I love to welcome back to our Bible's today. Psalms, this is lesson eight, let's become a prayer. 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 to temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen. The name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Well, this lesson eight is going to be focused on Psalm 62 to 72, and we are finishing book two of the Psalter here. So remember, we're zeroing in here on the glorious Davidic kingdom and the reign of David, especially because it is God who reigns through the kingdom of David, that's kind of the underlying theme here.
And Psalm 72 is going to be the great crescendo of all these Psalms. It's the high point, it's kind of like dead center, more or less, chrononically dead center of the Psalter. But theologically, it's the center of the Psalter, because everything is just going so well, praising David the Son of David, but it has this huge messianic overtone, undertone, overtone to all the tones of a future king, is cononly to Jesus, who fulfills all the great prophecies and descriptions of the Davidic king. So we're going to build our way towards Psalm 72.
And as we go along, we're going to see a lot of very important themes that we've seen before. So we're going to see Zion, royal Psalms being found here, the toda sacrifice and toda praise is being found here. So hang tight, don't blink. It'll all tie together in crescendo in Psalm 72.
So open up your Bible to Psalm 62. Now we ended off in the last lesson, looking at Psalm 61, talking about how the Psalmist was looking to find God as his rock. So for example, let me just go back to Psalm 61 here. For a second where he says, in Psalm 61 verse two, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
So he's praying, Lord lead me to you, you are my rock. I want to find you will hear. I believe in Psalm 62. He now is praising God for having found God his rock.
So let's read here. A lot of these Psalms in today's lesson are not very long, say for example, maybe 60 days, the longest one for the day. Psalm 62 is opening up with this name of God, his rock whom he has found his salvation. It's actually a refrain, this is mentioned twice, but let me just read it.
62 verse one, for God alone, my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He only is my rock in my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly moved.
How long will you set upon a man to shatter him, all of you, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? The only plan to thrust him down from his eminence. They take pleasure and falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
And here's that refrain once again, for God alone, my soul waits in silence. For my hope is from him. He only is my rock in my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. So he got a connection, like I said with Psalm 61. There's always those link in the chains, like I have been talking about. So trying to find God, his rock, God is now found, God is his salvation.
And obviously this is being repeated in many, many Psalms. This is not the only two places where God has described this as rock. But I do want to remind you, I haven't said this before, in the previous seven lessons, that this echo of God being his rock, there's two things here that really are in the background of calling God his rock. Number one, there's the theme of, well, I would say three themes.
Three themes, generally speaking of course, you think of a rock, you think of security, security, immubility, reliance, all this stuff, right? Okay, that's for sure the case. But the second thing that I really like to reflect upon is that the rock, to call God the rock, echoes the rock in the desert, in the wilderness wanderings of the Exodus. And this is found in a couple of different places and in Exodus and in numbers where the people are thirsting in the wilderness, the whole theme of thirsting by the way is going to be important for the next Psalm as we're going to review and recall Psalm 42.
I'll get there in just a second. Remember the Israelites are in the wilderness, they're super thirsty, they're clamoring to God, they're testing God more often than not, failing to trust in him and they're really rebelling against him. But then God brings forth the rock and Moses strikes it in water pours forth, satiating their thirst. So this idea of the rock and the wilderness satiating their thirst, I think is in the background here, where yes, God is security and stability and when the storm comes, you want to build your house and the rock like Jesus says, okay, that's all great.
But there's also the Exodus thing, which we find all over the Psalms. The Exodus being recalled and echoed here because there's of course the expectation of a new Exodus, especially after the exile of the various tribes by Assyrian Babylon, which we'll come to in the later Psalms of the Psalter. So that's the first thing I want you to remember is calling God rock echoes the rock of the wilderness wanderings. Another thing is that the rock echoes the temple itself, which of course is a gigantic theme in the Psalter.
