November 24, 2025 • 22 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Coffee Podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think througheach other and better work the
applications into our dailylife.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's final reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01 (00:57):
I'm Mark.
I've got some great coffee here,and I am excited about this
week.
This is Thanksgiving week, oneof my favorite holidays all year
long.
I know it's one of yourfavorites as well.
We've got the Thanksgivingprayer service coming up
Wednesday night and yesterday.
Just worked on gratitude andThanksgiving.
Love every bit of that.
Think it's so important, and I'mso glad to have the podcast
(01:20):
today.
Think about Thanksgiving more,develop that more, and keep that
spiritual momentum rolling intothis very, very special week.
So grab your Bible, grab yourcoffee, let's grow together.
Let's think a little bit moreabout the sermon in the 1040
yesterday.
(01:40):
I preached from Luke 17, talkedabout those 10 lepers.
Where are the nine?
And I do think that when westart talking about Turkey Day,
we focus on the food and thefamily.
And as I said several timesyesterday, the football.
And there's not anything wrongwith that.
But the real lesson from Luke 17is about spiritual blessings,
(02:00):
blessings from God.
Sometimes those can seem almostinvisible.
And Jesus healed 10 men ofleprosy, yet only one of them
came back to say thank you.
Nine just went on with theirlives, taking for granted the
miracle that had changedeverything.
That was a visible blessing.
How much more are invisibleblessings?
We need to stop and think aboutour life in Christ.
(02:21):
We've been forgiven, we've beenredeemed, we've been adopted
into God's family, promisedeternal life.
We've been given the Spirit tolead us and guide us.
These spiritual blessings faroutweigh any physical gift, any
feast, any blessing that wemight know in the material
(02:42):
realm.
But we've got to make an effortto be thankful.
Gratitude is not just a politeword.
It's not just a cliche that wemumbled in prayer.
It is about our heart.
Stopping, turning back, andacknowledging the giver of every
good gift, like that one leperdid.
So this Thanksgiving, we want tobe like that leper who returned.
(03:03):
We will not take the blessingsof God for granted.
We'll pause, we'll reflect,we'll pour out our things for
the spiritual blessings thatmake all of the difference.
And if you remember what I saidin the 9 a.m.
yesterday from Psalm 65, we'lllet those spiritual blessings
drive all of our Thanksgiving.
Thankful for salvation, mercy,love, forgiveness, and that will
(03:26):
lead us to be thankful for thebountiful physical blessings
that we also enjoy.
That is what Thanksgiving Weekneeds to be all about.
And I hope yesterday's sermonset the right note for that and
set you on your way to a week ofextra special Thanksgiving.
And now let's turn to thePsalms.
(04:15):
There's a lot here that you willrecognize that you've heard
before.
And I love how this Psalm isjust about God.
It's a thanksgiving Him for thegreatness of God.
It extols God's power andmajesty nearly from every
conceivable angle.
And it is beautifully set up.
The structure of the Psalm issimple: four paragraphs, six
(04:38):
verses each, and the key ideasare that God knows the psalmist
completely and intimately, thatGod searches man's ways, looking
carefully at how we live, andthat God is a God who cares
about us as individuals.
Let's tackle some of this.
Oh Lord, you have searched meand known me, verse one.
(04:58):
Known, you know, verse two whenI sit down and when I rise up.
That's very relational.
Know, have relationship withhere.
And sitting down and rising up,verse two suggests that God
knows all that we are doing.
He is intimately involved in ourlives.
And this psalm will help you seethat God knows you better than
you know yourself.
(05:19):
Maybe that gives us a hint whensomebody says, I need to find
myself.
A good place to start is inGod's book, because God made you
and God knows you better thanyou know yourself.
You need to find yourself, letthe Lord help you do that.
Verse 7, you can't go anywherethat God is not.
Where shall I go from yourspirit, the Holy Spirit, that's
(05:40):
God's presence?
And the psalmist says, verse 8,that God is aware of what
happens everywhere, even in therealm of the dead.
And I love wings of the morning.
That's such a beautifulexpression.
That's a reference there to theatmosphere, that's a reference
there to space.
And then if I go as high up as Icould go, go down as low as I
(06:00):
could go in the sea, it won'tmake any difference.
The Lord will know where I amand will know what I am doing.
He is the creator.
Verse 13, he formed my inwardparts.
United me together in mymother's womb.
We are fearfully and wonderfullymade.
If you know anything aboutinfants and babies and having a
(06:21):
child, the more scienceuncovers, the more medicine
knows about bringing a new lifeinto the world, the more amazing
and astonishing it is.
