Day 287: Psalms 104-106 | 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 thebobaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (gentle music) Family, welcome to day 287 here at the Bible Department. Today we are looking at Psalms 104, 105, and 106, and I know I'm not allowed to have favorite days, but this is a good day, man. These are three solid, solid, solid Psalms. So if you haven't done the reading yet, I wanna challenge you. Go ahead, stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. These are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Psalms. And Psalm 104 kind of stands alone, but then Psalm 105 and 106 are a pair. And that's some really, really important context that you're gonna need. And if you've done the reading with no further ado, let's dive into our context clues. Then I'll give you nerdy nuggets, and then we'll always end the episode with a timeless truth because we are not just here to learn history or archeology. The Bible is not a textbook it is designed to have wisdom that you apply to your life. So context clues, okay? First context clue is Psalm 104,

which you've probably realized after looking at it, is a creation Psalm. Now, many people know when you think about the creation accounts that we have in the Bible, most people know that there are two, right? There's a creation account in Genesis chapter one. And then there's another creation account in Genesis chapters two and three. But there's also a creation account here in Psalm 104. Now, we've already seen throughout the Psalms, a lot of allusions to the creation accounts. And a lot of these are poetic and mythological kind of a retellings of the seven days of creation. But this is the big one, all right? We've seen minor poetic and mythological retellings of the creation, but this one is the big kahuna, all right? So Psalm 104 is gonna be chock full of mythological language, poetic language, that honestly kind of gives an entirely different perspective on the seven days of creation. There are times where, you know, I will teach, hey, Genesis chapter one is not primarily the account of God taking nothing and making something, but God taking chaos and making order. And people will look at Genesis one and not be fully convinced. But then you start to look at other creation accounts in the Bible like Psalm 104. And you begin to realize, oh,

the authors are taking their mythological worldview and reading Genesis chapter one and then coming up with content, like we have in Psalm 104, that is deeply infused with an ancient and mythological worldview, okay? So Psalm 104 is huge for creating a truly biblical worldview of creation, all right? All right, so that's Psalm 104. The most helpful piece of context I can give you for Psalm 105 and Psalm 106 is that they are a pair. Now, if you don't know that each of the two Psalms stand alone beautifully, but the moment you know that these are a pair, it kind of clicks. It's the interpretive key that makes these two Psalms really come to life. And that's all the context we'll dive into for now. So today we don't necessarily have like historical context or cultural context, but we definitely have what I would say is literary context, okay? Psalm 104 fits into a literary genre that we know as mythological and poetic. That is the literary context. And then for Psalm 105 and Psalm 106, we again have literary context. These Psalms are a pair. And if you don't know that, then you don't really get the full breadth of really what the Psalms are trying to communicate, okay? Let's dive into these beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Psalms.

All right, let's start our nerdy nuggets. Let's start with Psalm 104. Again, we are gonna see tons of details. Now, one of my professors in Bible college began to explain the difference between a summary and a paraphrase that a summary takes contact and condenses it down. will take a paragraph and condense it down to a sentence. But a paraphrase takes a sentence and enlarges it to a paragraph, okay? So what we have in Psalm 104 is a paraphrase of Genesis chapter 1. Now, a lot of people think that a paraphrase and a summary are the same thing, but they're not the same thing. Remember, a summary takes the content and pears it down. A summary gets it down. A paraphrase actually adds words, adds meaning, feels in the gaps, okay? Adds content. So what we have in Psalm 104, the paraphrase, okay? So Genesis chapter 1, all Genesis chapter 1 tells us is that Yahweh said, let there be light. But Psalm 104 says, the Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment. Number one, does his mythological language? Number two, I would say that that is a poetic retelling, okay? All Genesis 1 says is that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Psalm 104 verse 2, again, I'm in verse 2, says he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters, okay? Now, one of the things I want to emphasize is how important water is in Psalm 104, okay? So we're going to get a mention of waters here in verse 3. We're going to get verse 6. You covered it with the watery depths as with the garment, though waters stood above the mountains. Verse 7, but at your rebuke, the waters fled. We're going to get verse 10. He makes springs pour water into ravines. It flows between the mountains. Verse 11, they give water to all the beasts of the field. Verse 12, the birds of the sky nest by the waters. They sing among the branches. Verse 13, he waters the mountains from his upper chambers, okay? Verse 16, the trees of the Lord are well watered. Verse 25, there is the sea, vast and spacious. And if we're going to talk about the sea, then we got to talk about Leviathan. Now, Psalm 104 names Leviathan, okay? So whereas Genesis chapter 1 is just going to say God made the great sea creatures. Psalm, sorry, Genesis, yeah, Genesis chapter 1 is just going to say that God made the great sea creatures. Psalm 104 is going to say there the ships go, go to and throw

