Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. What's up? The sky, the ceiling, the roof, all those things that, are you one of those kids you said? Hey, what's up man? I'm sky guilty. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna go talk to your friends now. Guilty as charged. Yeah. Get outta here with that. Hey, it's Monday. It's Memorial Day. And so we are celebrating Memorial Day with everybody else. Our church offices are closed today and I'm sure a lot of you're off work today. And so we are celebrating this and really it's an odd thing to say Happy Memorial Day because Memorial Day is a somber event. It's a somber occasion to remember those that gave their lives in service of our country. And so Veterans' Day is different. Veterans Day. We remember those that simply served and whether they gave their lives or not, they served, they sacrificed something to protect our country. But Memorial Day is specifically for those that lost their lives. Yeah if if that's you, if you've been impacted, if somebody that you know in your family or somebody that maybe one of your grandparents or somebody like that fought and lost their life in service of our country, this is a day that we are setting aside to be grateful for that sacrifice. And it's a big sacrifice. I'll plug a channel. That I've talked about before, I think on the podcast, but it's on YouTube. It's called The History Underground. And it, I think it connects it well with this because this guy does a great job. He's a believer. The history underground it's on YouTube, you can find it. He does a great job of just going around to different battle sites and telling stories of what took place at these different sites. And so he does a lot with World War ii. He's done a lot with. The Civil War as well. And it's just, it's, they're interesting videos, usually about 20 to 30 minutes in length and you learn something along the way. And like I said, he's a believer the content's clean and it's a good way to, to be thankful for the history of the country that we have. And today's the day that we set aside to remember that, that history was not without a cost. It costs lives, it cost families and and we're certainly grateful for that sacrifice. Yeah. One of the things that's important for us to see is the. Christian connection to this? I know that not everything that our nation does is Christian. It's it's avertly. It's not that they're trying to say that it's not. However, there are always connections that we can draw, even if it's not explicit on their part. But on our part, we could say it's a good thing for us to have Memorial Day. And then bare minimum, we could say the very practice of communion tells us that memorializing those who gave their life for us is a good thing. Of course, we do this for Jesus. He's the only one who gave his life for us in a way that's far beyond the temporal nature of this life and extends into the next I. Different category altogether, but that shows us that the principle itself is a good thing that God approves of us reminding ourselves of those who died on our behalf. And of course, again, Jesus is the epitome of that sacrifice. But that means when we look at veterans or those who died for us, not just veterans, but those who gave their lives for us in a, in an ultimate sense, it is right and good for our families to practice awareness of those who are fallen. On our behalf, even if we don't know who they are, specifically in the case of Christ, we know who he is, we know what he's done, and we know why it matters more than any of these other deaths. But that tells us that the practice of memorializing those who die for us is a good and godly thing. So I'd encourage you, if you have the opportunity to go to a memorial event this morning, you should probably take advantage of that and show your kids why it's good and how it connects to the gospel explicitly. But why it's good that people do this. Jesus says there's no greater love than that. Someone lays life down for his friends, and that's what he does for them. And that's what these people do for us. They're not our friends in the proximate sense, but they're our friends in a true sense, in that they die for our sake, for our freedom. So that's a good thing to celebrate and memorialize us today. And you might be doing that this week as you travel down to the the Alamo, huh? Yeah, maybe. We'll see. Maybe it was on, it was certainly on the agenda as this is on the table of a potentiality. But I'm not looking forward to that drive. We just got some work done on the van and that was that made me cry a little bit. Actually, it made me cry a lot on the inside. Tears were actually, not she, but on the inside I felt the travail. It's okay, you don't have to lie. You were fetal position in your office. It's okay. Rocking back and forth. And yeah, it, that was painful. But now that we did it and I'm like, oh, let's just protect the car guys, let's not drive. If you go down there, I want you to come back with a Kon skin cap like Dan Davey Crockett wore, and Daniel Boone. I can't promise you that I will. Okay. Come back with a, maybe someone in my family will come back with a Bowie knife then. A Bowie knife. It's a Bowie knife. Like a David Bowie? No, Jim Buoy. Jimy. It's a massively large knife and it was named for him and he was one of the ones that died in the Alamo as well. See, I have knives and I try to wear them and I just feel like they're having in my pocket. I feel like the