STEVE WEBB - 0:00 It was a great show! INTRO S12E357 - 0:09 Coming to you from Riverside, California, this is the Lifespring Family Audio Bible. And podcasting since 2004, I'm your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. Hi, how are you? This is the daily show where we're reading through the entire Bible in a year. And this is Psalms Wednesday. Oh, and by the way, this marks the one-week-remaining episode. It'll be our last visit to the Psalms this season. We will complete the book with the reading of Psalms 149 and 150. Of course, I will have a brief introduction before each chapter. And later on in the show, I'll talk to you about my plans for the future, in other words, life after this season ends next Tuesday. I'm calling today's episode, “An Encore Hallelujah”. The show notes page for today is at lifespringmedia.com/s12e357. Let's get started. INTRO TO PSALMS 149 - 0:58 Remember I told you last week that the last five psalms are known as the Hallelujah Psalms. Each one begins and ends with either the words “Hallelujah” or “Praise the Lord”. Like the others in this group of five, Psalm 149 is given no title. PSALMS 149 (NCV) - 1:15 Psalms, chapter 149. (1) Praise the Lord! Sing a new song to the Lord; sing his praise in the meeting of his people. (2) Let the Israelites be happy because of God, their Maker. Let the people of Jerusalem rejoice because of their King. (3) They should praise him with dancing. They should sing praises to him with tambourines and harps. (4) The Lord is pleased with his people; he saves the humble. (5) Let those who worship him rejoice in his glory. Let them sing for joy even in bed! (6) Let them shout his praise with their two-edged swords in their hands. (7) They will punish the nations and defeat the people. (8) They will put those kings in chains and those important men in iron bands. (9) They will punish them as God has written. God is honored by all who worship him. Praise the Lord! INTRO TO PSALMS 150 - 2:07 Psalm 150 is the final Psalm in the book of Psalms which itself has five sections or divisions. The first division ends with Psalm 41, the second with Psalm 72, the third with Psalm 89, the fourth with Psalm 106, and now we end with Psalm 150, which closes the fifth division, and indeed, the entire book. Each of the five divisions end with a doxology or an expression of faith. In Psalm 150 tops them all. It is truly a fitting way to close this most precious book. Commentator Alexander McLaren wrote, “The 150th Psalm is more than an artistic close of the Psalter. It is a prophecy of the last result of the devout life and in its unclouded sunniness, as well as in its universality. It proclaims the certain end of the weary years for the individual and for the world.” PSALMS 150 (NCV) - 3:04 Psalms, chapter 150. (1) Praise the Lord! Praise God in his Temple; praise him in his mighty heaven. (2) Praise him for his strength; praise him for his greatness. (3) Praise him with trumpet blasts; praise him with harps and lyres. (4) Praise him with tambourines and dancing; praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. (5) Praise him with loud cymbals; praise him with crashing cymbals. (6) Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! COMMENTS - 3:35 Beloved, what is your idea of what heaven is like? What do you think we'll be doing? Of course, we really have no way of knowing everything. But the Bible gives us some idea of, at least, part of what life will be like. As we recently read in the book of Revelation, chapter 5, verse 13, John tells us, “Then I heard all creatures in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea saying: ’To the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.’” And in Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10, “…there was a great number of people,” John wrote, “so many that no one could count them. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language of the earth. They were all standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. (10) They were shouting in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” Revelation 19, 5 through 8 says, “(5) Then a voice came from the throne, saying: ‘Praise our God, all you who serve him and all you who honor him, both small and great!’ (6) Then I heard what sounded like a great many people, like the noise of flooding water, and like the noise of loud thunder. The people were saying: ‘Hallelujah! Our Lord God, the Almighty, rules. (7) Let us rejoice and be happy and give God glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come, and the Lamb’s bride has made herself ready. (8) Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear.’” Beloved, I think we're going to be spending a great deal of time praising God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Have you ever been to a concert where one of your favorite bands or musicians played? My son Stephen and his wife recently took the Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I to see Norah Jones at the Greek Theatre in L.A., a beautiful outdoor venue. It was a great show. And what do you think happened at the end of the show? Sure. Everybody stood up and applauded while Norah and her band took their bows and left the stage while the applause continued. And after this went on for several minutes, guess what? Norah and the band came back out to do an encore. And of course, their entrance was met with even more applause and cheering. Now, imagine, at the end of time as we know it when everything here is wrapped up. And God has made all things right. He's wiped every tear. And the enemy has been finally and eternally sent to his final destination, never to bring heartbreak and havoc again. Don't you think we'll all just break out in praise and celebration of the Lamb. And since we'll have eternity to do it, it won't be a problem to spend thousand years or even ten thousand years singing hallelujahs and rejoicing at what he has done. Today's closing chapters of Psalms were just a small warm up for what awaits us when we see God face to face. Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb! Hallelujah! Great is He Who is the King of kings and Lord of lords! I'd love to hear your comments. Please go to lifespringmedia.com/s12e357. Scroll all the way to the bottom of that page and leave your comment there. Tomorrow is our last Poetry Thursday. We'll finish the book of Song of Solomon with the reading of chapters 7 and 8. Boost! Boost! Boost! THE FUTURE OF LIFESPING FAMILY AUDIO BIBLE - 7:06 Well, the end of the season is just days away. Next Tuesday is the last scheduled day of season 12. Please, if you've not yet sent a “The Next Step” email to me, I'd like to ask you to do it today. As you know, I announced it. I've decided that I can no longer produce the daily show. But I am now prepared to say that I have decided that I am not yet going to stop podcasting. It seems clear to me that the Lord still has plans for me here behind this very microphone. And your emails had no small part in helping me to make that decision. Your emails helped to confirm that for me. So thank you to those who have sent in your thoughts and ideas already. But the exact form of this continuing-in podcasting is not yet clear. So if you haven't sent in your ideas yet, I would consider it a personal favor to me, if you would do that right away. Send that email to me at steve@lifespringmedia.com with the subject line, THE NEXT STEP. Now I do hope to be able to give you by the final episode, if not a concrete plan, at least a general direction. Ideas are beginning to come together, but nothing is at all final yet. I've got a couple of very exciting things that I'm thinking about and talking to some other people about, but I can't reveal those to you yet. But as I said a few days ago, if you want to be sure that you'll get whatever I do decide to do, I suggest that you subscribe to the Lifespring Media All Shows Feed in your podcast app. One thing I do know for sure whatever direction I take, I know that I'll be taking a break. It will be at least two weeks I'm thinking but probably not longer than a month. Some of the ideas that I'm thinking about and have been suggested by the Lifespring family will require quite a bit of rejiggering of the way I do things. So I wouldn't even be able to implement them immediately after the season ends anyway. So there will be a break. Now that doesn't mean that you won't be able to hear me in podcast form. There are, after all, almost 3000 episodes over at lifespringmedia.com. So you can listen through the Lifespring HymnStories shows. You can listen to the Lifespring Weekend Music Show. You can listen to In Touch With God's Character. You can listen to some of the episodes of the original Lifespring show. There's a bunch you can still listen to. So just because I'm not producing doesn't mean you can't listen to me if you want to subject yourself to me again. So that's probably enough of that for now. I'll keep you updated throughout the week if and when I have more to share with you. I've tried to be upfront and transparent with you throughout the season and that's not going to change, ever. I call you “Beloved” because I do love you and I consider you to be family. And as I've said many times this season, “Family shares.” ON THIS DATE IN CHURCH HISTORY - 10:03 On this date in church history, August 24, 1747, John A. Dickins was born. Who was he? He was a pioneer church leader who first suggested the denominational name, Methodist Episcopal Church. And there's an interesting article about the Methodist Episcopal Church at britannica.com, and I'll link that in the show notes page if you'd like to read it. Pretty interesting. And on August 24, 1970, editors and scholars at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. published the New American Bible, which replaced the traditional 1610 Douay-Rheims version of the scriptures which I narrated several years ago. No, I'm not Catholic, but I was commissioned to do that