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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible Department podcast powered by arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to Day 274 here on the Bible Department Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Manny Arango, and I hope that you've already done the reading for today. Today we are looking at Psalm 66, Psalm 67 and Psalm 68. We got a medium sized psalm, a really short psalm, and then a pretty hefty psalm. The psalms that we've got today are not necessarily evenly sized, but good reading, simple reading, and hopefully this podcast episode can illuminate what you've already read. Now, if you haven't done the reading for the day, then I'm going to strongly encourage you to stop this video. Pause the audio. Go do the reading. This podcast is not designed to substitute for your daily Bible reading. Actually, it's designed to supplement your daily Bible reading. So let's dive in. Like every day, I'm gonna give you as much context as I can in the form of a context clue and I'll try to give you a context clue for each psalm and then I'm gonna dive into some nerdy nuggets and then we are gonna always leave the episode off with a timeless truth. And today is no different. I've got. I'm really excited about the timeless truth for today. I'm gonna try to not steal my own thunder, but the timeless truth for the day is really, really, really good. All right, let's dive into Psalm 66, 67 and 68. Let's look at context number one, Psalm. Psalm 66 is a Psalm of individual thanksgiving, I guess. Also let me say right here up at the top of our section on context clues, that we've kind of gotten into a rhythm, especially the last couple of days, maybe even the last week, of having a heading that gives us a real solid kind of understanding of the context of what's going on in David's life. So we've been flipping back to First Samuel a lot in the last couple of days. Today we don't get any of that. Okay, so today's heading for Psalm 66 is kind of like back to the simple stuff that we've dealt with for a long time. So for the director of music, a song, a psalm, that's it. That's all we got. Now, what I can tell you is that this is a psalm of individual thanksgiving. And where we don't have a ton of context clues, we're definitely gonna have a lot of nerdy nuggets. All right, so. So this is a psalm of individual thanksgiving, a psalm of praise, Psalm of individual Praise. Next, Psalm 67, really short Psalm. This is actually a priestly psalm, and we're going to dive into what that means a little later in the episode when we get to our nerdy nuggets. But for right now, you can know that this is a priestly psalm. This would be a psalm that really celebrates Israel's role as a nation of priests for the other nations of the earth. This psalm is an Abrahamic blessing psalm. And lastly, this would be a harvest psalm. So we can see right here in Psalm 67, 6, the land yields its harvest. God, our God blesses us. So this is most likely a harvest psalm, but more importantly, it's a priestly psalm. And when we get into our nerdy nuggets, I'll explain exactly why it's a priestly psalm. But we're going to get one big clue that it's a priestly psalm, and that is the fact that we're going to get the Aaronic blessing right here at the top of the psalm. In verse one, it says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us. Now, if you remember numbers chapter 6, verse 25, we get Aaron's blessing. And so Aaron's blessing is gonna get quoted here at the top of Psalm 67. And who is Aaron? Well, he's the great high priest. So it's a priestly psalm. We're gonna dive into more of what that means. Okay? Psalm 68. Now, this is not explicit, okay? We don't have a heading that gives us this information. Actually, all we get is this. For the director of music of David, okay? This is the first psalm of David that we're going to have today. Okay? Psalm 66 and Psalm 67 are not Psalms of David, but Psalm 68 is a Psalm of David, okay? For the director of music of David, a psalm, a song. So a lot of people, a lot of people smarter than me, okay, believe that Psalm 68 actually also has context, and that the context would have been 2 Samuel, chapter 6, verse 12, aka the Procession of the Ark of the Covenant from Obed Edom's house to the tabernacle in Jerusalem. Very possible that that moment is actually the context for this Psalm. Psalm 68. This isn't the only psalm that's connected to that historical moment. And so there's a lot of evidence that Psalm 68, although we don't get a detailed heading at the top of the psalm, there's a ton of context here that what's being described in the psalm is the transportation of the Ark of the Covenant. And remember, this is a moment. The whole reason that the Ark of the Covenant is at Obed Edom's house is because they had tried to move it with a cart, which was in the incorrect way to move it. And Obed Edom's house is blessed because the freaking Ark of the Covenant's there. I mean, the whole manifest glory and power and presence of Yahweh is chilling at Obedim's house. And finally, David learns the right way to. To transport the Ark of the Covenant, which is on poles, because you have to bear the weight of it. And that's a whole sermon on worship right there. That worship is something that you have to bear the weight of. Okay, so anyway, they do it the right way, and David is going to dance out of his outer garments, and his wife at the. At this point in time is going to be really unhappy. Okay. That David has become even more undignified or has undignified himself in front of the servant girls in David's responses, I will become even more undignified than this. Like, you