Well, all right, lesson 14 is on Psalms 113 through 119, only seven of them, but we'll easily fill up our time. Just want to remind you that we are at the end of the first cycle of book five. So last lesson, lesson 13, when we introduce the main theme of book five, I had shared with you that scholars divide up this book into three cycles. So the first cycle is Psalms 107 to 119, and we tackled 107 to 112 last lesson.
Now we're doing 113 to 119. And then the second cycle is 120 to 136, and then the third cycle finishes off the Psalter. So that's what we're doing. That's the method of the madness, why I divided these lessons the way I have is to follow these cycles right here for these final lessons of the spiral site.
So Psalms 113 to 118 are very special. It's a very special collection of Psalms. Let me read to you this opening quotation from your Catholic and Christian Testament to kick us off because I'm gonna share some connections with Christ throughout this entire section that I think is incredibly exciting. At least I always geek out about this when I read these Psalms knowing that Christ is saying them himself, I'm ahead of myself, but let me just read this first quotation and then I'll break it down for you.
All right, so it says the collection of Psalms 113 to 118 are known as the Hallel Psalms. They're also known as the Egyptian Hallel Psalms. Remember, Hallel means praise. So they are the Egyptian Hallel Psalms and were later recited in Jewish tradition in the course of the Passover Liturgy.
That's really important, I'll come back to that in a second. They were read in the course of the Passover Liturgy. They conclude with two of the most theologically significant thanksgiving slash todah songs in the Psalter 116 and 118. In these Psalms, the suffering servant of the Lord is delivered from death and exalted so that he is able to offer sacrifice in the temple.
End quote. All right, this is a really wonderful quotation for us to kick off this lesson here today because they are the Hallel Psalms. We already saw that Hallel is Hallelujah. We saw that in Psalms 111, 112 and others.
And they're also, what why are they called the Egyptian collection of the Egyptian Hallel Psalms? Because they were always associated with the deliverance from Egypt. It's all Exodus imagery, like I say, so many different times. The Exodus is the paradigm of salvation.
So that's what we're going to see over and over and over again is all these references to Egypt and the Exodus. And so that's why ultimately they were read in the course of the Passover Liturgy because the Passover is the great feast of Exodus deliverance, right? So they're called the Egyptian Hallel Psalms, but because they're read in the Passover Liturgy, they're often called the Passover Collection for that very reason. So this is really, really important.
Passover Psalms read at the Passover Liturgy every single year. They're the Egyptian Hallel Psalms, all revolving around redemption. Okay, so why is this super cool? Because typologically, you're all going to point forward to the new Exodus in Jesus Christ and through his Passion, Death and Resurrection, which accomplishes the new Exodus, right?
From Satan, sin and death. So at the last supper, before his Passion, on Holy Thursday, when Jesus celebrated the Passover of the Old Testament and transformed it and elevated it into his own new Passover, which we now call the Eucharist, he read these Psalms. So I'm like, take you back to Matthew chapter 26. You have this in parallel passes, but Matthew 26 is a good go-to.
Matthew chapter 26, instead of going to verse 30, which is the main point, I'm going to back up and go to the original words of the institution here. And this is what it says. Matthew 26, 26, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he took a chalice, and I want you to keep that word in mind, it's very important for later on, when you talk about the things giving Psalms, specifically one 16, chalice is going to come up again.
So he took the chalice and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And I tell you I shall not drink again to the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. So that's the institution of the whole Eucharist, it's the transformation of the Old Testament Passover meal. This is the Eucharist, the new toed off, the new things giving which we've had occasion to talk about many times throughout this Bible study, right?
So there's the institution, but in verse 30, it says interestingly, then they had sung a hymn, and then they went to the Mount of Olives. Well, what is the hymn that they're singing? Jesus with his apostles, saying these chalel Psalms, this collection, 113 to 118. Now there's a little bit of debate here, there's called the Little Hallel, the Great Hallel, scholars, I have not seen any unanimity about this at all, the Little Hallels like Psalm 113, 114 perhaps, or just 113.
