Psalms 114 - 117

Psalms — Steve Gregg

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Psalms 114 - 117

PsalmsSteve Gregg

In this segment, Steve Gregg discusses four Psalms: 114-117. He explains the significance of the songs and how they relate to Jesus and his teachings. In Psalm 115, Gregg emphasizes the importance of prayer and how it is the key to asking God for help to rectify our personal and societal problems. Additionally, he points out the irony of Psalm 116 where acceptance as a king led to Jesus’ life being taken from him, but in the end, Gentiles will come to praise God.

Transcript

We'll turn now to Psalm 114, which is the second of a group of six Psalms that I already gave an introduction to in our last class. Those six are Psalm 113 through Psalm 118. And we said those were called by the Jews the Egyptian Halel.

The word halal means praise. Why it was called the Egyptian halal, I honestly don't know, except possibly that there were a number of references to the Jews in Egypt in these, especially in Psalm 114, or it seems more likely that the custom of singing these psalms together may have developed among the Jews in Egypt, which is quite possible. I suppose the answer, the question could be found by enough research, but I haven't cared enough to find out why they were called the Egyptian halal to know why it is.

But the thing that I think is of interest about these psalms, as I mentioned before, is that these were sung at the Passover time. The first two, 113 and 114, were sung before the Passover meal by the Jews, and the latter four, Psalm 115-118, were sung after the meal. And we are told in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, in verse 26, that Jesus, after taking the final Passover meal, the last supper with his disciples, sang a hymn with them, a song.

Probably it was this group of psalms that they sang as a hymn, and since that was the custom of the Jews to do so. And what I was pointing out is that many of the statements in these psalms would have special meaning to Jesus on that occasion, simply because he was going right from that room, after singing these psalms, he was going out to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and only a few hours later to be crucified. So, he knew that his death was impending.

He knew the meaning of it, and no doubt he saw that meaning in a lot of these psalms, even as he sang them. Now, I don't mean to say these would necessarily be called messianic psalms, though I suppose in a sense we could call them that, because so many of them have a reference to Christ in one sense or another. But it's not as though these were written in terms of being prophecies about the Messiah, as though the psalmist knowingly was speaking about the future messianic age, or the suffering of the Messiah.

It's more that they were psalms that had wording in them that was inspired by the Holy Spirit, which would have had double meaning, and would have had a special double or secondary meaning to Jesus, as they might have a literal meaning, or maybe I shouldn't say literal, but a primary meaning to the average Jew, but a secondary, more deep meaning to Jesus on this occasion, singing just before his own death. In fact, some of these psalms would actually speak of his death to him, I'm sure. Although we don't know, we're not 100% sure that he had these thoughts about them, since we can imagine what he must have been thinking from the things that we are told that were on his mind that night in the scriptures.

These psalms must have called to memory some of these ideas. We already covered Psalm 113, in which there were a number of things that I felt would have stricken Jesus particularly deeply. The reference to God in verse 6, who humbled himself to behold the things on earth, Jesus was God, having humbled himself to live among men.

The reference to God in verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 113, raising up the poor out of the dust and setting him among princes in a place of authority, would be a picture of how Jesus had become poor for our sakes and had died and gone to the dust, so to speak. Not that he had decomposed, but that he'd gone to the place of death, which is what dust usually symbolized in the psalms especially. He had been raised up from that to sit in a princely authority.

Then the final statement in verse 9, that he makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. There's a couple of thoughts there. One being that Jesus said in the 16th chapter of John to his disciples that he was like a woman ready to give birth at this moment.

He was going to prevail through labor, but that there was going to be a man-child born from this effort, namely the church, which would cause all the pain to be worth it. In fact, it would cause for the joy of the coming forth of that fruit. Like it says concerning Jesus in Hebrews, who endured the cross despising the shame for the joy that was set before him.

There was a certain joy he expected to come out of this shameful, horrible experience. That's one meaning it could have had to him. That also is illustrated in Paul's quotation of the 54th chapter of Isaiah about the barren bringing forth more children than the married wife.

The married wife being Israel, the barren woman being the Gentiles. Ironically, the Gentiles, who had formerly been barren and never brought forth any seed for God, were going to eventually bring forth more children of God than the Jews ever did. One other final thought is that it could have even in his mind reminded him of his own supernatural birth.

