Well we are entering Hour Eight of our Learn
the Bible in 24 Hours, and this session is going to address the poetical books as they're
called. It’s going to be a very different session.
We've been in historical books, narrative type books, these are very different. The books are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
and Song of Songs. And very, very interesting books. Now Job, of course, deals with the mystery of
suffering. ... Or at least that’s the way it is commonly viewed. And it’s the oldest book in the Bible, by
the way. The oldest books are not by Moses. The Book of Job was classic literature
even in the days of Moses. Probably written ... something like
2000 BC, maybe even earlier. There are lots of studies. Some associate Job
with Jobab the son of Joktan in Genesis 10, but those are conjectures. There’s a lot of debate exactly how far
back he goes, but in any case, it is regarded ... The Book of Job is regarded as a literary
masterpiece. It actually consists of a very highly developed
poetry. In fact, Victor Hugo called it the greatest
masterpiece of the human mind. Well he got that almost right. It’s not of the human mind at all. It’s ... but in any case, the Book of Job. It’s
actually a dramatic poem framed in an epic story. And the first part of the book lets you in
on something Job didn’t have the benefit of. You need to understand as you read the book
of Job, he didn’t have ... he did not have the benefit of chapter one, because what happens
in chapter one is a prologue where Satan challenges God. Job did not know what was going on in heaven. And following that, we have the dialogues. And they’re actually four, we'll talk about
3 of them. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite,
and Zophar the Naamathite, and there’s a 4th guy that’s kind of a strange guy. Many people
are puzzled by Elihu. And I'll show you why later. Now, some of you people probably in one of
the riddles your kids talk about, who is the shortest man in the Bible? And people say
well, Nehemiah would be the shortest guy in the Bible. (laughter) And when you hear that, you say
no, no, it’s Bildad the Shuhite. So somebody says that Centurion was the smallest
guy because he slept on his watch. But that's another issue. Let's get on here. And then the final part of the book is the
divine response. We have a prologue that's Satan's challenge ...
that sets the stage, but realize Job didn’t know that. And then we have ... and he goes through
all these troubles. And the bulk of the book are these dialogues where these three "Friends,"
I'll put friends in quotation marks, discuss his predicament. But then God himself steps in and answers
for Job and to Job, with a very remarkable passage. So, the prologue. Now, we first see Job in his ... piety in
prosperity. He is very wealthy. He’s got flocks. He’s
got wealth. He’s got family. He is in great shape, and Satan uses that to
accuse him. Satan goes before God and spreads his lie,
and his maliciousness, by saying the reason he’s so pious is because he's so rich. Take
away his wealth and so forth, then see what happens. So, God allows that to happen, and we see Job’s
piety in adversity as these things start to go against him. He doesn’t lose his commitment to God. And
he gets to this point where even his wife says, "Curse God and die." And "though He slay me, yet will I trust
Him," is Job’s response, and Satan continues, "Well sure he still ... but let’s take away
his ... take away his health." So, we see his piety in adversity, but then
his piety in the extremity. He finally loses everything. He loses his ... He earlier
... By the way, important thing I should mention, he’s regarded as the greatest man in the
east. He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 oxen,
and 500 she asses, so he was very prosperous. And so Satan is the god of
this age, right? Understand Satan is real, and he’s malevolent.
He’s against your best interests. In any case, finally, Job loses not only his
wealth and his family, his sons and daughters get killed. Seven sons and 3 daughters get killed, but he also
loses his health. He’s a ... trash heap. He’s in bad shape, and then, what constitute ...
and that’s we have in that first chapter. What constitutes the bulk of the book is these
three friends that come and advise him. And every one of his friends, the arguments are
valid, but they’re not true. So, with friends like that you don’t
need enemies. And a couple of things, some insights in that early chapter. Satan is accountable to God. He can’t touch
Job unless God says okay. Satan can only do things that God allows him
to do. Every harm that comes to you is Father filtered. It’s interesting that Satan’s dark mind
is an open book to God. Satan has no secrets from God. Satan is also behind the evils that cursed
the earth. What’s very clear as you study the Bible,
the evils that are in the world are accountable to the god of this world which is Satan. He’s what it’s all about in terms of evil. By the way, Satan is neither omnipresent nor
omniscient. He has locality. He can’t be harassing you when he’s harassing
you. In other words his minions might. He’s got
resources, but he personally, is a created being. He’s not some kind of God. He is a very powerful angel that's gone
bad. So he’s not omniscient, he doesn’t know
everything. I don’t believe he can read your thoughts. He can implant thoughts in your mind, but I
don't think he can read ... only God knows the thoughts and the intents of the heart the
Scripture tells us. That’s important to know. And Satan can do
nothing without Divine permission. Everything that happens he has to go to God
for permission. It's interesting, also God is always on His
own. A little boy asked his dad, very nervous about
something. He says, "Dad does, does God see me all the
time?" as if he’s trying to hide something. The father very quickly says, "God loves you
so much that He can’t take His eyes off you." Isn't that a great answer? I love that. So the dialogues constitute the bulk of this.
