Day 288: Psalms 107-109 | 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 thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 288 here at the Bible Department podcast. I'm super excited that you've joined us for another episode. Today we are looking at Psalms 107 and 109. And we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Have you been rocking with us through the entire book of Psalms or you've been rocking with us all year long? We are crossing the threshold from book four of the Psalms into book five of the Psalms. That's right, from Psalm 107 to 150. This is the final stretch of studying and examining the Psalms. And I'm gonna be sad, honestly. When we first started the Psalms, like on day one, I kind of probably communicated to you and definitely in my head was like, "Glukala is the longest book of the Bible that we are going to study." And we have camped out in the Psalms. I hope that you've gotten to know God better, David better, all of the Psalmists. And so I hope that you've learned something about prayer and worship and today he's gonna be no different. If you have not read Psalms 107, 108 and 109,

stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. Go get the reading done, then come back. We're gonna be looking at three Psalms today. Like always, our format never changes. We're gonna do, we're gonna look at context, dive into some context clues. Then I'm gonna give you as many nerdy nuggets as I can and we're gonna leave off on a timeless truth. For one of the first times at least that I can remember, I could be wrong, we've got an imprecatory Psalm that we are really gonna look at today pretty heavily and imprecatory Psalms are pretty intense, all right? Pretty, pretty intense. So we'll save that for the end, you don't wanna miss it. All right, I'm gonna give you context for book five as a whole, which honestly, you can not only apply to today's episode, but then you can apply to all the remaining episodes that we have for the book of Psalms, okay? Book five was compiled in the fifth century BC, probably and possibly most likely by our guy, Ezra, all right, Ezra, who may have then been the one who brought all five books of the Psalms into one. Ezra is traditionally known as the person who would have completed the editing of the Tanakh as a whole. It's the Torah, the Neveem and the Ketuvim, both through writing the final books, which would be Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles, and through the compilation of the entire writings section, all right? Putting the Psalms into their form

may then have been a part of this process. He might have also written the final few Psalms, that Psalm 146, 147, 148, 149, and 150, to round off both book five and the entirety of the Psalms as a whole. Context then for book five's compilation is the second wave of Jews returning from exile led by Ezra and Nehemiah. The compilation of book five and the whole of the Psalms really, is done in the context of Ezra's rebuilding the nation, okay? So Ezra's job is to help rebuild the nation of Israel as this second wave of Jews comes back from Babylonian exile. He sought to refocus the people on two things, Torah and temple, and we're gonna see that focus as we look at book five of the Psalms. During the second temple period, this can be seen in the 15 songs of ascent. This is a famous section of the book of Psalms. They are known as Psalms of ascent or songs of ascent from Psalm 120 all the way to Psalm 134. These are the Psalms specifically designed to be sung by pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the festivals. Book five contains 15 Psalms attributed to David. One Psalm attributed to Solomon and the rest of the Psalms are anonymous, but with many of them similar to book four in having no titles at all,

which is why I'm spending a lot of time giving us context for the entirety of the book here. As mentioned already, book five is also, it's possible that Ezra is responsible for a lot of these anonymous Psalms, especially Psalm 146, 147, 148, 149 and 150. All right, that is the context, okay? so there's no straightforward context of the psalm. It is thought, however, to be a psalm written to celebrate the return from exile in Babylon, okay? This psalm is written specifically to celebrate the return from exile. It then establishes the context for the whole book. Like by book, I mean book five, okay? I don't mean, when I say whole book, I don't mean the psalms, I just mean book five, okay? The Jewish people had returned from Babylon to worship Yahweh in his temple in Jerusalem once more. And we can like read it with that in mind, okay? Psalm 107 says this, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his love endures forever. Can you imagine being in Babylonian captivity and you are making your pilgrimage back to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, saying these things, let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story? Not only have we been redeemed, that's not just like a concept. Redemption isn't just like, oh, you know, just redeemed, you know, from sin, no, redeemed from Babylonian captivity.

It is very, very like specific. This is not general, okay? And I've been, the context for the redemption is so near and so close and so intimately felt that it's now become an identity, okay? I am the redeemed of the Lord. And let them tell their story. Tell of what God's delivered you from. He's delivered us from Babylonian captivity. He's delivered us from Babylonian exile. Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe. Those he gathered from the lands from east and west from the north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle, aka Jerusalem. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfied the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. All right, now what you need to know about Psalm 107 is Psalm 107 is gonna put the plight of the people of Israel into four categories, okay? Four scenes, if you will. Okay, so from verse four to verse nine, we're gonna see a time of wandering.

