…Hi everyone And welcome to training for life redeemed. I’m Dan I’m here with my father David Jackson We’re continuing through Psalms. we’ve got a couple more episodes of psalms and I think we’re going to break it up. It’s getting to be a lot of songs we are realizing. So we have just a couple more and then we’re going to switch up and start talking about something else.  but for today Dad we’re looking at Psalm 56.

Psalm 56

⁰ For the director according to the distant silent dove.

A miktam of David.

When the Philistines grabbed him in Gath.

¹ Be gracious to me, God

because all day people are panting after me.

A fighter pressures me.

² Those who are looking for me are panting after me all day,

when many attacks are launched at me from a great height.

³ I fear daytime. In you I trust.

⁴ In God I have a word to praise.

In God I will trust.

I will not fear. What will flesh do to me?

⁵ All day they use my words to hurt me.

All their thoughts are to do damage.

⁶ They visit. They hide.

They watch at my heels to take my life by ambush.

⁷ Deliver to them what they deserve.

Bring down peoples in anger, O God.

⁸ You, you count my shaking.

Put my tears in your drink bottle.

Are they not in your book?

⁹ Surely my enemies turn to the rear on the day I call.

This I know because God is for me.

¹⁰ In God I have a word to praise.

In Yahweh I have a word to praise.

¹¹ In God I trust.

I will not fear. What will a man do to me?

¹² The vow I made to you is on me.

I will repay to you thanksgivings.

¹³ For you deliver my life from death,

(Was it not my feet you delivered from tripping?)

to walk before God in the light of life.

2.37 Dan

which was written by David when he was in Gath captured by the Philistines. and he’s basically going to pour out to God how he feels and what’s going on.

Not feeling good No It was a bit of a background for everyone listening And for me. What’s happening with Philistines when he gets captured in Gath. Is this when he’s pretending to be mentally ill. Is that this one or another time.

3.04 David

It’s hard to tell somewhere on the line but I think there were two occasions when he ran to Gath. And when you think about it, How on earth does this happen?

so the first time he’s killed Goliath. and then the priests. Along comes Doeg. And kills the priests at Nob.

And David’s running away from Saul. So he goes to Nob to start with. And he’s left Goliath’s sword with the priest at the tabernacle.

So the priest goes in and gives him Goliath’s sword. And David goes off and the next thing you know they’re in there killing all the priests at Nob.  So that we’ve done that psalm. But now we’ve got. Now we’ve got thing where the only way the only  safe place for David is in Goliath’s hometown. And he’s going to march in there with Goliath’s sword having cut Golath’s head off. To seek refuge with the family.

And you you look at that and you think the enemy of my enemy is a better It’s going to be a better friend than my own people. So this is a song that’s, sets us in that scenario where the people that are closest to you turn on you.

And you start asking all sorts of questions. The trauma is enormous. And. Yeah Where is God? What are you doing? All of those questions are bubbling away. and the opening line of the song is be gracious to me.

Hmm. you know I need grace. All day people. I love that second light all day People are panting after me and what he’s describing as a pack of dogs. Hunting. and panting at his heels.

And you think. Wow…

there’s an element of this song I think that for most of us who are comfortable. You’d look at this. And go. What’s that got to do with me…

And I think we skip over those songs. Yeah…

I mean, have you ever felt like that…

5.31 Dan

No no. I…never felt like I was getting hunted by anyone No. No, no.

5.37 David

And so you’ve read a song like that and it’s, you know, 3000 years ago in another country. I don’t need this song.

Hmm…

But times are changing. And…

I discovered. Long time ago. That these songs translate…

in interesting ways. In a culture of violence and vendettas and in a refugee world especially. Hmm…

So, you know I think of women who are the victims of domestic violence. and you look at some of the lines in the song. Let me Let me find a couple of my favorites. verse, what is it? Just popped.

I’m staying still. Verse eight. “you count my shaking. put my tears in your drink bottle. are they not in your book?”

And so David is. Yeah. This is the king…who’s talking about the fact that he’s shaking from head to foot. and God counts the shakes. Hmm.