Job's in his predicament, and we have three guys, and each guy gets three cracks at him
and three ... discourses. I’m not going to spend a lot of time analyzing
them, but Eliphaz basically advises Job based on his own observation and experience. He concludes that Job suffers because he has
sinned. They assume all these troubles are brought upon him because of his sin. That’s basically the theme. Bildad comes along and his primary argument
is on tradition. He concludes that Job is a hypocrite, because
it isn’t what it seems. He somehow isn't as pious as he looks. Zophar comes along. He rests on assumptions
of orthodox dogma. Job is a wicked man. These dialogues are different only really
in their subtleties. But these take three, three attacks at him
and he responds and that's what constitutes the bulk of the book. You finally get to this fourth guy. Elihu has sort of a different approach. And
see, all three of these guys preceding have too narrow a view and too rigid a view of
God’s providence. They don’t have the understanding that God
is big and has lots of different means and methods. But Elihu comes along, he sort of
throws you, because he’s apparently a young man and that, you know, you don't think of
wisdom coming from a young man, but he believes that ... he’s sort of a very
respectful intercessor on behalf of Job. And he has a higher view. He thinks suffering may
have a higher purpose than they're allowing for. It may be ... this may be moral rather than
penal. This may restore rather than requite, this
may chasten rather than chastise. In fact, he really sets the stage for God Himself
stepping in and answering for Job. When Job ... when God does step in He rebukes
the first three speakers. He rebukes them. That they ... they don’t
know what they're talking about. He doesn’t comment Elihu. There are even
some scholars that think Elihu could be an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. I don’t go that far, but clearly Elihu sets
the stage. He’s sort of an intercessor, sets the stage
for God’s appearance. But the Divine response. You know, there comes
a voice from the whirlwind and God gives Job a Science quiz. Regarding the earth, the heavens, living beings,
even talks about dinosaurs. Land dinosaurs and sea dinosaurs are mentioned
in Job. Many people don't realize that because of
all the silly speculation in some commentaries. Don’t read the ... don’t read commentaries,
read the Book and see what it talks about these things. Then there's the epilogue. After He gives Job
the sort of science, where were you, when I laid the foundations of the earth? He talks about some interesting things we'll
get here in a minute. That the epilogue and God rebukes the
so-called three comforters, and then He restores to Job double everything he lost. There's a little surprise in that one, too, I
want to get to. The scientific insights. You know, there
are at least 15 facts of science that are suggested, that were not discovered until recent
centuries, that are in the Book of Job. It's an interesting passage, chapter 38 and
following. One of the things that emerges out of all this, that the planet that Scientists
have discovered is uniquely designed for life. In fact, we call it the "Anthropic Principle." It's as if the planet was designed for man. If the planet was a little bigger or a little
smaller life would be impossible. If it was little closer to the sun or a little
further. If you try to build a model of the universe
as we know it. You'll discover there are literally hundreds
of factors that if you change them just a little bit, life's impossible. Forces and weights and ratios are all delicately
designed. Example: the ozone ... people say "Gee,
... the ozone layer if it changes one tenth of one percent cosmic doom comes." Turn that
coin over. If it's that delicate, who balanced it? You see, each one of those arguments is an
argument for design and also skillful attention. Some of those factors have one part in 10,000
different and life is impossible. The nature of water. The water molecule, you can
go on and on, and the ... the so-called Anthropic Principle, is a whole study in its own right. Very fascinating. The other thing ... the flip side of that, is also the
absence of scientific errors. You’ll not find in such… in the Bible you will not
find scientific ... one of the amazing things, is that it doesn’t have scientific errors. Some of the silly folklore of the past doesn't creep in. Except maybe idiomatically in some places. But
the hydrological cycle is a simple example. Evaporation, circulation, precipitation in
Job 26. Why do ... How do clouds stay aloft? Water is heavier than air. How do they stay up there? Air, wind and so forth have weight, right? Water weighs more than air, so how is it supported? You'll find the answer in ... Job 28 among
other places. There's also the space, time, mass of the
universe. We now know the properties of space. Empty space is not empty. It’s got energy and
it has properties that any radio amateur wilI tell you. It has impedance. It has properties.
Empty space has ... "He stretched out the north over empty space
and hangeth the earth upon nothing," Job says. What? Hangs the earth on nothing. Well, we know that
to be true today, don't we? The morning stars singing at the foundation
of the earth. That’s kind of interesting. They were created before the foundation of
the earth. And these dinosaurs that’s another thing. People are really fascinated about the dinosaurs.
