February 17, 2025 • 25 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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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, February the 17th. I'm
Mark. I have my Bible open andI do have my notes from
yesterday's sermon about thequestions Jesus asked, and I am
looking at a pile of stuffabout the Psalms. It's gonna be
a great week reading in thePsalms. So much good stuff.
(01:15):
Pour that cup of coffee. Let'sget ready, let's get set, let's
go. So yesterday was number 11in the series, the top 12
questions that Jesus asked. Andthat question came from John
chapter three and verse 12where Jesus says to Nicodemus,
Hey pal , if I tell you earthlythings and you don't believe,
(01:37):
how can you believe if I tellyou heavenly things, that's the
Mark Roberts International EastTexas translation. And I just
wanna give you two quick extrathoughts here from from two
passages in John that I thinkwill help us. First, if you're
looking at John three, juststep up into John chapter two
where it says in John chaptertwo at verse 23, when Jesus was
(01:59):
in Jerusalem at the Passoverfeast, many believed in his
name when they saw the signsthat he was doing, but Jesus on
his part did not entrusthimself to them because he knew
all people and needed no one tobear witness about man, for he
himself knew what was in man.
So some of that verse 23, manybelieve that sounds pretty
good, but, but it doesn't seemto be that great because the
(02:21):
next two verses, Jesus seems tohave some reluctance there that
that's, that's not the kind offaith he's looking for. That's
not the kind of strong faiththat they really need to have.
Notice the connection to signs.
And then the first thing thatNicodemus says in John three
verse two is no one can dothese signs. I wonder if
Nicodemus may be arepresentative, a
representative, Woohoo . Try toget that out. A representative
(02:44):
of the people in John chapter 223, 24, 25, who have inadequate
faith who are responding to themiraculous signs, but they are
not responding with full faith.
And I say that because Jesussays in the question, why don't
you believe Nicodemus problemis not intellectual? It's a
(03:04):
faith issue. But then secondly,secondly, John 1938 tells us
that Nicodemus helped Joseph ofArimathea with the burial of
Jesus. Something has happenedbetween John three and John 19
and this proud Sanhedrincouncilman is now risking
everything for Jesus. It is nothard to believe that not very
(03:27):
long after like on the day ofPentecost, Nicodemus was born
again. Hope that helps you Asyou think about that great
question that Jesus asked him,turn your Bible now, not to
Samuel, but to the Book ofPsalms. This is a week in the
Psalms. Let's do some dailyBible reading. Monday's reading
(04:07):
is Psalm 34. The reading forMonday is the 34th Psalm. I
love this psalm. This is aPsalm of thankfulness, and if
you look at the heading there,it's of David when he changed
his behavior before Aex so thathe drove him out and he went
away. Now remember thesubtitles to the Psalms are
very old, but they are notinspired . They're not an
(04:28):
original part of the text.
However, they reflect longtradition and I think they are
helpful and of value. I'llplace this here with first
Samuel 21. We read that lastweek. David escapes to gaff. He
is , he's wrong . The run fromSaul and all the bad things
that Saul's trying to get done,and he runs off to gaff and
ends up having to act like abad man to get out of there and
(04:51):
save his own skin. What I loveabout Psalm 34 is that this
psalm celebrates God'sdeliverance. Instead of saying,
look at me, look how clever Iwas. I acted like a lunatic and
they got rid of me. By the way,a bialek , there probably
should be aish because that'sthe king in gaff that may
reflect a copyist error. Butthis psalm just breeze
(05:13):
thanksgiving in so many ways.
Please notice verse one, I willbless the Lord at all times.
Blessing the Lord does not meanwhat it means When the Lord
blesses us, the Lord blesses usbecause we are inadequate,
because we have need blessing.
The Lord means to praise God'sname to exalt God. That's what
(05:34):
bless the Lord means. Make sureyou have that in your Psalm
vocabulary as we work throughthe Psalms this year. And I
want you to particularly noticethat praise in the Psalms is
substantive in these Psalms ofpraise and thanksgiving. There
there are reasons given forpraising God. God saved me, God
instructed me, God is with me.
(05:56):
It's very solid. It's not justchanting over and over again,
Jesus, Jesus or praise God orvictory, victory, victory. Some
of that has taken hold in thereligious world. And some
people, some seem to think thatthat really is the way to
worship or to praise God. It'sjust not, we don't see that in
scriptures. What we see in thescriptures is God has done
(06:19):
something and the psalmisttalks about that or God is
something, and the psalmisttalks about that. So the Psalm
moves then particularly inverses eight to 14, to talk
about the goodness of God inverse eight. I should I , I
have to tell you this, it's myfavorite verse in the whole
Bible. It is my favorite versein the entire Bible. Oh , taste
(06:42):
and see that the Lord is good.
