Bible Guys Classics: Psalm 24

Hey, everybody, we're the Bible Guys, and if you're just

tuning in recently, just know that we are showing a

little bit of reruns for a few months, and then

we'll be back bigger and better than ever on August

thirty first, because behind the scenes, we're taking a hiatus

to do some very important things.

Yeah, we're building building out a new studio and we've

got some new structure. Super excited about it. So August

thirty first, brand new content. But in the meantime, enjoy

some of our greatest hits.

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Good morning, good morning, Wow, we talk good moaning,

good morning.

Do you wow? That''s amazing. But we have to hurry

today because you got to go work out.

Uh what you're gonna say jet on TV?

Yeah? Wow, So don't we have to hurry?

Okay, well, at least explain.

It to hurry now because you're gonna go work out

because you're buff. First of all, you're getting so ripped.

That that is not even close to being I work

out with physical therapy for old people.

So what is what what is it? What is your

what is your trainer? What is her specialty old people?

That's what you say. That's not true at all.

You know what, though, I didn't have some like bulging

discs and everything, and come and find out my trainer

is somebody who was a physical therapist, which is such.

A rare combination.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, so what she does is she's able to actually

like help me both in physical therapy and also give

me exercises that are the perfect ones.

Yes. So Heritage Church, the church we work at, we

also have a gym. A lot of people don't know that, right,

HFE hundred people are so really engaged with the gym,

and we have some really great trainers. And Mandy is

your trainer, and she is an expert in old people

and stop that in physical therapy, those two things. If

you need a gentle uh, gentle trainer. If you want

to get fit, you want to go with one of

the other guys. But if you want somebody to be

gentle with you and tell you you're doing a good job,

pretty soon you're gonna start talking about prunes.

I'm telling you, Hey, by the way, fiber so I

gets so much fierious.

Usually whenever you see me just wearing like a T shirt,

it's because I'm recording on a day.

But right afterwards I go and have.

A So here we are, we got a hustle, That's

what I'm saying.

No clock is the clock?

Well, I was thinking maybe we could warm you up,

get you working into a good sweat before you go

to the work clock to stretch. So hey, Chris, Yes,

Tomorrow September twenty eighth, Yes, is National Chris Day, which.

I did not know.

By the way, hey, I looked it up. By the way,

I looked up National Chris Day.

Did you really?

I did it because I was like, come on, are

you flipping serious? And it says mark your calendar is

because September twenty eighth is National Chris Day, a day

dedicated to celebrating all those with the name Chris. It

originated in two thousand and eight.

I wonder if there's a National Jeffday.

I'm sure there is, Well I doubt it. So here's

some ways they even give ways to celebrate National Chris Day.

One host to Christine party.

Oh it'd be great.

Writ inrite all your friends named Chris to a party

and the.

Say this, I gotta say this. So I'm Chris.

My daughter Sarah married Brandon, but his legal name is

Christopher Brandon Drew. So she married a Chris. And then

my daughter is almost engaged. Right, they're talking about engagement.

And his name is also Chris. It's Chris dos is

his real name. They call him Chris. So I'm Chris.

He's Chris and Chris as you, guys could have a

Chris themed part.

We could do it by ourselves.

You could send handwritten notes to all the Chris's you know,

yes right, thanking them for being a part of your life,

celebrating their name. You could create a Chris themed playlist,

Chris Stapleton, Chris Brown, whatever. Uh. You could attend a

Chris themed event. Maybe find a Chris named comedian. You

could volunteer to charity with Chris in a name.

Should Should I eat it?

Ruth?

Chris's I think you should?

Yeah? Yeah. And here's why we love National Chris Day.

It's a day to celebrate our friends and family members

named Chris. That's one. There's so many other famous and

influential people named Chris. Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Martin,

Chris Stapleton. I mean, just you go on and on

lots of famous chris is, and then Chris is a

popular and timeless name, and we just want to celebrate

the fact that it has popularity, enduring popularity and charm.

Wow is what it says.

