Psalms 49 - 100

Speaker 1 00:00:15 Welcome to the weekly deep dive podcast on the add-on education network. The podcast where we take a look at the weekly, come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. I am your host, Jason Lloyd here in the studio with my friend and this show's producer, Nate Piper up. What's up Nate? How's that energetic? Uh, Speaker 2 00:00:35 Damn. I'm just stoked, baby. I'm just stoked. Excellent. And talk about some songs, Speaker 1 00:00:41 Psalms. Hey, this should be right up your alley, man. This is like music. Speaker 2 00:00:46 I was, uh, I'm preparing for a talk and sacrament meeting next week and there are, um, I've been digging through some old conference talks and it's always referring to the Psalmist, Speaker 1 00:00:57 The Psalmist, which Psalmist? Speaker 2 00:00:59 I know. I was just like, oh man, I wish I knew the answer to that. Speaker 1 00:01:04 Well, sometimes it's David and sometimes it's not Speaker 2 00:01:07 Who is it? If it's not, Speaker 1 00:01:08 Uh, they have, they have like notes at the top of it usually like, um, two of the chief musician, a Psalm for the sons of Cora. Speaker 2 00:01:15 Oh, okay. I don't Speaker 1 00:01:16 Mean a Psalm of Asof. Yeah. Most of them say a Psalm of David he's. He's got like 76 of 'em. Speaker 2 00:01:22 Well, in David's Psalms I trust, um, dude, I was gonna tell you this off the air, but we should just talk about it now. Ooh, let's hear it, dude. How great is Fiddler on the roof? Speaker 1 00:01:36 <laugh> it's amazing. Speaker 2 00:01:37 I showed my kids today and I was like, these, these guys, my oldest being 10 and my youngest four and then, you know, my middle child eight, I was like, I don't know if they're gonna be able to understand how truly amazing this film is and they were completely into it and it was great. Cause I got to like posit and now Ashley, give them a lot more cultural insight into like little subtle things Speaker 1 00:02:05 Uhhuh Speaker 2 00:02:06 From all of the stuff we've been talking about in the old Testament. I'm gonna throw a recommendation out if you haven't seen Fiddler on the roof in a while. Hopefully you've been listening to our podcast, go back and watch it again. I think it'll blow your mind. All the new little, just tiny nuances and details that you're like, oh my gosh, I don't even think I realized that before. Speaker 1 00:02:25 Oh, I'm gonna have to go watch it now. Speaker 2 00:02:28 And then, um, and then it was a good chance to talk to the kids about like, you know, cause my kids are really distraught about this going like, oh man, why are they getting forced outta their homes? And I'm like, yo, we have the same history. Speaker 1 00:02:41 Like we, like, we share that in common. Speaker 2 00:02:44 Like that is a thing that we have in common and my kids, this was, I guess the first time I ever got to really talk to them at all about like our church history and, and it, it kind of shook them a little bit and I'm like, yeah, I guess I, I guess I don't even, it was, it was a good chance for me to even re remember how traumatic and intense and, and unjust and horrifying a lot of the things that our early pioneer, you know, forefathers had to go through as well. And I, it was easy for me. It was easier for me to kind of then I think understand the gravity of it again, watching, you know, my young kids kind of have to grapple with that and ask a lot of really tough questions. So, wow. Um, anyways, if you've been listening to the podcast, go back and re watch Fiddler on the roof, cuz not only is it a fantastic, freaking beautiful, just a plus start to finish, but you'll have even more cool little moments of like, oh my goodness. Now I understand why that's funnier or, oh, that's a cool little quirky thing that I don't even think I picked up on culturally. Speaker 1 00:03:53 You know what? My favorite little line in that movie is Speaker 2 00:03:56 I have so many, but what is yours? Speaker 1 00:03:58 And, and it's been so many years since I've seen this, you're probably gonna have to help me remember exactly. Speaker 2 00:04:02 I, I watched it today Speaker 1 00:04:03 When, uh, when, when they're having this discussion and the one guy is saying something on one extreme and he is like, well, you, you you're right. Or you have Speaker 2 00:04:11 Love this <laugh> Speaker 1 00:04:12 And then the other guy voices, the opposite of, Speaker 2 00:04:14 He says, no, the world's changing and we need to know what's going on in the outside world as well. And he says, well, you're right too. Speaker 1 00:04:21 <laugh> and then someone says, wait a second. How can Speaker 2 00:04:23 They, they can't, they both can't be right. He goes, well, you are right too. <laugh> yes. There's so many, there's so many really incredible. Just like one line moments from that too. I mean, I guess I didn't even pick up on the, you know, eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth where goes the whole world, the whole world's gonna be blind and deaf or what is it? Toothless and blind. Toothless and blind. Yeah. Anyways, great Speaker 1 00:04:50 Movie. Thanks for the recommendation. Speaker 2 00:04:52 I just wanted throw it in there for anybody, for anybody to, to go back on. I was really happy that