As many people in the Old Testament had been born from women who had been barren. Samuel, for instance, and Isaac for that matter, and Jacob and Esau. Their mother, Rebekah, had formerly been barren.

Rachel was barren for a while. Then the Lord opened her womb and she was able to bear Joseph and Benjamin. So many people in the Scriptures were barren before God opened their wombs.

Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was barren. All these women were barren who gave birth eventually to significant men of God. Jesus' mother was not barren in the same sense.

But he was a supernatural birth, even as much as they are more so, because his mother was a virgin. Virgins are not capable of having children, because they are virgins. They can cease to be virgins, then they can have children, but as long as they are virgins, they can't have children.

So they are in a sense in the barrenness of virginity. Yet it was in the barrenness of virginity that Mary became pregnant and their Jesus. So that the reference to the barren woman becoming the joyful mother of children could remind him also of that miraculous element to his own birth at the Incarnation.

So a lot of things were probably going through his mind and any of these thoughts or all of them could easily have come to his mind when he sang these songs on that last night. The other one that they sang before the meal was this one, the 114th. We don't find very much in it that would have necessarily called to mind his own ministry in this psalm.

It's mainly a recounting of the deliverance from Egypt, which of course was what the Passover celebration was all about. It's appropriate that they sing a song like this at the Passover celebration, because they were remembering their deliverance from Egypt every time they celebrated it. And so this is a short psalm that speaks of the reaction of nature, the Red Sea, and also the rest of creation when God moves out to deliver his people.

And it does end with a reference to Christ, however. At the end, verse 8, it says that God turned the rock into standing water, the flint into a fountain of water. So that's a reference to the rock that gave forth water.

Now the Apostle Paul indicated in the 10th chapter of 1 Corinthians that that rock was a type or a picture of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, Paul says, they all did drink from the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10, 4 speaks of the Jews drinking from the rock in the wilderness, and that was a symbol of, or he says it was Christ, but I believe that we should understand and be saying that it represented Christ, because it's a type or a picture of Christ.

And therefore, we do see a reference to Christ giving the living waters, and maybe this would be significant on this occasion, because the rock had to be smitten in order for the water to come out the first time. The first time God told Moses to take a rod and smite the rock, and the rock gave waters. If that rock represents Christ, it means that in order for him to give forth the living waters of the Holy Spirit and bring blessing into the world, it was necessary for him to be smitten like that rock.

And so, in recalling in verse 8 the statement that God had given water from the rock, it would, of course, to the Jews who sang that, it called to mind the whole picture of Moses smiting this rock and the water coming forth. And Jesus, knowing that that rock spoke of him, would think in terms, of course, of his own being smitten, which was going to happen that very next day. He was going to be smitten, and the resultant outflow of the Holy Spirit, the living waters to his people.

But for the most part, the earlier part of the psalm simply celebrates the deliverance from Egypt. As it says, when Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from the people of a strange language, Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. Now, this psalm was probably written after the divided kingdom.

That is, after the days of Solomon, the Jewish nation, or the Israeli nation, broke up into two kingdoms, the north and the south. The north being Israel, the southern being Judah, which would explain why the writer speaks of the two separately here. Though he's speaking of a time before they were distinct, in the time that he's writing, they were distinct nations, Israel and Judah.

So, he says, in those days, they were actually one, in a sense. Judah was his sanctuary, Israel was his dominion. The sea saw it and fled.

The Jordan was driven back. Now, the Jordan being driven back here is not, of course, the same thing as their deliverance from Egypt. This happened 40 years later, when they came into Canaan, that the waters of the Jordan stopped up and they walked across the Jordan on dry land.

That's when Joshua was leading them 40 years after the Exodus. He said, the mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like lambs. What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Now, the sea here would not be the river Jordan, but it was, of course, the... Let's see, in verse 3 and verse 5, both refer to the sea and the river Jordan.

So, it's speaking both of the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the river Jordan, though those events were separated by 40 years of wandering. Both resembled each other in that God drove the waters back, in both cases, so that the people walked across on dry ground. So, he sort of speaks to the river Jordan and to the Red Sea.

He said, what aileth thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan that thou wast driven back, ye mountains that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills like lambs. Now, the reference to the mountains and the hills, it's not clear what that refers to. It's very possible that it refers to the governments of Canaan, because in some prophetic writings, the word mountain represents a government or a kingdom, as we will see when we get into the prophets, Isaiah particularly, but also others.

