Reflective Bible Study

Picking up where we left off in our last episode, for this episode we will look at a psalm that contains a similar theme as we focused on for our last episode. While on the surface, this psalm focuses on David, at several parts of it though, we find foreshadowing of David’s descendant, the Messiah, and some fascinating details within this psalm speak to the Messiah being both David’s descendant as well as God’s own Son.

I suspect that later on, as we begin wrapping up this year of podcasting the prophecies Jesus fulfilled, we’ll circle back around and look at this theme again.

However, since we are looking at prophecies that relate to Jesus’ birth, let’s dive into this psalm and discover together some additional things connecting Jesus’ life and ministry to David’s life. Our psalm and prophetic passage for this episode is Psalm, chapter 89, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 19, the psalmist writes:

¹⁹ Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones,
And said, “I have given help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
²⁰ “I have found David My servant;
With My holy oil I have anointed him,
²¹ With whom My hand will be established;
My arm also will strengthen him.
²² “The enemy will not deceive him,
Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
²³ “But I shall crush his adversaries before him,
And strike those who hate him.
²⁴ “My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him,
And in My name his horn will be exalted.
²⁵ “I shall also set his hand on the sea
And his right hand on the rivers.
²⁶ “He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father,
My God, and the rock of my salvation.’
²⁷ “I also shall make him My firstborn,
The highest of the kings of the earth.
²⁸ “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever,
And My covenant shall be confirmed to him.
²⁹ “So I will establish his descendants forever
And his throne as the days of heaven.

Pausing reading this psalm briefly, what is described here is amazing. For those familiar with David’s family, he was the youngest son of several sons, but here God describes making him His first-born son, and the highest of the kings of the earth. I suspect that the One described in verses 26-29 not only represents David on one level, but also the Messiah.

In these few verses, we find the person being described as calling God His Father, being made a firstborn, being the highest of the kings of the earth, having His covenant confirmed to Him, having His descendants be established forever, and making His throne as the days of heaven. While some of these descriptive ideas can easily relate to David, others lean more towards the Messiah as one of David’s descendants.

Let’s continue reading this psalm. Picking back up in verse 30, the psalmist continues writing:

³⁰ “If his sons forsake My law
And do not walk in My judgments,
³¹ If they violate My statutes
And do not keep My commandments,
³² Then I will punish their transgression with the rod
And their iniquity with stripes.
³³ “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him,
Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.
³⁴ “My covenant I will not violate,
Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.
³⁵ “Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David.
³⁶ “His descendants shall endure forever
And his throne as the sun before Me.
³⁷ “It shall be established forever like the moon,
And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah.

In this psalm, we get the amazing picture that from David’s descendants, we can find the Messiah. We focused on this theme during our last episode.

However, two subtle ideas are present in this psalm that are worth paying attention to, and they are the reason I didn’t simply combine our last episode with this one.

The first subtle idea is that the one described in this psalm will call God His Father. While I suspect that David related to God the Father as His Father, this would also be equally, if not more true, with the Messiah. We can see this as we look back at Luke’s gospel, to the passage we focused in on from the gospels in our last episode, which was in Luke, chapter 1, starting in verse 26. However, instead of stopping where we stopped in our last episode, let’s finish this conversation off.

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” ³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Tucked within this brief conversation, we discover a paradox. Within Gabriel’s conversation with Mary, we discover that her Son, Jesus, would be the Son of not only David, since verse 32 describes God giving Jesus the throne of His father David, but also the Son of God, as is described in verse 35. In a strange, paradoxical twist, Joseph, Mary’s fiancée at that time and her eventual husband, would not be the biological father of Jesus. Instead, Jesus’ Father would be God the Father. While it is strange to say it in this way, according to Gabriel, Jesus had two Fathers: God the Father, and David, who was also called His father. We could also add Joseph as a third father, since many in the first century saw Joseph that way, especially while Jesus was growing up.

However, the second idea present in this psalm that I want to draw our attention to is that the psalmist, who I suspect was guided by the Holy Spirit, writes that David, or the Messiah, would be made a firstborn. In that culture, the firstborn child, specifically the firstborn son, was the official heir for the estate, and the firstborn would also receive a double portion of the family’s estate when it was divided.

In this psalm, we get the clear idea that we can be adopted into God’s family and made an heir of His estate. However, while estates typically transfer only after the parents’ death in our world, in the spiritual world, the situation is distinctly different, while also being strangely the same.

In the spiritual world, God blessed His Messiah with the rights of a firstborn Son. However, with the inheritance that was His as God’s Messiah, Jesus chose to give up His life so that He would be able to share this inheritance with all his adopted brothers and sisters. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we not only can be adopted into God’s family, we can also share in Jesus’ inheritance. And this happens when we align and ally our lives with Him, and when we ask Him to cover our sins with His sacrifice.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to ally and align your life with Jesus’ life and let His sacrifice cover your sin-stained life, which then allows you to take part in the blessings of His inheritance. Invite Jesus into your life through the Holy Spirit, and let Him transform you into the person God created you to be.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can grow personally closer to God in your own life. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even the occasional podcaster can have interesting ideas to share, always take what you hear and read, and test it against the truth of the Bible. The Bible has stood the test of time as a reliable spiritual guide for life, and that truth isn’t changing anytime – ever.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue our year focusing in on Luke’s gospel, it seems a little odd in my mind to jump into the Christmas story, especially since last month, we both likely heard and were reminded of this amazing event. However, Luke’s gospel shares more about Jesus’ birth and childhood than any of the other three gospels, and some of these details are only included in Luke.

