Bible Guys Classics: Psalm 139:23–24

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, Jeff, Good morning Chris. Hey, it is a good morning because this is the Bible Guys. We're back. We are better than ever. Yes, and we're both wearing black today. Yes, back in back in battle black. I've got the Bible Guy's logo on my shirt. Yes, and I have just a black shirt. Yes. All right, Well, hey today dangerous. Yes, we're actually launching into a brand new series called Dangerous Prayers. Maybe that's why we're feeling dangerous. Yeah, we are danger Yeah. Have you ever see the grin Sisto Christmas? Yes, Jim Carrey version. Yes, that's one of my favorite parts saw though, when he's talking to this Lulu, what's your name, Cindy, Luhu Cindy and he goes dangeranger That's what I like. Okay, I like that part anyway. Yeah, anyway, it just comes into my mind. Well that's what she got on Monday people. Sorry, sorry, we're gonna be jumping into a segment before we jump into the prayer thing that Desiree wrote here and it's called show Video what is that. Oh, no, that's rolling video. No, No, she didn't name the section. She didn't name this segment. Oh that's it. Yeah, I was reading the line. He read the line before on the show notes on the roll in. Yeah, that's the roll in note. It says today we're starting a new series on dangerous prayers, and today's passage is about the prayer that could ruin your comfort. So let's ask this question, when's the last time you did something that scared you in a good way. Now, I've I've jumped out of planes a couple of times, three times. I've done rock climbing over like three hundred foot cliffs. I've done bungee jumping. I've done pair sailing. Usually anything with heights gets me. Really, what's a pair of sailing scared to you? Oh it's twelve hundred feet? What was it scary? Uh? Yeah, kind of because you know, at any. Time people are just kind of floating there like that. Yeah, that that part is smooth, But like think about like something go wrong and just if it fell, you're done, Okay, right, sure, there's always a possibility, there is, so so yeah, I would say it was a little scary. Literally wearing a parachute. No, you're it's it's not the same. It's not the same as a parachute. What's something behind you? Okay? Did you also know that if the boat stops going, then you go down? Yeah with the parachute. Yeah, no, it's it's faster than you think. So anyway, Uh, you're probably right, but I just I just want to It just felt dangerous. It felt dangerous to me. The perception of danger was there. Okay, And anyway, but I've done like scary roller coasters, and so the question was, when's the last. Time, And yeah, I'm having a hard time. Remember I'm having a hard time too, because here's the thing. I don't think I've done anything that extreme for. A little bit. It's time, it is time, I think, I think it is time. But I think probably the last time I did something extreme was jump out of a plane and that was like six years ago. But I have done height things, like I remember going. To the top of a. Very tall lighthouse with just a couple of inches walking around the ledges. That felt pretty dangerous. Again, height things are a big thing for me. I went on like a glass bridge, you know. I went to the top of the deal in New York, you know, those kinds of things, but maybe a roller coaster. I don't know. Have you been historically the kind of person who does like extreme things? Yeah? Yeah, like not do things. Yeah. Well, you know what, when I was younger, I always thought to myself, because I am definitely afraid of heights, I just want. To do those things overcome it, to overcome it. So I've done all the height things, right, and then you know, I've done fast things I've done. I've done reckless dangerous things in that way too, But you know, some things I did not enjoy. Yeah, I have. I have things on my you know, I've mentioned before, I have a bucket list. I've got like one hundred and something thing, one hundred fifty things or something like that on my bucket list. But a few of them I can't do because Heritage Church has a key Man life insurance policy on me, and it specifically excludes them. Like I'm not allowed to cage dive with sharks, I'm not allowed to skydive. I'm not allowed to drive a race car. There's a few things like that I'm allowed to do. So that's kind of frustrating to me. So I'm a little nervous about saying the things I have been doing. There you go in fear that the insurance agent is listening listeners. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I've always been that person that somebody says, dare you, and I'm like, okay, I just always have had a lot of confidence in my ability to pull a thing off or to survive a thing, and you know whatever. And then I have a weird mechanism in my head that says, Okay, it's dangerous, right, there's this perception of danger. But how many one hundred thousand people did that thing jumped out of a plane today or this week and not all of them died, like one hundred thousand of them lived whatever. And so there's this mechanism in my head he goes, it's not that dangerous. There's a perception of danger, but these companies couldn't stay in business if they were. Yeah. I did that on my first guy, Dife, the guy that was tandem strapped to me, I said, how many times have you because you know, there's three shoots, there's a shoot, then there's a backup shoot, then there's even an altimeter shoot, which if we both pass out, it opens and so