Curt Harlow [00:00:00]:
Hello, my friend Curt Harlow here, and you're listening to the Bible Study. It's the podcast where we take the Bayside teaching on all of our campuses. We do the same passage, same sermon series, and we actually take a deep dive into it. And our goal is to learn how to be better Bible study folks, to have some real integrity and some scholarship. Not eggheaded, but just very, very solid. Look in. How do you study the different genres of the Bible to get there original meaning? To help me do that, as always, we have Dena Davidson here. Dena, I did a little AI search on.
Curt Harlow [00:00:39]:
On the Bible study. Okay, who's watching and what's it about? Just to see. And immediately came up and said Dena Davidson, the co host, is there for her apologetics expertise.
Brannon Shortt [00:00:52]:
Wow, that's your resume down.
Curt Harlow [00:00:56]:
Adding to that apologetics expertise and much more, I might say, for Dena is one of my favorite communicators in the world. A really incredible. And thank God he went into preaching instead of playing professional baseball.
Brannon Shortt [00:01:07]:
That's right.
Curt Harlow [00:01:08]:
We got Brannon Shortt with us. Everyone thrilled to be here. Shout out to the Folsom campus.
Brannon Shortt [00:01:12]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:01:12]:
All right. We are in our last week of the Psalms. You guys, how did this happen?
Brannon Shortt [00:01:16]:
It went very quickly.
Curt Harlow [00:01:18]:
It went very quickly. The only songs we did was David. You know, he's like the special one, right? There's a whole lot more in there. Hopefully we'll come back to the Psalms again, but we're ending on Psalm 41, and at the end of the episode, I'm going to tell you where we're going next. You don't want to miss it. All right, all jabbering aside, let's read the whole Psalm. If you're with us and you're sitting down not driving, go ahead, pull up Psalm 41 and read this with us. Here we go.
Curt Harlow [00:01:45]:
Verse 1. Blessed are those who have regard for the weak. The Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them. They are counted among the blessed in the land. He does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness. I said, have mercy on me, Lord.
Curt Harlow [00:02:12]:
Heal me, for I have sinned against you. My enemies say of me in malice, when will he die and his name perish. When one of them comes to see me, he speaks falsely. Why? His heart gathers slander. Then he goes out, and he spreads it around. All my enemies whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me, saying, I a vile disease has afflicted him, he will never get up from the place where he lies. Even my close friend, someone I trust, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.
Curt Harlow [00:02:45]:
But may you have mercy on me, Lord, raise me up that I may repay him. I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me, because my integrity, you hold me and set me in your presence forever. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel. From everlasting to everlasting. Amen. And amen. Now, originally, the Hebrew, I believe. Dena, this was sung to the theme of Gilligan's Island.
Dena Davidson [00:03:14]:
Can we have a rendering? I'd love to hear that before.
Curt Harlow [00:03:16]:
There's not a. It's just kind of a light song in here where we have sickness and the poor and gossip, and it sounds like an episode of the Office and hear the gospel is going on. I had to just share this for everyone to hear. I was assigning who led what in our sermon prep meeting. So Mark and I kind of go back and forth and, you know, who gets to come and bring the research. And no one wanted to do the research for this song.
Brannon Shortt [00:03:42]:
Sure.
Curt Harlow [00:03:43]:
And it was because everyone was busy with Breakaway and a lot of the things at Bayside, but I was like, hey, will you do this? Will you do this? And so I text Dean. I said, I know you're not actually preaching this psalm because I usually pick someone who's, you know, going to do the work anyway. And Dean's like, I would love to do it. And I'm like, this is why you are such a theology nerd. And you came into sermon prep, Dena. And I repented the whole way. I was like, yeah, this is probably the best sermon prep we've had. You did a killer job.
Curt Harlow [00:04:14]:
And I doubt that this song could be turned into a great sermon. Was squished.
Brannon Shortt [00:04:20]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:04:20]:
So all that to say, give us some insight. What in the world is going on here? Dena Davidson.
Dena Davidson [00:04:25]:
Okay, I. I am so glad that I got this psalm, because it's a lament psalm. And so we did a specific form of a lament psalm last week, Psalm 35, which is an imprecatory psalm where specifically we have someone calling down curses on their enemies. So we have a little bit of that going on, but more, it's just a lament. And a lament is this old lost Christian word which means to cry out in anguish. And personally, I love. I love lament psalms because I think they call us to an experience we've lost in the modern day church. And so when you assigned me, I was like, okay, I've got this, because this has been.
Curt Harlow [00:05:06]:
Your heart just leapt for joy that you're going to do a sad thing.
Dena Davidson [00:05:09]:
Yes, because I know that this is something that we desperately need. And that's why the biggest category of psalms in the book of Psalms is lament. Psalms.
Curt Harlow [00:05:20]:
Yes.