and Leviathan, which you form to frolic there. Psalm 104 is going to fill in the gaps, right? This is a paraphrase. So whereas Psalm 104, sorry, whereas Genesis chapter 1 doesn't name the sea dragon, doesn't name the sea creature, Psalm 104 names it and gives detail, okay? So again, Genesis 1 acts like a broad overview and then Psalm 104 and other places in the Bible, beginning to really fill in the gaps of our understanding. Now, I need you to see this. There's an emphasis on water. There's an emphasis on Leviathan. Why? Well, because every single creation account in the Assyrian, Babylonian, Mesopotamian, or Canaanite, or even Egyptian world included a god-like figure, a deity that had to combat a chaos dragon that came up out of the sea and then tame the chaos of the sea. So the sea or the waters and the sea monsters or the chaos dragon that lives in those seas have to be dealt with in every other ancient Near Eastern mythological creation story. And so Genesis and Psalm 104 tell you right off the bat the worldview that the authors are coming from, okay? So this stuff is right here in Psalm 104, an emphasis on the seas, the waters, and Leviathan. Okay, next thing I want you to see, verse 5, Psalm 104, he set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved. Now this verse right here is going to be one of the favorite verses for anyone who believes in flat earth, all right? And again, the issue with people who believe in flat earth, A, they're crazy, but C, okay? A, they're crazy. B, they know what the Bible says, but not what the Bible means, okay? So again, literary context, the Bible is not to be taken literally, but literally, okay? Not literally, the Bible doesn't literally mean that the earth can't be moved because they would say the earth can't spin. When science says that the earth is spinning, that can't be true because the Bible says it can never be moved. And when science says the earth is round, that doesn't work because Your house has a foundation, buildings have a foundation. And foundations are, you guessed it, drum roll please, (drums) flat. So they believe that the earth is flat, okay? This is a classic example of taking the Bible literally without regard for the genre of literature

that you are reading. Okay, Psalm 104 is poetic, it's mythological, but if you read the newspaper the same way you read Harry Potter, then you're not putting on different interpretive lenses based on literary genre. You're just reading every literary genre the same. And a lot of people read the Bible that way. They are not reading Revelation different than they read Genesis, different than they read the Psalms, different than they read Daniel, or different than they read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Whereas every book of the Bible that I just named actually represents a different literary genre of literature, okay? And so every literary genre has to be read differently in the same way that you don't read a contract, the same way that you read poetry. You don't. I know that you don't. There's no way that you do. And you don't read Harry Potter the same way. And some of you are like, I don't read Harry Potter at all, it's evil. I got you, I got you, I got you, calm down. You know, you don't read fiction the same way that you would read a dictionary, right? So a lot of times we bring a lack of literary understanding or understanding of literary genre to the Bible. And unfortunately we begin to interpret

verses like Psalm 104 verse five and come to flat earth conclusions when you don't need to come to flat earth conclusions. All right, I want you to see one more thing in verse 24. There's an emphasis on wisdom. Obviously, Proverbs chapter eight is gonna go in the large detail on how God used wisdom to actually create the cosmos. It says this, how many are your works, Lord, in wisdom you made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea vast and spacious. So this emphasis on wisdom. So Psalm 104 is chock full. You could really understand the biblical worldview by looking at this Psalm. Also, it is just beautiful to get a poetic version of what we have in Genesis chapter one is just really, really, really, really cool. All right, let's look at Psalm 105 and 106. We got a lot of nerdy nuggets, okay? When we start looking at Psalm 105, you'll begin to see that Psalm 105 is all about Yahweh's faithfulness, okay? So it's the story of Yahweh and Israel told from Yahweh's perspective. Psalm 106 is its mirrored pair. It's the faithlessness or the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. So it is the story of Yahweh and Israel

