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Word in the Wild is a one year Bible adventure with friends. Join from anywhere and enjoy a fun, rewarding, and doable 12-month journey through the Bible where you read it from cover to cover and understand it. It’s not a devotional or recap. It’s a guide by your side through God’s Word. With support from a weekly podcast and an online community of fellow travelers, this is the year when you finally explore the Bible in its own words and on its own terms for yourself.
[00:00:00] This is word and the wild. It's a one year Bible adventure with friends. My name is Owen. I'm your host and your guide. And together we're on this 12 month long journey as a podcast, plus a community where we read the Bible for ourselves, but not by ourselves.
[00:00:19] And here we are guys. It's week 19. And this week, okay, this week we say goodbye to David. And we get a sneak peek into the diary of this warrior poet through the many songs that have his name in the byline. And if you find yourself stuck on how to handle the Psalms in the Bible, this episode is especially for you. Got some tips and tricks on how to approach a Psalm and get something out of it.
[00:00:49] So hello and welcome in. We are just cruising right through this journey together. The word of the wild adventure. And it's not a recap. We don't just feed you bite sized bits of the Bible. Now, this is a freewheeling walk where we watch the story of the Bible unfold like the Epic movie that it is. So subscribe right here on your favorite podcast platform. And while you're at it, do us all a solid, share it with a friend who needs to be part of this adventure too.
[00:01:20] I want to say a special welcome to our word and the wild plus community members. It's their support of this nonprofit endeavor that makes space for all of us here on this Bible reading adventure. As members of the community, they enjoy access to our private, safe online space where no honest question is a dumb question, along with live stream Q and a's bonus content and live stream teaching gatherings with yours truly and more.
[00:01:49] If any of that sounds like your jam, then check out the show notes for how to become a member yourself. Get all the details over at wordandthewild. . dot com. That's word and the wild. com. All right. With all that being said, let's clear the decks and step into understanding the heart of David and his experiences with God through these incredible and sometimes challenging things that we call Psalms.
[00:02:20] First of all, man, we got to say David. I mean, just the name by this point for you, just the name David has got to mean something. I mean, we've been on this wild adventure following his life. Now it's crazy how sometimes the Bible really speeds through big stretches of history. We're talking centuries. You know, for example, like the gap between Joseph and In, in going down to Egypt and, and, and ending his life there.
[00:02:50] And then from there jumping right into the Israelites in Egypt and in slavery, I mean, centuries pass in the flip of a page, right? But other times the Bible really slows the tempo down and we spend a lot of time with some of these characters. Job was one of those guys. David is another one. I mean, we spent a lot of time with David tracing his life from shepherd boy, musician to warrior, to hero.
[00:03:19] To fugitive, to king, to villain, to founder of a forever dynasty. I mean, all of this in David's life, incredible. And part of the, the, the reason why I think the Bible slows down the story and we really follow David's life. It has to do with where David's life fits inside what the Bible is trying to do.
[00:03:42] The story it's trying to tell. That story really is all about what it's like to know and to have a relationship with the Creator God. And so David's life, all these ups and downs we've been following I think it's, it's actually really fitting that here at the end of the journey with David, our, our chrono Bibles have put together this kind of a retrospective of David's life through all of these Psalms.
[00:04:12] That we are encountering in, in the end of David's life this week. Psalms is what the Bible calls them. They're, they're, they're really songs. It's what they are. And David has written these songs. They're they're deeply personal. They are raw and they're real they come from every season of his life I mean if this were a notebook his journal I mean there would be blood and tears all over these pages and we thumb through and look and and and reflect on these lyrics he's put together.
[00:04:46] We see joy. We see despair, we see awe. Grief. We see celebration. And, woven through it all lots and lots of first hand experiences in what it's like to have and maintain a relationship with that main character in our story, the Creator God. Yeah, these Psalms give us a window into what it's like to be an imperfect person who lives in a broken world and still manages to maintain a heart that beats for God and loves God at the, at the deepest levels.
[00:05:28] Now, you know, a lot of people really don't like to spend much time with these Psalms. You know, if you're honest enough to admit that, kudos to you. Honesty is good.
[00:05:39] And I'll admit, I mean, once upon a time. I was also one of those people. For a long time, man, I would see a Psalm pop up as I'm trying to read, or the whole book of Psalms right there in the middle of the Bible, I would see that and I would hit snooze. And I'm like, I liked all the other stuff in the Bible, or at least I understood, I understood how to try to approach it.
