Psalm 83 Pt 3

0:01 All right this morning for the first hour, and we're gonna be working on it in the second hour. Go ahead and turn to Psalm eighty three. You'll also want to have Second Chronicles twenty marked Psalm eighty three Second Chronicles Chapter twenty. It was last week we spent two hours working on Psalm eighty three, and now we're gonna have to kind of go back and do a little bit of extra work now. One of the things I do love doing on the podcast is if I picked, like this week or next two weeks or three weeks, we're gonna work on a particular philological subject or a subject in church history or a biblical text. I always love it because I never know exactly how things are going to end by the end of that time. And this is another example of Wow, this has taken some wild twists and turns and trying to understand Psalm eighty three. It all started because I was listening to some sermons and I saw a sermon entitled the Coming Middle East War, and I'm like, Okay, it'll be interesting to hear someone's perspective on what they think the coming Middle East War is. Are they going to attach it to the current situation between Israel and Gaza. Okay, all right, so let me start listening to it. But as soon as I opened up the sermon to start listening to it, I noticed it said Psalm eighty three the coming Middle East War, which then really got my attention because I'm like, I've read Saw eighty three, you know, a lot of times, and I've never connected it to being a prophetic song. So I'm like, that's

1:32 where are they going with this? So I did two hours of review of two messages claiming that it was a coming Middle East War. And after those two hours of review, it was baffling because they never mentioned anything about a coming Middle East war. They talked about everything other than so I was like, how are they handling Saw eighty three? What is their hermonutical approach? So it kind of got frustrating. I listened to the third part. They still did not do. I listened to the fourth part. They still didn't even begin to talk about how was it coming to Middle East war? So I have no idea what they were hoping to accomplish. Maybe I think they're up to part sixteen seventeen or eighteen now and I haven't It's gotten frustrated because it turned into talking about rock music and the length of women's skirts and everything other like, I don't know where any of this is coming from Psalm eighty three, so the whole thing just became bizarre. So then I'm like, Okay, that's not going anywhere. So then I found a sermon that took Psalm eighty three and connected it to the events of Second Chronicles twenty. I'm like, Okay, instead of making it prophetic in a sense, they're making it prophetic as maybe predicting what happened in Second Chronicles twenty. I'm like, wow, that is somewhat interesting. So let's read Psalm eighty three, at least a part of it. Then we'll go to Second Chronicles twenty and you can see maybe why some would try to draw or or connection. All right, so we start in saw maighty three. Well, I won't go through

3:04 everything we've already covered, but because we'll do a lot of review over the next two hours. But here we go saw Maty three, Verse one, do not keep silent, Oh God, do not hold your peace, and do not be still, Oh God, for behold your enemies make a tumult, and those who hate you have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty council against your people and consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more. For they have consulted together with one consent, they form a confederacy against you, the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Giball Ammon and Amelek Felistia with the inhabitants of tire Assyria also has joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Now we can stop right there. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. The Samis puts forth what we we'll talk about this later. The type of psalm this is is referred to as a lament psalm offering a lament.

4:17 Some would refer to this as a communal lament. The Samist is speaking for the people of Israel. They are very distressed. They're filled with fear and anxiety because a confederacy of nations is coming against them to wipe them off the face of the earth. All right, it seems pretty simple and pretty straightforward. So some, it appears, try to take this and apply this as being prophetic to some future event, in other words, future, even for us. Some try to connect it to nineteen forty eight. Some try to connect it to nineteen sixty seven. I think sixty seven. I think it's the sixty seven War, nineteen sixty seven. Some try to connect it to something future. The problem with all of the the future, future, future, future event, or any future of it is the wording of the text itself. It speaks of this happening in the present for the time the author is writing, so it does not give a prophetic view. It gives a past present view. So that's already a little confusing. But if you go to Second Chronicles chapter twenty, you may see why some would try to connect it to this. Now, this would still be future for the Psalmist, right, it would be past for us, because if the Psalmist wrote this as a prophecy predicting what happens in Second Chronicles twenty, that would still make it future, which would still have the problem of the language used.

5:44 But you can see a little bit here Second Chronicles chapter twenty, verse one. It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon and with others with them. Besides, the Emmonites came to against Jehosepha. See you not there's a confederacy of people coming against jehosephat do you see that? Right? Then some came until Jojosepha saying, a great multitude is come against you from beyond the sea, from Syria. And there they are, and Hazazan Tamar, which is in Ingidi, and Jehusaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord. And from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. Well, there's the seeking part, right, the praying part that maybe offering up a lament so that you see why some would want to count of possibly connect it to p. Eighty three.