As we're going to see even in this lesson, as we've echoed in previous lessons, God rules from Zion, he rules from his heavenly sanctuary in the temple in Jerusalem, right? So the temple was built on this great big old rock, it's called the Foundations on the Evangelion, it's the foundation stone of the temple. And there's so much behind that I can't get into all of it right now, to know that the temple was built on this massive foundation stone, which ultimately becomes God's dwelling place amongst his people. So I think there's an echo with that as well.
So it's not just a metaphorical poetic, God is a rock, he's totally stable, we can rely on him. That's true, but it goes into deeper theological themes of the Exodus rock and the rock of the temple, which of course we see repeated many times. I want to share that with you. This other thing I really, really liked a lot, which is just for God alone, my soul waits in silence.
That's repeated in verse one, as well as in verse five, for God alone, my soul waits in silence. That is just really important to rest in God, to be silent in God's presence, waiting for him. Of course, we could turn homily as in sermons from this point as well, we should, because the modern world is super noisy, super distracted. With all kinds of distractions everywhere we look, it's very, very difficult just to find silence.
And our minds are just going in a million different directions, but this is really important. We need to wait on God in the silence of our hearts. And this to me evokes rest. And the word rest is very evocative of Sabbath rest.
Going back to creation. Now creation themes are gonna be very important as well. In the next couple of songs I'm gonna share with you, God is going to be rejoi, praise, God will be praise, and God's people, his king will rejoice in God as the creator of the universe, his mighty deeds of creation. Well, all of creation climaxes in the Sabbath they arrest.
So that's what we should be doing as well. We in the silence are rest of our hearts, of our minds, of our souls. We wait for God, our rock to provide us the water of salvation, which of course is the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna tie those themes with you as well as we get through this particular lesson.
It's just this incredible, beautiful tapestry, all these themes being woven here together. So the Sabbath they arrest is the day that we wait for God, our rock, our refuge, and we have salvation in him. I don't know, it's just some personal reflections of mine. Hope you're tracking with me on that.
All right, it goes on, let's keep reading here. I just ended off in verse seven. Let's keep going in verse eight, trust in him at all times of people pour out your heart before him, for God is a refuge for us. And then there's this reflection on, and then there's this little thing else.
So verse nine, men of low estate are but a breath. Men of high estates are a delusion. It's a cool little contrary bicolor right there. Men of low estate are but a breath.
Men of high estate are a delusion. I actually love the progressive, I don't know. I can't get that different ways, but moving on. In the balances they go up, they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no confidence in extortion, set no vain hopes on robbery. If riches increase, set not your heart on them. I will stop right there. Okay, so life is but a breath, Psalm 62 is saying.
It's just so fleeting, and that is so true. The older I get, as everyone tells me, and everybody experiences, not children, but adults realize this. And the older you are, the more it's true. It just thinks it's passed away like a breath.
This concept, like it doesn't matter if you're of high estate, the lowest state, you are, things are just gonna pass by so darn quickly. And that to me echoes the great book of Ecclesiastes, which we'll do a Bible study on that. Everything is vanity, right? Vanity, advantage, all is vanity says the preacher.
And the word vanity is hevel. I wrote it there in your notes for your HEV, hevel. That gives this kind of this concept of a breath, like it's being evoked here. Wind, smoke, vapor, mist, it passes away.
It has substance, but it kind of doesn't. Like when you blow, like I like to smoke a pipe over now and then right, so if you smoke a pipe and you blow that smoke, it has substance and as much as your eyes can see it, right? You see the smoke, but you can never grasp it. You can never hold onto it and have like a big fistful of smoke in your hand.
Missed as well if you go out, you know, I like to also hunt, so you go out oftentimes hunting. And there's this, the foggy, misty morning, it's so beautiful, you can reach out and try to grab it. You can see if you can't grab it. So you get the idea, like that's the idea here in Ecclesiastes in Psalm 62.
Men of high estate, low estate doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, you're smart, you're foolish, you're young, you're old, man or woman. Everything is just but a breath that passes so quickly. So don't trust in treasures. Obviously don't fall into the sins of robbery and extortion, but even if God increases your riches, do not place your trust in them because they pass away quickly as well.