You know, the land based dinosaurs are represented by the behemoth in Job 40. It’s not a hippopotamus, there's all
kinds of conjectures. They don’t fit the text. These are giant creatures. They’re well described. If you read if ... if you don't have in your
mind trying to fit this to something we know, and just listen to what the text says, what
you’ll see is a dinosaur with a big tail, that ... knocks things over, and is huge and,
by the way, there is that, breathes fire. Breathes fire. Now, that’s bizarre. They have found skulls of dinosaurs that have
chambers they don't know what they're for. There is just a conjecture, we don't know. That conjecture they may be very similar to
the Bombardier beetle which mixes two chemicals to throw fire. And we know especially in Eastern
Asia, there apparently has been a history of fire breathing dinosaurs. That’s what are called dragons in China and
the rest. They had an ancient history, but there's also sea-based dinosaurs mentioned in Job
41. The Leviathan. And it talks about it. It’s interesting, that these things may still
be around in rare situations. In New Zealand, in 1977 some Japanese fishermen
picked up this creature. It was 900 feet down, it was 32 feet long. Weighed 4,000 pounds, here is a picture of
it. They didn’t have the capacity to keep it. They took pictures of it and threw it back
but this one had been well documented back in 1977, and there have been others. This is just one that happened to get
a picture of. There's a number of these. Kent Hovind,
his ministry, a number ... have all kinds of information on, not only dinosaurs, but even contemporary
encounters with them. Let’s talk about astro ... astronomy. God asks "where is the way where light dwelleth?" You know, light's dynamic. Dark… darkness is static, and he, he… God asked him getting ... just pick a sample here
... God says to Job, "can you bind the influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands
of Orion?" That's God challenge to Job. I was quite startled to discover from an astronomer
friend of mine, who pointed out that the constellations in the skies look like groups of stars but
obviously they're not real. Some are ... much further away, some
are close. They just have an appearance that looks
like, they're not really necessarily clustered. There’s only two exceptions. There are two constellations that, in fact,
are gravitationally linked. The Pleiades and the belt of Orion. How did Job or the writer of Job know that? God challenged him, "can you bind the influence
of the Pleiades or lose the bands of Orion?" He knew. See, these are the only visible to the eye constellations
in direct gravitational bondage, and they're mentioned Job Chapter 38 verse 31. In fact the whole Mazzaroth, what
we call the Zodiac, are signs of God's plan of redemption. That’s quite a ... ambitious
thing to get into. I won’t get into here, but you’ll discover
the 12 signs of the Zodiac, if known by their Hebrew names, portray the 12 tribes of Israel. They also portray God's plan from the Virgin
Birth represented by Virgo to the victory of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, which we
call Leo. All this gets corrupted in Genesis 11 at
the Tower of Babel, but they believe that Adam and maybe the earlier Enoch and the others taught their children the plan of God by memorizing these stories. What you need to know, the stories and not
the arrangement the stars - that's silliness. Cassiopeia, the woman chained in a chair. That's just a bent W. How do you get a woman chained in a chair? These aren't pictures. There are pictures
associated with the stars, but the way you know the story is not by the picture. You need to know the names of the stars in
the order of brightness. That will remind you of the story, and the story is pictured, but
... it's not by the arrangement of the stars. You follow me? That's corruption. But if you learn the
names of the stars in Hebrew, you’ll discover some astonishing things. And there’s a whole
study of that called the Signs In The Heavens, but we'll move on here. Let's get to the Psalms. That's Israel’s
hymnal. It’s actually poetry laced with strong theology. There’s a lot of theology and in … the
songs. It's interesting how today’s music is
different than the old classic hymns. You know the classic hymns were just rich
with theology. Many people call today’s modern Christian
music the 711 music. Seven words repeated 11 times. The Psalms are rich with theology. In the Hebrew the word, for the book is called
the Tehillim, praises. There are 55 of these that are addressed directly
to the chief musician. They were intended to be sung. In the Greek the term of the book was called
psal … psalmoi which is a poem to be sung to a
stringed instrument. Or a psalter for a harp or string instrument and it's out of that
that we have the English word Psalms, but in any case, the nature of poetry. See, we're used to poetry that’s phonetic
in it's design. We have rhyme which involves the parallelism
of sound. The there’s also a … parallelism
of rhythm ... or meter. Parallelism of time. There's also the ... the conceptual design
of the ... of the poetry can also involve the parallelism of ideas. And that’s especially true of the Book of Proverbs. And these parallelisms
can be comparative to illuminate something. They can be contrastive of to be antithetic,
in other words opposites. Or they can be completive to be synthetic. Also, throughout the Psalms you find some interesting
words. You find the word "selah". Some people say that’s a musical ... they
speculate that that's a musical term. No, it’s a pause intended for you to connect
some ideas that may not be obvious. And the word selah. It’s commonly assumed
it's a musical instruction, however, selah's to connect subject matter not music. It's ... it ... it connects the end of one
strophe to with the beginning of the next. It’s connecting the two subjects together
and so it’s sometimes synthetic, sometimes antithetic. It's concerned with truths not tunes, interesting issue. Source of the Psalms. 73 of them are assigned to
David. About 50 of them are anonymous. And there’s A number of others to various people. His ... choir director Asaph ... his choir director and a few other guys here. Even one to Moses, by the way. But some people classify the Psalms into five categories. There's a group of… Psalms that are about man. They sometimes called that the Genesis Book. There’s a group of Psalms that had to do
with deliverance. They call that the Exodus Book, some people do. There's also a whole group of Psalms that
are ... deal with the sanctuary, Levitical some people associate it with. There is another group of unrest or wanderings.
