2: You Have Exalted Above All Your Name Your Word (Psalm 138:2)
What did you bring for us today? What's on your mind? Thats the point of this. Right?
Joel:I know. And and there's a bunch of things. I read a Psalm this morning, which I'd love to talk about, but we skipped this one. And I just think it's such a big deal. Such a strange passage that's worth talking about.
Joel:That's in Psalm 138. So, yeah, I was gonna we had coffee this morning, and he's like, don't tell me now. Wait.
Austin:Wait for the podcast. Wait for the podcast.
Joel:But I'm so hot now to talk about it. So
Austin:And it only took a couple hours for me to figure things out.
Joel:Right. Right. Couple hours. I think that was, like, what, 5 hours ago? 6?
Joel:Give
Austin:or take. You know? Who's counting?
Joel:But, Psalm a 138. I was thinking about this maybe the maybe a couple days before,
Austin:and
Joel:I was like, maybe just one day. And I was like, oh, there's that passage that says this, and then I ran right into it. Psalm a 138. So right now, I'm trying to remember. 138, that's where this is.
Joel:I can get it get it locked in my memory. But, it has this strange line. We'll read it in just a second. But, it has to do a lot with even the content of what we're talking about, the scriptures and the word and listening to God and hearing him and and all that we talk about as important in this process. And I know you and I have talked about how much you, you know, you say, boy, that's such a big deal when you hear God speaking through people, through the through people, however that works, and even in your own reading, I don't think I'll put my hand in front of you anymore.
Joel:I think that you will, you know, this is the this is a a it's such an important passage, and I wanna investigate it with you. So
Austin:Great. I look forward to diving in.
Joel:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so it comes back to this question. We're I'm I'm exploring this, and you are reading scriptures as well on your own.
Joel:Yes, sir. And, you know, and as is true for everybody who watches this, my goal is to get you read to read and them to read and hear God in the scriptures. I talk to my students all the time about that. You know, it's not just important enough to learn the hermeneutics. How do I properly get through the scripture?
Joel:But to hear God Mhmm. When you're when you're learning and you're reading and you're studying.
Austin:I mean, that's that's the whole point of reading the Bible. Right? It's fill filling your soul with the word, but being in the word so that you know God's language.
Joel:Right. Right. And it goes beyond that because it's not just filling your soul, it's also sharing that with others. One passage I'm gonna bring up eternally is, 1st Corinthians 14. It says when you come together, everyone brings something.
Austin:Mhmm.
Joel:And it means something from the Lord. And it and, you know, there's a bunch of different things in there if you look up the verse, but but it talks about part of it obviously means that you heard, and the other side is that you heard out of the scriptures. That's an important and necessary tool that we have especially available to us in Scutenburg and and now these pads that, you know, have the scriptures on it in front of us.
Austin:Yeah.
Joel:And we can read it and we can hear god regularly. So let's we'll jump in and talk about that. Great. I'm gonna read just the first, I'll go through the first three verses of Psalm 30 138. I will probably refer to the other ones, but always a little context helps.
Joel:And the first bit of context comes in the first words in Hebrew, which first word in Hebrew, which is to. It's, of David. Right? So remember this. When you go there, you say, here is David.
Joel:You know, almost always, most people agree that that means David wrote this. It's possible that some of them or even many of them were for him, but more than likely, he wrote them. He was a poet. We know it. Didn't mean to say that.
Joel:But it says, of David, I give thanks, oh lord, with my whole heart. Before the gods, I sing your praise. I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things, your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me.
Joel:My strength of soul, you increased. Now that was the English standard version. And in the English standard version, as with most versions, they will have a note there and a number that says, well, there's another way that the Hebrew really makes us understood. Probably, they translate it this way because the Septuagint did. Lxx if you come to LXX.
Joel:Yeah. The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And it was written about, well, maybe 150 to 130, 120 BC. So they translate it early. That's why we get a lot of we get a lot of, good evidence from that about the original Hebrew because you can say this was translated early, but they there's a lot more discussion to that.
