Steve Webb: I discover new things about God.
What do you know it's time for another edition of the
Lifespring! One Year Bible and it's coming to you from
Riverside, California. I'm your OG Godcaster. Steve Webb
podcasting since 2004. It Psalms Wednesday, we'll read chapters
146 through 148. and we'll also have a time of prayer. The
website is Lifespringmedia.com. and I'll have contact
information at the end of today's show in case you got
anything to say to me, before we read, let's pray. Our Heavenly
Father, we thank you for our time together, we pray God that
as we read today, you would bless us. Thank you for the
Psalms. Lord, they teach us so much about how to praise you,
how to worship you, and even how to just talk honestly to you. I
pray God that you would teach us today in Jesus name. Amen. Are
you ready? Let's begin.
The last five chapters or songs of the book of Psalms beginning
with this Psalm 146, are known as the Hallelujah Psalms. So
what does hallelujah mean? In the simplest terms, it means
praise the Lord. But there's so much more to it than that.
Listen to this from Bible study tools.com. The word itself is a
transliteration into Greek of two Hebrew words halaal and
Yawei. Hall all means to extol the greatness or excellence of a
person, object or event. It's often translated to praise, but
who are you to praise? Yahweh is the covenant name of God, so to
say, hallelujah is saying, extol greatness to our covenant
keeping God and so the final five psalms are all about that
to extol greatness to our covenant keeping God. Well, what
does extol mean? From Merriam Webster it means to praise
highly to glorify. So are you beginning to understand
Hallelujah means to celebrate, to praise to glorify, to lift up
the name of God, to rejoice in to offer up to him all the honor
he so rightly deserves. James Montgomery Boice, the
commentator wrote, In the earlier songs we have studied
the writer's griefs, shames, sins, doubts and fears. We have
witnessed the people of God and their defeats and victories,
their ups and downs in life. We have encountered rebellious
words in struggling faith, all that is behind us. Now, in these
final Psalms, every word is a praise.
Psalms chapter 146. Praise the Lord, my whole being praise the
Lord, I will praise the Lord all my life, I will sing praises to
my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes or
other people who cannot save you. When people die, they are
buried, then all of their plans come to an end, happier those
who are helped by the God of Jacob. Their hope is in the Lord
their God. He made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in
it. He remains loyal forever. He does what is fair for those who
have been wronged. He gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the
prisoners free. The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord
lifts up people who are in trouble. The Lord loves those
who do right. The Lord protects the foreigners. He defends the
orphans and widows, but he blocks the way of the wicked.
The LORD will be king forever. Jerusalem, Your God is
everlasting. Praise the Lord.
Like the other hallelujah Psalms, Psalm 147, has no title
and like the others, this psalm begins and ends with hallelujah
or praise the Lord.
Psalms chapter 147. Praise the Lord. It is good to sing praises
to our God. It is good and pleasant to praise Him. The Lord
rebuilds Jerusalem. He brings back the captured Israelites. He
heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. He counts
the stars and names each one. Our Lord is great and very
powerful. There is no limit to what he knows. The Lord defends
the humble but he throws the wicked to the ground. Sing
praises to the Lord, praise our God with harps. He fills the sky
with clouds and sends rain to the earth and makes grass grow
on the hills. He gives food to cattle and to the little birds
that call he is not impressed with the strength of a horse or
with human might. The Lord is pleased with those who respect
him with those who trust His love. Jerusalem praise the Lord,
Jerusalem praise your God. He makes your city gates strong and
blesses your children inside. He brings peace to your country and
fills you with the finest grain. He gives a command to the earth
and it quickly obeys Him. He spreads the snow like wool and
scatters the frost like ashes. He throws down hail like rocks.
No one can stand the cold he sends then he gets is a command
and it melts. He sends the breezes and the waters flow he
gave his word to Jacob is laws and demands to Israel. He didn't
do this for any other nation. They don't know his laws, praise
the Lord.
In Psalm 148, all of creation is called upon to praise God, every
creature in all the universe of this song commentator G.