6:48 So, and one of the sermons I listened to, and this is a direct quote, Jehosaphat called in Asaf to produce basically the lament so that the people could try out to God. That Asaf gave basically a voice to the distress and fear of the people. And of course in that sermon, all the people said amen. Sitting in the pews right. Well, from the very beginning I had some My first thought was, well, this is much better than connecting it to some future war. This would and I started thinking, well, if Asaf was there, then Saw eighty three is not a prophetic psalm, right, that Second Chronicles twenty would be the historical setting for Psalm eighty three. In other words, to understand Psaw eighty three, we go to Second Chronicles twenty and now we have the historical setting for what happened.

7:47 So I'm like, okay, well maybe that's a plausible hypothesis if Asaf was alive. Right, So I'm like, okay, I know what we're gonna do. So I gave the assignment on the podcast for people to a chart that gave me a contrast in a comparison between Second Chronicles twenty and Saw eighty three. So I kind of gave that as an assignment, and then as the week proceeded, I continued to work on it, and then all of a sudden, I was like, well, wait a minute, I'm still confused here because one of the questions I gave on the podcast was, someone find me a reference that shows where Jehosaphact called an Asaf because the pastor said it in a dogmatic way. I'm like, where is that? Where is that? At? Well? Nobody could find anything, and I'm like, well something, something is not making sense here now. In my mind, I was just trying to get away from the coming Middle East War, so this sounded like a more plausible explanation, so I had not yet thought about it. So I kept thinking of it, and then all of a sudden, I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, there's a problem here. There's a big problem here. There's no way jehosaphact called an Asef. There's just no way. And you know why Ace Half wasn't alive.

9:07 It would have been dead way before this. So I'm just gonna go through some basic information here, okay, Well exactly and second Chronicles twenty verse fourteen, Yeah, yeah, exact. You go. Then the spar of the Lord came upon Jeheza L, the son of Jazekariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jaio, the son of Matanaya, a levite of the sons of Asaf. Right, this is this is going back. Yeah, this is not Ace Half is not life. Okay, So I'm like, why am I hearing sermons, and so not only that, not even I hear sermons. I kept looking up and I found it leaves like one or two references that kind of came with the same theory. I'm like, how is this even possible? So here's some basic information, all right, are you ready? To Biblical chronology and traditions. Now, this is just one source. According to Biblical chronology and traditions, asfh was believed to have lived during the time of the King and continued his musical ministry throughout the reigns of subsequent kings, including King Solomon. I'm like, okay, well that would be David. Yeah, that would be David, and then that would be Solomon. Okay, well, if you're if you're ministering during those two reigns, no way you're going to be around for Jehosaphat. There's no no way. So the exact timeline of his life is not explicit explicitly in the

10:37 biblical text, but based on the context of the psalms attributed to him and his association with the Tabernacle worship, this is how they read. Are you ready. It is unlikely that Asaf was alive during the reign of King Jehosaphat. They put it in the unlikely category, right, another one, King Jehosaphat, reigned over Judah and the ninth century, several generations after David and Solomon. Asaf is traditionally viewed as a contemporary of David and a prominent figure in the period of the early Israelite monarchy. Therefore, it is generally understood that Asaf's ministry and contributions to the psalms occurred before the time of King Jehosephaed.

11:22 So we go from unlikely to now we're at is it is understood that it happened before, all right, So we're getting a little bit more dogmatic, right, okay, right, that's good. Now. While Asaf's exact lifespan and historical context remains somewhat you know, maybe we're not completely sure, cannot be completely dogmatic, his legacy as a revered musician, worship leader, and composer of psalms has endured through the Biblical canon. The psalms attributed to Asef continue to be treasured for their spiritual death, poetic beauty, and thematic richness. Thats a nates with readers. Accruss generations. Okay, that doesn't really help me any. It doesn't really help me any Okay. Asaf, the author of some psalms, including Psalm eighty three, was indeed alive during the reign of King David, Right, Okay, we feel comfortable with that.