Joel:But, anyway, in this passage, the way the Hebrew says it and this is the way, by the way, if you go to this extra little reading, it says, I bow down toward you toward toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and faithfulness, for you have exalted your word above all your name. Isn't that a fascinating verse? You're like, did he really say that? Is that in the scriptures? That's the way the Hebrew, you know, reads.
Joel:Now, again, there's several different Hebrew possibilities, but this is the way the Hebrew reads here In the most accepted form of Hebrew, you have exalted your word above all your name. I mean, think about that was a saying. That's, that's mind blowing. Yeah. Because god's name what's the when we talk about his name, I don't know what you think about that.
Joel:When when you hear, you know, god because they'll talk about his name a lot. What do you what do you what comes to mind when you say his name, the name of the lord? Is a strong tower, for example, we say often.
Austin:I mean, just god god is power. God is life. Right? And his name carries that in my in in how I think about him. Right?
Austin:And I think names are powerful. Right? Names come with your reputation and, you know, God's name. Like, he is Lord. Right.
Austin:King of kings, the Lord of lords. Right? That's when when I hear his name, that's what I think of.
Joel:Right? So if I give you a name or something that's gonna come to your mind. Right? Let me give you one. Oliver.
Austin:That is my kid.
Joel:Hard to miss that
Austin:one. Right? Can't miss that one. Right. Right.
Austin:Tess. My baby boy. My wife. Yeah.
Joel:You know, you have definite needs. Wade. You know you know this stuff. And Mhmm. And these people come into mind and you say, I know them.
Joel:Not only that. You know their character. Not just their their picture that pops in, but more than that. Right? Yeah.
Joel:So we hear the name of the Lord. You know? You're Yahweh in this place or whatever. There's you should be knowing the character of God in there. The whole character.
Joel:The his name carries, as you say, carries that that that picture of who he is. And this says, you have exalted your name above all your word. Actually, it says in Hebrews, it says it the other way around. It says Yeah.
Austin:So that's interesting. It so which one is it both? It's translated both ways, your name above your word and your word above your name? No. No.
Austin:No.
Joel:Oh, did I say it wrong? Your name. 2 different ways. Word. Excuse me.
Austin:It's the word above the name.
Joel:It says, which is he you have made great above all your name, your word.
Austin:So the word is above his name.
Joel:Right. Yeah. It's you're like, what do you say? Because we always say God's word is the bible. Well, that's true.
Joel:I mean, God wrote it. God inspired it. God made it happen this way, all that kind of stuff. And what you're saying is what what David is saying here, and therefore, God through David is your name excuse me. Your word.
Joel:You've invested so much in your word. You've you've you've said, I'm I'm staking my myself on what I say to you. And and think about that when we're reading the scripture. Because here we have God's word. By the way, we don't see his vision, his picture, and we know who he is based on his word, essentially.
Joel:That's why he says don't make graven images. You know? The the golden calf was a bad image. If you make an image of God, you've only lessened him.
Austin:Yeah.
Joel:But his word, when he speaks, and he speaks because he speaks so consistently and and from his character and what he says is right and good always, sometimes frustrating, sometimes difficult because it goes against what we
Austin:want. Right?
Joel:Yep. Things along those lines.
Austin:Can't always get what you want. Yes. No.
Joel:And yet god comes along and says, I've exalted my my word above all my name. All my character. All it's invested. Here is where I'm showing you. See, we have these things that we're talking about, you know, getting into the scripture, sitting there and reading.
Joel:It's a huge issue. I could go back and say, I'm just gonna sit quietly and and meditate on the trees and let God speak. You know? It's good. Thank God.
Joel:Go do it. But give him to his scriptures and let him speak. Mhmm. And when he speaks, again, don't just read the scriptures as if God. It's gonna be a funny way because it's not exactly what I mean, but it's close.
Joel:As if god speaks in the scriptures. He does. Don't get me wrong. Karl Barth said something a long time ago since he's dead. It was a long time ago.
Joel:And he says, it's not really the scriptures until god speaks. Now, I don't agree with that in one sense, but I know what he's talking about. And he's pointing out to what what we're, what we're pointing to. That's why you need to do more than just read the scriptures.
