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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh 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 7 through 9, 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 footstool. 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 four, 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 asked 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 four, 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 13 I loved 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 as my peace, as my righteousness. And he's where the joy is Mentoring is the topic we cover in this month's Bonus Content for Recaptains. The resource is going to help you dive into details about how to find a mentor, how to be a mentor, what mentoring relationships might look like. This toolkit is available to recaptains at the bonus content tier or higher. Become a Recaptain today or if you joined at a lower tier and you want this perk, just log into your account and adjust your membership. Go to thebiblerecap.com recaptains or click the link in the Show Notes.