this podcast has helped me understand that better. So, all right. Let's get going. Speaker 1 00:05:01 Thanks Nate. So last week we covered Psalms one through 48. This week we're diving into Psalms 49 through a hundred. It's a lot of Psalms to cover, but honestly we're probably not covering most of the Psalms. Um, but there is something from Psalms 48 last week that we didn't get to talk about that I wanted to bring up today. So I'm, I'm gonna give one little shout out from last week's, uh, area of coverage. And then we'll kind of step into the Psalms this week. And again, like last week, uh, a lot of these Psalms I feel like are, are very easy to understand. Um, I love the poetry. I love how they're worded and, and I love the way the, the Hebrew poetry is written and what it conveys. And we're gonna be using that poetry throughout this week's lesson next week's lesson. And, and even further on, as we talk about Isaiah, it'll spoil spill into the new Testament next year. Speaker 1 00:05:56 And, and if we're around here doing the book of Mormon, going through some of the references in the book of Mormon, you'll also see that poetry play a, a large role. That's probably what I get most outta Psalms, but, but as we're, we're not gonna have time to go through every single Psalm and, and trying to hash things to just very easy to understand. We're probably just gonna high level this and, and hit a few Psalms that I find very, uh, what's the word for this, um, ground shaking revolutionary or, or just kind of challenge what the, what we think those are probably the ones I'll be spending most time on next week. We're gonna be finishing the last section of Psalms and we're gonna be seeing something that we've seen, but haven't gone over and that's acrostics in the poetry. And, and so we'll talk about that next week, even though we have a few acrostic Psalms in this week's coverage and last week's coverage, we'll, we'll actually focus most of our time talking about acrostics next week. Speaker 1 00:06:52 So let's get into Psalms 48 and, and not even all of Psalms 48, there's just one verse I wanted to read here and, and kind of highlight, and it'll frame the discussion of what we're talking about this week. And this is verse two, beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is mountain Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. And, and there's one phrase in here that just really stands out to me on the sides of the north. What, what in the world are the sides of the north? As far as I know, there's east side and there's west side. And so, and what, why, why didn't they just say is the east, or is the west, why are they saying the sides of the north? That's it just, that should not quite sit right with, with anyone reading this. Speaker 1 00:07:43 So the Hebrew word for north is Sao and SA phone happens to be the name of a tall mountain in Syria, north of Israel, which is why it's referred to as the north. So when you're talking about SA phone, because it's north of Israel, they're saying towards Theon towards the north. So 90, 90% of the time, 99% of the time translating it as north is, is a valid correct way of translating it. But when you're talking about Zion a mountain and, and you're talking about the mountain of God, so verse one, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness. We're not talking about a direction north. We're talking about a mountain SA phone is famous for being the mountain of the, the Syrian gods, but all lived in Sao. So SA phone is the same thing as the near Eastern version of Mount Olympus in Greek tradition where Zeus and, and the gods resided. Speaker 1 00:08:50 So think about Olympus SA phone and Mount Zion are all parallels. They're synonymous with each other. And we're gonna be seeing this a lot throughout the Psalms. When they're talking about Mount Zion, being this Mount Olympus, or being this a phone, you're gonna see this also show up in Isaiah 14 and I'll, and I'll save Isaiah 14 for when we get into Isaiah, we can talk about what it means there, but we are, we are gonna be seeing this when we're talking about the mountain of God and putting it in parallel with the mountain where God was fame to live in the B all history and the, the, the, the neighboring religion. And also, while we're on the topic, when you talk about the east wind, we've talked about this before in Exodus, the east wind sows and reaps destruction, right? If the wind's coming from the east, it's going to be blasting and destroying and ruining your harvest. Speaker 1 00:09:45 When they talk about a north wind, the north wind is the wind being sent from Sason the mountain of God. And so usually the north wind is going to be associated with blessings with bounty and re it's coming from God's home into Israel. So you'll probably see that a little bit throughout the, the Psalms as you're reading this. All right. Now, as we've been talking about Zion, in terms of an Olympus throughout the old Testament, we keep getting this idea of an assembly of the children of God. We saw it with job the same day that job's sons and daughters are all gathered together in, in one son's home. And they take turns meeting in there the same day, the children of God, the Benet Elohim would gather together, and they