Dena Davidson [00:05:21]:
Apparently the world is very broken, and there is a lot of Genesis 3 onward things to cry out to God about. And that's why we have this passage here. So do you want me to go into the structure of Psalm 41?
Curt Harlow [00:05:34]:
Yeah, absolutely. I like the structure and the. The. The overall thing. Everything you can remember?
Dena Davidson [00:05:39]:
Yes. Okay.
Curt Harlow [00:05:40]:
There was a lot in there.
Dena Davidson [00:05:41]:
I've got my beautiful notes right here.
Brannon Shortt [00:05:42]:
Do it.
Dena Davidson [00:05:43]:
Okay. David is the author of this psalm. It's the end of book one, which, if you didn't know, the book of Psalms is actually split into four different books. And this is a lament psalm, and it's a chiasm. So a chiasm is something that is really interesting. So it's a different form of poetry. So we. We arrange our poems through rhyming, right.
Dena Davidson [00:06:06]:
And so we pull out meaning through rhyming. But Hebrew poetry, they did it a little bit differently. So they liked to arrange their poems through symmetry. So the repetition over and over again. And in particular, it follows a certain structure like A, B, C, B, A. And the middle of the psalm, the middle of the repetition, it kind of. It forms a visual arrow, as one scholar has said. A visual arrow for where we, the readers or the listeners or the people singing these psalms, where we're supposed to focus.
Dena Davidson [00:06:41]:
And so as I was diving in and studying this concept, one of the things that jumped out to me is, you know, I'm in charge of sermon prep. So I'm like, all right, well, where am I gonna bring the gospel? Because if I don't bring the gospel, Mark's gonna be like, there's no gospel in this message, and it's gonna be a real problem situation. So I'm looking for the gospel, and I'm looking where we're go do this giant climax and bring him to the feet of Jesus. And I was challenged because if be not if. Because this is a chiastic structure, then what. What we're pointed to is the very middle of the psalm. Can I read you the very middle of the psalm?
Curt Harlow [00:07:15]:
Reread that part.
Dena Davidson [00:07:16]:
It's not mercy. It's not, praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen. And amen. Here is the beginning. Here is the middle. My enemies say of me in malice, when will he die and his name perish. And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words while his heart gathers iniquity.
Dena Davidson [00:07:34]:
When he goes out, he tells it abroad. All who hate me whisper together about me. They imagine the worse for me. They say a deadly thing is poured out on him. He will not rise again from where he lies. Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. So the visual arrow, the center, the heart of this psalm, the thing that David most wants us to know, is that he is sick and he's being mistreated.
Brannon Shortt [00:08:01]:
Yeah.
Dena Davidson [00:08:01]:
And, yeah, God's in there. Praise is in there. But the center of the psalm, the ultimate meaning is this is a faithful follower of God, of Yahweh, and his life is in shambles. And so he is crying out to God and basically saying, this is my state, God. And so I. That was personally very correcting to me. Like, I'm looking for meaning. I'm looking for gospel.
Dena Davidson [00:08:27]:
But sometimes it's enough just to acknowledge the human problem, the problem of existence, and that's what's going on in this psalm.
Curt Harlow [00:08:36]:
Very good. Can both be true, though? Can there be an echo of David being a type of Christ in here and it's just plain old him being sick?
Dena Davidson [00:08:45]:
I think absolutely it can be both. I'm always gonna challenge the one that we don't pay attention to. So I think we're always, like, looking for Christ, looking for the Messiah in the Old Testament, and that's good. But Christ is throughout. This is a specific psalm that is pointing to what it is like to be alive and following Jesus. And I think it's really important because we all. You can speak to this, Brian. You and I have had this conversation, but there's these stages in our relationship with God.
Dena Davidson [00:09:18]:
And a stage that is very, very challenging to overcome is the stage where you're disappointed in God. And the fundamental reason it's hard to overcome is because your theology won't allow you to acknowledge that you're there. I can't, actually. I don't have theology to voice that I'm disappointed in God. And so I can't even begin to cross over this wilderness because I can't say that I'm there in that wilderness of disappointment.
Curt Harlow [00:09:44]:
Being honest with God about your disappointment feels like a sin to us.
Dena Davidson [00:09:47]:
Yes, for sure it does.
Curt Harlow [00:09:48]:
Even though it doesn't make any of the Ten Commandments or the six hundred and semi. And in fact, is Modeled here over and over again, 100%.
Brannon Shortt [00:09:59]:
It's interesting too, if you don't mind me on this one, I find it really beautiful. One, to your point, what you just said, you do feel, and we've had many people, we've all been through it on the humanity level that you feel like if you ask that question or you open that door, what if the whole thing crumbles? So not just like sin, if I ask these harder questions, do I lose my faith at the end of this road? Am I able to put this back together? Is God actually going to be with me as we put these pieces back together and build something maybe I didn't even have in my faith before? But I think one of the cool things in this, to your point, Dena, we, I said this weekend, Christ incarnated. He took on flesh and skin and experiences an immense amount of betrayal like he. So even on the Jesus piece of this, we're always looking for the cross, resurrection and again, get it. But at some level too, like Jesus enters these moments too. He also prays. Why have you forsaken me? Praying. A psalm, right?