so I felt okay there. But I looked at him and he was an older guy, and I said, how many times have you jumped? And he goes, oh, he goes, I'm in a really really elite c I said what, and he goes, I've jumped ten thousand times. I said, you've jumped ten thousand times, right, and he said yeah. And I was like, oh, I'm good. Immediately was good like that. You didn't have a sense like he's about due. No. I did not, No, I just it was the same logic you this is like, it's like, oh, I'm good. This guy knows what he's doing, right, he's going to pack the Shoot. Fine, I'm going next week. I'm going to a pretty dangerous city. It's a in the world. It's a well known dangerousy I don't want. To say it, but. And I had a couple of people go, oh, maybe he shouldn't go. That's such a dangerous city. So well, how many people live there? Like, I don't know, I said, over twenty million people live there, right, right. So. That's how many people lived there yesterday. There's twenty many people. Do you know how many people woke up this morning? Twenty million people. Well maybe not, maybe not. No, Still, they didn't lose twenty million people yesterday, right, So the probability is something bad happening to you on that day is really really small. It's like greater than getting struck by lightning. Right. So right, Well, I did go to South Sudan when it was very unsafe, and but that wasn't something. That I was fearing in a good way. That was actually a bad way. Yeah, that was intense. Yeah, yeah, I've had some of those. A lot of mine are with animals. I think maybe I was thinking, you know, I've been this whole time just killing time, trying to figure out something recent. I think the most recent thing that happened to me that scared me. I was on the border of Sudani Kenya. So when you said Sudanic clicked, Yeah. And we were staying in this I don't know, like a Safari kind of a camp and in my room on the second night, oh yeah, you told me this. In my room on my second night, I had a tarantula that I had to get out of my room and I didn't want to go ask for help because those guys are so tough. Yeah, you know, And so I had to figure out how to get it out myself. I wound up catching it and getting notes. I didn't want to kill it, so I caught it and got it outside. But it was one of those things that I had seen it subconsciously and hadn't It didn't register the first day, and then I slept all night with that spider in my room. Yeah, and then the next. Day my wife, My wife just shivered. It was it was about it was about as big as my hand, not quite as big as my hand, maybe half the size of my hand. You know, you and I live parallel lives, right, I mean we had a lot of the same stories I had. That happened to me in u in Haiti. There was a transla. Oh really, yeah, it was. It trapped me in a shower. It trapped you. Yes, there was one hallway. There was one hallway, and it was right there and I was screaming coming out of the shower and screaming help, help, and nobody was around, and it literally it was a really thin transla. Saw you coming out of the thing. It was screaming too. Help A right, right, I only had a towel, that's it. So I didn't know what to do. So I just I had to hold up the towel because those things could leap. I had to hold the towel, and I had to walk by, and I was I was as close to that transfer as me to you. You didn't me too. I had to catch it. I had to catch mine. Oh you didn't show your towel on the translate. I was, yeah, no, I didn't think of that. Throw your towel on the translant, scoop it up, get outside. Yeah, no, anyways, I just held the towel up, thinking if he jumps, she's gonna hit the towel. Right, that's funny. Yeah, that's probably the main one. But most of mine are animals or events like what you were talking about, you know, skydive and stuff like that. I just I'm not allowed to do those things. So gotcha. Okay, well talking about dangerous, Yes. We're talking about dangerous. Well that was an easy transition. It was, it was. But for the next couple of weeks, they're all dangerous prayers. Yes, And I thought this was a really cool idea. You know, many of us we pray these prayers, you know, these polite, little dinner time prayers, right, you know, God is good, God is great. Kind of stuff. It's that is great. God is good. God is great. God is good. What do we because because people think for some reason, food rhymes was good? Okay, good good food? Yeah? What's what's the ones we teach our kids? Now, I lay me down to sleep. Yeah, yeah, those are the kind of prayers that most of us wind up praying. Do you know what? We pray for Aunt Gertrude's bunions? Right, we pray for those kinds of things. I can't believe you just said that. That is but I keep going all day without that visual aid. Right. But we wonder why there's not a lot of power and sometimes why there's not a lot of adventure in our lives. And it's because we're praying either weak prayers or we're praying the wrong kind of prayers. And so I thought, hey, this would be a fun series to do. Hey, dig into the Bible all these really powerful, dangerous prayers. I don't often say this because I always tell stories of dysfunction of my family, but did you know that my family would not have a family meal, which we did almost every night we had a family meal. We would not have a family meal without saying a prayer. And we never went to church growing up, but it was that prayer. God is great, God is good, And where are me thinking? For this food from his hands we