[00:06:00] You know, you've got the drama, the adventure, you've got these enlightening moments of instruction. You've got the theology that teaches you what God is like. I'm here for all that. These poems, I found myself really not enjoying them or really knowing, understanding how to get something out of them.
[00:06:19] But I will be honest, this is facts for me. All right, I'm singing a different tune, if you will, right now, because for me, the Psalms honestly changed my life. Okay, I'm going to get personal for a minute here. And this is really true. For much of my life, I really wrestled with the Psalms. With what to do with my emotions.
[00:06:41] It seemed to me that my emotions were, were a problem. If they were they were my problem. And it was the, it was, it was something I had to handle. I had to get myself, pull myself together so that I could then approach God, you know, with, with respect or, or, or with with the proper reverence. And that thinking really kind of kept God at arm's length for me. It kept me from really understanding what it takes to have an authentic relationship with God. And for me in many ways, God remained a subject to be studied rather than a person to be known and a friend and a companion through life to, to be loved.
[00:07:26] But then things began to change for me and it wasn't that long ago. The pieces began to fall into place for me. When I started to notice psalms. Really. And, and notice that these psalms, these songs, these lyrics, they contain a range of emotions. They're, they're filled, they're not only praises to God, you know, but, but complaints to God. Sadness, loneliness, despair. And, and, and get this. This floored me.
[00:07:56] This thought occurred to me one day, and it floored me. I realized that the Psalms are inspired. Okay. And this is from my viewpoint, the Bible is inspired. God, God, God breathed the words and to the, the human writers of the Bible. And so for me, I see that God actually empowered a man like David to write out his real.
[00:08:22] Raw emotions, write them out to God. Often they're addressed to God. And then not only that, then God carefully preserved these raw and real thoughts, these expressions to God for thousands of years so that someone like me could even read them. So, so it just occurred to me, it's not only okay to express my authentic self to God, but, but God encourages it.
[00:08:50] Well, and in fact, I've come to find it's essential to a genuine, authentic, real friendship with God. And after all, that's what the, the main story of the Bible is all about. You know, it is all about how to establish that relationship with God and then maintain a friendship with God.
[00:09:09] So for me, the Psalms have become incredible, but I, I get it. Psalms can also be daunting. Thank you I mean, they are, they're poems. So the story in them can sometimes be hard to follow. Things are, are, are said in Psalm sometimes that aren't always true. That's confusing. And, and to read a Psalm and to get something out of it, you know, you've got to, you've got to approach it with, with some emotional availability that is a challenge for some of us. I'll say I'll own and say sometimes a real challenge for me.
[00:09:49] You know but, but since this journey through the story of the Bible, our Bible adventure this week takes us right through a big forest of Psalms. All right. Now's a great chance for me to try to help you see the trees.
[00:10:04] All right. So I'm going to, I'm going to throw out here. I got four tips for reading a psalm and getting something out of it motivated by my my heart for you to experience some of the aha moments the Epiphanies that have come to me in my own personal journey with faith in God relationship with God.
[00:10:28] I want you to experience those, too and Psalms help me. They may help you.
[00:10:33] Okay, so here's I'm just going to pop through here with some ideas on how to read a Psalm. Okay, so the first thing you got to think about when you approach a Psalm is a Psalm is a different genre. And so it takes a different approach.
[00:10:53] Okay. For example, you don't read a biography the same way you read a Walgreens receipt, although the Walgreens receipt may be just about as long. You don't re you don't read a financial report the same way you read a short story, maybe a fiction. So, you know, genre matters. We read textbooks or how tos for information.
[00:11:20] We watch YouTube videos on how to repair, you know, our car for information. But we watch movies and we read stories and maybe even listen to music or read poems. We, we do that for emotion. The word is catharsis. All right? We, we, we wanna feel something of what the writer feels. to help us feel what we feel.
[00:11:45] All right. And, and, and, and the Bible makes use of these various genres to, to, to help tell its story. Okay. In the Bible. Sure. There's history in the Bible. There's biography. In the Bible, there are even legal documents and contracts. All right. But a Psalm, it's something different. It's, it's a poem. It's, it's a song.
[00:12:10] Now it's an expression of heart through art. Now Psalms aren't literal, right? It's it's art. And although a Psalm can and often does say true things, the, the, the palette for the kinds of truth that can be expressed in a Psalm is a little broader. See in a Psalm. The, the writer can say true things about God, for example, but the writer can also say true things about what he or she is feeling or is even feeling about God.
[00:12:47] And the, both of those are true, but the, the, the, the kind of truth is different in a Psalm. The facts of the matter. And then how the writer feels about the facts of the matter can be in conflict and both can be true and both exist in the world of the psalm at the same time. So if you're a black and white kind of thinker, that can kind of drive you nuts or give you trouble.
