Wednesday
Evening Bible Study
March 10, 2004
Psalm 106
We believe this is a Psalm written by David. David uses the last two verses in his Psalm
that he wrote for the bringing of the Ark
into Jerusalem (1Chr. 16:34-36).
:1-6 We need to remember God’s mercies
:6 We have sinned with our fathers
Lesson
We’re no different
We can read the stories of the Israelites making their way from Egypt
to the Promised Land and get frustrated at these people for forgetting so quickly
that God was on their side.
But in reality, we’re no different.
Instead, we need to work at learning the lessons that Israel
learned in the wilderness
Except for the grace of God, there go I …
:7-12 At the Red Sea
:12 Then believed they his words; they sang his
praise.
As God brought the Israelites out of Egypt,
He brought them to a “dead end”. The
people found themselves trapped at the Red Sea as
Pharaoh’s chariots pursued them (Ex. 14). When the people saw the chariots
approaching, they freaked out and said,
(Exo 14:11 KJV) Because there were no graves in Egypt,
hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore
hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
David tells us that the reason they were so panicked at the Red
Sea was because they had so quickly forgotten what God had just
done in getting them out of Egypt.
After God brought them through the Red Sea, Moses
wrote a song of praise for the people to sing (Ex. 15).
:13-15 Lusting for food
:15 And he gave them their request; but sent
leanness into their soul.
This episode is found in Numbers 11, when the people began to complain
about not having any meat. They were
getting bored with the manna day in and day out. As a result of their complaining, God gave
them what they asked for, and the next day a wind brought in a huge amount of
quail. The people rushed out to get the
quail and began to gorge themselves on the meat.
(Num 11:33-34 KJV) And while
the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD
was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great
plague. {34} And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that
lusted.
Kibrothhattaavah – “graves of lust”
Lesson
Be careful what you ask for
Generally we teach that God answers prayer when we ask for things according
to His will:
(1 John 5:14-15 KJV) And
this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if
we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: {15} And if we know that
he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
desired of him.
We also teach that God sometimes does not answer our prayers either because
we don’t ask at all, or because we ask for the wrong motives:
(James 4:2b-3 KJV) …yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
{3} Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,
that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
But there is a lesson in this story that there may be times when God might
give us things that are not good for us because we are so insistent on having
them.
He may give us these things in order to teach us that we’re asking for the
wrong thing.
:16-46 Israel’s
constant rebellion (summarize)
David continues with a history of Israel’s
rebellion in the wilderness, including the incident of Korah’s
rebellion (vs. 16-18; Num. 16); the golden calf (vs. 19-23; Ex. 32);
complaining in the wilderness (vs. 24-27); compromise at Baalpeor
(vs. 28-31; Num. 25); the waters of Meribah where Moses struck the Rock instead
of speaking to it, disqualifying him for the Promised Land (vs. 32-33; Num.
20); and the time of the Judges when Israel failed to destroy the Canaanites
and instead ended up adopting their ways (vs. 34-46)
:47-48 Prayer for help
:47 Save us, O LORD our God
David ends with a request for God to save them now, just like He did in the
past.
:48 Praise ye the LORD.
The Psalms are broken into “Books”.
As we’ve seen through the Psalms, each “book” ends with a “doxology”, a praise to the Lord. Praise ye the
LORD.
Psalm 107
This Psalm is very similar in structure to some of our hymns. There are some phrases that pop up over and
over again, showing us the structure of the song. I’d break down the song into five parts, or
verses.
For the most part, each verse starts with some situation that causes the
people to cry out to the Lord for help.
And He helps them. And this is
why they ought to praise Him.
Look for the phrases: “they cried unto the Lord” and “Oh that men would
praise the Lord”.
:1-9 Hungry wanderers brought home
:3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the
east…
Some have suggested that this Psalm may have been written after the
Babylonian captivity.
:6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble…
This is one of the theme phrases used throughout the Psalm.
:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his
goodness …
goodness – checed – goodness, kindness, faithfulness
This is the other theme phrase used throughout the Psalm.
:10-16 Brought out of darkness
:16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut
the bars of iron in sunder.
Isaiah prophesied of the day when the people who had been taken captive to Babylon
would be freed through the work of King Cyrus as he conquered Babylon:
(Isa 45:2 KJV) I will go before thee, and make the crooked
places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder
the bars of iron:
It seems that the Psalmist is saying that God kept His promise.