David Bowie knife, this one you wouldn't be able to wear. That's my point. I don't know if I need one then unless I hang it in your office, if you're okay with that. Sure. Why not? Yeah. Office people would stop you out in public. They'd be like sir, that's a David Bowie knife. Yeah, that's a You're open carrying right now. Oh, is that what that is? Can you, is it carrying a knife like that? Open carrying, oh, I don't know. It's sizable though. It's like a machete. Wow. Like you, people would look at you very oddly if you were carrying a knife of that size. He was one though that was ill, was sick during the Battle of the Alamo, and as the famous story goes, the line was drawn in the sand and they said, if you're for us. Come on this side if you wanna run, 'cause you're afraid for your life, you can. You can go. Wow. And everybody crossed the line. He was bedridden and he asked people to pick up his bed with him sick in it and carry it across the line, man. 'cause he was that committed to the cause. My man, David Bowie. Bowie. Yeah. I like that guy. Jim. Jim Bowie. It's ground control. The major time. Did he write that song he did at the Alamo? He did. It was, yes. That's amazing. Yeah, I know He didn't even know what ground control was, did it? But he still, that's prophetic songwriting right there. The Psalms woo. Might have to add that. And then NASA in Houston, which is not. San Antonio, but it's crazy. Near San Antonio ish. Yeah. So maybe the connection is there. That is some Nostradamus kind of thing right there. Is it? What do you do with Nostradamus? Lots of people quoted him, but back when I was in middle school people would be like, oh, not nos. Nostradamus is how they pronounce it. I think it's Nostradamus. But either way do you put any, so let's suppose. Nostradamus or someone like him Yes. Has predictive prophecy. That's accurate. Yeah. What do you do with that? Blind squirrel finds a nut, right? There's, listen, there's different things that can happen and people can predict things, and number one, it could be, hey, they get lucky. Number two, it could be their perceptive and discerning. And they draw conclusions based on their observations of things which are likely to happen, and then those things happen. Third thing that it could be in some instances is there could be demonic demon activity. Demon. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So if it's cultic, and if the, this is somebody wanting to amass religious followers because of their predictions, and those predictions are coming true then I'm gonna say this is demonic. Outside of that. People talk about that with The Simpsons, the TV show. Oh yeah. They predicted everything that they've predicted so many different things and it's whoa, this is crazy. I don't know if that's demonic. Maybe it is, but maybe I, we don't know. Yeah, but that's likely. Yep. Yeah, his stuff wasn't all that great anyway. Maybe there was some things that you say maybe, if you it's one of those things where if you squint and look sideways, right? I think I do see a horse now that you say it, one of those. So I don't think there's anything that behind that, except, whatever. Jollies, he got out of doing that stuff. But I think there are people that do possess some kind of insight and knowledge, but I think most of it, if it's legit, it's gonna be exactly that. It's pagan, it's ritualistic, and there's some kind of power behind the power. Sure. That's utilizing them for those purposes. Yeah. Totally beware. Totally. Let's jump into our Psalms. We have plenty day. We've got quite a few of 'em. Yep. Psalm 1 31, only three verses right off the bat. So here we'll do our daily Bible reading together. Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weed child with its mother, like a weed child is my soul within me. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. This one it just struck me the humility of David in this one. Just asking that God would. Keep him in his place as, and notice it's a psalm of a sense. And so as he's going up to worship the Lord, he's praying on that journey that God would not allow him to or not, that God would enable him to not go up with his heart lifted too high. In other words, not go up hotty, not go up too proud but to understand his place before the Lord and to have a calm and quiet soul even as he comes into worship. So this tells us that there's something to the posture, that we approach the Lord in worship, and that's something that we need to be. Mindful of, even as we're on our way into church, even as we're preparing to go, how are we approaching the Lord? What is our mindset? What is our mentality and how are we approaching and pleading for the Lord to help us in that? Yeah. One of the things I wanna point out to you in this particular psalm is the idea that God weans his kids. You are going to be at some point drawn away from the things that are comfortable. That are fitting for your current stage of development. God constantly wants his people to grow and so I think David here is noticing, look, I've calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with it, with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. That is God's taking something comfortable away from David so that he can grow, so that he can stray further from mom's purse strings or her apron strings as the saying goes. And this is what God does. God is constantly pushing us to greater and greater maturity in Christ. And this is what Paul says in one Corinthians 13, right when I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child. But when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. And this is what it is to grow up in love and this is what God's gonna do to you. You should expect that God's gonna wean you from the things that are comfortable for you according to your season. You can't stay there indefinitely, and this is certainly God's. Progress and growth within the church for us. Yeah. Psalm 1 38 as we get into this next one, this is one of the last Psalms David wrote. It is there's a lot of parallels between this one and Psalm one 18 and people think that this is perhaps a response to the Davidic Covenant. Probably be. 