B (6:30)

Okay?

A (6:31)

But in Psalm 37, we are going to actually get 22 stanzas, four lines a piece. So this thing is just this huge. And then we're actually going to get one of these stands is going to be five lines, one is going to be six. I mean, it's a massive psalm, and it's just a very, very long acrostic. And by this point, everybody knows what an acrostic means. It means that the author is trying to communicate the full breadth of thanksgiving or the full breadth of mourning or the full breadth of gratitude. It's trying to communicate the full breadth of whatever the topic is to Yahweh. All right? And then last. Well, another thing that we need to know about Psalm 37 is that it is a wisdom psalm. So we're going to get themes of the wicked and the righteous.

B (7:15)

Okay?

A (7:16)

And when you think a wisdom psalm, you need to think a lot of these ideas that are going to get communicated in books like Proverbs are being communicated here in a psalm, like Psalm 37, but just in poetic form or in song form.

B (7:30)

Okay?

A (7:30)

So wisdom and worship really do go together. And you can begin to see that as you dig through the psalms. Okay, Psalm 38, we're going to get another penitential psalm just like Psalm 32. Okay? So actually, a good thing for us to do would just be to compare Psalm 32 to Psalm 38. They are both penitential psalms. However, we're going to get a heading on verse 38 or at the beginning of chapter 38, not verse 38, chapter 38, that says this a psalm of David for the memorial offering. Okay, so that means that whoever's bringing a memorial offering, a whole burnt offering to the Lord, they are to sing this song as they are making a sacrifice to the Lord. Okay, so David is adding music to the memorial offering. Now, if you need context for the memorial offering, there are a couple places where you can go to find context.

B (8:30)

Okay.

A (8:30)

Leviticus, chapter 2, verse 2, Leviticus chapter 2, verse 9. Leviticus chapter 2, verse 16, Leviticus chapter 5, verse 12. Leviticus chapter 6, verse 15. Leviticus, chapter 14, sorry, Leviticus, chapter 24, verse 7. And then Numbers, chapter 5, verse 26, all outline like what the memorial offering is.

B (8:53)

Okay.

A (8:54)

And so this psalm was written to accompany said sacrifices. Memorial portions were always part of grain offerings that at times accompanied animal sacrifices or even replacing an animal sacrifice. If the petitioner could not afford to sacrifice an animal, most of the grain of these sacrifices would be given to the priests and the Levites or baked into bread for the show table within the holy place. Yet a portion of the grain is to be given to Yahweh in that it is burnt on the altar. This is the memorial offering that the title of this psalm refers to. And the idea of adding this grain or this bread to your sacrifice is the concept that part of making restitution with God is eating with him. Okay, so the sacrifice isn't just a time where we do a bonfire. Actually, the bonfire of offering the animal to the Lord is saying, well, the fire represents the Lord eating his portion. And now I'm gonna sit here and eat my portion. And this meal communicates that I am now at peace with God. I don't know if you've ever been in the middle of a meal and you've gotten into an argument with somebody, and it's almost like you just wanna get up and leave the table. Because part of anger means that you don't really wanna eat with people. Eating with people is a sign of peace. And so you and God are now at peace because you're able to sit together and eat together again. I don't know if you've ever been, you know, gotten in a place in life where you're like, I'm just too angry to eat, like, or like, I got into an argument in the middle of a meal and it just kind of ruined my appetite. Okay, so this idea of food being a place of reconciliation and peace between you and God is a massive part of the context for Psalm 38. Okay, and we'll talk about this really? When we get to our timeless truth, I promise I'll leave us on a cliffhanger right here, but we'll pick it up when we get to our timeless truth. All right, Let me give you some nerdy nuggets, our big nerdy nugget. For Psalm chapter 36, you can go to Psalm 36. We can just, like, read it a little. Psalm 36, verse 1, says, this transgression speaks to the wicked. So, like sin speaks to the wicked. Like the wicked. The wicked resonate with whatever sin has to say. That'll preach right there deep in their hearts. There is no fear of God before their eyes, okay? And they. They flatter themselves in their own eyes, and this is pride that their iniquity cannot be found out in. In hated. So it's like I'm. I'm able to, you know, to keep my sin a secret, okay? This is the lie that sin tells those who are wicked. The words of their mouth are mischief and deceit. They have ceased to act wisely and do good. So you can already see these themes of wisdom. Right now. Psalm 37 is going to be a full wisdom psalm. But you can already see in Psalm 36 these themes of wisdom. They've ceased to act wisely and do good. They plot mischief while on their beds. They are set on a way that is not good. They do not reject evil. Okay, now we're going to start talking to Yahweh, okay? In verse five, your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. Your judgments are like the great deep. Okay, so remember we talked about Hebrew parallelism? We're actually going to get some really, really, really cool parallelism here in verse 6, because your righteousness is like the mighty mountains.

B (12:53)

Okay?