Just incredibly complex, and yetGod made that whole process
where it works so well.
Wonderful are your works.
(06:42):
My soul knows it very well.
Verse 15 and 16 seem to even saythat when David was an embryo,
when he was in the womb, Godknows him.
Some have taken verse 16, andthe Hebrew there is complex,
that God has mapped out life inadvance.
And certainly God certainlyknows all the decisions that we
will be making and those kind ofthings, but it does seem to say
(07:04):
more about when I was in thewomb, you still knew me even
there.
And then there is a zeal forGod, beginning in verse 19.
Because we love the Lord, thosewho oppose God, we have to
oppose them.
And so finally the psalmconcludes then by saying, Search
me, God, you will see.
I stand for you and I stand withyou.
(07:26):
It is an amazing psalm.
It is a powerful psalm.
God knows us.
And I think sometimes some ofthese ideas are used.
I can remember singing that songas a child, there's an
all-seeing eye, and it was justcreeping me out.
And that whole concept of God'sjust looking over your shoulder
all the time.
(07:46):
And well, I guess if we're doingbad things, doing things we
shouldn't be doing, then thatought to creep you out.
But the psalmist here finds thatto be wonderfully reassuring and
comforting.
God knows where I am all thetime.
God is always aware of me andwhat I need and who I am.
It's not designed to creep usout.
The giant eyeball in the sky iswatching us, big brothers coming
(08:08):
after us.
That's not the point of Psalm139 at all.
The point is the Lord knows me,cares about me, and knows what I
need and where I am, and everytime I am in his presence, what
joy and comfort that is.
The reading for Monday, Psalm139.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday, and our readingtoday is the 65th Psalm, Psalm
(08:31):
65.
And I preached on this PsalmSunday in the 9 a.m.
So there's really not much herethat I want to add to that.
One writer said, This psalm,this beautiful psalm, is a c has
a climax that is as fresh andirrepressible as the land it
describes.
It puts every harvest hymn toshame.
(08:52):
And I think that's exactlyright.
It's a song that well expressesthe deep dependence upon God
that those who make their livingfrom the land have always felt.
And the challenge from Sunday'ssermon was for city dwellers
like you and me, people whothink that all those groceries
and so forth just show up at theKroger.
(09:12):
They're growing down theresomehow, I guess.
No, we need to get back to thereality that God makes all of
those things happen, and we needto be thankful to God for all of
those physical blessings.
It is, I mentioned this heavilyon Sunday, it is infused with
grace, grace that begins withforgiveness in the first four
(09:36):
verses, and that empowers andleads everything else that's
going to happen in this Psalm.
So lots on Psalm 65 Sunday inthe 9 a.m.
I hope you made some notes onthe margin of your Bible.
Go back and listen to thatsermon.
Or if you did not get to hear iton Sunday, go and listen to that
sermon.
That'll stand as the podcast forTuesday.
There's no Zoom call tonight.
(09:57):
This is Thanksgiving week.
Lots of crazy things happening.
Lots of people going and comingand all sorts of things.
No Zoom call tonight.
I'll see you on the podcasttomorrow.
The reading for Tuesday, Psalm65.
It's Wednesday.
It is Wednesday, a special,special day at Westside.
Tonight we'll have our annualThanksgiving Eve prayer service.
(10:17):
It is the best Wednesday nightof the year.
I can hardly wait.
Before we get there, though, weneed to do some daily Bible
reading.
We're in Psalm 68.
Psalm 68 is easily one of themost difficult psalms in the
Bible.
I'll talk about why in just amoment.
It is, one scholar said,boisterous and exhilarating and
uncontainably enthusiastic.
(10:39):
Well, I need a little morecoffee to go with that.
And at some point I wrote in themargin of my Bible, this is the
Tigger Psalm, because it's justso bouncy, flouncy, trouncy,
pouncy like Tigger is.
You know how much I love Tigger.
This is a pretty Tiggerishpsalm, but it doesn't always fit
our normal patterns andparadigms of thinking about the
(11:01):
Psalms.
It seems to be largely a hymn ofpraise to God.
And if you look at verse 35, itcertainly ends that way.
Awesome is God from hissanctuary, the God of Israel,
he's the one who gives power andstrength to his people.
Blessed be God.
What does that mean to blessGod?
To bless God means to recognizehis greatness and strength and
(11:22):
gracious bounty, to express ourgratitude and delight at who he
is.
And usually this Psalm isassociated with the capture of
Jerusalem and especially thebringing of the Ark into
Jerusalem, although that's notentirely certain.