I call that the Baskin Robbinsverse because when you go to
Baskin Robbins and they have anew flavor and you're looking
at it and you think, man, isthat gonna be any good? Maybe
you're talking to someone. Whatdo you think about that? Should
we get that? What's the guybehind the counter do? He
doesn't describe the ice creamto you. He doesn't tell you
about it, doesn't tell youabout his experience with the
(07:03):
ice cream. He gets one of thoselittle pink spoons and he
scoops it up and he hands it toyou and he says, Hey, why don't
you try this? And that's whatthe psalmist says. Verse eight,
taste and see that the Lord isgood. Try it. Try God. You
won't be disappointed. And it'sjust so that in so many ways
people need to try God tounderstand his goodness, his
(07:28):
goodness and pardoning sin. Ican describe that to you. I can
teach you the doctrine ofatonement and propitiation.
It's not like what you knowwhen you're baptized into
Christ, when you are bornagain, as we talked about
yesterday, God's goodness inanswering prayer that only
comes to those who pray, whotry it, who taste and see God's
(07:50):
goodness in making His willknown. That's only found by
those who read the Bible andwho read the Bible regularly
and begin to see the principlesand ideas surface in their life
and they realize God's guidinghand through his word. Just ,
just try it, taste and see thatthe Lord is good. We're not
real comfortable withtestifying. And I'm probably
(08:12):
pretty glad about all of that.
But it is not wrong to look ata non-Christian and say, you
know what you need to do ? Youneed taste and see, you need
taste and see because the Lordis good. And that's what David
says here. Please be mindfulthat this is a time when he's
on the run and yet he'scelebrating the goodness of
God. And so he works throughthat. Then to say, especially
(08:35):
as he closes out the Psalm, Ithank God for listening to me.
The eyes of the Lord are towardthe righteous. Verse 15 and his
ears toward their cry. Andthere's even a messianic
implication there in verse 20,God listens. God hears, I thank
God he's an amazing andwonderful God. He listens to
(08:55):
me, he hears me and hedelivered me from a really
tight squeeze with thePhilistines. Monday's reading
Psalm 34. Welcome to Tuesday,Tuesday's. Reading is Psalm 56.
Psalm 56 is our reading fortoday. And this is a lament, a
(09:16):
complaint to God or more, morelike a cry for God's help. And
once again, the superscriptionhere is telling us that this is
the same setting as Psalm 34that we read yesterday. This
comes from one Samuel chapter21 verses 10 to 22. When David
went Toth Goliath's hometown inPhilistia. And one writer said,
(09:37):
the fact that two of David'spsalms are tied to this one
event demonstrates howdevastating the experience was
to David cut off from all thathe had known. David tried to
find refuge among thePhilistines and when they
turned on him, he nearly losthis life. This is a terrible
time for David and a great timefor us to focus on what makes
David a man after God's ownheart. Because that's what
(09:59):
we're going for. We wanna be,we wanna be seeking God's
heart. So as you read downthrough the Psalm, just notice
verses five, six, and seven,the pressure is just
unrelenting. They are comingafter David constantly and
that's what's driving him hereto cry out to God. And then
verse eight, you have keptcount of my tossings, put my
(10:22):
tears in your bottle. Are theynot in your book? What a
beautiful, beautiful verse thatreferences the care of God and
the trust that David has inGod. So he concludes verse 12,
I must perform my vows to you,old God. I will render thank
offerings unto you. Very, verycommon in the Psalms, for the
(10:42):
Psalms to cry out to God andsay, if you will deliver me, I
will sing your praises or Iwill make a sacrifice, or I
will teach a song to everyone,or I will tell everyone of my
deliverance. That's a vow. Andit's part of a lot of laments,
a vow of praise, a vow topraise God. And I think maybe
Psalm 34 fulfills that vow. Andwe should be careful here. This
(11:08):
isn't a payment, it's not a titfor tat . You do this for me
and I'll do that for you. It'sthe right response to God's
amazing deliverance. Now let mejust close the , this is a
short psalm. It doesn't takelong to read these psalms, but
we need to think about thePsalms and bring them into our
lives. I wanna say a couple ofthings here about David, maybe
(11:29):
that will help us in thatdirection and talk more about
that on Zoom tonight and how weintegrate this into our lives.
But lemme just say this first,David refuses to let fear drive
him away from God. He will notabandon God just because things
have gone badly and are goingfrom bad to worse. But I would
(11:50):
also add here that trust is aconviction for David. It's not
an emotion. He's determined tobelieve in God, even when
sometimes it's hard to believein God. Maybe he doesn't feel
like he's being watched over bythe Lord. And then finally, I
would say this trust doesn'tmean that we don't act
(12:10):
prudently or wisely. We knowthat God delivered David here
and we know that God is gettingthe credit both in yesterday's
reading and today's reading fordelivering David, but the
direct means of salvation,deliverance, if you will for
David, was that he put on adisguise. He acted like a nut.
He acted like a crazy person.
(12:30):
And so they got rid of him. SoDavid trusted in God and then
David gave God something. Yeah,something to work with. Maybe
we'll talk more about that inour zoom call tonight,
Westsiders, and we'll work alittle bit more on Psalm 56 and
think about how to become aperson like David who trusts
God even when he's very afraid.
(12:53):
A reading for Tuesday is Psalm56. It is Wednesday and today
we read Psalm 57. Our readingfor Wednesday is the 57th
Psalm, just 11 verses. Not along Psalm. And once again,
we're dealing with a time inDavid's life when he is fleeing
according to the heading fromKing Saul. I wonder if
(13:15):
assassins were seeking yourlife, would you be thinking
about writing a psalm ofpraise? Would you be thinking
about praising God? I thinkmost of us, myself included,
would probably be in duck incover mode. Maybe. Maybe we'd
be checking our ammo or lookingto see if every shadow
concealed a sniper or a ninja.