So, they associate with Numbers and there’s there's the final, the word of the Lord ... and so
some people try to cluster these hymns in those five categories. I mention it just so you're aware of it. I don’t happen to see them that way, but
that’s okay. Many of them have inscriptions. There are 34
without any inscriptions. 52 with simple inscriptions, 14 with history
... that tie them to history, specific historical incidents. There are four that are inscribed during a
purpose. There are 50 that are called songs of degrees. I’ll come
back to those, and there’s 31 special ones for the 150 Psalms. and there’s a whole bunch
of terms I won’t go through, but the whole bunch of
terms all through here, that most scholars assume or believe they’re somehow related
to the execution of the music or dancing or they're technical terms for stringed instruments
or various other issues. So, but those, I might warn you that, the…
scholars are very much still in debate on what some of them really imply. But in the book of Habakkuk, we find a Psalm
in the book. And it also teaches us some things that may surprise us. The Psalms has ... is ... Habakkuk has
a superscription - something in front of it, in other words. It says "a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon
the "Shigionoth" which is ... like crying aloud. It’s an explanation. Then there’s the Psalm itself from verse
... this is all in Chapter 3 of Habakkuk from verse 2 to 19. Then the end of that it says to the chief
musician upon Neginoth, which is on stringed instruments is what it apparently
means. But what’s interesting, the superscription
and subscriptions here betray a pattern that we didn’t realize were in many of the Psalms. And we'll discover that in many of the Psalms,
the inscription is not really the superscription of following Psalm. It’s really is the tail of the previous
one. You see there is … there’s some ... translational difficulties here. Hezekiah also has a Psalm in his book. Hezekiah 38. The superscription is the writing of Hezekiah
King of Judah when he was… had been sick and was recovered from his sickness. It's
upfront. Then there’s the Psalm itself for 10 verses,
and then the subscription "therefore we will sing my songs to the string instruments". That pattern is consistent in Habakkuk and
Hezekiah and people are beginning to realize that maybe that’s the way the Psalms should have
been. And these subscriptions or inscriptions are ... are maybe mis-ascribed. Now, the songs of degrees is in Psalms 120-134.
And its sometimes called the Ascents because there was 15 steps and they sang these as they went up
the 15 steps. That's one view. Hezekiah was the most Godly of Judah's
Kings in Second Kings 18. He wrote many Psalms and Proverbs. One's even in his book. He restored temple worship in Second Chronicles
29. In fact, he was given 15 additional years to
his life by God. And that was confirmed to him by him going out and looking at Ahaz's
sundial, a monument that was nearby, and seeing that go back 15 degrees as a way of God confirming
that He was going to get 15 more years. And many people associate that with the 15 Psalms
that they call the Psalms of Ascents. So there is that ... at least tradition about
it. But the most interesting group for some people are the Messianic Psalms. There’s a handful of them. The book of Psalms is the ... is quoted
in the New Testament more than any other book of the Old Testament. And … the things
that are in the Psalms constitute irrefutable testimony to the Divine inspiration of scriptures.
Because it lays out details, well in advance of the fact. Psalms 2, 8, 16, 22, 23, 24, 40, 41,
45, 68, 69, 87 and 89, 102, 110, and it goes on and on and on. That are labeled Messianic
Psalms, because they embody some prophecies that are fulfilled in the life of Christ and His person. In fact, the Son of God is mentioned in half
a dozen of them. That He’s Son of Man in Psalm 8 and following. Son of David in
several places. His offices as Prophet several places. As Priest
in Psalm 110. As King in Psalm 2 and others. We'll look at Psalm 2 in a minute. The fact that He would speak in
parables. That He would calm the storm. That He'd be despised, rejected, mocked, whipped,
and derided. All expressed in the Psalms. That He'd be impaled on a cross. In fact, it’s so graphic, it sounds like it
was dictated first person singular as He hung on the cross. That He’d be thirsty. And wine mixed with
gall. They'd cast lots for his garments. And that not a bone would be broken. They would fulfill the Passover specification. That He'd rise from the dead. He'd ascend
into heaven. That He'd be at right hand of God. That He's our High Priest. That He'll
judge the nations. That He'll reign ... His reign to be eternal. That He's the Son of
God. The Son of David. That people would sing Hosanna to Him. That He'd be blessed forever and will
come in glory in the last days. It goes on and on. These are all in the Psalms. You can build
a whole presentation of Christ from the Psalms. The coming Kingdom. In Psalms 46. Through tribulation. The range
of the kingdom in Psalm 47. And all the earth and the center of the kingdom. Psalm 46, 47, 48, speaks of the kingdom. It’s ... it's coming, its range and its
center. And so we see design here. The Shepherd Psalms. We're all familiar with that.
