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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 298. We're so close to day 300. Like we are, we are cruising through the Psalms. I'm so proud that you are sticking it out with us. So welcome to day 298. Like every day, we're going to start the episode with context clues, Context clues. Then I'm going to give you as many nerdy nuggets as possible. And then we'll always end the episode off with a timeless truth. Because this is not a history lesson. Although history is important. It brings the content to life when you understand the context. And so history and language and all that stuff, all that context is important. But primarily the Bible is not just here to teach you history. It's here to teach you about yourself, about the nature of humanity. So if you haven't done the reading for the day, if you have not read Psalm 138, which is 139, 140 and 141, I invite you, I implore you, stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done and come back once you have done the reading. Incredible reading. Honestly, today we've got one of my favorite all time psalms, one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible, and that is Psalm 139. Okay, but before we dive in to all of our nerdy nuggets regarding Psalm 139, gotta give you context clues. And we got a lot of David today. Now, no context, but definitely authorship. So got good news and bad news. No context. Like David wrote this when, or David was doing this when he wrote. None of that. We have that a lot in the Psalms, but none for today. However, all of the psalms that we have today are gonna be Psalms of David. So I don't have a ton of context for you, but we'll make up for it with our nerdy nuggets and our timeless truth. All right, let's dive into our nerdy nuggets. Okay? Psalm 138. This is a psalm of individual thanksgiving. Okay, Here we see David thanking Yahweh for his salvation. Says this in verse three. On the day I called, you answered. Okay, my strength, the strength of my soul, you increased my Strength of soul, you increased. The psalm ends with familiar themes of Yahweh's persevere, preservation, deliverance from enemies, and faith in Yahweh's steadfast love. It is the center of the psalm, however, that stands out as the nations are addressed, but not in the usual Yahweh will defeat our enemies context. It says this in verses 4 to 6. All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Yahweh, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of Yahweh. For great is the glory of Yahweh. For though Yahweh is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. It looks forward to a time when the kings of the world will know Yahweh, when Israel has fulfilled its calling of the priestly nation that leads all the other nations in the knowledge of Yahweh, and and all other nations of the world know Yahweh through Israel, the priestly nation. Okay, David praises Yahweh as king of the covenant nation of Israel, but he looks forward in faith to a time when all nations will be in covenant with Yahweh. And by the way, time in history that we're living in is the moment that David was looking forward to, which is the moment where all the world has been blessed by the Messiah of Israel being born in into the world and the disciples going out into every nation and preaching the gospel to all nations. Okay, he looks forward in faith to a time, this time when all nations will be in covenant with Yahweh. And he and so he will no longer be alone in his praise. All the kings will join him in praising Yahweh, the true king of the whole earth. That's kind of one of the dopest things about David. Not only does David acknowledge that Yahweh is the king of Israel, he acknowledges, you're the king of the whole earth. I long for the day where I'm not the only earthly king that acknowledges you in covenant, loyalty and love, but that all the kings of the earth, which means all the nations of the earth, are also acknowledging you. And then we get to the most famous, not the Most famous, Psalm 23 is probably more famous than this. But we get to a very, very, very well known PS Of David which tells of the greatness of the presence and knowledge of Yahweh. I love, love, love, Love, love. Psalm 139. Oh, Yahweh, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down. You are acquainted with all my ways even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, O Yahweh, you know it all together. These are the first four verses of Psalm. David is aware of the power of the knowledge of Yahweh. He knows that he cannot hide from Yahweh, that Yahweh sees and knows all that he does and says. And then he responds, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. That's verse six. But that is not all he asks is a rhetorical question. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Verse 7. Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? That's the question that David is asking Yahweh. This is Psalm 139. 7. He goes on to answer, nowhere. That's the answer. Nowhere. If David goes to heaven, guess what? Yahweh's there. If David goes to Sheol, guess what. Yahweh's there. If David dwells in the uttermost parts of the sea, guess what? Yahweh still finds him. If he hides in utter darkness, Yahweh still sees him. Even before he was born, as he grew in the womb, Yahweh saw him, knew him. Yet this does not terrify David. But instead, here's David's Response in verses 17, 18. How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. How vast is the sum of them. If I were to count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I'm still with you. Yahweh's constant presence is not a thing to be feared, but glorious. And if Yahweh is with David to this degree, then David's response is asking that Yahweh would be with him in defeating his enemies. All right, this is where this and then the next couple of psalms get really, really interesting. Now, David understands that he has two enemies