Then it's divided over the course of the Passover meal, where they're gonna read the remainder of the Hallel Psalms, especially like 116, 118 are super important. But regardless of those little details, there are the weeds, these Psalms, the Passover collection, was sung by Jesus Christ and his apostles before he began his passion. So what that means is that Jesus, it's so exciting, you're gonna see this, as we go through this. Imagine that Jesus is singing the very words that we're gonna study here in this lesson, and it's going to open up the meaning of his passion so much more.
When he sings these hymns, these Psalms, it then goes and then directly fulfills them with his persecution, his suffering, his crucifixion, and then ultimately his conquering of death and his resurrection. These Psalms prophesy all of those events of the future Messianic King, which Jesus all fulfills. So this is a great way, I think, to open up the lesson understanding that these Egyptian Hallel Psalms, this Passover collection, was sung by Christ in the upper room on Holy Thursday, and then fulfilled over the course of the next three days. All right, so with that, let's jump straight into Psalm 113.
Now the first initial Psalms you're going to see are all relatively short, especially 113, 114. When it gets to 116 and 118, that's gonna be very, very long in this collection. So these initial Psalms are gonna go pretty quick. So 113 is a praise Psalm.
And like Psalms 111 and 112, just before it, we talked about last lesson, this Psalm opens and closes with an inclusio, hallelujah, praise the Lord. So every time you see the words in English, praise the Lord, you know that is the Hebrew hallelujah, and you find the predominance of the word hallelujah here in book five, because it's just a very high note of praise and worship and glory of God. So that's pretty awesome. So let's keep reading here.
So verse one in verse nine, begin and end with hallelujah. Let's read the whole thing, and then I'm gonna come back and just give you a couple of pointers. So praise the Lord, praise the servant of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord, blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens, who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth.
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ashheep to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children, hallelujah, or praise the Lord. All right, here's some really cool pointers in this short little Psalm here. So the first it says, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.
We find a very similar verse, this actually isn't my notes, I just noticed this right now and I have a little note in my Bible, so I'm gonna share it with you now. There's a very similar verse like this in the book of Malachi, chapter one, verse 11, which says, from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the nations, and in every place and since is offered to my name and a pure offering, for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. That's a very, very important verse in the prophet Malachi, it's basically saying that all the nations and peoples and Gentiles from the rising of the sun to its setting, over the whole world, is gonna be offering a holy sacrifice to the Lord. Now the church fathers always point to this verse as meaning the Eucharist, right?
It's the holy sacrifice of the Mass that will be offered on all nations, in all places of the whole world forever. And so there's a connection between Psalm 113 here, which says from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Malachi says it's gonna be praised, even among all the nations offering this pure sacrifice, which is going to be fulfilled in the Mass, right? So that's really important right out the gate here because over and over and over again, we're going to see in this lesson, in previous lessons and in future lessons, in also the prophets, that salvation is going to extend to all nations through the Jewish people.
And that goes all the way back to Abraham, chapter 12 of Genesis and in other chapters as well, that all nations are going to be blessed through Abraham. So this is really beautiful in the new Exodus, accomplished by Jesus, the new Moses, with the new Passover, with the new man, everything that he restores and renews and perfects and completes himself, it's all going to be for the sake that all nations can come and praise the Lord. So that's kind of a cool little connection right there. So drop that down in your Bible if you have in front of you, right next to 113 verse three, drop down Malachi at 111.
It's just another one of the bajillions of verses that all the world will be saved through the Jews. But the Malachi, like I say, takes it step further by talking about this beautiful, holy righteous sacrifice, which can really only be fulfilled in the Mass. So I want to share that with you. That's number one.
And then you have this great contrast here about praising the Lord because he's just so magnificent and transcendent, he is in verse four, high above all the nations, his glory is above the heavens. Verse five, who is like the Lord our God, seated on high? There's no one, I bet the rhetorical question is, needing to the answer of nobody, right? Nobody is like the Lord.