ain't seen nothing yet, girl. So, all right, there's lots of evidence that that's the context. All right? That's a lot of context. Psalm 66, Psalm of Individual Thanksgiving, Psalm 67. This is a priestly psalm or a harvest psalm. We'll get into what that means later. And then Psalm 68, there's tons of evidence, and we'll dive into that evidence that this psalm is based on the procession of the Ark of the Covenant from Obed Edom's house to the Tabernacle where it belongs in Jerusalem. All right, let's dive into some nerdy nuggets. Let's look at Psalm 66. I'm going to try to at least give you one nerdy nugget per psalm. Let's start with Psalm 66. The first thing that. That I want us to see is that this is gonna be a theme throughout the Psalms. But this is definitely a theme here, and this could almost be even a timeless truth for the day, is that the presence of God demands and deserves a physical expression of praise. Okay. I remember when I was first a youth pastor, young people used to tell me, like, I worship God in my own way. And you quickly begin to realize that just means they don't feel comfortable lifting their hands or they don't feel comfortable singing out songs. And I learned pretty quickly, actually, that if I allowed them to worship God in ways that made them feel comfortable, then I actually just effectively made worship about them. And worship is literally about God. And so part of worship is like seeking discomfort. Like, worship is inherently not comfortable. It is inherently about God. And I cannot get past or shake or ignore rather just the physicality of worship. So the first words of Psalm 66 is shout, shout. I don't think we get to just decide, yeah, based on my personality type. Worship is quiet. No, like it says shout out. So worship's not a personality type. It's a command. It's like, no, let's shout for joy to God. Okay? All the earth, sing the glory of his name. Make his praise glorious. So lots of words there, okay? Shout, sing praise, Say to God. Okay? So also speak to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. And what are we saying to God? How awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. So we got some words of affirmation here for the Lord, man. Okay? AKA praise. All the earth bows down to you. They sing praise to you. They sing the praises of your name. I think that when the psalmist talks about all the earth, I think we are talking about creation and humans. Okay. I think we're talking about the mountains and the grass and animals, plus human beings. All right, and how does creation worship the Lord? By acting according to the nature that God set within it. Okay, so how does a deer worship? By acting like a deer. Okay, and so how do humans worship? By reflecting the image of the ones of the one whose image we bear. Okay, so the way that God has designed us actually shows us what worship looks like for each species, right? So a tree and a human don't worship the same way, but a tree worships by doing what God designed it or created it to do. And I worship by doing what God created me or designed me to do. 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 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 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. All right, now, the moment I rebel against how God designed me, that would literally be the opposite of worship. So if I'm using sex in a way that's not the way that God invented sex or designed sex to be used. I'm actually using sex not for worship to God, but worship for. For self. I'm perverting that which God has made by using it in a way that's not how the creator designed it to be used or intended for it to be used. Like, let's take, for instance, if I use this iPad as a frisbee, right? I could. It could work. But whoever designed this iPad would probably say, yeah, that's. That's not what I designed it to do, right? So just because it can be a frisbee doesn't mean that it was designed to be a frisbee. And the person who created it and made it actually has the authority to say what they made it for. And so God is creator. And so one of the things that we get right here, not just in Psalm 66, but through the Psalms period, is a biblical worldview. Acknowledges I'm not the creator, God's a creator. I'm a created thing. God's a creator. I don't get to define myself. I don't get to pick my pronouns. I don't get to create my own identity. I don't get to define marriage the way that I want to. I don't get to define sexuality the way that I want to, because I didn't create any of that stuff. I didn't create marriage. I didn't create sex. I didn't create sexuality. I didn't create gender. I didn't create any of that stuff. So I don't actually get to tamper with it or pervert it or use it in ways that are not how the Creator intended it to be used. And when I do use these things the way that the Creator intended for it to be used, that's worship. And anytime that I use what God has made in ways that aren't the way that God intended for it to be used, that's perversion. Okay, so worship versus perversion. Okay, this is. This is good. Okay, he turned. Come and see. Okay, I love this. Come and see what God has done his awesome deeds for mankind. He turned the sea into dry land. They passed through the waters on foot. Come, let us rejoice in him. So this is the story of the Red Sea. Okay, so come and see. Okay, and now we get. Come, let us rejoice. And then there's a lot of praise. Okay? And then in verse 13, everything shifts, and it goes from we, we, we, us, us, us, to I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you. I love this 1 verse 14. Vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble. Come on, please. Let's not