Welcome To Tehillim

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Boundless Bible. My name is David Shapiro. Hey, I'm Javi Marquez. And I'm Jason Holloway. Hello, everybody. Today I'm excited to go over Tehelium, which you don't really know what that is. You know it as Psalms, but Tehelium actually means praises. That's the original name of this book of the Bible. And it means praises, which is really interesting because most of it is laments, not praises. But this is really what we're going to go over today. And I'm excited to kind of talk about what it is, what it's not, instead of going over just specific Psalm verses, just kind of a general overview of what really Psalms is and what it's meant to be and what it can be today.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Yeah. Psalms, Psalms is long. Psalms is 150 Psalms. It is overwhelming. What's what's the word I'm looking for? Not overwhelming. It is intimidating to look at the first time. But I I told you guys off air that I kind of turned it on an audio app, you know, audio bible app, and I just listened to them. And I really got inspired by them. And to listen to them is a slightly different experience because they're this this one has music behind it. It has, you know, acting. And so when they're lamenting or when they're praising, you hear the voice. And so it's very impactful. So I really just wanted to talk about it with you guys today and and you know, really hear what you guys think about it and David, some more stuff that I don't know about it.

Many Writers, Not Just David

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah. First of all, it's not written by just David. A lot of people think that Psalms is just written by King David, and it's not. Aesoph, the kings of Korah, Solomon, Moses is actually attributed to one of them. So you have multiple writers of the book of Psalms. Right off the bat, it's different than what people expect because, again, they think it's just coming from one person, and it's not. This is really cool. And the reason why I say it's cool is this is actually written in five different sections, and it mirrors the five books of Moses. And the only reason I bring that up is when you look at the Torah, when you look at the five books of Moses, what we're learning is how God is having a relationship with his people. Psalms is how we can respond to that relationship. So the first five books is God talking to us. This is how we can talk back. So this is to me a really important part of the Bible. You're 100% correct, Jason. It could be a little bit overwhelming sometimes to go and look at how the speech and how many Psalms there are. I mean, it's it's a very long book, but again, if you're learning how to talk back to God, I want as much information as possible. And that's what you get out of Psalms.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

I think that's the cool thing about Psalms, is just the writers talking back to God, right? Asking for praising, right, worshiping, but also lamenting, right? And just asking for prayers, asking for certain things, take this away from me, certain things like that. And I think that's cool. It really, we're as humans, we could relate to that as going, like, hey, how about my feelings? God, like, right? You know, like the the like you were saying before, the Torah is it's kind of how God's characters are, and you can still see God's character through the Psalms, but it's also us talking back to God in a sense. Not saying that us we wrote it, but saying that we could relate to some of these, some of the psalms in these books.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Yeah.

Why Psalms Sound Like Real Life

SPEAKER_03 3:15

I mean, I've I've said before that, you know, the more I've read the Old Testament, the more I realize that it's it's a it's it's a story about the nature of God, it's a story about the nature of humans, and it's a story of the nature of the relationship between the two. And the more you read Psalms, the more you see how true that is. I mean, because yeah, there's 150 of them, but there's a reason for that. There's because there's there's so many different experiences that you can go through. You can go through, you know, deep, deep, you know, profound sadness, but also incredible, immense joy. And there's so many hundreds of versions of that. And the psalms help you see that, and it helps you see the the ebbs and the flows and the hills and the valleys of the human experience and how in every one of those situations you should be speaking with God and relating to God.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah, you know what's you mentioned the ups and downs and the peaks and valleys. And I look at this and I go, This is all we assume they're written over multiple days and time periods, which they are, but some of these could have actually been written the same day as well. And we go through these peaks and valleys in the exact same day, where you wake up and in the morning, you're like, Man, I'm gonna praise God. I'm feeling so good. And then something happens, and all of a sudden your day tanks and you're like, I'm in the valley, or vice versa. You wake up, you're supposed to be in the valley, and then all of a sudden you're like, Man, this is this is amazing. I feel amazing. God has showed up in incredible ways.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