My thoughts might not be, can Ising a hymn of praise to God?
(13:36):
But look at verse four. My soulis in the midst of lions. I lie
down amid fiery beast, thechildren of man whose teeth are
spears and arrows, whosetongues are sharp swords. David
is praising God in the middleof a very difficult time in his
life. This is again, a lamentthat is a psalm asking God for
help, asking God fordeliverance. I would say this,
(13:58):
I think this lament hasmovement to it. There's
confidence throughout the Psalmand as we get towards the end
of the Psalm, it's not verylamenting. It's very crazy .
And that's probably not realwords, but it works for me. And
again, hold on to the settinghere. David is being chased
around by his enemies. And evenin the verse that I just read
(14:19):
so often when David talks abouthis enemies, he's not so much
talking about his life thathe's worried about, but what
drives David crazy is thatpeople say bad things about
him. Their teeth and tonguesare sharp swords and spears and
arrows. David can't stand thefact that they are slandering
him probably to King Saul. Andmaybe here he's talking about
(14:42):
some yes men who surround Sauland who are feeding these
conspiracy notions that seem tohave taken Saul to a fever
pitch of hatred against David.
And you should know that thispsalm is very carefully
structured verses one to fourwork together. And then verse
five, there's a refrain ormaybe we would call that the
(15:03):
chorus, then verses six to 10,that's the second verse. And
look at verse 11. There's therefrain, there's the chorus. So
we get the idea that God ishelping me with my enemies in
the first four verses. And thenwe get the idea in verses six
to 10 that the enemies reallyare nothing. I praise God again
(15:23):
with the refrain in verse five,in verse 11, holding the Psalm
together. I love the imageryhere. Storms of destruction in
verse one, in verse two, I cryout to God most high to God who
fulfills his purpose for me.
Think about that. When you wantto be a man after God's own
(15:44):
heart, need to look for God'spurpose in my life. What is God
doing even in these difficultcircumstances? That's a
beautiful, beautiful idea. Sothen David begins to talk, I'm
moving to verse six here. Ithink there's a change of mood
here. They're setting a net forme. They're trying to trap me,
but they fall into itthemselves. How many times in
(16:07):
the Psalms do we read? Evil hasits own bitter payback. People
who are trying to do wrong endup tripping themselves up in
their own sin. Instead. Verseseven, I'm trusting in God.
Yesterday we talked about howfor David, trust is not about
emotion, it's about conviction.
I'm trusting in God and andwhat's he doing to shore up
(16:29):
that trust? I'm singing verseseven, awake my glory. That's a
intriguing expression. Maybehas the idea here of awaken me,
my ability to give glory toGod. And I'll start in the
morning and give thanks to you.
Oh God. Verse eight verse nine.
I'm gonna sing praises toeverybody because your verse
(16:51):
10, covenant love, steadfastlove has sad . That special
kind of love loving theunlovely because we have given
our word to do our best forthem. Your love has said love
is great to the heavens, yourfaithfulness to the clouds.
Beautiful psalm, wonderfulpsalm gives us great insight
into the character of David.
(17:12):
Even as he's being pursued bySaul all over the wilderness.
Saul's trying to take his life.
David says, I am trusting. I'mtrusting in God. Our reading
for a Wednesday is Psalm 57.
Welcome to Thursday. Welcome toThursday. Today we read Psalm
142. The 140 second Psalm isour reading for Thursday. Once
(17:37):
again, we're reading a lamentpsalm as David is in the cave,
something that's covered in oneSamuel chapter 22 . David is on
the run once more from KingSaul. I love these psalms even
though even though sometimesit's hard to read these and
think about David in thesekinds of terrible
circumstances. But what I loveabout them is that they show
(17:58):
David's honesty. I pour out mycomplaint. Verse two. I tell my
trouble before him, David hasbeen anointed king and what did
he get for that? He nearly gotkilled a whole bunch of
different times. David says, Ineed to trust in God, but
that's not easy to do. Myspirit is fainting within me.
But over and over again, Davidsays in the psalm, I'm trusting
(18:19):
in God, you know my way. Versethree, my portion is in the
land of the living. Verse five,verse seven, the righteous
surround me . I think those arehigh points in this psalm. Now
someone's gonna ask me aboutthe heading and it says it's a
mascal , M-A-S-K-I-L mascal .
And there is plenty ofconjecture about that. But we
do not know. It seems to be atechnical term, maybe saying
(18:41):
what kind of psalm this ismaybe designating something
about the music. We do not knowwhat that means. Lemme just
give you a quick littlebreakdown here. I think you can
break this psalm into threepieces. The Lord hears our
prayers verses one and two. TheLord knows our circumstances
verses three and four, and theLord knows our needs. Verses
five, six, and seven. This is avery plaintiff cry on the part
(19:06):
of David. I think the emphasishere is that we can cry out to
God when we're confused, whenwe're uncertain, when we are
afraid. And we can be honestwith God about that. Attend to
my cry, verse six, I'm broughtvery low. Bring me out of
prison, verse seven, that I maygive thanks to your name. God,
(19:27):
I wanna praise you and if I getkilled, I can't do that. So
deliver me Lord so that I canpoint more people to you and to
your goodness, bring me outtaprison that I may give thanks
to your name. I love that idea.