That's a theme that's touched upon in so many places of scripture. So Jesus, I got a couple of passages for you here in the notes, certainly in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter six, verses 19, 24, and other places do not place your hope and treasures, right? Where moth and rust destroy, focus on your heavenly treasures. You cannot serve both God and mammon, right?
These very famous passages that Jesus teaches, don't place your trust and treasure. Why? Because God is your rock. And your life will pass away extremely quickly.
Even if you're lucky enough to live into your 80s, which is a pretty darn good life, you're into your 90s, wow, you're, that's a very long life. But even if you're in your 80s, most people die in their 70s, I believe that's the statistic. That's so bad. It goes by so fast.
So trust in God, you're rocking your salvation to give you everything that you need. And again, from that rock comes forth, the living waters of the Holy Spirit to satiate your thirst in this wilderness wanderings of life. I always like to think of our life as an exodus motif, because it's true, that's what scripture teaches. We are wandering through the desert of life.
And God is our rock and we do receive the living waters of salvation, which is the Holy Spirit, the sacraments who survive in this wilderness wanderings. We receive the man as it's all just so beautiful. All right, one more thing here in Psalm 62, then we gotta move on. Let's see here, verse 11, once God has spoken twice, I have heard this, that power belongs to God, not riches, right?
Not men of high estate, power belongs to God. And that to you, O Lord belongs, said fast love, for you repay a man according to his work. All right, the whole concept of power belonging to God and said, steadfast love and mercy belongs to God, we're gonna come back to that when it gets to the next psalm. But I wanna zero here, zero in on this verse, you repay a man according to his work.
That is a constant theme of the old and new testament alike. We will be judged by our works, and we will either go to heaven or to hell, also based on our works. I can't get into the whole Pauline theology of salvation. I would simply just, because I'd have to distinguish there's initial justification, there's ongoing justification, there is final justification or salvation.
We are saved by faith, right, in initial justification, but throughout our lives, salvation, justification, it does depend on our works as well. And we will be judged by what we do. It's said very clearly here in 62, verse 12. It's mentioned many times also in the rest of scripture.
I got a whole bunch of passages for you, like Proverbs 24, verse 12 says the same thing. I will just for the sake of completion, is go into Romans chapter two, just so you can see a very powerful verse from Saint Paul himself. And again, this is a Pandora's box, you open up that thing, it's a huge discussion, salvation, it's a big debate between Protestants and Catholics, salvation by faith alone or salvation by faith in works. It is by faith and works, but you got to get into the whole discussion on initial justification, which is by faith, and then ongoing justification, which is faith and works.
Works do justify us, as James 24 clearly says. But just for the sake of proving this one point about, we will be judged according to our works, Paul himself says very famously in Romans chapter two, verse five, by your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed, for he will render to every man according to his works, those who by patience and well-doing, seek for glory and honor and mortality, he will give eternal life. So your works will determine whether you receive eternal life or contrary, contrary, verse eight, those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. And it goes on to discuss that theme.
So here in Psalm 62 and Proverbs 24, Jeremiah, Matthew, Romans, per speed rates, all over the place, check out your commentaries or my notes that I provided for you for a whole bunch of those points. We will be judged according to our works, faith alone is not biblical, faith is essential. I'm trying to resist the temptation to get in the whole debate, but I think I've said enough on that. We will be judged according to our works.
So don't trust and treasure, don't trust in long life, we are but a breath, put your heart, put your trust in God and rest in the silence of your heart in him and you will receive salvation. What a beautiful psalm. All right, that's how we're kicking off this lesson, but we're excited to continue on. Psalm 63 now is gonna continue this very theme.
So at the end of 62, remember I shared with you how power belongs to God and that to you, oh Lord belongs to fast love, that's exactly how Psalm 63 begins. There is your link in the chain. Psalm 63, verse one says, oh God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where no water is. So have I looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholden your power and your glory because your merciful love, your said, is better than life, my lips will praise you.