I mean, when when you sit there and read them back to back to back or listen to them as as I did most recently, the striking thing is the contrast between one and the other. I mean, in one of them, David is saying, you know, you have set my feet on right paths, and nobody could come before me, and all is well, and you know, my life has been so blessed and so wonderful. And the next psalm is, oh, woe is me. All of my enemies have defeated me. They have you know struck my head with blows, and like it's and it's really striking how quickly he goes from like the most elated, most, you know, incredibly high highs to these devastatingly despondent lows. Like, and it's and it's back to back. And it's like it's literally back to back. Like my whole life has been full of joy. Oh, my life is full of nothing but woe. And I'm like, man, if I don't relate to something, that's it. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah, I you're breaking up a little bit, Jason, but but I I heard what you were saying and definitely agree with that. I mean, it's just it is it is life. This is what we're experiencing every day. And I think that when you get away from sometimes the language in Psalms, which becomes difficult, you realize that Psalms themselves, if you look at at Judaism, these these Psalms are used in celebration, they're used in mourning, they're used during their festivals. These are used multiple times throughout their life because they have a voice that is uniquely human. They are all of us. Yeah. And once you realize the humanity of what you're reading, even through the different difficult language, you start to realize that, hey, this is all me at different times, different moments. If if I haven't gone through that exactly, I can relate to what's being said. And yeah, I agree. I mean, the the overview of Psalms is just it's so human. Yeah. And this is our expression of, you know, I always I always look at people who can write music, something I can't do. They can they can just evoke an emotion by a couple of chords and some words. And man, Psalms does it better than I think anybody.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Agreed. I mean, I also have to imagine that in the original Hebrew, it's even more strong, too, right? Like we're we're reading it from the transcribed, you know, trans uh, transliterated, you know, version of you know English, where you know, obviously the translators do a great job of you know capturing the emotion, but still there's nothing like a you know, an original language, original meaning, original context. So I I'm I'm always fascinated by how if the if it's this powerful in English, how much more power, how equally powerful you know, must it be in in Hebrew? And I just think it's such a cool thing that the Bible can do that most other books can't do.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, agreed.

Try Writing Your Own Psalms

SPEAKER_01 7:44

The other thing I'll say, and and this is just I always say this, and and I hope that people don't take this as sacrilegious. I know we're not ever supposed to change the Bible. I'm not referring that you should change it, but it is actually a really good test and a good practice in your own life to write down your own list of psalms, to write down maybe 10 of them. You don't have to go to 150. I think that's cool. Um, but but it's almost like journaling where you just write down, hey, 10 different psalms, 10 different ways I'm communicating to God. These are the things that are going on tough in my life. These are the things I'm thankful for and praising you for. There's something really, really strong about writing something down as far as releasing it to God rather than just prayer.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

That's actually a cool idea to do. I'm not a a person that takes notes too much. I mean, as far as notebooking, if I can say that right, or diary in some ways. But the times that I have, you know, and I do it sporadically throughout the year, I do find a relief there. You know, there's a certain this I tap into something that I never thought I would tap into in a sense, and it gives me peace to like let it out in a different way, right? On the on the pages rather than maybe speaking through it or worst of all, really just sitting with my thoughts. So you saying that I think is actually a cool idea to do a good practice to do and actually speaking to God in that way, right? Almost like prayers, right? But on paper. That's pretty pretty cool, David.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

I I think it's a really cool exercise because what we haven't talked about yet is you know, one of the one of the most fascinating sides of this is that yes, they're joyful psalms, but there's also anger and there's frustration and there's sadness and there's complication and there's there's a whole lot of God, why are you doing this to me? God, why are you allowing this to me? There's a lot of questioning. There's a lot of, I mean, I I I won't go so far as to say anger, but there's definitely like, you know, frustration at, you know, God, why are you doing this? How is this happening to me? And why, you know, I've been faithful and I've done that, you know, so much of that. And I and I think those are the things that we deal with too. We go through situations and we go, why are why am I going through this? What is happening here? Why does this hurt so bad? When is this going to be over? Right? All these different thoughts. And I think that the again, it's such a human nature thing to read from 2,000 years ago, and we're still going through the actually, probably 3,000 years ago, if the if my timing is right. It's like 3,000 years ago this is happening. The people are having the same thoughts we are now. And so I bringing it back to us, I think that we struggle with the same things, but we don't have maybe an outlet for it. So we're told to read these things, and we read them and we can see ourselves reflected. But what a what a great exercise to be able to write our own. Not for the sake of putting in the Bible, but for our for ourselves. Like Javi said, you know, instead of sitting in our heads with it, to to put it on paper, to make it real, to make it tangible, and then to sit with that and and and see ourselves in history with with these other people who are going through the same things.

