Psalm 92 — The Sabbath Song of the King

0:00 I saw the saddest thing in the world a couple weeks ago, Michael. Maybe a week ago. I experienced the saddest thing in the world a couple weeks ago. And my son, two of my son's birthdays, we always race on their birthday. Opened it up to the home groups. Had a wonderful race with Jonathan White. Emerson E did EI Don't remember Eli participate or not. I think he did. He wasn't going to. Maybe he did. You wouldn't know. I don't. I don't know if he participated. Well, who I know for sure did not participate. As we were walking in, Michael Mott was like walking out, like ready to race. Got my, got my sock, my shoe. Like he like I just changed. And we were like, oh, we just finished. We had family photos, so we were like just, we actually got there.

0:42 I thought, oh, we're going to be in time for everything. And I, I brought clothes to change out of and I was like, I parked, walked in, changed. I saw some texts coming in from my wife like, hey, where are you? But I was like if I answer them I will be slower. You had to go. So I had to. Go cause 'cause your cause, your family witnessed the race, you, I, I and honestly, I didn't think. Probably saved me from blowing out my hammy though. Honestly, maybe that was God's Providence. I was gonna say I did not think anything of it. I was like, oh, Michael missed it. And then I saw like, Lydia being like, it's OK, Dad. I was like, oh, no, I, I feel like really bad. Oh, yeah. So.

1:23 Yeah, she knows. She knows I like like to run. So. Man, so all that's. People look at me and they go, man, he likes to run. He like. Must run. All I say. We should have a spring session. I mean, we should keep it going, you know? Yeah, I think that would be good. And that that might give me 'cause there was these things always hit me like you roller coaster, 'cause there was a time, maybe January, February time frame where I would do like 10 sprints on what we call Snake Alley a a night. So I would just like haul as much as I could and then like that wears you out. But then I would, I would rundown and then I'd walk back. Yeah, rundown.

2:08 And I'd walk back kind of get cutting my brush, but haven't been doing that lately. So that that'd be good to get back into. Yeah. I I. Was just telling Michael this might be for a future podcast, but I'm looking ahead to New Year's resolutions and I'm like, I want to see how fast I can run a 40 yard dash and 100m race just to see, you know, just to train like a sprinter for a little bit, see what's like never ran. Did you do track and deal with tracks like I did? So I I did sports up to 9th grade. Okay, yeah. And then in 9th grade I made a decision to cut out all athletics and just focus 100% on music and Cuba. Looking back, maybe I would. It's hard to say. You do things different. That's right, yeah, things turn up okay. Yeah, but I look back and go, oh, what? What did I miss?

2:54 What could have, what could have been My my siblings did. My school did not have track and field. My my moved to Florida when I was in college. My siblings finished up at a school that did track and field and they really enjoyed it. And I'll tell you what, those events can go all day. Oh, they do go all day because you have heats and then you have different things like I did shop put and discus and then I always thought, you know, I'd be a good long jumper cause of you know, but not so and you know, you, you'd think, you know, you always think that you have like long legs 'cause you're. Tall. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but as I've gotten an adult, like I've realized that my tallness is mainly, mainly my trunk, 'cause I, you know, there's some people that have really long legs, some people that have really long trunk. So my tallness is not that I have short legs, but you know. But then there was a time that I got called in to run a relay and.

3:51 Like without like, like you just were like, hey, you got to fill when the guy's sick or something, or like you practiced for it and stuff. Oh yeah, practiced for it and stuff. I thought, I thought, like, they like, hey, Jim's out, Michael, you're in. Like, that'd be amazing. Yeah. Yeah, so I remember in 7th grade, we went to a track meet and they they're like, you know, all big boys. You're going to run the 800. Just. Oh yeah, just. Just just to give you something to do because you know, y'all are sitting around or something. And I had a little bit of chip on my shoulder because that's right. And I probably came in 'cause it was like they put all the fast people up front and then just a mass of us. So like I am like trying to trying trying to get up to the front like to show them like and and they're like I got noticed. Yeah.