God is that intimately involved in the mess that he’s in. And he’s aware that God’s intimately involved in all of this. As he’s calling for grace he’s talking to somebody who understands. This this image of put my tears in your bottle…

Yeah. The word for bottle there is wine skin. So you’re thinking of the skin of a goat…

You know like a tube with the legs tied off in a bung put in one end and the spout me The other, and you’re filling up the whole body of a goat with tears…

Th this is the experience of so many people, including believing people. And you find sometimes that the people you relied on turn on you. and that that’s my enemy turns on me big deal but if my family, My friends, my church turns on me Where do I go? Hmm. So for David it was safer with…the family Who’s. son he. Cut it off.

That he is with the people of Israel…

8.06 Dan

Yeah So we have David Dan definitely in this terrible situation you’ve talked a bit about. few modern situations. Kind of a similar. But as we translate…reading through texts which I let go yet the initial context is here David Gath Philistines. Et cetera.

The next step isn’t normally. I would trained by my wonderful father He knows how to execute the Bible really well. the next step presents a look at Jesus Yeah. So when I was reading this just before we started this I was sitting they go in my head I…read this as Jesus and you start reading You’re like, that’s exactly what Jesus is going through He’s getting chased He’s getting hunted. possibly.

Traveling and changing borders so that he’s underneath different Kings or different. local rulers. And then even when it gets captured it’s all done through treachery and chicory and, the. The line here of, you know, They watch it my heels to take my life anyway. That’s pretty much what’s happening Like then.

Constantly watching Jesus to try and find something to catch him just to trick him and to get him. To do the wrong thing or to just find a time when he’s not surrounded by a million people who are going to…

beat up the Jews. Yeah. The Jewish leaders who were trying to capture him. and so you can see Jesus doing this too, you know the father is just as invested asyou This is shakings his tears You know you think of Gethsemane, Tears of blood isn’t that in Gethsemane. So it talks about, and it’s. You see, our God who, who understands. That kind of been there, that kind of fear, that kind of trembling that kind of, situation But also like David knows that this is this is God’s thing This is God. God’s got this covered you know Jesus is God but you know, It’s all part of the plan.

9.57 David

It’s all part of the plan, but we’re talking to. I mean, one of the things Ed Clowney wrote this thing a bit, Jesus as the singer of the Psalms. That he stands before the throne of God. As our representative head. Singing And our emotions. so when we sing he sings Hm. And that there’s this resonance between his experience in the flesh on earth. and ours. so that we are reflecting we are. we’re in his kingdom and his kingdom relates to the world now as it did when he was here. so in my mind I went back. Through the old Testament. And you think of the people who whose family whose friends everybody turned on them. People who were safer with the enemy. Than they were with the people of God. As it were. and I think of you know Joseph who got on better down in Egypt than he did with his brothers. And there are several other examples like that. but I, you know Elijah was safer with the Philistines with the Phoenicians. Then anywhere in Israel. you look at that experience and then you go to the new Testament.

I don’t know that we really appreciate what life was like for Jesus. A rabbi would normally set up a school. And teach his disciples next door to the synagogue. In a regular classroom like a regular school. and they enrolled at school a disciple Was a Full-time student. so it was like running a Bible college, but Jesus’s Bible college is…

Yeah basically get your backpack and a beg for food and hope you get some hospitality in the next town. our classroom will be, you know, Under the gum tree down the road.

11.52 Dan

I stand on this boat Preach. Yeah I’ll teach you from a boat.

11.54 David

And as you’re as you’re running your class you realize that there’s a bunch of officials from the synagogue. Hanging around to the back Oh I was in Burma…

Lecturing at a Bible college in Burma. And if you know anything about Myanmar, the government isn’t exactly friendly to Christians, Christians aren’t allowed to build buildings on their property. So your Bible colleges are made of Palm leaf. Temporary structures. Anyway so I’m there. And this. Obviously well fed gentlemen comes and sits at the back. And I’m wondering what’s going on in that. Interpreter for me says, just keep talking. So I just kept talking and I deliver the lecture.

And afterwards he introduces me to the member of parliament who lives down the road, heard that there was a European at the Bible college and came to hear what I had to say. Hmm. And so we got cross-examined. on what we thought I thought of George Bush in America and everything else.