12:13 Right. However, when it comes to the events and second Chronicles twenty during the reign of King Jehosaphat, are you ready? Here we go, Asaf would not have been alive at that time. Now we get something that is more dogmatic. The Biblical account places Asaf is a contemporary King David and one of the leaders appointed by David to oversee worship in the tabernacle. Asaf's influence in the realm of worship is primarily associated with the time of David and Solomon, not later periods like the reign of Jehosaphat. During the reign of Jehosaphat, it was likely that other levites and musicians would have been in charge of worship, as Asaf and his descendant's roles were more prominent during the time of day in Solomon. Therefore, while Asaf may have been alive during Damag's reign, he would not have been present or in charge of worship during the events of Second Chronicles twenty in the time of Jehosaphat. So now we're getting sources are getting what more dogmatic? More certain? Okay, So then just a couple of more. King Jehosaphat reigned from around eight seventy three to eight forty nine BC. As Asaf was a contemporary of King David, who reigned around one ten ten to nine seventy BC. It is estimated that Asaf would have likely died several decades before the reign of King Jehosaphat. Using these dates

13:46 as a reference, it can be estimated that Asaf would have likely died around nine thirty to nine twenty BC or earlier, which would have been several decades before King Jojosephat's reign began. All right, So so then what one source says, Asaph, the writer of Psaw eighty three and a contemporary of King David, would have likely died before the start of the King of the King Josephat's reign. Given the estimated timeline of the reigns Asaph would have lived and died during the time of David, several decades before King Josephat came to power.

14:28 So I don't know why multiple sermons gave the impression that Josephat called an Asaf. I don't know why. I don't know where that has come from. But it's completely it's literally impossible. Asaf has nothing to do with Second Chronicles twenty, so that would mean what one. So let's go ahead and just eliminate certain things. Okay, we have no evidence, no proof at all that Psalm eighty three is a p song. It is a lament, so there's no reason to make it prophetic. There's nothing there. Second, the language of Saw eighty three is speaking of something that is going on at that time. It's not prophetic, there's nothing about it. So that eliminates any future Middle East war, and anyone who tries to attach it to that you would have to you would have to find something that quotes Saw eighty three and does what points to then something future, And we don't have anything to say Saw eighty three is predicting. Second Chronicles twenty still doesn't make any sense, right, just it's not connected. There's no there's no way to connect it. Do similar things happen? There's some similarities, but how many different times. Did nations come against Israel all the time? So yeah, But not only that, this is most importantly the historical setting for Saw eighty three is everybody has everybody got this? The historical setting for Saw eighty three is

16:00 not second Chronicles twenty. It cannot be. It is not. Not only that this is very important asaf was not called in by Jehosaphat to compose this lament. He was not could not have been. He would have been dead even second Chronicles twenty by listing all of those sons, but demonstrate that he was long gone. Okay, So I don't know how that happens. That what is frustrating about this just demonstrates that again, what you hear and what you read within from Christian sources or even in sermons, you can't just do what. You can't just assume that it is correct. That places the responsibility upon the hearer to be testing and challenging and questioning and thinking. I understand.

16:57 I don't know why it's so weird the way all all the sermons that I have listened to, and I've listened to a lot on Psaw eighty three, the approach to the text is just bizarre. They either want to attach it to something future, or they try to find a historical something to connect it to, or they want to just throw out Isroe and make it all about the church and make it about now. And every case, guess what happens. The original context is completely eliminated. Israel is completely thrown out of the text, and guess who gets inserted? Us us us us us us nothing to do with us. Now, are there lessons that we can derive from it? That's what we started trying to work on last week. Correct what lessons can be taken from it? But to take lessons from it does not mean you do what you just go place yourself all in it. You have to you have to figure out what it's saying in by the words it's used, in the context that it's found, make it applicable to the original recipients. Then we step back and go, what are the lessons? Lessons are very different than saying it is about us, right the same example, Well, I could go, I could go to all kinds of examples where this happens constantly. I won't get sidetracked now and talk about them. But we've talked about it in Jeremiah right, how many times is that famous passage

18:29 in Jeremiah has quoted I know the plans I have for you. That's for people coming out of Babylonian captivity. That's not for us. So unless you're coming out of Babylonian captivity, that promise has nothing to do with you. We take promises, we rip them out of context. We've applied them to us, whethery're given to specific people in a specific historical setting. In many cases we can see the actual fulfillment of it in the scripture. So in this particular case, many of the psalms, what is true of many of the psalms? Some of them we have a clear historical setting, But in many cases we have what no historical setting at all? We don't know and guess what we should not do force it into a historical setting. What we should do is maintain that here is a we know the ssawmist right, he's look at Saw eighty three. It is a Sam of Asaf, so we know who it is, right, we know he's connected with David. We know he was connected with the worship all right, So we know that much that that's historical facts. So then what can we derive from this that he composes this during a time of great national distress, and he composes it as a lament, and so that's what we're going to kind of continue to focus on. So I wanted to get that all clarified and cleaned up because it's just it's kind of frustrating how many sermons that have listened to and I'm like, I don't know what in the world are doing to Saw eighty three that