'cause of the effusive praise that marks the majority of this psalm here. But something that stood out to me in verse one is I give you thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart, we just came off of a retreat where we focused on being uncompromised men that are men of integrity. In Psalm 86, he talks about having an undivided heart. That's a theme that came out. Our theme verse in fact, had that as its key feature there. Psalm 86 11. And so here again, we see this idea that when we approach the Lord to worship him or when we're giving him gratitude, that it's important for us to come with an undivided heart to come, with a whole heart to come as much as we can without distractions to be able to focus on him. And so again, that, that comes back to our approach. How are we setting ourselves up for our worship? Are we. Coming distracted. Are we coming with our phone in our hand? Are we coming wanting to check our email? Are we coming worried about a score? Are we coming or are we coming saying, Lord, you have my full attention right now and I'm gonna give it all to you. And that's how David opens, at least this Psalm. Yeah, I like verse six here for the thought for though rather the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. I love this because it constantly reminds me of what James and others have quoted. The Lord opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And this is a good reminder for us, even as you're talking about Pastor pj. I think it takes a great intentionality in our part to come with the whole heart. And coming with the whole heart is I think first or. There to remind us that we are often distracted, our hearts are fractured, and we need to often calibrate before we even make our way into the service itself. I know that I do and I lead it like one of the leaders of the services. I need to make sure that my heart's ready to approach the Lord. And that's part of what it is to be lowly, part of what it is to be humble. So before you get to church, maybe the next time that happens, maybe this is a good time for you to pause and say, Lord, help me search my heart. Know me and let me be humble before you so that I don't give you a divided heart. How about verse two when he says in the second half there for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Now, David didn't have the Bible the way that we have the Bible. He knew the rah. He probably had some scrolls, a around, but can we take that and apply that? To the fullness of the canon. Should we take this and be able to point to this and say, this is pointing to the authority and the significance of the word of God, pastor. Your thoughts on that? Is there a disconnect there or can we say Yeah. Even though he didn't have the full Bible, we can take that and apply it to the full Bible? Absolutely. I, and I guess there are a couple reasons why number one scripture is meant to be interpreted within scripture. We let scripture define and interpret scripture. And even though David didn't know what we now know today, that doesn't mean that he didn't, God didn't intend that through his, through his messenger of David at this point in time. So I would say yes, it applies certainly to that and it's consistent with the rest of scripture. If we take an Old Testament passage and we try to apply it to everything else in scripture and it's ah, it doesn't quite fit, that's a good indication, we probably shouldn't do that. But in this particular case, this is consistent with scripture all across the Old Testament and New Testament. So I would say absolutely this is something we could apply. What would you say to that? Yeah I agree. I think, I've heard the challenge or the accusation thrown at the Evangelical church before you guys are, they'll call us biblios. In other words, that we have somehow made the Bible an i an idol in our life and we're missing God for the word of God, which I've always struggled with. And if our approach to the Bible is, what the Bible calls us to do. I don't know how you can do that. I don't know how the Bible does anything but lead us to the Lord. Certainly there are those self-deceived that know a lot of the Bible that don't have a relationship with God, but in general, I think verses like this and others would say, we need to revere the scriptures. We need to. Honor the scriptures. We need to look to the scriptures for our guidance and not fall into the trap of the Roman Catholic Church, which is put forward, the three-legged stool of man's reason and church tradition on par with scripture. As we can consult all of these things. We don't have to just look to one and we would say no scripture sits above all and we sit under it and it's in part because of verses like this that say, God has exalted his word above all