Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Psalms as the Heart of Biblical Devotion | Richard Watson

Transcript

The Psalms as the Heart of Biblical Devotion | Richard Watson · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
• 0:02
  It's good to be here. I'm so glad you've decided to
• 0:04
  join us. We have a a very specific
• 0:07
  objective for this session, and if you're listening, we're
• 0:11
  thinking of you as the learner. Maybe you're studying for an
• 0:14
  exam or you're commuting and want to, you know, make the most
• 0:17
  of that time. Or maybe you're just incredibly
• 0:20
  curious about how the Old Testament really fits with the
• 0:22
  new. Which is a huge question for so
• 0:24
  many people. It is, but whatever your reason
• 0:28
  for tuning in, you want the insights without all the filler,
• 0:31
  and that is our goal here today. And we're taking on a subject
• 0:35
  that I think a lot of people in the church assume they
• 0:38
  understand, but maybe haven't looked at quite closely enough.
• 0:41
  Oh, definitely. We sing the Psalms, we read
• 0:43
  them, but we rarely stop to sort of inspect the architecture
• 0:48
  underneath them. That's a great way to put it.
• 0:50
  And to do that, we're pulling from a source that might seem a
• 0:52
  bit dusty at first glance. A little bit.
• 0:56
  But it's a gold mine. We're looking at a Biblical and
• 0:59
  Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson now before you
• 1:02
  tune out. Right thinking it's just
• 1:04
  definitions. Thinking we're just reading
• 1:06
  definitions? Let me stop you.
• 1:08
  We are specifically zeroing in on Watson's introduction to the
• 1:11
  Book of Psalms. And this isn't just a history
• 1:13
  lesson, right? It's a theological lens.
• 1:16
  He's handing us a key, really, to understanding how Christians
• 1:20
  are supposed to read Hebrew poetry.
• 1:23
  He's arguing for a specific hermeneutic, a specific way of
• 1:26
  interpreting, yes. How to read the Psalms not, as
• 1:30
  you know, historical hymns of ancient Israel, but as a
• 1:34
  Christological text? And that aligns perfectly with
• 1:36
  where we stand on this show. We, you know, we adhere to the
• 1:39
  Reformed tradition, the Westminster Confessions.
• 1:41
  They were always looking for that unity.
• 1:43
  Always. We're looking at how the Old
• 1:45
  Testament prefigures the new. We don't see them as two
• 1:48
  separate books just stuck together, no.
• 1:50
  Not at all. And if we miss that connection,
• 1:52
  we really miss the heart of the Psalms.
• 1:55
  Watson's goal here is to help us see why we as Christians today
• 1:59
  still sing about Zion and bullocks and the sacrificing
• 2:02
  bullocks and temples, even though we don't worship in a
• 2:06
  physical building in Jerusalem anymore.
• 2:08
  Yeah, we're going to get into that whole double sense of
• 2:10
  prophecy, which is a fascinating concept.
• 2:12
  But let's start at the beginning, or rather with the
• 2:14
  authors. I think most people, if you just
• 2:17
  asked them would say, oh, the Psalms, David wrote those.
• 2:21
  The Psalms of David, of course. Right there in the title, right?
• 2:24
  It's a very common assumption, and Watson, he addresses this
• 2:27
  immediately. He clarifies that while the
• 2:30
  collection is generally called the Psalms of David because he
• 2:33
  wrote a lot of them, he is by no means the sole author.
• 2:37
  Right, he says. David probably wrote more than
• 2:39
  70, which is a huge number. It's a massive contribution,
• 2:43
  almost half the book, but it's not all 150.
• 2:47
  No, the text itself is pretty clear that the songs are the
• 2:50
  product of different persons and across a vast stretch of time.
• 2:54
  And some were written much, much later than David.
• 2:57
  Oh yes, Watson points out that a few were composed as late as
• 3:02
  after the return from the Babylonian captivity.
• 3:04
  So we're talking centuries after David's death.
• 3:07
  Centuries. Which means this isn't one man's
• 3:11
  diary from 1000 DC. It's a curated anthology that
• 3:15
  spans a massive part of Israel's history.
• 3:19
  It is. And you know, this leads to
• 3:21
  something that honestly surprised me when I was going
• 3:23
  through the source material again, the titles.
• 3:25
  Ah, yes, You know, when you open your Bible and it says a Psalm
• 3:29
  of David right at the top? Watson says.
• 3:31
  Those titles are a very questionable authority.
• 3:34
  He does, and that's a pretty big point for textual criticism.
• 3:38
  We tend to those superscriptions like they're verse one.
• 3:41
  As if they're part of the inspired text itself.
• 3:43
  Right. But Watson argues that in many
• 3:45
  cases, they might not even denote the writer at all.
• 3:48
  So what could they mean then? Well, think about the Hebrew
• 3:51
  preposition. It can mean by David, sure, but
• 3:54
  it can also mean to David or for David.
• 3:57
  Or in the style of David. Or that it could refer to the
• 4:00
  person appointed to set the hymn to music.
