Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 18 NLT; Ch. 19 NLV; Ch. 20 NET

Podcast Introduction

This is Psalms Wednesday. We’ll read Psalms 18-20. I’m calling today’s episode “Praying For Those In Power” Before reading each chapter I’ll have introduction for you, then after reading all three chapters, I’ll have some comments for you. And since this is Wednesday, we’ll have a time of prayer. I have a couple of new prayer requests to share with you.

Comments on Psalms 19 and 20

I would like to quickly focus on three different verses that stood out to me today. The first was Psalm 19:14. “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” 

What we say and what we spend our time thinking about is very important. It is a reflection of what’s in our heart. And so, if our goal when we stand before the Lord is that He look at us and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” we need to look at what we say and what we think about while we’re here on earth.

The next verse that stood out to me today was chapter 20:1. “May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble; may the God of Jacob make you secure!” 

That truly is my prayer for you, beloved. We live in troubling times. There is a lot going on in the world today, and I pray that when you cry out to him in these times, that He answers you. And I pray that you find security in God.

The last verse that stood out to me was chapter 20:7. “Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we depend on the Lord our God.”

This also relates to the troubled times in which we live. We might change that to “Some trust in politicians and others in medical experts, but we depend on the Lord our God.” Politicians aren’t going to save us. Medical experts aren’t going to save us. Only God can save us. 

We should pray for our politicians. We should pray for medical experts. We should pray for anybody in power.

But we depend on the Lord our God.

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Transcript

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Psalms 18-20: Praying For Those In Power (LSFAB S13E046)

[TEASER – 0:00]
What we say and what we spend our time thinking about is very important.

[INTRO S13E046 – 0:11]
This is the Lifespring Family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California. Podcasting since 2004, I’m your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we’ll read through the entire Bible in a year, and the website is at lifespringmedia.com. This is Psalms Wednesday. We’ll read Psalms 18 through 20. And I’m calling the episode “Praying For Those In Power”. Before reading each chapter, I’ll have an introduction for you. And then after reading all three chapters, I have a few comments for you. And since this is Wednesday, we do have a time of prayer. I’ve got a couple of new prayer requests to share with you today. “

Before we read, let’s pray.

[OPENING PRAYER – 0:49]
Our Father as we read the Psalms today, I pray that you would open them to us that we might understand them and make them a part of who we are. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Okay, let’s start.

[INTRO TO PSALM 18 – 1:02]
The title of Psalm 18 is “To the chief musician, the psalm of David, the servant of the Lord who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said.” Yes, that’s the entire title. Not only is that a long title, it’s the second longest title in the Psalms. And this psalm itself is one of the longest, the fourth longest. Only Psalms 78, 89, and 119 are longer. Extra points if you know which is the longest. The title tells us that psalm wrote this psalm to the Lord God, and we know the reason for his writing it. In the title, it says, “A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul”. King Saul spent a great deal of time trying to hunt David down. He wanted David dead. Yet notice the language in the title. He wrote it on the day that the Lord delivered him from all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. So David separated Saul from the group of his enemies. He apparently did not consider Saul to be one of his enemies. And as we read through the Bible, this year, we’ll learn more about how David thought of Saul. I think you’ll find it somewhat surprising.

[PSALM 18 (NLT) – 2:19]
Psalm, chapter 18.

(1) I love you, Lord;
you are my strength.
(2) The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
(3) I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies.

(4) The ropes of death entangled me;
floods of destruction swept over me.
(5) The grave wrapped its ropes around me;
death laid a trap in my path.
(6) But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry to him reached his ears.

(7) Then the earth quaked and trembled.
The foundations of the mountains shook;
they quaked because of his anger.
(8) Smoke poured from his nostrils;
fierce flames leaped from his mouth.
Glowing coals blazed forth from him.
(9) He opened the heavens and came down;
dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.
(10) Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.
(11) He shrouded himself in darkness,
veiling his approach with dark rain clouds.
(12) Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him
and rained down hail and burning coals.
(13) The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded
amid the hail and burning coals.
(14) He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies;
his lightning flashed, and they were greatly confused.
(15) Then at your command, O Lord,
at the blast of your breath,
the bottom of the sea could be seen,
and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.