project. And I'm glad I did, because that commission is what brought about the book Webb's Easy Bible Names Pronunciation Guide. If you want to know more about that book, go to easybiblenamesguide.com. And if you decide you'd like to purchase it, use the discount code PODCAST, and you'll get 25% off. If you're interested and you'd like to check out some reviews, check it out on Amazon. But if you're in the U.S., buy it at my website, easybiblenamesguide.com because you'll get that discount. I'm sorry, I can't ship overseas. It just is too expensive. If you're out of the U.S. really the best value for you is to buy it from Amazon. PRAISE REPORT - 11:30 I have an update for you on Steve O'Brien. His wife Laurie sent this report out today. She said, “Steve had a wound care appointment on Monday. They also took labs and x-rays and the doctor showed us the x-rays and his lungs look good. Couldn't tell much about the heart from the x-ray. But he has an appointment with a cardiologist on Thursday. So I'm sure we'll know more after that.” If you're at all squeamish, you might want to fast forward 10 seconds or so, but she says, “The wound had developed a really thick scab that he had to swab to reduce because it can hide infection. He didn't find infection, but there was a clear liquid that came out of the wound when he removed the scab, which is not supposed to happen. The doctor put something on it that felt like alcohol, Steve said. So after that appointment, which also required a lot of walking between labs, x-ray and then his appointment which were in three separate locations, Steve was exhausted when he got home. He slept a lot. So when he went to bed that night, he couldn't sleep. So now he is finally getting some sleep. He had his days and nights mixed up when he first came home and we finally got that back to normal. So I'm hoping that this nap doesn't mess that up.” So overall, that's a good report and it's there for a praise. And then let's not forget that Kathi has an appointment at City of Hope on Friday for tests and another round of her chemotherapy. CLOSING PRAYER – 12:49 Let's pray. Oh Lord, we do praise you. We worship You. We lift up your name, the name above all names. You're worthy. You're mighty. You are our Savior, our shield, our strength, our rock, our provider. There is none like you. Hallelujah! We praise you, Lord, and we look forward to the day when we will see you and join our voices with all of creation to sing your praises. We thank you Lord for the good report we got from Laurie O'Brien and we asked you to continue Steve's healing and we asked for your healing touch on Kathi as well. Help her when she goes in for her second round of chemotherapy. And for any of the Lifespring family who are hurting in any way I ask you to be gracious to them according to your will. Your plan is always the best plan. I ask you, Lord, to be with each of us. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen. If you have a prayer request or a praise, you know what to do. Go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. There's a form there. You fill it out, and I will pray for you in my private prayer time and we will pray together on the show. VALUE-FOR-VALUE - 14:01 Beloved, has the Lifespring Family Audio Bible been a blessing to you this year? As we enter the last week of the show, please consider returning some of that value in the form of a donation. As I told you earlier in the show, my plans are to continue podcasting and your gift will be very much appreciated and will be used to continue the work of Lifespring Media. No matter what form my podcasting takes, it will always be with the primary aim of proclaiming the name of God, sharing the gospel preaching the good news of a risen Christ, boldly, unapologetically, and with no compromise. If that sounds right to you, please pray and ask God what he would have you do. Then go to lifespringmedia.com/support and do as God leads. I’ll thank you and I believe God will bless you, lifespringmedia.com/support. OUTRO S12E357 - 14:56 Comment on the show at lifespringmedia.com/s12e357. Email me at steve@lifespringmedia.com. If you have not yet sent in your The Next Step email, please do that at steve@lifespringmedia.com. Thank you to Kirsty. Thank you Sean of San Pedro. And thank you Denise. I do thank God for you every single day. To each of you who have supported this show with your time, talent or treasure this year, whether it's been in the form of PayPal donations, or Venmo, or Zelle, or streaming sats or boostagrams or whatever, I thank you. I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have been such an encouragement to me. And if you have not been able to send a donation in, I get it. I understand things can be tough. The show is free. It's always gonna be free. And I'm just so glad you've been here. Thank you for being a part of the Lifespring family. So until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye. Hasta la vista Transcribed by https://otter.ai