Hello and welcome to lesson 11 on our Bible-sling of the Psalms. Let's consecrate our time and prayer, in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, amen. In the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, amen. All right, well, a lesson 11, we're going to be doing a good chunk of Psalms here, Psalm 92, 100, and Psalm 90 marks the very first Psalm of book 4.
So we're plugging away really nicely here, making a lot of good progress over the past 10 lessons. Today we're doing the first part of book four. We'll finish book four next week, and then we'll have book five left. So we're doing really, really well.
Thanks for sticking with it this long. I hope you're enjoying a lot. So what I wanted to, I've always done this in the past three books as you will remember, I hope that when we hit a new book, I want to just go back and briefly over five minutes or so or less. Give or take five minutes, just review the whole big picture of the Psalter and the narrative trajectory that were along, the big themes that were along, so we can really try to grasp what the focus is going to be here for, this book, which is book four.
Okay, so with that point then, I've kind of reproduced some, a little bit of material from some past lessons with a little bit more material to give us an idea of what book four is all about. So the entire Psalter, Psalms one through 50, is organized according to five different books, right? And those five books really track Israel's royal history, not entirely all of Israel's history, beginning with Abraham, although that does take place, especially when it's in the next lesson. There's a lot of emphasis on Abraham, but it's really focusing on Israel's royal history along a big golden thread, phematic golden thread from lament to praise.
So book one has a lot of lament Psalms, book five has a lot of praise Psalms. So it's a trajectory from lament to praise following the royal history of King David. Now the whole Psalter has the theme of lament to praise, as does certain books, one of the five books, but also certain Psalms have that same thematic progression from lament to praise as well, especially the todak, the Thanksgiving Psalm, as we discussed in many different times. And that's really important.
I just want to emphasize this really quickly as I have before. It's awesome, of course, to see the literary structure and the design of the Psalter, but always be looking for its spiritual relevance. The movement from lament to praise is a story about the soul. I mean, that's our story here on earth.
This earth is as many beautiful hymns and prayers call it, the Valley of Tears. Of course, life is beautiful, absolutely. I'm not a pessimist, I'm not a glass half empty kind of guy. But the reality is this earth is not our home.
And we suffer a lot because of sin, because of weakness. We get old, we get frail, we get sick, we get weak, and we forget things. And all these things happen. Sometimes there's some serious suffering that takes place and it can be depressing and difficult sometimes.
Now we're called to heaven. We're called to move beyond this Valley of Tears to worship God in the heavenly homeland, the heavenly promise land for all eternity. So our own life is a trajectory, a movement from lament to praise, lament on this earth, lamenting of our sins, doing penance, worshiping God, even praising him forever and ever. So I just want you to always remember the spiritual application as we're looking at this stuff.
All right, so, limited praise, very good. Now, as I said already, the Psalter is divided into five books, each of them, you know it concludes. Most Bibles, most translations will tell you when book one, two, three, four, and five begin. And then right before the next book begins, the very last verse or two, there's a doxology, which is a couple verses of praise and worship of God claiming him blessed.
And I've listed all these here notes. All right, so what's beautiful about the effect that this Psalter is divided into five books is because it mimics the five books of Moses. As this brief quote here says, The rabbinic tradition concludes from this fivefold structure that the Psalms constitute a devitic Torah, that is a devitic counterpart to the five books of the Mosaic Law. That's really lovely.
So on the one hand, you've got five books of the Law of Moses. And on the other hand, you've got the five books of the Psalter of David, if you want to call it that. So they go hand in hand. In fact, some are online, I forget who exactly said this, pardon me for my failed memory right there.
There's another proof of that age, you know, it hits you eventually. But some are online, I picked up the imagery that, you know, the five books of Moses, the five books of the Law are like two hands that interwoven class and prayer for worship of God. And that's really lovely because to praise God and worship him and the Psalms is to follow his law and to follow his law is to praise him. So it's two sides of the same coin.
So that's really lovely. Now what are the big themes of these books? We already completed three of these books. We're moving on to four right now.
And then a couple lessons, we're gonna do book five. So book one, if you can remember that Psalms one through 41, that focuses really on the devitic king. The suffering, the righteous devitic king that calls out to God for deliverance. So if you put Psalms one into a side because they really formed the prologue for the entire Psalter as I've said a billion times, put those aside, very thematic for everything.
