Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible podcast. He has risen indeed. Indeed he is. Yeah. And it's resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, Paschal Sunday in some of our Orthodox congregations that exist out there. But yeah, this is an exciting day and it's gonna be an exciting day at church.

Yes, it is. And we hope that you'll come. Obviously we want you there, but if you have people that should come who don't come,

bring them too. Totally. A hundred percent. In fact I was, I just finished recording for the second time. My loom for our leaders. I send a loom out, which is a video walkthrough of the sermon to our small group leaders every week. And I got to record it twice 'cause I forgot to plug in my microphone the first time. But I was making the point to them that, and those of you listening to this our church typically. When I preach on Sunday mornings I'm preaching mostly to believers. That's the target audience, and I think that's what the goal of the church is and the purpose of the church. And it's not to say that I don't ever address those that might be in the room that aren't believers, but today's message is gonna be aimed predominantly at the unbeliever in the cultural Christian. There are. Certainly nuggets of truth for us to take away as believers and to be encouraged by it and good reminders for us. But to your point, this is a great message to invite people to be a part of and join us for that. Maybe don't know anything about the gospel or those that are antagonistic to the gospel. The whole point in this sermon is to get people to make a decision about Jesus. That's my goal in preaching this sermon, is that by the time everybody leaves, everyone has made some sort of a decision about Jesus. You quoted a hymn. In Good Friday's message

I did, I knew this was gonna come up. I have decided to follow Jesus. Yeah. Tell us about that. A lot of our people were confused. Were like, isn't Pastor PJ just super hyper, utterly reformed in every way possible?

Yes. Yes, I am. Yeah, no it's second Corinthians five. Paul says, I implore you be reconciled to God. And so I think there's room for us to call people to do things that theologically ind doctrinally, we know that they can't do without God's enabling presence in their lives. But I think there's biblical grounds for us to say Paul yeah, Paul in Roman says, how are they gonna believe unless they hear and so part of our job is to call people to faith. Even though we know that really that's an act of God that's gonna give them the faith to believe. And so from our perspective, we can say, Hey, we want you to do this. Knowing that for them to do it, God's gonna be the one that's gonna cause that to happen. Interesting. Maybe we should add a

verse to that song. God made me choose you so I have done so. There you go. We could do that. It's great. We should do that. We should do that one first and then do I have decided? There we go. Put it

in theological order. We'll galvanize it. Yeah. No, it's gonna be a great Sunday and we've got a modified extravaganza after service. 'cause we had to cancel yesterday. The weather ended up being okay, but man, we just, we didn't know and we had to make a, we had to make a call early in the morning and there was some thunder and lightning. Forecast for the area. So we made the best decision we knew how to make at that time and tried to recover as much as we can. And we're gonna have a great time today celebrating after the service for sure.

And part of it the field is wet. That's a discouraging thing. You don't want to have kids running around in mud. It wouldn't have been fun for the kids, for kids. So we think we were doing everyone a solid by postponing it. Today's gonna be great. The weather should be a little more accommodating we think. And if, assuming that's the case, we're gonna do it and it's gonna be a fantastic time. Yep. We've got 7,000 eggs.

And so your kids are gonna go home with a lot of eggs? Yeah. We average about 70. To a hundred kids. That's gonna be a lot of eggs per kid. Yeah, it is a

lot of eggs per kid. Are we doing, are some of those eggs, the eggs that you would buy in a grocery store? 'cause I would participate in that one. No, I don't think they're actual eggs. They Of eggs. Eggs. Now I would do that. No. That would bankrupt our church. Yeah. We would not be able to do that. 7,000 chicken eggs. Yeah.