So the segment that Desire wrote is Chris because since

tomorrow is all about you, if you could have the

perfect day, what would it look like?

Yes, and so I thought.

That's what we want to know. So here's more than

anything we want to know.

So the perfect day would be get up very early

from my castle in Orlando that I've rented out as

an airbnb, okay, and then to go to all four

Disney parks with a Disney Park Hall passer or you

know what I mean, sorry, hopper.

Pass one day. Yeah we all you've never done that. No, oh, yeah,

it's great.

I've only been to Disney twice, okay, and I've only

been to the main theme park.

Okay, okay, just stop talking.

Okay, go ahead, let the big boys.

Talk about this.

So so anyway, so if you buy a park opper pass,

you can like you know, spend a couple hours in

one and then take the ferry over, take the bus

or whatever. And then at each Disney park, the major

theme park, Beau, there's four of them. I would choose

my four celebrities to hang out with my family. So,

in other words, it's just my favorite celebrity and he

would meet me at the theme park and we'd hang

out for maybe three hours hours, well no.

Not a maybe perhaps why not, because that's that. But

it didn't say a christ Day. It just said what

is your perfect day? So I wouldn't be limited to

the Chris's.

No, No, you're right.

I would just say whoever I want to hang out with,

we would just choose one and then they would just

join us and we would.

Just hang out. Okay, And I don't know who those

four celebrities would be.

I at this think about that. Listeners know who celebrities?

No, they wouldn't. No, they do not, and by the way,

you'd be wrong. You'd be wrong. They would not make

my top.

But but I would think long and hard, and I

would choose for celebrities and they would hang out with

my whole fan that's your day, well, I mean, and

eat well and eat well.

Right, So in other words, like the Disney.

The worst thing about Disney is there they have terrible food,

but they do have like one or two restaurants like

the be Our Guest Restaurant that is like fine dining.

So I would say every meal would have to be

in a fine dining type restaurant.

That sounds uh, you should pay something. You said something

that's your perfect day?

Well, I mean it's one of them.

Okay, well all right, if I'm talking about you a

well of incredible information and ideas, yes, I don't know.

So we just keep peeling back the onion. We keep

peeling back layers of the onion, discovering who you really are.

Truth be told, I don't think too many of the

people would agree with that day.

No, I wouldn't. Yes, I know this sounds like hell,

like like I've died, I've been sent to purgatory.

But the celebrity part, you'd like you, No.

I wouldn't. I don't talk to celebrities when I see them.

Oh well, yeah, well do I. You probably don't get

the chances.

I just don't do it.

If you had a real down to earth one sent.

Right next to celebrity one time at a restaurant, he

owned and I didn't say boot literally right next to my.

First Well, if you said boot, you get arrested.

Bro.

Yeah yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, I just don't do it.

Hey, I've talked to plenty of celebrities, probably a couple dozen.

Oh look at me. I hang out with celebrity.

No, I just find reason to be near them. And

almost everyone was completely, like, completely nice.

Yeah.

Yeah. The worst one was Kid Rock in terms of, like,

you know, being rude. Sorry about that, Kid Rock.

Oops.

Oops, I just said that I loud, Yes you did.

I didn't.

Now he's gunning for you. I should He's going to

send his posse to come and get you.

Uh uh.

And probably one of the nicest ones was she's not

quite a celebrity, but I would say Ammy Grant. Okay,

set right next to Amy Grant, talk to her like

celebrity thirty minutes at Christmas time? Yeah, okay, wow, Chris, Yeah,

what a day.

There you go. Well, hey talking about celebrities. King David, yep,

there you go about how much he loved God. Where

to go, buddy, So we're David at this point is

the King of Judah. We already established that, and he's

trying to figure out to establish his kingdom. There's some struggles,

and we've already established the fact that while he was

a great warrior and a great king and leader, he

also was an artist and he had this other side.