It's really gonna be Psalms three through 41. And they're focusing on the devitic king. There's lots of lament Psalms, individual, individual events here in book one. Then book two, which goes from 42 to 72, will now focus on the glory of the devitic kingdom, especially the glory of God who reigns through the devitic kingdom.
And that crescendos very beautifully in Psalm 72 with this great song of Solomon and his dominion, his reign, it just seems so incredible. It has to be prophetic and messing in which of course it is for Jesus. So there's a lot of praise Psalms in book two because it's focusing on the glory of the devitic kingdom. Then book three, very, very short book, 73 to 89, that focuses on the fall of the devitic kingdom, which we just did in a couple of lessons, what would that be, I guess nine and 10, right?
So it's focusing on the fall of the devitic kingdom and there are a lot of community lament Psalms in here, lamenting the obviously destruction of the temple. If you remember Psalm 74 is pretty brutal, they've cut down the temple, burnt it and brought their hammers and hatchets and destroyed it and it's pretty sad. So it's focusing on the fall of the devitic kingdom there. And now book four, they're in exile.
So we're focusing on the exile of the devitic kingdom, Psalms 92, 106, another very short book, which is kind of good. I mean, the two shortest books of the entire Psalter is about the fall of the exile of the kingdom. You don't want to spend too much time reading about all of these. I mean, you get the general point, you're hopefully your pence as an Israelite or as a Christian, and you look for hope, right?
So and that's really the big theme of book four here. When you're in exile, the devitic kingdom is in exile. The king is in exile. This book is focusing on praise of God and hope in him for a restoration.
And that flows nicely into book five, which we'll talk in a couple lessons. That's 107 to the end, 150. And that's focusing on restoration. It's going to be partial.
And I'll go into all those things when the time comes. So there is the flow just to keep it in your brain. I really encourage students all the time, do your best to try to memorize these Psalm markers. Like what book one begins and ends with.
So it's one to 41, book two is 42, 72, book three, 73, 89, then 9106, the 107, 150 do that if you can. And keep it fresh in your brain because it's going to be very helpful and very beneficial when you go to Mass or when you're reading the liturgy, the hours or whatever it might be. And you'll see you're reading a Psalm which actually happened recently in the Sunday liturgy. Gosh, I forget which royal Psalm.
We're talking about the royal Psalms right now. But in the response, we're like, oh, that's a royal Psalm. And so I knew the context of the Psalm and it really helped to shed light on the rest of the readings. So I encourage you to do that as well as we're really kind of coming close to the end of the Psalms Bible study here only a few more to go.
Do that, memorize it. And then you realize, okay, that Psalm is in book two. And I know that that's focusing on the glory of the vidic kingdom or that Psalm is book three and that's the fall of the vidic kingdom and it should really help shed you some light on the rest of the mass readings that you're going through at that particular time, all right? So in any case, the vidic kingdom one, the glory of the vidic kingdom two, then the fall of the kingdom, then the exile of the kingdom, then the restoration of the kingdom.
That's what we mean by the trajectory from lament to praise. Okay, so with that in mind, I have another great quote for you from your Catholic introduction deal testament now that we're focusing here on book four. So they say, David and his covenant have dominated the Psalter up to this point. But in Psalm 89, the Davidic monarchy and covenant seem to have come to an end as the people enter into exile.
In the absence of David, the people of Israel turn to earlier covenant mediators for guidance. For this reason, Moses and Abraham appear in book four, though they have been largely absent beforehand, end quote. And that's really important. So I mean, book one and two, David is the central figure.
Then you could argue Solomon a little bit at the end of book two. And now here kind of book three, really book four, Moses and Abraham take center stage because David is gone. David at kingdom is gone. It's an exile.
So what we basically want to approach book four as is going back to basics, going back to brass tacks, going back to our origin store here and reflecting upon that. So book four is very meditative. It's very reflective. It's very hopeful.
I don't think it's a dour mood at all. I don't think it's melancholic really too much because in going back to basics, you're really going back to God who brought you out of Egypt. So God is proclaimed. This will be very clear.
We're going to get to the second half of this lesson here. 93 through 100. It's a chunk of divine royal Psalms. But you have this pattern, this habit, repetition throughout these Psalms calling God as the one true king because David's gone, right?