So there's your link, right? Psalm 62 ends by focusing on God's power, his love, that's exactly how Psalm 63 begins. So trusting in God's power and love in the midst of his lament is what brings him consolation. He is, these are lament Psalm 62, 62 is a trust Psalm, 63 is lament Psalm while he's lamenting he's still trusting in God.
And I really like this concept here of, he was looking for God's power and his merciful love, his steadfast love, right? His said, but he describes as thirsting for God. We already saw this back in Psalm 42, verses one and two, that famous line about the deer searching for water, let me just read it here again. As the deer longs for flowing streams, so long as my soul for you, oh God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when shall I be, will come and behold the face of God, et cetera.
So this is a beautiful theme of thirsting for God. And I think that is very much in connection with describing God as the rock of salvation. Because remember Israel was also having a great thirst in the weary and parched land and God brought the rock, our waters from the rock to satiate their thirst. On a spiritual sense, that's what's going on here.
God is, well, the Psalmist is thirsting for God. He's fainting away from his thirst, but God is his rock and he will have refreshment. All of that, of course, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus is our rock.
And I'm gonna come back to that later on. I got some good stuff to share with you about that in John 7 and elsewhere. All right, but I just wanted to make that connection. Thirsting for God is not just poetics imagery, it's theological reference as well to, of course, the Exodus.
All right, so he's desiring to look upon God in the sanctuary, which is better than life itself. That's really important. That's what matters most to the Psalmist and should matter most to us as well. All right, so let me just read this little quote here from the Navar commentary that says, the soul that truly loves God cannot desire to be satisfied and content until it has full possession of him.
All the things which are not God, not only fable to satisfy the soul, they increase its desire to see him as he is. That's a quote from St. John of the Cross, from the tradition, very beautiful quote here. All that really, truly satisfies our thirst is God.
Everything else is just a pale imitation and maybe even fraud, for its fraudulent promise of peace and joy and happiness. Only God can satisfy the thirst of the soul. So that's why to dwell upon God in the sanctuary, to behold his face as many other verses point out, is the true source of our happiness. And it's better than life itself.
It's better to die in God's friendship and grace than to live an entire life separated from him in spiritual exile. All right, beautiful. Now he's gonna continue this name as well. Let's go to verse five.
My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat and my mouth praises you with joyful lips. When I think of you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy. My soul cleans to you, your right hand upholds me. I'll keep reading verse nine.
But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down to the depths of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be prayed for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God.
All who swear by him shall glory for the mouths of liars will be stopped. All right, I like this a lot because he just said in verse two and three, he desires to look upon God, to behold God in his sanctuary, it's better than life itself. And then he describes in verses five and six, how with joyful lips, he's praising God, and he meditates upon God, and upon all of God's beauty and glory, right? When he's laying down in his bed, throughout all the watches of the night, that is important.
Highlight that word to meditate on God in verse six there. Meditating on God gives him that joy. Now there's, I should also point this out too. I really noticed how many times the word joy or variance of the word joy are mentioned here in these particular Psalms.
It's just, I need to do a word study honestly, and I'm thinking about it. I need to see if there's a great intensification of the word joy here in these chapters, because it feels like that as I'm reading through these Psalms. It's all over the place. There's this huge theme of joy as we get to the end of the second book of the Psalter here in Psalms 62, all the way through 72.
The king here rejoices, right? It says in verse 11, the king shall rejoice in God. Meditating upon God gives him a lot of joy in his heart. He sings for joy with joyful lips over and over again.
Huge theme of joy that's mentioned here. And it's all rooted in the meditation of God. That is really important. And there's so much we can say, it's like a little bit preachy here.
There's so much we can say about how we should be meditating upon God throughout the watches of the night as we lay upon our bed. This is all an echo of Duerang in chapter six verses four and following, which is the Shema. Hero Israel, Shema Israel, love the Lord or God with all your heart, soul and strength. And then he goes on and saying, you need to be all in, right?
Whether you're laying down at bed, you get up in the morning, you're walking in the path by night, you need to be diligent in teaching us to your children, so on and so forth, right? Paraphrasing of that passage of course. But meditating on the law is going to be the key to your success and your happiness and your success. And so I'm going to go ahead and read it to Joshua in chapter one verse eight.