Okay, the people are gonna experience a time of wandering and what is God gonna do? He's gonna rescue them. He's gonna redeem them. He's gonna restore them. R, R, R. He's gonna rescue them, redeem them, restore them. Then from verses 10 to 16, we get a time of imprisonment. Okay, so verse 10 is going to start. And it says this, "Some set in darkness and utter darkness, "prisoners suffering in iron chains." So from verse 10 all the way to verse 16, they experience not just a time of wandering, but also a time of imprisonment. And what is God gonna do? He's gonna rescue them, redeem them, restore them. Then starting in verse 17, we get a time of sickness, okay? We can start reading in verse 17. It says this, "Some became fools "through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction "because of their iniquities. "They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. "Then they cried out to the Lord and they had trouble "and he saved them from their distress. "He sent out his word and healed them. "He rescued them from the grave." Okay, so verses 17 to verse 22 is gonna focus on a time of sickness. And what is God gonna do? Rescue them, redeem them, restore them.

And then lastly, verse 22 to verse 32 is gonna be a time of stormy sea. Okay, verse 22 says this, which we already know, storms and seas represent chaos. So this is the time of chaos. Verse 22, "Let them sacrifice, thank offerings, "and tell of his works with songs of joy." Some went out, actually it's verse 23, I would say as a start of that. Verse 23 to 32, "Some went out on the sea in ships. "They were merchants on the mighty waters. "They saw the works of the Lord, "His wonderful deeds in the deep, "for he spoke and stirred up a tempest "and lifted high the waves." Okay, so what is God gonna do? When his people are found out at sea, in the midst of chaos, he's gonna rescue them, he's gonna redeem them, he's gonna restore them. So we're gonna get that same three-fold sequence. Rescue, redeem, restore, rescue, redeem, restore. Whether it's from wandering, whether it's from a presentment, whether it's from sickness, or whether it's from the storms at sea. Yahweh is going to rescue, redeem, and restore, because he has a faithful and powerful God. Okay, so that's Psalm 107. This is a Psalm of celebration. They've returned back to the land, okay?

This psalm is written specifically to celebrate the return from exile. Celebrate the return from exile, okay? I want to hammer that into your mind because this first psalm of book five is going to set the tone for the whole context of the whole book five or the entirety of book five, which is to celebrate the return from exile, to celebrate the return from exile. So from each of these scenes, or from each of these scenarios, whether it's wandering imprisonment, sickness, or the chaos of the stormy sea, Yahweh had redeemed and rescued his people and then restored them to a now fruitful land because of a steadfast love for Israel. All right, let's dive into Psalm 108, okay? Psalm 108 is fascinating because psalm 108, I'm pretty sure I'm into nerdy nuggets at this point. I don't know if I announced that. Anyway, we've moved from context clues to nerdy nuggets, okay? Psalm 108 is a combination of psalm 57 and psalm 60, okay? These are two psalms that have kind of been mashed together, all right? And I'll give you the specific verses. Psalm 57 verses seven through 11, and psalm 60 verses five through 12. If you look at Psalm 57 verses seven through 11 and Psalm 60 verses five through 12,

you'll compare it with Psalm 108 and realize that got it. The author of Psalm 108 has taken the Psalms of David and has actually like reconfigured them, these prior Psalms, these older Psalms and new and new Psalm, okay? Both Psalm 57 and Psalm 60 were written during times of distress when David was being chased by Saul and after when he had been defeated by enemies. The context of the combination is not known, but given the context of book five as a whole, it could be that these elements of these earlier Psalms, aka Psalm 57 and Psalm 60, were combined in the post-exilic time to create a new Psalm, which means the people are looking back at David who was in distress and saying if God delivered David from distress, he could deliver us from distress. They are identifying with David as a character, especially how Psalm 57 and how Psalm 60 Portray David is a character and Psalm 108 is a fresh look at those Psalms of David, but at what God is up to in history, okay? So that provides massive clues as to how to interpret Psalm 108. Both of the Psalms that are compiling Psalm 108 are cries from David to Yahweh for rescue in times of distress. That means this Psalm, this new Psalm, Psalm 108 is we gotta see how does it take these previous Psalms, okay? And here's the twist. It takes the positive elements from both Psalms, okay?

Although David is crying out from distress, it's like the Psalmist here or the editor here in Psalm 108 is taking the positive elements and putting them in the Psalm 108. It does repeat the distress and cry out to Yahweh, but the faith and hope within David's Psalms that he would be delivered is emphasized and repeated. Again, in the light of the return from exile, this makes sense. They're returning to their older hymn books and finding the same faith in answer to prayer that they are experiencing. The faith of David is emphasized and the same steadfast love that redeemed him is there in Jerusalem after the exile to aid them as they rebuild the nation. All right, this is super nerdy, like super nerdy. I'm debating if I even want to include it, but I'll give you an extra little nerdy nugget. Fascinatingly in the original Psalms, the word Yahweh or the name or title for God, Yahweh is used. But here in this new version, Psalm 108, Yahweh has been mostly replaced by the word Elohim. Why is not exactly known, okay? Most scholars have no idea why, which is why I didn't really want to tell you guys about this little nerdy detail, but I think it's fun, it's a fun little nerdy fact. It could be that David is using the more personal name for God, since this is a Psalm from one person to God.