And maybe, maybe one of the bigthings to take away from Psalm
1 42 today is that going onwhen we don't feel like going
(19:48):
on may be the greatest skillfor a follower of God. What is
great about David here is thatthere's just not any quit in
him. I'm gonna continue. I'mgonna stand with God,
difficult, hard, but I willcontinue on 'cause I have a
hope for a better future. Notjust in eternity, in the sweet
mind and , but I know I thinkGod's gonna do some good things
(20:10):
even now. God expects goodthings from God and God's ways
and God's time, but, but Godwill take care of that. I'm
just going to trust in God.
Going on when we don't feellike going on is a great skill
for people who are seekingafter God's heart. Our reading
for Thursday, Psalm 142. It isFriday. It is Friday. And today
(20:33):
our reading is one of the mostfamous chapters in all of the
Bible. Our reading for Fridayis the 23rd Psalm. This is one
of the most off quotedscriptures in the Bible. Yet
sometimes I wonder if peopleunderstand all of the imagery
and really appreciate thebeauty and power of the 23rd
Psalm. It is interesting thatthere's nothing here tying it
to a specific occasion. There'snothing in a heading that says
(20:54):
this is about a battle, winninga battle or running away from
Saul or any of those kinds ofideas. What you get though is
this giant idea. God cares forme. That's the big theme here.
David develops that just againand again and again. God is
caring for me and he does thatusing two images. First and
(21:16):
most famous of all the imageryof a shepherd and sheep. And
then there's the imagery of abanquet in verses five and six.
Lemme say a couple of thingshere about this sheep and
shepherd imagery, because weare not an agricultural and
ranching society for the mostpart. Some of this may just go
right past us, but those thattake care of sheep, and there's
(21:37):
lots written about this now,especially on the internet, you
can read and research and seethese kinds of things. Those
who have experience with sheepcan, can tell you a lot about
how this psalm speaks toexactly what would go on when a
good shepherd takes good careof his flock. So for example,
he makes me lie down in greenpastures. Sheep have a
(21:58):
full-time job eating and theydon't lie down unless they are
full and safe and content. Sofor David to say, I'm a sheep
and I'm lying down, that wouldimmediately convey to his
audience, God is an amazingshepherd. He's really taking
care of me. He leads me besidestill waters. The other thing
(22:20):
that sheep need, they needfood, they need water. And of
course, in the desert water'sat a premium, that's a
difficult thing to find goodclean water. No, God takes care
of me. God leads me beside thebest water source. I don't get
lost. He's leading me in thepaths of righteousness. And
though even though I walkthrough the valley of the
shadow of death, there's a lotof discussion about the imagery
(22:43):
there to exactly how to, how totranslate that. It can be the
deep shadows or even blackness.
It might convey even death. Itmay just mean here, difficult
places, tough spots, but thegood shepherd is with me and
I'm not afraid. And then youmove to this imagery of a
banquet. You prepare a table,you anoint my head with oil.
(23:05):
Goodness said , mercy shallfollow me because my cup runs
over. Those three images talkabout what it would be to have
a meal with God and howincredible that would be.
Eating with God is a theme inthe Bible. It happens back in
the book of Exodus. Moses andthe elders go up and they eat
in the presence of God. It's arestoration of fellowship with
(23:26):
God. And of course it occurs atthe end of the Bible when in
the Book of Revelation we readabout the marriage supper of
the lamb. To get to eat withGod is an incredible idea.
Maybe , maybe you think about apolitical fundraiser and you
can buy a seat at a banquet andthen you get to eat with a
governor or eat with the mayor,or maybe even eat with the
President. Yeah. How much isthat gonna cost you? Is it
(23:47):
gonna cost you thousands ofdollars? You're gonna be in a
giant banquet hall, hundreds ofpeople, maybe thousands of
people, and the president'sgonna be on the other side of
the room. You're not reallygonna be in close proximity,
not really gonna get to knowhim and talk with him. David
says, I'm eating with God. Godprepares a table for me. I am
in close relationship with Godand that's just an unbelievable
(24:11):
idea. Well, it's notunbelievable because it's in
the Bible. We trust that thatgreat thing can happen for us
because we trust in God likeDavid does here. Surely
goodness and mercy shall followme. I'll dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. I will remainin fellowship with God serving
him forever. Six verses sopowerful. Our reading for
(24:35):
Friday is Psalm 23. With thatwe conclude the podcast for the
week. Thanks for studying andreading along with me. I just
appreciate it so much. If thepodcast is helping you, I hope
that you will tell others aboutit. And of course, leave us a
rating and review that helpsmore people lock onto the
podcast and give it a try. Sountil next week when we'll open
(24:56):
our Bibles together. Again, I'mMark Roberts and I wanna go to
heaven and I want you to cometoo . I'll see you on Monday
with a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
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Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, February the 17th. I'm
Mark. I have my Bible open andI do have my notes from
yesterday's sermon about thequestions Jesus asked, and I am
looking at a pile of stuffabout the Psalms. It's gonna be
a great week reading in thePsalms. So much good stuff.