told from people's perspective. So according to Yahweh, Yahweh's been faithful. He's come through time and time and time again. He's rescued them, he's delivered them, he's saved them. He's done all these mighty things. He's done all these amazing things. And then Psalm 106 is all about how the people have failed. They've stumbled, they've worshiped idols. They've done all kinds of things. And I'm gonna kind of just highlight for you the juxtaposition between Yahweh's faithfulness and the people's faithlessness, okay? Or the people's failures, really. So Psalm 105, Yahweh's faithfulness, Psalm 106, the failures and lack of faithfulness of the people. All right, so Psalm 105 verse five, remember the wonder he has done. So it's an acknowledge to the people. Hey, remember all the things that he's done, okay? First of all, he remembers his covenant forever. That's verse eight. The covenant that he made with Abraham. So it's gonna start all the way with Abraham. Okay, and it's gonna kind of recount all the things that God's done. Actually, I'm gonna kind of give you an outline here, verses one to 15 is gonna be Yahweh's faithfulness to Abraham and the patriarchs. Then verses 16 to 25 is all about Yahweh's faithfulness to Joseph in Egypt and Jacob and the family

that God's gonna create. And then verse 26 to 36 is all about God's power and his faithfulness to Moses and the plagues of Egypt. And then verses 37 to 38 is all about Yahweh's faithfulness in the Exodus. And then verses 39 to 40 is all about Yahweh's faithfulness to lead and feed the people through the wilderness or while they were in the wilderness. And then verses 43 to 45 is all about Yahweh's faithfulness as the people are going to conquer the land of Canaan, okay? So all about Yahweh's faithfulness. I went through Psalm 105 and just began to highlight all the things that Yahweh did, okay? So I'm just gonna go through these really fast, okay? Yahweh allowed no one to oppress them. That's verse 14. Verse 16, Yahweh called down famine on the land and destroyed all the supplies of food. Next, verse 17. Okay, verse 24, Yahweh made his people very fruitful. He made them too numerous for their foes. That means they increased the number and while they were in Egypt. Yahweh sent Moses, his servant, verse 26, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. Verse 28, Yahweh sent darkness and made the land dark. Okay, verse 29, Yahweh turned their water into blood. Okay, verse 31, Yahweh spoke and there came swarms of flies. Verse 32, Yahweh turned their rain into hail with lightning throughout their land.

Verse 33, Yahweh struck down their vines and fig trees. Verse 34, Yahweh spoke and the locust came. Grasshoppers without number. Okay, verse 36, Yahweh struck down all the firstborn and the land. This is all stuff that Yahweh did in the midst of the plagues. Okay, verse 37, Yahweh brought out Israel laden with silver and gold. Verse 39, Yahweh spread out a cloud as a covering. Okay, verse 41, Yahweh opened the rock and water gushed out. It flowed like a river in the desert. Why? 'Cause this is a theme. Okay, for he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. The theme that we're gonna see in Psalm 105 then carried to Psalm 106 is that Yahweh remembers but the people don't remember. Yahweh remembers to be faithful but the people because they forget they are now unfaithful. Okay, so remembering, having a good memory is a thing that prompts you to be faithful. Remembering and faithfulness go together, forgetting and unfaithfulness go together. And this is gonna be, if you don't think this is about to be a timeless truth, it is because anytime God's people, that's me and you have gone astray or have been unfaithful, it's because of our spiritual amnesia. You forgot what God delivered you from.

You forgot what he rescued you from. You forgot who you used to be. You forgot all of his benefits and his miracles towards you. And all the things that you used to be grateful for, you've now taken for granted. And because you have amnesia, you have now gone astray. Astray and amnesia go together, okay? All right, Yahweh brought out his people with rejoicing. That's verse 43, verse 44. Yahweh gave them the lands of the nations. And why, why did he do all this? Well, it culminates in the last verse of the Psalm. Verse 45, that they might keep Yahweh's precepts and observe Yahweh's laws. What an epic conclusion. Why did God do all this? So the people could keep his precepts and observe his law so that they could obey. Yahweh performed all these things so that they could obey because in the Bible, the definition of grace is that Yahweh's provision happens before his requirements, okay? If he would require you to do things first as a prerequisite for his salvation, that would be law. But he doesn't operate in law, he operates in grace. So he gives you a free gift and then requires righteousness as a response, not as a prerequisite, okay? We have made any kind of discipline or righteousness, legalism in today's culture, but it's not.