20:00 they are completely destroying it. So we're gonna try to go back. We're gonna take the next what thirty minutes we have in this hour and then move back through what we've already covered so that hopefully by the next hour we can try to see how far we can get in this psalm and take it apart. So are we ready? All right? Saw eighty three? We we provided kind of an outline. Remember I like my outlines to be somewhat vague because I try to force you to work on your own. Okay, so let's do kind of a vague outline for SAW eighty three, right, I have I created two, maybe up to three outlines, but I'm gonna go with this one. This is kind of the one I gave last week. Okay, I keep working it and trying to clean it up, but I like for you to work on it all right, So Saw eighty three, what do we have in verse one? We have the plea? Right, the sawmist cries out to God to not be silent and to not be inactive.

20:52 That's verse one. Saw eighty three. Verse one is the plea. Can everyone see that? I think that makes sense. Remember what's the rules and out lining. Outlining should never be interpretive. It should always be observational. Right. Why is that? Because an outline is an observational tool, it's not an interpretive tool. You can't interpret until you do what. Observation must always proceed interpretation. The quality of your interpretation is dependent upon the quality of your observation. If someone offers an interpretation of a text, but you clearly can ask basic observational questions and they cannot give you that, you should not listen to their interpretation. If someone observes second Chronicles twenty and places asaff there, okay, that's a pretty good thing that they have not done what observational work. They immediately jump to interpretive work. And that's one of the major issues within Christian at large is everybody wants Everybody wants an interpretation and an application. Everybody wants interpretation. And when people go to church, they want three points in a nice, little put together sermon so they can get a little bit of maybe a little bit of interpretation. That really they want more application than they even want interpretation. Well, if we are actually studying the text, sermons would be what a lot of people would hate. They'd be

22:22 tedious work going through the text, trying to figure out what's there, why it's there, and asking those questions, and maybe spending six months looking up all the places where one word is used? Right, why do we do that? Because that's the only way to observe the text. So that's why we do things the way we do things. So what's the first part of our outline? The plea? And when that covers how many verses? One? Which verse? Verse one? All? Right, why don't we have in verses two through five? The reasons for the plea? Remember correctly put reason the first time. But reasons for the plea, and we have them, we can read them right. For behold, your enemies make a tumult, and those who hate you have lifted up their head they have taken crafty council against your people and consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, come, let us cut them off from being a nation that the name of visual may be remembered no more. The reason for his plea, in some ways we could change it a little bit. But okay, the reasons for our plea are listed right there. He lists the detailed reasons for the plea. And that's because there are enemies who are wanting to do what wipe them off the face of the earth. Now, please note the enemies.

23:44 Who are they focused on? Well, it actually mentions them specifically. The enemies are focused on whom verse four and five or four Israel? Right, everybody say that the enemies are focused on Israel? Yes, I know. Then, well we'll get to that in a minute. So the reasons for the play is there are enemies who want to destroy Israel, and they are described in great detail here. What they're doing, right, They're causing a tumult. Everybody see that they hate you, meaning they hate God. They've lifted up their head. This is pride, arrogance. They have taken crafty counsel against your people. Your is a reference to again God's people Israel.

24:29 Right, they have consulted together against your sheltered ones. That's an interesting phrase. We'll talk about that when we ever get there. Okay, if we ever do verse four, and they have said, come, let us cut them off? Who is the them Israel from being a nation? Clearly, this is the nation of Israel, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more. No I listened to another sermon. Guess what turns all of that into the church. They just throw out Israel, makes it the church, the church, the church, the church, the church. That's why we spent six months looking up every use of the word Israel to destroy that theological concept because it's such a it's such a disservice to the word of God.