act like we have not all vowed something to the Lord when we were scared or in trouble. And then once the coast is clear and God rescued us, you kind of reneged on the vow, right? That's happened to me on a roller coaster, actually. I. I said, lord, if I was so scared on this roller coaster, I was like, God, if you get me off this thing, I promise, not only will I break up with this heathen girlfriend that you don't want me to be dating, and not only will I confess, you know, that. That I was watching pornography and. Oh, God, I'll do anything. I'll do anything. Just, please, you know, I'm scared. You know. Come on, don't act like I'm the only one, okay, who's. Who's ever been scared? And then you're. You start valing things to the Lord. And. And so David is. Well, not David. Sorry. The Psalmist in Psalm 66 is like, Hey, I am actually going to fulfill the vows I made to the Lord when I was in trouble. I will sacrifice fat animals to you. And an offering of rams, I will offer bulls and goats. Come in here. Now we're at. Come in here. So we've done. Come and see. Come, let us rejoice. I will come to your temple. And now come in here. And what do they come in here? The individual tell of all the things that God has done. So the fascinating thing is that this psalm of individual thanksgiving actually starts with corporate praise. And, man, isn't that a good model for church? I hope that corporate worship and corporate praise really does inspire you towards individual thanksgiving. And there are always moments during worship where I begin to sing my own song to the Lord. You know, we're singing as a congregation, and we're all singing the same lyrics, but then corporate Praise turns into individual thanksgiving. I actually think that's good. We have a model for it here in Psalm 66. Thou's my lips. Okay, sorry. Come and hear all you who fear God. Let me tell you what he has done for me. Which means testifying of the goodness of God is also praise. So we see this in verse 3. Say to God how awesome are your deeds. So telling God about how awesome he is is praise, but then telling others about how awesome God is is also praise. Okay? I cried out to him with my mouth. His praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. And I highlighted that because there's a big difference between committing sinful acts and cherishing sin in my heart. Woo, man. There's a difference between. Man, I slipped up, man. I acted in a way I didn't want to act. And I'm hiding sin. I'm cherishing sin in my heart. Like, yeah, I will not give this up. I will keep sinning in this way as long as possible. I'm cherishing it in my heart. Okay, that's a lot of nerdy Nuggets from Psalm 66. All right, Psalm 67. Now Psalm 67, verse 4. May the nations be glad and sing for joy. For for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. Okay, so what was the Abrahamic covenant? It was that God would bless Abraham so that Abraham, through his descendants, could be a blessing to the nations. Okay? That was always the goal. God's goal was always to get it to them so that he could get it through them. That was God's plan to bless Israel to. So that Israel could be this beacon of light and hope so that the nations could be blessed. Okay? And so that's actually what happens in the person of Jesus. God's plan was never monoethnic or ethnocentric. Okay. God's plan was never, yeah, the people of Israel are just so special, I'm gonna bless them and only them. No, it was always, I'm gonna get it to the people of Israel so I can get through them. And so in the same way that Aaron the priest is supposed to reflect the blessing of Yahweh to the people, the people are supposed to be a nation of priests for the world. Okay? So the reason that this psalm starts with Aaron's blessing from Numbers, chapter 6, verse 25 is because this psalm is actually supposed to demonstrate reveal the blessing that Yahweh has for the nations through the descendants of Abraham, okay? So they are. This is a psalm whereby the people are supposed to remember the call on their collective lives to be priests. And what happens when they don't worship idols, God blesses their land. When they don't worship idols, God blesses their harvest. And when God blesses their harvest, they are now a good witness to all the other nations. All the other nations are like your God blesses your harvest. There's a manifested way, there's a tangible way that God blesses them so that the other nations can see that Israel's blessed. Okay? So the fact that this is a priestly psalm and a harvest psalm really go together because it wasn't like Israel is just supposed to go out and evangelize. It's just they're supposed to be blessed. And they're supposed to be so blessed that it would cause the nations to ask, how are you so blessed? And their answer's supposed to be, oh, because we worship Yahweh, we're blessed because we worship Yahweh. And that was like Yahweh's whole plan. But what happens instead of the people doing that, they want to be like the nations that they're supposed to lead. And. And by being like the nations and worshiping the idols of the nations, they experienced drought. And so the reason that the nations, those secular nations, blood is on Israel's hands is because Israel was called to have an allegiance to Yahweh so they could be blessed, so they could be a good witness. But because they didn't have allegiance to Yahweh, Yahweh had to curse them. And they had experienced drought because they practiced idolatry. And. And therefore they're not reflecting the goodness of God, so they can't be good witness. And so now the people that they're supposed to be witnessing to, those people's blood is now on their hands. So this psalm has