And there's something to celebrate about being a renaissance kind

of a person where you have a breadth to you,

not just a you know, one one trick pony, but

have some real skill and depth. And so he's writing

out his prayers and putting them to songs, and the

theme behind Psalm chapter twenty four is that everything belongs

to God right. And so here's what he says. He's says,

the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the

world and all its people belong to him, For he

laid the earth's foundation on the seas and built it

on the ocean. Depths who may climb the mountain of

the Lord, who may stand in his holy place, Only

those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not

worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the

Lord's blessing and have a right relationship with God, their savior.

Such people may seek you and worship in your presence,

Oh God of Jacob, open the gates, or open up

ancient gates, Open up ancient doors, and let the King

of Glory enter, who is the King of Glory, the

Lord strong and mighty, the Lord invincible in battle. Open

up ancient gates, open up ancient doors, and let the

King of Glory enter, who is the King of Glory,

the Lord of Heaven's armies. He is the King of Glory.

And that reminds me of a worship song that was

quite popular.

Yes, King Glory, Yeah yeah.

So yeah, So it is a great thing, I think,

to spend time proclaiming God's greatness, declaring God's greatness, and

that is exactly what this psalm does. In fact, I

don't know if you read this already, because I was

reading ahead on some of these notes.

But one of this.

Subtitles says everything belongs to God, the glorious eternal King.

Let us worship him and welcome his glorious reign. And

did you read that already?

I didn't read it out loud, okay, so I read

it quietly to myself.

So you know, if this reminds me of which is

very relevant for our lives, and that is at one

time heard a pastor teach on the Lord's Prayer, and

we did a series that was sort of based on that,

right where we sort of walked through the Lord's Prayer adhritage, remember,

and it was yes, you were there, you taught at

it actually, but basically a lot of people I grew

up learning how to recite the Lord's Prayer, you know.

The Catholics would say, they call it our father right where,

you know, and sometimes you would get assigned, you know,

to say a certain number of our fathers, you know,

depending on your penance and everything else.

You go in and say, you know, anyway, it doesn't matter.

The point is is that people have grown up being

taught to recite it and then also to use it

as a formulated prayer. And by the way, I think

that's a good thing. I think reciting prayers is a

good thing. Quoting psalms which were prayers is a good thing.

So there's nothing wrong with that. However, on the flip

side of that coin, I do not think that the

Lord's Prayer was given to us as something to memorize

and recite always as our main prayer.

Do you believe that as well?

Yes, I don't believe that he gave it to us

as our main prayer, but as a model.

So as a model, so what would a mean?

He would establish, these are the typical elements that would

be in an effective prayer.

Right, And so anyway, all that to say would be

the very first line in that prayer is declaring God's greatness.

So he says, our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed

be thy name, and a more modern version would say

great is your name.

And that's what it means.

And so and here's the part that I'm trying to

get at when thinking about Psalm twenty four, and which

is all about declaring God's majesty and his rule. Is

Jesus himself when he taught us to pray. The very

first thing that he suggested that we do is declaring

God's greatness, our Father, who are in heaven.

Great is your name.

And one of the things that I heard was I

think perhaps one of the reasons why he did that

is to remind us just who it is we're praying to,

because most of the time, what do we do We say,

Dear God, Okay, let me get right to my needs,

wants and wishes, right, And what he's saying is like, hey, listen,

I know you have needs and wants and wishes. But

before you get to that, spend just a little bit

of time in declaring and recognizing just who it is

you're praying to. Because when you posture your heart and

say God, you are God and I am not, then

maybe by the time you get to your needs and

wants and wishes, you'll have a lot less anxiety over them.

Maybe you'll have a lot more confidence in believing that

God can take care of these things, or or trusting

that God will do what he's going to do and

it's going to be best regardless of how he answers.

So just spend time. And the answer is, well, how long?

How long should I spend there? You know, because Jesus's.

Prayer to our Father only takes thirty seconds to pray, right,

like you could run through the Our Father in thirty

seconds or less, right, So how long should I pray?

Does that mean my prayer should only be thirty seconds?