The suffering savior in Psalm 22, hanging on the cross. The Good Shepherd's analogous to the Good Shepherd
discourse in John 10. The Living Shepherd in Psalm 23. We’ve all heard of that. The Great Shepherd in Hebrews 13 is a parallel. The Exalted Sovereign of Psalm 24. 22, 23,
and 24. And as the Chief Shepherd 1st Peter 5:4 and so on. So, Psalm 22. Let's just ...
take ... a quick look at it. It opens up, "My God, my God why
has thou forsaken me?" That all echoes in our ears. Isn't that one of the
first things Christ said on the cross, right? Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani. And it's interesting
that David is penning this. David was never in any danger of crucifixion. He was never any extremity in that regard. How did he get inspired to write this? It is ... it is ... it's his words that ... it's
almost as if it was dictated while Jesus hung on the cross. Crucifixion was invented 700 years after this
was penned. Adopted by ... it was ... it was invented by the Persians. That's what Haman ...
it says hanged in your translations. Wrong. He was impaled there. The Persians did that. The Romans really adopted that and used it very
widely, obviously. See, Israel’s method of execution was stoning. How did he get this insight? "My God my God why has thou forsaken me? All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they
shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, "He trusted on the Lord that he would
deliver him: Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." These taunts are virtually quoted. As you find them in Matthew 27 verse 43 and 46. "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are
out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the
midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Heavy stuff. "For dogs have compassed me:
the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon
me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." That sounds like its quoted from Matthew 27 verse 35. Let's go to Psalm ... the next Psalm 23. "The Lord Is My Shepherd," we all know ... we've
all heard this Psalm, "I shall not want," means I shall lack nothing. "He makes me to lie down in green pastures,"
which means I shall not lack provision. "He leads me beside the still waters," it means I shall not lack peace. "He leads me in the paths of righteousness," I
shall not lack guidance. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil," I shall not lack courage in the dark hour. "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me," see, I shall
not lack true comfort. "Thou preparest a table before me in the
presence of mine enemies," I shall not lack protection, preservation, honor. And on it goes. "Thou anointest my head with
oil," I shall never lack joy. The oil speaks of joy. I shall ... "My cup runneth over," I shall
never lack fullness of blessing. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life," I shall not lack Divine favor during my earthly life. And "I
shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." I shall not lack a heavenly home when my earthly
tour is over. Incredible Psalm. We've all heard it. Never tire of it. You really
get to appreciate the Psalms when you go through the dark valleys. There are Psalms that may not mean much to
you now. They will when you retreat to them in times of stress. Now there's seven compound titles of God the Bible.
Jehovah-Jireh which is Lord will provide. Yahweh-Rapha for the Lord healeth. Yahweh-Shalom the Lord our peace. Yahweh-Tsidkenu the Lord our righteousness. Yahweh-shammah the Lord ever present. Yahweh-Nissi the Lord our banner. Yahweh-Raah the Lord our shepherd. And each one of these is in the Psalm. Each one of these is in the Psalm, in effect. Each one of these names of God are enrolled
here. But I want to talk about Psalm 2. It’s one of the most strange of the Psalms. Psalm 2, the second Psalm. You need to take this down on your notes, and
figure out who's talking to who. There's three guys having a conversation here.
And I'll let the cat out of the bag. I believe it's the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine
a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against
the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast
away their cords from us."" Who's talking here? Holy Spirit I believe. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord
shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in his wrath, and
vex them in his sore displeasure." Boy oh boy. Now, the next verse, verse 6, I think is the
Father speaking. "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." Then I believe the Son is now speaking quoting
the Father. "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath
said unto me, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." "Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel." I believe the Son is quoting the Father. The
Father said that. The Son is quoting Him. You follow me? Now the Holy Spirit takes over here, "Be wise
now therefore. O ye kings: be instructed ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with
trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled
but a little. Blessed all are they that put their trust in him." Strange war council. Though it's the trinity
talking to themselves, I believe. They're talking about the earth ... the kings
of the earth coming ... taking up war against them. How silly and futile that's going to be. God is going to ... express His displeasure. I believe this is the heavenly side of Armageddon,
the second coming, and all of that. There are other Psalmic groups. There's the
Hallelujah Psalms - a handful of those. There's The Penitential Psalms. The Imprecatory
Psalms. The Acrostic Psalms. There's even Psalm 119 which has 22 sections -
one for each Hebrew letter. And every line in that section starts with that Hebrew letter. It has a section… each section is 16 lines
with eight couplets. Each couplet beginning with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Incredible design in these things. Well let's move on. We can’t ... we can't spend ... we could
... we will ... at a separate time spend more time in the Psalms, but the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs are not hymns, they are prudence
through precept. You see, Psalms is aimed at a devotional life. Proverbs is aimed at our practical life. Pro - for, verba - words. So, ... the term refers to a very terse
maxim. Little separate ... little maxims. See, a proverb ... does not argue
it simply assumes. Solomon wrote 3000 of these according to 1st
Kings 4. They were arranged, we believe, during the reign of Hezekiah. The organization’s pretty simple: they extol
wisdom. 15 sonnets (rather than Proverbs) there are 2 monologues. There are maxims enjoining
prudence. There’s 375 aphorisms in couplets. 16 Epigrams. Unless you're into rhetoric this probably doesn’t mean a lot to you. There are more maxims on prudence. 7 epigrams
55 couplets. 13 sayings of Agur. There's an oracle of Lemuel on
his mother. An acrostic on the virtuous woman which we will take a look at. The Structural Method. There are Contrastive proverbs they're antithetical. Compact presentation of some kind of contrast, striking
contrast. There are Completive proverbs. These are where
the second line agrees or carries or amplifies the first. There is no standard pattern. Sometimes
they're offsets, sometimes they contrast, sometimes they complete, and then there’s Comparative
proverbs. They're figures of comparison. Very colorful images. "A fair woman without
discretion is like a jewel of gold in a swine's snout." That’s descriptive, and that’s
obviously a contrast right? Then there’s a completive one. "As cold water
to a thirsty soul is like good news from a far country." Boy, it captures a snippet of life doesn’t
it? Maybe you have to have some of those experiences
to really have this grab you. A comparative. "The tongue of a nagging woman
is a continual dripping on a very rainy day." (Laughter) These are colorful imagery. Pictures and analogies. "The sluggard who is
like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes of his employer." Are you one of those? No hands please. "The offended brother who is harder to win
than a strong city." How interesting. How true that is in your family,
huh? "The coming of poverty like an armed man to
the slothful." "Wise reproof is to an earring of gold on an
obedient ear," "Riches flying away on wings like those of an eagle." Very graphic language, very practical, very
real. Here’s one that we’ll just look at a little.
