Wednesday
Evening Bible Study
April 28, 2004
Introduction
We are now in a group of fifteen songs (Ps. 120-134), all of which have
this “song of degrees” or “song of ascents” in the title.
Some have suggested that the title has to do with the music, that perhaps
the melody for these songs were sung on higher notes.
Others have suggested that the fifteen songs are related to the fifteen
steps in the Temple that a person
would climb as they are going from the outer courts to the inner courts. The
problem with this is that some of these songs were written by David, and would
have been written before the Temple
was built.
Most scholars think that these were the songs of pilgrims. Three times a
year the Israelites were to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
These were the songs they’d sing as they made their way up the hill from Jericho
to Jerusalem. For the most part the
songs are short, just the kind of song you’d like to sing as you are breathing
hard from making your way up a hill.
Psalm 120
:2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
Lesson
The importance of truth
Illustration
Tonto and son
The Tonto says to his son, “Son, you push-um outhouse off-um cliff?” The
kid says, “No, me no push-um outhouse off-um cliff.” Tonto says, “Son, me
tell-um you story of Great White Father, George Washington. Many moons ago,
when Great White Father was young boy, him chop-um down cherry tree. Him father
ask-um, ‘Georgie, you chop-um down cherry tree?’ George
say-um, ‘Cannot tell lie, Father. Me chop-um down cherry tree.’ Him father say,
‘Georgie bad, but Georgie
honest, so you no get-um punishment.’ Now I ask-um you again...you push-um
outhouse off-um cliff?” The kid says, “Yes, Father, me push-um outhouse off-um
cliff.” The Tonto grabs the kid and beats the tar out of him. The kid says, “Father,
Great White Father tell truth and get-um off scott-free.
I tell-um truth...why you beat-um tar out of me?” Tonto says, “George
Washington’s father not in cherry tree when George chop-um down.”
Sometimes we get the idea that it’s safer not to tell the truth sometimes. Sometimes we prefer the “lying lips”. Yet truth
is essential to who we are as Christians.
Truth is one of the essential elements to knowing God.
(John 4:24 KJV) God is a Spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
(John 14:6 KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The “truth” is not just the truth about Jesus, but all
truth. God wants us to be real, honest, truthful people. He doesn’t want us
blindly believing in lies. He wants us believing in truth.
The truth brings freedom
(John 8:31-32 KJV) Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on
him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; {32} And ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The world makes a huge mistake by not paying attention to the truth about
God
(Rom 1:25
KJV) Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
The world will follow after the lies of the antichrist because it does not
love truth
(2 Th 2:9-12 KJV) Even
him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders, {10} And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. {11} And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie: {12} That they all might be damned who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We are “sanctified”, made holy through truth
(John 17:17 KJV) Sanctify them through thy truth: thy
word is truth.
Truth is a key to maturity
(Eph 4:15
KJV) But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ:
Love rejoices with truth
(1 Cor 13:6 KJV) Rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
If you love someone, you’ll be glad when they tell you the
truth, even when it hurts.
Truth is part of our weapons of warfare
(Eph 6:14
KJV) Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on
the breastplate of righteousness;
The belt is the thing that holds all a soldier’s weapons
in place. Truth is the belt.
Not just good doctrine, but being honest and truthful as
well.
:4 coals of juniper
(Psa 120:4 NIV) with burning
coals of the broom tree.
The broom tree was used for firewood because it burned longer than many
other woods.
:5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
Mesech – Meshek – “drawing out”; son of Japheth,
grandson of Noah, and progenitor of peoples to the north of Israel;
descendants of Mesech often mentioned in connection with Tubal,
Magog, and other northern nations including the Moschi,
a people on the borders of Colchis
and Armenia
(Gen 10:2 KJV) The sons of Japheth; Gomer,
and Magog, and Madai, and Javan,
and Tubal, and Meshech, and
Tiras.
We have heard of a connection between “Mesech” and “Moscow”
(Eze. 38:2).
Kedar – Qedar – “dark”; a son of Ishmael; also tied to an area of northern Arabia.
:7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
The Scripture speaks of a time that is coming when the antichrist will rule
the world and will begin a huge persecution of the Jewish people, even worse
than Hitler. When Jesus returns, He will rescue the nation of Israel
and those that have survived the Tribulation and come to trust in Jesus as
their Messiah will return to Jerusalem.
(Isa 35:10 KJV) And the ransomed of the
LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Primarily, the Jews are in mind here. Those
who trusted in Jesus through the Tribulation will return to Jerusalem.
