The Bible Study Hour

Announcer: Scripture has comforted and encouraged God's people in every generation. And the people of the Old Testament were no exception. David drew from God's promises when he faced the seemingly impossible task of going against the Edomites in their fortified city of Petra.

Announcer: Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and Internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice. Preparing you to think and act biblically.

Announcer: David called on the Lord for help as he faced an old adversary and confidently rejoiced that his God would hear and answer prayer. Let's join Dr. Boice as he examines Psalm 108, a psalm drawn from other psalms, and discover the importance of remembering the promises of God's Word in the face of our circumstances.

Boice: One of the great joys of studying the Bible carefully is to be constantly surprised. We come to it expecting one thing, and we discover something else. One of the interesting surprises as we study the Psalms is to find that sometimes parts of them are drawn from other places in the Old Testament. Sometimes even from other Psalms.

And that, of course, gives us a background that helps us sometimes to understand what's going on. One great example of that was Psalm 96. We looked at that some time ago. It's borrowed almost entirely from First Chronicles 16:23 to 33. There's a lot of material in that chapter. It's an early psalm of David, and the middle portion of it is taken out and appears again in the Salter, in Psalm 96.

This is a different kind of borrowing. Between Psalms 14 and 53, the second one is an almost word-for-word repetition of the earlier psalm. Now we have something very interesting here in Psalm 108. It's what we come to today. It's made up of the endings of two earlier psalms, Psalm 57, verses 7 through 11, and Psalm 60, verses 5 through 12.

Now here the setting of the earlier psalms is interesting. In both of them, David, who is the author, is under stress. The first one tells us in its title that he was hiding in a cave because his great enemy Saul was trying to kill him. The second one comes from a time later in David's life when they, the people, had suffered a defeat at the hands of the Edomites, and David was looking for God to provide a victory over them as he moved back against them with the military forces.

Now each of those two earlier psalms start by describing the stress or the problem. And they're calling out to God for help, and then the latter half of those two psalms becomes a confident rejoicing in God that He is going to hear the psalmist and He is going to answer in a way that will glorify His own name.

Now it's those two endings of the psalms that are detached and put together here to make up Psalm 108. I've called it a warrior's morning psalm because in it the writer, King, who is about to lead his troops into battle, begins by praising God even before the sun comes up. And so you have a first stanza that has to do with praise.

I'm not given much to alliteration when it comes to sermon outlines because I don't think it matters a whole lot whether you remember outlines. It's the teaching that I want to stick in people's minds. But here these three stanzas do lend themselves to a very interesting alliterative outline. The first is a stanza given over to praise, the second is a stanza given to prayer, and the third is a prophecy.

So you have praise, prayer, and prophecy, and that's the way it flows. The psalmist begins by praising God. He praises for victory and recalls a great oracle that had been given from God, pronouncing victory. And then, because he's facing this battle with the Edomites, he asked God to give him victory where humanly speaking victory over a kingdom like that would be impossible.

Now that's the kind of thing we have here in the psalm. When was it written? It's hard to say. The psalm is identified as a psalm of David, but it doesn't mean that it came from David's own period of history. It's called psalm of David because it's made up of parts of two earlier psalms of David.

What we are told is that there was a period in David's life when he was victorious over the Edomites, but they they've risen again, and they're now a powerful nation. And whoever is dealing with the situation here is acting asking for victory over this powerful mountain fortress kingdom. Some people suggest that a time after the return of the Jews from exile might fit it well.

It may be. Alexander McLaren, a great conservative commentator, thinks that's the case. He says the hopes of conquest in the second part, the consciousness that while much has been achieved by God's help, much still remains to be won before Israel can sit secure. The section that is written in a minor key. The cry for help against adversaries too strong for Israel's unassisted might, are all appropriate to the early stages of that return.

Now, I don't know if that's the case. We do know that Edom had moved in a powerful way against the Jews at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Obadiah is written all about that. But we don't know. What we do know is that here you have earlier material that is being used at some later stage in history to encourage the people and which the king in particular uses to encourage him as he goes out to battle.