"Mrs. far above rubies." There’s a gal, and guys you need to know
this one. Proverbs 31 starting verse 10 "Mrs. far above
rubies." She’s a good woman. She works diligently, She contrives prudently, and she behaves uprightly. Very eloquently portrayed. She’s a good wife. She seeks the husband’s
good. She keeps his confidence, and aides his prosperity. She’s a good mother. She clothes her family wisely. She feeds household well, and she shop sensibly. These are all embodied in Proverbs 31. She’s a good neighbor. She helps the poor.
She uplifts the needy, and she speaks graciously. You say, "There aren’t any people like that." Yes,
there are. I’m married to one. Let’s move on to Ecclesiastes, the Hebrew is
Koheleth - the preacher. This is written by Solomon at the end of his
life and it’s often misunderstood. It’s his sermon on the natural man’s quest for
the chief good. And it’s unlike the Proverbs which are little
separate pieces. This is a cumulative treatise which has component parts. Its final conclusion is that "all is vanity."
But what he’s talking about, are things under the sun, the material world. It is not pessimistic, it is simply bravely
honest, and it has a surprising conclusion that many people miss. You see, it sees beyond life’s ironies and
wearing repetitions. It sees beyond that to the Divine control
and future restitutions. You don’t catch that unless you watch very
carefully. The Book of Ecclesiastes. It starts out with
his quest by personal experiment. His search for wisdom and pleasure by personal experiment. Then he quested by general observation. Ills
and enigmas of human society all leading to frustration. Then his quest was by practical morality and he discovered that material things cannot satisfy the soul. And that, somehow, we have to keep learning that over and over again. The quest reviewed and concluded in the end. "Vanity of vanities: all is vanity" is his conclusion. There are 10 vanities. Human wisdom, wise
and foolish alike, have the same end: death. Human labor. The worker's no better than
the shirker in the final end he says. Human purpose. Man proposes, but God disposes. Human rivalry. Success brings more envy than joy. Human avarice. Much feeds the lust
for the elusive more. Much feeds the lust for the elusive more. Human fame. Brief, uncertain, and soon forgotten. Fame is brief but infamy lasts a little longer. Human insatiety. Money does not satisfy; it
only feeds others. Human coveting. Gain cannot be enjoyed despite desire. Human frivolity. One only camouflages the inevitable sad end. Human awards. Good and bad often get wrong desserts. Here’s the conclusion of the matter. Here’s
his final significance. Listen carefully to what Solomon is saying. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this
is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, every secret thing,
whether it be good, or whether it be evil." That astonishes many people. Yes, it sounds
real pessimistic. He’s just coming ... there’s nothing new under the sun. He’s talking about
natural life. It’s destined for frustration. Here’s a guy who knew. He’d been at the
top. He’d experienced it all, and its all vanity. It’s all emptiness. The only thing
that counts is the fear of God. This is his, at the end of the day as he looks
back and assesses the wreckage of his life, and realizes that’s where it’s all at. Well let’s get to the sex appeal. Song of
Songs. Now this is a book that many people get very ... either don’t know at all or get very embarrassed reading. Its theme is ultimate love. That’s its theme. No book of the scripture has given rise to
more commentaries and opinions than this one. Some say it’s an allegory. Some say it’s
an extended type. Some say it’s a drama involving two, some say three main characters. Some say it’s a collection of Syrian wedding
songs, and there’s a whole bunch of ... I could go on and on. But I want to point out the book is inspired. There are a lot of views. The Jewish tradition
is that the Mishna and the Talmud and the Targum all viewed the book as an
allegorical picture of the love of God for Israel. That’s the view. There are other rabbis that believe it’s
a handbook for sexual intercourse - husband and wife. Both are true. The church leaders Hyppolytus, Origen,
Jerome, Athanasius, Augustine, and others viewed the book as an allegory of Christ’s
love for His bride, the church. And it is it’s all of the above. It’s a very, very interesting book. It’s
a very practical handbook on sexual practice. It is a book of God’s relationship with
Israel. It’s also a book that can have application as an allegory of Christ thing. But the key, of course, is Psalm 45, a song of
loves. A Royal marriage hymn. And a heavenly bridegroom’s involved. So let’s get that in mind. Some say it’s a suite of 7 idyls. An idyl
is a little picture. Comes from the Greek idillium which comes from third century scicilian
poet. That’s if you’re into ... its structure. ... There’s 7 elements that make up the
story, but let’s cut though this and actually look at the story. It’s actually an opera.
