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- [00:05]
Host
Hey, you're listening to A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace and big day. Scott, really momentous day. Well, I guess depending on how you look at it, it's either today or tomorrow that marks the halfway point of reading the Bible in a year together.
- [00:24]
Scott
Halfway.
- [00:24]
Host
Halfway. Can you believe it? I mean, for those of you who've been reading along with us every day faithfully this entire time, thank you so much for joining us. But even more than that, we hope that you have uncovered truths in scripture that maybe you didn't understand before. We hope that you have encountered Jesus through scripture in a way that you haven't before. We pray that these episodes have helped you reflect and apply on and apply scripture to your lives. And so we're celebrating with you that we are happy halfway through our Bible reading plan. It is super exciting. And on this day, when we're halfway through, we're looking at Psalms 136 through 140. Scott, these Psalms today, what stood out to you that you want to discuss in our episode?
- [01:11]
Scott
Psalm 136 stands out to me. And it's another one of those psalms. I've mentioned a few, like Psalm 105, 106, Psalm 78, that just kind of tells Israel's story in brief. And it moves from the creation of the world to the exodus from Egypt, God dividing the Red Sea, defeating Pharaoh's army, then bringing Israel into the land of Canaan. But I love, after each one of these moments, there's this refrain that the people were just seeing that his love endures forever. And several years ago, my wife and I at one of our old churches, we were, we served in our church's recovery ministry for. For a long time. And one exercise we would have people do in this ministry is to write their own psalm to kind of use biblical psalms as a pattern, but to write their own just to get real honest with the Lord. Like, what are the trials they're walking through? What are things they need to remind themselves of about who God is? You know, how does knowing who God is inform their circumstances? And, you know, that was a helpful exercise for people. And I would, I think Psalm 136 is a great way to kind of a great template to use to write out your own psalm. Like, what would it look like to create your own Psalm 136 just to walk through all the ways you've seen God show up in your life and stop after each one? Just say, his love endures forever. His love endures forever. There's something very deeply formative about dwelling on how you've seen God at work in your life. Because like the Israelites, we can often be a what have you done for me lately, God type of people, or we're just quick to forget. But man, when we're eager to pause, willing to pause and reflect on what he's done, that shapes us in profound ways.
- [02:54]
Host
Yeah, yeah, I love that. And I love that challenge as well. Okay, so beyond Psalm 136, is there anything else that you want to point out for us in our reading today?
- [03:04]
Scott
Yeah, something that stands out to me is just you see a consistent yearning for God's justice. I think in a lot of today's psalms. So Psalm 137, you get a window into the very raw emotions of the Jews who were exiles in Babylon. They're being taunted by their captors. They also mourn how the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, joined in and celebrated Jerusalem's fall, which might be what the book of Obadiah is addressing, actually. Then you've got Psalm 139, which is a very, very well known, well loved psalm. You know some famous verses. You've searched me, O Lord, you know me. Where can I go? From your spirit or your presence, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Awesome statements. Just such a great psalm. I think we can tend to forget the last portion of the psalm, though, where David's like, if only you, God, would slay the wicked. It's like, oh, forgot about that part. David's reminding himself of all these things, though, because he's being oppressed in some way and he's pleading with God to protect him and to bring justice to a situation. And I think you see that carry over to, to Psalm 140, where David is praying for God to thwart the desires of the wicked. He says, I know the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. I just think there's a lot of reminders here that, like the study says, we can go to the Lord when we're angry at injustice. We see in the world, like he invites that. He gets angry at injustice too. I think we need to remember that. And he will in the end be sure to right all wrongs.
- [04:34]
Host
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm glad you brought in that extra context there. I think what stood out to me was Also in Psalm 139, we see the Psalmist saying, like, you created me, you know me when I get up, when I sit down, you know my thoughts from afar. And then you're right, it does close with his, like, call for justice. But kind of in the middle of those two things, you also see this moment where he says, like, search me, know me. See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And so it's kind of where he's like, God, you know everything about me. And then he's like, so show me if there's anything in me that isn't of you. And also, like, bring justice in this area I've seen. And it's just you talked about a psalm being a template. We're just seeing him praise, we're seeing him ask of the Lord, different things. We're seeing almost like a repentant spirit. And I just love that psalm. And it just shows the. The variety of ways that we can commune with God and the variety of things that we can talk about in prayer. So that one particularly stuck out me today. Okay. What a great halfway episode, Scott. Halfway there, halfway there. And so excited for all that's to come because we have a lot of scripture to journey through together for the rest of this year, and that begins tomorrow in Psalm 141. So we'll see you there.