You see, it says something about the Bible. It's not only we who take these passages from the past and draw strength from them. The Jews, even in the Old Testament period, were doing the same thing. They they were taking the earlier scriptures and were drawing upon them as a word from God to assist them in what they had to do right now.

And so it's entirely consistent with that. It's it's in the the whole flow of the of the biblical Judeo-Christian tradition that that we turn to a psalm like this as well and draw strength from it, and that's what we need to do. Now we go to the first stanza, the one having to do with praise, and we find it beginning by a claim on the part of the writer that his heart is steadfast.

That is, it's firm, it's unshaken. We say to ourselves, well, how is that? Why is it unshaken? We don't have to read very far along in the psalm to find the answer. It's because God is steadfast, faithful and unshaken, and the psalmist's confidence is in Him. Indeed, we read a little further, we find that God is even more than steadfast.

God is also a loving God, a gracious God, one who cares for his people. And so we find the psalmist praising his love and his faithfulness as things that reach even higher than heaven. That's to say they're beyond our full comprehension, they're infinite in their value. The Psalm says, "I will praise you, oh Lord, among the nations. I will sing of you among the peoples, for great is your love, reaching to the heavens, your faithfulness reaching to the skies."

That's because God is faithful that the psalmist can be faithful. Because God is a faithful, loving God that we can be faithful and loving too. And so the very first question that comes to us when we begin to study the psalm is, "Are we faithful?" And if not, what's the cause? Is it because we really are not waiting upon God, not really trusting God, trying to stand in our own strength?

And we find that we vacillate as all people do. I find that people who attend evangelical churches have generally heard the word of God, but often are not steadfast in their faith because they've not allowed it really to sink down into their hearts, as the writer of this psalm obviously has. It makes me think of the parable that Jesus gave about the farmer who went out to sow.

You find it at the very beginning of Matthew 13. You know it very well. He described how the seed fell in different places. Some of it fell on the path, where it didn't sink down into the ground at all, and it wasn't long before the birds came along and snatched it up. Had a good meal of the seed. Some of it got into soil, but the soil was shallow.

It was rocky soil, the dirt on top was very thin. And so although it sprang up, it didn't last very long because it had no root, and as soon as the sun came out, it scorched the plants and and they withered up and died. And then there was the a third place the seed went. It fell into good soil, but there were thorns there, and after a very short time, the thorns came up and they choked out the plants.

And only a a fourth part, Jesus said, fell in good soil. But that good soil produced a crop, some of it a hundredfold, a hundred times what was sown, some 60 and and some 30. Now, when we look at Jesus' parables, sometimes we really don't quite understand how we should apply them because they're not explained.

In this case, however, Jesus was very clear. He explained it. He sort of began to to give us a clue for how we might approach some of the other stories. And he said, in this case, the the seed that is sown is the word of God. And the soils are the the hearts or minds of the people. And some of the seed that is sown just falls on a hard path.

It doesn't sink in at all. Any preacher who tries to preach is aware of that. There are many people who hear it, it just doesn't make any impression at all. And very soon, he said, the the the devil, like a scavenger bird, comes along and snatches it up, and and the people forget it entirely. They go on as if the word had never been preached to them.

And then he says, there are other people who receive it gladly. They say, "Oh, yes, that's true." And and it comes in, but their lives are so shallow that it it really doesn't sink down enough to make any difference. And so when hardships come along, and the sun of life is strong and bold, it's not very long before that's just all burned up, and it goes away.

And these are the people who say, "Well, I tried it, but it doesn't really work." And then he says that third group are those that receive it, and it does go down, and it does seem to produce some results. The plants are growing, but pretty soon the temptations of this world in the form of riches come along and choke out the plant.

These are people that kind of believe it, but they're trying to keep a foot in both camps, and because they they they really get caught up in the world, the the concerns of the world eventually eradicate the gospel. And it's only a final kind in whom the word actually sinks down and produces a difference.