(01:15):
Pour that cup of coffee. Let'sget ready, let's get set, let's
go. So yesterday was number 11in the series, the top 12
questions that Jesus asked. Andthat question came from John
chapter three and verse 12where Jesus says to Nicodemus,
Hey pal , if I tell you earthlythings and you don't believe,
(01:37):
how can you believe if I tellyou heavenly things, that's the
Mark Roberts International EastTexas translation. And I just
wanna give you two quick extrathoughts here from from two
passages in John that I thinkwill help us. First, if you're
looking at John three, juststep up into John chapter two
where it says in John chaptertwo at verse 23, when Jesus was
(01:59):
in Jerusalem at the Passoverfeast, many believed in his
name when they saw the signsthat he was doing, but Jesus on
his part did not entrusthimself to them because he knew
all people and needed no one tobear witness about man, for he
himself knew what was in man.
So some of that verse 23, manybelieve that sounds pretty
good, but, but it doesn't seemto be that great because the
(02:21):
next two verses, Jesus seems tohave some reluctance there that
that's, that's not the kind offaith he's looking for. That's
not the kind of strong faiththat they really need to have.
Notice the connection to signs.
And then the first thing thatNicodemus says in John three
verse two is no one can dothese signs. I wonder if
Nicodemus may be arepresentative, a
representative, Woohoo . Try toget that out. A representative
(02:44):
of the people in John chapter 223, 24, 25, who have inadequate
faith who are responding to themiraculous signs, but they are
not responding with full faith.
And I say that because Jesussays in the question, why don't
you believe Nicodemus problemis not intellectual? It's a
(03:04):
faith issue. But then secondly,secondly, John 1938 tells us
that Nicodemus helped Joseph ofArimathea with the burial of
Jesus. Something has happenedbetween John three and John 19
and this proud Sanhedrincouncilman is now risking
everything for Jesus. It is nothard to believe that not very
(03:27):
long after like on the day ofPentecost, Nicodemus was born
again. Hope that helps you Asyou think about that great
question that Jesus asked him,turn your Bible now, not to
Samuel, but to the Book ofPsalms. This is a week in the
Psalms. Let's do some dailyBible reading. Monday's reading
(04:07):
is Psalm 34. The reading forMonday is the 34th Psalm. I
love this psalm. This is aPsalm of thankfulness, and if
you look at the heading there,it's of David when he changed
his behavior before Aex so thathe drove him out and he went
away. Now remember thesubtitles to the Psalms are
very old, but they are notinspired . They're not an
(04:28):
original part of the text.
However, they reflect longtradition and I think they are
helpful and of value. I'llplace this here with first
Samuel 21. We read that lastweek. David escapes to gaff. He
is , he's wrong . The run fromSaul and all the bad things
that Saul's trying to get done,and he runs off to gaff and
ends up having to act like abad man to get out of there and
(04:51):
save his own skin. What I loveabout Psalm 34 is that this
psalm celebrates God'sdeliverance. Instead of saying,
look at me, look how clever Iwas. I acted like a lunatic and
they got rid of me. By the way,a bialek , there probably
should be aish because that'sthe king in gaff that may
reflect a copyist error. Butthis psalm just breeze
(05:13):
thanksgiving in so many ways.
Please notice verse one, I willbless the Lord at all times.
Blessing the Lord does not meanwhat it means When the Lord
blesses us, the Lord blesses usbecause we are inadequate,
because we have need blessing.
The Lord means to praise God'sname to exalt God. That's what
(05:34):
bless the Lord means. Make sureyou have that in your Psalm
vocabulary as we work throughthe Psalms this year. And I
want you to particularly noticethat praise in the Psalms is
substantive in these Psalms ofpraise and thanksgiving. There
there are reasons given forpraising God. God saved me, God
instructed me, God is with me.
(05:56):
It's very solid. It's not justchanting over and over again,
Jesus, Jesus or praise God orvictory, victory, victory. Some
of that has taken hold in thereligious world. And some
people, some seem to think thatthat really is the way to
worship or to praise God. It'sjust not, we don't see that in
scriptures. What we see in thescriptures is God has done
(06:19):
something and the psalmisttalks about that or God is
something, and the psalmisttalks about that. So the Psalm
moves then particularly inverses eight to 14, to talk
about the goodness of God inverse eight. I should I , I
have to tell you this, it's myfavorite verse in the whole
Bible. It is my favorite versein the entire Bible. Oh , taste
(06:42):
and see that the Lord is good.
I call that the Baskin Robbinsverse because when you go to
Baskin Robbins and they have anew flavor and you're looking
at it and you think, man, isthat gonna be any good? Maybe
you're talking to someone. Whatdo you think about that? Should
we get that? What's the guybehind the counter do? He
doesn't describe the ice creamto you. He doesn't tell you
about it, doesn't tell youabout his experience with the
(07:03):
ice cream. He gets one of thoselittle pink spoons and he
scoops it up and he hands it toyou and he says, Hey, why don't
you try this? And that's whatthe psalmist says. Verse eight,
taste and see that the Lord isgood. Try it. Try God. You
won't be disappointed. And it'sjust so that in so many ways
people need to try God tounderstand his goodness, his
(07:28):
goodness and pardoning sin. Ican describe that to you. I can
teach you the doctrine ofatonement and propitiation.