Maybe you're thinking, well, itlooks kind of long, but what's
the big deal?
Why is this so troublesome?
(11:43):
And the answer is it's verydifficult to translate.
The difficulties here in all ofthe Hebrew are almost legendary
among scholars.
More than 15 words andexpressions in this psalm don't
appear anywhere else in thebiblical literature.
And there are as many as twodozen words which are found less
than 20 times anywhere else inbiblical literature.
(12:05):
In fact, the Masoretic text,which is one of the best and
oldest texts from which your OldTestament comes from, in that
Masoretic text, they used aspecial marker to indicate to
the scribe that his wordappeared only in the text here,
and that way he would copy itexactly right.
There are 32 of those markingsin Psalm 68.
(12:27):
The other issue is it's justreally disconnected.
Someone said it reads like theindex page from your hymn book.
It's just all over the map,bounce and bouncy, trouncy,
flouncy, just all excited aboutwhat God is doing and who God
is, but it doesn't seem tofollow any discernible pattern.
I'll give you an outline forwhat it's worth.
(12:49):
God is coming, verse 1 to 6.
God is marching, verses 7 to 18.
God is dwelling with us, verses19 to 27, and God is receiving
our universal praise in the endof the Psalm, verse 28 to 35.
It really starts off prettysimply, and I don't think it's
too difficult, but then aboutthe time you hit verse 11, it
(13:12):
becomes really hard to make somesense of.
There's this imagery in thefirst stanza of defeated
soldiers fleeing in panic.
And then as we get to this Godmarching before us part in
verses 70 to 18, it gets alittle harder.
There are a lot of echoes hereof the song of Deborah,
particularly starting in aboutverse 11.
(13:32):
And some of this is very hard tomake sense of.
The women announced the news,the women defied the spoil,
though the men lie among thesheepfold.
Remember how some of the tribesdidn't come and help Deborah in
that great fight in Judgeschapter 5, and she shames Reuben
for staying home.
Maybe there's an echo there.
(13:53):
What are the wings of the dovein verse 13?
One scholar lists all thesedifferent options.
Israel basking in prosperity,the enemy in flight, the glory
of the Lord, a particular trophyseized in battle.
Someone else wondered if itcould be signal doves, kind of
like homing pigeons.
You turn them loose to bringnews of the battle.
And then we have snow in verse14.
(14:14):
What's that doing in the battle?
Maybe God is using the weatheras a weapon.
Just not certain at all.
In verse 18, Paul actuallyquotes that passage and applies
it to Jesus.
Here, the captives are probablyenemy prisoners.
Paul applies the Psalm to thegifts that Christ gives to the
church after his victory atCalvary and taking death as his
(14:37):
captive.
That's a little different twistthere.
And then we get this idea of Goddwelling with us, and things
start to smooth out a little bituntil I hit verse 21 and I've
got hairy crowns.
And that may that may signifythese enemy warriors who are so
strong and masculine, they'vegot those long flowing locks of
hair.
Maybe that's Absalom.
(14:57):
I think about the Vikingwarriors are famous for having
those blonde braids.
And then it closes with thissection that really sounds kind
of prophetic where Gentilenations come and they submit to
Jehovah the God of Israel.
They bring him their praise.
O kingdoms of the earth, verse32, sing to God, sing praises to
the Lord.
(15:17):
And I like this idea here of Godbeing the sky rider, verse 33,
to him who rides in the heavens.
That's a common image in theprophets.
God is the one who rides on theclouds.
Oh, I forgot to say somethingabout verse 30.
I can never miss an opportunityto say something about
hippopotamuses.
Rebuke the beasts that dwellamong the reeds, verse 30.
(15:38):
Yep, that's probably a probablya reference to the hippo, maybe
a reference to Egypt.
The hippo would be a symbol ofEgypt in some ways.
Wow.
Didn't think, didn't think youwere going to have
hippopotamuses on your platetoday.
Maybe saying on your plate isnot the way I want to say that
as we're getting ready forThanksgiving, but didn't imagine
(16:00):
we'd be talking about hippos onthe Wednesday before
Thanksgiving.
But here we are.
Psalm 68 says a lot of greatthings.
Figuring out exactly how allthat fits together and the
overall themes, prettycomplicated and not easy, but I
hope this psalm helps you today.
And I look forward to seeing youtonight in our Wednesday, our
(16:22):
Thanksgiving Eve prayer service.
If you're not a member of theWestside Church, you're
certainly welcome to come andworship with us tonight.
It is a wonderful, wonderfultime of prayer, and it will put
you in the right frame of mindfor the events of tomorrow.