If then calling Israel to repent of sin because they're an exile because of their sin. And there's a strong hope for restoration, a hope that's really based in the Exodus. Because remember, Moses is the great mediator, a law giver of the Exodus. So because David's gone, we're going to go back to Moses and even back further, which next lesson we'll be looking at Abraham a lot.
But today or right now, it's Moses. So Moses is the liberator of the Exodus. So we're going to go back to him. And part of that hope is since God redeemed us once while we were hostage in Egypt and brought us out of Egypt to come back to the land, he can do it again, right?
Right now we're in Babylon. We've Babylon destroyed us in a Syria destroyed the northern kingdom. And there's going to be hope for a new Exodus. And that's why we're going back to Moses, the big Exodus figure.
So that is the golden thread for book four, focusing on the exile of the kingdom, looking at these ancient stalwart covenant mediators, Moses and Abraham. All right, so with that then, the perfect segue is Psalm 90 begins book four. And guess who this Psalm is attributed to Moses, right? There's no, that is not an accident at all.
If we're talking about a major theme of book four is hope in a new Exodus event of God restoring his people and bringing them back from all the nations. And Moses did it the first time, well, we're going to have to go back to Moses and listen to his advice. So Psalm 90 is the only Psalm attributed to Moses. And this is the flow.
So book three in Psalm 89 is all about the end of the David King and kingdom, or at least the apparent end of the king and the kingdom. It's been destroyed. Psalm 89 was long and it was pretty, pretty dark. First half was great if you remember, about all the characteristics of the David Kingdom.
The second half was, well, now we don't have that anymore. And the Psalmist accuses God of doing the exact opposite of what God promised. So now book four opens up with this singular Psalm attributed to Moses, the deliver of the Exodus who now calls Israel to repent and to make the most of your short life and hope in God, right? So there's many Exodus references throughout this entire book.
So Psalm 90 through 106, keep in mind, 90 to 106. There's all kinds of Exodus references as there has been in previous Psalms, don't get me wrong. But here it just kind of really seems to increase. All right, so let's read a couple verses.
And by the way, I'll just point out that this whole section of Psalms I'm gonna be focusing on for you here in this lesson 90 to 100. 90 is really important to focus on as well as 91, 95. And I really want to give you the big overarching picture of the divine praise Psalms 93 to 100 to really show you what I mean by this theme of hope and this note of hope and praise of God that he can do all things. All right, well, let's spend some time reading.
I wanna read all of Psalm 90. It's really, really important here. It's kind of melancholy, but it's really important. It's a wisdom Psalm.
It's a lament Psalm for short, all right? But it also has this sapiential wisdom characteristics that run through it. All right, verses one and two says, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. So it begins with a very beautiful note that Lord, you are our dwelling place.
Now that's an interesting proclamation. So it's saying God, you are our dwelling place. Why? Because Zion, which was the dwelling place of God, is destroyed, right?
And so now there's this realization that well, no matter where we are, there God is, God is not limited or restricted to the real estate of Jerusalem. He is the one God from everlasting to everlasting who brought forth the earth and the universe. He has got everywhere. And so wherever we are, God is there and God is our dwelling place.
So this is a realization that God's rule in might is not limited to Zion. Zion and Jerusalem and the temple right there was where he was enthroned, but he rules and is really present everywhere, right? So that's really important if you're in exile and you're somewhere in Babylon, right? Just kind of mourning the fact that you are no longer in your hometown, right?
Jerusalem anymore, God is there with you, no matter what. So that's already very, very hopeful. God is himself Israel's dwelling place. And he has this eternal character, right?
You are God from everlasting everlasting. That is gonna be contrasted here to Moses' advice, whether he Moses actually wrote, I didn't even touch upon that, whether Moses wrote this or not, or if it's a Psalm that's just attributed to Moses because of the themes of book four, I'm just gonna table that debate and that academic exercise right there, I don't think that is necessarily helpful for our purposes here. So let's just say for the sake of argument, it's Moses, right? So Moses now is giving advice.
Verse three and following, it's very sobering perspective on the shortness of life. Okay, so you're in exile. Remember how quickly life passes by and turned to God as the overarching theme there. Verse three says, you turn man back to the dust and say, turn back, O children of men, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it was passed or as a watch in the night.
