Bible Guys Classics: Psalm 63

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, good morning everyone, it's if, in fact, it's morning. I'm Chris, this is Jeff, and we are the Bible Guys. We are so happy to be here. Do you know that I was actually contemplating putting I have a bottle of water over here. I was contemplating actually gurgling good morning. But but you know, here's the thing. I didn't trust myself because I I was gonna spit it, and so I thought to myself, Oh, I don't think I could ever do that. So I don't think I could do it by surprise. So who knows. Maybe tomorrow I'll start that way. Maybe. So there you go. That's the reason to tune in if you're a. New listener with us. Chris has a habit of at least once a week singing good morning to our listeners. Yeah there, yeah, listeners, just wait yesterday, today, No. They do know, they do not. I think like five people and they keep on saying it. Well, that's about the extent of our listeners except for the new one listening today. Look Billy's listening from Canada. Hi Mom, Hi mom, that's great. All right. Well, hey, Desiree has a section that's it's called stump the Pastor. We do this every once in a while. Yeah, yeah, and uh. And so here's the way this one reads. And this is from Bella L. Bella, Hi, Hi, Bella, Yes, Hi Bella. Hell, we're so glad that you're listening. Yes, and you decided that the thing you wanted to do was stump us. Try to stump us, Yes, try to stump us. All right, So it says this, it says, wow, Chris, what made Chris mad this week? Is my favorite bit? Oh look at that. See I told you, I told you it's everybody's favorite. It's Bella's favorite bit. She said, Stump the pastor is my close second. So here's my question. Wow, my husband and I were reading through Genesis and we came up with a question we couldn't find the answer to. So what are your thoughts on dinosaurs? And are they biblical or they in the Bible? There's no direct reference to them in creation, says Bella L. So she wants to know, you know where DoD Bibles fit in the Bob where did dinosaurs fit in the Bible? Where did dinosaurs fit in the Bible? I don't know that. Well, I don't know. One. Great question, Yeah, great question, really great question. Yep. Two, what do you think, Chris. Well, I think that they were I believe that they existed with mankind. So I think there's a reference to job talking about Leviathan, which which is literally translated into great terrible lizard. Right, there's a I think there's a couple other references to things like that. And I think that. Perhaps when things you know that the theory is there's one common theory that says that they could have been on the arc. So, you know, and people say, wait a minute, dinosaurs were huge, they couldn't go on the arc. What about baby dinosaurs? Right whatever, So, so so they could have been on the arc. God could have, you know, just allowed them to cease to exist. So, but one thing is clear, they were a part of the world. Now there's another theory. The other theory is is that because God exists out of time and and and God, uh, you know, uh could have could have allowed the earth, you know, to have gone through and dinosaurs could have been before humanity. Uh, you know, you know there's another theory like that. Yeah, there's kind of a doctrinal issue with that one with regard to this earth, because it says, wherefore as by one man, sin entered the world talking about earth and death by sin. So death passed upon all men for all of sin. So death came because of sin. So if all those dinosaurs were here and then they died before humanity came. That's doctrinally where would. Death have come from? Right, So there was no purpose behind death prior to man's sin. So the idea that they existed before and then died and then men came is doesn't really lying. Yeah, so I think you mentioned a couple things you mentioned. Is important to know because that's the theory, right right, that's what the world believes. Yeah. Yeah, so you mentioned Leviathan and you can look this up. So one, you're right, it's not in the creation story other than the fact that the Bible just says he created everything on the land and on the sea right right, and in the air right. So, but the Book of Job does seem to reference. Now that Job is the oldest book in the Bible, and Job was probably written about the time of Abraham, So this is a couple thousand years after a thousand years, a couple thousand years after Adam. And in job forty one, it describes Leviathan. It'says, can you pull a Leviathan in with a fish hook? Or tie down his tongue with a rope? His back has rows of shields tightly together. His snorting throws out flashes of light. His eyes are like the rays of dawn. Right, so it's kind of a seems like a marine, kind of a dinosaur type of animal. In or he also mentions Behemoth in chapter forty. It says, look at Behemoth, which I made along with you, and which feeds on grass like an ox. We know a lot of the dinosaurs. Eight you know, we're herbivorous. And he says, what strength that has in its loins? What power? And the muscles of its belly? Its tail sways like a cedar. Right right, like his cedar tree. Yeah, like a cedar tree. The sinews of his thighs are close knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze. Its limbs are like rods of iron. It goes on and talks about how neither one of these animals can be subdued or tamed by humans. In Isaiah, it mentions the idea that he shall slay the dragon that's in the sea. So there seems to be these references