all of those themes encapsulated in it. And to be totally honest, I feel like without that kind of an explanation, you probably wouldn't have understood that that's what this psalm is reflecting on, is talking about. Last but not least, Psalm 68. Now, this Psalm, Psalm 68, is going to actually quote Numbers, chapter 10, verse 35. Okay? Numbers, chapter 10, verse 35 is going to say this, okay? God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered. Okay? Now when Numbers says these words, God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered. It is 100% talking about the ark of the covenant being brought out to battle so that the presence of God can actually go before the people. Okay, so this entire psalm is a reflection of Yahweh, the king riding his mobile throne, AKA the ark of the covenant. And the psalm begins with the call that is mentioned in Numbers, chapter 10, verse 35. God shall arise. His enemies shall be scattered numbers. The Book of Numbers presents Yahweh as the general king. Not general like lowercase g, general, like a general of the army. Okay? The general, the king that is also the general of the army of the. Of. Of Israel leading his army into battle. And this psalm reflects some of that ancient journey. All right? The triumph of the warrior king continues as his thousands upon thousands of chariots are described. All right, now I'm gonna give you a threefold kind of. And that emphasis on the ark and how the ark is moving is what causes a ton of scholars to actually say that Psalm 68 is 100% a reflection or inspired by the ascent from Obed Edom's house to the tabernacle in Jerusalem. So there's three things that are outlined in Psalm 68. First of all, arise. Arise. Okay? God shall arise. His enemies shall be scattered. Okay? This is God mounting the ark of the covenant. Okay? Second, ascend. Okay? Here's the language that we have. In chapter 68, verse 18, you ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men. Now, Paul is going to quote this exact psalm in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 8. And that's going to be our timeless truth for the day. But before we get to that, I just want to close out the sequence that we have. God is going to arise, and then he's going to ascend, and then he's going to enter. Okay? This psalm is going to close. Okay? In chapter 68, verse 24, the procession ends when the ark enters the sanctuary. The king's home, Yahweh's home. Okay? Yahweh's throne is back in his palace, which is his home. The king is home. Okay? 68, 24. It says this. Your procession. God has come into view. The procession of my God and king into the sanctuary. Okay? So this entire psalm is about a procession, the procession of a warrior king, where the ark is moving around, it's victorious, and then it finally comes to rest in its place or in its home, but in the king's palace, not the David, the king, Yahweh, the king. All right, Timeless truth. We're going to actually use the fact that Paul is going to quote this psalm. He's going to quote 68, 18 in Ephesians 4:8. So I'm going to read Ephesians 4:8 to you. It says this. I'll start at verse seven. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says when he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people. What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. So Christ Himself gave. Okay, what gifts does he give? Gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip his people for the works of service of the body of Christ may be built up. So if Jesus is a groom and the church is his bride, Jesus has a wedding gift for his bride and it is in the form of these five fold ministry giftings. So what's my timeless truth for the day? If David danced before the type and shadow. Okay, if David danced before that which was prefiguring what we have today, if David danced before the type and shadow, how much more so should we not express physical praise to God now that the fulfillment of the type and shadow is here, Ephesians 4:8 is huge. Ephesians 4:8 means that the fulfillment of Psalm 60:8 has come. And if David could dance in front of the type in the shadow, how much more should we acknowledge the Holy Spirit of God? I'll read it this way. In Psalm 68, the spirit of Yahweh enters Old Jerusalem and ascends to rest and rule in the tabernacle. In Ephesians, the Spirit of Yahweh enters the New Jerusalem and ascends to rest and rule in the new Temple and the new covenant. In the New Jerusalem and the new Temple are one and the same. What is it? The church, the body and the bride of Christ. David danced and rejoiced to see the presence of God in a tent. Yet every day of our walk with Christ we know something far greater than David. The presence of God in these temples of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God in the churches that we are a part of week in and week out. If David danced before the ark of the covenant, how much more should we bring physical praise, shouts of praise, songs of praise, dances of praise, exuberant praise before God who has fulfilled everything that Psalm 68 was pointing to. That's not just true for David. That's not just true for Paul. That should be true for you and me as well. And that's my timeless truth. For the day. All right, tomorrow we've got Psalm 69 to 72. We've got a good amount of psalms to study tomorrow. I'm so excited. If you're On a streak, Dr. Manny is proud of you. If you're not on a streak, let's get it together. All right, I'll see you right here tomorrow as we continue our journey through the Psalms. I love you so much. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram at the Bible 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 See you back here tomorrow.