A (12:53)

So righteousness is like the mighty mountains. What's parallel with righteousness? Next line. Your judgment. Okay, so we get synonymous parallelism. Righteousness and judgment are synonymously parallel, but the great deep is the opposite of the mountains. So if you have two lines, we have synonymous parallelism at the beginning of the line, but then antithetical parallelism at the back half of the line, which means this psalm has both synonymous and antithetical parallelism in one verse.

B (13:26)

Okay?

A (13:26)

That's verse six. Your righteousness is like mighty mountains. Your judgments are like the great deep. So these ideas are opposites, but these ideas are synonymous. If you go up a verse to verse five, your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. So, and then your faithfulness to the clouds. So steadfast love and faithfulness are synonymous, parallel, parallel, synonymous parallels. Because we've got synonymous, parallelism. And then heavens and clouds are synonymous. So we've got synonymous, synonymous, synonymous, synonymous, synonymous, antithetical. Okay, so this just makes the poetry really, really interesting. You save humans and animals alike, oh, Lord. So the next line. How precious is your steadfast love, O Lord? Okay, why does the author talk again about God's steadfast love? Because now we know what steadfast love even means. Okay, this is our nerdy nugget for the day. Your steadfast love, o Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. So steadfast love is faithfulness. So the way that we know that God has love is not. Cause we got goosebumps, it's because he's faithful. Okay, so steadfast love and faithfulness, same thing. But then your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. Wait a second. Now this is like an onion. The author wants us to understand what love is. So he says, love is faithfulness, but love is also righteousness. And then last, your judgments are like the great deep. Wait a second. That's a curveball. I didn't necessarily associate God's judgments with his steadfast love, but the author is saying, no, no. God's steadfast love is seen in its faithfulness. It's seen in his righteousness, and it is seen in his judgments. So why does God judge? Because of his steadfast love. Wait, why does God. Why is God righteous? Because of his steadfast love. Why is God faithful? Because of his steadfast love. And now that you know what steadfast love is, now verse 7. How precious is your steadfast love, oh God. All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Now this Psalm 100% begins to define for us what steadfast love is. And I could use this as a timeless truth, because we're currently living in a society that just doesn't know what love is. We throw the word love around a lot. Well, you know, I'm in love with that person, and we're in love, and you know, you can't stop love. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, love this, love that, love that, love this. You know, and. And everyone just kind of defines love in their own way. But God says right here in Psalm 36. Well, actually, we're going to use some Hebrew parallelism to define love. Love is faithfulness. So if you're not faithful, you can't really Say that you've got love. So love's not perfect, but it is faithful. It's faithful. What else is love? Love's righteous. So love has an element of righteousness to it. And then love is judgment. Love knows how to make good judgments. Love, love, love isn't judgmental. But man, God judges the wicked because he's loving. And if he wasn't loving, then he wouldn't judge the wicked. But a lot of us would say, well, the wrath of God or the judgment of God means that he's not loving. No, no, no, no, no. It means that he is loving. But God's definition of love is that he's righteous. That's awesome. So that's our nerdy nugget for Psalm 36. Family, the wait 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 place Books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and 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 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. Hey, are you looking for a really cool gift or just solid tools to support your faith in daily Life? Check out Mr. Pen. They've got no bleed Bible pens and highlighters that actually work on thin Bible pages. Journaling Bibles, Bible tabs and faith based journals. Even school supplies for parents, teachers and students. Mr. Penn was started by Christian teachers in Louisiana on a mission to serve the schools in their local community. And now They've got over 100,000 five star reviews on Amazon. I'm a huge fan of their Bible highlighters and pens. Super smooth and gentle enough to write notes in the margin of your Bible. Whether you're digging into scripture or stocking up for Back to school, Mr. Penn has you covered. Shop the best Bible journaling supplies on the market and fantastic gifts for the ladies in your life@mrpenn.com that's mrpn.com and guess what? Our audience here at the Bible department Gets a special discount. Use code department10 at checkout to get 10% off your entire order. I love that. Psalm 37:11 is our next dirty nugget. And we're going to see this. On the lips of Jesus says this. But the meat shall inherit the land.

B (19:43)

Okay?

A (19:43)

So this is going to be found in the Beatitudes, in the Sermon on the Mount.

B (19:47)

Okay.

A (19:48)

And delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

B (19:52)

Okay.

A (19:53)

So it's probably really good for us to know the whole context of the verse before we just go ahead and quote Jesus and think we know what he means.

B (19:59)

Okay.

A (20:00)

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. So anyone who thinks that Jesus is preaching against prosperity and is pro poverty in the Sermon on the Mount, you may wanna come here and actually look at the context of the verse that Jesus actually quotes. Just gonna throw that out there as a nerdy nugget. And then last, this nerdy nugget leads right into our timeless truth. And that is the context for Psalm 38.

B (20:31)

Okay.

A (20:32)

Psalm 38 is an individual lament. It's a penitential psalm.

B (20:36)

Okay?

A (20:37)

We're gonna get words like, for I am ready to fall. My pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity. I am sorry for my sin. I'm sorry. And these words are to accompany the sacrifice that the petitioner is making before God. Okay, so we're gonna go to Psalm 38. I'm just gonna read a little bit of Psalm 38. Oh, Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath, for your arrows have sunk into me your conviction.

