Day 286: Psalms 102-103 | 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. (soft music) Family welcome to day 286. We're looking at two Psalms today, Psalm 102 and Psalm 103. If you've done the reading, then everything I'm gonna say on this episode today is going to make sense. If you have not done the reading, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go do the reading. We only got two Psalms today. Normally we got three, but today we got to get the reading done and then come on back and everything that I'm gonna say is gonna make, hopefully, perfect sense. All right, let's dive into our context clues for the day. Then we'll get our nerdy nuggets. Then we'll leave off the episode with a timeless truth. And I'm really excited about our timeless truth for the day. And I'll apply this timeless truth to my life. Hopefully you'll be able to apply it to your life. Let's dive in. All right, we've got context for Psalm 102, but not the kind of context that we normally get.

All right, Psalm 102, the heading that we have right at the top of Psalm 102, should honestly make your ears perk a little bit. Like they should make your ears perk up. Typically, when it comes to context, we'll get a setting or like something that's happening or like some narrative or a story, but we'll also get like who, what, when, where, you know? This is a lot of what, but know who or when or where. None of those details, but I'll just read it to you. It says this, a prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord. A prayer of an afflicted person. What afflicted person? We don't know who afflicted the person. We don't know. Where is this afflicted person? We don't know, but we know that they've grown weak and they're pouring out a lament before the Lord. So it's the Psalm of lament. We know that. We know somebody's afflicted and we know nothing else. So it's funny because we know a solid amount of details, but not the kinds of details that we are used to knowing. So this is, this should make, this should, all right, your spidey senses should be tingling. Let me give you a hint. There is an afflicted person who grew weak and poured out a lament before the Lord. And that afflicted one took on the weight of your sin

and mine. And there's a lot of clues that this Psalm right here is actually about Jesus. And so, all right, let's kind of keep going. All right, that's Psalm 102, okay? We've got context, but the context is a little odd. Context is a bit strange to say the least, all right? Psalm 103, okay? Once we get to Psalm 103, we're not gonna have any context. It just says of David, okay? So this is just a Psalm of David, all right? So that's the context that we got. Now, let's go back to Psalm 102 and let's look at some nerdy nuggets. All right, we're gonna have to dive into language. I'm gonna have to give you some, a little nerdy deep dive for language, okay? We're gonna dive into language and we're gonna have to dive specifically into the difference between the original Hebrew text and the Greek Septuagint. Now, many of you may know this, many of you may not know this. I'm gonna start, I gotta explain this. So bear with me if you already know this, okay? Our Hebrew Bibles, okay, which AKA is the Old Testament. Our Hebrew Bibles are, of course, originally written in Hebrew. Now, somewhere in the intertestamental period, that would be once the Hebrew Bible is closed

and before Matthew starts. And those 400 years, a lot of history happens, okay? Let's just think about what the world was like 400 years ago, right? We're currently living in 2025. 1625 was a different world, all right? So think about how much different 1625 is than 2025. And just think, okay? When the end of the Hebrew scriptures are, when those historical moments are done, you got 400 years go by before you get John the Baptist being born in, Jesus being born and the events that kind of start the New Testament. So the New Testament is a different world, literally a different world. In the same way that 2025, We would all agree, hey, these are going back in the past, is going to a different world with different norms, with different, you know, culture with different everything. All right, one of the things that happens in that 400-year span between the ending of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament is Alexander the Great conquers the world. No exaggeration, my man Alexander the Great goes on a tear and leaves from a tiny little province called Macedon and conquers the known world and spreads the Greek language with him. Now look at these spread the Greek language, he spreads Greek culture.

And this is going to impact like everyone on the globe at this time just in history. Okay, Dr. Mani, why does that matter? Like, why does that matter for like what we're reading today? Well, it matters because in that intertestamental period, Jewish leaders, rabbis are starting to think, well, our kids are speaking Greek. Like Greek is becoming the longer franca of the day. It's kind of becoming the common tongue, becoming a common language. Greek ideas, Greek philosophy, Greek culture and the Greek language are spreading all over the world. And we should translate our scriptures which had never been translated up into that point. Okay, the Hebrew Bible had been in Hebrew and for the first time they get together to create a Greek translation of the Bible. So you have to think about this. Greek as a language and as a cultural force is so popular that the Jewish people known for like tradition and like not changing, decide we gotta create a Greek translation to our Bible or else our kids are not going to know how to follow like the statutes laid out in the Old Testament. So the Greek Septuagint is born. Now, here's why this is important because a lot of people I think are aware that the Old Testament is in Hebrew and that the New Testament is in Greek. But what they don't know is that in the New Testament,

when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it does not quote original Hebrew manuscripts. So those quotations are not in Hebrew, but it quotes the Septuagint. So it quotes the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Okay, so the Greek New Testament and the authors. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, the author of Hebrews. Okay, when they are writing New Testament texts and they have to quote the Old Testament, they are quoting the Septuagint and there are times where the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament and the actual Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament don't agree, okay? And so we have to then ask when the translators of the original Hebrew texts translated things into the Septuagint, were they attempting to fix things that they saw in the Hebrew Bible as maybe problematic? Or did they just make mistakes, okay? So when there are discrepancies between the original Hebrew manuscripts and the Greek translation of those Hebrew manuscripts, we have to ask a question. Is this intentional or unintentional? If it's unintentional, then that means that the translators made some errors. If it's intentional, then that means that the texts were adapted for a theological purpose. And if it's intentional, that's not evil, it's not bad, it's not wrong, but we have to know the intention of the author.