• 4:02
  It might be a dedication or, you know, an instruction for the
• 4:05
  choir director. So we have to be careful.
• 4:08
  We shouldn't build an entire theology on a title that might
• 4:12
  have just been an administrative note for the temple liturgy.
• 4:14
  We really shouldn't if the title says it's about David running
• 4:17
  from Saul, but the content of the Psalm doesn't seem to fit.
• 4:21
  We shouldn't force it. We should look at the internal
• 4:24
  evidence of the poem first. The titles are helpful.
• 4:27
  They're historical markers, but they're not always the final
• 4:30
  word. And Speaking of liturgy in choir
• 4:33
  directors, that's really where this book comes alive, doesn't
• 4:36
  it? This wasn't written to be read
• 4:38
  silently in a study. Not at all.
• 4:40
  This was the hymnal of Israel. Yeah.
• 4:42
  And David is really the one who institutionalized this.
• 4:45
  He introduced the practice of singing sacred hymns in public
• 4:48
  service. He organized the Levites, the
• 4:50
  instruments, the choirs. And then Watson notes that Ezra
• 4:54
  is the one credited with restoring this practice.
• 4:57
  After the exile, which makes perfect sense, right?
• 5:00
  Yeah, the Babylonians destroy the temple so the music stops.
• 5:02
  How can we sing the Lord's song? And a strange land.
• 5:05
  But when they come back, Ezra helps rebuild not just the walls
• 5:09
  in the altar, but the worship. It just shows how central these
• 5:13
  songs were. That couldn't really be Israel
• 5:15
  without the Psalms. OK, just a quick technical note
• 5:19
  for, you know, our listeners who like the manuscript details.
• 5:22
  Watson does mention some variations between the Hebrew
• 5:25
  copies and the Septuagint. Yes, the Septuagint, the Greek
• 5:28
  translation, the numbering gets a little tricky.
• 5:31
  Oh so well. Watson points out that the
• 5:32
  Septuagint combines psalms 9 and 10 into 1, and it does the same
• 5:36
  with 114 and 115. But then it divides others.
• 5:40
  Right, it divides 116 and 147 into two each.
• 5:43
  So the total number stays the same 150.
• 5:46
  The number is the same, but the division of the poems varies.
• 5:48
  It's just a good reminder that when we're dealing with ancient
• 5:51
  texts, these structural elements can have a complex history it.
• 5:55
  Doesn't change the inspiration of the content, but it changes
• 5:57
  how we reference it. Precisely.
• 5:58
  OK, so. We have a collection various
• 6:02
  authors used in public worship, preserved through history.
• 6:06
  But let's get to the question of authority.
• 6:08
  Why do we trust this book? Is it just because it's old?
• 6:10
  No, Watson argues for something much deeper than just the
• 6:14
  testimony of ages. He talks about intrinsic proofs
• 6:18
  of inspiration. He uses this beautiful phrase.
• 6:22
  The text breathes a divine spirit of eloquence.
• 6:25
  I love that phrasing. It suggests there's a quality to
• 6:28
  the writing itself, you know, something that separates it from
• 6:31
  common poetry. You read it and you feel this
• 6:34
  isn't just a human being venting.
• 6:36
  You can read great human poetry and feel moved, of course, but
• 6:39
  Watson is saying there's a specific weight, a holiness to
• 6:43
  the Psalms, that signals a divine origin.
• 6:45
  But that's not his main argument.
• 6:47
  No. The strongest proof, and the one
• 6:48
  that really matters for the Christian is the knee testament
• 6:51
  connection. The sacred character of the book
• 6:53
  is established by the testimony of Jesus and the apostles.
• 6:57
  They didn't just read it, they lived in it.
• 6:59
  They used it constantly. They appropriated it.
• 7:01
  That's the word Watson uses. He says the apostles quote the
• 7:04
  Psalms as obviously opposite to their own lives.
• 7:07
  They saw the predictions in the Psalms as specific descriptions
• 7:11
  intentionally composed to describe the Messiah and his
• 7:14
  Church. It was so ingrained in them.
• 7:17
  Watson mentions the Church father saying that in the early
• 7:19
  church the whole book was learned by heart.
• 7:22
  Can you imagine Ministers were expected to be able to repeat
• 7:25
  the entire Book of Psalms from memory?
• 7:27
  It's a level of dedication to the text that is well, it's rare
• 7:30
  today. It is, but it explains why the
• 7:33
  New Testament is so saturated with references to the Psalms.
• 7:37
  If you've memorized the whole book, it becomes the language
• 7:39
  you think in. It's the framework for how you
• 7:42
  see the world. So when Peter stands up at
• 7:44
  Pentecost, he's not looking UA verse.
• 7:46
  It just flows out of him because it's already inside.
• 7:49
  Him and that framework is exactly what we need to unpack
• 7:52
  next, because this is where the reformed view really shines.
