Sermon
THESE Leadership Qualities Change the World: Psalm 72
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a
-
couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in
-
practical ways.
-
Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in for another episode of
-
The Bible Guys.
-
Sing us a song, Chris, good Morning. I knew that's
-
what you'd say, talk thrown nut through good morning. Good
-
morning to you and you and you and you.
-
Wow, well that's the end of You're saying it for
-
all of us, not just one of us.
-
That's correct. Wow, because I said.
-
That's because it's all three listeners, is me and two others.
-
Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's so funny. Oh that's great. Yes, well, hey,
-
thanks Jeff for requesting me singing.
-
That was magnificent. And people have been waiting. I mean
-
we've we've gotten pretty deep into the week.
-
Yes, well we're at Wednesday.
-
I know, that's what I'm saying. And so this is
-
this is uh yes.
-
So hey, today we're going to start off with a
-
brand new segment that I've never heard of. Desiree just
-
decided to make something up called hypothetical Hilarity. Here are
-
some wild and ridiculous hypothetical situations to discuss. They must
-
decide on a course of action or solve the problem
-
and in the most outlandish way possible. So is the
-
assignment just to answer the question or is the assignment
-
to answer the question in a crazy, unexpected way.
-
I'm not sure, but let's just let's go for it, Chris. Okay,
-
all right, let's go for it because the rules are
-
are Yes, you want to read in the most outlandish
-
way possible?
-
Do you want to read the first one?
-
If your pet suddenly grew to the size of a
-
small car, would you let it drive you around or
-
turn it into a social media influencer?
-
Yes? Both depends is your petiphish because I.
-
Don't know what what? What is your pet? It's your pet, Chris, Oh,
-
my pets, it's literally says your pet.
-
Oh so this isn't just the listeners pets.
-
No, so since the listeners can't speak on the podcast,
-
they just have to listen.
-
Oh geez, ready to be fine. So this is a
-
question for me.
-
If your pet suddenly grew to the size of a
-
small car. Yes, not a big car, a small car.
-
I get it.
-
Okay, okay, would you yes?
-
Okay?
-
Fine, Okay, Well then I wasn't receiving it that way,
-
so you always see Jeff. That shows you how un
-
selfish I am. I always think of others. Yes, I
-
don't think of me. I think of others first.
-
I think it's that you don't pay attention to the words.
-
That's what I think.
-
What a terrible response to that, What a terrible response.
-
I think you wanted to take a credit where it
-
doesn't belong this time.
-
So uh okay.
-
So if my cats, I have two cats, You have
-
two cats currently, if they're.
-
Looking for others, so if you can help them, no,
-
I do, because they're down three.
-
Now, if my cat, one.
-
Of my cats rude to be the size of a car,
-
would I let it drive me around?
-
I think I would do both. I would definitely ride
-
on that thing.
-
It doesn't say would you ride on it?
-
Well, drive me around? Oh wait a minute, are you
-
saying that that question means?
-
The way that it's worded is that it's actually going
-
to be the driver instead of you. I know that's
-
what I'm saying, but the wording, I think the intent
-
is different than the wording. That's all I'm saying. Right,
-
there's a there's a little lawyer that lives in my
-
head and the words matter.
-
Yeah, because what she was meaning was use it.
-
Would you ride it around? Ride around on it?
-
Like a YEA, Well, I'm going to go with the intent, Jeff, Okay,
-
I'm not going to be you know, one of those guys.
-
I'm just saying, desert needs to use words on purpose.
-
And would you let it drive you around? Is a
-
totally different picture across. That's a different word picture. We've
-
already your size of a car now is in the
-
driver's seat of your pickup truck driving down the road.
-
That's what Hey, we already picked on desiret yesterday for
-
the jokes.
-
No, that's right, No, no, we picked on the people
-
who sent them, sent those jokes.
-
In ultimately we ended up doing that.
-
Yet we're picking a lot of people this week. So
-
if you haven't been offended yet, we have two more days.
-
That's right. Just give us a that's right for this week?
-
Okay, all right?
-
So I would say yes for both, honestly.
-
So you would you would you would let your cat
-
drive you around? Yes, But you'd also be if you've
-
got a cat the size of the car, you got
-
to put it on the internet.
-
Of course, Yeah, and you'd be rich. I'd have to
-
quit my job.