things, and we're going to subject ourselves to it and learn to trust it. Anything else on, on 1 38 there? Okay. 1 39. One of the more familiar psalms if you've been in the church for long. This is one of my favorite Psalms. Just that the intimacy of God's knowledge of us that is conveyed in this psalm. And David is the author here. And you'll just note, especially in the first. Five verses or thereabout, how many times he talks about his knowledge of us, that God's knowledge of us is deep, that God knows us better than anyone else. He knows our goings, he knows our comings, he knows all of our ways. He knows the words that we're gonna speak before even one is on our tongue. That's shocking. God's omniscient is. Is just in incredible as we consider how deeply he knows us, there is no limit to what he knows about us. Even verse seven, David says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Is there anywhere that I can get away from your knowledge of me? And the answer he concludes is essentially no. He says, even if I. Go to heaven. God, you're there. If I go to the grave, you're there. If I were able to take the wings of the morning. Now the imagery there in the Hebrew is that the first rays of dawn as the sun is breaking and the light is sending out its first raise. If I was able to catch one of those rays and ride it out as far as it would go. Could I escape you? And his conclusion is no, even there, your hand is with me. Your right hand is gonna hold me there. And then he gets to the foundation of that knowledge of the why. And it's because God is our creator and he's our sustainer, and he's the one who's sovereign even over the number of days that we're going to live. Verse 16 in your book, we written every one of 'em the number of days formed for me when as yet there was none of them. So God knows us because God created us and he's ordained the number of days even that we're gonna live on this earth. And so our conclusion along with David in verses 23 through 24 then is, okay, God, if you know me to this level, search me then. And if there's any sin in me, any grievous way in, me, know my thoughts, Lord, if there's anything, help me to correct these things and lead me in the way of outlasting, lead me in the path that I should go. Yeah. And if you pray that God will certainly answer it. This is again, just to reiterate what we were talking about earlier. God desires to improve us and to grow us into the image and likeness of Christ. So this is a great prayer for you to jot down in your prayer journal, maybe to make reference to this and ponder it. But as you pray this knowing, know that this is a dangerous prayer to pray because God wants to answer it. And it isn't often in his grace that he chooses not to reveal everything that he could say to us at any one time because it would crush us. So pray with caution, but you should pray this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Psalm 1 39 is such a good one. Also one that we point to for the sanctity of human life. This is a great text for us to go to, to say this is one of the reasons why it matters for us to fight for that and to value that as believers because of the fact that this tells us that God is in intimately involved and intricately involved in the formation of a human being from the time of conception. Psalm 1 39 is a good text for us on that. Psalm 1 43 then is again of David, and this one finds David in a time of distress asking, pleading for praying for God's mercy while still recalling his faithfulness and asking him to teach him and preserve him, ultimately for not only David's sake, but ultimately for God's sake. And so that, that's what David is doing here. He's saying in asking that gout would deliver him not just. For David's comfort. And that's always challenging because I think so often when I'm praying that God would bring me out of a value or deliver me from a tight spot it's in my flesh. Most often. For me it's because of my own discomfort. And yet I love that David here is saying Lord I want you to do this so that your name's sake, verse 11 would be exalted and not mine. Yeah. Verse five says, I remember the days of old. I meditate on all that you have done. I ponder the work of your hands. This for David probably was very personal in that he was thinking about the ways that God has operated in his life. He, man, he tick took care of me when I was fighting against Goliath. He protected me when my son tried to create a coup against me. He's probably thinking about his own personal life, but as you read this verse. Remind yourself that man, you have 2000 pages, several, several hundred chapters of scripture where you can look back on the ways that God has operated throughout human history. So when you remember the days of old, it actually probably isn't your life. Although there's a place for that. As I told you, tell you all the time, journaling is a great practice 'cause it does remind you of what God has done in your life. But I think here. The application is to say, okay, what has God done? Look at his scriptures. Meditate on all that he has done in the past, what he promises to do in the future, and that's gonna help you calibrate when you're going through a challenging time. It gets your mind focused on what's the right thing? That is God's leadership, his sovereignty, his purposes, that gets your head off of your own troubles and tribulations. Although you might have real ones, he wants you to think about them by looking