had this assembly, the children of God. And so who is this assembly of the children of God? It's gonna show up several times throughout the Psalms. And I want to address that head on in this section, because Psalms 82 is one of my most favorite Psalms. And I translate this. I, I would say different from the way most people do, but I'm gonna break this down and show you why I translate it the way I do. And, and maybe, and maybe you'll agree with me, or maybe you'll think I'm crazy. So should we, should we just jump into 82 Nate Speaker 2 00:11:08 Or any chance I get to judge you for being a smart or crazy? Yes, I will. I will. I want to get into that as quickly as possible. Speaker 1 00:11:17 <laugh> all right. Psalms 82 then. Okay. I'm, it's not a very long one. This is eight versus long. And if, if, if you guys want, if you wanna open up your scriptures and if, if you even want to be, I know maybe a lot of you guys are listening to this as you're working or driving and having a pen and paper or scriptures handy to make notes. And, and writing is probably not a feasible request, but if you want to just take this section and hash this out again on your own, when you do have time, I think it's worth an exercise of looking at what it's saying. Verse one says, God's, standeth in the congregation of the mighty. He judgeth among the gods. Now I I've made a few changes in how I read this. The first word is Elohim. And so Elohim, as we know, can be translated either as gods with an S or God with the capital G is the name of the divine character. Speaker 1 00:12:18 I, I tend to take this and translate it as God's, instead of God, the gods stand in the congregation of, and then here, the mighty, the Hebrew word is L so Elohim is the plural form. L is the single form. So in this case, the translators are saying it, the God's plural they're saying is a single stands in the congregation of the God's single. And they're making that plural doesn't that seem a little bit backwards. Are you, are, are you guys tracking with this at home or is this a little bit confusing? Let's just push through. Do we got this? Okay. And he judgeth among theoh hem and see, this is where a little bit of confusion I think comes in the way they have it translated when they say he obviously they're using third masculine, singular, this is single. He judgeth among the, and now they take the same word Elohim. Speaker 1 00:13:14 And instead of translating it as a capital G God, they, they translate it as God's plural. So you're going for where Elohim and the same verse is changing from God's plural to God's singular. And, and I don't like the lack of continuity here. I, I think if you're gonna translate it as God, it should be God all the way through. And just with the context of, of, of what we're seeing. So if I were to reread this verse, I translate this as the God's plural stand in the congregation of El the one God, and the one, God, he judgeth among the God's plural. Okay. And so now you have this congregation of gods and one God who's judging among them. He's standing among them judging them. And he says, in verse two, how long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? Speaker 1 00:14:07 And then you have that, that poetic word, Salah, the dealing with the music, the donation, right? How long are you gonna be on righteous here and judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked. And, and I still think this is a weakness that we have today on how we deal with people. How, how often are we willing to, to try to make friends with somebody who's wealthy or powerful, or give them a pass because of, of their position or what we think they can do for us, or try to, to maybe sweep under the rug, but maybe be harsh on somebody who's out on the street and be a little bit stinging. And like, I'm not giving them money. They, they brought this upon themselves. Or, and, and this isn't an issue that God is addressing with this council of God's. He says, verse three, defend the poor and the fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poor and needy, rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Speaker 1 00:15:05 So he's, he's telling these gods, you're not doing it right. You're giving these powerful people a pass while you're being overly harsh on these other people and not helping them out their situation. Why are you so eager to be friendly with people of position of wealth, the power, or, or try to be friendly with wicked people? And I don't, I don't mean to connect wicked with, with wealthy. Um, I, I think you understand what I'm saying. Maybe, maybe I put that in the wrong, anyhow, moving to the next verse. They know not neither will they understand they walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are out. Of course. Now this is he he's, he's continuing his speech in verse six, I have said, ye are gods. And again, we have this Elohim and Elohim is translated as God's plural again. So in the three times, Elohim has shown up, they translated it in singular and then plural and plural. Speaker 1 00:16:02 I'm suggesting we do plural, plural, plural, all the way through. I have said you are gods. All of you are children of El Leone. And again, that title L that we saw in verse one is coming into play again