Day 118 (Psalm 81, 88, 92-93) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Psalm 81 is a corporate praise song, but it also has some elements of prophetic warning. We start out with a call to the musicians to play their instruments, their harps and tambourines and trumpets. God likes it all. By the way, trumpets in that day weren't made of brass. They were made of ram's horns. You may have seen one. It's called a shofar.

The musicians are signaling the beginning of a feast so they can gather all the people together. The people have come from all over Israel to the religious headquarters of their nation, just like they do three times a year for these feasts, because God has commanded them to keep these feasts as a means of remembering and celebrating all He has done for them.

The lyrics of the song recount God's rescue from Egypt, His provision in the wilderness, and His command to be faithful to Him alone. Then it recounts their rebellion, and it ends with God imploring His people to repent. We see the words hear and listen repeated three times in this psalm. For all the noise God calls them to make with their instruments in the beginning, He's more concerned with them hearing Him and doing what He says.

Psalm 88 was written by a man named Haman, and he was in a dark place. We've all been there, right? He's freely expressing his emotion to God, and what I learned from this song more than anything is that God can handle our frustrations and questions without being threatened one bit. First, Haman starts out by addressing Yahweh as the God of my salvation. So he's marking out that he does have a relationship with God, and he asks for God to be attentive to his prayer.

It sounds like he's either actually close to death or that he feels like he's dying emotionally. We can't say for sure. In verses 6 through 8, and again in verses 16 and 18, he names God as the source of his troubles, even though he also makes it clear that God is also the only solution to his troubles. The psalm doesn't get tied up with a bow. It's left open-ended.

But as we've talked about before, these kinds of psalms show us that our prayers don't have to be formulaic or perfect or polished. We can bring our hearts to the God who built our hearts, knowing that he will meet us in the mess. If you're afraid to pray, don't worry. There's very little chance you could say something worse to God than Haman did. The subtitle for Psalm 92 is A Song for the Sabbath. We've seen songs for the feasts, so it shouldn't surprise us that there's a song for the Sabbath as well.

But what does the psalmist want us to remember on the Sabbath? He starts out with a call to worship, reminding the listener to bookend their days with worship, in the morning and the evening. Then he contrasts the wicked and the foolish with the righteous and wise. The wicked may seem to flourish in this life, but their blessings are temporary.

And this kind of truth would likely serve as a timely reminder on the Sabbath, especially when God's people might be tempted to go back to work on the day he called them to rest just so they can be one step closer to keeping up with the Canaanites. But the righteous are like trees planted in the house of God, and they flourish, always bearing fruit. Verse 14 says they are ever full of sap and green. But the original Hebrew renders it something more like they are fat and luxuriant. Do with that what you will.

But regardless of how you translate it, it sounds pretty awesome. I want to be the righteous, wise person. I don't want to retire when I'm old. I want to keep bearing fruit. I want to be empowered by His Spirit to keep making disciples and shaking hearts awake with the Word of God until the day He puts me in the ground. Which is why Psalm 93 got me even more pumped up than I was after reading Psalm 92. And the whole thing is my God shot. Can I just read it to you so we can all hear it again? Here it is.

The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old. You are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters. Mightier than the waves of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty.

Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore. That's my God, and He's where the joy is. What do you call your time with God? Quiet time? Bible time? Jesus time? I started calling mine priority time because that helps me remember the place it holds in my schedule and my life.

If you're new to spending time with God, or if you just want to add more tools to your toolkit, I'd love to share a few of the pro tips that have helped me. That's why I created a free resource for you. Click the link in the show notes or go to thebiblerecap.com forward slash time, like quiet time, but without the quiet.