of these great creatures that humans just accept it as like they're not saying, hey, did you ever hear about this? They're referencing it as if everybody knows what they're talking about, right. Right, Otherwise they would have made more of a spectacle of it. Yeah. Yeah, But at some point they became extinct. Some people would point to the flood as being one of the reasons. There's a lot of If you've never been to the Creation Museum, that'd be interesting to go down. They have some theories about it. There's lots of different people who have different theories about but there are tons of animals that are extinct today that existed thousands of years ago. You know, I was at a guy's and a guy he has a private family museum, and he has a baby wooly mammoth, and they're trying to bring back the wooly mammoths using the DNA from this frozen it was frozen in the tundra, and the South Koreans are working with him. He's a billionaire and they're working with him to bring back wooly mammoths from the DNA that's still in that wily mammoth, Right, isn't that amazing? Yeah? Right, So that kind of stuff, there's lots of animals that become extinct. So I don't think that there's a problem with the fact that we see dinosaur bones. I've got a bunch of fossils in my office, right, don't I ye yah, And I love that stuff, And I just don't have a problem with the idea that dinosaurs existed, and I don't have a problem to the idea that they exist at the same times humanity. Every single people group in the world that draws in caves have drawn some kind of version of Europe has it, South America has it, Asia has that, Africa has drawings of long necked animals, large animals that aren't elephants or hippos or rhinoceroses that are much larger, And so it seems like there's this collective memory among humans that there were these animals that were bigger. Yeah, and then every continent has dragon legends that are the same, fire breathing, flying, big reptile kind of animals. Every single continent has those. Right. So when I was in New York just a few months ago with my family, my brother Jim, who was a pastor down in Texas, doesn't necessarily hold the title pastor now, even though he has a pastoral degree. But anyway, he works for a creation organization. Did you know that? So anyway, he that's all he does. So as we were looking through the museum. We were in the museum in New York, and they had a dinosaur section, right, so there's all these different bones and uh, and they had pictures of kind of how they were found, and uh, my brother Jim was explaining the whiplash positions that some of these very large creatures would have been in and how their necks looked like they were broken, right, And he said, so, how do you break the neck that looks like a cedar tree? And he said, guess what? Guess what a big flood? Right? Those those bones, some of those bones are as big as whale bones. Yeah right, and right, I mean they're they're they're bigger than your body. Right. But that neck got snapped somehow, and it's not just one, it's the whole field of them right where they found them laying right, yeah, yeah, and so and so they died in cataclysms, right. And so that's that's the reason why, because you know, even if there was meteor or lava or you know, which is sort of the imagery that we have, you know, for the extinction of Oh there's a comment that came and then you know, lava, meteors and all these different things, but water, water is the force that could do exactly that. So anyway, it was interesting because he is so educated and I can't even begin to repeat what he what he said because I would look dumb, right, because he said ten thousand things. And as we were walking through and he was like, but it was basic. But I just remember thinking, holy cow, and and and he was right in that when he pointed out like I remember him pointing out like ten different things. He's like, see this photo, He's like that neck is snapped. And then we go to the next one and he's like, you see this. Uh, they can be preserved this way, this way, or this way, and one way was underwater. And the only reason why this whole thing would have been because it was a conglomerate, like almost like a burial site. Right, you know, like member Lion King when they said the Elevant's graveyard. Argument, that that's what most fossil discoveries are found in large fossil they call them literally fossil beds. And it can be a whole valley or the whole side of a hill and just it's just covered with all these different dinosaurs. Yeah, and and uh and it's because they believe that they were washed away in the flood and taken down to a place where they collected right together, and and all of them, like I said, you know, just having evidence that sort of pointed to a great force. So it was interesting, It was really interesting to me. So I am I am not the believer of the before man theory. I am a believer of the flood theory that the flood was was the thing that wiped them out. So now here come all the angry anti science emails. So we just want to thank you for bringing that up as well for us. But thanks, thank you, Bella. Yeah. But so here here's where we are not scientists. Nope, we just don't have a problem with what we know. We don't have a problem with saying that they live during human times and that the Bible does reference them on multiple occasions. Yep. So with that being said, let me encourage you. There are other great places to find lots of information about dinosaurs and humans from a