It's not like what you knowwhen you're baptized into
Christ, when you are bornagain, as we talked about
yesterday, God's goodness inanswering prayer that only
comes to those who pray, whotry it, who taste and see God's
(07:50):
goodness in making His willknown. That's only found by
those who read the Bible andwho read the Bible regularly
and begin to see the principlesand ideas surface in their life
and they realize God's guidinghand through his word. Just ,
just try it, taste and see thatthe Lord is good. We're not
real comfortable withtestifying. And I'm probably
(08:12):
pretty glad about all of that.
But it is not wrong to look ata non-Christian and say, you
know what you need to do ? Youneed taste and see, you need
taste and see because the Lordis good. And that's what David
says here. Please be mindfulthat this is a time when he's
on the run and yet he'scelebrating the goodness of
God. And so he works throughthat. Then to say, especially
(08:35):
as he closes out the Psalm, Ithank God for listening to me.
The eyes of the Lord are towardthe righteous. Verse 15 and his
ears toward their cry. Andthere's even a messianic
implication there in verse 20,God listens. God hears, I thank
God he's an amazing andwonderful God. He listens to
(08:55):
me, he hears me and hedelivered me from a really
tight squeeze with thePhilistines. Monday's reading
Psalm 34. Welcome to Tuesday,Tuesday's. Reading is Psalm 56.
Psalm 56 is our reading fortoday. And this is a lament, a
(09:16):
complaint to God or more, morelike a cry for God's help. And
once again, the superscriptionhere is telling us that this is
the same setting as Psalm 34that we read yesterday. This
comes from one Samuel chapter21 verses 10 to 22. When David
went Toth Goliath's hometown inPhilistia. And one writer said,
(09:37):
the fact that two of David'spsalms are tied to this one
event demonstrates howdevastating the experience was
to David cut off from all thathe had known. David tried to
find refuge among thePhilistines and when they
turned on him, he nearly losthis life. This is a terrible
time for David and a great timefor us to focus on what makes
David a man after God's ownheart. Because that's what
(09:59):
we're going for. We wanna be,we wanna be seeking God's
heart. So as you read downthrough the Psalm, just notice
verses five, six, and seven,the pressure is just
unrelenting. They are comingafter David constantly and
that's what's driving him hereto cry out to God. And then
verse eight, you have keptcount of my tossings, put my
(10:22):
tears in your bottle. Are theynot in your book? What a
beautiful, beautiful verse thatreferences the care of God and
the trust that David has inGod. So he concludes verse 12,
I must perform my vows to you,old God. I will render thank
offerings unto you. Very, verycommon in the Psalms, for the
(10:42):
Psalms to cry out to God andsay, if you will deliver me, I
will sing your praises or Iwill make a sacrifice, or I
will teach a song to everyone,or I will tell everyone of my
deliverance. That's a vow. Andit's part of a lot of laments,
a vow of praise, a vow topraise God. And I think maybe
Psalm 34 fulfills that vow. Andwe should be careful here. This
(11:08):
isn't a payment, it's not a titfor tat . You do this for me
and I'll do that for you. It'sthe right response to God's
amazing deliverance. Now let mejust close the , this is a
short psalm. It doesn't takelong to read these psalms, but
we need to think about thePsalms and bring them into our
lives. I wanna say a couple ofthings here about David, maybe
(11:29):
that will help us in thatdirection and talk more about
that on Zoom tonight and how weintegrate this into our lives.
But lemme just say this first,David refuses to let fear drive
him away from God. He will notabandon God just because things
have gone badly and are goingfrom bad to worse. But I would
(11:50):
also add here that trust is aconviction for David. It's not
an emotion. He's determined tobelieve in God, even when
sometimes it's hard to believein God. Maybe he doesn't feel
like he's being watched over bythe Lord. And then finally, I
would say this trust doesn'tmean that we don't act
(12:10):
prudently or wisely. We knowthat God delivered David here
and we know that God is gettingthe credit both in yesterday's
reading and today's reading fordelivering David, but the
direct means of salvation,deliverance, if you will for
David, was that he put on adisguise. He acted like a nut.
He acted like a crazy person.
(12:30):
And so they got rid of him. SoDavid trusted in God and then
David gave God something. Yeah,something to work with. Maybe
we'll talk more about that inour zoom call tonight,
Westsiders, and we'll work alittle bit more on Psalm 56 and
think about how to become aperson like David who trusts
God even when he's very afraid.
(12:53):
A reading for Tuesday is Psalm56. It is Wednesday and today
we read Psalm 57. Our readingfor Wednesday is the 57th
Psalm, just 11 verses. Not along Psalm. And once again,
we're dealing with a time inDavid's life when he is fleeing
according to the heading fromKing Saul. I wonder if
(13:15):
assassins were seeking yourlife, would you be thinking
about writing a psalm ofpraise? Would you be thinking
about praising God? I thinkmost of us, myself included,
would probably be in duck incover mode. Maybe. Maybe we'd
be checking our ammo or lookingto see if every shadow
concealed a sniper or a ninja.