Now, that's the situation wherever the gospel is preached. And it's the kind of thing we're dealing with here. The question is, when we hear the word of God, does it really sink down into our hearts and make a difference? Because if it does, if we feed upon the word, if the gospel really becomes a part of us, if we are truly aware of God as He reveals Himself to us in the Bible, then we will find our lives becoming stable and steadfast because our God is stable and steadfast.

Now what we find here in this opening stanza is that because of all this, the psalmist says at the very end that he wants God to be exalted. "Be exalted, oh God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth." What does he mean by that? Of course, God is exalted. Is He not? God's glory is over all the earth.

The the heavens declare the glory of God. All of history is meant to show the glory of God and does. So what is the psalmist praying about? When he prays that God might be exalted, what he's praying is that God might be exalted in his circumstances, in his life, in the way he conducts himself. And of course, that's the way the rest of the psalm goes on.

You know, the the world gets its kicks by having human beings exalted. We we are hero worshippers and heroine worshippers. We we just love the the celebrity culture in which we live. If we can't be a celebrity ourselves, what we want to do is see celebrities, or better yet, shake hands with celebrities. And the world gets a great thrill out of that.

But you see, Christian people, they're pleased. They they get their kicks when God is exalted. When when God is lifted up. And that that's what the the king is saying. He's saying, "I I want God to be exalted in my life. I I want people to be able to look at what's happening in my life and say, he has a great God."

Do you have that desire? You ought to have that desire if you're a Christian. You want to want God to be exalted above all things. Now the second stanza is where we find the prayer, and it's a prayer for God's deliverance to save and help these people who have been attacked, presumably, by the Edomites. And then there's an oracle here that comes from God.

You notice in the New International Version that it's it's in quotation marks. This is God speaking and somehow this has come to the psalmist. Now when we were studying Psalm 60 a long, long time ago, I pointed out there are two different ways that this section can be taken. The part that occurs in quotation marks there, sort of in the middle of verse 7, to the ends of the stanza.

Since it says God has spoken from his sanctuary, and the sanctuary refers to the temple precincts in Jerusalem, what this can mean is that God gave a a special oracle, a special revelation, which would have been conveyed to the king, King David, by one of the prophets like Nathan, or or one of the other prophets. In which case, here's a direct revelation.

What God is doing is saying that He's given the Jews, under David and and his successors, this land, and He's going to give them victory over the Edomites. That's one way it could be taken. The other way is to look at the the places that are actually mentioned and recognize that these are not the names that you would naturally associate with the career of David.

Some of these places have nothing to do with him, and if you if you look at them in the Old Testament and begin to say, "Well, where do they they come from?" these place names, you you discover pretty clearly that they trace the early history of the Jewish people. Going way back to the first entry into the promised land. For example, Shechem was the place Jacob settled after his return to Canaan from Padan Aram, where he'd lived for 20 years with his father-in-law.

And Succoth was the last place he'd been prior to that. Gilead and Manasseh represent areas of the eastern side of the Jordan River that were occupied by Israel. Ephraim and Judah represent the most prominent tribes to the west. And so you you put them together. What you you kind of have there is is a sequence of occupation and expansion of the Jews in the land that God had given.

So if that's the case, these words are not necessarily an oracle, but they're drawn on the kind of promises that God had given to the people all along and from earlier days. Now, I don't care particularly how that's regarded because the essential point is the same in either case. That is, the confidence that the psalmist has here as he's writing is based upon the promises of God.

It may be a particular oracle that was given at the time of David for a particular case. It may be promises that were accumulated over a period of time as God worked with the patriarchs and brought the Jews into their land. But in any case, it's the word of God. And so the point is obvious, isn't it? We want to talk about confidence, being steadfast, claiming the promises of God, moving ahead.

Faith is based on the promises of God. Faith isn't a a subjective kind of thing that you kind of work up and get in a good mood for and say, "Well, I'm going to go to church and have faith today," or "I'm going to face this situation with a lot of faith," which really probably boils down in the final analysis to faith in yourself and your own ability.

