S3E155 – Psalms 66-68: Essentials

Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 66 GWT; Ch. 67 NLV; Ch. 68 GWT

Podcast Introduction

It’s Psalms Wednesday, and we’ll read chapters 66-68. I’m calling this episode “Essentials.”

Comments on Psalm 66

This psalm opens with a call to all the earth to praise God because of His awesome (in the truest sense of the word…awe-inspiring) deeds. It even gives a sample of what should be said to God: “How awe-inspiring are your deeds! Your power is so great that your enemies will cringe in front of you. The whole earth will worship you. It will make music to praise you. It will make music to praise your name.”

All of this is true, of course. God is worthy of the praise of the whole world. Most of this psalm gives various reasons to give him worship, and one can’t help but say “Yes!” and “Amen!” as we read them.

But the last five verses are a bit different: 

16Come and listen, all who fear God,

and I will tell you what he has done for me.

17With my mouth I cried out to him.

High praise was on my tongue.

18If I had thought about doing anything sinful,

the Lord would not have listened ⌞to me⌟.

19But God has heard me.

He has paid attention to my prayer.

20Thanks be to God,

who has not rejected my prayer

or taken away his mercy from me.

Psalm 66: 16-20 God’s Word Translation

The psalmist said, “If I had thought about doing anything sinful, the Lord would not have listened ⌞to me⌟.”

And he was right. Have you ever thought about the fact that God is not obligated to listen to every prayer?

Proverbs 28:9 says, “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.” Job, when speaking of the wicked says in Job 27:9, “Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?” Sometimes God will listen to the prayer of an unbeliever, if the prayer is in alignment with His will. There are many examples of this in the Bible. But an unbeliever should have no expectation that God will hear them.

But for Christians, listen to Hebrews 4:14-16: “14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

And there are many other promises for believers concerning prayers.

It is because of God’s great mercy and grace that He invites us to come to Him. Yes, let us come to Him in confidence, but also with reverence and awe, knowing that Jesus paid a tremendous price to bring that mercy and grace to us. 

Support

This a value for value podcast. There are no advertisers because advertising=censorship. If you enjoy the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, decide how much value it brings to you. Only you can make that determination. Then put a number on the value and send it to me here: SUPPORT.

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Steve Webb 0:00
When you reject the essentials, you cannot honestly still be a Christian.

Steve Webb 0:13
Hi there, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. I’m your OG Godcaster. Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. How are you? It’s Psalms Wednesday, and we’ll read chapters 66 through 68. Before reading each chapter, I’ll give you a short introduction. I’m calling this episode essentials. Being Wednesday, we’ll have a time for prayer requests, and I have a new segment on today’s show as well. The title of today’s show is a hint. Let’s get started with a prayer. Our heavenly Father, how are we thank you for this time. I thank You, Lord, for the Psalms. I thank You, Lord for the praises that it teaches us how to do and I asked you Lord today to just open our hearts, open our eyes and teach us I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Steve Webb 1:10
The title of Psalm 66 is for the choir director of song, a psalm. This is the first psalm since Psalm 50 That is not credited to David, Daniel Cresswell, who lived from 1776 to 1844, and was a clergyman and mathematician wrote of Psalm 66. This Psalm is said to be recited on Easter Day by the Greek church. It is described in the Greek Bible as a Psalm of the resurrection, and may be understood to refer in a prophetic sense to the regeneration of the world through the conversion of the Gentiles.