There's this great, I call it the great pep talk. God gives Joshua this incredible pep talk once Moses is dead and Joshua is the new leader. I think Joshua is very afraid, but not so much of the Canaanites. I think he's afraid of the Israelites because the Israelites are terrible and they treated Moses so badly.
So my personal opinion is he's afraid of the Israelites. But then God says, you know, don't be afraid and meditate on the law. You're not depart from the right hand or the left hand and you'll have success wherever you go. So this concept in scripture of telling us over and over again to meditate upon God's law is very, very important.
We should be doing that. So kudos to you for listening to these lessons, these Bible studies and putting together. And for really everybody, we have a lot of great resources and studying scripture, but it really needs to ultimately end up in meditative prayerful reading of scripture. Every day, every morning, every evening, after lunch, whatever your particular daily habit is, meditates on to the Lord and throughout all the watches of the night and what will happen.
You will have a great joy. And that's I think the great personal application I'd like to make, it's super relevant to us. The king is joyful because he meditates upon God. We should do the same.
All right, so then the connection with Psalm 64. Now, 64, it's not too long of a Psalm, only 10 verses. There is this element, Psalm. And it's kind of continuing the limit theme of Psalm 63.
Cause Psalm 63 verse 11 talks about how the mouths of liars will be stopped. Well, 64 opens up with that same theme. Let me read verse one and following. Here my voice, oh God, am I complaint, preserve my life from the dread of the enemy.
Excuse me, hide me from the secret plots of the wicked. By the way, the whole plot to the wicked. That's your Psalm two flag. You should be waving that Psalm two verse one.
Remember Psalms one and two serve as the foundation for the entire Psalter. So the plotting of the wicked is echoing Psalm two there. So hiding from the secret plots of the wicked from the scheming of evildoers who wet their tongues like swords and who aim bitter words like arrows. So that is the continuation from Psalm 63 and the lament from Psalm 63.
The mouths of liars will be stopped and then it's just being developed here. These liars have tongues like swords and words like arrows. And they're fighting the righteous men. But the beautiful thing about 64 here is that God will ultimately have victory.
Let's skip all the way down to verse seven. There's a reversal here. So the evil men have tongues like swords and words like arrows. But then in verse seven, it's reversed where it says, God will shoot his arrow at them.
What is the arrow? God's word, I just want to also point this out here. The evil have words like arrows, but God's word is his arrow shooting at them. What is his word but the scriptures?
The inspired scriptures, ultimately the word is Jesus Christ of course. But the word of God like Hebrews chapter four verse 12 will say it's like a double edged sword. So God's word is a divine holy weapon that pierces all evil and wickedness. I really like that undertone right there.
Little personal reflection of mine. So God will shoot his arrow or his word at them and they will be wounded suddenly because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin. So God will ultimately have the last word. He will have victory over the evil, over evil men and wicked men there.
And then just as Psalm 63 ended off with the king rejoicing in God in the shadow of his wings there in verse seven. Now the faithful are called to rejoice in the Lord. Go skip down to verse 10. Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him.
Let all the upright and heart glory. So this is the continuation. Here 63 and 64 is a nice continuation here of a lament, but trusting in God always right in his power and his steadfast love and ultimately how he will have victory over the wicked so that the king as well as the righteous and the upright can rejoice in him. I hope you're seeing that flow right there.
All right, let's move on to Psalm 65. Psalm 65 is another praise at Psalm. So what's going on here, there's another good block of Psalms because these previous lament Psalms is crying out to God for victory, right? Trusting his power and in his, I said his mercy, but now in Psalm 65 and 66, God is being praised for his deliverance, being especially being praised for his mercy and his goodness in both creation and in redemption.
So Psalm 65 is going to be praising God. I kind of see, I see the emphasis in God's deeds of creation. In Psalm 66 is praising God and thanking him for his mighty deeds of redemption. That's the flow here for the next couple of Psalms.
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 scriptureandtradition.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 studying your Bible.