Biblical faith is faith in God, and it's based upon the promises of God. Faith isn't assuming that God is going to do just anything at all, but it is believing that God will do what He has promised. Above all, it's faith that God will bless the gospel and exalt Jesus Christ. And that he'll do it in your life if you'll obey Him and follow in His way.

I think here when we talk about the gospel, that we ought to have in mind that great vision that God gave to King Nebuchadnezzar. It's recorded in the second chapter of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, and he forgot it. Daniel had to interpret it to him afterwards. But recall, he saw this great statue, and the statue had a golden head, and then the upper portions of the body were made of silver, the middle portions of bronze, and then the legs and the feet of iron, iron mixed with clay.

And it stood for the various consecutive world empires from the time of Babylon on. The head was the kingdom of Babylon, and after that there was the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, and then Greece, and finally the Roman Empire. Now the significant thing in the vision is that at the end of that, Nebuchadnezzar saw a stone cut out of the mountain, not with hands, that rolled down into the valley, struck the statue on its feet.

It toppled over, it was ground into pieces, the wind came. Parts of the statue were blown away, and then the rock grew up to be a huge mountain that filled the whole earth. That was the dream. And Daniel interpreted it. And we look back at it, and we see it's exactly what happened. All those kingdoms have passed away, but the rock is Jesus Christ.

And the mountain that grew up from Him is His kingdom that filled the whole earth. And what we have there is a prophecy that that is what is happening. God is extending His kingdom throughout the whole world. God is bringing to faith in Jesus Christ those whom He has determined to save from before the foundation of the world. And and you and I have the privilege of being co-workers with Jesus Christ in the extension of that kingdom.

And so when we talk to other people about the gospel, when we teach the word, as we do in our Sunday school classes, when we preach it in this and other pulpits, we are expecting God to bless because God has promised to bless that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, is going to be a great kingdom. And so we return to that second stanza, and we're every bit as much encouraged as we were when we were studying the first.

Now we come to the last one. And the last is a prayer for victory over Edom, followed by a prophecy that God is going to give them the victory. I mentioned earlier that under David, the Jews had actually conquered Edom and subjected the kingdom. The story is told in Second Samuel chapter 8, and there's a parallel account of it in First Chronicles chapter 18.

It's kind of brief. The relevant part of that chapter in Second Samuel says, "David became famous after he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. He put garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites became subject to David. The Lord gave David victory wherever he went." Well, he had that great victory.

But now, apparently, the Edomites have re-emerged as a power in the area, and a great battle is pending. So, the psalmist asks in this last stanza, "Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?" It's a good question. There were a number of fortified cities in Edom, but when the Psalm speaks of *the* fortified city, it can't have in mind any other city than Petra.

A legendary city back in that rocky fortress. It can only be reached even today by a narrow passage called a siq through the limestone cliffs that rise up several thousand feet on every hand. It's about two miles back through this little narrow passage. I had the privilege of going in there several years ago and will be doing it again this year.

It's just an exciting place to be. And and and you see that, you think about it, and you say, "Well, now, look, a a handful of soldiers could defend that valley against a huge army." And David knew that. Yes, that's that's that's indeed it. That that was apparently, humanly speaking, an impregnable mountain fortress. Well, he he cries out to God.

He said, "Who will bring me to the fortified city?" And then he gives his own answer, "Is it not you, oh God?" Who else is going to do it except God? You who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies. That's that negative minor note that was mentioned earlier. They've had great defeats. But what this king is saying is that the only one who could possibly bring him into Petra and give him victory over that kingdom is God.

So he says, verse 12, "Give us aid against the enemy for the help of man is worthless." Indeed, it is, certainly in this case. Well, will God do it? Is God going to answer his prayer? He's been reassured by the oracle, you see. He's been reassured by the promises of God that he's already mentioned in the second stanza.

So he gives the answer in the final verse. "With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies." And so, the Psalm ends. Now all that's past. And what we want to speak about here is the present. We want to ask, how can we take this psalm from its ancient setting and move it into the present and apply it in a way that might be helpful to us where we live?

