Episode 8: Prayer & Praise (145-176)
We’re in the last four stanzas, grasping what’s on the heart of the psalmist as he closes his song.
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- What strikes you as you read through each stanza?
- Why is the end of this psalm so encouraging?
- How do these final stanzas help us to see more of Christ?
- What will it look like for you to pray in light of these final verses?
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This podcast is funded by 10ofthose.com. 10ofthose.com handpick the best Christian books that point to Jesus and sell them at discounted prices.
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Felicity: Welcome to two sisters and a cup of tea. My name is Felicity and I'm here in the States and this is my sister Sarah and she is in the UK. Hi, welcome, everyone. This week we are in our last few stanzas of Summer 119. But don't panic, we have one more episode to do it. We're going to do a review, so do tune in again next week for that one. But I mean, right now I'm sitting here, I'm sipping my Earl Gray loose leaf tea as ever. I've got a McVitty's Gold Bar. I mean, I'm living the dream right now. How about you, sir?
Sarah: Gold bar. A gold bar. Amazing. They're so good and strange. The chocolate is just different, isn't it? But priceless. There's nothing quite like it. We've got a listener question, our final listener question. All that this season I'm going to read out for us. It says here, there's so many everythings and alls in this psalm. He's so all in. And it just makes me feel a bit guilty because I'm so far from this reality. What do I do with that guilt? That what a question is.
Felicity: Exactly what we all feel, I think. Isn't that the first impression when you read the psalm? I've always thought that before we've dug into it like we have. That, I think, is where I kind of stopped with it. And I think that one of the big things that we've seen through the psalm is God Himself, through his promises. We talked about it, I think, in the early episodes, that wallpaper of the covenant promises. Every time he says word or commands or precepts or promises, then that is God Himself graciously moving towards us. And that grace is needed because we are guilty like we are sinners. But we don't stop at that. We fall on to his grace through the Lord Jesus, so we're able to put our sin away from us as God takes it away from us. And so we can then, I think, cry out with the psalmist with assurance, which I think more and more as we go through the psalm, we're hearing that assurance. Do you think, Sarah?
Sarah: Yeah, definitely. That assurance is key, isn't it? And we particularly saw that in last week's one, I think, didn't we? I think I felt this beginning to read the psalm and I think I felt this at the end of reading the psalm. I feel like this, I've got to get to the arm. I'm like, oh, my heart, I'm just not like this Armist. And I really feel that my tendency is to stew on that guilt and on feeling that sin. And actually we're going to get to this in a minute, but the last verse of the psalm is just so helpful when he says, I have strayed like a lost sheep, seek your servant. And just that reality of like, I strayed, I am that straying sheep, just like the psalmist is. And yet he knows that the Lord will seek him, the Lord will seek him and find him, and that's where we go with our guilt, because there is no guilt or condemnation in Christ Jesus. We go to him knowing that he seeks and finds and we have complete assurance in him. So it's just keeping going back. I feel like I'm going back to that verse time and time and time and time again, and that's where I need to rest when I'm feeling that guilt.
Felicity: And I think that's exactly it, because the psalmist, as he himself says that, then he is not perfect. Like he is striving to be all in, like everything. He wants to be all in, but.
Sarah: He asks continually for it to take. He's constantly asking, requesting, pleading, crying out to the Lord for changing his heart, for things to happen as he opens the word. And so that helps him to be willing because he's asking for it. And I think yeah, that's another thing, another question on itself, isn't it? I don't ask in the way that I should do. According to this song, we need to get going on the last few verses. I can't believe we're the last few.
Felicity: Verses, I feel yes, I mean, we should read it really slowly to just make it last long. No, no, we're not going to do that. Right. I'm going to read the first couple of stanzas and you do the last two. Sarah yeah. Okay. I'm going to read and I'm going to start at 145. I call with all my heart, answer me, Lord, and I will obey your decrees. I call out to you, save me and I will keep your statutes. I rise before dawn and cry for help. I have put my hope in Your word. My eyes stay open through the watches of the night that I may meditate on Your promises. Hear my voice in accordance with your love. Preserve my life, Lord, according to Your laws. Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but they are far from Your law. Yet you are near, Lord, and all your commands are true. Long ago I learned from Your statutes that you established them to last forever. Look on my suffering and deliver me, for I have not forgotten Your law. Defend my cause and redeem me. Preserve my life according to Your promise. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out Your decrees. Your compassion, Lord, is great. Preserve my life according to Your laws. Many other foes who persecute me, but I have not turned from Your statutes. I look on the faithless with loathing, for they do not obey Your word. See how I love your precepts? Preserve my life, Lord, in accordance with Your love all Your words are true. All Your righteous laws are eternal rulers.