And let’s look at the story behind the opera. Solomon is the hero of the piece. And Shulamite
is the Cinderella of the piece, if you will. Shulamite is simply the feminine of Solomon.
It's Mr. and Mrs. Solomon is what the terms imply. In the mountain district of Ephraim King Solomon
had a vineyard and that’s in chapter 8 verse 11 of this thing. And he let it out to an Ephramite
family as keepers. The husband and father apparently had passed
away, and there was a mother at least two sons and two daughters. The older daughter called Shulamite is the
Cinderella of the piece as I say. Her brothers did not appreciate her. And fostered
all kinds of hard tasks upon her, denying her the privilege that a growing girl might
be expected to ... enjoy in a Jewish home. She says, “My mother’s sons were angry
with me.” That makes it sound like maybe they were half-brothers. Okay. And, in any case, they didn’t appreciate her and she says, “My own vineyard I have not kept.” In other words, she had no opportunity to look
after her own interest. She’s so busy with the tasks that they put on her. So, we also get the impression that she had
no opportunity to look after herself. She’s probably sun-burned but very naturally attractive. Well finally, a handsome stranger shows up
and ... a shepherd, stranger, shepherd of some kind. He views her as without blemish. Friendship ripens to affection and finally
to love, and he promises to return and to make her his bride. He leaves. The brothers are skeptical. They
taunt her. They regard her as being deceived by this stranger. He’s gone a long time. And she would dream
of him in darkness, and just trusted him despite the time as it wore on. Then one day a huge cavalcade arrives
with attendants of all kinds, “The King has sent for you.” In obedience, of course, she responds and when
she looks into his face, guess who? The King was the shepherd that had won her heart. And
that’s where she declares, “I am my beloved's and his desire is towards me.” So, that’s the big climax of the thing. "I
am my beloved's and his desire is toward me." So that’s the opera. And now, there are
people that suspect this really was Solomon and a gal by the name of Abishag. Abishag was a beautiful young woman who spent
her youth in the fields and vineyards. And she was selected. Young gal, attractive gal,
to lie beside elderly King David and serve his needs during his dying years. She came from an area called Shunem. Probably
in Galilee, but they are not really sure. The text, by the way, is very clear that her
virginity was not violated. She wasn’t there to give him sexual favors. Although he declined
to do that, it was clear that he, her ministry to him was strictly one of physical care not
sexual pleasure. But, that’s in 1st Kings. But Solomon became deeply attracted to her.
Adonijah tried to take her to wife, but Solomon had him executed. He was enraged and had him
executed. So Solomon’s got his eye on this gal. And
so, he, see, he’s always part of the household at the time when all this happened with David. Abishag was a country girl; a natural beauty.
And she probably worked in the fields. Probably sunburned but very, very naturally ... not
used to expensive clothes, that sort of thing. From some of the remarks and so forth, and
not the exotics of nobility, but natural beauty sort of like my Nan. That’s a possibility. And we have just gone
through ... rather hurriedly skimming a tough time. We’ve gone through, we’ve gone through
150 Psalms. We’ve gone through a couple of very tough books that are usually misunderstood
by the commentators. But I can’t help but see this. I was in enamored with a summary
by Henry Van Dyke. He said, speaking of the poetical books, “It has woven itself into
our dearest dreams; so that love, friendship, sympathy, devotion, memory, hope, put on the
beautiful garments of its treasured speech. No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure
for his own. When the landscape darkens, and the trembling
pilgrim comes to the valley of the shadow, he’s not afraid to enter. He takes the rod and staff of scripture in
his hand. He says to friend and comrade, 'Goodbye; We shall meet again,' and comforted by that
support, he goes towards the lonely path as one who walks through darkness into light.” I like that. That’s one person’s reaction. Job, of course, is an incredible book to study
in several levels. Each one of these that we’ve reviewed in this last hour are really devotional
books. They are poetical books, they are not history
in the usual sense, although there’s much history hidden in there. There’s also scientific
little tidbits here and there. There’s Messianic prophesies in there, but the real strength
and resource of all the books we’ve talked about - especially the Psalms ... is comfort
in times of stress. There will be times of stress. And some of
these you won’t even appreciate until you’ve been through times of stress. But It’s something
that will become very, very dear. You might just … That’s why it is a incredibly good spiritual
hygiene ... as you have your devotional reading. Whatever that may be. You should be going through
the Bible at your own, in your own style. But include in each morning or each evening
a Psalm as a front-end or back-end to your study time. It will be ... some of your most precious
moments of the day. I might comment just briefly ... on a couple
of other things. There are lots of ways, there’s a difference between studying the Bible. Grabbing
your commentaries, getting your resources, finding out who is what and going through all of that
stuff expositionally. That’s great. There’s a place for that,
and that should be serious study time. But there’s another aspect of the word of
God that many of us fail to be diligent on and that is just devotional, just to bathe
in it. Just bathe in it. Right on through, not trying
to necessarily deal with some of the paradoxes and just to bathe in it. And that is the way
God will speak to you through His word. And ... it’s one of the things that I’ve found the most useful ... Some people like to just take the Bible and read say three
chapters a day or some pace so they get through the Bible once a year, once every two years,
whatever. There’s different reading things, and that’s, that’s not bad. I have been drawn to a little different style.