must be fed. Give us a little this daily bread, Amen and something. Yeah. So, as insanely dysfunctional as your family was, I like the poke fun that you you pretty. Much grew up feral. Yes, yes, yes, but. You guys had family dinner every night, almost every night. Yeah, and you prayed together. Yes. Isn't that amazing? They didn't. They didn't call it prayer though. They said, say. Grace, yea, I say grace. Yeah. Wow, that's amazing. That's probably why you guys are still close, even though you had such a crazy family grow up, growing up with family dinner, family dinner is magical. Man. Okay, anyways, we've killed enough time. Let's jump into this. We're only looking at two prayers, but the reality is Psalm one thirty nine, the whole thing is a prayer. Yeah right. As a matter of fact, as you read through the Psalms, they're all songs that the Hebrew people, the Jewish people would sing many times going up to the temple or in the temple or throughout their day and other things. But every one of them is also a prayer that was put to song, right, put to music, and so this one is a psalm of David, and he ends the prayer with this. He says in verse twenty three, search me, Oh God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Yeah. So, dude, that's a that's a dangerous prayer. God. He's literally inviting God to do some exploratory surgery. Yes, hey, just check a see is there anything in there that I need to be fixed? Right? That's amazing. But let's give a little bit of context. He says, point out. Yeah, he wants he wants God to bring to his attention. Yeah yeah, search me, point it out, you show me God, I love you so much. I want you to show me anything in me that needs to change. And that's powerful. That's like standing in front of your husband and says, does this dress make me look fat? Tell me the truth? But they don't want the truth. Yeah, right, But but David's praying for the truth. So for some context, he really lays out already through this whole chapter. God, you know everything right, That's really what he's doing through this whole chapter. In the first six verses, it says, Oh, Lord, You've examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away. You see me when I travel, when I rest at home, you know everything I do. You know what I'm going to say even before I say it. Lord, you go before me and follow me. You place your hand a blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand. He goes on. He says, I can never escape your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you're there. If I go down to the grave, you're there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest sea, even there, your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me, and the light around me to become night. But even in the darkness I cannot hide from you. To you, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it? Just so funny, man, God, you did a good job making me. Look how marvelous this is. It's wonderfully come back. How well I know it. Your workmanship is marvelous, he says. You watch me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me? Oh God, they cannot be numbered. I can't even count them. They outnumber the grains of the sand. And when I wake up, you're still with me. Oh God, if only you would destroy the wicked. And now he's mad at it. He does this a lot in his prayers. He's like, God, you are so awesome. You're so great. By the way, I got some enemies. If you kill them for me. And he get out of my life, You murderers, they blespheme. You your enemies misuse your name. Oh Lord, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I despise those who oppose you? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. And then he says, search me, o, God, and know my heart, and test me and know my anxious thoughts, point out anything in that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. So really really powerful because he admits, God, you know everything about me from the first second of conception. You knew who I was. You know I love It's been a while since I've thought of this. When he says, how precious are your thoughts about me? Oh God, they cannot be numbered. They I can't even count them. They outnumber the grains of sand. So David is saying that if you try to count all the grains of sand, God has more precious thoughts about. You than the grains of sand. Yes, And I know it's David saying. It's not God saying it, sure, but it is, you know, inspired by God, and it is contained in God's word. So I have to believe that that's true, Right, I have to believe. That that God has precious thoughts about us. That out number the grains of sand. Is amazing if it's in his Holy word, right, pretty amazing. So either way, it's it's just a phenomenal right, that God has precious thoughts about me, and he says, you know all my days, time is time is relevant, day and night is irrelevant. To you God, everything is the same. And then also, of course this is a very famous chapter. We have to say this. It's a very famous chapter that is very pro life, isn't it. It's the pro life chapter. It's well, I'm sure that there are multiple places in the Bible where God highlights the value. Of human life. Yeah, you're right, but this one is talking about God knew me at conception, that's right, that's what and was paying attention to me from the moment I was conceived, all through my development before I was ever born, and God had a plan for my life before I was ever even born. Yeah, and he talks about