here. But now it's, Elion meaning not just the, the God, but the most high Elion meaning the most high God. So you are all children of the most high God and verse seven. So, well, let me pause. If Jews are monotheistic, why do we have a Psalm of God addressing an assembly of God's and talking to them about how they're judging the earth, right? Do you have a, a God over this nation and a God over that nation and the God over that this nation over here, Jehovah's God over Israel. We know that, but, but maybe O Cyrus is God over Egypt and maybe Marduke is God over Babylon. And I'm gonna pull all of the gods together and try to get 'em on the same page. Does that jive with what we understand about Jewish theology? Speaker 1 00:17:10 No. No. So why, why is it written there? Who are these gods? Why do we have a whole Pantheon on Mount Zion here of gods who are these gods? And, and we get the answer here. I believe in the next verse, but you shall die like Adam and fall, like one of the princes. So these gods, so obviously these gods are not perfect, which is understood in the nature of this discussion. That's going on the most high God is chastising them and saying, you have flaws that you need to work on. So these are not perfect beings, but these gods, he also says, are going to die like Adam and fall, like one of the princes. So you have a physical death and a spiritual death that these gods are going to be subjected to. Speaker 1 00:18:06 And even though they're going to die and, and spiritually and physically verse eight, it finishes a rise Olo. He, so now they've taken EOH hem and they've put it with a capital G again, saying singular, a rise. EOH hem, judge, the earth. You just gave this speech about how they're judging and properly. Now you come and judge it. I don't read it that way. Like I said, let's be consistent if it's God's plural to make it God's plural through the whole thing arise. Oh, gods, this is a continuation of Ello or the great gods speaking to all of the other gods arise. Oh, gods judge, the earth for you will inherit all nations. And what does it mean to inherit, to inherit? Something means to be born into something. You inherit something, not because you worked hard for it, but because of the condition of being born. Speaker 1 00:18:57 So if you're going to arise, because you're going to inherit the nations, you're going to be born into the nations. Ariso Elohim. You are going to be born among all the nations of the earth. When you get there, you're going to fall like a prince, like, like Satan, who fell spiritually, then you're going to die like Adam. And you're going to have a tendency to want to favor the wicked and ignore the people that need your help most stop. I want you to care about these people. I want you to help these people. I want you to remember these people, and I want you to remember that you, all of you are God's children of the most high. This is the most convincing passage of any scripture I've ever read that is telling us that we are God's who are the gods that they're talking about? Who's the Pantheon that lives on Mount Zion? Well, the gods are sent to the earth to live in all of the different nations of the earth and to die like men, but they're still gods. Is that, does that making any sense? Speaker 2 00:20:10 I love it. Do you think that this is also some compelling arguments when you're dealing with even other Christians that are like, how dare you suggest we are gods or whatever that, you know what I mean? Speaker 1 00:20:25 AB absolutely. And in fact, I want to build on that because this is not the first time that this pops up in, in the scriptures. In fact, let's, um, just turning real quick to build off of this to Deuteronomy chapter 10, sorry. As I'm flipping through my pages, Speaker 2 00:20:50 I was, uh, scrolling through Twitter today. And this it's funny that we're talking about this, cuz this was definitely, um, a massive topic of conversation in the Christian, the Christian arguing that, uh, Mormons aren't Christians and they think too crazy of things such as, you know, we're all gods and the whole thing. And then, you know, Jesus and Satan are brothers and it was pretty amazing to watch pretty simple, clever Twitter accounts basically argue these things as if like, did God create all things? Yes. Oh, okay. Cool. Did God create Jesus? Yes. Okay. Did God create Satan? Yes. Oh, okay. So on some level we can at least admit that they're like spiritual brothers and everybody was like, blah Speaker 1 00:21:37 <laugh>. Well, well, here's a question I have. If, if, if we wanna talk about Christianity and, and what we have in common, if we believe that as the Psalms convey over and over again, um, in fact, I found the verse, but let me, I'm gonna pause because I wanna build off of what you're saying here. I'll come back to where that verse and we'll, we'll put kind of a spike on it. Um, Psalms chapter 50 and, um, Speaker 1 00:22:09 It's 50 49, I'm sorry. And 49. They say verse verse six, they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves and the multitude of their riches. None of them by any means redeem his brother nor give to God. A ransom for hire for the redemption of their soul is precious. And it see that forever that he should still live forever and