I keep an electronic Bible with me which has bookmarks in it. And what I like to do is have a bookmark in
the Torah, a bookmark in the historical books, a bookmark in the poetical books, a bookmark
in the prophets, a bookmark in the gospels. I use Acts as if it was a gospel, and in the
Torah, I treat Joshua as if it was in Torah, But that's mechanics. Anyway, the gospels, the epistles and the Book of Revelation. There’s about 8 of those. What I try to do, is move each bookmark 1 chapter
a day. And ... the reason I find that so different is it’s sort of like a meal. You don’t eat your meat on Mondays, and your
potatoes on Tuesdays, and your vegetables on Wednesdays. You like a more balanced diet. And ... I got this basic idea from my wife,
because she was, she has her Bible just oozes bookmarks. She is into all kinds of ... And
I find that awkward because I have a Bible at home that I use for study, but I don’t want to
take that on trips for a lot of reasons. But when I got the electronic one, it
worked out real neat, because I can just move the bookmarks. And it also allows me, that way,
when I, if I’m 15 minutes early for an appointment for a barber shop or something, I just pop
it open and knock off one or two of the bookmarks. You know, one or two chapters. What’s neat about it is, the particular pace
I’ve set for myself takes me through the New Testament twice a year and the Old Testament ... No, three times a year and the Old Testament twice a year. But that’s a lot of reading, you may want to
adjust it to your own style. But that kind of reading isn’t study, it’s just bathing
in it. And it’s the way that the Bible increasingly becomes your own, and it’s also the way God
can use it to speak to you. And that’s especially ... that’s true of all
the books, whether, even the Torah, obviously, or the historical books, and certainly the
prophets, but it’s especially true with the books that we just went through - the poetical
books. And they're a comfort. They're warm and
this is another place, by the way, where the majesty of the King James appeals to me. Some people find that difficult. The old english.
They prefer one of the modern translations. And that’s fine, because we are not talking
about study here. We are not talking about, you know, building doctrine. We are not, we
are just talking about bathing in it. And I encourage you to do that and see what God’s
going to do. Well, the next time we meet. The next session
will be Hour 9. And we are going to take the Book of Daniel. Which is on one hand
a historical book, on the other hand a prophecy book. The first is 12 chapters. First six happen
to be narrative, very colorful narrative, and the last half, of course, visions. But what makes the book of Daniel pivotal
to many people, is its focus is on the gentile world. Most of the Bible speaks of Israel, and sees
the world through the lens of Israel. But the Book of Daniel is actually translated,
switches from Hebrew to the Gentile language of that day from chapters 2 through 7. And it has astonishing prophecies that
impact you and I that are unfolding as we speak. Visibly. And it'll be one of the most
exciting, it is many people ... who know very little else about the Bible, write books on the Book of Daniel. It, obviously, is pivotal to understanding the
Book of Revelation and so forth. But, in any case, we, all the way through, we can’t take
all the prophets in detail. We are going to pick one. We’ll talk about all of them when we get
to the prophets, but we’ll take Daniel specifically in depth. When we get to Paul’s Epistles, we’ll take,
we’ll talk about all the epistles generally, but we’ll take one in depth - Romans. Then the Hebrew Christian Epistles, we’ll
take one - the Book of Hebrews. So we’ll poke, we’ll sink some holes in depth in a couple
of places. We can’t do that with all the books, we’ll
be at this for five years. We're trying to knock this off in 24 1 hour sessions,
not to exhaust the books, but to give you a perspective of the whole so you can find your
way around. So that the whole package will be comfortable
to you. And so you’ll develop a respect for how the pieces fit together. That’s really
what we are after. The Book of Daniel will fit that, because it’s
going to be so pivotal to understanding the Gospels. And also understanding the Book of
Revelation. So it will be a fun time. Let’s stand for a closing word of prayer.
Let’s bow our hearts. Father we, we are awed at how much You love
us. We thank You Father for giving us this heritage,
giving us the benefit of the comfort and the encouragement, and the admonitions of these
great men that went before us. We thank You for the candor of seeing their
failures as well as their successes, and Father we would pray that through Your Holy Spirit
You would help us be exceptions and learn from these lessons. We pray Father that these lessons not be wasted
on us. That we would understand what contributed to those failures, understand why some of
these great men stumbled and fell from what they might have been. We recognize Father whatsoever things were
written afore time were written for our learning so that we through the patience and
the comfort of the scripture might have hope. So Father we just thank You for Your word. We do pray Father that You would just continue
to kindle a new fire in each of us for Your word. That we each might just partake of these treasures
that You’ve vouchedsafe into our care. Above all these things Father we pray that
You would help us grow in our understanding of our Messiah our Lord and Savior. We also pray Father that You would help each
of us through Your Spirit and through Your word be evermore fruitful stewards of the
opportunities that You put in our path, as we without any reservation commit ourselves
into Your hands in the name of Yeshua our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Son of David,
Amen.