Campbell, Morgan wrote, what a wonderful song this is, look
over it again. and note the fact that there is no reference in it
from first to last to the mercy or pity or compassion of God.
But that's because there is no reference to evil in any form.
Hallelujah indeed. and beloved, lest you think that this is only
an enthusiastic cry based on emotion, thank again, Revelation
511 through 13 says it will indeed happen. In Revelation
five, the apostle John wrote, then I looked, and I heard the
voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000,
and 1000s of 1000s, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb
who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and
strength, and honor and glory and blessing. and every creature
which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and
such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard
saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who
sits on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.
Psalms chapter 148. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the
skies. Praise him high above the earth. Praise Him, all you
angels. Praise Him all you armies of heaven. Praise Him Sun
and Moon, praise him all you shining stars, praise him,
highest heavens and you waters above the sky. Let them praise
the Lord because they were created by His Command. He put
them in place forever and ever. He made a law that will never
change. Praise the Lord from the earth, you large sea animals and
all the oceans, lightning and hail, snow and mist and stormy
winds that obey Him. Mountains, and all hills, fruit trees, and
all cedars wild animals at all cattle, crawling animals and
birds, kings of the earth and all nations, princes at all
rulers of the earth. Young men and women, old people and
children. Praise the Lord because He alone is great. He is
more wonderful than heaven and earth. God has given his people
a king, he should be praised by all who belong to him. He should
be praised by the Israelites, the people closest to his heart,
praise the Lord.
Beloved, Psalm 146 praises God for His trustworthiness and oh
how I agree with that. I have discovered this to be so very
true in my own lifetime. So many times he's demonstrated that he
is always they're always able, always loving, and always true.
and Psalm 147 praises God for the way he cares for us. and for
his power over creation itself. There is nothing that he cannot
do. and Psalm 148 calls for all of creation to praise the Lord.
and there will come a day when that will indeed happen.
Beloved, the older I get, the more I realized that he is
worthy of praise. I love him more today than the day I
received Him as my Savior over 50 years ago. and when you think
about it, that makes sense. I love my wife, the lovely lady
Leanne more than the day I married her. How could that be?
Well, because we have gone through so many things together.
and I know we're better now than I did then. She's never left my
side. She puts up with my idiosyncrasies, my faults, my
moods, my rough edges, and on and on and on. She loves me
despite my oh so many faults, and God knows me even better
than LeeAnn's does. and yet, he loves me. and just as I still
discover new things about my wife, I discover new things
about God. Though he never changes. He reveals new things
to me about himself. The depth of our relationship continues to
grow deeper as I walk with him. Yes, the Lord is indeed worthy
of praise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah indeed. How have you found God to be worthy your
praise? Let me know. Send to Boostagram or call the
Lifespring family hotline or go to the comments page or write an
email. I'll tell you how to do that at the end of the show.
Tomorrow we'll be poetry Thursday, and our reading will
be Song of Solomon, chapters five and six.
John Train is today's executive producer John came in with his
monthly $50 donation. Thank you, John. God bless you. Beloved, if
the Lifespring! One Year Bible has been a blessing in your life
this year, please pray about returning some of that blessing
in the form of a financial gift. I will be keeping the entire
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here
Jingle: Lifespringmedia.com/support
Steve Webb: I'll Thank you, those who hear the episodes in
the future will thank you, and I believe that God will bless you.
And now in medical news, or something like that, here's
another anecdotal story that shows I'm not alone in their
shoulder pain after laparoscopic surgery category. This note came
in from Lifespring Berean Brother Phil. He said here's my
shoulder story. I had my gallbladder removed. and after
the operation, it felt like they had dropped me off the operating
table onto my shoulder agony. No position helped. Yes, that does
sound familiar brother Phil. Phil says I asked what has
caused this. and now here's where the medical staff had
brother Phil's hospital far excelled the staff at my
hospital, he said, I was told it's referred pain from co2
inflation of my stomach. They remove as much co2 as they can,
but some remains. I researched it. and it seems that some
nerves also map to other places. and I assume that in my case,
stomach nerves or something associated with the gallbladder
uses my shoulder nerve. So pain in the shoulder, right shoulder
also means pain in an internal organ. I wonder if all internal
organs shared nerves that we mentally map to other parts of
our body. My neighbor has to have his gallbladder removed and
was grateful for this knowledge. and he's just signed it, Phil.