Steve Webb 1:47
Psalms chapter 66. Shout happily to God all the earth, make music to praise the glory of his name, make his praise glorious, say to God, how awe inspiring are your deeds. Your power is so great that your enemies will cringe in front of you. The whole earth will worship you. It will make music to praise you. It will make music to praise your name. C’est la vie. Come and see what God has done his awe inspiring deeds for Adam’s descendants. He turned the sea into dry land, they crossed the river on foot. We rejoiced because of what he did there. He rules forever with his might. His eyes watch the nation’s rebels will not be able to oppose him. Selah. Thank our God you nations make the sound of his praise heard. He has kept us alive and has not allowed us to fall. You have tested us, oh God, you have refined us in the same way silver as refined. You have trapped us in a net. You have laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads. We went through fire and water, but then you brought us out and refreshed us. I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will keep my vows to you. The vows made by my lips and spoken by my own mouth when I was in trouble. I will offer you a sacrifice of fattened livestock for burnt offerings with the smoke from rams, I will offer cattle and goats Sayla. Come and listen all who fear God and I will tell you what he has done for me. With my mouth, I cried out to him. High praise was on my tongue. If I had thought about doing anything sinful, the Lord would not have listened to me. But God has heard me he has paid attention to my prayer. Thanks be to God who has not rejected my prayer or taken away his mercy from me.

Steve Webb 3:41
The title of Psalm 67 is to the chief musician on stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. Interestingly, Martin Luther wrote an extensive five volume commentary on the Psalms, yet he wrote nothing on this one. It is short and the writers desire is to follow God’s way to see salvation from God, and for all the earth to praise Him.

Steve Webb 4:07
Psalms chapter 67. May God show loving kindness toward us and bring good to us? May he make his face shine upon us? May your way be known on the earth, and you’re saving power among all nations? May the people praise you, oh, God, may all the people praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will be fair when you judge the people and rule the nations of the earth. May the people praise you Oh God, may all the people praise you. The Earth has given its fruit. God, our God will bring good to us. God will bring good to us and all the ends of the earth will FEAR Him.

Steve Webb 4:50
The title of Psalm 68 is for the choir director of song by David a song. Many commentators think that Psalm 68 is related into a time when the Ark of the Covenant came into Jerusalem. As we read about in the Second Samuel chapter six. It celebrates the coming of the ark in in God’s faithfulness in giving victory to Israel over their enemies in thereby making it possible for the Ark to come to Jerusalem. This is a difficult song. Commentator Adam Clarke wrote, I know not how to undertake a comment on this song. It is the most difficult in the whole Psalter.

Steve Webb 5:31
Psalms chapter 68. God will arise his enemies will be scattered. Those who hate him will flee from him. blow them away like smoke. Let wicked people melt in God’s presence like wax next to a fire but let righteous people rejoice. Let them celebrate in God’s presence. Let them overflow with joy. sing to God, make music to praise his name. Make a highway for him to ride through the deserts. The Lord is his name, celebrate His presence. The God who is in His holy place is the father of the fatherless and the defender of widows. God places lonely people in families, he leads prisoners out of prison into productive lives. But rebellious people must live in an unproductive land. Oh God when you went in front of your people, when you marched through the desert Sayla the earthquake and the sky poured in the presence of the god of Sinai in the presence of the God of Israel. You watered the land with plenty of rain. Oh god, you refreshed it when your land was exhausted. Your flock settled there, out of your goodness, oh God, you provided for oppressed people. The Lord gives instructions. The women who announced the good news are a large army. They say the kings of the armies flee, they run away. The women who remained at home will divide the goods. Though you stayed among the sheep pins, you will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, its feathers with yellow gold. Meanwhile, the Almighty was still scattering kings, they’re like snow falling on Mount Zalman. The mountain of Batian is the mountain of God. The mountain of Batian is the mountain with many peaks. Why do you look with envy you mountains with many peaks at the mountain where God has chosen to live? Certainly the Lord will live there forever. The chariots of God are 20,000 in number 1000s upon 1000s. The Lord is among them. The God of Sinai is in His holy place. You went to the highest place, you took prisoners captive, you receive gifts from people, even from rebellious people, so that the Lord God may live there. Thanks be to the Lord who daily carries our burdens forests. God is our salvation, Save Our God is the God of victories. The Almighty Lord is our escape from death. Certainly, God will crush the heads of his enemies and destroy even the hair on the heads of those who continue to be guilty. The Lord said, I will bring them back from vacation, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea so that you my people may bathe your feet in blood, and the tongues of your dogs may lick the blood of your enemies. Your festival processions Oh God can be seen by everyone. They are the processions for my God, my king into the holy place. The singers are in front, the musicians are behind them. The young women beating tambourines are between them. Thank God the Lord, the source of Israel with the choirs. Benjamin The youngest is leading them. Next, the leaders of Judah with their noisy crowds, then the leaders of Zebulun then the leaders of Naphtali. Your God is decided you will be strong. Display your strength oh god as you have for us before. Kings will bring you gifts because of your temple high above Jerusalem, threatened the beast who is among the cattails, the herd of bulls with the calves of the nation’s until it humbles itself with pieces of silver. Scattered the people who find joy in war, Ambassadors will come from Egypt, Sudan will stretch out its hands to God in prayer. You kingdoms of the world sing to God, make music to praise the Lord Sayla God rides through the ancient heaven, the highest heaven. Listen, he makes his voice heard his powerful voice acknowledged the power of God. His Majesty is over Israel and His power is in the skies. God, the God of Israel is all inspiring in his holy place. He gives strength and power to his people. Thanks be to God.