It's not uncommon, in the least, for the prophets to use symbolic language to describe a nation or a kingdom as a mountain or a hill, depending on whether it's a big one or a small one. And we'll see that frequently in the prophets. But the point being, it could be a reference to the fact that the nations of the Canaanites were driven out and fled, or ran like wild sheep fleeing from danger.

Or it could be a reference to the Mount Sinai and the Mount Rangerana, how it shook and trembled when the law was given. It's possible. Or else it might not refer to anything in particular at all, except that this was an earth-shaking event.

It might just be very symbolic language, simply saying that when God created Israel, it was an earth-shaking event. And so, figuratively and poetically speaking of the hills and the mountains skipping and running and so forth, trembling. It says in verse 7, Tremble thou, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, which turned the rock into standing water, and the flint into a fountain of water.

So again, this psalm speaks of Jesus being smitten and giving forth living water. It's in the end of it. As he's saying these words in verse 7, that night, Tremble thou, earth, at the presence of the Lord.

It must have seemed rather ironic, since the people of the earth were not going to be trembling at his sight, really, that night at all. They were going to be arrogantly lifting themselves up against him, though he was the Lord. Though he was the God of Jacob.

And they were in his presence, and Pilate stood in his presence. Actually, Pilate did tremble. Especially when he heard that Jesus was called the Son of God.

Then he trembled, he feared, and he said, where are you from? Pilate really was moved by the situation. But the irony of it was, the Jews, who were supposed to tremble before their God, were not trembling before him. They weren't giving him the reverence and the fear due him.

Instead, they were arrogantly lifting themselves up against him. And yet, even though they seemed to have the upper hand at the time, we now know that Jesus conquered. Not only death, but them also, because after his resurrection, judgment came upon the Jews in the year 70 A.D. When the city was destroyed, and it was because of that night.

It was because of this night. And the next day, when they crucified Jesus, the destruction of Jerusalem happened 40 years later. Jesus said that there was a direct link between the two events.

In Luke chapter 19, he said, because you did not recognize the day of your visitation, therefore, your enemies will come and tear you down. And so, that did happen. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was a direct result of the things that transpired the night and the following day that Jesus sang this song.

And so, the earth, and especially the Jews, had particular reason to tremble in his presence. Though he was not lashing out at them at that moment. And though they seemed to be in the position of ascendancy over him.

Yet, it didn't change the fact that he was their Lord and the God of Jacob. And therefore, they ought to be trembling. And if they'd known what would ultimately happen to them as a result of this, they would have trembled.

Now, there was a break in the meal, I mean in the evening, because at this point they would eat their meal. And we know that the night that Jesus ate the meal, he did some unusual things. One thing is he girded himself with a towel, went around and washed his disciples' feet.

Which they didn't understand at first. But he later explained that they had to become servants like him. To become great in his kingdom.

And then he explained to them that he was going away. That he would send the Holy Spirit. He explained that one of them would betray him and one would deny him three times.

All these things transpired with him. They had the meal and Jesus spoke different words than they were accustomed to at the meal. Because usually, they would eat the bread and commemorate the lamb.

The Passover lamb. And they'd drink the cup and commemorate the blood that was put on their doorpost. But this time he said, this bread is my body.

He said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. So, a lot of unusual things happened that particular Passover celebration. Jesus and his disciples had celebrated Passover probably three previous times to this time.

Together, without anything out of the ordinary taking place. But this one was unusual. And at the end of it, we know they sang a hymn.

And that would have been particularly these next four psalms. Of which one is very short. As you can see, Psalm 117.

Some of them have more than others that would have direct relevance to the issues of that evening. But there was enough in them, especially in the 118th. That would have just really caused a lot of emotion in Jesus.

As he sang them and thought on the deeper meanings of them. In Psalm 115, it says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. For thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.

Wherefore should the heathens say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Now, this, I believe, really corresponds very much with the things that Jesus thought that night.

Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But however not my will, but thine be done. Not unto us, but unto thee, God, be the glory.

And Jesus said, I did not come to seek my own glory, but I came to glorify my Father. And we can see that that is why he went to the cross. He didn't go to the cross for his own glory.

It was a shameful experience. A great shame and embarrassment that he endured at that time. But it was for his Father's glory that he did it.