[00:13:14] If you're a person who's tending to be, you know, uncomfortable with your emotions. This can give you trouble. Or if you find yourself just as a person who reads the Bible looking for truth and ethical guidelines, and then, you know, Psalms are going to present a special challenge. But it's a good challenge.
[00:13:34] It may actually challenge your thinking about some of what the Bible itself is trying to say or what the Bible is for. the purpose it's been put together. So, so all that being said, I want to walk you through, like I said, a few ways you can approach a psalm and get something out of it. And that is the first thing we just talked about it.
[00:13:54] It's that you've got to remember the genre. Okay. When you, when you come up on a psalm, you know, don't panic. Just remember the genre it's, it's lyrics to a song. Okay. And you know, lyrics are important to a song. But the music is too, right? And so when, you know, you've got to ask yourself since the, the, the music is missing, you've got to look for other ways to pick up on the emotional tone.
[00:14:22] This is another thing. So remember the genre and then, and then watch the emotional tone, because when we come up to a song, it, you know, it, it's, it's, it's lyrics to a song, but it's missing the music, the music behind the lyrics of a song. That usually gives us a big clue about the emotion of that, of the song, right?
[00:14:43] I mean the intro to a song, if we start hearing, you know, crunchy, grungy, distorted electric guitars maybe we're looking for an emotion, the song, like a, like an anger. You know, if you, if you come across the intro of the song, it's got a catchy synth beat, you know, we're about to dance. What about a, a, a slowly building intro with, with strings and a, you know, a lonely piano, you know, that, that's going to tell us maybe sadness.
[00:15:14] And that's all before we hear a word of the lyrics, right? But so in a song, we, we've got to look at the lyrics first and then we've got to ask ourselves. What's the emotional tone of this psalm and how do the emotions move as the psalm unfolds? Okay. Emotion in psalms is important, just like emotions in any other song.
[00:15:40] And every psalm has at least one kind of emotional tone that it, it lives inside. It's trying to convey. And often, usually I'm even going to say There, there's movement from one emotion to another. So, a nice way to jump into a psalm is to first start by, by scanning. The first several lines in there for clues about the emotions at play at the start of the psalm Literally, you know, this is why I'm a fan sometimes of paper Bibles old school I love technology, but the paper Bible is a good thing You can make notes in it use a pen make a note at the psalm right there right at the top What kind of emotion do you detect there at the start?
[00:16:25] Okay, and then as you read Look for changes in the emotion and circle those moments in the lyrics. Those are key to understanding the flow and some of the meaning of the psalm. Okay, let me give you an example right here on the table in front of me. I've got my chrono Bible open here, right to psalm six.
[00:16:46] It's on page six. 528 okay 528 in our chrono Bible. It's just a short simple psalm I can use it as an example of what I mean. I'm scanning this psalm for Emotion at the start. Okay, and I'm starting to see things in this psalm like Have compassion on me for I am weak. It says in verse 2 There's another line.
[00:17:11] I am sick at heart Verse three says that and then in verse six, I'm seeing, I'm am worn out from sobbing. Okay. Think about those phrases. I'm weak, sick at heart, worn out from sobbing sobbing. These are words that signal family. I'm signaling, I'm seeing sadness, brokenness, despair, right? Okay. I'm hearing the, the, the strings and the lonely piano keys in the background.
[00:17:42] This is a, this is a sad song. But then as I scan further down the song I see a change in emotion. I see it in verse eight where it says, go away, all you who do evil for the Lord has heard my weeping. There's a movement here. From, from brokenness and despair. There's a, there's a small sliver of hope.
[00:18:08] There's a little bit of confidence. It's, it's not strong, like, like a triumph. The, the source of the feelings of despair has not been removed for the writer of this Psalm. The problem hasn't been solved, but man, some hope has returned in this case. Why? Well, because the Lord has heard and received David's prayer.
[00:18:29] He's confident in that. He's, there's no response to the prayer yet, but, but there's a chance there's a little bit of hope, right? The, the way the emotions move and change in a Psalm is the story it's trying to tell. So, so the emotions, you, you can't miss those. So, so if we're going to kind of approach a Psalm and get something out of it, first of all, recap this.
[00:18:55] Remember, remember the genre. It's song lyrics. Okay. Second thing, mark the emotions. Notice how they move because the emotions are the story. Okay, here's a third tip for approaching a song. Simply ask yourself, who are the players? In other words, look around in the psalm for who's here, who we talking about, who we talking to, who's talking, and To us or, or to the other people around, right?
