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podcasts. Life

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Audio. The

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Bible Study Podcast episode 849. Today the Bible Study

0:41

podcast continues the study of the book of

0:44

Psalms with Psalm 114 and Psalm 115. Welcome

0:56

to the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host

0:59

Chris Christensen. It feels like

1:01

I've had three or four weeks off because I

1:03

recorded some things ahead of time at the Christmas

1:05

time, so we're jumping back into the book of

1:07

Psalms, but first a word from the sponsor. Hello,

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hello. Punece Petway here, co-host of

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the Your Daily Bible Verse podcast.

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The Historical Jesus Podcast is

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life and times of Galilean

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Join me, Mark Vinette, on

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exploring the many great works

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of Christian theology, literature, architecture,

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music, and art inspired

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by the words and deeds

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of Jesus Christ. We're

2:19

jumping back into Psalms today with Psalm 114, which

2:22

is a short Psalm only eight verses, so

2:24

we'll continue on to Psalm 115. Psalm

2:27

114, when Israel came

2:29

out of Egypt, Jacob from a

2:32

people of foreign tongue, Judah became

2:34

God's sanctuary, Israel his domain.

2:37

The sea looked and fled, the

2:39

Jordan turned back, the mountains leapt

2:41

like rams, the hills like lambs.

2:44

Why was it sea that you fled? Why

2:46

Jordan did you turn back? Why

2:48

mountains did you leap like rams,

2:50

you hills like lambs? Tremble

2:53

earth at the presence of the Lord,

2:55

at the presence of the God of

2:57

Jacob, who turned the rock into a

3:00

pool, the hard rock into springs of

3:02

water. So

3:05

we're again remembering that time in

3:07

the wilderness, we're remembering the Exodus,

3:09

the people coming out of Egypt. And

3:12

the point of this Psalm seems

3:14

to be remembering the awesome presence

3:16

of God, remembering that God is

3:18

great and remembering what he did

3:21

in Egypt that was great. And some of

3:23

the things here are obvious, like see why

3:25

was it why you fled? We're talking about

3:27

the Red Sea here and the waters coming

3:30

back. Jordan did you

3:32

turn back? We're remembering that

3:34

as the people of God, as

3:36

the children of Israel came out of

3:38

the Promised Land or came into

3:41

the Promised Land, that again, this

3:43

new generation walked on

3:45

dry land across the Jordan River

3:47

because God parted the Jordan. Now,

3:50

if you've been to the Jordan, it isn't

3:52

a big deal today because it's more of

3:54

a stream than a river. It was

3:56

a bigger thing in those days, we believe. Red

4:00

Sea was a big deal. Why

4:02

mountains did you leap like rams, you hills

4:04

like lambs, it seems to be more poetic

4:06

in nature in the sense that mountains

4:09

did not shake so far as we know,

4:11

but we're talking again about the awesome power

4:14

of God that can in fact shape the

4:16

mountains. And so as he leads

4:18

the people out of Egypt and into the

4:20

promised land, these people from a

4:22

foreign tongue and sets them

4:25

up here, we're remembering the awesome things he

4:27

did. And

4:30

then tremble earth at the presence of the

4:32

Lord, at the presence of the God of

4:34

Jacob, that's the point of the whole psalm,

4:36

who turned the rock into a pool and

4:39

hard rock into springs of water. Again, remembering

4:41

those times when they were in the wilderness

4:44

and God told Moses to strike the

4:46

rocks or speak to the rocks and

4:48

water flowed out of them, that God

4:50

can even provide in places

4:52

that it doesn't look like God would be able

4:54

to provide can provide springs of water in the

4:56

middle of the desert. Now what do

4:58

we pull out of this again, we're being reminded

5:01

of the awesome power of God and

5:03

that God can provide, even

5:05

when it looks like God may

5:07

not be able to

5:09

provide. And then we'll move on to Psalm

5:11

115. 115

5:14

is also not a long psalm, but

5:16

twice the length of Psalm 114 that

5:19

18 verses and it goes like this. Not

5:23

to us, Lord, not to us, but to

5:25

your name be the glory because of your

5:27

love and faithfulness. Why

5:30

do the nations say where is their God,

5:32

our God is in heaven, he does whatever

5:34

pleases him, but their idols

5:36

are silver and gold made by human

5:39

hands, they have mouths, but cannot speak

5:42

eyes, but cannot see, they

5:44

have ears, but cannot hear, noses,

5:46

but cannot smell, they

5:48

have hands, but cannot feel feet,

5:51

but cannot walk, nor can they

5:53

utter a sound with their throats, those

5:55

who make them will be like them, and

5:58

so will all who trust in them. All

6:01

you Israelites, trust in the Lord. He

6:03

is their help and shield. House of

6:05

Aaron, trust in the Lord. He

6:07

is their help and shield. You

6:09

who fear him, trust in the Lord. He

6:11

is their help and shield. The

6:14

Lord remembers us and will

6:16

bless us. He will bless his

6:18

people Israel. He will bless the House

6:20

of Aaron. He will bless those who

6:22

fear the Lord, small and great alike.

6:25

May the Lord cause you to flourish both you

6:27

and your children. May you be

6:29

blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven

6:31

and earth. The highest heavens belong

6:33

to the Lord, but the earth he

6:36

has given to mankind. It

6:38

is not the dead who praise the Lord, those

6:40

who go down to the place of silence. It

6:43

is we who extol the Lord both now and

6:45

forever. Praise the Lord. This

6:49

is again one of those Psalms where

6:51

you can see that it was written

6:53

as a song and you get that sense

6:55

there with that reoccurring

6:58

verse of, he is

7:00

their help and shield. All you Israelites, trust

7:02

the Lord. He is their help and shield.