Sarah: Persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at Your word. I rejoice in your promise. Like one he finds great spoil I hate and to test for it, but I love Your law. Seven times a day I praise you for Your righteous lords, great peace of those who love Your law and nothing can make them stumble. I wait for your salvation, Lord, and I follow your commands I obey Your statutes, for I love them greatly. I obey Your precepts and Your statutes for all my ways unknown to you. May my cry come before you, Lord. Give me understanding according to Your Word may My supplication come before you deliver me according to Your promise. May my lips overflow with praise for you teach me your decrees may my tongue sing of Your word for all Your commands of righteous may Your hand be ready to help me for I have chosen your precepts I long for your salvation, Lord, and Your law gives me delight. Let me live that I may praise you and may Your law sustain me I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. Wow.
Felicity: Brilliant. Amazing. Can't believe that he ends like that. But we'll get to the end, at the end. But I think first of all, how brilliant. In the very start, he says, I call, I call out. Like the directness, the pleading is still continuing. I feel like you might think as you get towards the end of this psalm, but he's going to be like, Right, okay, thanks. God more sorted than I was. I think I'm all right, I'll be on my way now. But what we have instead is almost a more intense relational interaction going on, I think.
Sarah: I think that's just so striking, isn't it? You desperately want Him to end with a happy ending, and there is some of that in the penultimate stanza in terms of his joy, but the reality is his circumstances haven't changed the whole way through the Psalm. He's still suffering, he's still be persecuted, and he's still struggling with that. And yet the kind of intensity of the way that he's calling out and, as you say, the relational depth that has happened through this weathered life is kind of beautiful in its rawness and in its kind of, for all its acrostic, neatness the psalm with all the alphabet, whatever, this is not a neat way to end the psalm, is it? This is just a gritty real life of a believer where yeah, the pressures of life are kind of colliding with God's promises and what happens in between is this war, honest prayer life. And I just love that. I find it so heartening to read these kind of verses at the end. So we just go through something that struck us from each dancer in terms of how we felt our hearts been impacted.
Felicity: Yeah, well, I think in relation to what you're saying, there that intensity, that kind of gritty rawness of it. I love that in the midst of that gritty reality, verse 151 is where it's at, yet you are near, Lord. And that, I think is what's been going on all throughout the psalm, is that it's almost like as we've been listening to the psalmist cry out and talk and plead and state and declare God, god Himself is all the more clear as the one who's right there with Him and right there with us. That relation and all kind of intimacy, that's where it's at, isn't it? God himself is near.
Sarah: Wow. Yeah. It's really amazing, isn't it? Yeah, I think that could sum up the psalm. That phrase is beautiful in that I think I've been really strict. Like for me, this particular stanza really resonated with Jesus words night before he died, just the kind of the way he stayed awake right before dawn and cried for help. He stayed open to the watches of the night and of that contrast between his disciples. He didn't, but he did and he called out the Lord. That kind of obedience to God, even the midst of real kind of temptation to not obey in that moment of not wanting to take the cup of God suffering, it's really resonated with me, the language. And I think for me it's just been a really helpful reminder that we've been saying all the way through that the psalm is a song about Jesus. And we've been seeking to confine the Jesus moments all the way through, haven't we? But we've also said this is the song of Jesus and Jesus ultimately is the one who can sing this wholeheartedly for himself and pray this. And I think just being able to kind of feel and hear these words on the lips of Jesus himself and yet the change has been here. In verse 49 he says, preserve my life according to your laws and actually Jesus forsook his life, to preserve our life according to the promise, according to God's ways and God is near because Jesus forsake his life. Just the kind of depth of that covenant promise just resonates all the more when you kind of hear this on the lips of Jesus in that way. Does that make sense.
Felicity: I think that is that I mean, that is the heart of it, isn't it? In so many ways. That's the big deal here. In the sense that Jesus himself sung this so that we could sing it, and in that sense that he lost his life so that we can claim life through him and not be those who are forsaken and not be those who are drossed like we were reading in the previous stanzas. But I think that's it and as we see that and we recognize that and that resonates with us, so we delight in Jesus all the more, we love Him all the more and our assurance should be bolstered, I think, through that. And so we're able to then even more boldly sing with the psalmist in the light of Jesus'song Himself, I think.
Sarah: Yeah, but then I think in like that the next answer. I don't think it's been surprising that we still see the psalmist still suffering. He's still pleading and he's still trusting, but he is following Jesus footsteps in that way. We're told countless times that the believers will follow in the footsteps of their Lord in the way that he suffered. And actually what we see here in this stands at what really struck me is just the nature, it's still happening, he's still suffering, there's nothing changed. And yet he's trusting and yet he's pleading and he's kind of living in light of that knowledge that the Lord is near in the way that he calls out. And that's beautiful.
Felicity: I absolutely agree. And I think in that then we have the suffering, the circumstances is shifting. It seems that he's attacked on various levels, but then when he says in that last verse there 160, all your words are true, all your righteous laws are eternal, the unchanging nature of the Lord and the promised fulfillment through Jesus, that means that he's on shore footing. So everything else seems shifting and it feels like he doesn't know where the next punch is going to come from. But in the midst of that, his footing is sure because the Lord is true and righteous and eternal and everlasting. And we've had that repeated throughout the psalm juxtapose put next to you the Jesus thing that we've just been talking about. It feels all the more sure, doesn't it?
