WEBVTT 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:03.040 This is the Word of God, Psalm 68. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:07.360 It's the choir master, a psalm of David, a song. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:16.399 God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.640 As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:26.160 As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:34.240 But the righteous, they shall be glad, they shall exalt before God, they shall be jubilant with joy. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:40.799 Sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:43.200 His name is Yahweh. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:50.479 Exalt before him, Father of the fatherless, protector of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.520 God settles the solitary in a home. 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:05.599 O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:12.560 The heavens poured down rain before God, the one of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.760 Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.400 You restored your inheritance as it languished. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:20.480 Your flock found a dwelling in it. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.840 In your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:26.000 The Lord gives the word. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:28.799 The women who announce the news are a great host. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:31.760 The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:41.519 The women at home divide the spoil, though you men lie among the sheepfolds, the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:47.599 When the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:58.959 O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan, O many peaked mountain, mountain of Bishon, why do you look with hatred, O many peaked mountain, at the mouse that God desired for his abode? 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.680 Yes, where Yahweh will dwell forever. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.000 The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:07.599 Then the Lord is among them. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:09.840 Sinai is now in the sanctuary. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:19.680 You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that Yahweh, God, may dwell there. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:23.520 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.879 God is our salvation, Selah. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:30.000 And our God is a God of salvation. 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:39.360 And to God, Yahweh, belong deliverances from death, but God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:50.400 The Lord said, I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, that you may strike your feet in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe. 00:02:50.879 --> 00:03:01.520 Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my king, into the sanctuary, the singers are in front, the musicians last, between them virgins playing tambourines. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.000 Bless God in the great congregation, Yahweh, O you who are Israel's fountain. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:12.800 There is Benjamin, the least of them in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Napptal. 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:17.759 Summon your power, O God, the power, O God, by which you have worked for us. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:22.400 Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bear their gifts to you. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:32.159 Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the people, trample underfoot those who lust after tribute, scatter the people who delight in war. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:34.159 Nobles shall come from Egypt. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.759 Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:42.639 O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praises to the Lord. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:43.759 Selah. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.680 To him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens. 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:51.120 Behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:56.719 Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose powers in the skies. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:00.080 Awesome is God from his sanctuary, the God of Israel. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:02.960 He is the one who gives power and strength to his people. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:04.960 Blessed be God. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:06.159 Amen. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:15.840 This is one of those rare passages in scripture that tell the story of the Bible all the way through. 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:28.079 It was a few years ago that uh a man named Frank, perhaps you remember he went to be with the Lord this past summer, but he was converted older in life, soundly converted, radically converted. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.920 If you knew him before his conversion, which I did, and after his conversion, different person. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:39.680 And he came to me one Sunday and said, I really want you to preach a sermon on the Bible from 30,000 feet. 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:42.319 He said, I said, I didn't grow up reading the Bible, and now I'm a Christian. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:42.639 What? 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:44.000 And he he holds up his Bible. 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:45.040 What is this whole book about? 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:45.759 Help me. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.920 It's one of those questions that a new believer asks, and it's just like filled with joy. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:50.959 You know, what is this about? 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:53.920 Please tell me the Bible, like I don't know what I'm talking about, okay? 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:54.480 Go. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:56.079 And you know, I never did it. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:02.720 I wrote on my whiteboard Bible from 30,000 feet, and it's been on the board in my office ever since. 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:08.079 And now Frank has died even since I got that request, and he's in heaven, so he doesn't need the sermon anymore. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.439 But I came across Psalm 68 recently. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:14.560 I discovered Psalm 68, like Columbus discovered America. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:18.399 You know, it was there all along, but it's always been in my Bible. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:21.279 But it's like a brand new discovery for me. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:26.000 And you get this feeling as you read the psalm, like this is that sermon. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.439 This is the psalm that describes the Bible from 30,000 feet. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:41.759 This is the psalm that brings you through the grand narrative of the Bible, which the Bible is about God's redemptive plan in the world, how God is going to redeem people, what God's doing in the world. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:53.360 And I love how it describes God as one who stands up and goes to war against the world and then ultimately receives worship forever and ever and ever. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:57.519 It takes you from God standing up and acting all the way through. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:05.519 I mean, really, the first part of this is God bringing his people out of slavery, bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, through the book of Exodus, through the desert, into Israel. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:10.560 It goes through Judges and Joshua as God defeats his enemies and establishes the people in the land. 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:17.279 And then you see the hope they have while they're living in there, and you see in the psalm how they fail to live up to that hope, and God kicks them out. 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:18.720 They're exiled. 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:24.959 And then God brings them back to the land a second time and settles them again, and they still don't worship him. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:28.399 And then in the middle of the Psalm, God comes Himself. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:35.680 God comes as a king himself and moves into the land and moves into the temple and becomes the righteousness for his people. 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:45.759 And then God blows the doors off the place and brings the gospel to the nations, and all the nations surround him, and all the nations worship the king in his temple in Jerusalem. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:50.240 And the psalm ends with praise forevermore in heaven. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:52.800 I mean, that's the story of the Bible. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.319 And we're going to look at it more closely today as we work through this psalm. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:02.480 To get to the psalm in a reasonable amount of time, I'm going to have to move faster than the Israelites in the wilderness wanderings. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:08.720 And so we will begin in verses 1 through 3 where it says, Yahweh marches to victory. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:16.959 When you hear this psalm read, and maybe less so in English, but I listened to it several times this week in Hebrew, and it has a like a marching beat to the psalm. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:18.480 In Hebrew, there's a cadence to it. 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:25.519 You can almost hear the hoofbeats in the background as the horses are galloping off to war, and that's how this psalm begins. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:30.800 God shall arise, and his enemies will be scattered. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:38.399 This is a quotation of Numbers 10 where Aaron and Moses start the march of the ark into the tabernacle in the wilderness. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:39.279 God will stand up. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:44.879 When the ark moves, God moves, and here God is pictured, standing up, and his enemies will run every which way. 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:52.399 Those who hate him will flee before him, verse 1 says, but it will not do them any good. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.120 For those who are enemies of God, they will not escape. 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:59.040 They may flee this way or that, but it will be to no avail. 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:08.639 Despite their flight, the Lord catches them, verse two, as smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away, except they won't disappear like smoke. 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:09.199 Look what it says. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:13.120 As wax melts before fire, they will perish before God. 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:17.920 Picture the long, tall candlestick, and you light it at night, and it burns down through the night. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.079 And in the next morning, it's it's a mystery. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:21.040 It's gone. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:22.399 It's nowhere to be seen. 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.480 And that's the way the wicked will be. 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:27.680 They may raise their fists against God in this world here and now. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:34.879 They may rebel against him now and live for themselves and live for sin, but ultimately they will not be remembered. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:44.399 They will disappear from the earth, they will disappear from this world, they will stand before God from judgment and be dispensed with forever. 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:46.960 They will perish, is the word in verse 2. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:50.720 What a contrast with the righteous in verse 3. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:53.679 The righteous, they won't perish, they won't melt away. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:56.000 Rather, the righteous will be filled. 00:08:56.639 --> 00:08:57.360 They'll be glad. 00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:58.080 They shall exalt. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:00.480 And the word exult, it's slightly different than the word exalt. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:04.399 Exalt is to lift up, exult is to fill up from the inside out of joy. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:09.120 Like there's this joy coming in through your feet all the way up to the hairy crown of your head. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:11.039 You just get filled with joy. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:14.480 And that's what the righteous will experience. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:18.000 Not from their circumstances, but from their relationship with God. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:26.159 And so right away, this kind of drumbeat psalm, this marching psalm, this battle psalm, right away it starts with this dichotomy. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:28.720 There are those who hate God and they will perish. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:32.559 And there are those who are righteous and they will find refuge in him. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.639 That's the same dichotomy the book of Psalms itself begins with. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:38.320 If you remember Psalm 1. 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:40.879 The righteous man, he's like a tree. 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:46.559 He's planted, the roots go down and deep and drink from the water, and he's not going to be moved anywhere. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:48.639 Meanwhile, the wicked are like shaft. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:50.159 They just blow away. 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:55.360 The wind comes and they're scattered and they're forgotten, and you don't even remember their names. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:57.840 So which one are you going to be? 00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:59.840 The righteous or the wicked? 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:01.519 Because there's two very different destinies. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.080 And then Psalm 2 is the same theme. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:24.159 Psalm 2, the the wicked raise their fists against God and they complain about God's king, and they they reject his king, and they reject his son, and the the wicked, they plot vain things, and the one in heaven, remember, laughs in Psalm 2 and says, As for me, I will set my king on Zion, where he will rule forever and ever and ever. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:25.200 He will be my son. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.960 I will appoint my son the king, and then you will kiss the son. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:39.200 And so Psalm 2 has this, again, this dichotomy between the unrighteous who shake their fists at God and they will be crushed, versus the righteous who are righteous, not based on how they live. 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.039 They're righteous because they kiss the sun. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.279 They're righteous because they kneel before the sun. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:44.960 They honor Jesus Christ. 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:49.039 And so the whole book of Psalms begins with that fork in the road. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:11:00.240 The way of the righteous is one of prosperity, not earthly prosperity, of course, but spiritual prosperity, a depth in your relationship with God, a peace and a fullness of joy. 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:03.919 And the unrighteous, they wither. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:06.879 We're going to see they'll be in a parched land. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.120 They're going to be spiritually dehydrated. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:10.480 Ultimately, they will perish. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:12.639 They melt like wax. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.240 And they're gone. 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:16.879 This is the tune of the song. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:23.279 And so as we get into this Psalm, Psalm 68 here, understand that that is the introduction to the Bible. 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:28.879 There are basically two ways to live through faith in God or through your own rebelliousness. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:30.799 There's not a middle ground there, you know. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:41.120 It was Cain who murdered his brother, Abel, because Abel wanted to approach God through sacrifice, and Cain wanted to approach God his own way. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:44.879 I mean, that fork has split there and it goes throughout the Bible. 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:52.799 And so as you read the Psalm or you hear it read again as we work our way through it a verse at a time here, ask yourself, which road are you on? 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:54.720 Are you on the road of faith? 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:08.879 Are these promises for you to embrace, worship for you to express, or are you on the road of despair and judgment where you will perish despite any kind of self-righteousness or any actions or goodness in yourself, you will perish before God. 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:10.480 That's how the Bible describes it. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.960 That's how Psalm 68 begins. 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:18.399 We move with this heading of Yahweh's as he marches to victory, we move to liberation. 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:23.360 Liberation described in verses 4 through 10, where God brings his people out of slavery. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:25.519 He brings them out of Egypt. 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:37.840 If you're familiar with the Bible, God chooses Abraham out of the nations, this person who is from a different nation, and he makes a whole new people group out of Abraham, the Jews, and he promises that he will settle them in Israel. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:46.879 But first, 400 years have to go by, and Abraham's got to leave, and all the patriarchs have to move, and Abraham's descendants move, and they go into Egypt, and they kind of settle in Egypt. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:51.120 They go little roots in Egypt, not too deep, but they do have to be dug up to get moved out of there. 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:53.120 400 years go by. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:13:00.000 And they're in Egypt and they're slaved in Egypt, and God's gonna rescue them and bring them back to the promised land. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:04.480 And he rescues them by parting the Red Sea, if you recall, brings them out of Egypt. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.240 They walk through us on dry ground. 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:12.399 The Egyptians pursue, they're drowned in the river, and God has rescued his people and puts them in the desert. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:15.360 That's the rescue out of slavery. 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:17.120 It's described here in verse 4. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:21.759 Sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts. 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:24.480 And I love that phrase, he rides to the deserts. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:27.360 It's almost the word, you know, like he surfs through the desert. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:28.080 That's how I picture it. 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:30.240 He's uh in Isaiah, he's surfing on the clouds. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:32.080 Later today, we'll see him surfing in heaven. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:35.919 And it's this image of he's just skating through the desert. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:37.120 How do you ride through the desert? 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:39.600 I mean, you just skate right on through there. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.480 It's in contrast, the Canaanites said Baal, the rain god, rode in the clouds. 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:50.639 The rain god rode in the clouds, which is ironic because you remember what happened to the Canaanites. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:53.360 They withered because of drought. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.000 They worshiped the rain god and so they got no rain. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:59.840 They said their God rode in the clouds, but he didn't bring water with him. 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:02.480 Pity the rain god forgot his water. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:06.000 Meanwhile, Yahweh is surfing through the desert. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:08.080 He has no short supply of water. 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:11.919 He can create water, he can just ride right through the desert. 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:16.720 His name is, the SV says, his name is the Lord, but the Hebrew here, it's his name is Yah. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.360 It's an even, it's not even Yahweh, it's an abbreviation. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:22.960 David here is using a nickname for God. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:26.480 He's describing God surfing through the desert and says, That's my God. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:30.399 Bala's riding in the clouds without water, but my God surfs through the desert. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:31.679 His name is Yah. 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.720 And he's gonna come melt your face off. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:38.399 I mean, that's this picture here. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:40.799 So you better exalt before him. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:42.159 Have joy in this. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:46.320 Be stoked about this that your God is riding through the wilderness. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:51.279 And you think, what kind of God is that exalted? 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:54.399 That he can surf through this world? 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:57.120 What kind of God is so exalted that he creates the world? 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:02.799 As we go through the Psalm, you'll see He has ten thousands and thousands and thousands of angels wherever he moves. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:05.519 You know, he moves and angels move with him. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:10.799 That's an incredible statement of the sovereignty and the power of God. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.039 He speaks and the world comes into existence. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:15.679 I mean, he is transcendent. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:20.879 He's above us, beyond us, so far, he's not like us. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:26.080 He's so far removed from us that we can barely comprehend him unless he revealed himself to us. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:28.799 That's how transcendent he is. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:33.519 You would think I could never relate to that kind of God because how could that God care about me? 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:35.600 I'm a person with a finite lifespan. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.480 And you get to verse five. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:43.759 He is, by the way, father of the fatherless, protector of widows. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.240 He settles verse six, the solitary in a home. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:48.639 That word for solitary, some translations say lonely. 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:52.879 It's a person whose family has moved on for whatever reason. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:16:03.360 I heard this week of somebody who was married for almost 80 years, who's a guy who's married for almost 80 years and his wife died, and you think, how is he gonna live out the rest of his life? 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:07.679 He's he doesn't remember probably life without his wife. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:09.519 That's lonely. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:23.440 Or the person who's a widow who wanted to grow old with her husband and her husband died unexpectedly, or maybe her husband left her and she raises the kids herself, and now her kids have moved on, and she's just alone. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:34.000 You think that person's forgotten, forgotten by the by the world, forgotten by her family, maybe even some circumstances, or the prisoners is the in verse six. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:39.120 A person and uh usually when the Bible's talking about prisoners, it's spiritual prison. 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:42.240 That's how this verse is used in the New Testament, but slave to sin. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:17:02.080 But just think at a human prisoner level, uh a guy in prison for life, for some horrible crime, gets converted in prison, comes to faith in prison, and the decades go by and his family has moved on, his family doesn't write anymore, his family's ashamed of him, they don't visit, they don't they don't care. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.759 And he spends the rest of his life like that, forgotten. 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:12.480 That's this word here, and you think that person is there's no there's no fellowship for that person, they are forgotten by the world. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:14.640 But you know who has not forgotten them? 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:22.400 The one who rides to the desert, the one who commands 10,000 angels, he knows every one of them, and he knows them by name. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:25.839 He knows the widow by name, he knows the fatherless person by name. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:32.240 Your your dad died, and you're you're being raised without a father, and you think, I who's gonna help me? 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:33.519 God will. 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:34.400 God knows you. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:42.319 He is a father to the fatherless, he will care for the widows, he will establish the lonely in a home, it says. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:44.480 Certainly not speaking of this world. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:45.839 You know that because of verse 5. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.200 God's sitting in his holy habitation, he's gonna bring you to him. 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:52.640 You'll be, in a sense, isolated throughout your life. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:18:00.880 Yes, your family perhaps has forgotten you, or yes, the world and society has forgotten you, but God hasn't, and he has a home for you in heaven. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:07.920 You want a better mailing address on earth or a better home in heaven, and God's making it. 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:26.799 He remembers, this is what I love about the Psalm, the transcendent glory of the infinite God who creates the world and makes all of moves through the pages of scripture to the end of his own worship, and yet through every era remembers the poor, remembers the widows, remembers the prisoners. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:29.440 This is the liberation. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:39.839 God delivers Israel from an actual slavery in Egypt, and he delivers those who are spiritual slaves from their sin and loneliness and life for a better land. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.319 Oh God, verse 7 says, You went out before your people, you marched through the wilderness. 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:48.160 We're back on the march again with God, and the earth quaked. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:53.359 This is an image of when God huddled all the Israelites through the Red Sea into the desert. 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.559 He brought them around Mount Sinai and he gave them his law. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:59.759 Remember, if God didn't reveal himself to us, we would have no way of knowing him. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.400 He encamps them there, and the earthquakes. 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:09.759 An earthquake comes, the heavens shake, and the there's lightning and there's tornadoes going through the camp, and the Israelites are losing it. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.319 They begin pleading with God to stop talking. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:13.039 They grab Moses. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.319 They were ready to rebel against Moses five minutes ago, but now the earthquake comes. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:20.160 They're putting Moses forward, and they're like, God, talk to Moses, not to us. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:21.279 He's our leader. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:22.160 Go to him. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:25.759 They beg, Paul describes this in Hebrews 12. 