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The speaker welcomes the audience to the AmazingBible.book club and discusses the Psalms they are studying. They explore the themes of commitment in worship and the different types of Psalms, including celebration, praise, lament, and imprecatory. They discuss the references to Jesus in Psalm 69 and how it is quoted in the New Testament. The speaker emphasizes the importance of honoring God, being a blessing to others, and not being prejudiced. They also discuss the use of imprecatory Psalms and how they can give hope. The speaker concludes by discussing the importance of judgment and the need to show love and compassion to others. Hi ladies and welcome to the AmazingBible.book club, I'm Julie Callio your host and thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me you can do that at zab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are still in book 2 of the Psalms, we are looking at Psalms 65-69 today and according to W. Robert Godfrey in his book Learning to Love the Psalms, these 5 Psalms go into a category of commitment in worship in the temple. Psalms 65, 68 and 69 are written by King David and Psalms 66 and 67 are anonymous. Most of these Psalms are either celebration or praise except for Psalm 69 it has a touch of that at the very end but overall Psalm 69 is a Psalm of lament and imprecatory which means get my enemies. This Psalm of David also has references about Jesus and it is quoted a lot in the New Testament and we will take a look at those when we get to that Psalm. According to Godfrey all of book 2 of the Psalms has a title of the King's Commitment to God's Kingdom. So in Psalm 65 it was written for the choir director, verse 1 starts off in Zion or another name for Jerusalem and verse 4 mentions the Holy Temple. This is a corporate prayer because it is calling people to prayer and it uses the pronoun we. This Psalm praises the Lord who is mighty and is a provider for his people. Also in verse 4 it states how blessed is the one whom you choose and bring near to you. If you have heard God speaking to you, if you know his voice then you are blessed. Ladies our whole attitude changes when we know that we are blessed by God with his presence and that is what Psalm 65 is about then it goes into praise of so many of God's mighty deeds with regards to creation plus to the creation of humanity. In Psalm 66 it seems to be a praise after a victory in battle. In verse 9 it says God does not allow our feet to slip then in verse 12 it says you made men ride over our heads, we went through fire and through water yet you brought us out into a place of abundance therefore I shall come into your house with burnt sacrifices verse 13. The Psalm starts with shout joyfully to God all the earth, sing the glory of his name, make his praise glorious, say to God how awesome are your works and because of the greatness of your power your enemies will give fiend obedience to you. All the earth will worship you and will sing praises to your name. Verse 5 says come and see the works of God then it lists some and then verse 16 it says come and hear all who fear God and I will tell of what he has done for my soul. Then he lists God's kindness to him, ladies what have you seen, what have you heard and then what have you said to others about what you have seen and heard. Psalm 67 starts with God be gracious to us and bless us and cause your face to shine upon us, why? Verse 2 that your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among the nations. In this short psalm the word nations is listed 3 times, the word earth is mentioned 4 times and peoples are mentioned 5 times. Then verse 3 and verse 5 say the same thing, let the peoples praise you oh God, let all the peoples praise you. That word all there means people from all nations. In Revelation chapter 7 verses 9-10 we see a picture of heaven and it says after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and people and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, palm branches were in their hands and they cried out with a loud voice saying salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb, this lamb we find out early in Revelation 5 is the lamb that was slain for us, he was the only one that was worthy and then in the gospel of John when John the Baptist sees Jesus he says behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, how did he do that? He was slain, he is the lamb who died on the cross for the sin of the world for you and for me and the sin of the world includes all the ends of the earth, all the peoples and includes all of the nations as is listed in Psalm 67, God's plan from the beginning was to bless all the nations through Abraham, Genesis chapter 12. From the first book of Genesis to the middle book of the Bible which is Psalms to the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to the last book in Revelation, God's plan is for all people groups to come to him and how will they do that? It comes back to us, when God is gracious to us or for those who believe in him, when God blesses those who know him, those whom he shines his face upon and the earth and the people all see and then they say look at their God. The world should look at Christians and say that person acts differently, I want to be like that or so that's what life should look like. In the New Testament Peter says in his first letter in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. The problem is it seems to me that the church, Christians