25:14 This is about the nation of Israel. Right, So what is the reason the psamist is crying out to God because of these enemies and what they're doing. Now, we could make we could argue there's one other reason he's crying out to God. We could add a reason, right, and a roundabout way. Verse one is a reason as well. Right, he's crying out to God because God hasn't done anything. God is God is inactive. God is not doing anything in the meantime. What is happening. Armies are gathering to wipe them off the face of the earth. So you could argue in some ways that the reason also includes verse one, but verse one is the plea. Verses two through five is the reasons. We can do it that way? And then what do we have? In verses six through eight are the enemies identified? And we have a list of all of the enemies right right, we have the tens of item the Ishmaelites, Moab, the hagar rights, hagarights or hagarins, and other translations. Gibaw ammon amelecht, felicitia with the inhabitants of tire Assyria also has joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. That's a lot of enemies, is it not?

26:27 But they're all listed. They're all listed. Now, why is it significant that the enemies are listed? From an interpretive perspective? Why is it important to note it's Israel named yes? Are the enemies named yes? Why is that important? Because this is telling you that this is referencing a real situation with real nations. It's not about the church. It is not to be spiritualized. It's talking about real historical situation. Are there the much lesson that can be derived from it? We're not denying that, But the first thing we have to focus on is what the actual historical physical situation that is taking place? All right? So number one, we have the plea, that's verse one. We have the reasons for the play verses two through five.

27:14 If we have the enemies identified, that go six through eight, and then what do we have in verses nine through twelve the past and present? He says, deal with them who are the them? The enemies listed in verses six through eight. Deal with them as with Midian, as with Cicera, as with Jabin at the brook of Kishan, who perished at Indore, who became as refuse on the earth. The King James uses dung on the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb and like zeb Yes, all their princes, like Zeba and Zalmuna, who said, let us take for ourselves the pastures of God for a possession. What does he do in verses nine through twelve. The psamis is asking God to do what to do in the present to the current enemies as God has done in the past to their past enemies.

28:15 Right, very simple, very straightforward. Right. Hey, God, we don't know where you've been. We need you to step up, and we need you to do now what you've done in the past, what we need you to do to these enemies, what you've done to our past enemies. Very simple and very straightforward. Now, what pastors can do with that will be very can be very detrimental, but we'll get into that at a later time. Right. So, number one, we have the plea. Number two, we have the reason for the plea. Number three, we have the enemies identified. Number four, we have the past and the present. And then what do we have in versus say, thirteen through eighteen?

28:56 What do we have in thirteen through and we have we have kind of a petition for defeat. Right, he's petitioning God to defeat. Look what he says, Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind, as the fire burns the woods, as the flame sets the mountains on fire. So pursue them with your tempest, fight them with your storm, fill their faces with shame that they may seek your name. O Lord, let them be confounded and dismayed forever. Yet, let them be put to shame and perish. So I mean I kind of added verse eighteen there I went back and forth, kind of telling you how do we handle this? But clearly from thirteen really to six, I think, all the way to seventeen, there's no question this is the same ast petitioning God to make their enemies, to basically bring them to an end, to destroy them. And we could talk all the different things he asks of them, that they become like basically tumbleweed chaff, they become fire, to pursue them with the tempest, and to fill them with shame. We see all of that right there, do we not? He's petitioning them for defeat, all right, But then what do we have that's the petition for defeat?

30:11 We had the desired outcome? And notice we talked a little bit about this. Even though he wants them destroyed, there seems to be a desired outcome or his ultimate motive. And what was it? To fill their faces with shame that they may seek your name, Oh Lord? Everybody see that that they may know. So really, his desired outcome is that they will feel shame so that they will seek God and that they may know something about God that kind of takes his desire and makes it a much more spiritual because at first you could argue it's very vengeful, but then it kind of turns very spiritual, does it not? Hey, It wants him to be filled with shame so that they may seek God. And then verse eighteen, that they may know that your name alone is the Lord or Jehovah, and your the most high over all the earth. Okay, there is our outline, very simple, very straightforward, the plea, the reasons for the plea, the enemies identified past and present, the petition for defeat, and the desired outcome.

31:25 We can I could do a little bit more, you know, working on it, but what do I not want to do? I don't want to bring in an interpretation? Right, So there is and summary we could say this. Psalm eighty three is a plea for God to intervene on behalf of Visraal against their enemies. The Psalmist describes the enemy's plans and actions, appeals to God for action and defeat of the enemies, and concludes with a declaration of God's supreme authority over all the nations, which then leads to lots of philosophical problems, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. All right, now, so there's the outline. We don't need to spend a lot of time on the second reminder. The author of the psalm is whom Asaf and he was what a levite and a key figure in leading worship in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Aceph is credited with composing several psalms, including Psalm eighty three. Right, so number one, the outline, number two, the author, number three, the type of psalm. We're not going to go We went through all the types of psalms last week.