If you are too far away tocommute over and come see us
tonight, please do join us, livestream that.
(17:20):
There's a little bit ofterminology in verse 9 that may
say some things about theBabylonian captivity, for
example, and some wonder ifmaybe this is a hymn of David's,
and then it got adapted later onby God's people when they were
in exile.
And I like how this psalm justopens verses 1 to 5 with a call
for one person to praise God.
(17:41):
And the psalmist tries to praiseGod with everything that he has.
And someone has called thisopening section the Lord's
benefit package, and it reallyis magnificent.
Then we get the idea of man'shistory, the wayward child and
the gentle father, verses 6 to18.
And this psalm is very muchabout how God forgives.
The language in verse 12 is sobeautiful.
(18:03):
As far as the East is from theWest, so far does he remove our
transgressions from us.
He knows our frame, verse 14.
He knows that we are dust.
He knows our frailty.
He knows our humanity.
He knows our struggles.
And then all are called topraise God, verses 19 to 22.
In some ways, this psalm remindsof other psalms like Psalm 22
(18:26):
that just open up intoever-widening circles.
The individual praises God, thecommunity of God's people praise
God.
The entire world is invited topraise God.
That's what's happening, is thispsalm comes to a swelling and
beautiful conclusion.
Bless the Lord.
Be thankful to God for all hisbenefits.
(18:49):
And please do make a note, verse18.
Who blesses the Lord?
Those who keep his covenant andremember to do his commandments.
Psalm 103 is our reading todayon Thanksgiving Day.
It's Friday.
Welcome to Friday.
Today we read the 108th Psalm.
Today is Black Friday.
(19:09):
I'm old enough to remember whenthat meant you got up at 2
o'clock in the morning and wentand froze to death standing in
line outside of Best Buy or BassPro because you wanted some
amazing door buster special.
You wanted a giant TV for$5, oryou wanted some kind of hunting
gear, maybe expensive boots fora buck.
And I've done that.
Now we all just now we all justsurf the internet and click on
(19:32):
stuff.
Black Friday started in July.
I'm not sure what to make of allof that.
But in the middle of all theBlack Friday shopping, how about
we read the 108th Psalm?
This is a little song and itdoes have a big secret in it.
And that secret is what?
It's a combo psalm.
It is a combination.
Verses 1 to 5 come from Psalm57, verses 7 to 11, and verses 6
(19:54):
to 11 come from Psalm 60, verses5 to 12.
We read Psalm 108 back in week42.
So if some of this soundsfamiliar, then yes, it is
familiar.
We've talked a little bit aboutthis before, and we've worked
through this psalm before.
But I'll say a little bit moreabout it.
(20:15):
The important thing about that,knowing that it's a combo psalm,
is that we can go back to Psalm60, and there's a heading there
that ascribes that Psalm toDavid during a threat from the
Edomites.
That's probably the crisis of 2Samuel 8.
So now you know that this is alament and that David will be
asking for God's help.
(20:35):
And so it begins, verses 1 to 5,with the praise of God and with
confidence in God.
Verse 1, my heart is steadfast.
I'm not going to let this, thisisn't going to shake my faith.
I have constancy in the Lord.
I'm going to stand with theLord.
Please notice, even in themiddle of a crisis, the psalmist
does not begin immediately with,Lord, this is what I need.
(20:57):
This is what you need to do.
Get on this.
Instead, there's lots ofthanksgiving, praising of God.
Then, verse 6 through verse 9,David prays for God's help in
the battle.
And the keynote of the Psalmreally is verse 6.
There, your beloved ones may bedelivered.
Give salvation by your righthand and answer me.
And note the reliance on thepromises of God.
(21:20):
Verse 7, God has promised in hisholiness that he will do these
things.
And then finally, the Psalmconcludes.
David expresses his confidencethat with God we will gain the
victory.
Verses 10 to 13.
It's a beautiful little psalmand a helpful little psalm.
Use that psalm when your heartis crying out to God, when you
(21:40):
need deliverance.
And remember verse 13 with Godwe shall do valiantly.
It is he who will tread down ourfoes.
Thanks so much for listening tothe podcast this week.
I've loved having an opportunityto talk to you about the Psalms
and about the sermons.
Just love everything about thepodcast.
It is my joy to open thescriptures with you every day.
(22:03):
Hope you're having a greatThanksgiving week.
I'm Mark Roberts.
And I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come too.
I'll see you Monday with a cupof coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website, justChristians.com, and our Facebook
page.
Our music is from Upbeat.io.