That'd be expensive. That's that would 10 years. Yeah. Mortgage or something. It's gonna be a great day though. Speaking of a great day, let's spend a great time in God's word. Any time, any day with the word of God is a great day. And so we are gonna be in a lot of Psalms today. Tomorrow we're in Second Samuel. Then on Tuesday we've got some more Psalms. Just remember with the Psalms, we're reading a lot of them, but do your best, as much as you can to really try to soak up what we're reading. A lot of these psalms are short in nature. They're not long like this first one verse, Psalm 1 21 is only eight verses long. But it's rich. There's good truth in here. So try to spend a good amount of time with each of these psalms. In fact, even if you break up your Bible reading like we've got today, Psalm 1 21, then Psalm 1 23 through 1 25, and then Psalm 1 28 through one 30. Maybe you wanna do Psalm 1 21 first thing in the morning, and then maybe you spend a little bit of extra time praying in response to that. And then maybe you're gonna take a lunch break today. Or after church Today, you're gonna come home from church. Maybe you're going to open up your Bible, spend some more time in the word read 1 23 through 1 25, and then maybe tonight before you go to bed, pull out your Bible. Read 1 28 through one 30, just so that you're able to spend concentrated time with each of these Psalms. Otherwise. It's hard to remember everything that you're reading. This is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Psalms that we're reading today. That's a lot of ground to cover for us.

That raises an interesting question. Should we aspire to remember everything that we read in the morning or afternoon? Whenever you read. But the point is,

should we aspire to remember it? No, because we're, we're not gonna be able to, we, especially in our culture today, and not to make excuses, but at this time when these psalms were being written, they were a heavily. Oral culture and so they, they were much better than we are at remembering things and memorizing things. That was how they retained information for us. We live in a fast-paced 140 character culture, and so our brains are not trained that way. It's not to say that we shouldn't train our brains that way, but. Don't beat yourself up if you walk away and you don't remember every single thing that you read. But I think the goal should be, Hey, let's take away one or two things from our reading every single day that we can carry with us and chew on and meditate on throughout the day. Yeah I, amen into that.

The goal is to be shaped, not to regurgitate or to rehearse. And that really is the ultimate point We're reading to be shaped by God, to have us. Have him help us think and process and even reflect and remember, these are songs. They're not just they're not poems, right? They are that, but they're more than that. They're songs that would've been put to a tune, which would've probably aided the memory and retention of it.

Yep. Yep. Psalm 1 21 is, and all of these are, so we'll just get that outta the way ahead of time. Psalm a song of ascent, remember? That's, yep. Yummy sniffing. Everybody really appreciates that. No. These were about going up to ascending, up to Mount Zion to go and worship the Lord. And these were the songs that were sung on the way up. So 1 21 is one that is focused on the Lord as our keeper. Our preserver, our protector, and he's the one that delivers us. And in this psalm we find the famous line that the Lord is the one who never slumbers nor sleeps. And that is such a good reminder to us when we are going through a difficult season to be reminded that God is not asleep. And I always think of Elijah in the prophets of all here when Elijah is mocking the false prophets going. Maybe he's asleep. Maybe you need to wake him up. Maybe you need to yell a little bit louder. And we never have to worry about that with God because God doesn't sleep. He is not a God who needs rest. And so he is always alert, always aware, always engaged with what is happening with with our life. And so we can take great encouragement from that in Psalm 1 21. Psalm 1 23. Then is the next one up for us. And this one is a again, one of the psalms of ascent that is focused on the Lord is the one who's able to show mercy and clemency towards the worshiper. And so in verse two, behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their master as the eyes of the maid servant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to. The Lord our God till he has mercy upon us. And so you think about those relationships of a master and a, a servant and a mistress and a maid servant. There's a measure of authority there that's involved in the master and the mistress. And they are able to exercise mercy towards their servants, towards their slaves. And really the slave doesn't have the capacity to. Draw that mercy or command that mercy, that slave is at the mercy of the the one that is giving and choosing to dispel that. So here David is comparing us to the servant and to the maid servant saying, we look to God and we wait for mercy from the Lord.