-
Just yeah, and what a noble what a noble cause
-
look at the size of my cat as opposed to
-
you know, twenty people to Jesus for eternity, that's.
-
What it would be. Quit your job. Okay, that's really funny.
-
If you had to be stuck in an elevator with
-
one celebrity, yes, and you're more focused on celebrities than me,
-
so this would be good. Yes, but you couldn't talk. Yes,
-
who would it be?
-
And why Bob Ross? Because I couldn't talk, which means right,
-
and he would teach me and I would sit there
-
for hours and as long as we had canvases.
-
Right, uh, you know in the elevator.
-
Once again, the words say, but you couldn't talk, correct,
-
he could write, which means like I could listen even
-
if he didn't, even if he didn't have a canvas.
-
He could just talk and just teach me how to paint,
-
which would be great. I'd love to listen to that guy.
-
I think it would be. I don't know he's not
-
TV anymore, but I think he's dead actually, okay, well.
-
Old as Bob Ross. I didn't get Siri. How old
-
is Ross died?
-
July fourth.
-
Uh huh, he died.
-
They're interrupted.
-
Yeah, he died. You were talking, that's the problem.
-
Chris and Siri were interrupting each other. That's pretty amazing.
-
You were talking when I was talking.
-
Yeah, I'm sorry.
-
So so he died. So can I still choose him?
-
Sure?
-
All right?
-
Yeah? Yeah, because it said any celebrity, right, one celebrity? Okay, okay,
-
I would pick maybe Da Vinci.
-
Oh that's why you said I can choose Bob Ross
-
because you wanted to go back into the archives.
-
Yeah.
-
Yeah, well he's the original renaissance man and I'm very
-
intrigued by that. Okay, yeah, yeah. Or the other one
-
that was thinking is Mark Twain. Oh I think Mark
-
Twain to be a neat one. He'd be a jerk though,
-
Why he's hysterically funny he was. Yeah, but in your opinion,
-
Mark Twain to be a jerk.
-
Can you pick up a skeleton hand and move it? Yeah?
-
Yeah? Yeah, Well I mean you picked up Bob Ross.
-
Hey listen, Uh.
-
Why would Mark Twain be a jerk? Well, because he's
-
an American treasure. To be honest, you're not going to
-
like this answer.
-
Actually probably, I am not none of my listeners are
-
gonna like this answer.
-
I don't think so, maybe you shouldn't give it.
-
In an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, Captain
-
Picard and Data, we're in the holiday, yes, and they
-
decided to create Mark Twain who ended up being a jerk. Okay, well,
-
but they were basing off his character, like his personality
-
and it's like being snippy, right and uh and so
-
I in mind, I see I see Mark Twain in
-
my mind played out.
-
By this actor.
-
All right, now we have to ask, because you just
-
took it to the space age. Everything.
-
All I did was tell you the reason why was
-
Mark Twain a jerk? Oh? That's so subjective, check gipt.
-
He's not going to answer that.
-
Mark Twain was famously witty and known for for his
-
biting humor.
-
Oh sarcasm.
-
But but opinions on whether he was a jerk are
-
mixed and widely subjective. He was humorous and sarcastic. He
-
critiqued authority, and he was very demanding, in particular with
-
his family and friends. He's he struggled with financial issues
-
and put stress on relationships or sometimes intense personality and wow,
-
he had complexity. I think and compassion.
-
I think if you looked up Webster's definition for a jerk.
-
It sounds like me. This sounds like me. Complexity and compassion.
-
Hey, you said nobody else said he's.
-
A little stressful on everybody else, constantly critiquing authority with
-
humor and sarcasm. That's I think he'd be great to.
-
Hang out with, you know, Forrest Gump when he says
-
and that's all I have to say about that.
-
There you go, Okaye, Betinos, everything that's so funny. Okay,
-
well we should move on from here. This next thing
-
for those of you who hung on this long and
-
we're waiting for us to get to the Bible, so
-
that Hey, that segment wound up being more interesting. I
-
thought it was gonna be Yeah, me too, Yeah yeah, okay.
-
You know, speaking of segments being better than you thought
-
they were going to be, this is a psalm about
-
a king that is the best king. In fact, it
-
actually says the perfect king. So that segment was almost perfect,
-
but this psalm.
-
Is more perfect, is more perfect? Wow?