Psalms As Israel’s Story

SPEAKER_02 10:55

What you you saying that it reminded me, so yesterday I was reading, I was reading like the intro of the Bible app, right? Oh, for Psalm. And and kind of like before you start reading it, it gives you like this brief history or how it's compiled, or just kind of like what's it about. And it's kind of interesting you're saying that because when I think about Psalms or maybe Proverbs, you know, books of wisdom or just kind of praises and stuff like that. But to me, I've always thought it was just random thought of wisdom that you they have and they write it down. But Psalms is very organized. I think the more I look into the Bible, the Bible is really not only layered because it's boundless, right? Like we talk about, but is also like intentional. And the psalm is broken down, like David said, like the Torah in five books. But there's also there's not random praises and stuff like that. There's like sections of it that actually mean towards what's happening with the group of Israel. So like the first two is about King David and and and everything is going on within, but then like the other books, three, four, and five is about the exile for Israel and then coming back, you know. So that's kind of cool. And then they actually wrote these songs during those times and speaking on those things. So it's almost it's cool for you, Jason. I know you love it so much. It's like it's also history, right? It's also they're they're talking about the history of what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah.

unknown 12:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

I mean, you mentioned Proverbs real quick, and yeah, just as a quick like Proverbs, because we talk a lot here about we have the heart and we have the mind, but you know, with the Bible. And sometimes we talk about apologetics, sometimes we talk about symbolism, sometimes we talk about the facts of it, and other times we just talk about what it does to your heart. And honestly, that when you mentioned Proverbs, I'm going, Proverbs is our response to all of our issues. And and Psalms is the the purpose, the reason behind it, the life behind it. So Psalms gives us, hey, this is what's going on in my life. And then Proverbs is like, great, this is how you answer it. Yeah. This is what to do to make it better. Practically. And I I actually do love the fact of uh, you know, right now there are people listening who are confused, they're struggling, they're hurt, they're broken, they're not sure what they should believe, what they should do. And when you read Psalms, you're going, I'm not alone. I'm I'm experiencing this with other people. Like you said, Jason, from 3,000 years ago, they were walking with God, didn't have all the answers. So they are praying out at that moment. And it it is really beautiful to compare and contrast Psalms with Proverbs to see, here's my problem in Psalms and here's how you fix it, quote unquote, fix it. Never thought about it in Proverbs.

A Prayer Bank For Hard Days

SPEAKER_01 13:35

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Well, I mean, there's there are also prayers too, right? I mean, you know, a lot of these are prayers. It's like I I think if you were to, and I'm I can't say I have yet, but I think if you were to catalog them, you know, what they're about, what they stand for, who they who they serve, you could really have a strong prayer bank for people who are going through stuff that they don't have their own words for. I mean, you just you just randomly turn through these things and you'll find yourself saying, I mean, I just randomly jumped to Psalm 9 and it says, I will give thanks to you, my Lord, with all my heart. I will tell you of your of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing your praises in the name of Most High. Like, if I just I know I need to talk to God and I don't know what to say, say that. Say that. You know, and and in in the moment that I know, you know, I I love God and I and I need to speak to Him as a father, and I just don't have the words, open one up and see what it is. Or I'm sure that there's I know for a fact there's ones, you know, if you're angry with what's going on in your life, you know, direct somebody to that psalm and have them pray over that psalm. And and it's and it's really impactful.

Psalms Were Meant To Be Sung

SPEAKER_03 14:32

You know what we haven't talked about yet? We haven't talked about the fact that they're songs. We haven't talked about the fact that they are actually meant, or at least many of them are meant to be songs. Can you talk about that? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yeah, I mean, listen, if you know the story of King David, you know that he was a harpist. He played an instrument as well, played for Saul, for King Saul, to calm him down. And so he naturally put a lot of these to music as well. And some of the other ones, also to the choir master, he's they're gonna sing something to him. Listen, when you look at the Jewish culture, we've talked about it before, everything has action, everything is heart, everything has meaning. Song is a way that they cry out to God. When they were done with Exodus, the first thing they did when they crossed the Red Sea was to sing to God. This is what they do, this is what they show. It's really interesting and completely off topic. But I have a playlist of songs from international from different countries that I listen to, where you can just hear somebody from their own country playing their own music, their own style of music, just the heart that comes through with it. And I think that, you know, right now the Israelites they understand that through the song, they can convey all of that emotion, all of that love, all that pain, all of everything, all of the emotions they're feeling through song, and and they continue to to this day. But yeah, that's that to me, it's it's amazing that they're all in song form, or most of them.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

That's cool.