Steve Webb 9:57
Psalm 66 opens with a call All to all the earth to praise God because of his awesome in the truest sense of the word all inspiring, is awesome deeds. It even gives a sample of what should be said to God, how are inspiring are your deeds, your power is so great that your enemies will cringe in front of you, the whole earth will worship you. It will make music to praise you, it will make music to praise your name. Well, of course, all of this is true. God is worthy of the praise of the whole world. And most of this Psalms gives various reasons to give him worship. And I can hardly help but say yes and amen as I read them. But the last five verses of chapter 66 are a bit different. Let me read it to you again. Come and listen all who fear God and I will tell you what he has done for me. With my mouth, I cried out to him high praise was on my tongue. If I had thought about doing anything sinful, the Lord would not have listened to me. But God has heard me he has paid attention to my prayer. Thanks be to God who has not rejected my prayer or taken away his mercy from me. Did you notice where the Psalm was said there if I had thought about doing anything sinful, the Lord would not have listened to me. And he was right. Have you ever thought about the fact that God is not obligated to listen to every prayer? Proverbs 28 Nine says, He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. In Job when speaking of the wicked says in Job 27 Nine, will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Of course, the implied answer to that is No, God will not hear his cry. Sometimes God will listen to the prayer of an unbeliever if the prayer is in alignment with his will. And there are many examples of this in the Bible. But an unbeliever should have no expectation that God will hear them. But now it’s different for Christians. Listen to Hebrews four verses 14 through 16. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence, draw nearer to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And beloved, there are many other promises for believers concerning prayers. It’s because of God’s great mercy and grace that He invites us to come to Him in prayer. Yes, we can come to him in confidence. But we should also come with reverence and awe knowing that Jesus paid a tremendous price to bring that mercy and grace to us. What are your thoughts? You have any questions? Any comments, call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 19517328511. You can also comment via boostagram or go to comment.lifespringmedia.com. Tomorrow, we’ll be poetry Thursday, and our reading will be proverbs two and three.

Steve Webb 13:19
Have a donation today from Derek Shack, who said in $20 today, thank you, Derek, God bless you. I appreciate your support. Very much Lifespringmedia.com slash support.