Dena Davidson [00:11:00]:
Exactly.
Brannon Shortt [00:11:01]:
To God from across, you know, so there's a, there's a Jesusness in the humanity of it too, as a God who chose to take on our flesh.
Curt Harlow [00:11:08]:
So we've said this, and I'm gonna say this, and I got a follow up question for you, Brannon. Yeah, you know, we've said this multiple times as we've studied this is that knowing the story of David is important to get in the context of this. So I think, Dean, I 100% agree with you in that just the visceral honesty and the visceral pain of David is enough of a point for us. We were preaching what was the psalm from last week? 35. Thank you. You know, I said that one of the big points of this psalm is not that we're to create dogma from every emotion David has is, but we're to learn how safe David felt in praying. So we don't pray our safe little prayers. We pray these outlandishly honest prayers.
Curt Harlow [00:11:54]:
And that is no, in no way a sin because as Kevin Thompson said in his version of that Psalm 35 sermon, if we don't pray out our anger, our anger will prey on us. And I really think that's true.
Brannon Shortt [00:12:08]:
Agree.
Curt Harlow [00:12:09]:
Having said that, though, I can't help but my first reading of this, and I wasn't even thinking about the chiasmic arrows, I got to verse seven and my first reading was, oh, this sounds like every Office space I've ever been in. Everyone's whispering. The hallway meeting. And then as I read it a second time, all my enemies whisper together against me. I thought of Judas sneaking off to make the deal and the arrangement in quiet. Yes, they imagine the worst for me. Yes, it's exactly what they're doing. This guy grazed Lazarus.
Curt Harlow [00:12:48]:
We have to put him to death. This is it. This is. We're going to put him to death. They imagine the worst. A vile disease has afflicted him. Here is Judas following Jesus for three and a half years. And you know, whether he's demon possessed or a vile disease is afflicted, it was very good.
Curt Harlow [00:13:06]:
He will never get up from the place where he lies. He commits suicide. Even my close friend, someone I trusted, who shared my bread. So now this could still be him talking about Judas. Could also be Peter has turned against me. I mean, I don't think David is intentionally doing any of this, but to your point, Brannon, it is. It's almost impossible to not find Christ almost anywhere. You look for him in the Old Testament.
Dena Davidson [00:13:33]:
Absolutely.
Curt Harlow [00:13:34]:
Now, having said that, you asked a question where we're off air that I think is like I've been telling my folks every single weekend, find the difficult question and ask it honestly. Last week it was curses. Should we be praying against Billy in hr who's neither human nor resourceful? So he said, God call a curse down upon the HR department in my company because of the benefits they've restricted.
Brannon Shortt [00:13:58]:
From me and make it a surprise when.
Curt Harlow [00:14:02]:
Read Psalms 35. You don't understand it all, but there's a. There's one question I think that it's a hard question in this, and it absolutely makes the psalm powerful if you're brave enough to ask it. And you asked it before when we're out there, what's the question?
Brannon Shortt [00:14:15]:
It's verse 10. May you have mercy on me, Lord. Raise me up that I may repay them. Have mercy on me and raise me back up. Get me out of this sick bed I'm laying in. And when you do, I'll repay them.
Curt Harlow [00:14:30]:
Yes.
Brannon Shortt [00:14:30]:
And then there's. There's at least three angles to view that. And I think what was cool to say off air and now on is the fact that.
Curt Harlow [00:14:38]:
On record.
Brannon Shortt [00:14:39]:
Yeah, on record.
Curt Harlow [00:14:40]:
Yeah.
Brannon Shortt [00:14:42]:
We won't know exactly until we asked David one day exactly which angle he was saying. Like, I think there is a. Worth holding the mystery of it. One of my favorite Psalms scholars has this line where he says, the Psalms depict to us many things, but one thing that depicts over and over is nothing's off limit in prayer. Nothing.
Curt Harlow [00:15:01]:
That's so good.
Brannon Shortt [00:15:02]:
There's nothing off limit in prayer.
Curt Harlow [00:15:04]:
That's it.
Brannon Shortt [00:15:05]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:15:05]:
I always said if you gossip in your prayer closet, if you argue in your prayer closet, if you debate in your prayer closet, if you accuse in your prayer closet to God, you'll argue, debate, and accuse far less in your real life. And it's not just a cathartic thing. You know, actually, that sort of catharticism with your anger doesn't help. Research says what it is is that when you say all this to God, God says two things to you, I think, that are very, very transformative. He says, I know. I see you. I saw everything. No one else saw all that.