Yeah. One of the things that's interesting about Psalms like this is that you don't see a whole lot of contemporary songs following that theme the theme of mercy having mercy upon us. There's an old phrase. Now that comes from the Greek called Zen. It's Curie liaison, and there are songs that are titled that. So if you look at, one of my favorites is by the Gettys, it's Curie liaison, and they have this really sweet breakdown in the middle of the song. And this guy that's doing these vocal runs on the second half of the song, it's really pretty. But it reminded me that. Asking for God's mercy is not something that only someone does as a pre-Christian, but something that we even do post-Christian, post salvation, asking God for mercy is essentially to say, God, don't treat me as my sins deserve. Show me kindness and compassion. We sometimes use mercy and grace synonymously, but they are different and they have different shades of meaning. So I would encourage you as you just mentioned it to them, pastor Pj, to think about what you're reading here and perhaps maybe ask God for mercy. Maybe that would be something worth practicing sometime soon.

Yeah, that's, we sing that song. His mercy is more. Which is one of my favorites. Oh yeah, that is a good one. You're right. Yeah. Alright. Psalm 1 24 then is a Davidic psalm here. And this time we get that specifically in the title. It's a song of a sense of David. And that's probably worth note here real quick because if these were the songs that were sung by the worshipers on the way up to Jerusalem, I. Okay, we got a problem because David is writing these prior to the building of Jerusalem and certainly prior to the temple because David didn't build the temple. What do we do with that? And the answer is these are Psalms that David wrote that were later adopted by the Israelites to become the songs of Ascent. I. The song, the songs that they sang on their way up to worship the Lord. But Psalm 1 24 specifically attributed to David and it looked to the Lord as the one who is ultimately responsible for the victories that Israel had experienced. And so as David is ticking off victories left and right, which he does he remembers and bears in mind that it is God is the one that is, is doing this. God is the one that is winning these battles and without him, they are helpless and hopeless. 1 25 then a song of a Sense, again, no author given, but our editors have put it in here because it seems to be of David, even though it's not directly attributed to him. But this one affirms that trust in the Lord is the safe and secure space to be. Those who do. Trust in him. It says are like Mount Zion. They're, they cannot be moved. And again, if you think about Israel, Mount Zion, Jerusalem it stands alone. It's a city on a hill. And it is it is notable because it is surrounded by mountains. And that's one of the things that made it so highly defensible, is this is a city that was not easily attacked. It couldn't just be attacked. It wasn't vulnerable in any way. And David is comparing the person who trusts in the Lord to that saying, you will be like Mount Zion. And so this is probably written later in David's life, after he takes Jerusalem, after he builds the city of David there. But this is just looking at the surroundings and saying, man it's like this, it feels like this when we're trusting in the Lord. And that means that we'll never experience

hardship or suffering. Thanks Pastor pj. Totally.

Yep. Yep. Name it and claim it. Yep. Yeah. No and that's the hard thing. That is true though. It sounds trite and cliche. And that is that ultimately our security is not earth bound. Our security is not about here. It's our security. And the reason we're immovable is because of our eternity. Our eternity, and where we're going to be forever and ever. And that is with the Lord. And so that's why we are secure. So that may sound trite, but that is the reality. That's the truth that we need to hold to as Christians. That's right. Psalm 1 28. Then this is the one to sum it up, verse one, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord and walks in his way. That's what this verse or this psalm is about. It's about the reward. It's about the fruitfulness that comes with our fearing. God, and we've talked about fearing God, but PEs a little bit of a memory jogger for our people. What does it mean for us to fear God in this sense? That we would receive blessing and response. This

is not a sile fear as one who trembles under the hand of a heavy of a strong, maybe violent master. This is a familial fear. A fear that says, I, I long to respect you, to honor you, to esteem you. There is a recognition of power and authority, so the fear does have the. The sense of being afraid that we typically ascribe it to, but it's not the same kind, it's not the same tenor that we would use. When it comes to a servile fear, a fear that says, I fear judgment, or I fear discipline. Scripture says that there is no condemnation for those who love him. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and therefore when scripture says that we are to fear him. Again, it's not a fear of condemnation, but it is a fear. Fear of reverence, of respect, of awe, of deference. Again, recognizing his power at the same time. So there's a, it's a larger word than what we typically understand it as today. It's not just a shaking in my boots, although there is some of that. I think you see that in scripture when someone encounters even an angelic host, they're like, what on earth is this? They're terrified. They're freaking out. They're falling on the ground. So when you see the unmitigated glory of God there is a right reverence and fear that comes from that, but it's not. I'm afraid of the dark.