You sweep men away there like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed, and in the evening it fades and withers. For we are consumed by your anger and by your wrath, we are overwhelmed. You have said our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your accountants.
I'm gonna stop right there here really quickly just to kind of follow the notes a little bit and not get too far ahead of ourselves. Psalm, so verses one through two of Psalm 90 really proclaim, God is from everlasting to everlasting. And as we know from Exodus three, 14, he just simply is, he is who he is. That's not the case for mankind, right?
We go back to the dust. And this line right there in verse three, you turn man back to the dust is 100% in echo of Genesis three, 19 of the punishment, given Adam for his sin for not trusting in God. You are dust and to dust you shall return. So don't get too prideful, put aside your arrogance, you're nothing but dust.
God is everlasting, we are dust. What a crazy contrast that is. And it goes on to say, you for a thousand years in your sight are as of yesterday when it is passed. So one day for us is like a thousand years for you.
Now without obviously this is poetic. God has no time, God is outside of time. So really one day for us isn't like nothing for God. And in fact, the theologians will say that God is in a constant present now.
There's no past, there's no future. There's no change in God whatsoever. He simply is existence. His being is existence is being and he just is right.
But this is a very beautiful metaphorical idea that just a thousand years for God is like one day for us, like a thousand years for him. He's just really outside of time. Now I will say a couple of things. This particular verse, a thousand years, or it's like one day for you, that is quoted in second Peter chapter three, verse eight.
Peter quotes this exact Psalm, and it's that Psalm nine, verse four in second Peter three. And this is what he says here. He says do not ignore this one fact beloved, that with the Lord one day it says a thousand years. And a thousand years as one day.
So why does he quote this? Because God seems to be slow, doesn't he? And I think that's 100% true in your life. I'm sure you've bought many times.
The Lord needs to pick up the pace a little bit. I need him to act really quickly for XYZ situation, right? So he seems to be slow. But Peter quotes this verse, and his main point in verse nine is, the Lord is not slow about his promise as some count, count, slowness, but it's for bearing toward you, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So the Lord is very slow. He takes his time, it seems to be, because he wants us to repent. He is not slow about his promises. He will fulfill everything that he said he would fulfill.
But he wants us all to repent. So everybody gets the benefit of sufficient time in order to repent. So that's why Peter quotes this particular Psalm, your Psalm 90. And I think there might be even more to it than that, because remember that Psalm 90 is the first Psalm of book four.
In Moses' words, that is trying to call the people back to repentance, to go back to basics, to back to brass tacks, to repent and to have hope for restoration. That's the big theme of book four. So perhaps Peter is quoting a verse from the first Psalm of book four to apply all of those themes to our present life that right now we are in exile from heaven. And yet we need to learn to praise God, to worship him, to repent of our sins, and then to hope for restoration, which will inevitably come.
I think, I mean, you always take a step back and try to look at the bigger picture. Don't lose the force for the trees. That may be a little bit of what Peter is doing. I might be pushing the envelope, perhaps, but I think there may be something to that.
So Peter quotes this particular verse. And it goes on, there's some other images here. We're like grass. I also want you to remember this, because it'll be important for this couple of Psalms.
We are like grass, which in the morning flourishes and in the evening fates, right? So this concept of morning evening, from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, the night, that's gonna be repeated a couple of times in the next couple of Psalms. So watch out for that and I'll remember to point it out here as we move forward to this. Through through to this Psalm.
All right, so, verses seven and eight, then reflect. The point is we are passing away like grass, and the morning of things go well, and the evening is not so well, we fade. We're like dust, we'll go back to the dust. You are from everlasting everlasting.
And then there's this reflection here that all God's wrath is really due to our sins, even our secret sins. That's what we're mourning. Let's read verse seven and following seven and eight. We are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath, we are overwhelmed.
You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. That's a really powerful verse anyways, right? No, everyone thinks they may, I can't exaggerate, but you know what I mean? People think that they may have secret sins, right?
Nobody really knows about these sins, but in God's face and God's countenance, in his presence, there are no secret sins. There are no lies that you can tell God. He knows absolutely everything. So Israel here realizes, look, your wrath, your anger, is due to all of our iniquities, it's due to our secret sins.