Steve Webb 13:37
I’m calling this new segment of the show “Essentials.” And in a way I’m surprised it’s never occurred to me to do this kind of thing before. As you know, I began podcasting in 2004, after a time of prayer in which I was praising God for his many blessings. And I asked him if there’s anything more I could do for him. And his answer was an almost audible proclaim My name. You can read more about that at Steve dot Lifespringmedia.com If you’re interested. The point is I’ve been doing this for a long time. I guess I haven’t thought of doing this because it wasn’t time yet. But God laid this on my heart this past week when I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts. The host name is Frank Turek and the name of the podcast is I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist. The show I highly recommend By the way, it’s a show on apologetics. And if you don’t know apologetics has nothing to do with apologizing. But instead it’s the defending of the faith by means of systematically arguing for the veracity of our beliefs. It’s being able to give solid reasons for believing. And one thing that’s happening in the church today that I find very disturbing is that many people are leaving the faith, especially young people. As Frank Turek says in the intro to his podcast, they don’t think Christianity is true. They’re tucked out of it. You know why they’re tucked out of it? Because they’ve never been tucked into it. And as a parent of one of these who have left the faith, this hits me really hard. It makes me wonder if I bear some of the blame for my son’s abandoning the faith. Maybe I didn’t do enough to instill in him the basis for why we believe that God is real. And that Jesus is who he said he is. Maybe I didn’t train my son enough in the essentials. In a recent episode of I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist, an episode called Are you defending the faith or your faith, Frank was saying that some pastors, ministers and priests have rejected some of the essentials, and still refer to themselves as Christians. And he said that when you reject the essentials, you cannot honestly still be a Christian. And I agree with that completely. So I’m not going to make this show and apologetic show. The reason you listen to the Lifespring!, One Year Bible is to hear or read through the Bible. And that will always be the main thrust of this show. But I think that this new segment of the show is a perfect complement to the reading of the word. Each Wednesday going forward, I’m going to talk about one of the essentials, one of the linchpins of what it is to be a Christian. Because over the centuries, there have been certain things that Christians have believed based on what the Scriptures teach. As an example, there’s one God. Another example is that Jesus was crucified, he died and was raised back to life on the third day. We’ll talk about these things in many more in this essentials segment. I want you to know what we believe and why we believe them. I want you to be able to discern what is Christian and what is not when you hear it, I don’t want you to be one of those who fall away, beloved. Now, I chose Wednesday as essentials day, because the show is usually fairly short on Wednesdays. Many of the psalms are short, and I think we’ll have time to do this. And by the way, I would love to hear your comments on the discussions. Now to get started, I’m just going to read for you what is known as the Apostles Creed. It’s a summary of Christian beliefs or doctrine. The Apostles Creed in itself is not found in the Bible, and it was not written by the apostles. It was written about 150 years after all the apostles had died. But it’s called the Apostles Creed because it distills what they taught in the scriptures. Today, I’m gonna read through the apostles creed, with only a tiny bit of necessary commentary for clarity. And we’ll talk more about it next Wednesday. So now, without further ado, this is the Apostles Creed. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. There’ll be commentary about that later, continuing. The third day he rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty, whence he will come to judge the living in the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, more commentary on that in a minute, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen. Okay, commentary. Let’s talk about the phrase, the holy catholic church. That’s not the capital C Catholic. It’s not the Roman Catholic Church that exists today. The word catholic, lowercase c means universal. It refers to all the believers who have placed their faith in Jesus for salvation. This statement is saying that believers worldwide make up the church. That’s what it’s saying. Also the line that says that Jesus descended into hell need some explanation, and we’ll talk about that next week. And then following that, we’ll talk about the communion of saints. Now listen, I hope to make this a valuable, interesting and faith building part of the show for you and please do let me know how you feel about it or what do you think? I really do believe though that going over what the essentials of the faith are is a very important thing for all of us.