While I know it might seem redundant being reminded again of events in the Christmas story, especially when everything built up to our Christmas’ celebrating last month, I’ve found it is fascinating looking at many of the Christmas-time passages outside of the Christmas season. Looking at Jesus’ birth not during Christmas helps us see this event with new eyes, and new insights often stand out when we break out of our cultural routines.

With that said, our passage for this episode leads in to the birth of John the Baptist, who was Jesus’ forerunner in ministry. Let’s read from Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, using the New International Version. Starting in verse 5, Luke tells us that:

⁵ In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. ⁶ Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. ⁷ But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Pausing briefly here, I think it is valuable for us to realize that Zechariah and Elizabeth were both righteous in the sight of God, they were obedient to God’s commands, but they were both childless. In the culture they lived, having children was one of the primary ways that God showed His blessing on a couple, and it seemed that Zechariah and Elizabeth, while being obedient and righteous, appeared to be punished by God because of their lack of children.

This didn’t just happen over a few years. Luke describes both spouses as being very old. This couple’s childlessness had lasted for decades, and they may have even resigned themselves to dying childless.

However, God had not forgotten them. Even when it looked as though God had forgotten them, He was actually setting the stage for something big He was getting ready to do. In our own lives, even though it may seem at times like God has forgotten us, it is possible He is really setting the stage for something big He is getting ready to do.

Continuing reading in verse 8, Luke then tells us:

⁸ Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹ he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹ The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰ And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

²¹ Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²² When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

²³ When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴ After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵ “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

In this event, three big things stood out in my mind, and we could also draw two conclusions about John’s life that we don’t often think of.

First, Luke’s gospel describes the very first way that God decided to step back into history. For centuries before this, it had seemed as though God was silent, and with Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah, God’s silence ended. It is powerful in my mind that the first person God chose to break His silence with was a priest serving in the inner room of the temple. While this wasn’t in the Most Holy Place in the temple, it would have been right outside the Most Holy Place, and Zechariah’s task was to burn incense on the alter that was just outside the curtain leading into the Most Holy Place.

While we often think that the first people God breaks the silence to after several centuries are the shepherds in the field on the night of Jesus’ birth, Luke tells us that there is more back story that is worth paying attention to, because the story really begins with John the Baptist.

Also in this event, it is worth noting that Zechariah doubted Gabriel’s message. Perhaps Zechariah simply wanted some additional assurance that this promise would be kept, or maybe Zechariah had hoped for a child for so long that he didn’t want to share the promise with Elizabeth and then be disappointed when something didn’t happen again.

While we often give Zechariah a bad reputation for doubting God, I don’t think it is unreasonable to have some reservations after it appeared as though God had said no to a child for decades of their lives.

The sign that Gabriel gave Zechariah seems like a punishment for Zechariah’s lack of belief, but I wonder if in this sign, we have the seeds of something amazing. After God had been silent for hundreds of years, we see a priest being struck silent for not immediately believing God’s promise. While Zechariah’s silence likely lasted less than a full year, it served as an amazing symbol for God being silent, before stepping into history in a big way through John the Baptist and ultimately through Jesus.

Zechariah’s silence also served as a sign for everyone present that God was doing something in their midst. Knowing Zechariah’s muteness was a sign leading forward to the birth of John, this should have been enough for those present to take note that John the Baptist would be a significant person in history.

Zechariah’s silence also gave Zechariah a clear, easy reminder that the angel Gabriel’s visit actually happened. Often times, it is easy for our brain to trick us into rationalizing or belittling something amazing or special that happens in our lives, and the clear temptation for Zechariah would have been to rationalize this away as a dream or a vision rather than a clear visit with a promise. The sign of muteness served as a reminder to Zechariah that God’s promise to him was real!

I believe God had planned for John to have older parents. With older parents, John may have begun his ministry after both his parents had died. This doesn’t seem very positive, but this detail frees John up to live in the desert and share a more challenging message about repentance than if John’s parents were alive. John’s parents being older and likely having died before John’s ministry also saves them the emotional anguish of their son being imprisoned and beheaded by Herod.

Everything in this event draws our attention onto the amazing truth that God has not forgotten His people, and that God keeps His promises and His Word!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first in your life. Choose to accept and believe His promises and His Word. While we don’t always know when God’s promises will happen, we can be certain that they will come to pass.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn God’s truth and to grow closer to Him. Through prayer and study, we are able to open our hearts to God and learn the truths He has promised for His children in the world today!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!