34. Psalm 106:31. How do Phinehas and Abraham share a commonality in righteousness?
The wording is very similar. It’s that old accounting term “imputed” or “accounted.” Old English (or Southern American) would be “reckoned.” One moment of faith, resulting in one action of one of God’s men, and righteousness comes. It’s not saying that because the man was righteous, God blessed him, but the idea is that the man suddenly believed what God wanted him to believe, and God placed on the ledger sheets of heaven a bonus, namely His own righteousness. Both of these men exemplify the salvation that is in Christ. Faith rises from within but that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. And when God sees that faith in any man or woman, He is bound to add righteousness to the mix. James would say that the kind of faith we’re talking about is works-faith, that is, the kind of faith that is more than intellectual assent, but which produces a corresponding action. All of this is from the grace of God, of course, and not some meritorious work which God is bound to reward because of man’s inherent goodness. Quite the opposite. God rewards His own infusion of faith with a further infusion of righteousness. Man is unable to boast, because God does it all.
Psalm 109:8b. Does this “Judas” verse refer only to Judas, or to any wicked man who hates a man of God without a cause?
Acts 1:16 has Peter telling us that a Scripture has been fulfilled in Judas. That Scripture could well be Psalm 41:9, quoted by Jesus in John 13:18, about a man close to Jesus betraying him.
In Acts 1:20, another passage is quoted, this one in Psalm 109. It does indeed refer to Judas, but in my opinion, anyone who would do such dastardly deeds as recorded in the beginning of the Psalm, would be worthy of the results mentioned. Thus Peter would be using the Psalm as a principled response, not just a fulfillment of prophecy.
Psalm 110:1. Who are the two “Lords” of v. 1? How did Jesus interpret this?
The Lord (Father in Heaven) said to my Lord (Son/Messiah on Earth), sit at my right hand etc. Jesus clearly used this passage to refer to Himself while dumbfounding the Pharisees. That party all agreed that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. But in Psalm 110, that same David calls that same Messiah “Lord” in a spiritual sense, says Jesus. How could the Messiah be “Lord” and yet still a descendant of the man David, was the riddle. They never did solve it.
Psalm 110:4. What is the “order” of Melchizedek?
Usually we think of an “order” as a long line of persons related either by family or title or work. We speak of an order of preachers or an order of kings. Here, an order of priests is intended. In that list we have only two names. Melchizedek seems to be first, Biblically. Then comes Jesus, the last.
When we translate Melchizedek and discover that the word means “King of Righteousness” and we do the computing, we realize that Jesus is that first one in the order also. He is first and last, Biblically and any way.
The writer of Hebrews is simply telling us that the one we have seen in these days is the same one Abraham saw in His day. Jesus even mentioned (John 8)that Abraham saw His (Jesus’) day and rejoiced in it. This could mean that Abraham watched from Heaven the entire drama of the coming of Jesus to Earth, or quite possibly it goes back to that Genesis account where Abraham and the very King of Righteousness had a communion service together. Followed by the offering…
Psalm 115:17. Some go to “silence”, some to everlasting praise. An argument against eternal torment?
This Psalmist, as other Bible writers, simply view the future as they view the present, with natural eyes. And it cannot be argued that, naturally speaking, graveyards are pretty silent places. No comment is being made about the departed spirit, revelations about which are supplied by Jesus later.
The writer goes on to say that the righteous will bless the Lord forever. Beyond the grave.
Psalm 116:15. Why would the Lord delight in our death?
Our flesh and the Enemy and this world have us in a place of conflict daily. Sometimes the conflict causes us to want to break fellowship – if that were possible – with the Lord. This is a painful time all around. But at our death, our uninhibited spirit is with the Lord, and He will delight in our victory, and shower us with daily blessings so great as to satisfy our needs and make Him, the supreme Giver, delighted, also.
Psalm 118:24. What day is the day the Lord has made?
Perhaps it is fair to say that every day is the day He has made. But in context, we are talking about the day when Jesus truly, visibly, historically, becomes the Chief Cornerstone of the Building of God, and He is magnified in His saints. Every day that believers get glimpses of this and respond accordingly is a great day, but when the moment comes in its fullness, it will be incomprehensibly outrageously the Day the Lord has made.
Psalms 120-134. What are “songs of ascent”?
No need to look past Wikipedia for this one. There seem to be several ideas, and I must say I have no clue as to which one should prevail:
“Many scholars believe the title indicates that these psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended the road to Jerusalem to attend the three pilgrim festivals (Deuteronomy 16:16). Others think they were sung by the Levite singers as they ascended the fifteen steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem. One view says the Levites first sang the Songs at the dedication of Solomon's temple during the night of the fifteenth of Tishri 959 BCE. Another study suggests that they were composed for a celebration after Nehemiah's rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls in 445 BC. Others consider that they may originally have been individual poems which were later collected together and given the title linking them to pilgrimage after the Babylonian captivity.
“They were well suited for being sung by their poetic form and the sentiments they express. "They are characterized by brevity, by a key-word, by epanaphora [i.e., repetition], and by their epigrammatic style.... More than half of them are cheerful, and all of them hopeful."[As a collection, they contain a number of repeated formulaic phrases, as well as an emphasis on Zion.”
Psalm 133. How is unity like the dripping of oil or dew?
Consider the abundance of the oil that covers all of the priest’s person. Or the abundance of dew that covers all the landscape. Or consider the beauty of both pourings. Or perhaps think of the direction from which these liquids come: from above to below. In all three ways, the coming together of the people of God in love and peace and joy is well represented in the figures used.
Psalm 139:8. How can God be in hell or “Sheol”?
Of course, the word in the Hebrew generally defines the place of the dead. Yet in this passage one must concede that it is being used as the opposite of heaven, which we know to be a place of torment and judgment eventually if not already.
So God is in the place of torment? And would David knowingly say he wants to make his bed there? If indeed this is the sense, we must only acknowledge that there is no place in the Universe that God has written off as of no concern to his purposes. Satan is not the ultimate Governor of the Abyss. Punishment and the place of it is still in His domain.
Psalm 139:15. How was David formed “in the midst of the Earth”?
Almost unanimously the commentators, all good men, state that David is here merely speaking of the womb, in a comparison. How can I disagree with them?
My own thought is that when God created Adam, and in essence created all of us, the atoms and molecules that would one day multiply and divide and do all sorts of movement here and there, eventually descended to David. David was known, as were you and I, in those first handfuls of “dirt” carefully put together by the Hand of God.
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