Curt Harlow [00:15:38]:
No one else knows how hard that was for you. Yes, I see. And then he says, Dena, you said this so clever before. Do you remember exactly what your phrase was about once? I complain about all the faults of my enemies than God has?
Dena Davidson [00:15:55]:
Yeah. I was sharing on last week's episode basically, like, I encourage everyone to write an imprecatory psalm. And when I did it the previous week. So going into teaching that episode, I had a complaint against someone, and I was just so riled up about it. And so I did this practice. I. I wrote out my complaint to God about that person. I'm working really hard not to say their name in the air right now.
Brannon Shortt [00:16:20]:
Curt Harlow is the name of that person.
Curt Harlow [00:16:22]:
I was on vacation.
Dena Davidson [00:16:23]:
He was on vacation. He did nothing wrong. And so I wrote out my case, and I got my complaint out to God, and it was an accurate complaint. And then I just felt the Lord say, that was good. That's accurate. You have a case there, and now I have a case against you.
Curt Harlow [00:16:40]:
And he just, wait, wait, wait, wait, Bri. If you're looking for the moment to put on Instagram, I think we just found it.
Brannon Shortt [00:16:46]:
That was it.
Dena Davidson [00:16:48]:
And it was such a raw and helpful conversation because I felt so justified in my complaint. And truthfully, it was justified. But I wasn't without blame. My hands weren't clean. And so that I think, unless I had gotten that out, unless I had trusted the Lord in prayer to say what felt off limits. But I knew because I'd read the psalms, like, I can have this conversation with God. It opened up such a conversation that God had probably been wanting to have with me for a while, but I was too busy ruminating on my complaints complaint against them to hear God's complaint against me.
Curt Harlow [00:17:23]:
So let me ask you this question. After God had that little convicting moment with you. Did you feel more healthy or less healthy?
Dena Davidson [00:17:34]:
Oh, so healthy. Your soul knows when it's off.
Curt Harlow [00:17:39]:
Yeah.
Dena Davidson [00:17:39]:
And I think that's one of the reasons we're anxious. It's one of the reasons we are depressed. It's because there's real. That's not by any means all the reasons. One of the reasons I won't even speak for others, for me, often my anxiety, often my just deep rooted sadness is I know something's off. And so when I can hear the voice of the Lord say this, Dena, this is what is off in you right now. This is the perspective shift that I'm calling you to. This is the forgiveness I'm asking you to walk in.
Dena Davidson [00:18:13]:
You feel healthier. It's always good to hear God's voice.
Curt Harlow [00:18:15]:
I've worked on teams with you for a lot of years, Dana, and I know you're a person of very high integrity. And so I imagine you have high integrity Dena, who knows something is off and you have angry Dena, who has been offended.
Dena Davidson [00:18:29]:
Yes, 100.
Curt Harlow [00:18:31]:
In a way that only God can do.
Brannon Shortt [00:18:33]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:18:33]:
So, like if my spouse tries this with me or my close friend tries with me, a lot of times it doesn't work. Like, hey, you know, you got problems too.
Dena Davidson [00:18:41]:
Yeah, exactly.
Curt Harlow [00:18:42]:
But when God does it, somehow those two Denas just become Denah or those two Curt's just become Gert. And that's where the health is. Like, both are true. I was offended. I am not blameless. And now I can have grace on this offense. And I just think it's. That is the point of especially the lament Psalms.
Dena Davidson [00:19:02]:
And to what Brannon was saying is we actually don't know which David we're dealing with. We don't know if we're dealing with the David who was offended and just so he wanted to go out and repay his enemies.
Brannon Shortt [00:19:13]:
Raise me up, I'm swinging back.
Dena Davidson [00:19:14]:
That's right, ye. Or we don't know if we're dealing with the righteous anointed King David who's been given this holy mission from God to go out and to fight his enemies. I don't know if we're dealing with that David, who's saying, I have this anointing on my life to execute justice and raise me up, God, as you have in the past, because I will do the job. I will go slay Goliath once more.
Brannon Shortt [00:19:35]:
Right. It's interesting to hearken back to what you said, though. One of the things I think when you were saying, I wrote this psalm out for myself and then felt the conviction back. I do find it interesting that one of the pieces of context we know is that he's sick. And I think that can be something that's sick in his body. And that can be something we read over pretty quickly. And if we do the work of dragging our feet into who we are when we are sick, I, I, this all of a sudden feels much more tangible to me. And it's interesting to me that right before he says the word my enemies, he says, heal me, for I've sinned.
Brannon Shortt [00:20:12]:
Now, I'm not drawing a straight line. Please, anyone listening here? I'm not drawing a straight line from his sin to his condition. That's a really dangerous theological malpractice we can do. But I find it interesting that he's been slowed down. And it's interesting, I think when you get slowed down, even if it's something by being sick, you have, you can have more clarity there than you do when all of the rest of life is spent. So he's slowed down, he's sick. And before he actually even gets to the part about his enemies, there's this, heal me. My hands aren't all the way clean either.