He is unique, he is the one true God, he is above the heavens and the earth, he is to be praised, right? So he has completely transcendent, all powerful and majestic. However, he's very eminent and personal and personable, relevant and just, yeah, I just personal to everybody, especially the poor and the needy. So it says in verse six, he looks far down upon the heavens and the earth, raising the poor from the dust and lifting the needy from the ash heap.
So he's both transcendent, but he's also eminent. He's all powerful, but he's gentle. He's far above the heavens, but he comes down on earth to look upon those that are needy and poor and raise them from the dust and the ash. Now another little connection right here, I personally think that when it says the reason the poor and the needy from the dust and the ash heap, that is a reference to death, because we're gonna see that a lot.
We have already, and we're gonna see a lot in this lesson, how God saves the Psalmists from death and he'll save all of his people from death as well. So the dust and the ash refers back to Genesis 319. We're dust and the dust you shall return. It refers to the creation of Adam in Genesis, right?
Where God takes the dust or the dirt or the slime and forms it into Adam, which might be a great joke that a lot of people like to say is that that means that Adam was the very first dirt bagger, slime ball of human history, which is true, if you consider his failure, his mega failure in the beginning. So I think there's a reference here, raising the poor and the needy from the dust and the ash that is a saving from death, when I think 100%. So he takes this poor and the needy, makes them sit with princes with the princes of his people. So that's our theme of reversal right there, as well as a barren woman, becoming a joyful mother of children.
So that's what in scripture we call a theme of reversals. God, the poor and the needy, God comes and raises them up. And the woman who is barren has many, many children. That's a throwback actually to Hannah.
Back in first Samuel chapters one and two, you may remember that Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the awesome righteous final judge of Israel, she was barren and she called out to the Lord and the Lord gave her many children, six to be precise. As opposed to Pena, the other wife of the family who had many children. So Hannah was poor and needy and she was the handmaiden of the Lord and she cried out to God and God saved her and raised her up. So it's a throwback to Hannah for sure, the steam of reversals, but then it's also gonna be a looking forward, a foreshadowing of Mary.
And in fact, just like we saw last lesson in 107, verse nine, I'll reread it here for you. Says he satisfies him who is thirsty and the hungry, he fills with good things. Mary quotes that in her magnificot. Well, the same idea is found here in 113 verses six through nine.
In fact, your and a bar Bible will say exactly on the Psalm, the praise sung in the Psalm was adopted by the blessed virgin, the handmade or the servant of the Lord, when after announcing the announcement of the incarnation, she proclaimed that the Lord has exalted those of low degree. End quote. So again, Mary, one more time is not the final time is going to be alluding in her magnificot to these wonderful Old Testament stories and Psalms. Hannah herself, because remember, Mary's magnificot is pretty close to a plagiarization of Hannah's song.
But then you've also got all these throwbacks to the Psalms themselves, especially book five, which is all about restoration, the new Exodus, the king, coming and being vindicated and glorified and so on and so forth. So there's a lot to the magnificot of Mary. And so you see that in Psalm 107 and here again in Psalm 113. And I should also say this, the steam of reversals of God raising up the poor and the needy from the ash heap.
That refers at the broad level to Israel, his people redeeming his people from exile, but also at the individual level, of course, for each person. Each person dies, but Christ will rise, raise him from the dead in his own resurrection, to the power of his own resurrection. So often you have this both and application. It applies both to Israel as a whole, as well as to individual believers.
All right. So Psalm 113 is pretty short, but pretty cool with all these little connections, like Tomalekai and Genesis and Second Samuel and Luke with the magnificot. So a lot of great stuff right there. But the overarching thing, if you want to try to tie these together in links in the chain, like I keep saying, Psalm 113 is basically God looking upon his people.
All right, looking upon his people and raising them up and being praised for it. So then Psalm 114 is going to be him saving Israel. So he looks upon Israel, broadly speaking now, and Psalm 113. And then in 114, he saves them.
And there are all of these echoes, not just echoes, but explicit references to the original Exodus. So Psalm 114 is praising God for his deliverance of Israel from Egypt and giving them the land through the conquest under Joshua. And that serves as the hope for the new Exodus that will take place when God delivers all of the tribes of Israel from amongst the Gentiles where they've been scattered after the Assyrian conquest and the Babylonian conquest, but also the Gentiles themselves. Remember, like I said, just back in 113, verse three, from the rising of the sun to its setting, his name is to be praised amongst all the nations as well.