not see corruption for see, he seeth that wise men die. Likewise, the fool and the brutish person, Paris and leave it the wealth in others. So they're saying here, it doesn't matter how wealthy you are. If you're trusting in that wealth to save you, it's not going to save you. There's no amount of money. You can occur a accrue in this world. That's going to save another person's soul or even save your soul for that matter. And when you die, it's the end of it. Speaker 1 00:23:08 You don't have that anyways. And, and, and then going to verse 15, but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me. So here we have in the old Testament as Psalm and, and David is very famous for writing a lot of this. We know that the, the path he went down with Beba and he talks about how you will not leave my soul in hell. You're going to save me. You're going to resurrect me. And we see it in this Psalm. Even when it says, God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. And, and even in the old Testament, they're talking about life after death and the ability to continue living. If Christians believe the same as we believe that we will continue to live after we die, that Christ will resurrect us and save us and give us life. What's the difference between God and man, is it not that God lives forever? And so if we believe Christians and us alike, that we will be able to live forever. Is that not believing that we become God Speaker 2 00:24:13 On some level? I would say absolutely. I think that, I think that you, I think that, I think that when you try to make these arguments, though, that you're, you're up against a lot more than <laugh>. I hate saying this, but like logical arguments like that, you know, because again with religion, so much of it obviously is based on faith and, and should be. But I think that, unfortunately, that's, that's the, and, and by the way, like, it's not just other Christians that are guilty. This, we are guilty of this a lot of times too, right? When people say, well, I wanna understand this, help me follow the logic on this. And you go, well, I don't wanna have to do that. It's trust me. It's just faith based. Right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> we, because by the way, sometimes that is the answer. Like I'm not even knocking that, but this is, I'm just saying to answer your question, I can listen to that and say, yeah, that totally makes sense to me. If we, if we can at least start from the agreement that we will be, um, immortal. That is a God-like quality Speaker 1 00:25:22 Isn't, isn't that the difference between God's and men and Greek mythology is the, that one dies and the other doesn't. Speaker 2 00:25:28 Yes. So you and I can go Speaker 1 00:25:31 Isn't in video games. Speaker 2 00:25:32 It Speaker 1 00:25:32 Sense if you turn on God mode and video games, does we just mean you don't die anymore? Yeah. Speaker 2 00:25:37 Doom too. Um, yeah, that makes sense to us, but Speaker 1 00:25:41 It is what it is. And, and if we look at this, I think from, from the other side, I think the, the problem with the statement is this idea of Blay making yourself equal to God, this idea that you can't be equal to God, God is the one who created this, who gave us life, who we're always gonna be in debt to. And I think we can agree to that. I don't, I don't think just by us being exalted and being saved from the grave and being granted to live forever and coming from a race where we, by the way, we started off with him, we were this assembly that he sent down, as we read here in the scriptures, and we are inheriting this gift, this earth. And I, I, I don't think we have to disagree on this point. We will always be in debt to God for the life that he gave us and for the redemption that he's offered to us, even if ultimately we're able to live forever, forever as well. Let me go, let me go to the verse in Deuteronomy 10 17 and see if this, this helps add any kind of clarity to that discussion at all for the Lord, your God. And I'm gonna stop right here just with that sentence. Who, who is God, a God over. If we say for the Lord, your God, and we're talking about Israel right now, who, who is he? God, over Speaker 2 00:27:00 Israel, Speaker 1 00:27:01 Israel, right? He is the God of Israel by very definition in the very first start of this, your God, speaking of Israel is God of God's and Lord of Lords. So if he's God of Israel and God of Israel is God of God's. Then, then if a equals B and B equals C, then a equals C. If, if he is God of God's and in the same sentence, God of Israel, then that means Israel is God's. They are the assembly of God's. That's talked about Inver in Psalms 82. I like that you are the ones. And, and if he is a God of God's and he is your God, then are you not the gods that he's referring to? So often in the Psalms, Speaker 2 00:27:54 Let me ask you a question. Yeah. What is the, what is the judgment then that he's is putting on Israel to, to judge each other, to judge the earth? Am I, am I totally just misunderstanding that part of the Psalm where it says in the Psalm, it you're reading specifically about how it's like I'm, I'm putting it on you, the gods to judge Speaker 1 00:28:19 Righteously, right? Yeah. Speaker 2 00:28:20 To judge righteously, Speaker 