Sarah: Yeah. And it's just a helpful reminder, isn't it, actually, we get the privilege of viewing life through the length of eternity and through God's ways and what extraordinary thing that we can do that and therefore begin to pray these verses for ourselves in that way.
Felicity: Yeah, in light of that. So you kind of got the suffering, you've got this kind of circumstances that doesn't seem to be changing very much, but you have this more and more Surefooting. And I think then verse 165 is just very beautiful. That great peace have those who love your law and nothing can make them stumble and that is very Philippians, like that piece that transcends all in single Romans, like that kind of feel, isn't it? But in the midst of whatever is going on because the Lord is near, because of the assurance we have in Christ, so we can claim this great peace. But that's not to say that we're going to feel peaceful all the time, is it?
Sarah: No, I see. I read that as a more objective piece, actually. I read that as a kind of that's the bloodborne peace that we have through the cross, like we have peace because of the covenant and because of that fleshed out in Jesus. I think I kind of took it down that way when I was reading that. I think this is just a beautiful this is kind of like an ode to that blessing in the purse dance at the beginning of the psalm, isn't it? Like you can feel that kind of the way of blessing in these words. And yet we've been through such a journey with Him that it's this weathered existence, and yet there's such joy and peace and hope and praise and delight, and you just think, wow, those things don't normally come inside, do they? Don't normally coexist, but they are here.
Felicity: Yeah.
Sarah: Wow. Yeah.
Felicity: And then to then move on to the final stanza and this incredible prayer really, isn't it? His dependence on the Lord is just so evident and what a cry like this kind of made my cry. Come before you, lord. May my supplication come before you like that me and you. This is it, isn't it? He's crying out for God to deliver him according to his mercy, according to his love, according to his promises.
Sarah: And it's such a refreshing mixture of different emotions going on, isn't it? I think again, you kind of expect the psalm to end on a high and maybe it should have ended with the penultimate stanza room anyways, and yet it doesn't. And wonderfully. I feel like this stanza basically sums up the Christian life, the reality of the Christian life, where we've got him delighting, we've got him praising, we've got him crying out, we've got him straying, we've got him crying for help and crying for deliverance. There's just such a range of emotions and feelings and situations prompting his prayer. It's a scattergun in almost, isn't it? Great? I just think that's so encouraging because that basically describes my Christian life, is just like there's delight, but it's also real desperate. I'm straying again and it feels so hard and yet I'm calling out to you, Lord, please deliver me. And just everything in between.
Felicity: It's all framed within the request, isn't it? In the midst of the hot spotch of that experience and the angst and the joy and all of that. All of that is lord, may you like, please, Lord, please, Lord. So what do we do with it? What do we do in the midst of our Christian life, whether we're joyful, whether we're sobbing, whatever like come to the Lord, if anything. Psalm 119 has shown me that more. I think just bring it as it is, as you are to the Lord, who according to his mercy, will deal with me according to his love.
Sarah: Yeah. And as we see at the end, again, he will seek us out. We stray, but he's the one who seeks. And we will live according to his promise, which we know is according to the cross. Oh, gosh, it's so good. I can't believe we come to the end. But we have got next week, so we really need that to wrap this up that way. I feel like we have not wrapped this up.
Felicity: I know 20 minutes episodes do not do anyway, but we need to pray before we pray.
Sarah: Pray. I'll pray.
Felicity: Father, we praise you. Praise you so much that in the midst of the roller coaster, that is our emotions, that is the Christian life, that is our circumstance, that we can come to you just as the psalmist does here, crying out to you. And we praise you for that final verse where he declares himself to be straying. And so we have comfort in that that you come to seek those who are straying. And so as we feel that in our hearts and we see that in the Southwest, we long to be those who delight in the grace and mercy of the Lord and with assurance come to you in that way. Please, Father, would you help us to draw near to you as you draw near to us that we might sing along with this Armist in so many ways? Amen.
Sarah: Amen. It's rich. It's good. As we say, we've got next week to wrap up. If you enjoyed this season, we would so love for you to leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts that just really, really helps other people to get stuck into some of the gender. 19 as well. We love this one from Kirsten. It says, Two sisters in the cup of tea has encouraged me to see how deeply enriching studying the Bible with a friend or sister can be. I listened to the first season alone and found it a big encouragement. But then when I started listening alongside a close friend and discussing their passage together, it was a real game changer. Kirsten, we love that. It's just so exciting for us to hear the impact of this on you and your friend and just getting the Bible reading with each other. We just love that so much. Thank you so much for reviewing the podcast. Please, please do. If you have a chance, take a couple of minutes to do that for us. We're really excited. We need to go. We'll see you next time for our final episode of PewDiePie. And we'll see you next time.
Felicity: Yeah. Look you forward it. Bye. Bye.
Speaker A: Bye. Thanks for listening to this episode. It's sponsored by Ted. Come check them out for great discounted resources that point to Jesus you.
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