That's Upbeat with two P's,U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creators
(22:44):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Coffee Podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think througheach other and better work the
applications into our dailylife.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's final reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01 (00:57):
I'm Mark.
I've got some great coffee here,and I am excited about this
week.
This is Thanksgiving week, oneof my favorite holidays all year
long.
I know it's one of yourfavorites as well.
We've got the Thanksgivingprayer service coming up
Wednesday night and yesterday.
Just worked on gratitude andThanksgiving.
Love every bit of that.
Think it's so important, and I'mso glad to have the podcast
(01:20):
today.
Think about Thanksgiving more,develop that more, and keep that
spiritual momentum rolling intothis very, very special week.
So grab your Bible, grab yourcoffee, let's grow together.
Let's think a little bit moreabout the sermon in the 1040
yesterday.
(01:40):
I preached from Luke 17, talkedabout those 10 lepers.
Where are the nine?
And I do think that when westart talking about Turkey Day,
we focus on the food and thefamily.
And as I said several timesyesterday, the football.
And there's not anything wrongwith that.
But the real lesson from Luke 17is about spiritual blessings,
(02:00):
blessings from God.
Sometimes those can seem almostinvisible.
And Jesus healed 10 men ofleprosy, yet only one of them
came back to say thank you.
Nine just went on with theirlives, taking for granted the
miracle that had changedeverything.
That was a visible blessing.
How much more are invisibleblessings?
We need to stop and think aboutour life in Christ.
(02:21):
We've been forgiven, we've beenredeemed, we've been adopted
into God's family, promisedeternal life.
We've been given the Spirit tolead us and guide us.
These spiritual blessings faroutweigh any physical gift, any
feast, any blessing that wemight know in the material
(02:42):
realm.
But we've got to make an effortto be thankful.
Gratitude is not just a politeword.
It's not just a cliche that wemumbled in prayer.
It is about our heart.
Stopping, turning back, andacknowledging the giver of every
good gift, like that one leperdid.
So this Thanksgiving, we want tobe like that leper who returned.
(03:03):
We will not take the blessingsof God for granted.
We'll pause, we'll reflect,we'll pour out our things for
the spiritual blessings thatmake all of the difference.
And if you remember what I saidin the 9 a.m.
yesterday from Psalm 65, we'lllet those spiritual blessings
drive all of our Thanksgiving.
Thankful for salvation, mercy,love, forgiveness, and that will
(03:26):
lead us to be thankful for thebountiful physical blessings
that we also enjoy.
That is what Thanksgiving Weekneeds to be all about.
And I hope yesterday's sermonset the right note for that and
set you on your way to a week ofextra special Thanksgiving.
And now let's turn to thePsalms.
(04:15):
There's a lot here that you willrecognize that you've heard
before.
And I love how this Psalm isjust about God.
It's a thanksgiving Him for thegreatness of God.
It extols God's power andmajesty nearly from every
conceivable angle.
And it is beautifully set up.
The structure of the Psalm issimple: four paragraphs, six
(04:38):
verses each, and the key ideasare that God knows the psalmist
completely and intimately, thatGod searches man's ways, looking
carefully at how we live, andthat God is a God who cares
about us as individuals.
Let's tackle some of this.
Oh Lord, you have searched meand known me, verse one.
(04:58):
Known, you know, verse two whenI sit down and when I rise up.
That's very relational.
Know, have relationship withhere.
And sitting down and rising up,verse two suggests that God
knows all that we are doing.
He is intimately involved in ourlives.
And this psalm will help you seethat God knows you better than
you know yourself.
(05:19):
Maybe that gives us a hint whensomebody says, I need to find
myself.
A good place to start is inGod's book, because God made you
and God knows you better thanyou know yourself.
You need to find yourself, letthe Lord help you do that.
Verse 7, you can't go anywherethat God is not.
Where shall I go from yourspirit, the Holy Spirit, that's
(05:40):
God's presence?
And the psalmist says, verse 8,that God is aware of what
happens everywhere, even in therealm of the dead.
And I love wings of the morning.
That's such a beautifulexpression.
That's a reference there to theatmosphere, that's a reference
there to space.
And then if I go as high up as Icould go, go down as low as I
(06:00):
could go in the sea, it won'tmake any difference.
The Lord will know where I amand will know what I am doing.
He is the creator.
Verse 13, he formed my inwardparts.
United me together in mymother's womb.
We are fearfully and wonderfullymade.
If you know anything aboutinfants and babies and having a
(06:21):
child, the more scienceuncovers, the more medicine
knows about bringing a new lifeinto the world, the more amazing
and astonishing it is.