And so here on the night that he's about to be taken, he sings, Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. No, it's not me, not my will, but yours. For thy mercy and thy truth's sake.

Wherefore should the heathens say, where is now their God? When Jesus was hanging on the cross, that's essentially what many of the mockers said. You know, he said that God was on his side. Where is God now? Let God save him if he delights in him and so forth.

This was the gist of what his skeptics were saying when he was on the cross. He said, why should they be permitted to say such things? He said, but our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever he has pleased.

In other words, despite the fact that Jesus was on the cross, despite the fact that it seemed like God was not with him, and that or else even for those who knew that God was with Jesus, who thought, well, maybe God is not really on the throne anymore. Jesus could confidently say, our God is in heaven and he has done whatever he pleased. In Isaiah 53, speaking about the Messiah, it says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Jesus because the reason it pleased him is not because he enjoyed to see him in pain, but because it pleased him the result that would come from it, namely the salvation of the world. God has done whatsoever he pleased. The idea here is that circumstances look bad.

The heathen are actually saying, where is God now? Because things look so bad, it looks like you couldn't possibly argue that God is around. The answer to them is God's in heaven. He's doing exactly what pleases him in spite of the appearances.

That's exactly what must have been in Jesus' mind. When Jesus was on the cross and they were saying, where's your God now? In his mind, he must have been thinking, my God's in heaven and he's doing exactly what he pleases. It's not as though anything's happening that's contrary to his will at this point.

This is something that he's planned out from the beginning of the universe. And while it may look like God's not on the throne, it may look like God isn't in control of the situation, he's getting his will done right now. He's doing whatever has pleased him.

Now, the reference to the heathen and their idols is rather almost humorous and insulting to the heathen. It says, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not.

Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not.

They have hands, but they handle not. Feet they have, but they walk not. Neither speak they through their throat.

Now, that's a description of the idols, the gods of the heathen. The gods of the heathen have the appearance of a living thing, but they don't have any life. They have hands and feet and eyes and nose and so forth, but none of those things function.

They're non-functional. They're not alive. They have only a form, a shape as though they were a living thing, but they don't really have any life.

But then it says, concerning those who worship them, they that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. In other words, just as the heathen idols are dead, they look like they're alive, but they're really not alive.

So is it true of the heathen themselves who worship them? There is a principle in scripture, I believe, that we can discern, that people do become like their god. Whatever you worship, whatever you idolize, you will gradually become like. It's obvious.

If you idolize rock stars, more and more you'll take on their patterns of thinking. You'll tend to look like them and so forth. People do tend to come to resemble that which they worship and which they idolize.

If we worship Jesus, the Bible says we're being changed. If we look upon him from glory to glory into his image. So we do become like them.

So those who worship idols become like their idols. In what sense? Well, they have the appearances of life, but no real life. We might even go more specifically and say that their idols are the work of men's hands.

So the heathen also are fashioned by men. That is, they are not their own. They're following the crowd.

They run with the pack. Men's opinions of them fashion their way of thinking and determine what they're going to do and what their decisions are. It says they're blind.

They're spiritually blind. They're spiritually deaf. They don't have spiritual senses.

They are insensitive. So these things can be said of them. They spiritually are dead.

They spiritually are insensitive. They are spiritually blind and deaf. They are molded by men's hands rather than being their own people.

So that is basically an assessment of the idols and of those who worship them. Then we have in verse 9 through 11 one statement that is made to three groups of people. The statement is, trust thou in the Lord, for he is their help and their shield.

But verse 9 is addressed to Israel, verse 10 to the house of Aaron, and verse 11 to ye that fear the Lord. We find the same three groups mentioned in the same order in verses 12 and 13, where it says, the Lord hath been mindful of us. He will bless us.

He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.

The three groups again. Now these three groups are not just repetitious of each other. Israel was one group.

It was the nation Israel, probably excluding the Levites, since the house of Aaron, which would be the priests, is mentioned separately. But basically he singles out Israel as a nation for special exhortation. Then he singles out the priesthood to exhort them the same way.

And then he even speaks to those who fear the Lord. Now you might recall, I think I've mentioned before, that there were Gentiles who had not become proselytes, but who believed in the Jewish God. A proselyte was a convert from a Gentile religion into Judaism.