that Yahweh's presence with him will defeat. Okay? So David understands I don't just have one enemy. I've got his natural enemies in verses 19 through 22, okay? But also his greatest enemy in verses 23 and 24. So let's start reading verse 19. I've got it in my iPad. I've got it in my physical Bible starting in verse 19, okay? It says this. If only you, Lord, would slay the wicked away from me, you who are bloodthirsty, they speak of you with evil intent. Your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you. I have nothing but hatred for them. I count them my enemies. Okay, so from verse 19 to verse 22, David is talking about his enemies, Yahweh's adversaries, his enemies, the people that he hates. Okay? He hates the people who hate the Lord. Okay, he hates people who misuse Yahweh's name. Okay, so David realizes that if God's presence is an available power and force, that there are some real enemies that David has and beseeches the Lord. Hey, can we deal with these enemies? But I love this verse 23. David realizes that his biggest enemies are not external, but his biggest enemies are internal. So starting in verse 23 says this. Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Wow. This is David acknowledging that his internal enemy is worse or more dangerous than his external enemy. David recognizes that his own sin and his own failure in his own habits and his own intrusive thoughts or toxic thoughts have always been a greater enemy to his destiny and purpose than any Philistine army, than any Philistine giant, than any Philistine enemy or any other people group that have opposed him or God's army or the Israelites. But the constant presence of Yahweh will defeat his own sin and lead in the way everlasting. We're going to come back to this because honestly, this is our timeless truth for the day. Okay? Psalm 140, this is an individual lament is a return to a major theme in David's Psalms. His cry out to Yahweh for deliverance from the wicked. It highlights David's faith and confidence in Yahweh for salvation. Verses 6 through 8 says this. I say to Yahweh, you are my God. Give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy. O Yahweh. O Yahweh, my Lord, the strength of my salvation. You have covered my head in the day of battle. Grant not, O Yahweh. The desires of the wicked do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted. Selah. Now, in this individual lament, what enemy is being focused on? That's right, external enemies. So Psalm 139 has introduced David's got two enemies, internal and external. And so Psalm 140 is going to deal with the external enemy. Okay, the external threat. It says this. You have covered my head in the day of battle. What is David praising Yahweh for in terms of salvation? Salvation from physical, natural enemies. Now, Psalm 141 is where it gets fun. This is another individual lament of Yahweh. I mean of David. So we've got two individual laments back to back. It is times like this when you read through the Psalms and not look at them individually. Okay. But you begin to see the care in which these Psalms were put together. Psalm 139 looks at the sovereign presence and power of Yahweh and how David knows it will mean victory over his enemies, both internal and external. Psalm 140 then looks in more detail on how Yahweh's presence with David means the defeat of his external enemies and their plots against him. Now Psalm 141 looks at the internal enemies of David, his own sins. It says this starting in verse 3. Set a guard O Yahweh over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart incline towards any evil. To busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity. And let me not eat of their delicacies. Let a righteous man strike me, it is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it. That's Psalm 141, verses 3 to 5. The Psalm also contains some strange language, and we'll get into that in just a second. But David is aware that it's the internal threats that are more dangerous than external threats. And you can see how Psalm 139, 140 and 141 weave all of these themes together. And I'm stealing my thunder because this is going to be part and parcel of how we're going to get to our Thomas Truth for the day. All right, 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. One more little nerdy nugget. Okay, when we look at Psalm 141, okay, verses six through seven gives us some strange language. It says this. When their judges are thrown over the cliff, then they shall hear my words, for they shall are pleasant. As when one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol. Now, these verses have long puzzled Bible interpreters, especially Bible interpreters of the Psalms to what on earth David is talking about. A hint for the confusion can be found in the footnotes in most Bibles. It should say, this meaning of Hebrew uncertain. This is one of those times, and it doesn't happen a lot, when the reality of dealing with an ancient dead language becomes very, very apparent. There are parts of Scripture where we simply do not know. And a lot of times I don't like. You know, we don't know as a cop out, but sometimes you just gotta admit, when we don't know, there is nothing to compare these words with. Or it might be that the vowels are lost to time, and so the word is also lost to time. We do not know. But it should make us appreciate even more the linguistic scholars who have worked so hard over the centuries so that we can read this dead language as accurately as we're able to. All right, with no further ado, let's get into our timeless truth. Okay. Our timeless truth for the day is that it is the presence of Yahweh that gives us the power to overcome our internal threat, which is sin. Sin, chaos, confusion, rebellion, habits, toxic thoughts, whatever you want to call it. Your internal enemies are always a bigger threat than your external enemies. I know everybody thinks they got haters, but I'm here to tell you