(16) He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
(17) He rescued me from my powerful enemies,
from those who hated me and were too strong for me.
(18) They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress,
but the Lord supported me.
(19) He led me to a place of safety;
he rescued me because he delights in me.
(20) The Lord rewarded me for doing right;
he restored me because of my innocence.
(21) For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I have not turned from my God to follow evil.
(22) I have followed all his regulations;
I have never abandoned his decrees.
(23) I am blameless before God;
I have kept myself from sin.
(24) The Lord rewarded me for doing right.
He has seen my innocence.

(25) To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
(26) To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself hostile.
(27) You rescue the humble,
but you humiliate the proud.
(28) You light a lamp for me.
The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
(29) In your strength I can crush an enemy;
with my God I can scale any wall.

(30) God’s way is perfect.
All the Lord’s promises prove true.
He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
(31) For who is God except the Lord?
Who but our God is a solid rock?
(32) God arms me with strength,
and he makes my way perfect.
(33) He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
enabling me to stand on mountain heights.
(34) He trains my hands for battle;
he strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow.
(35) You have given me your shield of victory.
Your right hand supports me;
your help has made me great.
(36) You have made a wide path for my feet
to keep them from slipping.

(37) I chased my enemies and caught them;
I did not stop until they were conquered.
(38) I struck them down so they could not get up;
they fell beneath my feet.
(39) You have armed me with strength for the battle;
you have subdued my enemies under my feet.
(40) You placed my foot on their necks.
I have destroyed all who hated me.
(41) They called for help, but no one came to their rescue.
They even cried to the Lord, but he refused to answer.
(42) I ground them as fine dust in the wind.
I swept them into the gutter like dirt.
(43) You gave me victory over my accusers.
You appointed me ruler over nations;
people I don’t even know now serve me.
(44) As soon as they hear of me, they submit;
foreign nations cringe before me.
(45) They all lose their courage
and come trembling from their strongholds.

(46) The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted!
(47) He is the God who pays back those who harm me;
he subdues the nations under me
(48) and rescues me from my enemies.
You hold me safe beyond the reach of my enemies;
you save me from violent opponents.
(49) For this, O Lord, I will praise you among the nations;
I will sing praises to your name.
(50) You give great victories to your king;
you show unfailing love to your anointed,
to David and all his descendants forever.

[INTRO TO PSALM 19 – 7:24]
The title of Psalm 19 is “To the chief musician, a Psalm of David”. Willem VanGemeren, author and professor emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, wrote this about Psalm 19. He said, “This psalm reflects more than any other the beauty and splendor of the Hebrew poetry found in the Psalter.” And he continues, “C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter, and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.'”

[PSALM 19 (NLV) – 7:57]
Psalm, chapter 19.

(1) The heavens are telling of the greatness of God and the great open spaces above show the work of His hands. (2) Day to day they speak. And night to night they show much learning. (3) There is no speaking and no words where their voice is not heard. (4) Their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun. (5) It is as a man soon to be married coming out of his room and as a strong man who is happy to run his race. (6) Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and it makes its way to the other end. Nothing is hidden from its heat.

(7) The Law of the Lord is perfect, giving new strength to the soul. The Law He has made known is sure, making the child-like wise. (8) The Laws of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The Word of the Lord is pure, giving light to the eyes. (9) The fear of the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The Lord is always true and right in how He judges. (10) The Word of the Lord is worth more than gold, even more than much fine gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey straight from the comb. (11) And by them Your servant is told to be careful. In obeying them there is great reward.

(12) Who can see his own mistakes? Forgive my sins that I do not see. (13) And keep Your servant from sinning by going my own way. Do not let these sins rule over me. Then I will be without blame. And I will not be found guilty of big sins. (14) Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in Your eyes, O Lord, my Rock and the One Who saves me.