4:40 So yeah, yeah, I wished my school at track that had been like so fun to like at least just try out the different things and try to learn technique on like some of this stuff. That had been pretty cool. But so so now I've got to live my past like I cares like at home groups. I'll have like a whole like Olympic. Day we'll get a 12 LB ball of metal and we'll we'll we'll do that too we'll help make my. My sister threw discus and she did pretty good. Discus, I never. Discus is like all technique. You cannot just muscle it out there. And I could not get the thing to spin well, man. And there was this other guy who was like, let it come out the back of his hand and it would get a lot of spin. I'm like, that's not right. Jason.

5:22 I don't say your last name, but the Jason who got drafted to the Timberwolves. That Jason. Wow. He, he let it come out the back of his hand. And I was like, that's, that's, that's not the right technique, but you know, you're supposed to like leading edge and throw it. But yeah, man, shot put. I, I was I, I won, honestly. We should do just like a a. Game of Field. That would be like so. Fun that would be. Honestly, that's get. That long pole and like you know the one where they do in Scotland where you're like trying to. Oh, like get into that. That's like, that's like great honestly idea. Next time they do the Olympics, I will plan church wide, like summer, like we'll do our own Summer Olympics and like you're on teams with people like it'd be pretty fun. Do we get to draft our teams?

6:07 We'll draft our teams. Well, we're, I'm just, yeah, yeah. That would be like super fun. And it's like you got a good mix of people and it's like just just have fun out there, you know, see what's going on. And maybe it would be great if like Lori Summers was just like a triple jump phenom. Like just like someone like totally surprises you. It's like, wow. That would be a surprise. Like, oh, how where you where did that come from? That'd be great. Also, we should we this will be on it. Have you seen like competitive, like walking? Have you seen this before the? The speed walk. Speed walking, Yeah, man, I don't know what to think about that. There are referees out there and like you can get penalties if you do certain things, like if you're think of both of your feet are off the ground at one time. Yeah, Yeah, you're not.

6:50 Walking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But man, it's like I. Don't know why in in school we like in high school like we did at one time. Like I don't know why my PE teacher and didn't I'd not get along because we were always like we're doing like stupid, but he was like exposure to all these sports and dude speed walking. It works muscles in a different way to know where it's like you're like, Oh my anterior tip or these like muscles you're like just. What you're saying as as a 10th grader, my anterior's not saying that. But I was like, I was like having like shins. I was like, this is like hurt. I play soccer, but I this walking stuff. Yeah, yeah. But you're right. You are acting it out like the way they walk. And stuff they do. They get the speed, so we should. We'll do a mix of events. So it's like, you know, you might not know who's going to win, but that will. Be super fun.

7:33 Clearly Olympic event, right? Actually, it might. Be it might be now they switched a lot of this around where now it's like, you know, there's flag football and all these things. I I will say I'm I am a little sad that break dancing only had one year. I think if we didn't have whatever her name was, it just gave it just bad optics. Yeah, yeah. You hate to see that. You hate to see. Yeah, I I watch reels of people who break dancing. Like that's. Be an Olympic sport. But those people, I guess didn't try out, didn't hear about it. I I don't know. Yes, whatever happened that's that's amazing. Well, Speaking of. Praise. Dancing.

8:15 Yeah, there's dancing a lot. We see that in Psalms. So we're looking at Psalm 92. This will this will air on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving. So I'm sure, you know, people are right now. You're probably, you know, getting your Turkey ready to go into the oven. Maybe you're, you know, getting your pecan pie ready and you're listening to the smooth voices. Oh. Man. Of take toothy. No better way to start your Thanksgiving Day? Yeah, or maybe you're just like, it's the morning sun's coming up, you're enjoying a cup of coffee. You, you thought about a Tuesday episode and you're like, how can I give thanks? Not just think. Thanks. Boom, I love it. That's a great segue, Psalm 92.

8:58 Let's take it to the next level. Let's fire up that twanga music. From the hearts of the Low Country in South Carolina. It's the Take Two podcast where we take theology to the next level. Psalm 92. Fun fact, if you were, if you were in trivia and someone says you know what Psalm has? The superscript, the label? A song for the Sabbath, There's only one. You wanna guess which one it is? I'm I'm gonna well, because we're doing it on Psalm 92 and I can see the notes. I would say Psalm 92, but I would not have known that otherwise. I would. Not have known that either. The superscripts.