Brannon Shortt [00:20:48]:
I have sinned as well. And it's interesting that he's got the clarity on his own sin in the midst of a condition that we don't know exactly what it was. We just know that anytime we're sick, it slows us down and everything else stops. So I find it interesting that if you're in a situation that feels very difficult, and I'm not saying all the whys, none of us can answer that, or what all God's doing in it and what he's going to do, but if there's something that is in your life right now that you didn't ask for and didn't want, but it slowed you down, it also may give you a moment that you have more clarity on where you're actually at, at your own soul level than you did when everything else and every other ball was spinning.
Curt Harlow [00:21:23]:
Okay, so let me ask you guys to take a position here. Best guess, Take a position.
Brannon Shortt [00:21:27]:
I like it.
Curt Harlow [00:21:27]:
Best guess in pencil.
Brannon Shortt [00:21:28]:
I only write in pencil.
Curt Harlow [00:21:29]:
Where in the David story is, is this, is this, is Saul chasing him through the caves? Is he at the height of his kingly powers? Is it just recent post Bathsheba? Is it right before the kingdom splits because of Absalom, or is it during the Absalom civil war? What is your best guess? And I ask only because I Already know my. My guess.
Dena Davidson [00:21:57]:
You go first, then you say it.
Curt Harlow [00:21:59]:
No, because then no, you want to be right. Okay, I'll go first. As long as you guys go. I've got my answer.
Dena Davidson [00:22:04]:
I've got my answer.
Curt Harlow [00:22:05]:
You got your answer? You got your answer. Okay. I think it's right before Absalom, civil war. Now, we don't know for sure. Scholars go it's either at the height of the kingdom or during the Absalom thing. It doesn't sound Saul ish to you? Because he is. The reference here isn't, I'm on the run. The reference is, I'm settled and sick, I think.
Curt Harlow [00:22:27]:
Okay, and then I'll answer. I'll take a position on the. Is it right for us to say, God, raise me up so that I may conquer them, repay them?
Brannon Shortt [00:22:36]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:22:37]:
I will say, yes, it is if we are the prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and the king. And by the way, some of you are raising your hand. Some of you are raising your hand out there. Yeah, Portia. Yeah. Put it down. And we are being anointed by God to hold the nation of Israel together so that the bloodline of the Messiah can be preserved. So in other words, there's Check, check.
Curt Harlow [00:23:05]:
There is some context in here. So like I told my congregation, listen on all these go get my enemy psalms, you gotta start with, you're not David, you know, good place to start again. Susan, who's ahead of your HOA and wants you to paint your driveway different is not Absalom or Saul. Okay? So, yeah, yeah. But I also think this, I would say my position on this is David could easily say this, easily mean it about Absalom, his own son. Make me better. And I'm going to go get that kid.
Dena Davidson [00:23:43]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:23:43]:
I'm going to repay him. And in the very next psalm that David writes and sings, he could say, oh, God, my son, my son. Where is my son? And I wanna. And you see that heart of David wanting to reconciliation in the Absalom story, Both can be true. It's not a glimpse into the dogma of God.
Brannon Shortt [00:24:01]:
Yes, that's right.
Curt Harlow [00:24:01]:
It's a glimpse into the honesty we can be with God. To your really well made point earlier, Dino. So that's my position, is, yes, you can do it if you're King David, the foreshadowing of Messiah, that's your pick.
Brannon Shortt [00:24:12]:
Of when it was written.
Dena Davidson [00:24:13]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:24:14]:
What's that?
Dena Davidson [00:24:14]:
Curt's just gonna think I copied him. But I think it's the same. Like there's the Story that stands out to me is when is so old and frail that this man who's had a problem with women all throughout his story, he's so old and frail that they literally bring this, they select this virgin and they're like, just lay with him in bed cuz he's so old and sick. Just keep his body warm. And the, the scripture is so specific, he doesn't touch her. And I'm just like I, to me there's that a humility and a learnedness and a brought lowness in David's story that to me matches this psalm right here. So that's, I don't know. That's my best guess.
Curt Harlow [00:24:50]:
That's a great example. Descriptive versus prescriptive action.
Dena Davidson [00:24:55]:
Go read the story.
Brannon Shortt [00:24:56]:
Exactly.
Dena Davidson [00:24:57]:
I'm sick. You know what I mean?
Curt Harlow [00:24:59]:
You don't do this to your great grandfather.
Brannon Shortt [00:25:02]:
Yes, this is absolutely.
Curt Harlow [00:25:03]:
Get him electric blanket.
Dena Davidson [00:25:04]:
Feel so good.
Brannon Shortt [00:25:06]:
I think it's somewhere in the AB story too, but I find it interesting. And again, I know.