[INTRO TO PSALM 20 – 9:41]
The title of Psalm 20 is “To the chief musician, a Psalm of David”. This title appears on several psalms but this psalm seems to be different in that this psalm might be from a time that the people of Israel prayed for David as he prepared to go into battle and then it records his response. It’s possible that David wrote this song in order to commit their prayer for him to memory.

[PSALM 20 (NET) – 10:05]
Psalm, chapter 20.

(1) May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble;
may the God of Jacob make you secure!
(2) May he send you help from his temple;
from Zion may he give you support!
(3) May he take notice of your offerings;
may he accept your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)
(4) May he grant your heart’s desire;
may he bring all your plans to pass!
(5) Then we will shout for joy over your victory;
we will rejoice in the name of our God!
May the Lord grant all your requests!
(6) Now I am sure that the Lord will deliver his chosen king;

he will intervene for him from his holy heavenly temple,
and display his mighty ability to deliver.
(7) Some trust in chariots and others in horses,
but we depend on the Lord our God.
(8) They will fall down,
but we will stand firm.
(9) The Lord will deliver the king;
he will answer us when we call to him for help!

[COMMENTARY – 11:04]
I’d like to quickly just look at three different verses that really kind of stood out to me today. The first was Psalm 19:14, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

What we say and what we spend our time thinking about is very important. It kind of is a reflection of what’s in our heart. And so if our goal at the end is for the Lord, to look at us and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” we need to look at what we say and what we think about while we’re here on Earth.

The next one was chapter 20, verse 1, “May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble; may the God of Jacob make you secure!”

And that truly is my prayer for you, Beloved. We live in troubling times. There’s a lot going on in the world today. And I pray that when you cry out to him in these times, that he answers you. And I pray that you find security in God.

And then the last verse that stood out to me was chapter 20, verse 7. And again, this kind of relates to the troubled times in which we live. “Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we depend on the Lord our God.”

We might change that to: “Some trust in politicians and others in medical experts, but we depend on the Lord our God.” Politicians aren’t going to save us. Medical experts aren’t going to save us. Only God can save us.

We should pray for our politicians. We should pray for medical experts, and we should pray for anybody in power.

[LIFESPRING FAMILY HOTLINE – 12:41]
What do you think of our praying for those in power? Let me know. Call the Lifespring Family Hotline at 951-732-8511. And if you’re outside the US remember to put a +1 at the beginning of that number. You can also comment at comment.lifespringmedia.com or send me an email at st***@*************ia.com. I would love to play your audio comment on the show or read your note. So send it in.

Tomorrow is Poetry Thursday, and we’ll read Job 13 and 14.

[PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISE REPORTS – 13:14]
Prayer requests. James sent this prayer request in. He said, “My friend Adam is looking for a connection with God. Currently, he’s reading the World Religion textbook. And I suggested he start with the Gospel of John and Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Please pray for him to find Jesus and the love of the living God. Thank you, Steve and the Lifespring family.” Thank you for the prayer request, James. And I agree with your recommendation of starting with John and Romans. Both of those books really do get to the heart of the Gospel. So that’s good. Sounds like Adam has a great friend in you, James. Praise the Lord for that.

Now my second prayer request is for my friend Bryan Duncan’s wife, Cassie. She has a really bad neurological condition and I’ve forgotten the name of it, but it’s, it causes her a lot of pain. She’s got pain that radiates from her ear to her mouth. And I think it’s in the jaw as well. I don’t, I don’t know… It’s not TMJ, but it’s something that is just really wreaking havoc on her. She has very bad pain. She’s on some really heavy-duty pain medications, and it’s causing some terrible side effects. She’s lost a tremendous amount of weight. Bryan said that her face just looks like a skeleton. Some of the side effects have caused her to fall several times and the other day she was in the garage, I guess, and fell and did a faceplant on the concrete. Bryan said so she’s got the pain on the one side of her face from this condition, and on the other side of her face, she’s all bruised up. He said it looks like she was in a barroom brawl. They’re going to be going for surgery in Scottsdale in December. They were not able to find anybody here in California that could or that would take this case on. But he found a specialist at the Mayo Clinic, I guess, in Scottsdale. I didn’t know they had a Mayo Clinic there. I didn’t know where the Mayo Clinic was. But he’s having to go there, and they don’t have insurance that is going to cover it. So that’s another prayer request as well that they, you know, get some help or that the Lord really steps in, and helps them pay for this very, very expensive procedure.