9:38 The superscripts like they they like. They're so fascinating. To me. I'm looking at these but it's. Those are the ones that were inspired, right? Oh yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, 'cause there are, there are things that are inspired and there are things that aren't. Right. So like the prick of beheading is not like the translation, but these are like actually in, in like the manuscripts. That's rich. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So like in mine, it says Psalm 92, praise for the Lord's goodness, and then underneath that it says a Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day. And it might be in like. So I I think this a Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day, is part of the original, right? I I think there's a lot of debate on this, whether it was. It's not something we've added in the last. 100 years it's not what? Yes.

10:20 For sure. That for sure that. Maybe Ezra came along and added them later. That's right. You don't know, like, yeah, you're exactly right. It's so interesting that this is the only large it's. Not not a trustworthy guy, you know. Come on, Ezra. Rearranging stuff and like putting stuff in order to make it make sense. What are you doing? For us, like what are you doing well? Whoever did this superscript, only one, that's a song for the Sabbath. That's like fascinating. That's like this one's like specially selected. So we need to do this one every Sunday. Maybe this is like the go to Saturday boom. I like it. That's right. That's right. And you alluded to this maybe at the end of last podcast episode. Some would say it's a chiastic masterpiece. So if so, if it is just to like get to it, if there are 15 verses, yeah, chiasm, we should look to the center, the center verse.

11:13 Verse 8. Verse 8 What's what's that? Can you read that for us? But you, oh Lord, are on high forever. Yeah, kind of gets to the the crux of it right in the middle. So let's let's talk about the structure and then we can kind of dive into it. We talked about the superscripts. If you would peek ahead and look at verses 9 and 10, we'll we'll read it eventually. You'll see that it's written from the perspective of a king. A king is writing this and we mentioned this chiastic outline. If you don't know what a chiasm is, it's kind of like an X, this letter chi. Yes. With the center is the main point. Or maybe if you're thinking like you wrote an outline and like you're indenting, indenting, indenting, and then you out dent, out, dent, out dent, and the things that line up basically have the same meaning, but maybe expressed slightly differently.

12:05 Yeah, very symmetrical, yes. And as you get in inside, those are also going to line up. But then that's where the heart of the message is, is in the center. It's like a Tootsie. Pop. And you can see this, Yeah. How many licks does it take to get? Do you remember those commercials like the owl or whatever the animals were? You see exactly what Michael said, the symmetry kind of leading into the middle, different than our Western minds often work. And this Psalm is so unique because it's like 7 verses on each side. We've got this number, you know, for perfection and early as you read it. And if you can see it in the chiasm particularly well, you see the eternal God, the center line you are on, you are on high forever Lord.

12:46 What surrounds that immediately talks about the wicked. It's like this contract between the wicked and our righteous God. And we see that in this Psalm and this king is delivered. We we kind of see that point point to to Christ as well. So that that's kind of big picture just walking into it. Song for the Sabbath. We got this chiasm, you are on high forever Lord. Let's go through it. Yeah, that's that's real good. Can we read it? Let's let's all of it. Let's at least read maybe verses one through 4. All right, sounds good. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night, with the 10 stringed lute and with the harp, and with resounding music upon the lyre.

13:33 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done. I will sing for joy at the works of your hands. Man, out of the gate, it's good to give thanks. The Psalm of Thanksgiving talks about, you know, praising God morning and night. It's code for all the time. We got musical instruments like in there. I love a good lute. I mean, I mean who doesn't love a good loot? And if once you get the loot going, I'm like, where's that liar? You know, you're just like, you're just kind of like. Oh yeah, yeah, and the harp. Alludes to God's works, his saving acts and history and and the praise is grounded in God's character. So that's how it starts off. I'm almost curious, what if you read 12 verse 12 through 6 in the end? Is this other?

14:18 Symmetrical part, the the part that kind of reflects the same idea. Yeah, yeah. So it says the righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a probably actually 1314. Yeah, probably. So. That's good. Oh no, 12 it is 12. Yeah, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon, planted in the House of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be full of SAP and very green. To declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. So if if this Psalm started off saying it's good to give thanks to the Lord, at the end, it's like this is the person that does give thanks to the Lord kind of completing the thought.