Legalism is not about obeying God. It's about obeying God to earn God's salvation. But God outlines clearly in Psalm 105. God did, God did, God did, God did. God sent, God turned, God spoke, God struck down. God brought out, God spread out. God made his people fruitful. God sent a man named Joseph. God called down famine. God allowed them, no one to oppress them. God remembered, God gave, God, God, God, God, God, God. God did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, why? So that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. So if you think that that's legalism, you're clearly not reading this well. It's God does, God does, God does, God does, God does, God does. Now God expects you to do. God does, God does, God does, God does, God does. You do. You do, so that God can do, would be legalism. But God doing everything and then asking you to play your part is not legalism. That's just a righteous response. That's a reasonable response. 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 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 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. All right, Psalm 106, okay? Is the opposite, okay? The people, verse six, we have sinned. Even as our ancestors did, we have done wrong and acted wickedly, okay? Verse seven, like halfway through verse seven, they did not remember your many kindnesses. First of all, kindnesses is a great word. Your many kindnesses, they did not remember, okay? Why did they go astray 'cause they did not remember? I need us to bring this into our timeless truth today. Anytime we forget what God has done, anytime we don't remember his kindnesses towards us, we are in, we are at risk of going astray. So verse 13, but they soon forgot.

And now the Psalm is gonna outline what the people did, okay? Verse 24, they despised, okay? So remember all of those things God did, okay? God brought out, God provided, God delivered, God raised up Joseph, God, all that stuff God did to Psalm 105. Well, think about what all the people did in Psalm 106. Here we go. They despised the pleasant land, that's verse 24. They did not believe his, you always promise. Verse 25, sorry, that was verse 24. Verse 25, they grumbled. Verse 28, they yoked themselves together to Baal. Verse 29, they aroused the Lord's anger, okay? Verse 33, they rebelled against the spirit of God. Verse 34, they did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them. Verse 35, but they mingled with the nations and they adopted their customs. Verse 36, they worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. Verse 37, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods. Verse 38, they shed innocent blood. Verse 39, they defiled themselves, okay? Verse 43, many times Yahweh delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion. And they wasted away in their sin. And how does it all end? Here we go, save us, Lord our God,

and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glorify and glory in your praise. Praise be to Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, let all the people say amen, praise the Lord. And that is the end of book four. Okay, that closes book four. Okay, what an epic way to close the fourth book of the Psalms, which leads us right into our timeless truth, that God is faithful even in the middle of our failure. Man, if that's not true, if that's not the testimony of your life, I think you're lying, that God delivered, God provided, God exceeded all expectations, God came through, but you went after idols, you went astray, you forgot. He remembered, you forgot. He was faithful, you were faithless. God succeeded, you failed, and we need to have always before us. Man, I am constantly in violation of God's covenant. He is constantly pouring out grace on me. Like, this is never gonna be a 50/50 relationship. I am always gonna need God to make up for my lack. And I need to keep an account of all the things He's done because I need to stop forgetting all the ways that He's made and all the things that He's provided. Actually, I don't do this often, but I actually wanna give some homework today

for our timeless truth. I want you to just get a notebook page, and I just want you to just write out all the things that God's done. And the Psalmist starts with Abraham. He goes back hundreds of years, and he goes to history and he just recounts the story of how faithful you've always been. All throughout every season, you were faithful to Abraham, you were faithful to the patriarch, you're faithful with Joseph, you're faithful with Jacob, you're faithful with Moses, you're faithful in the plagues, you're faithful in the Exodus, you're faithful through the wilderness, you're faithful with Joshua in the conquest. He just goes to hundreds and hundreds of years. How about this? Can you just go back to the last 10 years of your life and just, oh God, God rescued us. You're like, whatever the scenarios are, can you get as detailed as you can? I actually wanna challenge you, could you write a psalm of how faithful God has been? It's one thing to read Psalm 105. and go, oh, that was history. But it would be powerful if you just got two pages in your notebook and you just wrote out how faithful God has been and then how faithless you've been.

Could you maybe recreate Psalm 105 and Psalm 106 for yourself? And man, I bet you by the time you get down to the end of your own personal Psalm 106. I'd be shocked if there aren't tears filling your cheeks. I'd be shocked if you're not constantly or intimately aware that man God's been so kind, he's been so gracious and God helped me to not forget how awesome you've been in all of your benefits towards me. That's our time of truth for the day. Tomorrow we're gonna start book five, can you believe it? Four books of the Psalms down, one book to go. Obviously, as you can tell, book five of the Psalms is gonna start at 107. It's gonna go all the way to 150. Tomorrow we're just gonna look at Psalm 107, 108, and 109, the first three Psalms of the fifth book of the Psalms. I'm so excited that we get to stay the Bible together this year. We got day two 88 tomorrow, same place, same time. Can't wait to see you. I love you, I'm proud of you, 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]