And honestly, my answer has always been as long as

it takes, like as long as it takes for your

heart to get there? You know, Oh Lord, you know

how it would be your name, Like as long as

it takes for your heart to wrestle and get there

in your posture, to take rest and refuge in the

fact that God's in control, that he's great, that you're

going to the King of the universe with your needs,

wants and wishes declaring his greatness like Psalm twenty four

is doing, declaring his majesty and just announcing that he

is God. There's a lot of comfort in that, and

it's also comforting knowing that we should always start our

prayers with things like this.

Yeah, I think that's really powerful, the remembering that these

were songs sung at the temple. It's interesting there's two

pieces to this song. There's the first part just declaring

that God is the ruler over everything, and then there's

this interlude, and then there's open up ancient gates, right

and one of the cool things. I don't know if

you saw this, but in the Notes of Life Application

Study Bible, it says this psalm, often set to music,

was probably used in corporate worship. It may have been

re enacted many times at the temple. The people outside

would call out to the temple gates to open up

and let the King of Glory in from inside. The

priests or another group would ask who is the King

of glory outside? The people would respond in unison, the

Lord Strong and mighty, the Lord invincible in battle, claiming

his great power and strength, and the exchange would then

be repeated. You know, that's what happens. It's repeated twice

there and then it says and the temple gates would

swing open, symbolizing the people's desire to have God's presence

among them. And this would have been a great important

lesson for the children who were participating. Right, So this

was a common thing within tradition that the people would

be outside calling, and the tradition is that this was

probably the first worship song of the week in the temple,

by the way, So it's kind of neat that this

would be a thing. They would call out, who's the strong,

Who's the Lord Strong and mighty? Right, they go back

and forth. So I love that that this is corporate worship,

corporate singing, and the Bible talks a lot about worship.

So I spent fifteen years as a worship leader. I

have a degree in music, particularly focused on worship, and

the Bible says that we're supposed to worship Him with

our songs. We're supposed to sing new songs to the Lord,

supposed to use all the instruments and all the voices,

all those things. And God delights in our individual worship.

He delights in our corporate group worship. It's one of

the great benefits of the gathered church. It's one of

the things that you can't do privately, is worship in

a large group. Right. So that's there. But then he

says to worship Him in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

There are worship songs, There are praise songs, there are

testimony songs. Right, and so this one the earth is

the Lord's and everything that, this is a worship song. God,

You're big, You're God, and I'm not. That's a worship song.

Right.

Most of the songs we sing lately on Sunday mornings,

it seems like in a lot of churches are more

praise songs. God, You're just really good, right, You're the

way maker. You're the one who who solves my problems.

You're the one who takes care of me when I

was afraid I didn't know where to go. You're the one.

Those are praise songs, right, So those are are those

so if you're thinking psalms, psalms are thought of as prayers. Typically,

worship hymns oftentimes are praise. They're the ones that are

saying praise God from whom all blessings flow. Kind of

a song, right, God, you are the one that provides

for me. And then spiritual songs are usually testimony kind

of songs. I was lost and you found me. I

didn't know what to turn and you and you showed

me the way. I was broken and you fixed me right.

Amazing grace is kind of a mix of those two things.

So testimony songs have a way of what like telling

your story, identifying my story, humanity, right, journey.

My story was resolved by God. Whereas a worship song

is God's God. Right, Wow, we're going to worship you

because you're God. A praise song is God, you do

good things and that you're powerful, you can do anything

you make the way. And then spiritual songs are going

to be those things that either are talking about biblical things.

You know, Father Abraham had many sons, right, so it's

gonna be that it's just a biblical idea biblical literacy

kind of songs or their testimony songs saying this was

my life and this is what God did in my life. Right,

my life is only because of Him, and so I

think it's important. Then Paul highlights those three. You see

all of those in the Book of Psalms, along with confession. Right,

that's the other one that's not mentioned that Paul mentions.

But David also confesses sin in there. So those would

be maybe the four major areas. And we all tend

to go, we tend to gravitate if we're not careful

towards look what God did for me, or I'm trusting

God to do good things for me. But before we

ever get to the praise side, I think we should

spend more time in the worship side. God's God and

I'm not. He's just right. Yeah, And this is what

David is doing in this one. There's not a lot

of praise in here. There's not a lot of testimony

in here. It's just God, You're God, and you're worth

worshiping because of who you are. Yeah.