All right, the Psalm that we're dealing with today, you know Psalm 102 is definitely quoted in the New Testament and when it gets quoted in the New Testament, it quotes the Septuagint and the Septuagint and the Hebrew original, not the same. However, in a Western world, whenever there is a discrepancy, we deconstruct and we doubt and we stop believing the validity of the thing where there's a discrepancy. However, in an Eastern world where there's a discrepancy, you get curious, you start asking questions and you assume that the person who created the discrepancy, created a discrepancy to get your attention and they created the discrepancy so that they could lead you down a rabbit hole and they created the discrepancy intentionally to offer some breadcrumbs. And if you follow the breadcrumbs, you'll get led down the path that they wanted you to see. All right, so Hebrews. I'm trying to explain like the most nerdy stuff possible in like an exciting and engaging way. I hope I'm doing a good job. Hebrews chapter one, verse 10 through 12 is going to quote verses 23 and 25 of Psalm 102. Only issue, and it's not an issue. I sound so Western by saying it's an issue. Ah, not an issue, the wrinkle in the text, the thing that makes it interesting, is that in the original Hebrew, okay, the Psalmist is talking to Yahweh through the whole Psalm.

So let's read verses 25 through verses 23 really to 26. He has broken my strength in midcourse. He has shortened my days. Oh my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days, you who's years endure throughout all generations, of old, you lay the foundation of the earth, okay. This however, is what it says in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament text. He answered him in the way of his strength. Declare to me the fewness of my days. Do not bring me up in the middle of my days. Your years are for generations on end. In the beginning, you Lord laid the foundation of the earth. The differences are down to translation of words with no vows, okay. The reason it does the discrepancy is because whenever words have no vows, you could interpret to mean different words depending on what vow sounds are added, okay. So let's think about it. Spit and spot, two different words. Spit and spot. What makes spit and spot different? What makes it different is an I versus an O. I and O are vows. Now Hebrew has no vows, it only has consonants. So it is the context of the sentence that tells you whether or not it should be spit or spot. So anytime there's discrepancy between the Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew, the translators are making decisions.

Is it spit or is it spot? Or is it spat? Or is it spat? Spat, spit, A-E. Is it spat, you know, and let me stop. Okay, because of that, the Septuagint version interprets these words found in verses 24 to 28 as words spoken by God to the psalmist. Rather than the psalmist saying these words to God as is found in the Hebrew. So in the Hebrew text, the psalmist is talking to God. However, in the Septuagint, which in your sub, these little footnotes down here at the bottom of your Bible, anytime there's a discrepancy, it'll say L-X-X because that's the code for Septuagint. All right, why does Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, why is the author of the book of Hebrews really excited that the Greek translation of the Hebrew has reversed who's talking to who? Let me read you what I have in my notes. Why is this important? Why do we need to dive into all these nerdy details about the Hebrew versus the Greek and the Septuagint and blah, blah, blah? It is presented as God's word and the author uses it as God speaking to his son and is one of the quotes he used to show Jesus' deity and how God speaks of his son in a way he has never spoken to any angel. If it is God speaking, then Lord is not God, not Yahweh,

but Adonai and is another example of what Jesus confused Pharisees with when he quotes David calling the Messiah Lord Adonai. The author of Hebrews clearly then sees this Lord to be Jesus and as it is God speaking, it is God speaking to Jesus. So the way the book of Hebrews is gonna interpret this discrepancy between the Septuagint and the Hebrew is that the Septuagint authors were led by the Holy Spirit to reveal that it was never the psalmist talking to God, but it was God talking to the psalmist because this afflicted one who has grown weak and pours out of the member for the Lord is none other than drumroll, please, brr, brr. Jesus, now most Western people would not come to this conclusion. Now, here's where I actually wanna stop and give you something that's helped me a lot when it comes to biblical interpretation. And I'm gonna do a whole video on this channel just about what I'm telling you about. There are four layers of Hebrew or rabbinic interpretation and a lot of times for Western American Christians we get lost in one, but for Hebrews there are four. There's the Pashat, which is the literal, simple plain meaning of the text. This focuses on historical history. This layer lends itself to teaching more than preaching. Okay, number two, there's a Ramesh. Ramesh is the allegorical interpretation of the text.