My thoughts might not be, can Ising a hymn of praise to God?
(13:36):
But look at verse four. My soulis in the midst of lions. I lie
down amid fiery beast, thechildren of man whose teeth are
spears and arrows, whosetongues are sharp swords. David
is praising God in the middleof a very difficult time in his
life. This is again, a lamentthat is a psalm asking God for
help, asking God fordeliverance. I would say this,
(13:58):
I think this lament hasmovement to it. There's
confidence throughout the Psalmand as we get towards the end
of the Psalm, it's not verylamenting. It's very crazy .
And that's probably not realwords, but it works for me. And
again, hold on to the settinghere. David is being chased
around by his enemies. And evenin the verse that I just read
(14:19):
so often when David talks abouthis enemies, he's not so much
talking about his life thathe's worried about, but what
drives David crazy is thatpeople say bad things about
him. Their teeth and tonguesare sharp swords and spears and
arrows. David can't stand thefact that they are slandering
him probably to King Saul. Andmaybe here he's talking about
(14:42):
some yes men who surround Sauland who are feeding these
conspiracy notions that seem tohave taken Saul to a fever
pitch of hatred against David.
And you should know that thispsalm is very carefully
structured verses one to fourwork together. And then verse
five, there's a refrain ormaybe we would call that the
(15:03):
chorus, then verses six to 10,that's the second verse. And
look at verse 11. There's therefrain, there's the chorus. So
we get the idea that God ishelping me with my enemies in
the first four verses. And thenwe get the idea in verses six
to 10 that the enemies reallyare nothing. I praise God again
(15:23):
with the refrain in verse five,in verse 11, holding the Psalm
together. I love the imageryhere. Storms of destruction in
verse one, in verse two, I cryout to God most high to God who
fulfills his purpose for me.
Think about that. When you wantto be a man after God's own
(15:44):
heart, need to look for God'spurpose in my life. What is God
doing even in these difficultcircumstances? That's a
beautiful, beautiful idea. Sothen David begins to talk, I'm
moving to verse six here. Ithink there's a change of mood
here. They're setting a net forme. They're trying to trap me,
but they fall into itthemselves. How many times in
(16:07):
the Psalms do we read? Evil hasits own bitter payback. People
who are trying to do wrong endup tripping themselves up in
their own sin. Instead. Verseseven, I'm trusting in God.
Yesterday we talked about howfor David, trust is not about
emotion, it's about conviction.
I'm trusting in God and andwhat's he doing to shore up
(16:29):
that trust? I'm singing verseseven, awake my glory. That's a
intriguing expression. Maybehas the idea here of awaken me,
my ability to give glory toGod. And I'll start in the
morning and give thanks to you.
Oh God. Verse eight verse nine.
I'm gonna sing praises toeverybody because your verse
(16:51):
10, covenant love, steadfastlove has sad . That special
kind of love loving theunlovely because we have given
our word to do our best forthem. Your love has said love
is great to the heavens, yourfaithfulness to the clouds.
Beautiful psalm, wonderfulpsalm gives us great insight
into the character of David.
(17:12):
Even as he's being pursued bySaul all over the wilderness.
Saul's trying to take his life.
David says, I am trusting. I'mtrusting in God. Our reading
for a Wednesday is Psalm 57.
Welcome to Thursday. Welcome toThursday. Today we read Psalm
142. The 140 second Psalm isour reading for Thursday. Once
(17:37):
again, we're reading a lamentpsalm as David is in the cave,
something that's covered in oneSamuel chapter 22 . David is on
the run once more from KingSaul. I love these psalms even
though even though sometimesit's hard to read these and
think about David in thesekinds of terrible
circumstances. But what I loveabout them is that they show
(17:58):
David's honesty. I pour out mycomplaint. Verse two. I tell my
trouble before him, David hasbeen anointed king and what did
he get for that? He nearly gotkilled a whole bunch of
different times. David says, Ineed to trust in God, but
that's not easy to do. Myspirit is fainting within me.
But over and over again, Davidsays in the psalm, I'm trusting
(18:19):
in God, you know my way. Versethree, my portion is in the
land of the living. Verse five,verse seven, the righteous
surround me . I think those arehigh points in this psalm. Now
someone's gonna ask me aboutthe heading and it says it's a
mascal , M-A-S-K-I-L mascal .
And there is plenty ofconjecture about that. But we
do not know. It seems to be atechnical term, maybe saying
(18:41):
what kind of psalm this ismaybe designating something
about the music. We do not knowwhat that means. Lemme just
give you a quick littlebreakdown here. I think you can
break this psalm into threepieces. The Lord hears our
prayers verses one and two. TheLord knows our circumstances
verses three and four, and theLord knows our needs. Verses
five, six, and seven. This is avery plaintiff cry on the part
(19:06):
of David. I think the emphasishere is that we can cry out to
God when we're confused, whenwe're uncertain, when we are
afraid. And we can be honestwith God about that. Attend to
my cry, verse six, I'm broughtvery low. Bring me out of
prison, verse seven, that I maygive thanks to your name. God,
(19:27):
I wanna praise you and if I getkilled, I can't do that. So
deliver me Lord so that I canpoint more people to you and to
your goodness, bring me outtaprison that I may give thanks
to your name. I love that idea.