Curt Harlow [00:25:10]:
So we all three agree it's somewhere in the Absalom story.
Brannon Shortt [00:25:12]:
But it's, it's that, it's those verses, it's the. Even the close friend, somebody I trusted. And then I love how again the songwriter in my me, I love that he says the tender line of, you shared bread with me.
Dena Davidson [00:25:23]:
Yeah.
Brannon Shortt [00:25:23]:
And I, I had a very close mentor one time say the people you trust most in life are the people you share the sacredness of meals with and you can actually fall asleep in their presence. Like that's very vulnerable. Like if somebody comes over to my house and I actually go to my room and go to sleep, I better really trust them. They're in my house.
Dena Davidson [00:25:44]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:25:44]:
Like so one of my best friends in the world, Brian Carpenter, Refuge Foundation. Check it out.
Brannon Shortt [00:25:49]:
Shout out to our sponsors.
Curt Harlow [00:25:52]:
We were on a Refuge trip this summer and Brian and I were strategizing about some future stuff in Refuge and he was telling me the plans and I was giving him a little advice like we always do. And we're going back and forth and we're driving from the river back to billings, about a 90 minute drive. And I said to him, I said, brian, I love you and I want to help with you. You I'm going to close my eyes.
Brannon Shortt [00:26:13]:
Now because you trust him.
Curt Harlow [00:26:15]:
Yeah. And then the next week he's at the table time they do at Refuge.
Brannon Shortt [00:26:20]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:26:20]:
And he said, let me give you the definition of friend that at any moment in the conversation they can turn to you and say, hey, I'm going to Close my eyes now.
Brannon Shortt [00:26:27]:
Right.
Curt Harlow [00:26:28]:
And I went right to sleep.
Brannon Shortt [00:26:30]:
Okay, wait. You got to say this, Curt, because you're the only guy you. The food thing, the bread, like. Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:26:36]:
Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Brannon Shortt [00:26:37]:
There's no denying that any one of us, especially if you love food like Curt and I, I think maybe you, too, Dena. But as, like, an unapologetic foodie, if you share that, not only is it sacred, it's interesting to me that a lot of the best conversations we've ever had in any of our lives are around that table. The 30% of what Jesus does is around that table. And I love that in his prayer. It's tender enough. No matter what age and stages he's in, he's like, this was somebody close to me. God, all those conversations we had over. Over dinner, if you go back and.
Curt Harlow [00:27:07]:
Look at your life, where. When. And where did you laugh the most? Was it a movie?
Brannon Shortt [00:27:11]:
100%.
Curt Harlow [00:27:11]:
Was it a. Wasn't a play. It was at a table with friends. So true.
Brannon Shortt [00:27:15]:
In a great conversation, when.
Curt Harlow [00:27:17]:
What evenings did you go when it was over? You go, God, that was incredible.
Brannon Shortt [00:27:21]:
Right.
Curt Harlow [00:27:21]:
I can remember early on in my ministry, one time I had a bunch of my favorite student leaders over, and we played charades afterwards. And I remember waking up the next morning and go, did that really happen? And was it that good?
Brannon Shortt [00:27:34]:
Right?
Curt Harlow [00:27:34]:
It was, like, unbelievably good. So people say your favorite thing in the world to do is fly fishing. Nope. It's very close. Your favorite thing in the world to do is preaching. Nope. It's very close. My favorite thing in the world to do is cooking.
Brannon Shortt [00:27:46]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:27:46]:
And talking and eating and laughing.
Dena Davidson [00:27:49]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:27:49]:
With people I love.
Brannon Shortt [00:27:50]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:27:51]:
And it's just. And there's a ton of science. Okay, we're running out of time, so I got to go back to Dena, who brought the profound expertise here. And we have to talk about verses 1, 2, and 3. In fact, we got this whole backwards. Yeah, it's the Bible study. And we did the Bible study.
Dena Davidson [00:28:05]:
We went right to the middle, which is the structure, which was right for.
Curt Harlow [00:28:08]:
The structure in a psalm about why in a psalm about sickness, discouragement, enemies, gossip, betrayal, does David start with not just a discussion about the poor and the weak, but what the benefits are of being a person who has a heart for the poor and the weakness. Dena Davidson. Why does he start with this first verse? Blessed are those who regard. Have regard for the weak.
Dena Davidson [00:28:38]:
Yeah, I think it actually does come back to the middle. So this is going to set up the position that David is in. He is weak. I, I take the viewpoint that when they're talking about being poor, it's not just, it could be economic poverty, but I think it's more than that. It's poverty of, of. In David's case, he's ill. Poverty is lacking some good thing. And so for David, that good thing was health.