(Isa 51:11 KJV) Therefore the redeemed of
the LORD shall return, and come with singing
unto Zion; and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy;
and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
The pilgrims are coming with joy because the Lord would have delivered them
from their enemies. I believe this is when the Jews who have been fleeing from
the persecution of the antichrist return to Jerusalem
to meet King Jesus.
singing unto Zion
– It would not be surprising at all if the Jews that are returning would be
singing from the “Songs of Degrees”, the songs traditionally sung as pilgrims
journey up to Jerusalem.
Some of these songs have some interesting prophetic aspects:
(Psa 120:2-3 KJV) Deliver my
soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. {3} What shall be
given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
I could see the Jews praying this in regards to the
antichrist as he tries to wipe them out.
(Psa 120:5 KJV) Woe is me,
that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
Meshech: Could this be talking about places
that Jews would be returning from? There
is currently a growing population of Jews coming to Israel
from Russia.
Kedar: A
year ago or so there was a special on PBS about a race of people now living in
Africa that have rituals that seem very Jewish, and stories in their history
that have led some to feel that these people are descended from the Jews. The theory is that when the ten northern
tribes were scattered during the time of the Assyrians, these people originally
had been planted in Arabia, and then eventually migrated
south to Africa.
Archaeology has not connected these people to Arabia
and there are some of these people who have a special genetic coding that is
found only in the priestly line of Israel.
(Psa 121:7-8 KJV) The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil:
he shall preserve thy soul. {8} The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy
coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
The Jews will be
clinging to the Lord to keep them safe.
And He will.
(Psa 122:1-5 KJV) A Song of degrees of David. I was glad when
they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. {2} Our feet shall
stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
Will the Jews be
glad when they can go back to Jerusalem with King Jesus? YES!!!
Psalm 121
We looked at this on last Sunday morning.
Psalm 122
A Song of degrees of David.
David wrote this song
:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
I think that this ought to be the heart of every believer. But I know I’m preaching to the choir when I
tell you this on Wednesday night.
:3 Jerusalem is builded as a
city that is compact together:
Not a lot of big back yards – tightly packed housing.
:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
they shall prosper that love thee.
Pray for Israel
There are people who call themselves Christians in the world today who are
anti-Semitic. These are obviously people
who don’t spend much time reading the Bible.
We may not always like the things that Israel
does. We may cringe at some of the
things they do. But God loves Israel. We ought to be praying for Israel
and for the peace of Jerusalem.
Pray for our church
Could I ask you to be praying for our church as well? Pray for God’s blessings on our church.
Psalm 123
:1 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Lesson
Looking to God
When we pray, it’s very important to think of just who we’re talking to.
R.A. Torrey in his book, “How to Pray” writes (pg. 25-26),
“Very much of so-called prayer, both public and private, is not unto
God. In order that prayer should be
really unto God, there must be a definite and conscious approach to God when we
pray; we must have a definite and vivid realizations that God is bending over
us and listening as we pray. In very
much of our prayer there is really but little thought of God. Our mind is taken up with the thought of what
we need, and is not occupied with the thought of the mighty and loving Father
of whom we are seeking it. Oftentimes it
is the case that we are occupied neither with the need nor with the One to whom
we are praying, but our mind is wandering here and there throughout the
world. There is no power in that sort of
prayer. But when we really come into
God’s presence, really meet Him face to face in the place of prayer, really
seek the things that we desire from Him, then there is power. If then, we would pray aright, the first
things that we should do is to see that we really get an audience with God,
that we really get into His very presence.
Before a word of petition is offered, we should have a definite and
vivid consciousness that we are talking to God and should believe that He is
listening to our petition and is going to grant the thing that we ask of
Him. This is only possible by the Holy
Spirit’s power, so we should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the
presence of God and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought
us there. One night a very active
Christian man dropped into a little prayer meeting that I was leading. Before we knelt to pray, I said something
like the above, telling all the friends to be sure before they prayed, and
while they were praying, that they really were in God’s presence, that they had
the thought of Him definitely in mind, and to be more taken up with Him than
with their petition. A few days after I
met this same gentleman, and he said that this simple thought was entirely new
to him, that it had made prayer an entirely new experience to him.”
This is the pattern of prayer taught in the Bible. Jesus said to pray, “Our Father who art in
heaven …”
When we pray, we ought to take a moment and think about what we’re doing,
who we are talking about, and just what we want to say to the King of the
Universe.
(Eccl 5:2 KJV) Be not rash
with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God:
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
:2 so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon
us.
In ancient Bible days, masters only had to make a gesture to instruct a
slave what to do. Just a wave of the hand.
We want to be counting on God, looking to Him for His direction in our
lives.
Are we His servants?
:4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning
scorning – la‘ag – mocking, derision, stammering