[00:19:27] See, every psalm, very obvious statement, every psalm has a writer. Some psalms even have a note at the beginning that tell us who the author is. And some psalms even give other notes, like, man, the kind of instruments to accompany the psalm. The name of a tune meant to accompany the lyrics, or, or even I don't know, an event in the writer's life that inspired the lyrics.
[00:19:49] All that's super helpful. Did you look at a psalm, you know, it, like I said, it's got a writer and the writer is the one who does the speaking oftentimes. Okay. Other times the writer brings in another character to do the speaking. And this is a key to follow. Here's an easy example. Okay. Did you know the Bible says there is no God?
[00:20:17] It's right there Psalm 14 verse 1 the verse says the fool has said in his heart There is no God. So, you know technically the Bible says there is no God, right? But right here's a time where the writer of the psalm brings in another character to speak And in this case, it's a character that can't be trusted.
[00:20:38] I mean, they're a fool after all, right? So if you, if you don't take note of who's speaking, you lose something. All right. So who is speaking in a song matters. So as you're approaching it, Hey, just take notes. All right. You know what else? Every psalm not only has a writer or a speaker every psalm has an audience.
[00:20:58] All right. A psalm is, is written to be heard and experienced by someone in some psalms. The audience is also the writer. The writer speaks to themselves, you know, take courage, you know, be strong or my, my hope is in God, right? Then sometimes the audience is God and the psalm is a conversation between the writer and God.
[00:21:20] Sometimes the audience is another person and sometimes the audience is, is you, the reader. Now get this. Sometimes the audience changes inside a psalm as we go. So you got to follow the dialogue. Let me show you an example. Okay, we still got our Bible open to Psalm 6 here, our chrono Bible. I've still got it here.
[00:21:46] And let's look at it again. We've already marked the emotions. The psalm starts with brokenness and despair and then it moves to hope. Now the audience in the psalm also changes right? Verse 1 right off the bat easy to see it starts, Oh Lord don't rebuke me in your anger. So that's an easy one. The, the audience is the Lord right?
[00:22:09] And that holds true all the way through the psalm. You see the Lord, the Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, all the way down again till verse 8. All right. This is the same verse where we marked the move in emotion from despair to hope. We also have a change in who is the audience that the writer of these lyrics is speaking to.
[00:22:29] Verse eight says, go away all you who do evil for the Lord has heard my weeping. There's that change in audience. Now the writer is speaking not to the Lord, but to a crowd of evildoers that are surrounding him and, and want to bring him harm. All right. And so now as we follow the, we, we, we follow how the emotion moves and we, we follow who is speaking and who's the audience.
[00:22:58] Now we start to get some meaning from this Psalm. David, the writer, goes to God with his feelings of sadness, brokenness, and despair. He, he feels alone. God remains silent. He, he's, he's listening, but he's not responding to David. Okay. And that, that's David's conversation with God, but then to his enemies.
[00:23:22] David shows confidence in God's willingness and ability to hear his prayer, respond and come to his rescue. So, so David holds brokenness and hope together in his mind and his heart and in the face of these evildoers who circle him like vultures, he remains determined to hang on to hope as he waits for God to bring rescue and relief.
[00:23:48] There's the story. of the psalm. And all that comes to us as we remember the genre, then mark the emotions and look for the players. All right. Now I got one more tip for you for getting something out of a psalm. And I'm going to say it like this. And let me explain. I'm going to say reach for catharsis.
[00:24:14] Okay, catharsis is the word. Catharsis simply means to match the emotions of the story to your own emotions in order to experience relief. Let me say that again. Catharsis simply means matching the emotions of the story with your own emotions in order to experience relief. When, when we approach a Psalm, it's, it's really more about matching the emotions to our own and, and steering clear of trying to claim the words of the Psalm as belonging to us.
[00:24:50] Man, this happens a lot, but when you try to claim the writer's words of a Psalm as your own truth. Sometimes things can get weird. Okay? For example, I've got my chrono bible open and I've now looking at Psalm nine. It's just another page over, it's on page 5 29 in the Chrono Bible, and it's another Psalm by David.
[00:25:11] And in this Psalm, David is feeling relief because God showed up to defend him from his enemies. That's, I mean, that's a great feeling when God comes through for you right in, in verse three. David says this to the Lord, my enemies. Retreated. They staggered and died when you appeared. Oh man, that's, that's a good feeling.