And to be a proselyte, a Gentile would have to get circumcised and keep the law of Moses and all, and become a full Jew with Jewish privileges. But there were Gentiles who weren't willing to go that far, weren't willing to get circumcised and keep the feast days and all. But they still believed in the Jewish God.

They would attend synagogue because they wanted to hear the words of God. And they were called God-fearers. That was specifically their title.

They were called God-fearers. They were Gentiles who were not complete Jews. They hadn't proselytized, but they were believers and fearers of the true God.

So they were called God-fearers. Here we see the three groups, Israel and the priesthood within Israel, and then the God-fearers are addressed. And to all of them, the same exhortation is given, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield. Now, then the same three people are addressed in verses 12 and 13, where it says the Lord will bless them. The Lord has been mindful of us.

He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He'll bless the house of Aaron.

He'll bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. Then it said, the Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. You're blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Now, this next verse is highly significant, I believe. It says, the heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Now, this reflects back on Genesis, of course, how that God made man and gave him dominion over the earth.

There are many people who believe that man does not have dominion over the earth anymore, that man was given dominion, but he lost it because he mishandled it, and that now the dominion is given to Satan. I believe that man still has rightful dominion. God never took it from him.

And as far as I understand the scriptures, Satan never really earned dominion. Satan is a usurper. Satan controls men of the world, but the only reason he even cares to control them is because they do have dominion.

He controls their dominion by controlling them. But the dominion has not legally passed over to Satan as though he has the right to rule the world. Dominion still is legally man.

It's just that man can't exercise it in the right way because he himself has come under the slavery of Satan. Now, the reason that's significant is because when a man comes out from under the slavery of Satan, he retains as a human being his right to dominion over the earth. And in fact, that is why God had to become a man.

I believe that's the major meaning of the incarnation, that God became a man. Why? Just so he could relate with us? Well, I'm sure there was part of that in it, but there was a much deeper meaning to it, I believe, and that is that God had given dominion to man. God could not reclaim the earth and get dominion over it without himself becoming a man.

Because only members of the human race rightly could exercise dominion, because God wouldn't take it back just because man mishandled it. That was the risk that God took. He didn't give it to man conditionally.

He did tell man the day that you sin, you'll die. But he didn't say, I'll take the dominion back from you. So, man still has rightful authority over the earth.

But Jesus, the son of man, the representative man, is the only one who's really gained full authority over it and come totally out from under the bondage of Satan, and he's now delivering us from that bondage. Now, the relevance of that to us today, I believe, has to do with prayer and what prayer really is. The affairs of this world are not governed, in the final analysis, by either the devil or God.

That might not be completely true, because the Bible says God governs the world. There's a sense in which the affairs of men are governed by man. That's why there's so much war and everything like that, because man does what he wants to.

Now, God is sovereign, too. But the way I understand the scriptures, God interferes with man's dominion only by permission. That is, prayer is God's way of getting permission to do what he wants to do in the earth, because God gave the earth away.

I don't believe that God is ungentlemanly enough or is dishonorable enough to take back by force that which he gave away freely. And I believe that what God is doing is raising up men, members of the race to whom he has given the earth, who will call upon him in prayer and ask him to do the very things he wants to do, things that he is limited from doing by prayerlessness. If men don't ask him, I don't think he can move in the earth.

He can do other things, but he can't necessarily do anything in the earth. Now, that is partially in the realm of theory, but it's based on certain scriptural ideas, too. There's a statement that Jesus could do no mighty work in Nazareth because, it says, they had so little faith.

And also, it says the children of Israel limited the Holy One of Israel by their unbelief, by not going into the Promised Land. They didn't believe, therefore they limited him. Now, we might think that even though they didn't believe, he could have forcibly taken them in, but he did not interfere.

If they didn't have faith, if they weren't calling on him and trusting in him, he couldn't do anything for them. And I believe that those scriptures don't necessarily go all the way in saying God can't do anything except through prayer. I believe that that is nonetheless a biblical principle, that God has given the earth to the children of men.

It doesn't say heaven is the Lord's, but he did give the earth to the children of men as though he gave it to them, but they don't possess it anymore. It says the earth has he given, meaning that they still possess it. It still is theirs.

He has given it, not he did give it and then they lost it. But the very expression he has given it to the children of men means that it is still, as far as he's concerned, theirs. But he waits for them to call upon him to interfere and do what he wants.

