The Bible Recap - Day 144 (Psalm 108-110) - Year 6
Episode Date: May 23, 2024SHOW NOTES: - Head to our Start Page for all you need to begin! - Join the RECAPtains - Check out the TBR Store - Show credits - Spiritual Assessment Quiz FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Psalm 57 - Psalm 60... - The Bible Recap - Day 016 - Hebrews 4:14-5:10 - Hebrews 6:13-8:13 - Sign up to receive the TBR Resource: Organizational Tools BIBLE READING & LISTENING: Follow along on the Bible App, or to listen to the Bible, try Dwell! SOCIALS: The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | TikTok D-Group: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X TLC: Instagram | Facebook D-GROUP: D-Group is brought to you by the same team that brings you The Bible Recap. TBR is where we read the Bible, and D-Group is where we study the Bible. D-Group is an international network of Bible study groups that meet weekly in homes, churches, and online. Find or start one near you today! DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.
Today we have a trio of songs written by David.
The first one, Psalm 108, has a lot of overlap with two chapters we've already covered,
Psalm 57 and Psalm 60.
David opens by saying his heart is steadfast
and that God is to be praised.
In verses seven through nine, he lists a bunch of places
with names you've probably never heard or seen before,
but that may not really stick out to you
as significant in any way.
So here's what you need to know.
These places form a circle around Jerusalem.
And these verses are pointing out that God owns
all that space around Jerusalem. Tribal allotments, enemy territory, it's all His. Some of it He
uses for reputable purposes and some of it, like Moab, He uses but as His wash
basin. He owns it but it's not His most prized possession. And Edom is His foot
stool. Then after David declares God's dominion over all these places, he expresses his feelings
that God has rejected Israel and isn't fighting on their behalf anymore.
And he knows he needs God's help, so he cries out for it, trusting God will come to their
rescue.
Psalm 109 is tough.
These are the words of David in his lament to God.
He's being honest about how he feels, and it's pretty clear he's not holding back.
There are a few things we want to remember here.
First, David is not personally retaliating.
He's lamenting to God and asking God to act.
In verse 4, David says,
In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.
He's lamenting to God and asking God to act.
God can be trusted to do what is right even when our feelings are wrong.
So David is taking his problem to the one place where it will be resolved in righteousness.
The fact that this prayer is in Scripture doesn't mean God agrees with it or answers
it with a yes.
It just shows us that God can handle receiving the honest outpouring of all our emotions,
even the ones that don't honor Him or align with His plan.
He's the safe space.
Second, even though these words are primarily describing offenses toward David, those offenses
are against God as well, since David is God's anointed over this unique nation state.
David had treated Saul with respect
when Saul was in this position, but here David suffers the betrayal and attack of many other
Israelites, covenant people, who are acting against God and His covenant. They've rejected
David and God with contempt in their hearts, and David asks God to act for God's name's
sake, not David's. Many people have compared David's situation here
to Jesus' situation before his crucifixion. It's not technically considered to be a prophetic psalm,
but there are definitely some prophetic elements to it. For instance, Jesus is an innocent man who
is accused and treated with contempt, and Jesus' apostles even reference verse 8 when they seek to
replace Judas after his death. It says, may another take his office
Some commentators say it can't be prophetic because they can't imagine Jesus saying most of the things David says here
But then others point out that scripture only records Jesus praying for the soldiers to be forgiven
Not Pilate or Judas who also participated in his death
Since it's hard to know how much of this might apply prophetically, it's probably
wise to just read this through the lens of it being David's emotional prayer.
Psalm 110, however, is pointing us to Jesus in a lot of places.
It's a royal psalm with two halves, a prophecy and a divine oath.
And this psalm is quoted in at least six New Testament books, including three of the four gospels where Jesus quotes it himself.
Jesus points out that verse one is about him. It says,
The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
Yahweh has Jesus sit at his right hand, the position of honor, while Yahweh gets to work making footstools out of enemies. And this ties in with what we read about Edom in Psalm 60 verse 8, which says,
Upon Edom I cast my shoe, like a footstool. God is at work even in the midst of his enemies.
In Israel, the king and the priest were supposed to be separate roles,
but in this unique situation they've been fused. The king and the priest are the same person.
In verse 4, it says that Yahweh has sworn, You are a priest forever according to the
order of Melchizedek.
Remember him?
We talked about him a long time ago on day 16.
His name means King of Righteousness, and he was the king of a place called Salem, which
means peace.
So he was also the King of Peace, the king of peace and righteousness.
And he was a king and a priest.
And by the way, Salem was an ancient name for Jerusalem.
So here we see those roles fused again.
The king who will be from David's line and who will sit on David's throne
and who will also be a priest.
And the book of Hebrews in the New Testament also makes lengthy references to this idea
of Jesus as our great high priest.
This song praises him for being a conquering king who is victorious over his enemies.
Our victorious king and our great high priest.
Even though Psalm 110 is so clearly about Jesus, my God shot for today came from 108, 12 through 13.
I love the reminder in verse 12 that says,
vain is the salvation of man.
This is true on so many levels.
I can't set my hopes on humanity or even on this earth.
And most of all, I can't set my hopes on myself.
I can't save myself.
The gospel is not self-help.
I do nothing to accomplish my salvation. He saves me despite myself.
And verse 13 reminds me that even though I do valiantly with God, he is the one doing the doing.
It says, with God we shall do valiantly. It is He who will tread down our foes.
He's the one who works on my behalf, as my protector, as my Savior, as my priest, as my King, as my peace, as my righteousness. And He's where the joy is.
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