15:03 And this person does praise God morning and night, you know, because the Lord has made him glad by work, gives him joy and he And so he again roots it in God's character and then uses some imagery. Maybe you're not like used to being like, hey, you're like a cedar or you know, that kind of thing. But you know, it's good stuff, good stuff. You know, a healthy, healthy tree is good. A lot of. Fruit. And we're talking about, you know, if they're like reading the the song of Psalms to each other, 'cause, you know, it's just that imagery that, that really spices, spices things up, you know, like your neck is like gazelle's neck, You know, that's, that's what they love to hear is what I. Hear so, so good, so good, so, so that. That's the bookends.

15:47 If we come in a little bit, I'll read verses 5 and six. Really overview. It's a praise of God's profound thoughts. How great are your works? O Lord Yahweh? Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know, the fool cannot understand this. And so we start seeing this contrast like kind of slipping and working its way towards the wicked, talking about the fool and how God's thoughts are so different than this brutish man, this stupid man, depending on your translation, someone who's morally blind and that the wicked, the fool, they, they misread God's point. They don't know what God is thinking. God is infinitely higher than they are. His thoughts are very deep.

16:28 And if we were to compare that to its counterpart versus 10 through 11, it reads, But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. But going back to some maybe imagery we're not super familiar with, all the time you have poured over me fresh oil. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailant. So we see like the fool and these evil people. We kind of see this like matching up here as well. That's good oil. When did that go out of favor? When did people stop like just pouring oil on them? I mean, you're like. You're like, I haven't stopped. This is like that's how I start my morning. I, I, I don't, I'd have to look it up. I, I don't think it's clearly not Psalm 22. But there's the one that talks about, you know, the, there's yeah, yeah, the the dew coming down from Mount Hermon and the, the oil flowing down the beard, even the beard, even Aaron. And and it's like doesn't hit the modern sensibilities. It's like, do I get to take a shower after all of the oil just pulled on me?

17:30 That's exactly right. It's like, man, it's good to, you know, that cultural context. And so we're kind of like stepping in, and this is where we kind of see the big contrast to that center line if you want to hit verse 7. Then when then that, when the wicked sprouted up like grass, and all who did iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forever more. Wow. And it's like you see this grass pop up. We see this imagery other places in Scripture that it kind of comes and goes. It might appear quickly like oh, this might be something, but it's temporary destruction is coming and then the flip side or the the counterpart verse 9. For behold your enemies, O Lord, For behold your enemies will perish.

18:13 All who do iniquity will be scattered. You can make this pretty easily. God, God make this, you know, connection that God's enemies fall, everything collapses. You know, they, they don't live on in perpetuity. And that kind of leads us to that center line that we've read you on, you on high forever. Lord is kind of that summit, that apex of the Psalm that God is exalted above all these wicked people, all these foolish people, all these enemies, and his plan will govern. The chaos stands alone. There's nothing, nothing quite like a good chiasm, you know. I mean, I think it's really good because it helps you like like we were talking about last episode, you know, like I'm not necessarily very expressive, you know, in my prayers, not not necessarily. But you see here like, hey, we're going to let's, let's like we're, you know, the imagery that I just use is like a chow, a cow chewing.

19:12 A CUD. You know, but you know, you chews it, swallows it, brings it back up, chews it and thinks about it a different way. And in the same way, we have these ideas about, you know, what does it mean to be someone who expresses thank, thankfulness, gives thanks. And then we saw, well, they're like Cedars. They're the people who are always seeding and flourishing. And then the people who are not like that, the fools, the enemies, the senseless, those are the people like the grass. Parachute, yeah, yeah. Cedar versus grass, that's a good, like a little blade of grass, this huge cedar. What a good image, right? And think about that, even though it's right there, it's good. Yeah, it's good to think about these.

19:53 Man, yeah. And so I, I really like it because it makes you think it. And it's funny to me that, you know, probably 40 years old, 42 years old when I first heard the word Kyle. Yeah. It's just crazy. It's. Like you see it so much and when I first. Heard it. I was like, that's probably, that's probably. People are probably making this up dude. I too, when I, when I honestly, when I heard it, I was like, and I think people do this. I'm like, everything's not a hammer or everything's not a if, if everything if, you know, if you have a hammer, everything's like you're just like workings in there and you are. But sometimes it is pretty evident that there's some structure and it's like we read Romans and we're very good about outlining Romans. Like why can't we do the same thing, you know, with with some of this Hebrew poetry.

