I hope so. She inspired this episode today. And I hope you come back tomorrow for Day 284. We're going to be looking at Psalms 96, 97, and 98. I can't continue. I can't wait to continue our trek through the rest of this little section of the Psalms, Psalms 93 to 100. I love you. I'm so proud of you, especially if you're on the street.

I see you tomorrow, same time, same place. 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. And head to the Bible Department.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. [MUSIC]