32:23 I'm not going to go through all of them again. But this psalm is referred to what kind of a psalm? A lament psalm. These psalms express sorrow, grief, distress, cry out for God to help and deliverance. They often include elements such as petitions, complaints, and please for God's intervention. And we looked at number of examples, but this is a unique kind of lament psalm. We refer to this kind of lament salm as what a communal lament? A communal lament that the people are crying out to God. And what do we learn from a lament psalm. The Book of Psalms is not filled with but there are many lament psalms and the Book of Psalms.

33:06 What do we learn about the Psalmist in the Book of Psalms calling out to God as a lament when we learned some important lessons? Does everyone remember about that that as a Christian you can be honest and vulnerable with God. You don't have to put on some fake church face and pretend that everything is wonderful and great. You can cry out to God and be very open and very honest. Is he not very open and honest? In verse one? God, why have you been silent? Basically where have you been? And we read that same kind of lament in the words of Job, do we not? He's very adamant, like God, where are you? I wish I was dead? I wish I was never born. He has some strong words and many churches you're not allowed to be that honest and vulnerable. But if you can't be that honest and vulnerable with God, well then there's no point in even pretending to be anything. Because you can't be honest and vulnerable with anybody. You can be more honest and vulnerable with God than you can be with people. Right, So be honest and vulnerable with God. And it's a trust despite his circumstances. By him lamenting to God, he's trusting in God, irregardless of the circumstances. Get it, which which does it take?

34:22 Which requires more faith to simply believe God is going to fix your circumstances or to continue to believe and call out to God when your circumstances are bad and are going from bad to worse. That requires more faith, right, So he does it. He's obviously maintaining some hope in God's promise, right, So he's hoping and relying on God's promise. Now for them, what promise would they be holding out to? And saw maybe three? For him to cry out to God? What he's holding onto? The hope of the covenant that God has made with Israel, that He will ultimately do what preserve them, save them, bring them into the land, give them all of those Old Testament promises. Now, to be fair, many of those promises have never been fulfilled, so we believe they will be fulfilled. But they were still holding on to those promises. So that teaches us to hold onto God's promises, even if we don't understand when or how are they're ever going to be fulfilled? Right, because right exactly, which shows his hope and trust, right all right? So and well we talked a little bit more about all of that, all right. So there's number one, we have the outline. Number two, we have the author. Number three, we have the type of palm, and the number four past, present and future.

35:43 We covered this briefly. Sometimes contemporary interpreters see parallels between these ancient groups mentioned and saw maybe three these enemies with modern nations. So they will say things like Atom might be linked to parts of Jordan and the Palestinians, Moab and Ammon or often associated with Jordan. Felicia's link to the Gaza strip, Tire is associated with Lebanon, Assyria's link to parts of modern day Syria and Iraq. These interpretations suggest that the coalition described as psuventy three could foreshadow a future alliance of Middle Eastern nations against Israel. The problem is, none of that has any scriptural reason for coming to that conclusion. In fact, what when you read that kind of stuff, you know exactly what is happening, all right? So this is very important. Remember you are either in your Christian life, you're going to be someone who is text based where you're looking to the text, or inevitably it happens Christians. When Christians do it, they don't even realize they're doing it. When you become a Christian, what are you taught? First? Almost? Are you taught in depth hermoneutical skills, No, most Christians don't even know hermonutical skills. Are you taught actual Bible study methods? No, what you're taught is doctrine and want to believe and guess what happens? Like just take this, say, this is a systematic theology. Whether your church ever tells you the word systematic theology, they're teaching you want to believe in and sermon Sunday school lesson. So guess what

37:16 you take what you've been taught to believe, here's a systematic theology and it gets placed where on top. So then you read the Bible through the lens of your theology, or if you've been taught over and over and over to Psaw eighty three is a prophetic psalm pointing to some Middle Eastern war and that these nations represent the modern nations of what you see today. Then guess what you do when you read Saw eighty three? You're read it that way? And what have I screamed over and over and over? What do you have to do? You got to rip that filter off the text and you study the text, and guess what You study the text and you do with the text. You study the text and guess what you're not concerned with. You don't care if it fits someone's theology or doesn't fit theology, or if it if it uh makes someone upset or doesn't make someone. The text is what's supposed to rule, what's not supposed to rule. Your theology is not supposed to rain. The text is supposed to rain. Well that guess what.