Psalm 23 And The Shepherd Trust

SPEAKER_02 15:52

We know the the most famous song and verse, right? Which is though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Yeah, that's a good look of my life. Go for it, Coolio.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

That is that is probably Coolio. Coolio is the minister Coolio. We didn't know that. Minister Coolio. Minister Coolio, Reverend, Reverend, Reverend Coolio. He uh he taught us many many things about the the Psalms. But you know, I that go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

No, just that verse right there you use to, you know, right now, Javi. I always called you Coolio. Thank you. That verse that you just spoke, it's really interesting because even that one, when you get to the depth of what he's saying, he is talking about how he trusts God because God is his shepherd. And this is coming from a shepherd. David was the shepherd, he understood vividly what that meant, right? How to care for your flock, what that represented. So even him talking to God as the ultimate shepherd, it goes deeper to levels. It's not just, hey, I appreciate you for taking care of me and I'm gonna sing a song about it. It's no, I know you intimately. I'm calling you out intimately by what you are to me. And I care for every one of my sheep, their well-being, protecting them, and all of that. And you're doing the same for me. So even while I'm in pain, I'm gonna reach out and say, I know you've got me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

That's cool. It's it's actually, I was gonna say before, it was just that's actually my Michael Jordan of all psalms, which is Psalm 23, which is what we're talking about, Psalm 23, and that was 24. Literally 24. But you know, it's very, it's like you saying, David, King David, it's very he knows, you know, he was a shepherd, he knows that is, and it's just peaceful for me to read this psalm and and to know that God is my shepherd, and he's able to, I'm able to know that I lack nothing, right? The verse goes, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pasture, he leads me besides quiet waters. It's something peaceful about, and it goes on, you know, about that peaceful serenity of being with God and knowing that He has my He's oh He's protecting me, right? He's watching over me, He's He's comforting me. And as we go about life, we know, you know, as we we just spoke about the armor of God and just being protected and just kind of being ready for what's out there to know that we have a big God that protects us, you know, as we go out there, as well as us putting on our own armor or the armor of God. And it's something peaceful about that,

Favorite Psalms And Daily Obedience

SPEAKER_02 18:09

you know. And I actually wanted to ask you guys, what's one of your favorite like verses and or psalms like you say?

SPEAKER_03 18:16

Yeah, I all of them these days. Um I mean, really, I I uh after I went through that whole exercise of listening to all of them, now I just kind of like find myself randomly opening up the Bible, like literally like just grabbing it and opening it and like grabbing one and and asking, asking myself, you know, what what day of my life can I map this to? You know, what you know, again, all these hundred and fifty can map to something. You know, it's a good day, a bad day, a scared day, of a a beautiful day. And so like I find myself just kind of like looking back at my own life now and finding a psalm and being like, okay, that's that's the prayer I should have prayed that day, or that's the prayer that I I I understand that prayer and where it's coming from. But the the one that really stands out to me is is obviously number one. It's the very first one. It's it's blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked and stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and whose who meditate on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yield its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither, whether or whatever they do prospers. Then it goes on to say, Not so the wicked, they are chaff that blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. That's a long thing to say. But it it it's just it's the simplest way of saying, like, look, you get your head on right, you put your head on, you you focus on the things that are important, you live a righteous life, and things are going to happen, and you're gonna be by those streams of streams of water that you talked about in in Psalm 23, Javi. You know, not everybody's going to, oh, you know what? I didn't connect with 23 until just now. You realize it's saying, He is my God, he he leads me beside you know cool waters, he lays me down in pastures, but that's only if you follow him. But it's only if you follow him, right? Like if the if the just because the shepherd is next to the waters and doing the good stuff, you yourself have an obedience to that. You still have to follow him to go to that. And that's what Psalm 1 says. Psalm 1 says, if you're going to be righteous, he's going to, you know, he's going to take care of you. He's you're going to be like a tree planted by the by the water. You're going to yield fruit. Your leaf isn't going to wither wither, and anything you do is going to prosper. And it's just a reminder that there's a there's a bit of a partnership involved in this whole thing. And God's going to send us in the right way, but we have to follow what God says.