Just incredibly complex, and yetGod made that whole process
where it works so well.
Wonderful are your works.
(06:42):
My soul knows it very well.
Verse 15 and 16 seem to even saythat when David was an embryo,
when he was in the womb, Godknows him.
Some have taken verse 16, andthe Hebrew there is complex,
that God has mapped out life inadvance.
And certainly God certainlyknows all the decisions that we
will be making and those kind ofthings, but it does seem to say
(07:04):
more about when I was in thewomb, you still knew me even
there.
And then there is a zeal forGod, beginning in verse 19.
Because we love the Lord, thosewho oppose God, we have to
oppose them.
And so finally the psalmconcludes then by saying, Search
me, God, you will see.
I stand for you and I stand withyou.
(07:26):
It is an amazing psalm.
It is a powerful psalm.
God knows us.
And I think sometimes some ofthese ideas are used.
I can remember singing that songas a child, there's an
all-seeing eye, and it was justcreeping me out.
And that whole concept of God'sjust looking over your shoulder
all the time.
(07:46):
And well, I guess if we're doingbad things, doing things we
shouldn't be doing, then thatought to creep you out.
But the psalmist here finds thatto be wonderfully reassuring and
comforting.
God knows where I am all thetime.
God is always aware of me andwhat I need and who I am.
It's not designed to creep usout.
The giant eyeball in the sky iswatching us, big brothers coming
(08:08):
after us.
That's not the point of Psalm139 at all.
The point is the Lord knows me,cares about me, and knows what I
need and where I am, and everytime I am in his presence, what
joy and comfort that is.
The reading for Monday, Psalm139.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday, and our readingtoday is the 65th Psalm, Psalm
(08:31):
65.
And I preached on this PsalmSunday in the 9 a.m.
So there's really not much herethat I want to add to that.
One writer said, This psalm,this beautiful psalm, is a c has
a climax that is as fresh andirrepressible as the land it
describes.
It puts every harvest hymn toshame.
(08:52):
And I think that's exactlyright.
It's a song that well expressesthe deep dependence upon God
that those who make their livingfrom the land have always felt.
And the challenge from Sunday'ssermon was for city dwellers
like you and me, people whothink that all those groceries
and so forth just show up at theKroger.
(09:12):
They're growing down theresomehow, I guess.
No, we need to get back to thereality that God makes all of
those things happen, and we needto be thankful to God for all of
those physical blessings.
It is, I mentioned this heavilyon Sunday, it is infused with
grace, grace that begins withforgiveness in the first four
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verses, and that empowers andleads everything else that's
going to happen in this Psalm.
So lots on Psalm 65 Sunday inthe 9 a.m.
I hope you made some notes onthe margin of your Bible.
Go back and listen to thatsermon.
Or if you did not get to hear iton Sunday, go and listen to that
sermon.
That'll stand as the podcast forTuesday.
There's no Zoom call tonight.
(09:57):
This is Thanksgiving week.
Lots of crazy things happening.
Lots of people going and comingand all sorts of things.
No Zoom call tonight.
I'll see you on the podcasttomorrow.
The reading for Tuesday, Psalm65.
It's Wednesday.
It is Wednesday, a special,special day at Westside.
Tonight we'll have our annualThanksgiving Eve prayer service.
(10:17):
It is the best Wednesday nightof the year.
I can hardly wait.
Before we get there, though, weneed to do some daily Bible
reading.
We're in Psalm 68.
Psalm 68 is easily one of themost difficult psalms in the
Bible.
I'll talk about why in just amoment.
It is, one scholar said,boisterous and exhilarating and
uncontainably enthusiastic.
(10:39):
Well, I need a little morecoffee to go with that.
And at some point I wrote in themargin of my Bible, this is the
Tigger Psalm, because it's justso bouncy, flouncy, trouncy,
pouncy like Tigger is.
You know how much I love Tigger.
This is a pretty Tiggerishpsalm, but it doesn't always fit
our normal patterns andparadigms of thinking about the
(11:01):
Psalms.
It seems to be largely a hymn ofpraise to God.
And if you look at verse 35, itcertainly ends that way.
Awesome is God from hissanctuary, the God of Israel,
he's the one who gives power andstrength to his people.
Blessed be God.
What does that mean to blessGod?
To bless God means to recognizehis greatness and strength and
(11:22):
gracious bounty, to express ourgratitude and delight at who he
is.
And usually this Psalm isassociated with the capture of
Jerusalem and especially thebringing of the Ark into
Jerusalem, although that's notentirely certain.