That's the reason why that they are in exile. So what should we do about this? We should number our days. It goes on in verse nine.
All our days pass away under your wrath. Our years come to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are three score and 10, or even by reason of strength four score. Just remember Abraham's Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's here four score and seven years ago.
So three score and 10, or if we're lucky four score, yet their span is but toil and trouble, they are soon gone and we fly away. So what's the point here? Well, if we're lucky, we'll get to 80 years old. So three scores, a score is 20, three scores is 60 and 10 makes 70 and four scores 80.
So if you're lucky, we're gonna live to be 80 years old. And of course, as I said earlier, it's a value of tears. It's lament, it's lament, right? We're hoping to be with God in heaven.
Right now, it's trouble and it's toil, and it'll pass away really, really quickly like grass. So we should be wise about how we live our life. And this is the wisdom that's percolon, the verse 12. Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
How, that is great advice. I mean, this is a lament song, but it's kind of also a wisdom song. The wisdom is number our days. So we can get wisdom.
And the wisdom, as you go through all the other wisdom, literature is basically the wisdom is fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So love him and serve him to be on, respect of him to put him first above all things. That is how you live a beautiful life of 70, 80 years, if you're lucky and many people don't even live that long.
So this is a really beautiful song here. Again, it is kind of melancholic, it is kind of difficult, but it is so true to realize that we pass away. God is from everlasting everlasting. We repent of our sins and then we wait for him.
So remember in terms of waiting, that book three had this big thematic question. If you remember, it is how long? That question is repeated so many times. Lord, how long?
And tell your wrath of age. How long until your anger passes away? How long until we're restored? So book three now flows that link in the chain flows here with book four, verse 13.
Return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants. So even before, in between books three and four, there is that link of the question. How long?
The temple is destroyed, the city is destroyed, the day is destroyed. How long until you come back? Now we're reflecting on the same thing while in exile here. How long until you come back?
Well, teach us to number our days. Give us that heart of wisdom. All right, beautiful. Now this song ends, let's just keep reading here almost.
Anyway, it's a couple more verses. Verse 15, make us glad as many days as you have a flick at us. And as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest your servants and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. So the final verse is however many days, however many years you have given to us, establish the work of our hands. Life is brief.
Give us meaning. Give us purpose. There could be, by the way, a reference to the rebuilding of the temple right here, the work of our hands, the reconstruction of the temple after exile, that's possible. But generally speaking, it is give purpose to our life.
The work of our hands could 100% also be a throwback to the curse of Adam, right? So by blood, sweat, and tears, you're going to labor in the fields, right? By thorns and thistles, the ground will give forth to you. So the work of our hands could be just help us to endure the curses of Adam until what we go back to dust.
The verse three. So I see a little connection there. I could be off. I don't think so.
It is a reference to the Toil of Life that is a very original sin. We're going to turn back to dust and our work has been cursed. So now let us have meaning behind it. Establish the work of our hands, despite the thorns that thistles the blood, sweat, and tears.
So there, that's how Psalm 90 begins. Our book four begins with Psalm 90. Very wise advice. It's totally true.
You don't want to run away from the fact that you're going to die eventually. Establish the work of our hands and let us worship you in the repent of our sins. That is how this entire book opens up. It goes all the way to 106.
Same kind of themes are really going to be found throughout. All right. Well, Psalm 91, this is especially a wisdom song. As your commentary will lay it out for you.
There's a connection here. Psalm 90 is proclaiming God as a dwelling place. Verse one, you have been a dwelling place. Psalm 90 verse one.
Now, Psalm 91 is going to describe in detail God's protection of those who love him and find shelter in his presence. So that's what you're going to see here, this connection. Psalm 90 verse one, you have been a dwelling place. Psalm 91 verse one, he who dwells in the shelter the most high and abides in the shadow of my deal, stay my refuge, my fortress, et cetera.
I'll repeat that right now. So there's your link in the chain here. Those who dwell in God's presence. No matter where you are in Jerusalem or in Babylon, whatever, you're going to find peace and hope and fulfillment in God's presence.
So how will God protect you? Now, Psalm 91 is an awesome Psalm here. I have a lot to share with you about that. Hey, this is Dr.
Nick. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep setting your Bible.