knowing the number of days while he's in the womb, and so he mentions it several times. Yeah. So the reason why I say pro. Life, I was gonna say, don't think David wrote it to be political. No, of course not. But the reason why I was saying that is because normally, when when you talk about somebody on whether they believe that life begins a conception, they'll go to Psalm one thirty nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jeremiah has some things about that that God knew me in the womb and things like that as well. There's other places that talk about how God knows us from the very beginning of our existence, before we knew us, God knew us. Yeah, and I know that that. I know that's a hot topic even for a lot of you know, Christians who are working their way through their beliefs. But we firmly believe that life begins a concession. Absolutely, it doesn't need to be a hot topic if we just decide, you know, what's what God's words says is true? Right right, So yeah, it's a big one. But he's highlighting here, God, you know everything about me. And then he says, as a matter of fact, and the first verse he says, oh, Lord, you've already examined my heart. You know everything about me. That's what he says. And then at the end he says, so search me and know my heart, and test me and know my anxious thoughts. He's already said at the beginning. Remember I've talked about before how oftentimes the beginning in the end are the same, and then the middle is really really the point. Yes, right, And so he starts off at the beginning, God examined me and know me. At the end he ends it searched me, know me, test me. But the big idea here is God point out anything in me that offends you. Really, that's it is, God, help me know what you know about me. And and here's a guy that's going to be king. I don't know that he was king at this point, was he? No, he was well for the choir director. Yes, so he was king at this point. Yeah, because isn't this one of the prayers that he prayed after. His baby died? So perhaps, yeah, I think so. So he uh, but this is he wrote it for the choir director. So this is this is after he becomes king. And so here's a most powerful man in Israel, most successful person in the history of Israel up to that point, right, just so dominant. He's like this alpha male. He's a warrior, he's a poet, right, he's he's a philanthropist, he's everything. Man, he's like He's like, Bruce Wayne, right, you know what I mean. But he's saying, God, if there's anything in me that's holding me back from you, would you show that to me? Yeah, show me what you know. You would think he was self aware, but he knows that a lot of times we can have shadow missions. We can justify things that aren't right, and we can make them feel right to us in the moment so we can keep doing them. Or we can have these shadow missions that were on the surface that looks like it's the right thing, but underneath we have some selfish motives behind it or whatever. And so he's like, God, show me anything that's not in alignment with what you're trying to do in my life. I think on one side, that can be a dangerous prayer, because God will He'll show you. On the other side, that can be a life changing prayer when you begin to tell God on a regular basis, God, I don't want anything to be between us, because God bless as holy people. God bless his people who are becoming more and more like Jesus. He just does. Yeah. And whenever you ask God to point out things in you, what you're really doing is you're saying, you know, convict my heart, change my heart, you know, help my heart to align with yours, help my desires to align with yours. Because sometimes, you know, it's not as if God is going to speak audibly and just say, well, here's a list. I think what will end up happening is is circumstances will reveal themselves, maybe they unfold, or maybe your heart will change, maybe your conviction will turn, you know, and you'll feel just start to feel honestly bad about certain things in your life. I think because I've prayed this enough to know that that's what happens. Yeah, yeah, And all of a sudden, just your life begins unfold, and you're like, well, I guess that's revealing that I think that not. Every negative thing is a bad thing, right, right, So just because it's a negative thing, or just because I have a negative feeling in the moment, that doesn't mean it's bad. If it brings correction in my life, it makes me better the only way. My daughter just. Got engaged and John, her fiance, gave her a really beautiful ring and it's cut so nice. And while he was shopping for rings, we went to a mutual friend of ours that had that has a jewelry store, went there and we were looking all the cuts and stuff like that back behind the while there's guys in there doing things, it's all and so I was thinking about it. Later. I actually watched a video of how people cut diamonds. And the diamond that winds up on your ring was much larger when it was a raw diamond, right. It wasn't sparkly right, right, But then they chip away that piece, and they chip away that piece, and they chip away that piece. They start chipping away and next thing you know, they carve out this incredible diamond that sparkles and just glows. It has value when it's not cut. It has more value when it is cut right, And that's what God's doing. So can you imagine being that diamond ow owl right? Right? But you don't find any women walking around with a raw diamond on their finger, right. The