38:21 The minute you do that, guess what happens? People get very upset because it now rocks the boat. They just want they just want to hear what are they already agree with? But the text doesn't look. I don't care what your system of theology is. And I'm all for learning theology, I mean obviously, but guess what if your theology governs everything, there's no point studying the text because all you're doing is reading the text. A lot of your theology. If you're honest with the text, I don't care what system of theology you hold to guess what you're gonna find over and over and over. You're going to become very uncomfortable because over and over it's going to provide massive challenges. Correct, you believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Chris's alone sounds good. Everybody says, Amen, go to the Book of James, and it literally says we are not saved by faith alone, literally says that we are not justified by faith alone. We're justified by our works. Well, so immediately, what do we do well, it doesn't mean that as soon as it it goes against our theolo, it just doesn't mean that. And we offer up some in many cases weak explanation make ourselves feel better, because all people want in the pew is to get right back to what the three points, a nice little sermon so they can get out by noon. But sometimes you have to go, we got a problem here. This makes absolutely no sense. And guess what when we Sometimes when we're done, what do we discover? It still doesn't make sense, and it may never make sense. And if it all made sense,

39:51 there wouldn't be a thousand thousands of different denominations where nobody can agree literally on anything. I mean, nobody agrees on anything within Christianity. So all right, So when we the past, present, future, how are we should how should we understand saw eighty three? We should understand so many three as referencing a historical event that was happening, has been happening, and was happening at the time that it was written. It is not prophetic, right do we know the historical setting? What we don't know? We don't know, like if there's we don't know anything about what's going on other than what's described where and so eighty three. But so many three gives us enough context, correct, Right, So for for the people at the time, this would have made sense. Correct, that would have been like, hell, we've got a problem here. These nations are coming to get us. He gives us, the author gives us enough information that we know that we can step back in time and go, wow, that was a major problem for those individuals at that time. We can't take it and go put it in chronicles or somewhere else because it doesn't seem to fit correct. Okay, because well, especially if Asaf is dead. It doesn't make any sense, all right, So oh, we're good. I know that was a lot of review, all right, So yeah, we're just gonna We're just gonna have to We'll just stop there because people are already showing up and if we go further, we're not gonna get anywhere. So now that's a good that gets us

41:23 through a lot of the clarification, a good review. And now we can just start with verse one in the next hour and see if we can get to I don't know, maybe we can get down to verse twelve. I don't know. Maybe we'll try, and in the next hour we will try. But that's the go any questions on any of that. So what can we be dogmatic about Saw? Maybe three is not a prediction of Second Chronicles twenty And most importantly, we can dogmatically assert that Asaf was not called in by josephat okay, because Asaf was dead. It has no future prophecy, there's no because it's a lament. It's not a prophetic psalm. I don't know how we like. If you can't identify the type of psalm, then there's no way you can offer. Think of it this way, if you can't identify the type of psalm, then what is your chances of interpreting the PM You just go ahead and say zero. All right, you can't.

42:31 You've got to be able to identify the type, right, And that's true throughout all the Bible. Right, You've got to be able to identify the genre of literature. Right, is it a historical narrative. If it's a historical narrative that's interpreted far different than poetry, is it not? Right? So you've got to be able to identify the genre of literature before you. And so many times when people start arguing, you can ask basic hermeneutical questions and I don't know what in the world they do, but people do that all the time. They do it so frequently. We all know the famous passage. I'll just end with this, just as another example. We all know the famous passage in the Book of Joshua. Right, we sing it Joshua one to eight. This with the law, This book of the law shall not depart from thy mouth. You shall me ty on it day and night to a and so that we will observe everything that's within it, so that our way may be prosperous. And we will have good success. Churches everywhere take that and make it about us. That is, that is a complete obliteration of the actual text. What precedes Joshua the Book of Deuteronomy, and what happens in the Book of Deuteronomy is it's very specific. We sometimes refer to it as the Land covenant. Right, God tells Israel when you go into the land, you must do a b If you do, you're

44:01 gonna have blessings. If you don't, you're going to have curses. Well, anyone who reads Joshua one eight and tries to apply it to yourself, you should immediately get nervous, right because I can't let the word have got depart from my mouth. Meaning all I should ever be talking about is God's word. I should be meditating on it day and night. I yet to know a Christian who meditates on God's word day and night. So we always try to modify it or try to grade it on a curve. Already, those are two strikes. Christians don't just talk about the Bible, and Christians don't meditate on it day and night. They think about all kinds of other things. Right, So we're already in trouble right, But then the third one is the kicker. Observe everything that's in it means you will keep God's law perfectly well, first of all, to the original recipients, did they pull any of that off? No they didn't. Do we pull that off?