-
Okay, it was the worst cheese segment so so far.
-
If you if you're new, we've been trying to have
-
cheesy segues from our goofy segment.
-
I'm sorry, I said segment.
-
From our goofy segments into our thing. And that was
-
That was about as cheesy as it gets. So we
-
were reading Psalm seventy two and this is Most of
-
the psalms were written by David, Solomon's father, who was
-
a great king, but a few of them were written
-
by Solomon. And this one, Psalm seventy two, is it will.
-
Read the theme because because it supports my cheesy segue,
-
it says the perfect King.
-
I was going to read it. Okay, good, Yes, it
-
was written as a prayer and this is the end
-
of the Book of Psalms was divided into five books,
-
and this is the end of I think book two.
-
And David had prayed these prayers and so either this
-
is Solomon praying about the king or it's more likely
-
that Solomon is recounting a prayer that David prayed for
-
his son. Is what it seems like.
-
He Do you think this had music to it?
-
Oh? Absolutely all of the psalms did because they were singable. Okay, yeah, yeah.
-
So anyways, we know Solomon wrote it. We think it's
-
likely that he was writing what his dad prayed for him.
-
But it says here the theme is the perfect King.
-
In this psalm, a king asks God to help his
-
son rule the nation justly and wisely. It looks forward
-
to the endless reign of the Messiah, who alone can
-
rule with perfect justice, and whose citizens will enjoy perfect peace.
-
Which is pretty awesome. The perfect King, the perfect.
-
King, so he go. Psalm seventy two says, give your
-
love of justice to the King, Oh God, help him
-
judge your people in the right way. Let the poor
-
always be treated fairly. May the mountains yield prosperity for all,
-
and may the hills be fruitful. Help him to defend
-
the poor, to rescue the children of the needy, and
-
to crush their oppressors. May they fear you as long
-
as the sun shines, as long as the moon remains
-
in the sky. Yes, forever, May the King's rule be refreshing,
-
like spring rain on freshly cut grass, like the showers
-
that water the earth. May all the godly flourish during
-
his reign. May there be abundant prosperity until the moon
-
is no more. May he rain from sea to sea,
-
and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.
-
Desert nomads will bow before him. His enemies will fall
-
before him in the dust. The western kings of Tarsish
-
and other distant lands will bring him tribute. The eastern
-
kings of Sheba and Siba will bring him gifts. All
-
kings will bow before him, and all nations will serve him.
-
He will rescue the poor when they cry to him.
-
He will help the oppressed who have no one to
-
defend him. He feels pity for the weak and the needy,
-
and he will rescue them. He will redeem them from
-
oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him.
-
Long live the King. May the gold of Sheba be
-
given to him. May the people always pray for him
-
and bless him all day long. May there be abundant
-
grain throughout the land, flourishing even on the hilltops. May
-
the fruit trees flourish like the trees of Lebanon, and
-
may the people thrive like grass in a field. May
-
the King's name endure forever. May it continue as long
-
as the sun shines. May all nations be blessed through
-
him and bring him praise. Praise the Lord God, the
-
God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful things. Praise
-
his glorious name forever. Let the whole earth be filled
-
with His glory. Amen and Amen.
-
And then it wils and then it says this ends
-
the prayers of David's son of Jesse.
-
That's correct.
-
Wow.
-
So there's a note here in our life application study Bible,
-
which is a Bible that we recommend.
-
Oh yeah, we love it.
-
We love it.
-
Get yourself a good study Bible.
-
Yes, And it says, what qualities do we want most
-
in our leaders? God desires all who rule under him
-
to be just and righteous.
-
Think of how the world will.
-
Change if leaders would commit That's the thought, isn't it
-
themselves to these two qualities?
-
Pray fore and righteousness?
-
Right, Pray for.
-
Leaders that you hear about them on the news. Ask
-
God to help them see and then it just blah
-
blah blah blah.
-
Help them see their need for him. Yeah, ask God
-
to help them lead with justice and righteousness.
-
Yeah, which is really great.
-
Yeah. Yeah, So that's what Paul tells us in on Timothy.
-
There's a note there, right, pray for our kings, Pray
-
for our leaders. Yeah.