The Law As Connection To God

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I'll tell you something interesting about Psalms 1 and what you just mentioned, with so it talks about the law. If you if you're following the law, you take delight in the law. 613 laws, if you talk to somebody who is has a good knowledge of Judaism, not just somebody who says, hey, I I was born Jewish and I follow some holidays, but somebody who really has studied Torah, you realize that 613 laws, we look at it as, man, that's a lot of laws to follow. That must be really cumbersome to follow all these 613 and know what they are. But if you talk to somebody who really studies Jewish theology, what they consider is it's three, six and thirteen ways to perform good deeds, to do something that's really good for somebody else, which is ultimately good for me. But more than that, if I do the the mitzvahs, which is what that's called, it's not only 613 ways to do something good. They actually, the root of the word is connection. So it's 613 ways that I can connect to God. Connect to God, wow. So now when you're talking about belief in God and you need to trust the shepherd, these are 613 ways for you to connect to God for Him to lead you down and give you rest and be my shepherd. And so it goes again even deeper. When you mentioned, hey, some of these words go even deeper. Yeah, when they talk about the laws, these are 613, not rules to follow, but ways to connect my Myself to Hashem to God, which is what they would have thought. And it's really a beautiful, just kind of way to look at it. We're not looking at you have to follow a law. This is a way you can do a good deed and connect to God.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

So my my favorite psalm, I'm going to go to Psalm 90. One because I have the beard like Moses, and it's the only one that he is accredited to writing. That's fine. Uh is Psalm 90. But I'm going to read just the beginning of it. And this is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or you have ever formed in the earth or the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. So before he formed the earth, he's always God. And he's our dwelling place. He's our, I mean, he tabernacles in us now. We know that. But he is also where we should dwell ourselves in. We should dwell in God as he dwells in us. You just mentioned, Jason, this partnership that we get to have with God. And Moses is calling that out. We are meant to have God in us. We're meant to be in God. And that was that beginning of that psalm just makes it aside from being written by Moses or at least accredited to it. It is that's mine that I was it's a big go-to for me.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

That's a that's I mean, it's a reminder of how big all of this is, right? This isn't this isn't about me. This is like a lot of times we like to see ourselves reflected in the Bible. You know, we we make the boat, well, I need something, so I'm gonna go to the Bible. But sometimes you realize that this isn't about me, it's about the collective me of all the humans who have ever existed in existence. And by the way, all the things that are not considering themselves me in existence. I mean, this is this is the God who has been the dwelling place since before there was dust. Like, I I I think that's I think that's a really powerful statement. And and you know, there's also it's I don't know, the the Psalms are also so full of like these incredible lines that are so baked into our culture now that you don't even realize you read you read through the Psalms and you realize like how many sayings that we have that came from Psalms. They're like three, like you're all like we all think like, oh, these are like you know, new variations on old no, these are 3,000-year-old like words of wisdom that you're spouting off at a football game, not realizing that you know it's it's it's biblical. And that's another really interesting thing about about the psalms in general is how ubiquitous they are in daily life.

unknown 24:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

I I I also think about one of the things that you know, we talk about Psalms for all times and how we read now versus then. One of the things, and even in Psalm 90 that I just read, you know, it says all generations. So it's not only talking about all generations prior to Moses, right? All generations across time. So yes, now we're reading them and we have these cliche sayings that we use that come from Psalms. But when you really look at the heart of it, this is that moment where God is saying, Listen, I am for everyone. I'm not just for one people. These are my covenant people who are supposed to shine a light on the world through, but the world is supposed to be part of my world as well. I created everybody for all generations. And the fact that, listen, I I have read uh things that I wrote 20 years ago that are obscure today. I wrote things five minutes ago that are obscure today, right now. But but things I wrote 20 years ago are obscure. 3,000 years ago, they wrote something that is so vividly me today through all the generations.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Man, if I if I talk about beauty of of Psalms, that's one of those that just has to stand out.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Well, it it speaks to its truth, right? Like these the things wouldn't, they wouldn't stick around if they weren't true. They they would be they would have fallen by the wayside thousands of years ago if if they weren't true. And that's that's what makes them so intensely impactful, is that they were true 3,000 years ago, they were tree true 2,000 years ago, a thousand years in today, and they will most likely be true a thousand years from now, two a thousand years and three thousand years from then. I mean, it's it's again, it's it's humbling to read the Psalms with context and to think of why it exists like this. And it's because it's so big and we're so small, and and I don't know, that that context sometimes just puts you back in your place and reminds you what we're doing in this life.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

David. And for all people, and for all people. It this this is not just a king who writes this, this is not just the the wisest man in history. This is not just uh uh you know uh a servant of God, these are all different writers, all writing it. So it also is not just relatable to a certain type of person, it's written by many people for many people. Yeah, amen.