of today don't have much hope. What happened? I think, my opinion, just my opinion, that the church has become so much like the world, just like the Jews did in the Old Testament, that there is little difference for one who claims to be Christian and one who does not. According to the verse listed before we have stopped honoring Christ the Lord as holy as Peter said. In other words, as in this psalm, the last verse, God bless us, not for ourselves but that all the ends of the earth may fear him. God does not bless us just so we can be blessed. We are to be a blessing to the nations. Now ladies we can't control other people but let me ask you, if you are a Christian or if I am a Christian, and I am, do we fear the Lord? Do we honor the Lord as holy? When people see us, do they see someone who is blessed by God? When people see us, do they see hope in the midst of the world that is falling apart? If anyone should have hope, it is a Christian. One other point to make from this psalm, Christians should not be prejudiced against other people groups or other nationalities. Sometimes something bad may happen to us or to a loved one and we blame that person and everyone liked that person and we need to guard against that and ask the Lord to help us overcome our prejudices. The easiest for me to give an example to is the blue people, the police officers who have done bad things. Some have abused their power and authority but not all. Most take this job to help people and to be a service to the community and it is so easy to clump everyone together in one group but that is not the truth. So let's ask God to show us what people group we dislike or disregard and sometimes it is just people who are rich or people who are white collar or people who are poor. But let's ask him to help us see not the group of people but the individual person and then remember that God loves them too. That we may address them with gentleness and respect as Peter said so that they may see the love of God through us. Now Psalm 68 carries over the theme that God will make himself known to the kingdoms of the earth. We see that in verse 32. This is a psalm of celebration. It may have been sung as the procession into Jerusalem since we see that in verse 24. It may be after a victory of war verse 1 or at the time that David brought the ark into Jerusalem. That was 2 Samuel chapter 6 verses 13-19. Now this psalm is separated into 9 strokes or sections. Most are 4 verses. The first grouping is verses 1-4 and it is praise as God enters Jerusalem and his enemies scatter and his people rejoice. Then verses 5 and 6 define what type of God the Jews worship. He is a father to the fatherless. He is a judge for the widows. Is this God in his holy habitation? This God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoners into prosperity and only the rebellious dwell in the parched land. That is what kind of God they serve. Verses 7-10 reflect on how God led the children of Israel through the wilderness. Verses 11-14 talk of how God is the king of armies and how the Israelites were able to take the land especially during the time of Joshua. Verses 15-18 talk of the mount of God that the God of Sinai which was the mountain that Moses was on when he received the law is now here in Jerusalem on this mountain of God and that God's chariots are massive. Then verses 19-23 show God is our salvation and the fighter of our enemies. In verses 24-27 we see a procession going into the sanctuary. First are the singers then the musicians including the women playing the tambourine and if you remember it was King David who orchestrated the musicians to be a part of the temple worship continually before the Lord. And then the enemies will see this procession and God will bless the congregation. And who is the congregation? You who are the fountain of Israel. There is Benjamin the youngest whose mother was Rachel from whose tribe King Saul is from. Then the princes of Judah which came from the mother Leah from whom King David and right now Prince Solomon comes from. Remember these two tribes are the southern part of the nation of Israel. And then Zebulun and Naphtali are two of the northern tribes of Israel. In verses 28-31 David writes of kings who will bring gifts because they see God's strength displayed through Israel. And then he especially mentions Egypt and Ethiopia the place where once Israel were slaves but now they are free. The psalm ends with verses 32-35 and it is a call to sing for all of the kingdoms of the earth. Then verse 35 Oh God you are awesome from your sanctuary. The God of Israel himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God. Psalm 68 ends with blessed be God and then Psalm 69 starts with save me oh God. We see that Psalm 68 was a corporate worship. Now we see an individual cry of lament and yet it does end in praise of what God will do. David trusts God and his promises. Verses 1-4 David is crying out in despair and in verses 5-12 David is praying that God's people will not be ashamed or dishonored because of David. David's prayer continues in verses 13-18 with lifting up God's great attributes, his loving kindness, his saving truth, his great compassion and then he cries out for deliverance. In verses 19-21 it retells of the scorn that David is receiving from his enemies. And then verses 22-28 David prays for God's judgment to fall down on his enemies. He prays for God to get him. This part of the hymn is what we call imprecatory. He even prays that they would be blotted out of the book