Dena Davidson [00:29:05]:
And I think that he starts there because clearly the, the Old Testament has this like, blessings and cursings way that it's set up. Like, do good things, you get the blessings of God. Do bad things, you get curses. And so if you're in a good position, if you're not poor, therefore you have the blessing of God. And David is acknowledging that while there is blessings and curses, there's a bigger story going on and that is that we are all living in the grace of God. And he's really setting up the upside down kingdom that Jesus comes and he preaches in its fullness. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, blessed are the poor. And that is what David is saying.
Dena Davidson [00:29:45]:
He is saying, blessed is the one who considers the poor. Why? Because that is who God is on the side of. God is on the side of those who are not fortunate and who are not possessing all the blessings of this world, which was David in that moment. So I think he was really just setting up what he was going to lament and saying, because I'm in this situation, all of you think that God has abandoned me. Not so. God has not abandoned the king. God has not abandoned me. This is not.
Dena Davidson [00:30:13]:
I'm not lying here because of some guilt on my hands. Blessed are those that consider the poor because that is the person that God is considering.
Curt Harlow [00:30:22]:
Love it. You got anything to add to that?
Brannon Shortt [00:30:24]:
I'm not going to try to add to that.
Curt Harlow [00:30:25]:
Okay, that was a great one little thought.
Brannon Shortt [00:30:27]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:30:28]:
This is where I live dangerously. I add to Dena Davidson. That's a dangerous thing to do.
Brannon Shortt [00:30:33]:
That was a good cut.
Curt Harlow [00:30:35]:
Completely and totally agree. And I love the fact that this is the first arrow that points down. And I love your analysis is exactly correct. I would say also David's presenting his resume to God here. And is it okay to complain to God or tell God or remind God what you've been doing? And I think David is a king who cared for the weak. The mighty men were the weakest of the king kingdom and they were attracted to them and they went from the worst to first in his leadership culture. So I think he's going here and it's almost like he's reminding God of his Promises. So he's talking more about God.
Curt Harlow [00:31:17]:
Look at me. I had all the authority and I lifted up the poor. I canceled the debt. I gave purpose to so many that didn't have purpose. And I'm telling you, God, you're going to preserve me because of that. I'm going to be blessed because of that. So, of course, again, the point here is it's okay to be honest and go, I've said this to God sometimes, God, I have really worked hard to love my children. Work this out.
Dena Davidson [00:31:43]:
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:31:44]:
I have worked really hard for this congregation, for this staff, for this team, and this is not solving itself. I think it's okay to say that and it's okay to listen to God. You know, the whisper I get back usually is this Dena now. Yeah, I'm on it. Not near time. Not near time, but I'm, I'm on it. And then, of course, then just on the front of it, I do think, especially in regards to our highly contentious, very uncivil, Internet driven culture of trolling comments like what happened to that couple at Coldplay that cheating on?
Brannon Shortt [00:32:20]:
That was.
Curt Harlow [00:32:21]:
That was sad.
Brannon Shortt [00:32:22]:
Yep.
Curt Harlow [00:32:23]:
Not unexpected though. Oh, oh. There's unfaithful people in our world.
Brannon Shortt [00:32:27]:
Right. And they go to concerts.
Curt Harlow [00:32:28]:
What was so sad to me was, let's just make sure everyone knows we're better than those people.
Dena Davidson [00:32:36]:
Yeah, yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:32:37]:
I'm like, half the memes being put out there probably were from adulterous people.
Brannon Shortt [00:32:41]:
Sure. 100.
Curt Harlow [00:32:43]:
It just. I really am praying and this will be my application. Then I'll go on to you guys. There's a lot of applications we could do here, but here's the one I would say we have to have much more tendered hearts to the weak of all sorts in our life. Even if they're wrong, even if they're illegal, even if they're mean to us. I'd say it is a very, very difficult thing to be trapped in the cycle of poor and weak. And the calling and flavor and texture of followers of Christ has got to be, we bless the weak. We regard the them, we consider them.
Curt Harlow [00:33:21]:
And what does that mean? They're humans. They've got the image of God on them. A softening of heart towards everyone who is supposedly our opponent or supposedly didn't do the right thing. And now they're caught in all sort of trouble. And we're like, see, I just. Man, I don't know how you live a blessed heart with a hard heart towards the weak. So soften our hearts towards the weak. It would Be mine.
Curt Harlow [00:33:45]:
That's not the biggest point in the. The chapter. Dena, how would you apply this? And Brannon, you get the last word.
Brannon Shortt [00:33:50]:
Boom.
Dena Davidson [00:33:50]:
Yeah. Okay. I am just going to call us to lament. I think the heart of lament is living in truth. And when we refuse to lament, we refuse to live in truth. And God is the God of truth. And how can we be followers of Jesus, understand the biblical story and yet refuse to. On the regular.