And so he's looking for people who are aware of his will, who will call upon him and lay hold of him and give him no rest until he accomplishes the things that he wants to do. And I believe that that's what the main principle behind prayer is, is that we are asking God to do that which we have the right to ask for. Not that we have the right to command him around, but we have the right to rule the world.

Therefore, we have the right to invite him to come in and do things for us in the world. Really, they're for him that we ask to be done. At any rate, the fact that God had given earth to man may have seemed like a mistake at certain times, especially on this particular night where Jesus was going to be delivered over to wicked men who would show just how corrupt and how wicked and how unjust men could be and how they mishandle authority.

It was the Jewish religious authorities that mishandled this situation and did such corrupt things in bringing about the death of Jesus. And yet, this only illustrated how poorly man managed the authority and the dominion that God gave him. God gave man the earth.

In general, men have botched that up, their dominion, and have not ruled it well. But God is calling forth people who will reign with him, the Bible says. The Bible says we're going to reign with him, and I believe that prayer is his means of conditioning us and teaching us how to reign with him.

We actually are moving his hand by prayer. Wesley, it was John Wesley who said, God does nothing but in response to prayer. Whether that's a biblical truth or not, as I said, can't be finally established from any one statement of scripture that I'm aware of.

But I believe that that statement from Wesley embodies quite a few scriptural principles or some principles that are stated in quite a few different scriptures that I think, at least, that is my, I fully believe that that is true. And it's based on the fact that God has given, it says heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, which means that he can do whatever he wants there. But he's given the dominion of the earth to men, which suggests that unlike heaven, which is his, the earth is man, which would suggest that unlike heaven, where God can do whatever he wants without asking anyone or without being asked, in earth, it's not always so.

And that's why when Jesus taught us to pray, he said, we should pray, Father, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Because God's will is already done in heaven. That's his area.

He can do what he wants there. But he waits to be asked by us to do, to have his will done on earth as it is in heaven. So I believe that, I believe that all that principle, which is largely, I think, a neglected area of teaching of my experience.

I haven't heard very many people teach this. In fact, I'm not sure I've heard anyone teach it very much. But I believe that that's in this verse.

It says the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord.

Now, that last statement in verses 17 and 18, I believe would have had significance also in that Jesus knew he was going into the grave. And while he said the dead don't praise the Lord, nonetheless, he says, I will. I'm going to die, but I'm going to live again to praise the Lord.

Suggesting, of course, the resurrection, at least to him, probably not to the psalmist. I'm going on to Psalm 116, says I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear unto me. Therefore, will I call upon him as long as I live.

The sorrows of death come past me and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow, then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple.

I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee. For thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling.

I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. All the hints of resurrection in this passage are, I feel, rather obvious if a person is looking for them. There's a reference to being brought low and yet the Lord helped me.

Verse 3, the sorrows of death come past me. The pains of death, of hell got a hold on me, but the Lord preserved me and so forth. The reference to, you have delivered my soul from death in verse 8, all these expressions could easily, while probably not to the writer of the psalm, yet to Jesus at the time singing it, would reflect on his coming death and resurrection.

And then it says, I believed, therefore I have spoken. In other words, I've spoken these things by faith. It takes a certain amount of faith to say these things, is what he's saying.

It's because I have faith in God that I'm able to say these things, because right now it doesn't look that way. Right now it doesn't look like I'm going to walk in the land of the living. Right now it looks like I'm going to die.

But by faith I say I'm going to walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars.

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Listen, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. No doubt that recalls to your mind, as it does to mine, Luke 22 in verse 17, when Jesus prayed, if possible, let this cup be taken from me. And yet it was not.

And when Peter sought to defend Jesus, Peter said, put away your sword. The cup that the Father has given me, shall I not drink it? Notice he acquiesced to the will of his Father. He took the cup, which here would be referred to as the cup of salvation.

Now to the Jews at Passover singing this, of course, they'd be thinking of the cup that was taken in the part of the ceremony. I'll take the cup of salvation, remembering the blood of the Lamb in Egypt and all that would be the general meaning to the Jews of this passage. But as Jesus realized that he was going to be taking a different cup that night, that the Father is going to give him a cup to drink for all mankind.