of life. But then David ends with praise of what God will do based on God's promises and on his character. The Lord hears the needy. He does not despise his people who are prisoners. Israel cried out when they were prisoners in Egypt with Moses. For God will save Zion, Jerusalem. He will build the cities of Judah. He will have them live and possess in it. This was the promise with Joshua. The descendants of his servants will inherit it. God promised to Abraham this. God promised to Isaac this. God promised to Jacob this. These were his servants. David God promised to David this. David was his servant and the descendants of these men will inherit the promises of God. And the last phrase, and those who love his name will dwell in it. That includes then people like Rahab the prostitute who hid the spies and allowed Joshua to come in and take the land. This includes Ruth the Moabite who left her land and became a part of Israel and that their God will be her God. And many, many, many more who took the God of Israel as their God are included in this phrase. Now that we have done an overview of this psalm, I want to point out how this psalm has been used in the New Testament. I want to quote from W. Robert Godfrey who wrote Learning to Love the Psalms. He writes with regards to the severity of the imprecation in this psalm. Many commentators are content simply to say that the New Testament and the Old Testament are at odds at this point. That in the New Testament, love and forgiveness have replaced a desire for vengeance. But if we think carefully, we will see that this is a completely inadequate response for several reasons. Indeed, we will see once again that those parts of the Bible that are initially surprising or offensive may be parts that we particularly need. Psalm 69 cannot conflict with the New Testament religion because it is often quoted in the New Testament. Now let's take a look. Psalm 69 verse 9a, which means the first half of that psalm, zeal for your house has consumed me. John quotes this in John chapter 2 verse 17 when Jesus cleaned out the money changers in the temple. Psalm 69 verse 3 says my throat is parched, Jesus on the cross said I thirst, John chapter 19 verse 28. In Psalm 69, 20 and 21, it talks of no comfort and they gave sour wine to drink. In Matthew 27 verse 48, Jesus was given sour wine to drink. Looking out of the Gospels of the New Testament and into Acts and the letters, Paul says in Romans 15 verse 3, for even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written the reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me. That's the second half of Psalm 69 verse 9b. And then Paul continues with verse 4, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. So here he just referenced Psalm 69, this imprecatory psalm, and yet those psalms give us hope. In Psalm 69, it again is quoted, this time by Peter in Acts chapter 1. He says, brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. He continues, for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his homestead be made desolate and let no one dwell in it. This is Psalm 69 verse 25. Back to the book of Romans, Paul quotes Psalm 69 verses 22 and 23 to explain the loss of the Jews who do not believe in Jesus. Romans 11 verses 9 and 10, and David says, let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. Let their eyes be darkened to see not and bend their backs forever. The thing about imprecatory psalms, again, number one, it is honest feelings and God loves honesty. Number two, they are prayers to God, this is not complaining to a brother and sister. And number three, David leaves it in God's hands to deal with it. He does not take vengeance on his own. He lets God do what God knows is best. And that last verse in Psalm 69 gives hope that anyone can turn to the Lord and be included into his family. God free ends this chapter of this psalm by saying, we must also always remember that if we diminish the necessity and righteousness of judgment, we will diminish the work of Christ on the cross. All people do not end up in the same place at death. All people do give an account to their creator God, whether they believe in him or not. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus talks about the son of man coming in all of his glory. And when he sits on his glorious throne, because he is king of all kings, again, the nations will gather before him. He will separate them from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep will be on the right, the goats will be on the left. And he says to those on the right, blessed are you of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And the righteous will answer, Lord, when, when did we see you hungry and thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in prison? And the king answered, truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it unto me. Then he says to the goats, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. It wasn't prepared for them, it was prepared for the devil and his angels, but they will end up there. Then he goes through that same list and these people did nothing and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. What we truly believe reflects in our actions. So ladies, what is God saying to you today through these psalms? If you hear his voice, be thankful for Jesus, the good shepherd said, my sheep, hear my voice and follow me. Ladies, let's not harden our hearts. Instead, let's be women who pray and obey until next time. And thank you so much for listening.