Yeah, it's helpful distinction for sure. Psalm 1 29, then you mentioned just a moment ago, does it mean that we're always gonna be safe and secure? And Psalm 1 29 is a great example of the psalmist not even believing that himself because he talks about affliction in this psalm and talks about the fact that though he had been afflicted from his youth verse one greatly, have they afflicted me? Have they made me suffer? Have they brought pain? Have they persecuted me from my youth? Though that was the reality, he was confident in the Lord for his standing in deliverance. Let Israel now say greatly. They have afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. Verse two. Ultimately we know that victory is gonna come from God. That doesn't mean that life is gonna be easy. You may experience affliction, you may experience persecution and suffering, but we can have confidence knowing that this world is not all there is that old illustration of the rope. And the rope can be forever long, and your life is a small, tiny little mark on that rope. It's like a one inch strip of tape on that rope. I remember one of my pastors once gave that illustration and it stuck with me because it's, it, it seems like our life is such a big deal when we're living in it, and yet when we're looking back at our life for maternity, we will think back to the things that seem so difficult and so hard right now. And as Paul says in Romans, they will feel like light, momentary. There's the word afflictions in light of the eternal weight of glory that we will be enjoying with the Lord. And so Psalm 1 29 encourages us to think there and think of that. Psalm one 30 then is a psalm about patience, which is never easy for us to have. But this is about waiting on and hoping in the Lord. He says in verse five I wait for the Lord in his word. I hope my soul waits for the Lord. Verse six more than watchman for the morning, more than watchman for the morning, which always reminds me of driving through the night and just wanting the morning light to come up. Just being exhausted and going, I just, I need to see the sunrise and and yet wanting the Lord more than that. Waiting for the Lord. More than that, and this is the famous line, if the Lord should mark iniquities, who could stand before him and what a good chapter for us to be reading on Easter. I. If the Lord would count us guilty of our sin, then who could stand against him or who could stand before him. And the answer is nobody. And it's because of what we're celebrating this morning, because of the resurrection of Jesus, because of the cross in the empty tomb. That, that we can stand there and say, Lord, you don't count our inequity against us. You have forgiven us, our inequity. And now we can stand before you, not in our righteousness, but in Christ's righteousness.

And that. That also helps us understand a little bit of verse four too. That forgiveness and fear seem to be paired together. Might be odd unless you're able to look at the cross and say, I understand the weight of my sin and how much it cost me to be forgiven. This is not God nilly Willy just tossing out a forgiveness phrase and saying, Hey, you're good to go. This costed him the life of his son, his perfect son, his only son, his special son. Who was lifted high upon the cross and humiliated and tortured in order that we might know his forgiveness and his reconciliation. So even though Psalm one 30 was written well before Jesus Christ, we can understand it more with greater appreciation because of what we've seen throughout history for what God had to do to make us right with him. So forgiveness and fear work greatly together when we understand who God is.

Hmm. Let's pray and then we'll be done with another episode. God, we are so grateful for Christ, and today we celebrate his resurrection, and today we gather together as the church to celebrate the fact that the tomb was empty. And yet the reality is we do that every single Sunday when we gather. That's why the church began meeting on Sundays is to commemorate the resurrection. So thanks for this season, God, that we get to set aside these days and remember them as memorials and yet. Lord, help us to remember the realities of the resurrection every single day and what that means for us. And even as Pastor Rob was just saying, that we would balance that idea of the fact that we are forgiven with a healthy fear of you to remember what our sin costs. And remember, the victory won on our behalf through Christ, through the cross and the empty tomb. We rejoice of the reality that He has risen. He has risen indeed, and we look forward to a great day today. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles, tuning again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you. Bye.

Thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said