Okay, hints, illusions, wrinkles, creative, and even unorthodox takes on scripture. This layer allows for creative license and storytelling narrative approach to scripture. Okay, then there's the Drash. Okay, this is a homiletical interpretation. This is midrashic. It derives moral lessons and practical wisdom. This is the most pastoral layer. It focuses on the application of truth and not just the accumulation of truth. And then there's the soad, okay? This is the mysterious layer, the revelatory layer, the secret or the hidden or the spiritual meaning of the text. Two anchor verses for soad is Psalm 118 verse 18, which says, "Open my eyes that I may see, "that I may behold wonderful things in your law." That's revelation. God, open my eyes. God, do an unveiling. I want to see secrets. I want to unlock secrets. Okay, and then Matthew 16, 17, where Jesus says to Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven revealed this to you. A lot of times we try to lock biblical interpretation into one of these four, but for a good Jewish person. The reason they could see a discrepancy

between the Hebrew and the Greek and not come to all kinds of deconstructive ideologies about this is because they are always looking at any individual text in four ways. They're saying, well, what's the Pashat? What's the Ramesh? What's the Drosch? And what's the soad? What is the literal, simple meaning? What is the grammatical meaning? What is the allegorical meaning? What is the homiletical meaning? And then what is the mysterious secret hidden revelatory meaning? A lot of Christians, we are only ever looking at the Bible with one, maybe two. We don't see the Bible as, yeah, there's four different ways to see any text. So then one person who's seeing it with a Drosch and one person who's seeing it with a soad is arguing and debating with each other in the comment section of Facebook. Whereas the reason that I personally don't get it to any arguments or fights with people, especially not online, is because I just go, oh, got it, you see the Pashat? I see the Ramesh. Done. The author of Hebrews is saying, is he saying, ah, I'm choosing to look at this with a Ramesh perspective

or with a soad perspective. I'm choosing to not just take the literal, simple, plain meaning of what this song means, but I am going to add some creative license. And I'm gonna get a revelatory meaning from the text. And I think that this is here, not because the author who translated it from the Hebrew to Greek made a mistake, but because they saw something that they didn't even know how to explain. They saw that the God of the universe was actually talking to his son. And they had no language for that, but we have language for that because Jesus has risen from the grave. And so now we're gonna take an interpretive approach to interpret the song in a way that is different. And this is what all the New Testament authors are doing. By the way, they are taking the Old Testament texts and they are doing something that would make most Western people very, very uncomfortable. They are seeing that texts are alive and active, something that the author of Hebrews also says, that the scriptures are alive, that they are active, that we are not trying to dissect a dead rabbit, that we are actually trying to examine a living, breathing rabbit. It's moving around, it's doing its thing. Okay, so that means that the afflicted one here is Jesus. Okay, let's keep going. - Family, 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. The difference in translation of the Greek text transformed this psalm for the early church from a normal church. Now, the unjust suffering of the individual is the suffering of Christ. The corporate part of the Psalm is then transformed into his victory in Zion on the cross, which leads all nations to worship God. And I know I'm already over time. So let me give you some, I'm gonna get some Psalm 103, and then give you a Thomas treat.

Psalm 103 is a hymn of praise to Yahweh as savior and father of Israel. This again, paints a picture of Yahweh's holy, righteous, merciful, full of steadfast love, the great king. It's a beautiful Psalm. Someone, 103 is a beautiful Psalm. I mean, this is a treasure, a gold mine for worship songs. But the thing I want to focus on is how the Psalm opens up in verse one. Blessed Yahweh, or praise Yahweh, okay? Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Or bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. I read it for the sake of time. I read what I have. Perhaps the best time is true to be found here is simply the refrain of Psalm 103. Bless Yahweh, O my soul. David commands himself to bless Yahweh. It is not a matter of feeling or experience. It is not a matter of feeling or of experience or of being in the right place with the right mood. It is a matter of worship. Worship is obedience. Worship is loyalty. Worship doesn't care about our feelings. Worship doesn't care if the mood is right.

Worship doesn't care if we experience the spirit or not. Worship doesn't care about style, lighting, LEDs, things, et cetera. Worship sometimes just comes down to us commanding ourselves to bless Yahweh. My youth pastor used to say it this way and I said it to my kids when I was a youth pastor. We don't praise him because we feel him. We feel him because we praise him. That worship is an act of the will. And David here in Psalm 103 commands his soul to bless the Lord. And sometimes we've got to command our soul to bless the Lord. When we're tired, when we're burnt out, when we're fatigued, when we're depressed, we're anxious. We command our souls to praise the Lord because worship is not. The goosebumps I get, worship is not how emotional I got or whether or not the lighting was right or the mood was right or the LED screen had the perfect graphics. No, no, no, worship is a decision of my will. And that's not just true for David. That's true for me. That's true for you. I hope today's episode was helpful. Tomorrow we got day 287. We're going to be diving into Psalms 104 to 106. It's going to be fantastic.

I'm excited about it. I'm going to be right here, same time, same place. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. Even if you're not on a streak, I love you. I do want you to be on a streak though. I'm not going to lie. Come on, let's be disciplined. How about you command your soul to worship the Lord by reading his word. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Love you guys, 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. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]