There are two ways we can do it. First of all, since this is a psalm in which some ancient leader strengthened himself before battle, it's a psalm by which we can also strengthen ourselves for the battles that we face day by day. Now his was a military battle. Ours are non-military battles. We are not in the armed forces. We're not going to fight in that kind of a physical way.

But we do face battles constantly all the time, above all spiritual battles. The Apostle Paul wrote that way to the Ephesians when he was talking about the warfare that they faced. He said, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world." He's talking about spiritual forces, "and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Well, compared to the conquest of such spiritual forces, invisible, spiritual, evil, hostile forces, the conquest of Petra was a piece of cake. And yet, the psalmist needed the help of God to be victorious there. We need the presence and the blessing and the strength and the help of God if we are to be victorious over our struggles day by day.

We need to ask God for help as the psalmist does. You know, James, the Lord's brother, writing in the New Testament said, "You do not have because you don't ask God." James 4:2. You don't have victory because you're not asking God for victory. But Jesus, giving the other side of that, said in Matthew 7:7, "Ask and it will be given you, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be opened unto you."

One victory we can ask for is on behalf of the gospel. And then here's a second way in which we can apply this, bringing it not only up to our own time, but even beyond, looking forward into the future because it concerns Jesus Christ. Let me bring in another passage at this point. In Isaiah 63, there's a dramatic scene in which a blood-stained warrior is coming up the Kidron Valley toward Jerusalem.

And the people are on the walls of the holy city, looking down as the warrior approaches. And they ask this question, "Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength?" And then the warrior answers, calling up to those who are on the walls, "It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save."

This prophet's looking down. He has a further question. He throws it out to the warrior, "Why are your garments red? Like those of one treading the wine press." And the warrior answers once again, sober language, "I have trodden the wine press alone. From the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath. Their blood spattered my garments and stained all my clothing, for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come."

We read that, and we say, "Who is this warrior?" The answer is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. What is this victory in which he meted out judgment and established himself in righteousness? It's the victory of Jesus Christ at the end of the age. This is prophecy. This is looking ahead to that great day that we have reflected in other language in the book of Revelation, the very last book of the Bible.

Jesus is saying, "A day is coming when I am going to judge not just Edom, but all the wicked kingdoms of this world." That day has not yet come, fortunately for us. That day is still in the future, and today is a day of grace. But if that day has not yet come, it is because it is a day of grace, and what God in grace is doing is giving us an opportunity to turn from our sin and find salvation in that same One who is also the Savior before it's too late.

You recall what happened in Peter's day, there were skeptics. In the day of the Apostle Peter, who were saying, "Look, lots of evil is in the world, always been in the world. You're talking about a judgment, a final day of judgment. Where is that day of judgment?" The way he actually says it, Peter, 2 Peter 3:4 is, "Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

And then Peter answers, he says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. Judgment's going to come. But He's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." What He's saying is that God delays the judgment to give you, you, a chance to repent of your sin and have faith in Jesus Christ, trusting Him as the Savior that you need from your sin.

Judgment isn't yet, but judgment is going to come. If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, what God is doing is warning you to believe on Jesus now. While there's still hope. Let's pray. Our Father, we are thankful for your word, a word which is eternal and of eternal value in its usefulness to your people.

Useful back in the time of David as he claimed these promises and went ahead boldly trusting you to be faithful to them. Faithful in the time of those who put this psalm together, facing different battles, but nevertheless trusting you as the same faithful God. Useful to us today as we face our battles and turn to you as the one who alone is able to give victory.

And useful also as we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ and warn people even as we preach the gospel to flee from the wrath to come. We know that you're a God who is not indifferent to the sin and wickedness of men and women. You're a God who acts justly and who will establish justice and righteousness.

You know the judgment is coming. But we thank you that you are also a God of faithful covenant love, and that from that love you give a period of grace to people to turn from their sin and find salvation. May many do it in this hour, as you yourself speak to them powerfully through your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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