B (21:09)

Okay.

A (21:10)

Your hand has come down on me.

B (21:12)

Okay.

A (21:13)

Your judgment, you judge. You're judging the sin in me. Why? Because of your steadfast love. Let's go right back up to the previous psalms that we've already studied.

B (21:23)

Okay?

A (21:23)

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. Okay, so this is a psalm of penitence. I'm lamenting over the fact that there's sin in my life, sin in my heart. My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness. Sorry, let's go back up. For my iniquities have gone over my head. They weigh like a burden, too heavy for me. I don't know if you've ever felt just heavy, just depressed, just like there's a heaviness on you when there's unconfessed sin in your life. And where does this ultimately lead? Okay, so verse 18. I confess my iniquity. I'm sorry for my sin. Those who are my foes without cause are mighty. And many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good. And my adversaries. Because I follow after God. Now, in a lot of other Psalms, when David is talking about his foes or his adversaries or those who are plotting against him, he's pleading to the Lord to rescue him. Because David's righteous. He's like, I'm not wicked. I'm righteous. What's fascinating in this psalm is that David is confessing his sin and asking the Lord for salvation at the same time. Now, I don't know if this applies to any of you, but this is definitely true for me that it's almost like I've got the boldness and the courage to believe God in faith for big, impossible things or for miracles. When I know I'm on a string of kind of like living righteously. Like when I feel like man, I deserve, or I've earned, you know, favor. I've won favor with God. Cause I haven't fallen into sin. And so there's this comfort that I have with God because I feel like my life is right. But I love the fact that David goes, no, no, no. I don't have confidence to make a bold request of God because my life is right. I have confidence to make bold requests of God. Even when I'm asking for the forgiveness of my sins, I'll still ask God for miracles. And I don't know if that just helps anybody else. I have had to ask the Lord to do miraculous things. Even when I'm in the middle of, like, seeking forgiveness from God. And God is so merciful and so gracious that he doesn't just give you the gift of forgiveness, but then he blesses you with the gift of whatever miracle you're believing him for as well. Like, think about it, Abraham. After having Ishmael, his only prayer should be, God, just forgive me for not believing in you, for losing faith, for probably having sex with Hagar against her will. God, I need your forgiveness. But he doesn't just get forgiveness for his sins. He also gets Isaac. He gets a blessing. And that's how awesome God is, that he doesn't just want to forgive you. He wants to forgive you and bless you. And maybe this is. I think this is timelessly true. Sometimes I've got faith to believe God for the impossible. Because I feel like I'm on a streak of not really sinning a lot. But Then in other times where I feel so undeserving of God's miracles, I still have to choose to be just as bold in my prayers, in asking God for miracles. Because theologically, I don't get miracles because I earned it by being good. I get the miraculous power of God in my life because I stay in an intimate, close relationship with Him. And intimacy is going to require that I confess sin. And God has. God does not have unrealistic expectations of you. He doesn't need you to be on a streak of not sinning in order to bless you abundantly. God wants to bless you abundantly, even in the middle of you making mistakes and falling short. As long as you stay in close proximity to him. And as long as you stay humble before him and don't hide your sin or keep it a secret, but actually confess it. And the real issue with sin isn't really sin, it's shame. When you begin to realize that the backbone of sin's power in your life is shame, you become very transparent, very, very vulnerable. And you begin to realize that I cannot earn blessings from God. What I do earn is intimacy with God through confession. And when I confess and I get close to God, I'm eligible for all kinds of blessings in my life. And God wants me to pray bold prayers. He doesn't just want me to pray bold prayers when I feel like I'm on a streak of holiness. He wants me to pray bold prayers even when I'm dealing with the guilt that comes with missing the mark. And that's not just true for the Author of Psalm 38, who's coming to the altar, putting a sacrifice on the altar and singing this psalm. That's also true for you. That's also true for me. The last thing I wanted to leave us off with is that this idea of a meal shared between the sinner and God is a foreshadow here. And gets fulfilled in the fact that Judas, who is about to sin against Jesus, shares a meal with Jesus, even though his heart is completely bent towards sinning against God. And in the same way that Judas gets to enjoy the Last Supper with all the other disciples, we get to enjoy a meal with God even though we have sinned against Him. And the only difference between Judas and Peter is not that one of their sin was greater than the other. It's that one of them knew that God was able to forgive. And so Peter seeks the forgiveness and mercy of God. Whereas Judas seeks to deal with his sin in his own power and takes his own life and so because of that, he's not able to receive the promise that we have in Psalm 38 that God is going to give forgiveness to the penitent. All right. That's true forever. That's timelessly true. Okay, tomorrow we've got day 265. We're going to be looking at Psalms 39, 40, and 41. I think it's going to be great. I can't wait to hang out with you and dig into these next three psalms together. If you're on a streak, I'm so proud of you. If you're not on a streak, I'm so proud of you. I love you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram @thebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.