biblical perspective. And so I like the Creation Museum. I like what's what they're doing down there in Kentucky. A lot of that stuff. They're not the only ones. Your brother has. What's the name of the organization? Maybe we should put that in the notes and see if that be helpful. Okay, well, hey, great question, Bella, And well you almost stump this there. That's a tough one. I want to text him right now and I'll see by the time the end of this podcast happens if he answers. Oh, great, Well, we're gonna pivot. And we're still in this time when David is running from Absolom. Is where we're at now. And this is a psalm of David regarding a time when David was still in the wilderness of Judah. He's hiding and he's asking God for pres God's presence, for his provision, for his protection. And so here's what it says. David says, Oh God, you are my God, honor earnestly search for you. My soul thirst for you, My whole body longs for you. In this parched land, in this weary land where there is no water, I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself. How I praise you. I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night, because you are my helper. I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you. Your strong right hand holds me securely. But those plotting destroy me will come to ruin. They will go down into the depths of the earth. They will die by the sword and become the food of jackals. But the king will rejoice in God, All who trust in him will praise him, while liars will be silence. It's awesome out there. So there you go. My brother wrote me back right away. Oh wow, he works for the Institute for Creation Research. Oh I've heard of them. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Institute for Creation Research is interesting. Now. You know, all science is the study of things, it's not the law of things, right, right, So all these different science organizations, both on the secular side and the Christian side, they're they're they're studying a thing, they're research a thing, they're looking for plausible answers. And so I think that the Institute for Creation Research, and then also ken Ham's organization up there and at the Creation Museum and all that kind of stuff, is it. Well, hey, great, check those out. There's a bunch more, but check those out. So back here with David running from his son Absolom and saying, God, I don't really have any hope except for you. But I'm completely content in trusting that you're going to take care of me. Yeah, that's great. And by the way, this is beautiful imagery, isn't it. Yeah, you know. The latter half of this when he says, because you are my helper, I can sing for joy and the shadow. Of your wings, well, the shadow of your wings is uh uh. It's it's like a mother hen who protects, right, or or a you know, I guess a father could do the same thing, right. But any animal always the it's always. It's always, it's always the hen. Yeah. So but it's a uh, it's a it's a protection thing. Right. So you know in the previous chapter that we just read, uh, he says, God, you are my shield. So there's this. You know, there's like a word picture that comes with every metaphor, right. So you know, for instance, think about this when Jesus says, uh, I'm the shepherd and you are the sheep, You're like, oh, well, you know, every shepherd knows that that has a thousand applications. When he says I'm. The vine and you are the branch, and then and then you bear fruit if you're connected, you're like, wow, every vennor knows, every vineyard knows, like, oh yeah, and when I get disconnected, then there's the pruning, and then there's the harvest, and then there's the there's the water source and holy cow, right it be like a tree plant about the rivers of water. Oh yeah, that's a great word picture. So here it is again. And he says, I sing for joy and the shadow of your wings. I cling to you. You hold strong with your right hand, you hold me securely. I think to myself, that is a beautiful word, picture and everything that comes with it. Right when you observe nature, you could probably watch an entire documentary about a mother protecting her chicks and understand just how awesome just that one sentences. I was going to comment on that same verse. So that's great that that's what got yeah. Yeah, So growing up, we had one hundred chickens, well you know, growing up as a kid, and so I have a lot of familiarity with chickens for a while when we lived we live in the suburbs, but we had four chickens in our backyard for quite a while and that was that was pretty great too. They lay hens, they were hands. They lay eggs every four days. They lay four eggs a day. I'm sorry, that's what we will get. So anyways, just recently, I was in Tanzania and we were doing this safari drive one afternoon. It wasn't a safari trip, it was a mission trip working with Christian leaders, but we had this afternoon, so we drive out to look at the animals and we stopped at a spot by the way. About fifteen minutes after we'd seen lions. We stopped and we get out of the truck and there was a little picnic area and some restrooms and stuff, and so there's no fences or anything, you know, and you're kind of thinking in the make your mind, we weren't driving very fast to get here. I bet we're like a half a mile from where those lions were, and. That tall grass is not very far away, exactly. But when we so I walk around, there's there's a great, big, giant banyan tree, and I and I walk around that, and there's some guinea fowl. You