Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Aching For Awe? | The Writings | Psalm 76

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Do you have enough awe in your life? Are you getting your awe from the right source? Are you in awe of God, or yourself? In today's episode, Jeff looks at Psalm 76, reminding us that our awe has the power to transform our lives. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 76

Welcome to 10 Minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Do you have enough awe in your life? All of us are surrounded by awe. And yet we don't think about it, maybe as much as we should. Which is a shame because awe can transform us. That's the premise of a book that recently came out by an academic name,

Docker Keltner, out of UC Berkeley. The title and subtitle summarize the premise of the book, well. Aw, the new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life. Now, Keltner isn't trying to make a case for biblical Christianity or even religion in general, but he does tap into the fundamental human longing, the pervasive ache that we all have for awe. But Keltner doesn't just address the ache for awe. He also points out the incredible power of awe and wonder to change us. Because here's a thing, because if we can see reality rightly, we can live differently. Actually, it's more than that. If we see reality rightly, we will live differently.

Because awe will not leave us as we are. It will not only address our deepest aches, it will change our deepest sense of self. And while it's admittedly different from Keltner's work on awe in significant ways, this transformative weight of wonder, of perspective, It's also at play in Psalm 76. This Psalm addresses the interplay between awe and our actions, the way that we see and the way that we live. As we approach God's word in this time, let's pause and ask for God's grace to move through our time in Psalm 76. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath, and thank you for your word. Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Psalm 76.

As we read these words, let these words read us and restore us, and let them give us an appropriate sense of awe and wonder before you. In Jesus' name, amen. So Psalm 76 is in the category of Zion hymns within the book of Psalms. Zion is just another name for the city of Jerusalem, but this name has an emphasis on the religious importance of the city. We get a sense of the significance of Zion through the first three verses. We read this.

God is known in Judah. His name is great in Israel. His tent is in Salem. Side note, Salem's just an older name for the city of Jerusalem. The verse goes on, his dwelling place is in Zion. There he shadows the bows, flaming arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Now, the first thing we notice at the beginning of the Psalm is the emphasis on the presence of God. What makes this place special is not the longitude and the latitude of the city. It's the fact that God is known there. It's the that he dwells there in a special relationship with his people. Verse 3 goes on to describe how this isn't just a place for God's presence to exist. It's also a place for God's priorities to extend. He shatters the weapons of warfare that threaten his people and his creation. In this place, God's kingdom of love, righteousness, truth, and beauty, well, that kingdom is present.

In short, where the king reigns, his kingdom priorities reign as well. When reading or hearing this, an ancient Israelite would think that is where I want to be. I want to be with my king. I want to be a part of his life-giving kingdom. Before we keep going, let's pause and ask, am I longing for a sense of God in my day-to-day life, for the goodness of his kingdom? Here's a question that's really convicting for me personally. Am I familiar enough with what God's kingdom is like so that I can long for it?

what would it look like to not only become more familiar with God in his presence, but to also grow in longing for the priorities of His kingdom and your life in the world around you? Versus four through six emphasize the victory of God's kingdom over the forces that would undermine his reign and undo the goodness of his creation. And as we read on in verses 7 through 9, we get a glimpse of the response to God's kingdom advancing in the world. This is where the theme of awe really kicks in. We read this in verse 7. You, you are to be feared. When you're angry, who can stand before you?

From heaven you pronounced judgment. The earth feared and grew quiet. When God rose up to judge and to save all the lowly of the earth, even human wrath will praise you. You will clothe yourself with the wrath that remains. A couple of things are worth reflecting on here. First, there is a lot of weight put on the glory of God as the king over all things, the good judge over all things. Verse 7 says that he is to be feared. Just a quick reminder that this Hebrew word for fear,

it's also described by biblical scholars as a kind of reverential awe. So even some English translations like the CSB put a footnote with the alternative translation, you are awe-inspiring. When we see the steadfast love of God renewing and restoring, we should be in awe. We should have reverence for him. It draws us into the question verse 7 poses, who can stand before you? And verse 8 sets the scene for what our answer should look like. It says, the earth feared and grew quiet. Frankly, that's a depiction of God's glory and awe that we shouldn't water down. To honor the weight of this question in verse 7 and the picture of verse 8, let's stop and consider our view of God right now. Is your greatest reverence in awe

directed toward God or something or someone else? What's competing for your awe? Perhaps you're greatest awe is reserved for the advancement of your career or your education. Those are good things, but are they getting more of your awe than they should? Your deepest ache might be for a relationship to work out well, or for some kind of approval that's going to give glory to someone other than your creator. How does your awe need to be redirected today? One of the goals of this Psalm is to reorient our sense of wonder and awe. If you find yourself needing to take more time considering those questions throughout the day and beyond today, I say go for it. wrestle with it. If you do that, you are faithfully applying this Psalm in your life.

Now, as we get to the end of the Psalm in verses 11 through 12, we reach a key verse that gives us an imperative to follow. We read this starting in verse 11. Make and keep your vows to the Lord your God. Let all who are around him bring tribute to the awe-inspiring one. He humbles the spirit of leaders. He is feared by the kings of the earth. So based on these verses, Our awe is meant to stir up a kind of transformation in our lives that leads to greater faithfulness. This is not just an awe that entertains us. It actually leads us in a formative process of submitting every area of life to God. It's what Dr. Keltner suggests in his book at the beginning.

Aw creates transformation. Yet the transformation here isn't about self-actualization. It's about God glorification. And alongside this elevation of God, we see the need to humble ourselves. Verse 9 says that God saves the lowly of the earth. And here at the end, in verse 12, we see that he humbles the spirit of leaders and is feared by even those powerful people on earth. So here's the point.

Our ability to honor the Lord with awe is informed by the need to not be in awe of ourselves. We started with this question. Do you have enough awe in your life? And for some of us, the answer may be no. In Psalm 76 is awakening our hearts to the need for an awe that only comes from our maker. Another question to add is this. Are you getting your awe from the right source? Do you need to reorder your life so that your greatest ache is for the living God,

who alone is worthy of our greatest awe? And finally, what could it look like to grow in a reverence for God by not being an awe of yourself? One simple, yet far-reaching way to embody this comes from a quip I once heard. Yet, I can't remember who gets the credit for this. So apologies to the sage who first shared this with me. The phrase goes like this. Take your work seriously. Take your family and your friends seriously.

Take the gospel seriously. And absolutely take God seriously. Very seriously. But the one thing you cannot do that you must not do is take yourself too seriously. I love that. If we took that little bit of folk wisdom to heart, we'd go a long way and getting closer to the kind of awe that Psalm 76 is calling us to live in. Because when you're wise enough to not take yourself too seriously, you're free enough to love God and love other people. As you head into the rest of today, I invite you to find moments, even if they're small, seemingly ordinary

moments, to cultivate a sense of awe in God, to depend on him, delight in him, be humbled before him, as our lives are transformed in that direction. We're opened to the goodness of his presence and the priorities of his kingdom. His awe isn't just something that we see. It's something that we experience. Our world is aching for a bigger and better kind of awe. And God is calling us to be the kind of people that not only receive it, but share it with others.