Maybe you're thinking, well, itlooks kind of long, but what's
the big deal?
Why is this so troublesome?
(11:43):
And the answer is it's verydifficult to translate.
The difficulties here in all ofthe Hebrew are almost legendary
among scholars.
More than 15 words andexpressions in this psalm don't
appear anywhere else in thebiblical literature.
And there are as many as twodozen words which are found less
than 20 times anywhere else inbiblical literature.
(12:05):
In fact, the Masoretic text,which is one of the best and
oldest texts from which your OldTestament comes from, in that
Masoretic text, they used aspecial marker to indicate to
the scribe that his wordappeared only in the text here,
and that way he would copy itexactly right.
There are 32 of those markingsin Psalm 68.
(12:27):
The other issue is it's justreally disconnected.
Someone said it reads like theindex page from your hymn book.
It's just all over the map,bounce and bouncy, trouncy,
flouncy, just all excited aboutwhat God is doing and who God
is, but it doesn't seem tofollow any discernible pattern.
I'll give you an outline forwhat it's worth.
(12:49):
God is coming, verse 1 to 6.
God is marching, verses 7 to 18.
God is dwelling with us, verses19 to 27, and God is receiving
our universal praise in the endof the Psalm, verse 28 to 35.
It really starts off prettysimply, and I don't think it's
too difficult, but then aboutthe time you hit verse 11, it
(13:12):
becomes really hard to make somesense of.
There's this imagery in thefirst stanza of defeated
soldiers fleeing in panic.
And then as we get to this Godmarching before us part in
verses 70 to 18, it gets alittle harder.
There are a lot of echoes hereof the song of Deborah,
particularly starting in aboutverse 11.
(13:32):
And some of this is very hard tomake sense of.
The women announced the news,the women defied the spoil,
though the men lie among thesheepfold.
Remember how some of the tribesdidn't come and help Deborah in
that great fight in Judgeschapter 5, and she shames Reuben
for staying home.
Maybe there's an echo there.
(13:53):
What are the wings of the dovein verse 13?
One scholar lists all thesedifferent options.
Israel basking in prosperity,the enemy in flight, the glory
of the Lord, a particular trophyseized in battle.
Someone else wondered if itcould be signal doves, kind of
like homing pigeons.
You turn them loose to bringnews of the battle.
And then we have snow in verse14.
(14:14):
What's that doing in the battle?
Maybe God is using the weatheras a weapon.
Just not certain at all.
In verse 18, Paul actuallyquotes that passage and applies
it to Jesus.
Here, the captives are probablyenemy prisoners.
Paul applies the Psalm to thegifts that Christ gives to the
church after his victory atCalvary and taking death as his
(14:37):
captive.
That's a little different twistthere.
And then we get this idea of Goddwelling with us, and things
start to smooth out a little bituntil I hit verse 21 and I've
got hairy crowns.
And that may that may signifythese enemy warriors who are so
strong and masculine, they'vegot those long flowing locks of
hair.
Maybe that's Absalom.
(14:57):
I think about the Vikingwarriors are famous for having
those blonde braids.
And then it closes with thissection that really sounds kind
of prophetic where Gentilenations come and they submit to
Jehovah the God of Israel.
They bring him their praise.
O kingdoms of the earth, verse32, sing to God, sing praises to
the Lord.
(15:17):
And I like this idea here of Godbeing the sky rider, verse 33,
to him who rides in the heavens.
That's a common image in theprophets.
God is the one who rides on theclouds.
Oh, I forgot to say somethingabout verse 30.
I can never miss an opportunityto say something about
hippopotamuses.
Rebuke the beasts that dwellamong the reeds, verse 30.
(15:38):
Yep, that's probably a probablya reference to the hippo, maybe
a reference to Egypt.
The hippo would be a symbol ofEgypt in some ways.
Wow.
Didn't think, didn't think youwere going to have
hippopotamuses on your platetoday.
Maybe saying on your plate isnot the way I want to say that
as we're getting ready forThanksgiving, but didn't imagine
(16:00):
we'd be talking about hippos onthe Wednesday before
Thanksgiving.
But here we are.
Psalm 68 says a lot of greatthings.
Figuring out exactly how allthat fits together and the
overall themes, prettycomplicated and not easy, but I
hope this psalm helps you today.
And I look forward to seeing youtonight in our Wednesday, our
(16:22):
Thanksgiving Eve prayer service.
If you're not a member of theWestside Church, you're
certainly welcome to come andworship with us tonight.
It is a wonderful, wonderfultime of prayer, and it will put
you in the right frame of mindfor the events of tomorrow.