1 00:28:22 Look at, um, when, when God appears to Abraham and, and what does Abraham do? You've got God with his, with his, either two messengers and it's a group of three or three messengers, and God's who you have a group of four and they're in the desert and Lehigh's sitting in the shade and he sees these messengers from a far off. And, and these people, if you're traveling in this deserted part of the world in the hot heat of the day, you're, you're, you're not as well off, let's say right, they don't have this, this big shade and, and comfort and water and whatever else it may, maybe this is gonna be putting them kind of in a less fortunate they're strangers in a strange land. And how do you treat these strangers? And Abraham runs from his position to go and to greet them and to bring them in to personally wash his feet, to have his wife prepare a meal for them to have his servant, get a calf and prepare and dress the calf and out of his way to treat somebody who's at a disadvantage. Speaker 1 00:29:31 And, and this is what righteous judgment looks like when you see somebody at a disadvantage go out of your way to help them. Instead of when you see somebody who's at an advantage don't pander and cater to them, because these are the people you're trying to impress, which I think we do so often. Like what do I do to try to impress this person, to try to suck up to this person and take care of this person while I'm neglecting this stranger that that really needs my attention. Now you take this same group of visitors and set 'em in Sodom and Gamora back to back, just opposing them, right to the story of Abraham. And, and as these strangers come into town, all of the men in the city are saying, look, these guys are strangers. They don't have family. They don't have anything to help. Speaker 1 00:30:15 'em here. They don't have backup. They don't have friends. Let's take advantage of, of them. Let's abuse him. Let's do whatever we can to take advantage of the situation and grind the pour into, to the dirt. And God is saying to all of his children in the assembly of God's, how long is this going to be your nature, to try to take advantage of somebody who's in a vulnerable position? How long are you gonna be trying to take advantage of vulnerable populations and, and, and still candor and pay? Um, oh, what's, what's, what's the word I'm looking for Speaker 2 00:30:50 Pander. And Speaker 1 00:30:52 Maybe it is cater, I don't know, to, to wealth and power and try to look good and increase your standing while, while the, while the other people are being neglected in corner. Sure, sure. Okay. I, I, I, I just think that's that's human nature. Okay. Speaker 2 00:31:08 No, I appreciate that. I appreciate answering that. Speaker 1 00:31:11 Maybe, maybe I wanna just build one more thing off of this, Speaker 1 00:31:17 Recognizing that the temple is the very first thing that God prepared, even before he put men here on earth. And, and what I mean by that is the word temple itself means sacred or set apart consecrated dedicated to something. And God separates the light from the darkness, the waters from above the earth, from the waters below the earth, the waters from the land, he plants seeds and the organizes and separates and creates. And then he plants a garden eastward in Eden and dedicates this space as a set apart special space where God resides on the earth to where he can walk in the cool of the day with mankind before he even puts man on the earth, he, he creates a home for himself here, and then he creates man in his home. And if we believe that we are God's children and we came from his presence, and if we believe the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, it is a microcosm of what happened on a large scale, just as we were with him in the garden of Eden, in his presence. Speaker 1 00:32:26 And we were sent out of his presence into the lone and dreary world. We were with him in a world before we came here and we were sent from his presence to inhabit this earth. We are strangers and Wanderers in a strange land as we navigate this earth, which can appear often as a alone in a dreary world or a hard place for us to be that that has noxious weeds and thorns and thistles that we have to overcome and try to create that sacred space again. And when God redeems Israel and pulls them out of Egypt before he even puts them in the promised land, before he even gives them a kingdom, a safe place where he can live, he commands them to build a temple and the tabernacle, which embodies this very first sacred space, this idea of the manure as a tree of life and the curtains with the chair of them. Speaker 1 00:33:19 And he recreates that saying, God comes first and you have to, I have to be a part of your life at your plan if you're going to make it. And when the Jews are let free from Babylon, by Cyrus's reign and return back to Jerusalem before they can build the walls before they can clean themselves as a people and established that they have to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. The temple comes first. And we look at that pattern even today with Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel, when they had to walk away from two temples that they had built before they even had a