And what we find in Psalm 108 is more of a corporate Psalm, okay, for the people to say to the Lord. But we have no control. But let's look at Psalm 109. "Fambly, 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 in 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. Psalm 109. This individual lament is a classic example of an imprecatory psalm that is a cry out to God for vengeance against enemies. In the Psalms and particularly in Psalms like this, we see the darker side of the Psalms and I put darker side in air quotes, darker side of the Psalms. We must remember that Psalms are predominantly songs and prayers from humans to God. As much they contain much that is human, as such, sorry, as such, the Psalms are so human. They're raw. They're real. They expose and even shed light on our real and raw human emotions, both in a good way and in a bad way.

Psalm 109 is a prime example of the simple and I would say universal human desire for revenge. David was human. David had enemies and he was not afraid to speak his mind to Yahweh about these enemies and what he wanted Yahweh to do to them. This is Psalm 109 verses 8 through 11, okay? May his days be few. May another take his office. May his children be fatherless. My gosh, that hurts, man. May his children be fatherless. May his wife a widow. May his wife be a widow. May his children wander about and beg seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit. The Bible is written, written are this rated R man. This is sad. May his children wander about and beg seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit. May the creditor sees all that he has. May strangers plunger, sorry, may not plunger. They don't have clogged toilets. Plunder. Not plunger. Plunder. May the creditor sees all that he has made strangers plunder the fruits of his toil. This is Psalm 109. There are far more stronger a question, David, in these types of psalms and the enemy psalms. But it does go to show that whilst David is responsible for much of how we worship today, he does not influence the way we intercede for others in the same way. David would fit into our worship sets, but probably not into our prayer sets. This leads us seamlessly into a timeless truth.

This is something that I want to highlight. The feelings or the emotions that David reveals through the imprecatory psalms, totally timeless. There's a desire in all of us for revenge. And I want us to get this in our minds. Revenge is not justice. Revenge is not justice. Vengeance is not justice. And sometimes that desire that we have for justice can get twisted. And all of a sudden we want revenge. We want vengeance. And I actually can appreciate that the imprecatory psalms are here because the imprecatory psalms are distinctly Old Testament. And I want to tell you that prayers like this are not timeless. They are bound in time, kind of like polygamy, like this is bound in time. The New Testament is distinctly different in its theology than the Old Testament. And that's okay. That's good for us to acknowledge, although God is the same yesterday, today and forever, that God allows and what God forbids or permits is not the same yesterday and forever. So there are things that are true about humans that are always true. A desire for revenge, timelessly true, things about God that are always true. But how we engage with others and engage with God changes from the Old Testament to aka the cross of Christ, has permanently changed, okay? Has permanently changed how we deal with our desires for vengeance and revenge. We do not. We can acknowledge our feelings or our desires for revenge, but we do not act on those desires or pray into those desires in the same way. And that's okay. I think it's good to acknowledge

that things have changed, that there are certain things that are timeless, but when there's things that aren't timeless, it's good that we acknowledge, hey, that's a timeless or universal feeling, but that's not a timeless or universal application or way to act on the feelings that we have. All right, because of the cross of Christ, we have a new ethic. We believe that the vengeance that we want or the revenge that we want is actually vengeance that we would want from a person that Jesus died for and deeply, deeply, deeply cares about. I'll say it this way. Perhaps all that we can say is that the victory of Christ and the cross means that such prayers for vengeance have been made moot by the love of God shown in the sacrifice of his son Jesus. If he has done that for us as sinners, how can we cry out for vengeance? Would it be like Jesus is parable of the servant who has forgiven a debt, but then takes money for someone who owes him exactly? It would be hypocritical. And the thing that changes our standard of forgiveness is God's new standard of forgiveness poured out on us in the form of the cross of Christ. So Jesus' cross changes everything. So what's timeless are feelings. What's not timeless?

How we act on those feelings? That's changed and I don't want us to be whiplashed. I actually want us to lean into that change that the cross of Christ has changed everything. All right, family, tomorrow we've got Psalm 289. We're gonna be looking at Psalms 110 and 112, okay? Day 289, Psalms 110 and 112. I'm super, super excited. I hope today's episode blessed you added value to you. I'm so excited that we're on this journey together. I'll see you tomorrow. Same time, same place. I love you. I'm proud of you. I'll see you 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 thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. (upbeat music) (soft music) You