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:36.079 They beg that God would stop talking and that no further word would be spoken to them because they could not endure the nature of the command that if even an animal touches the mountain, it should be stoned. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:44.079 And so you're figuring out pretty quickly here, if a rabbit can't bounce on the mountain without being killed, how can a person approach this God? 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:46.319 And so the people are terrified. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:52.480 And God responds to their terror by restoring their inheritance as it languished. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:54.960 He gives them life, it says in verse 9. 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:57.519 He gives them rain in verse 9. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:06.079 The God of Sinai in verse 8 becomes the God of Israel, becomes the God who gives them rain, as the Canaanites are dying of thirst. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:08.559 God comes with his law, he comes with the rain. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:09.680 He gives them manna. 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:12.400 For 40 years in the wilderness, food just appears in the ground. 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:17.279 He gives them water from the rocks, he gives them fire to guide them, he protects them from their enemies. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:19.599 He provides all things to them. 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:28.880 This psalm is really tied together by the theology of who God is: that he is sovereign and he is transcendent and yet he is caring for the poor and is near. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:30.640 He is far away and he's close. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:33.119 He's powerful and yet he loves the powerless. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:39.920 He gives reign to those who come to him in faith, and he withholds from those who rebel. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:43.039 And so he gives them deliverance. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:54.799 Of course, some that he led out of Egypt do rebel, and they will die, verse 6 says, in a parched land. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.680 For those that come to him in faith, they receive rain. 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:00.000 And of course, we're talking by analogy here. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:02.720 Those that come to faith receive a sense of spiritual rain. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:09.680 It's authenticated by the fact that God opens up the rock and they really do drink literal water, but it becomes an image of how God provides for his people. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:12.960 Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word from God's mouth. 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:19.440 Meanwhile, those who were delivered, who reject God, they will die, verse 6 says, in a parched land. 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:22.400 Do you remember what happened to those that got rescued from Egypt? 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:24.240 They all died. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:26.000 And not in Israel. 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:27.599 There were two exceptions. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:34.480 But other than those two exceptions, they all died because they did not they they came from their liberated prisoner into the rebel. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:36.799 So they did not get to see the land. 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:42.000 But for those who put their faith in God, God went before them, verse 7 says. 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:46.240 Rain as they languished. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:51.839 Notice he compares them to sheep, verse 10. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Your flock has done a dwelling in it. 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:55.359 And we are God's sheep. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.400 He is our shepherd, he cares for us, he leads us, he provides for us. 00:21:58.480 --> 00:21:59.680 In your goodness, we see the same. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:00.720 Contrast again. 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:03.519 In your goodness, you provided for the needy. 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:06.720 The one who creates rain cares for the needy and the poor. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.160 It's remarkable. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:09.039 Remarkable. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:12.319 This is the way God takes over the promised land. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.319 He liberates us, and then from there we go to the invasion. 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:17.759 He liberated them from slavery. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:20.240 And verse 11 picks up the invasion of the promised land. 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:22.480 Here's where the book of Exodus goes in the rearview mirror. 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:26.480 Now we get in the Joshua and Judges, and God's moving into the Promised Land. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:33.359 This is a long quotation here from Judges chapter 5, which is Deborah and Barak's song. 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:34.880 The Lord gives the word. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:37.359 The women who announce the news are a great host. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:44.400 It's often the women who announce the battle victories because the men are out fighting and the news reaches them they won, and the women announce the victory. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:46.880 The kings of the armies, they flee. 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:48.160 They flee. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:49.839 In Hebrew, that's an idiom. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:52.880 If you repeat the verb twice, the second one becomes like an adverb. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:55.440 We don't use that in English, but you would translate it this way. 00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:57.359 They flee fleeingly. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:22:59.440 Kind of has a cool ring to it, doesn't it? 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:01.200 And you can do that in Hebrew with any verb. 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:04.160 You can say, you know, that guy runs runningly. 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:05.599 You know, he thinks thinkingly. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:07.759 It's just a way of like making it kind of humorous. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:08.799 That's how it's used in Hebrew. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:10.240 Well, the women are doing that here. 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:12.799 They're mocking the armies that just lost. 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:14.079 They're saying, oh, look at those people. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:15.839 They flee fleeingly. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:19.039 They're skipping off when God is chasing them down. 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:21.920 The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee. 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:25.039 Meanwhile, the women who are at home, they're dividing the spoil. 