safe place in a city, they could call their own. God said the temple comes first. And, and we look at in context of what we're reading in Psalms and what we're seeing here, this earth is a gift and our inheritance something that we are new to, it's a new world for us, but the temple is home is where we came from. And it's a place that helps us feel that, that we are the gods. We are the assembly of gods, and this is where we call home. And this is where we can receive strength as we're navigating this world. Speaker 2 00:34:29 Uh, man, I love that very profound and kind of explains a lot of the very, um, I don't know, like the feelings of, I don't know that you get, when you do go to the temple, right? There's, there's the, a familiarity about it and a return, a returning feeling about it that I feel at least. So that kind of helps describe that. Explain that a little bit better. It's awesome. Speaker 1 00:34:55 All right. Thanks Nate. Hopefully that wasn't too much of a, a rant. Speaker 2 00:34:59 No, I mean, there's, there's a lot in there. There's, <laugh>, there's like this, this one's gonna this one, this one, uh, maybe will have to be listened to a couple times by, uh, by the listeners. I know I'll have to go back and dig back into it as well. Um, what else you got? Speaker 1 00:35:16 Yeah. And, and, and that's one of the disadvantages of a podcast. If you're trying to listen and piece this together, I mean, it, it would be great if we could all sit down in a room and just take a board and, and show you as we go through Psalms 82. But if you ever want to go to Psalms 82 and kind of try to follow along with what we said, I, I think it's an exercise worth, worth repeating if you have a minute. Okay. Next, uh, let's go to Psalms 74, verse two. Remember the congregation. So again, congregation assembly, when we're talking about God, oh God, why has thou cast us off forever? Why death, th anger smoke against the sheep of th pasture. Remember the congregation when we're talking about the congregation of God, the assembly of God, the assembly of the Elohim, and again, in Zeus or Greek mythology, you're thinking of this Pantheon of God's this assembly of God's, but this is not what the assembly is, which thou has purchased of old, the rod of thine heritage, which thou has redeemed this Mount Zion wherein thou has Dalt lift up th feet onto the perpetual destination. Speaker 1 00:36:25 So here, here, we're talking about the assembly again, and the assembly being God's people who he has purchased with the atonement. Again, this idea of fallen God's gods that have come here on this earth, that he will redeem and purchase and set free and reestablish in heaven once more. Let's move on. Speaker 4 00:36:47 Okay. Speaker 1 00:36:53 Let's see. There's, there's a lot of good stuff in that 74, if you want to keep reading it, but I'm gonna skip there's. There's another Psalm I wanted to read. Speaker 1 00:37:07 This is Psalms 88. And I want this to maybe provide a little bit of context. I think in Psalms with the parallels, it, it might help flavor some of the other stories that we've read in the old Testament and give it new life. So this is Psalms 88, and I'm gonna be reading verse three for my soul is full of troubles. And my life draw ni onto the grave. Now the Hebrew word for grave here is shale. Shale is the same as the Greek Hades and the same as the north hell. It's the, the spirit world, the spirit realm. So anytime you see grave, if you just wanna replace that with shale or the spirit world or death, um, I am counted with them that go down into the pit and then pit is, is bore. And I just wanna look at the, this, this comparing the grave to the pit thera nine to the grave. Speaker 1 00:38:00 I am counted with them that go down to the pit. I am as a man that has no strength free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave. So once more we have the grave, the, the, the spirit world whom now remembers no more and they are cut off from the hand now has laid me in the lowest pit. And again, we have a pit again, and the darkness of the deeps. So we go grave pit grave pit, and it's just making this connection that a pit symbolically is the same as death. Now, with that connection being made, I want you to go back to a story of a young man who was thrown into a pit if symbolically his being thrown into the pit represents death. Joseph. In this case, his brothers threw him in the pit. He, they killed him. Speaker 1 00:38:50 His own family, killed him just as the Jews, crucified Christ, his own people, crucified him so that he could be raised from the pit resurrected and save his brothers. His people that had had put him to death. So understanding some of this poetry helps breathe new life into some of these old Testament stories that we're familiar with when you understand, oh, that pit is very symbolic of the grave of death. Just as you dig a pit into the ground and bury someone, Joseph was going through a death and a resurrection type deal so that he could save his family and kind of an atonement image. And this is a type of Christ. Sweet. Speaker 2 00:39:31 That's very cool. Speaker 1 00:39:33 Okay. That, that maybe close to, uh, let's go Psalms 89 real quick. I'm I'm about ready to wrap this up though. Nate? No