Dena Davidson [00:34:14]:
Yeah, like, Psalms does, like, acknowledge the brokenness that lives in the world? I remember speaking at this women's event, and I was teaching on, why does God allow evil and suffering? And this woman at the end, she said, I just. I'm gonna confess. We were doing Q and A. I'm gonna confess. I am actually not really disturbed by anything. Like, my life's been pretty good, and I feel like I don't have this beef with God, and I. I just kind of, like, felt this check. Normally, I'd be like, that's awesome.
Dena Davidson [00:34:43]:
I don't wanna give you a beef with God. But I lovingly, like, I looked at her and I said, I think you probably do. You just haven't had the honest conversation with God. And if it's true that no injustice has happened to you, there's lots of injustice in the world. Become familiar with it. So you have something to lament about, because that's part of the call of believers. And so application me as a dean and Davidson on the regular, I have to say, God, here is the pain in my life. Here is the pain in my family's life.
Dena Davidson [00:35:17]:
Here is the pain in my church's life. Here is the pain in the world that I see. I can't do anything about this. I can do what you enable me to do. But you're the promiser. You're the one who says, I'm promising Revelation 21, a story that doesn't look like the middle of the story. So, God, start it now. Start to heal these people.
Dena Davidson [00:35:39]:
Start to step into that pain. And we can't pray those prayers if we're unwilling to live in the truth of lament. Cry out to God the pain that you have in your life, in the life of the people that you love and in your world.
Brannon Shortt [00:35:53]:
Yeah, love it.
Curt Harlow [00:35:54]:
To lament is to live honest. I love that.
Brannon Shortt [00:35:57]:
I love. I appreciate, as a church, that we're going after these things because I said this to our congregation recently, that you can skip these passages in your reading. You just can't skip betrayal in your life. Like, you can't skip that that stuff actually happens. So I double down on Dena's point here, but I remember being 17 and probably been a believer a couple years, and a man sat me down and said, to live honestly with God, you're going to have to be able to lament. And I said, well, how do I lament? And he looked at me and he said, well, do you believe God cares about you? I said, yes, absolutely. He goes, then always structure your lament under the fact that God cares. Cares enough to hear it, cares enough to take it on, cares, all of that.
Brannon Shortt [00:36:41]:
But he said, right, I want you to write down the. The word care. So I wrote it down. And he goes, write these words out. Complain, appeal to God's character. Remind him of his promises.
Curt Harlow [00:36:53]:
That's it.
Brannon Shortt [00:36:53]:
And express trust.
Dena Davidson [00:36:55]:
That's good.
Brannon Shortt [00:36:55]:
And he said, so that's how I would teach you to lament. And he used that beautiful line, too. I can't believe you said it. We didn't talk about this beforehand, but when he said, remind God of his promises, he goes, the beauty in that. He goes, the secret sauce like it's space. James Him. He goes, the beauty in that is God didn't forget. But it does have this uncanny way of reminding you.
Brannon Shortt [00:37:16]:
So you're reminding God of his promises, and in so doing, God's reminding you of what he promised to do. So complain, call out, appeal to God's character, remind God of his promises, and ultimately express trust.
Curt Harlow [00:37:26]:
Love it, love it, love it, love it. All right, my friends, that's the last time we'll ever study the psalms on the Bible study.
Brannon Shortt [00:37:33]:
And until then, No, I was just.
Curt Harlow [00:37:35]:
I was just. Book one of four. That's right. So if you haven't listened to all these, go back on the YouTube, get a hold of these. The Bible study podcast, Thrive Podcast Network. You're going to see a lot of other podcasts there, by the way. They're wonderful. Next week, we are starting my favorite book in the New Testament.
Curt Harlow [00:37:56]:
Now, as a pastor, you're not supposed to have a favorite book, but this is confession time. I got a favorite book.
Brannon Shortt [00:38:00]:
Wow.
Curt Harlow [00:38:00]:
Now, if I was one of those cool theologian types that. That, you know, smokes European cigarettes and sits in cafes and drinks black coffee all day and thinks they're. And they wear boots even though it's the summer. If I was one of those theologians, I would say Romans is my favorite book, but it's. It's not. I like Romans a lot, but I love the book of Ephesians.
Brannon Shortt [00:38:23]:
Why?
Curt Harlow [00:38:24]:
Because it's the ADHD Romans. It's so great at telling the story of salvation for about half the book, and then the other half of the book is the most beautiful psychologically in depth. I mean, it just matches all the research of today, 2000 years ago. Practical. What then should I do about this grace story in all my relationships, in my marriage with my kids, my family, in how I treat other people and how we function as a church? So don't miss a single episode of the podcast. In fact, I encourage you to reread Ephesians right now so you'll be ready next week and we'll just go verse by verse by verse by verse. And by the way, if you're near any of our campuses, you should get there on the weekend and listen to this teaching as well. It's gonna be a great way to start the fall, the school year.
Curt Harlow [00:39:15]:
It's kind of one of those reboot moments in our year. So do not miss the Bible study podcast as we look idea by idea in the book of Ephesians.