Then when he's saying these words, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord, he's basically saying, I'm going to accept from the Lord this path that will bring salvation. And I'll just call on God. I'll commit my case into his hand.

In verse 14, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints is a commonly quoted verse to Christians.

And maybe you've heard it before, especially if you've been to the funeral of a Christian. Often it's quoted there. It's a popular verse to quote.

But in its context, it's hard to know what it would mean to the average Jew singing it at this point. Why at this point in the psalm this statement is made is not clear, except that it would be particularly relevant to Jesus in this context where he says. I'm going to take the cup of salvation.

I'm going to pay my vows unto the Lord. Now, if I'm going to do what I've promised to do, namely, going to go to the cross, then to say in that connection, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Saints means holy ones.

Jesus certainly was one of God's holy ones. Only he was the holy one. And to say that God was highly valued this death, it's precious in God's sight, this death, that would be very meaningful to Jesus as he knew that he was about to die the next day.

Oh, Lord, truly, I am thy servant. The reference to Jesus or the Messiah as the servant of the Lord in Isaiah is frequent many, many times in Isaiah. The word the servant of the Lord is a reference to Christ, as we'll see in a couple of weeks when we study Isaiah.

Oh, Lord, I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. The language might be merely coincidental, but Mary, when the angel appeared to her and told her she was going to have a son, said, behold, the handmaiden of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.

She spoke of herself as the handmaid of the Lord. Jesus now singing says, I am thy servant. I'm the son of thine handmaid, which is how Mary described herself.

That's loosed my bonds, probably a reference again to the resurrection, loosing the bonds of death. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people, which he also said in verse 14, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord.

Now he says, I'm going to pay my vows, which to Jesus on that occasion, at least would refer to going all the way with what he promised to do, what he had planned to do, what he and the father had agreed to. Whereas the ordinary Jew paying his vows simply meant that, you know, he'd made some kind of a promise to God. He was going to keep it.

Jesus had a particular promise that he was going to keep that night. And that was that he was going to give his life for the sins of the world. So in saying twice in that one Psalm, I'll pay my vows now unto the Lord in the presence of the people.

Jesus would be thinking in terms of going to the cross in the sight of everyone. And it says in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. That is right here in Jerusalem, right in God's city, right near the courts of the house of God.

This is where Jesus ended up paying his vows. This is where Jesus is crucified. And that's ironic, because the one place that should have accepted him as their king is the one place where he ended up having his life taken from him.

In the courts of the Lord's house is actually where he was tried and condemned by the high priest in Jerusalem or just outside the walls. Jerusalem is where he was actually condemned and murdered. And in fact, Jesus actually had said that when the Jews were trying to persuade him to come down to Jerusalem where they could get their hooks on him.

He said, don't worry, I'm coming. It shall not be that a parish should perish outside. A prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem, indicating that every time prophets come to Jerusalem, they get killed.

And he indicated that since he's got to die, he's coming down there. They don't have to coerce him to come down. He's going down there and they're going to kill him.

But he was ironically saying, it should God forbid that any prophet should die elsewhere than Jerusalem. I mean, that's the one place that you'd think a prophet would be accepted because that's his people. But that's where they all died.

And that's where Jesus was going to pay his vows to and die. The Psalm 117 only has two verses. It's probably the shortest chapter in the Bible.

But even though it has only two verses, one of them gets honorable mention in the New Testament. It's amazing that a psalm which would seem insignificant by its length would yet be among the few psalms that get quotation in the New Testament. The first verse, by the way, is quoted in the New Testament by Paul in Romans 15, 11.

And the reason he quotes it is because it says, praise the Lord, all ye nations, which means all you Gentiles. And Paul quotes this in Romans 15, 11 as in a string of quotes. He gets several quotes, I think four or five verses in a row from the Old Testament, which have some reference to the Gentiles because Paul is trying to establish the scripturalness of the Gentiles coming in to praise God with the Jews in the body of Christ.

That is Gentile salvation. So he quotes this among other verses. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations.

That is, the Gentiles too are going to be praising God. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.

Praise ye the Lord. Not much reason to comment on verse two. It resembles so closely the statement that I've made comments on earlier today, that the truth of the Lord endureth forever, or his mercy and his faithfulness endureth forever.

It's a common statement of praise to God in the Psalter. Not much need to make further comment on this.