And by the way, name can you can you name

a song off the top of your head, whether current

or super old, that sticks out in your mind as

a true worship song that just says God, You're God.

Yeah, man, I'm put on the spot there. I bet

our listeners could.

Yeah.

I just thought that maybe, you know, I think I

remember the Phillips Kraigndeine worship song you Are God Alone.

Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that. I went back in

the day. That was probably what fifteen years ago, twenty

years ago? Yeah, yeah, that's the one that's been in

my mind ever since we've been reading this. Okay, this thing,

but a current worship song, there are many, There are

many that go there as opposed to the praise songs.

Are you know remember the song you are so Good?

Remember Chris Tomlin, you are amazing God? Like that one

when and he says, you know the author of creation?

How great is our God? These are the types of songs, right,

just talking about how God is great?

God is God.

Then praise songs are man, you take good care of me, right,

so your God is worship, You take good care of me,

praise what you provide everything I need? And then the

testimony stuff is you've changed me, right, this is this

is how You've changed me? Or biblical literacy kind of stuff.

So the praise songs could be that praise is the

water that my enemy is drowning.

What song is that?

Yeah?

Yeah, so I I brought that.

I brought that up to poke fun because because sometimes

there are lyrics that just come out of the blue

every once in a while that.

You look and go what.

Yeah, well it's a biblical literacy. It's a teaching moment,

right to be able to come back and go, hey,

by the way, that's referencing when uh, the Egyptians drowned.

You know, so the Israelites passed through on dry land

and then the Red Sea flooded off the the Egyptians.

But that that has nothing to do with praise though,

Well you praise in the fact that God delivered me. Okay,

that's that's that's what.

That that's what it's supposed to be.

But it says, praise is the water that my enemy's

drying sometimes yeah symbolic, Yeah, oh, that that's I give

a reason to praise.

The Lord muscle. That's what that's a uess. Okay, So

that's interesting.

So wow, what a what a great what a great

little course there? What do I want to say, master

master class on worship, which is pretty cool.

And so having balance in those areas, right, I've been

talking with the worship leader a little bit at our

church here about Hey, okay, we're doing really good in

this area, what about what about some of these other

things let's not let's not miss them and different you know,

songwriters and different people that everybody else is listening to.

They put out their songs what's going on in their

life at the time. But it's important for us to

also remember, Hey, we have to have our own song,

and we have to have our own our own ability

to sing a new song to the Lord, and what's missing.

So if everything lately has been praised, then hey, we

should get back to worship or or what about a

testimony song, or what about a biblical literacy type of

a song. You know, Martin Luther, when he was kicking

off the Reformation during his ministry, he wrote over five

thousand songs. Did you know that a thousand songs? He

wrote more songs than he did pages on doctrine? Real, right, Yeah,

it's pretty pretty incredible, And he felt like music was

the best conveyance for teaching doctrine to his people. So

if you think of of you know, Almighty Ford, this

is our God, think of the doctrine that is in

that song. He's really building it out of the Book

of Psalms, the concept, but there's so much doctrine, and

he would take popular tunes from the taverns, he would

take popular tunes that everybody knew, and he would put

theological depth to it to teach people the words of God.

And it's amazing how much of our doctrine is developed

by songs. And we have to be careful if we

start wondering, why do our children only think that God

is our good luck charm and he provides everything we want?

It might be because we're only singing praise songs.

Right right.

We need more breadth to our worship. That's great because

you remember though, you remember a song way longer than

you remember a message.

Right right.

I agree with that. I agree with that.

Okay, well, hey, that is our time. And what a great,

great unpacking of Psalm chapter twenty four. And there's so

many different types of Psalms, and I'm sure we'll be

touching on many more of along the life of David

as we continue our series now that David is king,

as we walk through the Old Testament. Hopefully we'll see

you Monday on the Bible guys,