Austin:Now unpacking that a little bit, when you say that, is it like you could read the Bible just for a book? Right? Right. It could just be words on a page. Right.
Austin:But when God speaks through that word, now it becomes God's word.
Joel:And think about what that means. He's talking to you. He has you in the scripture. He says, oh, good. I'm glad we met today.
Joel:I'm glad you're coming here to read the scriptures with me. Yeah. And now I get to sit with you, Austin. I get to sit with anybody. And I get when you come and you sit and you give me time, I'll talk to you.
Joel:I will I will speak things into your life through that scripture because you are because because you are important to me. And I have things to tell you. I have things to show you. I read this morning Psalm 143, the next, you know, the next Psalm. And I thought God just talked right to me.
Joel:And it's almost hard to take it out of that context, kinda why I wanna talk about it right away because I'm like, oh, it's so rich right now. Yeah. One of the problems is I go back and try to talk later, like, a few days later, and I'm like, I've lost the edge because it wasn't you know, that god spoke to me.
Austin:God's Darn cat.
Joel:That's right. He's very curious. Yep. But god
Austin:much for sitting under the bed and not Right. Not interacting with us.
Joel:And that was Juniper. Yeah. Our next member of our cast is Juniper. He'll be probably be she'll probably be back in a mid in a minute or so. But, that's gracious.
Joel:But if you take this seriously, because that's what we're doing. We're saying, here's God's word to you. And we're reading. We have access to it like maybe never before, and yet we often choose not to go and hear him. And he's trying to tell us.
Joel:He's trying to speak to us. He's trying to say, I have I have stuff to tell you. I I wanna encourage you. I wanna show you who I am. I wanna walk with you into life.
Joel:I wanna correct your behavior. That was this morning for me. I mean, god came along and says, sit here and listen. I was sitting in the coffee shop before you reading that song and before you got there. And god spoke, and he whispered.
Joel:And and it's getting away from distractions to let God speak. Because in this verse, it says, I have exalted my word. Again, the way the English says it, my word above all my name, or he you have exalted your word above all your name. Think about what God's aiming at then. What's he trying to get you to do?
Austin:Be in the word.
Joel:Listen to his word? Yeah. Listen to his word. Be in the word makes it sound like go read your bible. It's kinda why I don't use that phrase as much.
Joel:Well
Austin:and and would it be similar to, like, not just exalting God, but also it's you need to be in his word. Right? It's one thing to praise god, but you have to be in his word and hearing from him, not just praising him. Right. Along those kinda lines?
Joel:What I mean, think about again, we talked about the golden calf. Think about what they did. Why did they make the golden calf? They weren't trying to they weren't overtly trying to rebel against God. There's a lot of discussion in there.
Joel:They weren't making a new god. They didn't think, but they did. And and they they worshiped improperly and wrongly because God said, you know, don't make an image. And he says, and when you make an image, you degrade me. You make me less.
Joel:And and what happens is, when you get in, you you if we worship without a correct understanding, we worship less than the more we know about God. Right? The more we know his name. And how do we know his name? Because he tells us.
Joel:Therefore, he exalts his word. I think this is the issue. He exalts his word because that's where we discover who he is. That's where we discover the power of his name. That's where we learn to fear.
Joel:I read last night in our Thanksgiving today's the day after Thanksgiving. In our Thanksgiving celebration with your family and and I read that Psalm, Psalm 128, which starts with, you know, happy are those who fear the Lord, who walk according to his ways. And then because you understand God, you know his word, you know you know what he's doing. And and, again, according to this passage, you said, I found in God's word primarily what his character is like. And, therefore, I fear him because that's just the right behavior.
Austin:Mhmm.
Joel:He's so amazing. I would be stupid as anything to do anything that is against God, which I am sometimes. And but if I fear him and walk in his ways, then all these blessings on our family come true are true. I was reading a couple, days before that about the passage where it says I think it's the one there's a number of things in there, but it I think it's the one where it says I think it's Psalm 118. It says, you know, all not one of his bones was broken.
Joel:Or in actually, that was another one. I think this this one was about when Jesus was going into, into Jerusalem down the hill, you know, and and On
Austin:the donkey?