ever see guinea fowl, They look like a chicken kind of right. They're a little bit bigger, but they looked like a chicken. And she had a whole bunch of hens and she made a clucking kind of a noise, and all the baby chicks, peepepeepepeep peep, come in and she kind of fluffed out her wings, and it was like eight chicks just disappeared, right, And then she was kind of dancing around. Everywhere I would walk, she would move to face me, and you can hear peepepeepee peep, but you can't see any of them. They're all hidden under her wings like that, right, And I was thinking that this is exactly what he's talking about is those little chicks had no protection. Now, of course she wasn't gonna do much either, but she was there, ready to risk her life to protect those baby chicks. And she was squaring off with me. And I'm two hundred none of your business pounds and she probably weighs like five pounds, right, But she's there, she's protecting these chicks. And those chicks knew instinctively when danger was here, I need to run underneath her wings. And so that was the immediate images I thought. And then it talks about how he holds me with it securely with his strong right hand, and I can remember my daughter, she's the youngest of my three and my two boys. I'm like, suck it up, buttercup, right, you're gonna be tough, be tough. I might have been a little too tough on them, but Jenna was exactly the opposite way. Jenna wrapped me around her finger the minute I saw her, and from that point on it was like, Okay, I'm gonna do whatever protect her. So but she always had this desire. She wanted to be tough. The boys were tough. She wanted to go do dangerous things and so I can remember we were at a carnival and there were these rides, and the ride might have been just a little bit too big for her, but the boys went and she really wanted to go, and Daddy come with me. So I get with her, and then, you know, it was a pretty rambunctious ride, one of those I don't know, spinner things or whatever, and she got really scared. She started crying. So I put my arm around her and pulled her in real tight, and she grabbed a hold of my arm like this, and by the end of the ride she was laughing. So it was scary when she felt like she was by herself trying. She was just trying to stay in the ride. You know what I mean, You're that little You're just trying to stay in the ride. The ride just bouncing all around, she's crashing all around. But when I grabbed her and pulled her in tight, she grabs onto my arm like that, and then at that point she's not bouncing around. She has a certain amount of security. And then it went from being terrifying to fun. And so we get off the off the the ride and he have you ever seen a kid that's laughing and crying at the same time. Yes, right, the little kids have this ability. So she's like, I don't know, like seven or eight years old, and she's got tears streaming down her face with a big smile on her face at the same time. And I think of that that that's this is what I say. I cling to you, and your strong right hand holds me securely. That's that's what he's He is our father. That when when the world is just bouncing us around, we feel like we're hanging on, trying not to fly out. Yeah, God puts his arm around his hangs on and then from that point it's not so bad. Yeah, that's great. Yeah yeah. And uh And David is once again talking about his enemies, right, yeah. Yeah, let's put that they'll go down to the depths of the earth. The Hebrew there is they're going to go to hell, right right, He's like, God, they're trying to ruin me, but I know they're going to hell. Yeah, And he says, he says they would die by the sword, they would become the they would become food for the jackal. Right, but the king will rejoicing God and all those put praising him in the while the liars will be silenced. So this is this is him basically proclaiming the future. And he says and he says, hey, regardless of how things look, right, now, here's what I know. What I know is God, You're going to give me the victory because I stand on the side. Of what is right, and and I. Know that You're going to accomplish this just like you always have. And think about David's you know, first fifteen years of his you know, race to the throne, right, how many battles could you count? Could he count on his fingers and toes where God just showed up and did miraculous thing against all odds and so and so David knows this is not unfamiliar with him. And so there's a sermon in there somewhere where it tells us to let's let's trust God for future, you know, fears based on his past deliveries. Right, So there's there's a better way to say that. So, so because of what I can trust to trust God's past faithfulness for that which lies ahead. So I think that, you know, it's a reminder if we can see God's hand in the small things, there's no reason to believe that he's not going to show up in the big things. And by the way, my brother keeps on texting me, this is so funny, he says. Their mission statement is on the website, but they mainly exist to show that scripture is supported and confirmed by science, right. They want to. Provide the information, the science and the research and the resource resources to quit believers and give them confidence of knowing that the Bible is supported by science. That's what it ists. So well it's in there then that sounds good. Yeah, yeah, I think that's good. So all right, well that is our time and so we will see you, hopefully next time on the Bible guys,