-
By the way, as you were reading through this, I
-
mean Obviously I've read the Bible before, I've read Psalm
-
seventy two before, but I think it's been a while
-
since I've paid attention specifically to this particular psalm, And
-
my thinking was sort of wandering, thinking, I wonder if
-
he wrote this when he before he was king, or
-
do you think that it's we're addressing this now because
-
chronologically it's supposed to be after he was king.
-
Yeah, so I think this is he wrote it after
-
he was king, I think. But what I understand it
-
Psalm seventy two is it seems like he's remembering the
-
prayer that his father prayed for him. He's realizing that
-
God gave him all that his father prayed for. It
-
prays for wisdom. He prays that his son will care
-
for the poor, that the whole nation will prosper before him,
-
that the world will will, that the enemies will submit,
-
that the rest of the world will bring him tribute.
-
Even it mentioned Sheba a couple times, what the queen
-
Sheba does. I think a lot of theologians believe that
-
Psalm seventy two is Solomon realizing the blessing in his
-
life was passed to him from his father. And the
-
prayers of his father, and that he has realized these
-
things to be true.
-
So if that's the case, then that means that David.
-
Would have spoken this into his son prophetically, prophetically and saying, like.
-
One day, pray over his son this way.
-
The Queen of Sheba will give you gold.
-
Yeah.
-
And so he's remembering as the Queen of Sheba, which
-
we read and yes Day's podcast comes and gives him
-
were two podcasts ago where the Queen of Sheba comes
-
and gives him what was it five hundred.
-
Yeah, three and three hundred and something billion dollars? Yeah,
-
or a million million dollars. She gave me nine thousand
-
tons of gold, yeah, And I looked that up. Let
-
me let me find out nine billion or something. No, no, no,
-
this was three hundred and something.
-
Yeah. Well, whatever it was, I made a joke and three.
-
Hundred and forty three million dollars.
-
Yeah.
-
So the bottom line is is, you know, it could
-
be that here he's finally seeing it all come to fruition,
-
and then he's going back and saying, son of a gun,
-
my father prayed this over. I remember when I was
-
nine years old. I remember when he spoke over me,
-
and he said, one day this is going to happen,
-
and it.
-
Could be maybe the catalyst.
-
If this is true, If this is Solomon who's praying
-
and remembering a prayer that his father prayed for him
-
with so many specifics, then that would be an incredible thing, right.
-
You know, we pray over our kids all the time,
-
and when God answers the prayers and it actually comes
-
to fruition, it's like there's nothing better, is it, right,
-
There's nothing better.
-
I've had conversations with my mom and my dad about
-
how they prayed over me, and I'm not going to
-
get into specifics, but so many of those things have
-
come true in my life. You know, I'm fifty three now,
-
but my mom and dad you know, began praying over
-
me when I was eight, and they pray for me often,
-
and many of those things have come true, and not
-
long ago, I don't know, a year or two ago.
-
My mom and I were talking about that and how God.
-
She feels like God has answered so many of her
-
prayers in that. So it's a really humbling thing. So
-
I think that you kind of pick it up because
-
he is saying, you know, as you read it made
-
the King's name never passed from the earth and all
-
these things. It sounds like a big deal, But that's
-
him remembering that's what his father prayed for him. But
-
then Solomon seems to have written these last verses, praise
-
the Lord God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful things. Right, right,
-
So this is Solomon at his very best, saying, my
-
dad prayed these things over me, But praise God, right,
-
the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does
-
such wonderful They praise his glorious name forever. But the
-
whole earth be filled with his glory, right, amen and amen.
-
And so there there's a humility that Solomon is expressing
-
here that my dad praied these things, and look, God
-
gave us this. Yeah, and really, God's the one that
-
should get all the glory.
-
So my daughter is married and she lives in Saint Pete, Florida.
-
And a few years back, five years ago or so,
-
my son in law took me out to a restaurant
-
to ask my permission for him to ask Sarah to
-
marry him.
-
So, you know, and gosh, that moment was pretty surreal.
-
You know.
-
I remember what we ordered, I remember where we sat,
-
I remember what restaurant it was, and he sat there
-
and just talked about you know, he just had his
-
speech all prepared, and he was crying, and afterwards he
-
sort of said, hey, I love your daughter all these
-
different things. And then when he get done, he says, Okay,
-
I'm done crying. I promise no more crying. And then
-
I said, let me tell you a story, because it
-
was my turn to respond and say yes, right, And
-
I said, the day that Sarah was born, nineteen ninety four,
-
this is how long ago it was. I said, we
-
brought her home from the hospital, and I described the
-
nursery and I said, and my wife and I later
-
in her crib. I said, and that in that very moment,
-
we got our knees and we prayed, and we went
-
through this laundry list of things that we prayed for her.