Joel:Yeah. On the donkey. Yep.
Austin:I was just reading about that in Luke.
Joel:Right. Right. And there's a there's a psalm that has all those parts in it, and it refers to him. It doesn't only refer to him. It refers to us, but it refers to the righteous person.
Joel:Well, if you're the total righteous person, like Jesus, it is absolutely true of you. Therefore, that psalm is a direct prophecy of Jesus because it has to be. Because his word, God's word is true. God's word is exalted. God's word is exalted above his name.
Joel:He says, I'm not gonna break it. Yeah. It's accurate. It's true all the way. And it reflects my name.
Joel:It through that, you see who I am. And think about the change that would happen in you and I the more we see who god is. I know that happens with me. I get into the scripture when I'm not distracted, when I'm really there, and I listen and I read and I watch, and I'm like, oh, you are so amazing. You're so beautiful, god.
Joel:How do I miss that? How do I how do I get distracted and and then leave your path and quit fearing you and go do dumb things? In whatever form that is, which we can all name our thousands of forms. Yep. And yet there's a way back.
Joel:A way back. Right. And the wisest course of behavior is to get ourselves lined up with God. So we go back to his word. We go back to reading the Bible in order to hear God's word.
Joel:I told you we talk about pastors and things like that, what a pastor ought to do. So if you're a pastor and you wanna hear it, great. What a pastor ought to do is preach only when he's heard from God. Now sometimes you're stuck, but you get desperate. You say, I'm gonna sit here and wait, god.
Joel:You gotta talk.
Austin:Yeah.
Joel:But god talks all the time, and you submit. And we'll talk about you're gonna discover how to hear that. That's what happened, like, if we did the next one, Psalm a 143, I'd say, look at what happens. Look at how it becomes yours. How God speaks to you because he takes your path, and he says, that's you.
Joel:And the Holy Spirit's there working with you. Right? Holy Spirit's there talking to you, saying, Austin, here it is. Here this is you. Yeah.
Joel:And it's out of his word that he reflects himself and he speaks and he lets himself be known. That's brilliant. So, I I mean, we're like you said, we're always always in this time. We're barely scratching the surface of this passage. Right?
Austin:Yeah. Well, that and that's part of our goal is to help those listening to be able to learn that that skill and that and flex that muscle. Right? Right. How do we how do we think outside of just the words that are on the page?
Austin:But how do we really dig and understand what the Lord is saying in in that to us?
Joel:Right? Right? And and it bring it reminds me of one important thing that, when you don't understand something about the scriptures, when you're like, oh, that confused me. Don't jump over it.
Austin:No. No. No. It's easy to do. It is because you're like,
Joel:I don't know that part. Let me stay here.
Austin:Yeah. You don't wanna struggle or Yeah. It's, it's not easy. Right? Right.
Austin:We don't like to do the hard things.
Joel:But it's often right there where God speaks Yeah. Where God's holy spirit says, wait here. Sit with me, and let's chat. And, you know, you don't have to get it right every time. You don't have to come up with the answer every time.
Joel:You're not under any agenda to make that happen. But you chew on it. Right.
Austin:Sit in it. Right? So that, hopefully, you can hear what the Lord is trying to say.
Joel:Right. And, you know, I think you mentioned it last time, but I think it's important to repeat. You don't have to read a lot. Yeah. It's not the goal.
Joel:You know, I don't I read a psalm every day, and I don't read 5. I told you that this morning. I said 5 is too much. I mean, if I'm gonna read like this and I get into something where god speaks, I can't go on. I wanna go on from that.
Joel:I just heard god. I wanna reflect on that. And even better is writing that out and just saying, what did I hear? What are you saying? And in the writing, it clarifies and it and god speaks more.
Austin:That's what that's one of the things that I need to work on and practice is is the writing part because and and not straying away from it like we're talking about when you don't understand something. A lot of times, I'm like, I don't know what to write or how to journal, and then it's easy for me to just kinda move on. And I think I think that's something that in where I'm at now, I need to I need to really work on because you're right. Is the more you it I think the journaling part helps you sit in it and not just keep reading. Right?