And maybe, maybe one of the bigthings to take away from Psalm
1 42 today is that going onwhen we don't feel like going
(19:48):
on may be the greatest skillfor a follower of God. What is
great about David here is thatthere's just not any quit in
him. I'm gonna continue. I'mgonna stand with God,
difficult, hard, but I willcontinue on 'cause I have a
hope for a better future. Notjust in eternity, in the sweet
mind and , but I know I thinkGod's gonna do some good things
(20:10):
even now. God expects goodthings from God and God's ways
and God's time, but, but Godwill take care of that. I'm
just going to trust in God.
Going on when we don't feellike going on is a great skill
for people who are seekingafter God's heart. Our reading
for Thursday, Psalm 142. It isFriday. It is Friday. And today
(20:33):
our reading is one of the mostfamous chapters in all of the
Bible. Our reading for Fridayis the 23rd Psalm. This is one
of the most off quotedscriptures in the Bible. Yet
sometimes I wonder if peopleunderstand all of the imagery
and really appreciate thebeauty and power of the 23rd
Psalm. It is interesting thatthere's nothing here tying it
to a specific occasion. There'snothing in a heading that says
(20:54):
this is about a battle, winninga battle or running away from
Saul or any of those kinds ofideas. What you get though is
this giant idea. God cares forme. That's the big theme here.
David develops that just againand again and again. God is
caring for me and he does thatusing two images. First and
(21:16):
most famous of all the imageryof a shepherd and sheep. And
then there's the imagery of abanquet in verses five and six.
Lemme say a couple of thingshere about this sheep and
shepherd imagery, because weare not an agricultural and
ranching society for the mostpart. Some of this may just go
right past us, but those thattake care of sheep, and there's
(21:37):
lots written about this now,especially on the internet, you
can read and research and seethese kinds of things. Those
who have experience with sheepcan, can tell you a lot about
how this psalm speaks toexactly what would go on when a
good shepherd takes good careof his flock. So for example,
he makes me lie down in greenpastures. Sheep have a
(21:58):
full-time job eating and theydon't lie down unless they are
full and safe and content. Sofor David to say, I'm a sheep
and I'm lying down, that wouldimmediately convey to his
audience, God is an amazingshepherd. He's really taking
care of me. He leads me besidestill waters. The other thing
(22:20):
that sheep need, they needfood, they need water. And of
course, in the desert water'sat a premium, that's a
difficult thing to find goodclean water. No, God takes care
of me. God leads me beside thebest water source. I don't get
lost. He's leading me in thepaths of righteousness. And
though even though I walkthrough the valley of the
shadow of death, there's a lotof discussion about the imagery
(22:43):
there to exactly how to, how totranslate that. It can be the
deep shadows or even blackness.
It might convey even death. Itmay just mean here, difficult
places, tough spots, but thegood shepherd is with me and
I'm not afraid. And then youmove to this imagery of a
banquet. You prepare a table,you anoint my head with oil.
(23:05):
Goodness said , mercy shallfollow me because my cup runs
over. Those three images talkabout what it would be to have
a meal with God and howincredible that would be.
Eating with God is a theme inthe Bible. It happens back in
the book of Exodus. Moses andthe elders go up and they eat
in the presence of God. It's arestoration of fellowship with
(23:26):
God. And of course it occurs atthe end of the Bible when in
the Book of Revelation we readabout the marriage supper of
the lamb. To get to eat withGod is an incredible idea.
Maybe , maybe you think about apolitical fundraiser and you
can buy a seat at a banquet andthen you get to eat with a
governor or eat with the mayor,or maybe even eat with the
President. Yeah. How much isthat gonna cost you? Is it
(23:47):
gonna cost you thousands ofdollars? You're gonna be in a
giant banquet hall, hundreds ofpeople, maybe thousands of
people, and the president'sgonna be on the other side of
the room. You're not reallygonna be in close proximity,
not really gonna get to knowhim and talk with him. David
says, I'm eating with God. Godprepares a table for me. I am
in close relationship with Godand that's just an unbelievable
(24:11):
idea. Well, it's notunbelievable because it's in
the Bible. We trust that thatgreat thing can happen for us
because we trust in God likeDavid does here. Surely
goodness and mercy shall followme. I'll dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. I will remainin fellowship with God serving
him forever. Six verses sopowerful. Our reading for
(24:35):
Friday is Psalm 23. With thatwe conclude the podcast for the
week. Thanks for studying andreading along with me. I just
appreciate it so much. If thepodcast is helping you, I hope
that you will tell others aboutit. And of course, leave us a
rating and review that helpsmore people lock onto the
podcast and give it a try. Sountil next week when we'll open
(24:56):
our Bibles together. Again, I'mMark Roberts and I wanna go to
heaven and I want you to cometoo . I'll see you on Monday
with a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(25:32):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
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