44:52 No we don't. So that means Joshua one eight would be the most depressing verse. That would just lead you to despair and basically discouragement and want to deconstruct and give up because no one because guess what we know philologically, has anyone ever kept the law? No, well other than Christ, but I'm talking to us, no one ever has, No one ever will because we can't keep the law. You know why we can't keep the law because the law was never meant for us to keep. The law was meant to show us our inability to keep it so that it would drive us to the one who kept it for us, which is Christ. So all Joshua one eight gives them the requirements under that law, and they did they failed, which is why there had to be a new covenant, because they needed someone to keep the law on their behalf. So the whole thing of Joshua one eight, it's connected back to Deuteronomy. Hey, you will have success.

45:51 That's going back to the covenant in Deuteronomy. If you do this, this is what you'll get. If you don't do this, this is what you're going to get. And what did they get? All the curses that are listened literally in the book right before Joshua. We come to Joshua, and then guess what we do. We kick out Israel, we kick out Deuteronomy, and we make it all about us. That the text is emphatic who is being spoken to? Right, God tells Joshua to go talk to whom Israel as they're coming into the land that he had promised there. I mean, the text is emphatic who is being spoken to? There's no question about it. Now we can say, is it good to meditate on God's word?

46:37 Yes? Should we hopefully meditate on a day and night? Yes? Should we not let it depart from our mouth? Yes? Do we want to obey all that's in it? Yes? But the reality is we're no one's going to ever accomplish those three things. Well, I know we can't keep the law perfectly. Because we could keep the law perfectly, what would we not need? We wouldn't need Christ. And if Christ just came to make us be able to keep the law and there should be perfect Christians, well there's no perfect Christians. Therefore nobody can keep the law, meaning we have never been able to be able to keep the law, so we need Christ. But that's an example where people just come into the text and I don't know what they do. They just ignore everything. If you read from Deuteronomy to Joshua, as soon as you read that verse, you know exactly what it's referring to. It's referring back to a few a few chapters a back in Deuteronomy where you have the land Covenant. But Joshua one eight is obliterate saw eighty three. What are people? I don't know what they do.

47:30 The church gets thrown in there, We get thrown in there, rock music gets thrown in there, women's dress gets thrown I don't know why the world happens. And it's like none of that has anything to do with the actual text. So what do we have to struggle with as Christians being text based and not being philological, having our theology override the text. But most importantly, this is so important Church. I've said it so many times. The sermon. The concept of the has been one of the most negative consequences in the history of Christianity, because we want sermons, we don't want the text, and sermons are designed to give you three little points, give you something practical, and may keep you where a million miles from the actual text.

48:16 A lot of times you ask people about a sermon, they can tell you what the points of the sermon was. Hopefully well, guess what. They usually can't explain to you the actual text. Well after a sermon, if you don't understand the text better, and all you can tell me about the text are the three points the pastor gave you, guess what. Those three points may not have anything to actually do with the actual meaning of the text, because I've heard plenty of sermons on Joshua one to eight has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the text, because I was like, you've completely obliterated its context. Saw eighty three can't be about us first and foremost. It has to be about them. Now, are we gonna pull lessons from it? Yeah, we can pull us. It's directly from the fact that it's a lament right that teaches us some things about lamiting to God.

49:05 On our behalf right. So there are lessons, but we can't make it about us. So it's frustrating that I have to spend all that time correcting all the errors out there about it, but that's the only way to get us anywhere clothes. So for the next hour our goal. We're going to move fast and we're going to try to get as far into Saw Many three as we can and see what we can learn. So let's start right here. Lookt we come before you this morning. Lord. We ask for forgiveness for all the ways we've mishandled your text. We ask for forgiveness for times we've inserted ourselves in your word where we do not belong. We ask for forgiveness for taking promises that are not for us and claiming them for ourselves. And most importantly, we ask your forgiveness for taking people that are mentioned in the text and moving them out of the text simply so that we can insert ourselves. Forgive us for our mishandling of the word, and we pray that we will be better students of it so that we can understand it correctly.

50:01 And we asked this in Jesus' name. It gos people said