-
In her life.
-
Among them was the very first time that we prayed
-
for her future husband, and we prayed for her future
-
husband her entire life, and we prayed that God would
-
send her somebody who and we just listed all these
-
different things. And I explained all this to him and
-
I said, so, I said, this moment is the answer,
-
and I believe that God has sent you to her.
-
I believe you have the answer to these prayers. I said,
-
We've been praying for for you before you, before we
-
met you, your whole life. And then he started crying
-
and he goes, dang it, he said, I said, that
-
was the end of my crime. And but you know,
-
obviously it's a pretty emotional story for me. But but
-
here's the point. The point is is that there is
-
power and a parent's prayer. Yeah, right, So think about this.
-
Think about him Solomon looking back and saying, I never understood.
-
I never I'm marveling at the fact that this is
-
what my father prayed and this is what God has done.
-
And I believe that that's something that definitely Sarah and
-
Brandon can say powerful.
-
Yeah, that's powerful. So I mentioned I know the prayers
-
my mom and dad prayed for me, and I'm living
-
out I think the benefit of those prayers. Yeah, you
-
mentioned the prayers you prayed for your daughter, and your
-
daughter's living those out. For some of our listeners, you're
-
praying for your kids and you're wondering. So let me
-
tell you. The story of my dad is. You know,
-
my dad adopted me when I was eight but his
-
mother prayed for him for forty years before he became
-
a Christian. So we have some listeners that are frustrated
-
that God hasn't yet answered their prayers. And they'll often
-
say God hasn't answered my prayers, and I always say,
-
not yet. Right, He's in the process of answering your prayer,
-
and you're praying a prayer that glorifies him. Right, if
-
your child is far from God, don't give up. My
-
grandmother told me because eventually after her my dad's dad
-
died when my dad was a teenager, and she remarried
-
when her second husband died. We had a little house
-
behind us. We had a little homestead, and there was
-
a little house that the original owner had for like
-
a rental house. But after her husband died, she moved
-
into that little rental house, and so she lived one
-
hundred feet behind me. We worked out in the same garden,
-
we picked the same apples, we did all the same stuff.
-
So ited always hanging out with my grandmother's house. And
-
she told me one time she just couldn't believe the
-
change of my dad's life. You know, I'm fourteen years old,
-
probably fifteen years old at the time, and So this
-
was a six or seven years after he became a Christian.
-
And she said, for forty years, I thought there was
-
no hope, but I never gave up. She said, two
-
things I've always done. She always was listening to Christian
-
music on a radio. Her church had a radio station,
-
so she always listened to it. Am twelve thirty and
-
I'll appear. And so she's always listening to Christian music
-
and praying for my dad all day, every day for
-
forty years. And she said, I never thought it was
-
going to happen, and now thank God for it. So
-
my dad now is eighty six, so he's now been
-
a believer six years longer than he was a full
-
on pig. And you know, so this this so I've
-
lived it. You've prayed over your daughter, she's lived it
-
my dad. You know, my grandmother prayed for my dad.
-
And so you may feel like, in this microwave popcorn
-
kind of a world that you prayed a couple times
-
and it just didn't happen. And I would say, it
-
hasn't happened yet. Don't give up. And James says that
-
the fervent prayers of a righteous man accomplishes much that's right,
-
So you know, stick with it. God's on your side
-
and he's for you. And so David this prayer. There's
-
similar wording to this in that prayer that David prayed
-
over his son right towards the end of his life,
-
very similar words to this. This may be Solomon's recounting
-
of that prayer we read a few weeks ago. If
-
that's the case, David had lived his life. He wasn't
-
a perfect guy, but he knew who God was and
-
he believed God would answer prayers. Yeah, and then Solomon
-
isn't a perfect guy, but man, Solomon really did see
-
all of the things that David prayed over him for.
-
Solomon sees these things happen in his life. So pray
-
for the people you love and God hears those prayers.
-
That's great.
-
All right.
-
Well, hey, that's our time, so hopefully we will see
-
you tomorrow on the Bible Gush