worries. Okay. Verse five in the heavens shall praise th wonders. Oh Lord. Th faithfulness also in the congregation of the holy ones. It says saints here. It's the holy ones in, in the Hebrew. Again, this congregation of the holy ones who is this congregation of the holy ones. It, it keeps showing up over and over and over again in Psalms is very thick for who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord. So think about that question for a second. Who in heaven can be compared to the Lord who's in heaven. God, God. But, but if you're saying who else in heaven can be compared to the Lord, does that mean God is the only one in heaven? Speaker 2 00:40:32 I mean, does that mean us? Speaker 1 00:40:34 So if, if you're saying there's a host of people in heaven, okay. You have to be saying, there's a host. If you're saying who in heaven can be compared to God. Yeah. And you're talking about an assembly of holy ones that are in heaven with him, then, then without Psalms 82, saying you are the assembly of God's you are inheriting this earth. Then how else do you describe in Psalms 89, this assembly of holy beings in heaven? Who, of who of these, who of all the Pantheon of God's is like unto Jehovah, which God is like, Jehovah is what they're saying can be compared unto the Lord who among the sons of Ellie, the sons of God can be likened unto the Lord. So think about that for a second. Who among the sons of God can be compared to Jehovah out of all the sons of God, which one is like Jehovah, wait, I thought Jehovah was, God's only begotten, but in here in Psalms, we're saying, no, God has a large host of sons, cuz remember he is the Lord of hosts. Speaker 1 00:41:40 And if he is the Lord of us, we are his host, the heavenly host. So which one of us is like Jehovah. None of us are like him. No one can be compared to him. He is the king of God's, but who are those gods? So if you read Psalms, you either look at this and say that there is a Pantheon of gods and that the Jewish religion is polytheistic. And you believe in this Zeus and then all of these different gods that are underneath him that reign in heaven, or you believe that we are the assembly of gods that we have come here to inherit the earth and that he has a plan for restoring his children back into the heavenly hosts that are above. So that's, that's where I like this section of Psalms. I feel like it's a very, it's laid on over and over again. And several of these Psalms kind of a, a thick coherent message. Speaker 2 00:42:31 Dope. Okay. Dope. All right. Are we outta Psalms next week? Speaker 1 00:42:36 No. Next week is our last section of Psalms. Wow. 100 through one 50. Here's here's next week. What do you get? Look forward to okay. A acrostic Psalms. Speaker 2 00:42:46 Okay. Don't know what that is. I'll Speaker 1 00:42:47 Teach you all about acrostics. Okay. And, and because there's a acrostic Psalms, so I'll, I'll just give you a little spoiler. Aros stick means like the first verse starts with a, the next verse starts with B the next verse starts with C the next one D and so on and so forth. Right. Because it's Aros stick. We have some Psalms in the old Testament, Aros stick, Psalms where a verse is missing and we know it's, Vering, it's missing because a letter of the alphabet is just not there in the PSM. Okay. Okay. And then we we've go to the dead sea scrolls that have the book of Psalms in it and the missing verses are there. So we, we can supply see your scriptures with verses that fell out between the dead sea scrolls to when the Bible was put together thousands of years later. And, and we kinda give you some, I don't know, it's kind of cool when you see the scriptures and, and how some of things have, we, we have clear evidence of things that have disappeared and we can fill in some of those holes, Speaker 2 00:43:46 Wait, but I thought there's a scripture that says you can't add or take away from the scriptures. Speaker 1 00:43:50 Yeah. Well, if it was already taken away, then would you mean, would you have to add it to Speaker 2 00:43:56 Mean, I mean, I'm sorry, but that's, that's still to this day, the funniest one that people hit us with is that you can't add or take away from the scriptures and you're just like BV Speaker 1 00:44:05 Then, uh, Speaker 2 00:44:06 BV tell me that you have no idea how the scriptures were compiled without telling me you have no idea what, how the scriptures are compiled. All right. Um, great stuff. The Psalms man, this there's a lot of, has a lot of that flying right over my brain. Speaker 1 00:44:20 Um, I'm sorry guys. Speaker 2 00:44:21 I mean, it is what it is. Make it clear. Look, part of the old Testament is making it through the old Testament. It's like Moby Dick, Speaker 1 00:44:26 Like of those waters. Speaker 2 00:44:27 Part of it is what it is, man. You just gotta make it through, Speaker 1 00:44:30 Hey, I liked your mobi, Dick, uh, analogy there with Ahab and, uh, chasing Speaker 2 00:44:34 The Navy. I see. But that's, that's what I mean. It's like, you just kind of, kind of make it through. Um, I, uh, I showed my kids gangsters paradise after last week's episode and now they just requested all day, every day and I've ordered what I've done. All right. Until next week. See Speaker 1 00:44:48 Ya.