So a new Exodus will take place, which is far greater and far superior to the original, but the original Exodus stories serve as the example. So let's read this together. So Psalm 114, verse one, when Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel, his dominion. The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back, the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Oh, what ails you o' see that you flee, Oh, Jordan that you turn back, oh, mountains that you skip like rams, oh, hills like lambs. Tremble over at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. All right, again, very, very short. So a couple of things about this one.
So back in verse two, it talks about, well, obviously opens up in verse one, talking immediately and explicitly about Egypt and the house of Jacob being delivered from Egypt from a people who speak strange language, in order that Judah and Israel become his sanctuary and dominion. So it's dividing his people up between Judah and Israel. And I think what's going on here, and some commentaries will point this out, that Judah and Israel are mentioned in reference to the split kingdom. So remember, after Solomon dies, the kingdom splits because his son, Ray Abom, is a complete knucklehead and a tyrant, and he promises the elders that he's gonna be far worse than his father, and so the 10 tribes of the north split away, and they become the kingdom of Israel, and then there's the two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin down south, they are the tribe of Judah.
So when it references Judah and Israel, it's probably echoing these two different kingdoms, both of which have been brought into exile for their sins. So God is going to restore all the tribes, both kingdoms to himself, and he's gonna do it in a way that is reminiscent of the original Exodus. So you've got the sea looked and fled that's a reference to the Red Sea. The Jordan River turned back, that's of course crossing the Jordan River under Joshua.
And then you've got mountains and hills probably refers to Mount Sinai, if you remember Mount Sinai, and quaked and trembled was on fire and smoke, like it just kind of was this incredible theophany of God. So that's probably what it's mentioning right there. And then you've got this other references miracle in verse eight, he who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. That is when Moses strikes the rock and water pours forth out of it, right?
To satiate the thirst of Israelites with all their cattle. These are all miracles of the original Exodus. So these three miracles, what do they all have in common? What they have in common is water, the sea, the Jordan River, the rock that gives forth springs of water, there's all water, that's what connects all three of them.
It made me ask the question why, I haven't found this in common here, it could be wrong, there's a typological connection right here, between the sea, the river, and then the water from the rock. What they all have in common, their typology, what they have in common is the sacrament of baptism. So the question is, well, how will God restore his people, bring them back into his kingdom through this new Exodus? Well, it answers the sacraments through the ministry of the church, primarily baptism.
It's through baptism that an individual is delivered from Satan's sin and death in his own personal Exodus, where he is united into the church of Christ and the body of Christ. So it's no surprise here that the three predominant miracles mentioned in 114, talking about redemption, and in an Exodus context, has water all around it because that's the sacrament that accomplishes our new Exodus. So that's what I think about that right there. I do also think, I'll just share this with you, I may be pushing it a little bit too much in verse eight, where it says the flint into a spring of water, whenever I read that it always makes me think about circumcision, like how so?
Cause that seems pretty weird. Well, of course, circumcision, they're always talking about make flint knives. So for example, Joshua, after they crossed the Jordan River, before they attacked Jericho, they make flint knives, many, many, many flint knives, and circumcised all of the individuals that were born along the way in the wilderness. So circumcision is, and I talked about this in other contexts, but just to be brief about it, circumcision is a sign of the type of baptism, right?
So circumcision was the means by which a baby boy became incorporated into the body of Israel. Well, that is a foreshadowing of baptism, which in through baptism, you become incorporated into the body of Christ, the new Israel, right? So when it says here, the flint turns into springs of water, it just makes me wonder, maybe it's a loose connection, but it doesn't make me wonder, the flint might refer to the flint knives of circumcision being transformed into the springs of water of baptism. I think there may be a connection there, you could take it or leave it if you want to.
So there's 114, how God saves Israel in a Egyptian new Exodus context, right? Pretty fun. Now 115 is another praise song. Hey, this is Doc Neck.
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