Well, Brother Phil, thank you for that known, yes, you are
confirming my research for sure. I'm sorry, you had to have your
gallbladder removed. and I do hope you're doing okay. One of
my sisters in law also had hers removed many years ago. and as
far as I know, she's just doing fine without hers. Yesterday was
the first day since my surgery that I haven't had any shoulder
pain at all. So I'm thankful that that little adventure is
behind me. and as long as we're in the health corner of the
shell, today, I'm having a little follow up surgery
procedure done on for my cataract surgery that I had a
few weeks ago. I'm having a little laser surgery done on
that eye to clean up a bit of lens flare caused by a remnant
of the lens that was removed, I think and it should just take a
few minutes show so it shouldn't really be a big deal. and this,
by the way, will be the third time that I've had laser surgery
on that I the first time was LASIK surgery about 20 years
ago. The second time was when my retina tour in a sort of spot
welded it to keep further damage from happening to the retina.
and then now this little cleanup job. So this laser surgery is
sort of getting to be old hat
Prayer requests praises. Well, there's nothing new today from
the Lifespring family but praise the Lord as I said my soldier
pain, my soldier pain, my shoulder pain. I used to say
shoulder for soldier when I was a little kid I think I would
call my shoulder my soldier. Well, that goes back a few years
anyway, my shoulder pain seems to be gone. and a prayer request
that my laser procedure takes care of the annoying lens flare
in my left eye would be good as well. So let's pray. Our
Heavenly Father, we offer you our enthusiastic and heartfelt
praise now and we look forward to the time that we join our
voices with all of creation around your throne, rejoicing in
your presence. Hallelujah. and Father, I thank you and I praise
you that the pain in my shoulder is in the past. I praise you to
Father for Liane who's taken such good care of me while I've
been recovering from the surgery. and I pray that You
would bless her for all that she does to be the wife that I need.
She is a gift father, I again, just ask that you bless her. and
I pray now that today's laser surgery would be successful, and
that no new complications would happen. I deeply thank you, Lord
for the Lifespring family. and I pray that where there are needs
you would meet them according to your perfect will. I pray this
in Jesus name. Amen. Well, beloved, we have only three more
times to pray together here on the show. It's good to pray with
and for our brothers and sisters, and our next time will
be this coming Sunday. Then there's just one more Wednesday
and then one more Sunday. If there's something you want to
praise the Lord for. Or if there's anything you'd like the
Lifespring family to pray with you about or for you about.
Please be sure to let me know.
Please remember to go to Lifespringmedia.com slash ignite
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Ignite. That's I G N I T E. and as always, I invite your
comments and your questions. There are several ways to get in
touch with me. Here they are. Send to Boostagram using a
modern podcast app from podcastapps.com or call the
Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511. Or if you
have a praise report or a prayer request, go to
prayer.lifespringmedia.com There's a form there you can
fill out it's easy to do. and if you have a comment or a question
for me go to comment dot Lifespringmedia.com and if you
just want to send an old fashioned email, send it to
Steve at Lifespringmedia.com dot com.
I'm so thankful for the team Sister Denise who does the
transcripts. Michael Haner who does the chapters, Scott Snider
and Jason Paschall who do show art and sister Brittaney Who
sends out the newsletter. I really appreciate it sister
Brittany's article in the last newsletter. Thanks to Jason
Paschall who did today's show art and also thanks to John
train for helping to make this episode possible. and beloved,
thank you for inviting me to be a part of your day. Looking
forward to seeing you tomorrow. Until then, may God bless you
richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.
Lifespring media bringing the message of hope, love and good
news since 2004