Steve Webb 19:36
Praises and prayer requests. This praise comes in from Scott Snider, you might remember that he had a prayer request a few weeks ago for his wife Diana, and Scott says, we went to her follow up colonoscopy and praise the Lord. The results were excellent. Praise be to God and blessings to the Lifespring family for the prayers. Praise the Lord. I’m so Happy to hear that, Scott! Hallelujah. And another appraisal report is for Connor, who we prayed for about three weeks ago. He’s the Down Syndrome boy who’s the son of friends of Leanna and I, Randy and Lori. He was hospitalized in under an induced coma, and he’s been in the ICU for three weeks so far. Listen to this report from his mom, Lori. She said it’s been exactly three weeks. Wow. 21 days in the ICU so far. Tomorrow morning, Randy will be with Connor for a couple of days as they head back to work and home for a couple of days. It was hard to leave Connor today. But believe it or not, he was all smiles. Today on rounds. They started using the term discharge plans. What Wow, she says there are more goals he needs to reach and sleeping is one of them. He’s gone three nights so far without sleeping for more than 20 minutes at a time, twice during the night. We are praying that sleep descends upon Him tonight. The wound team thinks that his pressure wound is actually beginning to show signs of healing. He needs to get to a point that the sore will be manageable for the caring and very capable staff at Crystal Springs, which is where he lives now since they can’t care for him at home because of his needs. And Laurie says Please continue to pray for complete healing in this area is well. Connor still has a strong congested cough, but he hasn’t required oxygen in three days as well. All signs that healing is coming. And then she closed with continued prayers for better days ahead with three exclamation points. So yes, God is good. And then let’s continue to pray for Bryan Duncan’s wife Cassie, she has an intensely painful nerve problem on the side of her face from a nerve in her jaw. And she badly does need surgery but they’ve got no medical insurance and the medications she has to take have some really terrible side effects so she needs a miracle. Also, my dear friends Del and Kathi continue to need prayer. As I’ve told you, they live in the Lake Arrowhead area about an hour from me in the mountains. Well, they’ve had an ordinate amount of snow in those mountains and the roads have been closed for many, many days now. They can’t leave their home and she’s out of her cancer medications. And even if they could leave their home, the pharmacy hasn’t been able to get shipments because of the closed roads. They do have food but she needs her meds and she has to be able to get back to the city of hope for her cancer treatments. So let’s pray. Our heavenly Father as the psalmist wrote in our reading today, how awe inspiring are your deeds, your power is so great that your enemies will cringe in front of you. The whole earth will worship you. It will make music to praise you. It will make music to praise your name. Lord, You are worthy of our praise and adoration which we offer to you now. Father, we thank you for the good news about Scott’s wife Diana. Thank you that the follow up showed no signs of cancer and we pray that you would continue to keep both her and Scott in health. And it’s so good to hear that Connor is recovering and gaining strength Lord, Randy and Lori love him so very much and I pray that Connor would be able to leave the hospital soon and that there would be no complications. We pray now for Cassie, give her a miracle Lord so that she can get the surgery that she so badly needs or better yet, I pray that you would touch her body and bring healing to this nerve. And we lift up Del and Kathi father, Kathi needs to be able to get her cancer meds and get down the hill the City of Hope. We pray that the snow removal crews would quickly make their way to their home. We thank you for the snow. We need the water here in California but I pray that you would make a way for them to get what is necessary. Another storm is predicted to come in Friday, but we pray that it doesn’t bring more delays. And now Father I pray for the Lifespring family. Bless them Lord, You are our provider, our shelter, our rock, our healer, our shield our strength, meet the needs of the Lifespring family, whatever they are, whether they be financial, emotional, physical, draw each of us closer to you, Lord, grow our faith. Make us more like you. Help us to walk with you every day. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Beloved, our next time of prayer together here on the show will be Sunday. If there’s a praise we should know about or if there’s something you’d like us to pray with you about. Tell me about it on the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511 Or go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. And please continue to pray for Cassie and Bryan and Del and Kathi.

Steve Webb 24:47
Our show today is from Jason Paschall. Thank you, Jason. God bless you. And Thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner, Scott Snider and Brittaney they’re the team and they do so much to help me go I bless you guys. And now until tomorrow, thank you for inviting me to be part of your day. May God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb, fine Lifespring media, bringing the message of hope, love and good news since 2004

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Transcript not yet corrected.