20:40 So you mentioned, you know, this contrast wickedness flourish for a moment got us forever. We see God's sovereignty at the center of the Psalm. We see this type of Christ through here a little bit. And the song of Sabbath worship is kind of this root of this flourishing. It's important to just think about that, that this growth is so tightly connected to worship of God. God's sovereign all the time beyond his throne, and we see Christ as this king. He was ambushed but delivered and exalted also. Just, somebody knows, prefigures Christ's victory over death and evil like this.

21:22 Those people around him, you know, behold your enemies, the Lord, behold, they're going to perish. You're exalted like the horn of the wild ox. So I wonder if that's that instrument that Joel always had us listen to, You know, the what was it called? Not the didgeridoo. What was that called? I don't. I cannot remember. Yeah, that's good. There's a church that has one and they blow it literally to. Start. Let's bring it back, yeah? To start, that's going to bother me. What what that is? I love it. That's great that center line, but you award are on high forever. Great example of this Psalm that begins and ends with Thanksgiving, this outward expression of inward gratitude.

22:07 And it kind of, you know, shows you that this was probably part of this, this weekly rhythm of a Sabbath centered life for the Jewish people. So. Far. Oh yeah, so far we had. We got it before the episode ended. That's great. A lot of different Psalms of Thanksgiving. Anything else you want to point out about this last? So last year we did Psalm 100, Psalm 192. The good news is there's a lot of Psalms of Thanksgiving. We can kind of work our way each. Year. We'll probably run out of years of life before we run out of Psalms to do Thanksgiving because man, there's like 150 of them, right? There's a lot of psalms, that is for sure, but it's good. It's a good reminder of of chiasm's good reminder of, you know, read these psalms, take your time, be thankful, have this gratitude, use it to outwardly express, and you'll be in good shape.

23:06 Yeah, maybe just a challenge to the parents, the dads, the dads in particular, but moms. And maybe you can put a stone in your husband's shoe or, you know, it, your particular arrangement is your husband's not spiritual and not leading. And maybe you can do this, but, you know, turn to a Psalm like this and maybe talk to it, talk to it with your your family around Thanksgiving. And it can be devotional. So maybe it's a, a good thing to do. Yeah. That that is good. B Don't just have gratitude, have Thanksgiving. And I mean, God's Word does it for you. I mean, in a way like, you know, you can just read this and you know, it's not hard to make the connection blade of grass, cedar, like did some things. Maybe you're not going to pick up every theological detail, but you know, a lot of stuff I think we can hit up. So this is kind of like a little bit different little thing, a little Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. Pause.

23:56 Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Thanksgiving pause. We'll get back to our regular programming down the line at some point. So great. This is the part where you're going to say how thankful you are for me. I am thankful. So it's been been, I mean we're like a year and 3/4 into this journey, man. Yeah, crazy. Yeah, it is. It is insane. I'm, I'm I, I really want to like plug. I want to get AI to the point where we can plug in all of our but somebody like do an episode for us. Hey, is this the first time we've had like a phone alarm? I am thankful. For that, there we go. I think you've had one, but that's a problem. Yeah, that's my first one. So reminded me of chess club in the morning, which we're actually not having since we had a whole bunch of tournaments.

24:40 This. Do you guys have any more chess stuff? Is it like there's rhythms to it or how does it? Work. Yes. Oh, in the fall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's? The and then in spring again, so is. This like the big tournament or is there one? Well, there's there's one of equal stature in March. OK. And they're both the, it's kind of like fall and spring. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, you think about all like, if you're in another sport, you do it multiple times. That's right. But there's only really two days of the year that you're competing in chess. They all come. It's like high stakes, like, I hope you're feeling good. They can clear. Instead of everyone going to state, we should have some regional ones where it's not maybe as big. But yeah, like N like, couldn't you have like pine? We could have like the local, yeah. That's a good idea. We've talked about doing that and maybe doing it as a fundraiser or something, but it takes a lot of organizations, someone to lead it, someone to find the time and then yeah.

25:30 And then, then the algorithm, the program doesn't work right. And people you know, well, that's great. Well, we're thankful people. Have a great Thanksgiving and we'll see you next week. Yeah, see you next week. That's our day. Jinx, thanks for listening to Take Two. Find us wherever you find podcasts and on YouTube for those who want to watch our video cast.