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:26.559 Their husbands are off at war. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.720 They're left home with all of the spoils, all the victory. 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:39.119 Though you men lie among the sheepfolds, the wings of the dove, and it describes the beauty of the dove and the eagle that is protecting Israel. 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:41.359 The Almighty will scatter kings there. 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:43.200 Snow will fall on Zalmon. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:46.880 I mentioned this as a quote from Judges 5 and then Judges 9. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:52.000 Judges 5 is Deborah and Barak's victory, which did not even come from Deborah and Barak. 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:52.559 You remember? 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:58.559 It was the evil enemy Cicero who fell into a trap because the Israelites wouldn't fight. 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:02.160 God said their victory will go to a woman, and it wasn't Deborah, it was Jael. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:09.359 And remember, the king seeks refuge in Jael's tent, and Jael gives him a warm glass of milk and something for his headache. 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:12.079 The tent peg right through the skull. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:13.599 And then the army is outside. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:15.759 Their king has just, you know, been nailed to the ground. 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:19.920 And then God floods the ground and their army is swept away in a flood. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:21.440 That's how that ended. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:24.640 And so they're remembering this in this song. 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:27.119 And of course, this is how God gives victory. 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:31.440 He'll destroy his enemies and they'll be washed away as if in a flood. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:39.279 Judges 9, Abimelech is Israel's king, and he's an evil, rebellious king, but they're fighting evil, rebellious people. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:42.640 So it's not, it's Judges 9 is not a war where there's good guys and bad guys. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:44.319 It's bad guys against bad guys. 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:51.359 And Abimelech takes all the wood and stacks it against the tower where his enemies are hiding and lights it on fire, and all his enemies are going to die in a fire. 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:56.160 But before that happens, a woman launches a millstone out the tower and it crushes Abimelech's head. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:58.640 Everyone loses, except God. 00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:01.759 This is the song they're celebrating here. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:03.279 That happened at Mount Zalmon. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:05.039 Zalmon is just a word for black. 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:07.200 It's a dark mountain, not a lot growing on it. 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:12.880 There's a tower on it, the tower's on fire, everybody's dying in the fire, and a guy gets his head crushed in from millstone. 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:16.799 There's this image of snow falling on a black mountain and bodies everywhere. 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:18.559 That's how this stanza ends. 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:27.680 God delivers his people by invading the land and crushing his opponents. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:29.839 This is the way that God marches. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:37.440 And now we move a little bit from this invasion metaphor to God speaking here in verses 15 through 17. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:39.200 This is kind of anthropomorphism here. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:43.279 God's speaking to the mountains, or David, the one who wrote the psalm, is speaking to the mountains. 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:46.400 I love it in the Bible when Bible writers talk to the mountains. 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.319 It happens like Ezekiel does this often. 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.160 It's usually pretty humorous. 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:53.680 Here David is talking to the mountains as they have just fallen. 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:56.880 Oh, mountain of God, mountain of Bishon. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:59.680 Oh, you mini-peaked mountain, mountain of Bishon. 00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:03.119 He's he's using flat mini-peaked is awkward in English, but he's flattering the mountain. 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:04.559 Oh, you handsome mountain, you. 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:10.559 You have lots of peaks, and they got snow caps, and you are such a strong, magnificent looking mountain. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:16.319 But I detect a note of sadness in you, my little mini-peaked mountain. 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:18.160 What is wrong? 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:21.599 Why are you so forlorn, you mighty mountain? 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:26.720 Now, these mountains, Mount Bashan, this Mount Hebron, it's the north part of Israel. 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:29.279 It's uh you know, up on the border there. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:30.880 There are many peaks on them. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:34.079 Many of them are covered with snow, some year-round covered with snow. 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:36.880 They're very magnificent, handsome mountains. 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:39.680 And David's asking, why are you so sad? 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:42.799 Well, you find out why they're sad, because they just got owned by God. 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:46.960 The people that were all over them worshiping their idols just got routed by Yahweh. 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:54.480 He's, you know, skated in from the desert, destroyed their kings, humiliated Baal, and then God didn't even stay there. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.200 They fall and he keeps moving. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:26:59.359 And where is Yahweh moving to? 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.680 Verse 16, why do you look with hatred, oh you mini-peaked mountain? 00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:06.079 At the mounts that God desired for his abode? 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:08.319 Yes, well, Yahweh will dwell with ever. 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:12.400 God is moving to Jerusalem. 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:14.240 He's moving to Mount Zion. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:20.079 Now, to compare Mount Zion to Mount Bashan is humorous. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:26.160 But it's possible for Americans to get this because Virginia has mountains. 00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:30.640 And Colorado has mountains. 00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:33.119 They're not in the same category. 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:35.200