So let’s pray.

Our gracious heavenly Father, how we love you, Lord, and we thank you for who you are. You are our provider. You are our physician. You care about us at a level that is just hard to understand, hard to… hard to wrap our mind around. You know the number of hairs on our head. You know what we need before we even ask. And yet, you ask us to come to you and present our petitions to you. And so we do that now.

Father, I pray for James’s friend Adam, as he is seeking you. And you have promised that if we seek you, we will find you. So we thank you for that promise. And we pray, Lord, that You would help James to communicate to Adam the reality of who you are in addition to his own reading and study. I pray, God, that you would touch Adam and that you would make yourself known to him, and that he would be able to be welcomed into your family as a child of God. We thank you, Lord, for loving us. We thank you for moving on Adam’s heart, and for putting James in his life. We know from the Word that no one can come to the Father unless he is called by the Spirit, and, Lord, it sure seems like the Spirit is calling him. So we rejoice in that, and we look forward to hearing from James that Adam has become a believer.

And now Lord, I pray for Bryan and Cassie. I pray for Cassie, Lord, that you would help her in this really trying time to just hold on to you and take comfort in your presence. I pray Lord, that even the surgery could be moved up. I know this is something that they want to have happen because the surgery is supposed to take place a couple of days before Christmas. And of course, she doesn’t want to miss Christmas because she’s a grandma and her grandkids are around, her daughters are around, and she wants to rejoice with them at Christmas. But the most important thing, Lord is that her health is taken care of. And so Father, I pray that the surgery would be moved up. But even if it isn’t, we pray, God, that you would be with her and help her as she waits. Take some of the pain away. Comfort her, Lord. And I pray, God, for their finances, Lord, that You would help them to cover the expenses when they come. I thank You, Father, for using Bryan for so many years and with his gift of music, with a gift that you gave him. And I pray that you would just help him to be encouraged and help him to know Lord that you’ve used his gift to glorify you and to bring people to Jesus. Minister, Lord, I pray, to both Cassie and Bryan during this time.

And Lord, I lift up Kathi, again, to you as she’s regaining her strength to get ready for the next round of treatment for her cancer. I pray, God, that you would bring healing that you would bring comfort and that you would bring relief.

And now Lord, I thank you so much for the Lifespring family. I pray, God, that you would bless each one. And for the Lifespring family members who also have friends and family that don’t know Jesus. I pray, Lord, that You would work through them to show their friends and family that you are real. I thank you for our time of prayer here together as a family and I pray, God, that you would bless each one. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

If there’s someone in your life that you’d like the Lifespring family to be praying for, please go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com, and let me know about them. If there are health problems, if there are financial problems, if there’s emotional problems, marital problems, whatever it is, job situations, wherever you want God to work in your life, let me know. Go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. And you know, hearing how God is working in other believers’ lives can really be encouraging to us. So if God is doing something in your life, let us know about it. Let us praise God with you, prayer.lifespringmedia.com.

[OUTRO S13E046 – 19:25]
You can comment on the show by calling the Lifespring Family Hotline at 951-732-8511 or by going to comment.lifespringmedia.com or by sending me an email at st***@*************ia.com. I honestly do want to hear from you. Please do remember James and Cassie and Bryan in your prayers.

And of course, I always have to thank Sister Kirsty, Brother Sean of San Pedro, who’s back at it now. He’s back at work so the chapters will begin coming through on the shows. And thanks to Sister Denise.

And until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. Thanks for being here today. Thank you for inviting me into your day. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.

Lifespring Media, bringing the message of hope, love, and good news since 2004.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Transcript corrected by Denise