[00:25:34] Now, the wrong way to approach this psalm, and I know wrong is a strong term, I'm going to say wrong, all right? The wrong way to approach this psalm would be to claim that verse as a promise to us, you know? I read that, and I'm going to claim that, I'm going to say, Yes, Lord, you will appear, and my enemies will retreat, just like you did for David, you know?
[00:25:54] I'm claiming that for me. But here's the thing. When David says, my enemies in the lyrics to the song, he's talking about his enemies. He's not talking about your enemies or my enemies. All right. But this is a very common, and I'm going to say misguided approach to the Psalms. First of all, because it's a good motive.
[00:26:16] We want the Psalms to mean something to us personally, to be relevant for us today. That's a good instinct. And second, You know, because we have a tendency to oftentimes, man, to, to see ourselves as the hero of our story, even though as we've seen so far in the Bible's big story, that's not always true.
[00:26:35] Sometimes even a David is a villain in the story. And so God is working against him to frustrate his plans, not always working for him, and we got to use some discernment to kind of pull that part when that's true for us. And so sometimes we aren't the hero. So so always claiming these Psalms is that's, you know, anytime it says, my, it's talking about me.
[00:27:01] Now that's, that's less helpful. The more helpful approach. Okay. Is to take the emotion of the Psalm and to use it as a path on reflecting on your own emotions. All right. It might go something like this, that, that same statement. You know, about the Lord coming through and defeating David's enemies, right?
[00:27:23] I mean, think, think, think like this, man, God came through for David. This might be how you might reflect on this, man. David feels so relieved and grateful when that happens, man, there's nothing better than, than that feeling. Like God is with me. He's walking with me and he's coming through for me when I need him.
[00:27:44] And if God came through for David, then he can come through for me and I would be so grateful and relieved for God's help with my, I don't know, pick a situation, my, my supervisor at work who has it out for me. Okay. I mean that, that wouldn't that feel great if and when God decided to come through for me.
[00:28:04] And in that moment, you see that it just like, you know, David's psalm the feelings he's had with God, it takes you into a conversation of your own with God. And perhaps as you pour out your own heart, your own feelings, your own worries and concerns and joys and celebrations, as you pour those out to God through the vehicle of a psalm.
[00:28:31] You may begin to feel a bit of the relief that inspired David to write his song in the first place. And when you do, catharsis achieved. That's it. And man, there's nothing like it. It's one of the ways that to me, the Bible remains a living book. It's alive and so meaningful. It's not because of the facts that it discloses about God, which although those are essential and important.
[00:29:01] That's only one ingredient. The other ingredient is that it allows us to, to, to discern the, our heart and the, the thoughts we have and our motives. And it allows us to get to the bottom of those thoughts and motives and compare it to the, the, the life that God wants for us to live. And Psalms, can do that for us.
[00:29:23] Okay. So as we head out into a week in the Psalms here in our one year Bible adventure, here's your game plan for getting something out of a Psalm. Four steps. Here's the approach. First of all, remember the genre. Okay. It's a song. Second, mark the emotions. The feelings are the story. And third, look for the players.
[00:29:49] Who is speaking? Who is the audience? Last, but not least. Embrace the catharsis. Let the emotions of this psalm spark your emotions that allow you to take them to God. Okay? Truth about God's character paired with the reality of your own emotions through the art and heart of the writer. Oh, then that's the magic of a psalm.
[00:30:17] And don't, don't be intimidated. Okay? Now you've got what you need. Go out there, explore the forest. That is the Psalms. And look and stop and see the trees smell the flowers. All right. Don't be intimidated You've got everything you need to enjoy the journey this week. So get on out there. All right I'm grateful for this opportunity to walk through this adventure with you.
[00:30:44] I'm loving it It's good speaking to me. It's so good for me. I hope it's good for you too. If you do love it, go ahead and share it with someone, you know, share the joy and the adventure with them. Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast as well. All you word and the wild plus community members. Hey, when I say special thanks to you, it's your financial support of this nonprofit endeavor that keeps us going.
[00:31:10] Big love to you guys. I'll be seeing you in the wild. That's our online private community there. This week, everybody else jump into our Facebook community, search Facebook for word and the wild and join us there. Word and the Wild is a LineHouse Community and part of the LineHouse Community Network.
[00:31:29] It's a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring neighbors together to promote awareness, appreciation and understanding of the Bible because friendship and God's word change lives and change cities. Word and the Wild is presented by the LumaVoz podcast network. Always grateful for our LumaVoz friends, providing us a podcast home.
[00:31:53] And with that, we are out. My name once again is Owen. I'm your host and your guide until next time I'll be seeing you out there on the trail in the word and the wild. You have a great, great week.