:17-22 Delivered from affliction
:20 He sent his word, and healed them
Lesson
Healed with His Word
(Mat 8:5-13 KJV) And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came
unto him a centurion, beseeching him, {6} And saying,
Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. {7} And
Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. {8} The
centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come
under my roof: but speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed. {9} For I am a
man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and
he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and
he doeth it. {10} When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that
followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in
Israel. {11} And I say unto you, That many shall come
from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
in the kingdom of heaven. {12} But the children of the kingdom shall be cast
out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. {13} And
Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it
done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
The centurion knew that all Jesus needed to do was “speak the word”, and
the servant would be healed.
That’s all it takes from Jesus, just a word.
For God to heal a specific issue in our life, all we need is for Him to say
the word. If God is willing, we will be
healed.
I think this also hints at the importance of us staying “in the Word”.
We find healing in His Word.
He’s already said a great many things.
He’s already “sent His Word”.
Sometimes we have bad stuff in our lives that need to be
removed. We need someone skilled with a
scalpel to cut away the cancerous tumors:
(Heb 4:12 KJV)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
Sometimes we feel like we’re going to whither away in our
difficult time. We need refreshing. We need life.
(Psa
119:50 KJV) This is my comfort in my
affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
Sometimes we need direction in our life.
(Psa 119:105 KJV)
NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
light unto my path.
:23-32 Saved from a stormy sea
(summarize)
The Psalmist talks about how sailors at sea are aware of the hand of God.
:33-43 From famine to abundance
(summarize)
Sometimes God brings famine into our lives to get our attention.
:43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things
What are the lessons repeated over and over in this Psalm?
Cry to the Lord in your trouble
Praise God for His goodness
Psalm 108
A Song or Psalm of David.
This is an interesting Psalm in that it appears to be coming from parts of
two other Psalms.
Verses 1-5 are very close to being identical as Psalm 57:7-11
Psalm 57 was written when David was hiding in a cave as he ran from
Saul. This was at an earlier part of
David’s life.
Verses 6-13 are the same as Psalm 60:5-12
Psalm 60 was written during the time when David and Joab were expanding the
kingdom of Israel
and dealing with the enemies at their borders.
This was later in David’s life.
It’s kind of like a worship leader putting the verse of one song with the
chorus of another complimentary song.
:1-5 Praising God
This is the section that comes from Psalm 57:7-11
:2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake
early.
early – shachar – dawn
David will get up early in the morning (dawn) to give praise to God.
:4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens
This is the reason for David’s praise – God’s mercy.
mercy – checed – goodness, kindness, faithfulness
:6-13 God will deliver us
This is the section that comes from Psalm 60:5-12
:6 That thy beloved may be delivered
beloved – y@diyd – one beloved, beloved.
This is related to the word that David’s name was based on. David’s name means “beloved”.
:7 God hath spoken in his holiness; I will
rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley
of Succoth.
This comes across as though God must have spoken a word through one of the
prophets during a time in which David was facing these various nations in war.
David was counting on this word from the Lord.
Shechem is a city in Israel,
about 30 miles due north of Jerusalem.
Succoth is located on the eastern side of the Jordan
River, about 20 miles due east of Shechem. Both were areas considered part of Israel.
:8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh
is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah
is my lawgiver;
Gilead and Manasseh were parts of Israel
on the eastern side of the Jordan river.
Ephraim was one of the main tribes north of Judah.
Judah
was David’s tribe.
:9 Moab
is my washpot; over Edom
will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.
These were all perennial enemies of Israel.
Moab
and Edom
are east of the Jordan river.
Philistia was located in the southwest corner
of Israel along
the Mediterranean Sea.
The “washpot” and casting the shoe pictures are that of having dominance
over these nations.
:11 Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off?
Even though David had sensed that God had brought a time of judgment on Israel,
David was still confident that God would be the one who delivered them.
:13 Through God we shall do valiantly
Lesson
Keep trusting Him for help
Even though you might feel like God has disappointed you, or perhaps that
God has been disciplining you, you can still trust Him.
(Heb 12:9-11 KJV)
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we
gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? {10} For
they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. {11} Now
no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised thereby.
If God disciplines us, it’s only for our own good, so we can be more like
what He wants us to be.
Come back and trust Him.
We too have a word from the Lord we can trust in:
(Rom 8:28
KJV) And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose.
God is for us, not against us. He promises to work all things for our good.
(Rom 8:35-39 KJV) Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? {36} As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day
long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. {37} Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
We can be more than conquerors in all our situations
because of His love for us. We shall do
valiantly.
{38} For I am persuaded, that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, {39} Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
David said that God’s mercy was “great above the heavens”
(vs. 4)