7:04

The House of Aaron, trust the Lord. He

7:06

is their help and shield. All who fear

7:08

him, trust the Lord. He is their help

7:10

and shield. You get that poetic sound, that

7:12

sound of call response in terms that

7:15

makes it seem more like a song than

7:17

some of these two. But

7:19

it was of course as all of these

7:21

a song first. So not to

7:23

us Lord, not to us, but to your name be

7:25

the glory because of your love

7:28

and faithfulness. So this is

7:30

a song of praise, bringing

7:32

glory to God because

7:35

of who he is. And the interesting

7:38

part of this I thought was those verses two

7:41

through eight that talk about the other

7:43

gods, the other quote unquote gods. Where

7:45

is their God? Our God is in

7:48

heaven. He does whatever pleases him, but

7:50

their idols are silver and gold made

7:52

by human hands. And we've had that

7:54

as a recurring theme in

7:56

the Old Testament and the prophets and

7:59

here in Psalms where it talks about

8:01

the difference between God and those

8:04

quote-unquote other gods. And

8:06

then I thought it was interesting this, you

8:09

know, continuing refrain of these

8:11

idols are silver and gold made by human

8:13

hands, mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot

8:16

see, ears but cannot hear, doses cannot smell,

8:18

they have hands but cannot feel, feet

8:20

but cannot walk, nor can the utter sound in their

8:22

throats, those who make them will

8:24

be like them, which

8:27

is interesting. But just

8:29

talking about the utter uselessness

8:34

of these gods that people are praying

8:36

to, that they are not God and

8:38

that they are idols, that they

8:41

are, that they can't speak, that

8:43

they can't do anything. Now

8:47

I think with some of the idols that people

8:49

were worshiping and with some of the gods that

8:51

people were worshiping, there were demons

8:54

behind them, there were these false gods

8:56

had some power but not the power

8:58

of God and not a power that

9:00

you want to have anything to do

9:02

with is my belief.

9:06

Although this is really talking about

9:08

the uselessness of these idols and

9:10

how they they're nothing

9:12

because they're made by human hands

9:14

they cannot save, they cannot help.

9:18

Versus the Lord and so then

9:20

we get that section here, versus

9:22

trust in the Lord, he is your help

9:24

and shield Israelites Aaron and those

9:27

who fear him. And we certainly would

9:29

be in that third category, those who

9:31

fear him. Some of you are also

9:33

in those first two categories, descendants of

9:35

Israel, descendants of Aaron, I am not.

9:38

But the Lord remembers

9:40

us and will bless us, will bless

9:43

his people Israel, will bless the house

9:45

of Aaron, the priests, you'll bless those

9:47

who fear the Lord small and great

9:49

alike. So the contrast here between the

9:52

idols and between God, God who is

9:54

bringing blessing, God who is bringing help

9:56

and shield that God is bringing protection.

10:00

And I think about that right

10:02

now in my country in the US there's an interesting

10:05

thing going on with a push

10:08

for nationalism and I don't

10:10

want to get into it too much because I want

10:13

to shy away from politics in here, but There

10:15

is an expression as

10:17

if God needed the

10:19

government to protect him

10:23

And and I just want to say

10:25

that God doesn't right God will protect

10:27

us That God doesn't

10:29

need anything from anybody

10:31

to Protect

10:34

the name of God or to protect

10:36

God. God is all powerful and has

10:39

authority and We

10:41

and we don't Right

10:44

that way it started here with your name be

10:46

the glory not to us Oh

10:48

Lord that that is

10:50

not something that God needs from us.

10:53

It's not something the early church needs It's

10:55

not something the current church needs for us

10:57

to protect God in any way shape or

10:59

form May the Lord cause

11:01

you to flourish both you and your children may you be

11:03

blessed by the Lord the maker of heaven and earth and

11:06

Certainly calling out to this

11:08

God who has power this God

11:11

who does bring protection and

11:13

help who remembers us and

11:15

blesses us and Calling and asking

11:17

for a blessing on those who

11:19

remember the Lord The

11:22

highest heavens belong to the Lord that the earthy

11:24

is given to mankind It is not the dead

11:26

who praised the Lord those who go down to

11:28

the place of silence It is we

11:30

who extolled the Lord both now and forever And

11:32

so this call to remember that we

11:35

are the ones who are called to bring praise

11:37

to God and again When I say bring praise

11:39

to God I mean that

11:41

in both ways as we've talked about recently

11:43

both to praise God to have praise coming

11:45

from our lips But also

11:47

to bring praise to God as people see

11:50

the people of God and the love

11:52

that they share and the way that

11:54

we Behave should bring praise to

11:57

God as well. The people should see the people of

11:59

God And praise God,

12:01

those who don't know him. And

12:03

with that, we're going to end this

12:06

episode of the Bible Study Podcast. If

12:08

you have any questions, send an email

12:10

to host at thebiblestudypodcast.com or better yet,

12:12

leave a comment on this episode at

12:15

thebiblestudypodcast.com. And thanks so much

12:17

for listening. I

12:28

want to take just a second to thank the

12:30

team at Life Audio for their partnership with us

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on this podcast. If you

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go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens

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of other faith-centered podcasts in their

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network. They've got shows about prayer,

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Bible study, parenting, and

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more. Rejoice always.

12:47

Pray without ceasing. Give thanks

12:49

in all circumstances. God

12:52

invites us to cultivate thankful hearts by

12:54

turning our eyes toward him in

12:57

good times and bad. To

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listen to more Abide Christian Meditations, just

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go to lifeaudio.com.