And you are answering diplomatically. and then you get out of there…

and you go. What’s life like in a world like that. So Jesus is. Yeah. The government officials are coming to check him out The synagogue officials, he jumps in the boat crosses the border and now they can’t arrest him.

What’s he doing in Tyre and Sidon? hiding from the cops. and I in in the Matthew mark and Luke he’s very the only time he goes to Jerusalem is for the the feasts. And when he goes to Jerusalem he hides over the Mount of olives on the other side and some obscure village. We know.

13.36 Dan

Probably hanging out with Lazarus.

13.38 David

Yeah Lazarus and Mary and Martha. But he he’s got his hangout places where people won’t find him. And during Passover it looks like they’re all camped out on the Mount of Olives. with thousands of other pilgrims from Galilee and the cops are looking for him.

Hmm. And the only he’s there when the crowds are surrounding him to protect him. And when the crowds go he goes Hmm.

it’s an interesting lifestyle. And then you see P. The apostle Paul. Being smuggled out of town in a basket over the fence. And he’s rescued by a Roman Centurion taken to Caesarea Maritima. It is safer with the Romans than he is with the Jews. what does that tell us? It tells us that if we’re bringing the gospel. Into a world that is Satan’s kingdom. We can expect some trouble. Hmm. And sometimes our non-Christian friends are safer than church officials or whatever.

14.41 Dan

is there an element Dad, as you’re reading through this. You may just mentioned. The idea of Satan and stuff within that. And I just think, is there an element where I can take this not necessarily literally about physical stuff but in a spiritual sense of…being hunted by Satan and he’s you know, The Bible talks about him as a lion prowling trying to get the Christians. In a sense where he’s trying to get us to trip up and lead us astray and we’re going to lose our life. You know spiritual sense Yeah is that a. Proper like is that a good way of reading this as well Like I don’t want to lose the other nature of it, but can I also read this in the sense of, you know even though I am. A white person in a white country where I’m not being hunted. Bye. Like physically. Can I add a Christian think of myself spiritually I have a battle. I am at war Yeah. and there is an element where. I am constantly being hunted and harassed by Satan who wants to. You know be at my heels trying to take my life He’s trying to add. me setting traps for me in his.

13.50 David

Yeah. That’s certainly the case and the. Sometimes you just get to a point where the, the temptation and the. The. It could be peer pressure It could be whatever. The thing that wants to drive you into death and destruction. is just so heavy. And where do you go to get away from it?

and I think. These songs are. I like to think of them This is the sort of thing. You’re sing at two o’clock in the morning. camped out on a rock somewhere…

On your own trying to get away from it all. but you can’t. You can’t ultimately get away from it all as you can hear going past. We live in an evil world. and we.

Beautifully are able to bring this to the God who is in total control. of that world. And so I liked there’s this little chorus in it “In God. I have a word to praise.” I could translate that I have a reason for prayer.

Tip for praise. In God or in God I will trust. I will not feel. And don’t you love the next line. What will flesh do to me?

And you think oh I don’t know Crucifixion??

What will flesh do to me? Torture. The torture I mean…

That’s always puzzled me that line. What will flesh do to me? It’s quoted in the new Testament. What will the flesh do to me? Well it can do a lot. But at the end of the day, I have eternal life. At the end of the day they can’t separate me from my inheritance in glory. From the love of God. From the kingdom of God. Yeah they can chop my head off. I will rise I will. enter paradise. These guys. They’ve got a bit bigger worry than I’ve got,

17.47 Dan

And that’s where the psalm really ends. Yeah. It’s God delivering our life from death. And us walking with him in the lights like. It’s all. Comes to that conclusion but it goes through the whole process beforehand Yeah.

Really comforting.

18.03 David

Yeah And at the end of the day, what at the end of the song what are we doing? We’re standing in that great assembly of the saints. Hmm. and we’re talking millions of people. We’re talking eternal life. New body, please God. This old body’s wearing out. We’re looking forward to this day when we will deliver all of our commitments all of our promises. In the presence of God and the relief will be massive. And that’s how it how these songs end, in hope and in faith and in assurance.

18.41 Dan

That brings us to the end of this episode If you would like to come and grab the study nights for this episode please head over to training for life media.com/112. if you haven’t subscribed please hit that button and make sure that you come back and join us again Next week when we hit the Psalm 57.