Jesus Quoting Psalms And Victory

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Go ahead, I was gonna ask David, and not to put you in the spot, maybe know on top of your head Christ in the Psalm.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah, of course. Listen, in what I just wrote, obviously the tabernacling right now, we know that we we have the Holy Spirit within us. Psalms has an abundance of prophecy towards, and I'm gonna get it wrong, but I think Psalm 110 is another one. There's multiple areas where you can read Psalms that points directly to Christ. Yeah I I think that there's every book in the Bible, and Tim Keller actually does an amazing job with this, but Tim Keller has something where he finds the gospel in every book in the Old Testament. But it's not only a matter of that it's there, because we know it's there, we should have trust and belief that it's there. It's not so much that is there something that points to Christ, but is that something that points me directly to Christ? And I think that that's something where when people start to read Psalms and they realize, hey, this is me, this is talking about me, this is my my experience, and and I want a way out, and then you start to hear the praises of people afterwards going, Hey, I found this through relationship with God and through following him. I think that's more to it. And to me, yeah, Psalm speaks all of Jesus and speaks to me directly about that.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

I think that's really interesting. Go ahead. No, I'm gonna say for sure. I mean, like Psalm is one of those books that obviously carry throughout more through time, but also we see it in the gospels, right? Like the the disciples mentioning Psalm through like an Acts and Peter. We see obviously Jesus mentioning Psalms, verses from there, and obviously the most, you know, my God, my God, why do you forsake me, right? Psalm 22, I believe. You know, there's a lot of correlation back to the so it's a beautiful when you we talk about what Tim Keller says, and I think I think it's true. I think that's a beautiful thing about obviously for me believing in Christ to see that throughout the Bible, that Christ is in all books, you know, his his the prophecy of him, the Messiah coming and all that stuff, but also how he lived and who he is, or even speaking to certain certain characters there. I think that's an amazing thing for me as a Christian to know that he is also obviously in Psalms.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah, and he uses Psalms. Jesus had quoted Psalms almost more than every book in the Bible. Uh so you get to also see that not only is it pointing to him, he's pointing straight back to it. He's pointing he's pointing back to his words. And, you know, the the my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? A lot of people kind of stop there. We go, okay, I heard Jesus' version of it, but they never went back to Psalms and realized that this is actually not a lament story. This is a victory story. At the end of it, it's victorious. So even reading that, it's not Jesus saying, God, you're turning your back for me. Why are you turning your back for me? And, you know, people going, Well, why would Jesus say that if he is God and all that? No, read it. It's actually him pointing towards the victory side of things. Um, so even that part, Jesus points to Psalms so many times and is not argued with by the Pharisee or anybody else that you realize that what he's saying truly is Psalms, truly is the belief, truly is the interpretation of the time of what Psalms is. So it just makes it really beautiful. I heard, but like I mentioned, you know, it it really what does it read like to you? You know, and this is the part of the Bible where this is the living part of I, as I get older, I realize that debating people more on what they think is impossible. Yeah, I have no idea what I'm not in somebody's head or their heart. I can show them what the Bible says, but is that speaking to you that way? And let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Yeah, I mean, look, I I think that's again, I go back to kind of my kind of my first point, which was that these are experiences of lives lived thousands of years ago, but they're equally valid to the lives that we live today. And when we look at them, there are things that we're going through that we're, you know, look, I think there's things that we live through that we go, there's nobody understands me. Nobody, nobody gets it, nobody's been in my place, nobody's ever felt that. But you give a non-believer or somebody who's kind of like half-hearted in their belief, and you find like the right psalm for them, and it's gonna speak to them, and it's gonna go, wow, I'm not alone. This is not just me. I'm not the only person who's gone through this. And I think that that's that true, that right there is truly the power of the Bible. It's the ability to show you yourself reflected in words that were written thousands of years before you, and yet there you are sitting on that page. And there's your experience that nobody else could possibly understand. But who does? God. God has always understood. He's always understood, he's always been there, he's done it. And we we have several thousand versions of it. God has several billion versions of it, you know, and and so I think that you can reflect that back.