at him like David. Remember the days of old meditate on all that he's done, and in that way, he'll satisfy your thirst. Yeah I also like verse 10, teach me to do your will Lord, for. You are, my God. And that's such a, that foundational statement. There you are, my God. In other words, because God is God. Because he is God. And by definition of what all that means, our appropriate response is, so teach me to do your will. I wanna do what your will is because you're God and I'm not. We sing that line in that song, undivided heart, right? You are God and I'm not. The implications of that has gotten, here's my life. You get to make the calls on this, so teach me to do your will and and you are, my God. And I will follow it because that's who you are and that's what I wanna do. Psalm 1 44. Then here David praises God in the psalm and petitions him again, please, asks him to act, to bring judgment and faithfulness. I mentioned that there was parallels to Psalm one 18 and one of the earlier ones. This is the one I meant. There's parallels to Psalm one 18 and this Psalm not the other one. And so you're gonna see a lot of the similarities there. And again, why? Because it's the same author David here, and so. The humility there. Verse three call back to verse to Psalm eight. Even in this one when he says, oh, Lord, what is man that you regard him, the son of man that you think of him, man, is like a breath. His days are a passing shadow, the frailty of mankind. That, that, again, this mentality of God, you're God you are the eternal one. We are, but a transient passing breath or like the grass that withers and fades. And yet. David knows that God loves him enough in spite of that, that he can say, Lord, verse 11, rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners. So this it's a humility to, to know that there's an insignificance. There's a weightlessness about us when it comes to eternity, and yet there's so much of a love of God that he's gonna care about us, even though we are such transient beings. Verse 1 45, Psalm 1 45. That is is David's final psalm in the Salter, and he goes out with a bang. This one is an amazing Psalm of praise. Great is the Lord greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable. One generation will commend your works or another. Shane and Shane have a version of this Psalm 1 45 that's in on one of their. Earliest Psalms album, so you're gonna have to go way back to find it. But it's a great one to listen to. Meditating on the glorious wonders of his works. One generation committing his works to another. We talked about that earlier. I think it was in this episode or maybe, I guess yesterday's episode. We were talking about David and how David set up p Solomon. So there again, one generation committing the works of God to the other. Verse eight, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love. I was thinking about that this past weekend as we were studying Hosea. God is merciful because he is. It's who he is. He acts in mercy because it's part of his character, and so he can't help but be merciful because it is part of who he is. It emanates from him because that's part of his identity. We think of God's mercy and sometimes we just think God is merciful. He acts in acts of mercy, and we don't connect that to the fact that as he reveals himself, even here or to Moses in Exodus 34, he says, I am. A God who is merciful. That's part of his character, part of who he is. And he's gracious just like that as well in verse eight. That's part of his character. It's part of who he is. So he acts out of the very identity, the very character of who he is. He doesn't do anything that's surface. He doesn't do anything that's fraudulent. He doesn't put up a facade. He is an. Integral, if we can put it that way. He's a god of integrity. He acts in accordance with who he is and his character. And his character is a God who is gracious and merciful. Yeah, for sure. This is one of my favorite psalms. I love that line. I think probably Shane and Shane helped me to love this song more because their harmonies are just so beautiful on this song. But yeah. Just to reiterate what you said, maybe you. Missed it. But this is quoting Exodus 34 verses six and seven. So many of our Psalms quote that, you might forget that, but Exodus 34, this particular section is quoted ad nauseum so many times in the Old Testament that it's worth you memorizing and saying, okay, I know where this comes from. This is where the Lord passes before Moses and proclaims the Lord of God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger up outing and steadfast love and faithfulness, and on it goes. So that's worth ear tagging in your Bible. Just to know comes from Exodus 34. Hey, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. Unless you got more to add. I'm good. All good? Okay. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for who you are as God and the way that you've revealed yourself to us. Not just your name but also who you are, what the type of God you are, the character that you are. And so we are grateful for that and we are thankful that you are a God who is gracious and merciful and not just a God who is just and holy and you are those things. And yet you are those things and. A God who's patient with us, and we're so grateful for that and we need that every single day. And so we praise you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye 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