great social value on our planet for diamonds is not the raw di Have you ever seen any of the ancient crowns in museums and they just have like an odd shaped sapphire and an odd shaped diamond or whatever. I was in the louver and we saw a couple of the crowns, the early crowns of the French kings, and they weren't cut diamonds, they were just stones and you look at it go. But then by the time you get to I mean, it was okay, it was nice. But by the time you get to the later, you know, the later Louise yea man, those things are cut and they just popped. They just glistened. Same lights on both crowns, but that one man probably in value size carrot size, they were the same. But the ones that were cut just has so much value, so much more value. And that's what I think. If we can just let some of those painful moments, this moment here, God find anything and chip it away from me, get it off of me, so that I can be everything you made me to be, there's I think great value and being willing to let God do that. You know, you made a comment and I thought to myself, Wow, that is a more powerful statement. Than maybe perhaps we know. You said not everything that gives you a negative feeling is bad if it brings correction in your life, right, And I thought to myself, is that not a message that twenty twenty five needs to hear. Oh sure, and our culture lay just. Because something gives you a negative feeling, it doesn't have to be bad. If it brings correction, it makes you better, right, And that is something that you know in this culture lay they would say, what do you mean, I don't. Want to feel bad? Right? You know, it is so funny how the culture is opposite of that statement. Yeah, it's true, and that is so crazy. Well, there is a thing we probably should unpack here, and that's where David says. I hate people who hate you. Oh yeah. So with regard to the Psalms, we don't build doctrines around what David writes, right, because these are these are David's personal feelings that God chose to put in the Bible to show us what it looks like when a man, a sinful man, continues to pursue God. Right, And so not every single thing David says is a good thing. David's just being honest and transparent with God with regard to how he feels. Yeah, yeah, his passion for God, well, he's justifying the fact that he hates them. Shouldn't I hate them God? Right? But then he ends God showed me if there's anything I promise you. One of the first things God says, you shouldn't hate people, David, right, right, because we know consistently the Bible is its own best commentary. So is it okay for me to hate people who hate God? No. Romans tells us, don't repay evil with evil, repay evil with good. Jesus says, love your enemies, Pray for your enemies, do good to your enemies, right, Jesus said, turn the other cheek. Jesus said, treat people the way you'd want to be treated always, So we can go down the line, and there's all these passages. To be fair, David's assignment was to kill. Them, Yeah, David, David was a king. That was desire. Was he was assigned to wipe out the enemies? Yeah? Yes, yes, so he had. But he could have righteous indignation or anger because it doesn't say that God hates, but it does say that God can. Be angered, right, And so his passion is love for God. I think he's a little over zealous with his language, but his intent is God. I'm mad at the people that hate you, right, and I'm willing to do my job. So the danger is between and I just talked with a young guy that's going into the Rangers and for lunch yesterday, and we've talked about this many times. God ordains governments to protect and defend against evil and to fight if they have to. And so when you're doing your job on behalf of the people in a governmental kind of a situation, then whatever you have to do, what force you have to use, that's ordained by God. It's mentioned throughout scripture. God makes that acceptable. But individually, walking down the street, someday some guy makes you mad, you can't just kill him, right, And so David is struggling. I think on this fine line that he walks here between being a king and a citizen. So as a king, yes, he goes and does his job, but here in his prayer is so you gotta be careful. So never use David as a justification for hating somebody or for giving being violent towards someone you know in your everyday social life. That would be inappropriate. And so I believe that God probably would have taught him that, the Holy Spirit would have said, hey, you know what, in your job situation, you have to fight against those evil people that are trying to wipe out the people of Israel in your everyday situation. Stop killing messengers. A couple of times, like five, yeah, five different times, I think. I mean, it just seemed like there was no end. Yeah, they come and give him bad bad news that he kills them. Right, It happened a couple of times for sure. So anyways, I love this prayer. I thought it was interesting you mentioned you pray this prayer sometimes, so do I. Yeah, God searched me and yeah, change me. We're running timed, oh. Woll yeah, twenty seven minutes. I was just gonna say bonus material today. And you know, these songs created me a clean heart, and then there's another one that goes creating me a clean heart. Oh God, that I might spe don't. Yeah, it's a great song to put in the scripture. You can look it up. All right. Well, hey, that is definitely our time, so we will go ahead and see you next time, hopefully on the Baba Gus