If you are too far away tocommute over and come see us
tonight, please do join us, livestream that.
(17:20):
There's a little bit ofterminology in verse 9 that may
say some things about theBabylonian captivity, for
example, and some wonder ifmaybe this is a hymn of David's,
and then it got adapted later onby God's people when they were
in exile.
And I like how this psalm justopens verses 1 to 5 with a call
for one person to praise God.
(17:41):
And the psalmist tries to praiseGod with everything that he has.
And someone has called thisopening section the Lord's
benefit package, and it reallyis magnificent.
Then we get the idea of man'shistory, the wayward child and
the gentle father, verses 6 to18.
And this psalm is very muchabout how God forgives.
The language in verse 12 is sobeautiful.
(18:03):
As far as the East is from theWest, so far does he remove our
transgressions from us.
He knows our frame, verse 14.
He knows that we are dust.
He knows our frailty.
He knows our humanity.
He knows our struggles.
And then all are called topraise God, verses 19 to 22.
In some ways, this psalm remindsof other psalms like Psalm 22
(18:26):
that just open up intoever-widening circles.
The individual praises God, thecommunity of God's people praise
God.
The entire world is invited topraise God.
That's what's happening, is thispsalm comes to a swelling and
beautiful conclusion.
Bless the Lord.
Be thankful to God for all hisbenefits.
(18:49):
And please do make a note, verse18.
Who blesses the Lord?
Those who keep his covenant andremember to do his commandments.
Psalm 103 is our reading todayon Thanksgiving Day.
It's Friday.
Welcome to Friday.
Today we read the 108th Psalm.
Today is Black Friday.
(19:09):
I'm old enough to remember whenthat meant you got up at 2
o'clock in the morning and wentand froze to death standing in
line outside of Best Buy or BassPro because you wanted some
amazing door buster special.
You wanted a giant TV for$5, oryou wanted some kind of hunting
gear, maybe expensive boots fora buck.
And I've done that.
Now we all just now we all justsurf the internet and click on
(19:32):
stuff.
Black Friday started in July.
I'm not sure what to make of allof that.
But in the middle of all theBlack Friday shopping, how about
we read the 108th Psalm?
This is a little song and itdoes have a big secret in it.
And that secret is what?
It's a combo psalm.
It is a combination.
Verses 1 to 5 come from Psalm57, verses 7 to 11, and verses 6
(19:54):
to 11 come from Psalm 60, verses5 to 12.
We read Psalm 108 back in week42.
So if some of this soundsfamiliar, then yes, it is
familiar.
We've talked a little bit aboutthis before, and we've worked
through this psalm before.
But I'll say a little bit moreabout it.
(20:15):
The important thing about that,knowing that it's a combo psalm,
is that we can go back to Psalm60, and there's a heading there
that ascribes that Psalm toDavid during a threat from the
Edomites.
That's probably the crisis of 2Samuel 8.
So now you know that this is alament and that David will be
asking for God's help.
(20:35):
And so it begins, verses 1 to 5,with the praise of God and with
confidence in God.
Verse 1, my heart is steadfast.
I'm not going to let this, thisisn't going to shake my faith.
I have constancy in the Lord.
I'm going to stand with theLord.
Please notice, even in themiddle of a crisis, the psalmist
does not begin immediately with,Lord, this is what I need.
(20:57):
This is what you need to do.
Get on this.
Instead, there's lots ofthanksgiving, praising of God.
Then, verse 6 through verse 9,David prays for God's help in
the battle.
And the keynote of the Psalmreally is verse 6.
There, your beloved ones may bedelivered.
Give salvation by your righthand and answer me.
And note the reliance on thepromises of God.
(21:20):
Verse 7, God has promised in hisholiness that he will do these
things.
And then finally, the Psalmconcludes.
David expresses his confidencethat with God we will gain the
victory.
Verses 10 to 13.
It's a beautiful little psalmand a helpful little psalm.
Use that psalm when your heartis crying out to God, when you
(21:40):
need deliverance.
And remember verse 13 with Godwe shall do valiantly.
It is he who will tread down ourfoes.
Thanks so much for listening tothe podcast this week.
I've loved having an opportunityto talk to you about the Psalms
and about the sermons.
Just love everything about thepodcast.
It is my joy to open thescriptures with you every day.
(22:03):
Hope you're having a greatThanksgiving week.
I'm Mark Roberts.
And I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come too.
I'll see you Monday with a cupof coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website, justChristians.com, and our Facebook
page.
Our music is from Upbeat.io.
That's Upbeat with two P's,U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creators
(22:44):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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