Joel:Right.
Austin:Okay. This is what I don't understand, or this is what I feel like God's saying. Sit in that. Write down my thoughts. Not just read what's on the page, but write down my thoughts and really think about what I'm hearing.
Joel:Right? And there's an important qualifier there that you write and say this mean what are you saying? It sounds like this is what you're saying to god. And remember our basic hermeneutic. My basic hermeneutic is the text is the master.
Joel:Remember that. Such an important line. I learned that years years years ago, and I share it with all my students because I think it's excellent. Because we're not the master over the text. The text is the master.
Joel:Even this verse supports that. Right? God says, my I have exalted above all my name,
Austin:my word. My word. Yeah.
Joel:And so you're saying, okay. The text is a master. That's the thing. I'm going to learn who God is. I'm gonna learn how to live.
Joel:I'm gonna learn where to go. So I'm not the master. So if I come up with a with a, translation or not translation, interpretation of the scripture, I have to say, well, let me challenge my own. The most important one to challenge is my own my own interpretation of this passage. Is that right?
Joel:Let me see. Don't be afraid to let it go if it's not right. Don't close your fingers around it. There was a rabbi I don't think I shared this before. There's a rabbi ages ago, mid you know, the dark ages, the middle ages, and he said interpretations come and go, but the text remains the same.
Austin:Isn't that the truth?
Joel:Yeah.
Austin:Yep. You can yeah. And that's why part of it is you can read the same passages over and over and over again and hear different things. And we even talked about what we talked about this morning, there's something that someone brought to light, and you're like, oh my gosh.
Joel:Oh, yeah. Yeah. I coulda Yeah. The binding of Isaac and my my dean, Dean Becker at Regent. He said that, do you know that Isaac?
Joel:It appears that Isaac doesn't go back with Abraham, which Oh my.
Austin:Yeah. That throws a wrench into that one. Right. Right. Right.
Austin:There's a long story. Sometime to think about that.
Joel:Someday, we'll get into it. You can look at it yourself if you want. But
Austin:what's what's the reference?
Joel:Genesis 22.
Austin:That's right. Right. For those that want to dive deeper and look into that a little bit more.
Joel:Right. And they call it what fascinated me so much is they call it the Akkadah, the the binding, not the sacrifice of Isaac. Isn't that interesting? If the Jews would name it this Akedah rather than sacrifice or, you know, something that sounds like when we refer to, we think you know, I say the binding of Isaac. I mean, remember when Abraham was called to sacrifice the son?
Joel:You see? That's how we define it.
Austin:Yeah.
Joel:Yeah. Yeah. But, the binding was fascinating to me. Because I know I mean, even if I touch on that one just for a second, I need to bind my sacrifice, that thing that I love so desperately, because it'll slip off that altar really easy.
Austin:I mean, from, you know, kind of this morning and what you were hearing and, you know, referencing the word over his name.
Joel:Yeah.
Austin:What what's that what's what's the one thing that you're you're dwelling on right now that we can we can leave those who are listening with as we go about our day?
Joel:Right. I think I wanna go into the scriptures well and let god speak and listen to him and and show me who he is. And therefore, to fear him, to walk with him, to to I wanna be ready. I wanna be ready, and we should be ready to say
Austin:Yeah.
Joel:Your word is more than I ever thought above your name. I can't think of a a higher thing that you would ever say
Austin:about the word. About the lord. Right. You know, his name.
Joel:Yeah. Yeah. And you say, wow. And let me hear. Let me hear what you're saying, god.
Joel:Let me be prepared to let you speak. And and the text is a master. Let me surrender. And by god's power, goodness gracious, by god's power, do what he tells me to do in the scriptures, whatever that is.
Austin:Yeah. Great. Great discussion. Yeah.
Joel:It's an interesting verse, isn't it?
Austin:Yeah. Very interesting. Thank you for the insight, and it's good to talk to you as always.
Joel:Yep.
Austin:Look forward to doing this again soon. Look forward to it. Join us on the next one.
Joel:Good to see you.
Austin:Thanks.