right now, the thing that hates you is sin. Sin hates you. The thing that's got your you in crosshairs is not any external threats. It's an internal threat. And I don't even want to mean this as like, you know, political statement or a social statement. I really don't like. That's not my goal. But I did see a very, very fascinating clip recently. It was Jamal Bryant. He was actually talking to Cam Newton, a retired football player who used to play, was the quarterback for the Panthers. And Jamal Bryant, Cam Newton, you're talking. And Jamal Bryant is really known, especially in, I would say, Christian space, as probably a social justice preacher. You know, Jamal Bryant is a black pastor and really kind of is a voice against racism in America, Has a lot to say in condemning the white evangelical church. I'm not here to agree or disagree with anything Jamal Bryant has to say. That's neither here nor there. Totally irrelevant. Just wanted to give context. And so Jamal Bryant is very, very, very outspoken about anything that comes across racist or white supremacist leaning. Just that's kind of his platform, and that's the tenor and tone of kind of the stuff that he has to say. And it's funny because he's getting interviewed by Cam Newton, and Jamal Bryant just throws a curveball. I mean, I was shocked that he said it. I almost thought it was AI. I was like, this gotta be AI. This can't even be real. He said these words. He said, my own sexual sin has been more of an issue in my life than racism. He said, it is my inability to have sexual discipline that has done more to damage my ministry than white America, than white supremacy, than racism, than any of that. And I was shocked, like. And this is where it's helpful to not put people in boxes, because that sounds like a very conservative thing to say. But Jamal Bryant is not like a politically conservative figure at all. But what he's saying is just true. It's straight up true that his own lust and his own inability to control his sexual reproductive organs has been more of a problem for him than white people hating him or prejudice, prejudice actions towards him or racism or redlining or anything like. It's his own inability to control himself that's been the biggest problem. And that's his words. And man, if that's not the heart of what's happening here in Psalm 139 and then 140 and 141, it's like David is realizing, yeah, there's some external threats. The Philistines are real. But man, my own internal enemies are a bigger threat. My own sin, my own habits, my own shortcomings, my own thoughts, my own inclinations, my own proclivities. And not only are those internal realities a bigger threat than any external reality. I'll say this. What Psalm 139 is teaching is that it is the presence of God that breaks the power of both external and internal enemies. So this is counterintuitive because a lot of times when we're dealing with sin and when we're dealing with habits, addictions, toxicity, we have this tendency to run away from God, we flee his presence. It's almost like his presence can make us uncomfortable. It's like shame can get so. Can cover us and attach itself to us so deeply that instead of running towards the one whose presence can conquer sin, we run away from God. And then we're shocked that sin is dominating us even more than it was before. And so there's this counterintuitive nature that when I'm dealing with sin, I don't run away from God and shame, but I run towards him in humility. And when I begin to run towards him, his presence gives me an ability that I don't in my own self possess to begin to overcome sin. So I don't overcome sin on my own and then appear before God like, all right, God, I handled it. We're good now. No, in desperation, independence, I go to God, I let him help me with his presence, dominate and overcome and conquer my sin. And then I walk out in the freedom that he's given me in his presence. But for a lot of us, we want to fix it on our own. We want to DIY our own holiness and then go to God and show God what we accomplished. And overcoming sin doesn't work that way. His presence is a requirement for overcoming sin. And I know if you're battling with sinful addictions or habits or thoughts or behaviors, maybe, like, you want to avoid God, but I would tell you, like, you need to walk boldly into God's presence to receive grace, because it is only by the power of his presence that you will ever break the stronghold of sin, addiction or habits in your life. And that's not just true for David. That's not just true for Psalm 139, Psalm 140 and 41. That's true for me, and that's true for you. Because as long as we are alive and breathing, we are going to have sin issues. And God has a formula for how to conquer sin. And it is impossible to conquer sin on your own. And because the moment you go to God, proud of the sin you conquered, guess what? Pride is a sin. So it's a vicious cycle. You're. You're never going to be able to conquer sin because the moment you're proud that you did it, you're now back in sin because pride's a sin. And so it's actually humility that drives us to God, that says God, I don't have the power to deal with this on my own. I need your presence to break the power of sin. In my life and God begins to be the hero of your story, not you. And that is timelessly true, especially on this side of eternity. All right, tomorrow we've got day 299. We're going to be looking at Psalms 142, 143, 144, and 145. Guys, only a couple days left in the book of Psalms. I cannot believe it. We've got, I think, 66 days or maybe 67 days left total for the rest of the year. What a year it's been. I love you. I'm proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 299. It's going to be the last day of book five. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. Love you. Proud of you. 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 hebibledepartment. 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.