Ending With Loud Wholehearted Praise

SPEAKER_03 31:53

And we're we're kind of running long, so I I want to maybe get towards the end of this, but I realized as we were talking, you know, yes, yes, this is a life lived, right? And there's ups and there's downs and there's sadness and there's and there's you know frustration and there's exhaustion and there's all these things. But if you notice that it ends well, it doesn't, it doesn't end on a bad note. It doesn't end on a medium note, it ends on a on a on a high note, and and it's a very high note for that matter. Psalm 150 says, Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens, praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his surpassing greatness, praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timberland dancing, praise him with strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding symbols. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Wow. Like it's it's it's it's like your send-off saying, You're gonna go through all this stuff. All this stuff you're gonna go through. You're gonna you're gonna be in the depths, you're gonna be at the heights, but in all of it, it ends with it ends by telling you what to do. In all things, praise the Lord. In his sanctuary, outside of his sanctuary, with pack, with power, with greatness, with trumpets, with instruments, with song, with and and and I don't know, it's really it's really powerful to me to say like there's a res there's a resolution to all of it, and it's and the answer is praise.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Yeah. You know, when I think about the thief on the cross, you know, you you're talking about the end of Psalms where there is noise and joy and praises. And I think about the thief on the cross, and he's crucified, he is becoming asphyxiated. It is painful. Yeah, he has to lift himself up also on the nails in order to talk. And with whatever low voice he could muster, he is saying, Jesus next to me doesn't deserve any of this. This is God that doesn't deserve any of this. We do, he doesn't, and he's he's taking all this for us. And when I think of the end of Psalms and I compare it and I go, God has taken all of our laments, all of our, I mean, we curse him, we we yell out to him, we cry to him, we blame him, we do all these things. He has taken all of that. At the very end, it's you don't deserve any of that, God. Thank you for being who you are and being so loving and being willing to die for me. And whether it is the whisper of torment at the end of his life or the clashing of symbols at the end of Psalms, it it all resounds to the same point. That's us three. We've said this before, you know, several times before. We all point to Christ in three different ways. Here are two very different ways that you're praising Christ, one very, very quietly in a whisper, and one really noisy. And mine is are you praising God in your way, in some way, at the very end of what you said, of all the torment and the torture and the hardships and the joy and the pain and all that? Are you able to still look and go, thank you, God, for my life, my journey, my purpose, and for you?

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Yeah. I mean, doesn't get any better than that, does it? I mean, that's that's it. And and we have to we have to praise. We have to praise. Didn't didn't you say something one other time? And I I think it's probably a good time to write, but didn't you say at some point that the interesting thing about praise is that praise doesn't have to be joy. Praise can be it, it's just talking to God. It's it's thankfulness, it's it's you know what trust, it's confidence, it's talking. It doesn't, you know, we we have this word of you know praise, thinking that we have to go dance and sing and be happy and joyful, but it's not always that, it's just talking to God and being in relationship with that with God. I mean, so so like you said, even if you're whispering, as long as you're talking to God, you're in the right space, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Yeah. Listen, I I've I've punished my kids before, and they might later in life praise me for it and go, wow, you made me the person I am today through that. This is in real time. This is them going, hey, I'm recognizing this right now. And I think that's the faith in God is hey, I'm recognizing this right now. I'm going through hardship that might be for my benefit. And I'm gonna praise and thank you later in the way that we know the word praise and and and thankfulness. But I'm gonna do that now through it. I'm going to struggle my way through it and go, All right, I'm in the valley, but thank you for what you're putting before me. Thank you for life. Thank you for breath. Thank you for all those things. Again, that's that whisper. And then when you get to that mountaintop, it's like, hey, I'm gonna clash some symbols and make some noise, and man, you're a good God.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Yeah. I love that.

How To Start Reading Psalms

SPEAKER_03 36:25

So, guys, Psalms is long. It's 150 books. It is worth every single word of it, however. Take your time, read through them. If you're feeling some some kind of way and you don't know what to do about it, grab, grab Psalms, open it up, start pointing at random pages and see which one hits you because one will undoubtedly hit you. And when you do that, ask yourself, what is what is Jesus teaching me and what am I doing about it, right? So we we hope that you can get into the Psalms. We hope that that if you get something out of it, you'd let us know. We'd love to hear your your psalm stories or even just your psalms. Let us know on the socials, send us an email, get in touch with us one way. Tap us on the shoulder if you come to our church, whatever. Just to come talk to us about it. But we we always appreciate your time and we look forward to talking to you again soon. Thanks. See you guys. Bye.