• 7:55
  We're talking about the hermeneutical key, Christ as the
• 7:58
  center. This is the pivot point of
• 8:00
  Watson's entire argument. He references a couple of other
• 8:03
  scholars, Doctor Alex and Bishop Chandler, to make a logical
• 8:06
  deduction. OK, think about the Jewish
• 8:09
  worship practice. They celebrated these Psalms
• 8:11
  twice a day in their public devotions, morning and evening.
• 8:15
  Every single day. Every day.
• 8:17
  Now, if these Psalms were only about the historical David, a
• 8:21
  man who lived and died centuries before, why would you make them
• 8:25
  the center of daily worship? That's a great question, Watson
• 8:29
  says. It would be absurd.
• 8:30
  It would be Why would you celebrate the events of 1
• 8:34
  deceased man's life every day if those events had no relation to
• 8:39
  your current situation or your future hope?
• 8:41
  Why would a Jew living in Ezra's time care so much about David's
• 8:45
  specific battle with the Philistines?
• 8:48
  Right. Unless it meant something more.
• 8:49
  Why sing about David's escape from Saul when you're worried
• 8:52
  about the Romans? It just wouldn't make sense.
• 8:54
  So the conclusion has to be. The only logical conclusion is
• 8:57
  that the Jews themselves must have understood David to be a
• 9:00
  figure of Messiah. A type?
• 9:02
  A shadow. That's it.
• 9:04
  They understood that David was a type.
• 9:06
  So the Psalms were given to the church, the Old Testament
• 9:09
  church, to instruct them in this fundamental article of their
• 9:12
  faith. They were singing about the
• 9:14
  Messiah even before he came. They were looking forward to the
• 9:17
  lens of David. But this, this does create a bit
• 9:21
  of attention for us today, doesn't it?
• 9:22
  The language is still very Jewish.
• 9:24
  Oh, absolutely. We're singing about the ark and
• 9:26
  the temple and sacrificing bullocks.
• 9:29
  I mean, if my worship leader started a song about dragging a
• 9:33
  bullet to the altar this Sunday, I think I'd ask some questions.
• 9:36
  And you should. We're not under the Levitical
• 9:38
  Law. Watson addresses this head on.
• 9:40
  He asks, do we have anything to do with the physical ark or the
• 9:43
  Temple? No, they're gone.
• 9:45
  Are we going to go up to earthly Jerusalem to worship?
• 9:48
  Well, the physical city isn't the center of our spiritual
• 9:51
  worship in that way anymore. The law of animal sacrifice is
• 9:55
  abolished. So when we sing those words, we
• 9:57
  have to do a kind of spiritual substitution.
• 10:00
  That's the term he uses, and he lays out a sort of glossary for
• 10:03
  it. When we read Jerusalem or Zion,
• 10:06
  we should understand it as the Church or the heavenly city.
• 10:09
  OK. And sacrifices.
• 10:11
  Those become the spiritual sacrifices of praise and
• 10:14
  obedience. And what about the enemies?
• 10:16
  Because David is constantly praying for God to, you know,
• 10:19
  destroy Moab and eat them. It's violent stuff.
• 10:22
  Break their teeth, dash them against the stones.
• 10:25
  Right. Those physical nations don't
• 10:26
  exist as political enemies to us anymore, so we interpret them as
• 10:31
  spiritual enemies. Sin, Satan, the forces of this
• 10:35
  world. And most critically, when we
• 10:37
  read David, we substitute Messiah.
• 10:40
  Christ, it's like a translation layer.
• 10:42
  We're taking the physical, historical imagery and
• 10:44
  translating it into spiritual reality.
• 10:47
  And Watson says that by doing this, by substituting the
• 10:50
  substance for the shadow, the Psalms become fully owned by the
• 10:55
  Christian believer. He does.
• 10:56
  He even references Second Corinthians 5.17, then that old
• 11:00
  things are passed away and Hebrews 10.1 which talks about
• 11:03
  the law being a shadow of good things to come.
• 11:06
  It makes the Psalm so much more immediate.
• 11:09
  Instead of reading about an ancient king fighting a tribe in
• 11:11
  the desert, I'm reading about my savior defeating the powers of
• 11:14
  hell. And notice the logic here.
• 11:16
  Watson says the Psalms are applied with more fullness and
• 11:18
  propriety to the substance than they ever were to the shadow.
• 11:21
  So the Christian actually has a greater claim to the songs than
• 11:25
  the ancient Israelite did. In a way, yes, Because we know
• 11:28
  who the song is truly about. We have the key that unlocks the
• 11:31
  whole thing. That's a bold statement.
• 11:34
  It really changes how you approach your daily reading.
• 11:37
  But I want to dig deeper into how how this actually works.
• 11:39
  In the text, Wanton brings up the double sense of prophecy.
• 11:43
  Yes, and this concept is so helpful for navigating the dual
• 11:46
  nature of these poems. It's not always an either.
• 11:49
  Most Psalms, Watson argues, have this double sense.
• 11:52
  They apply literally to the writer, David or someone else.
• 11:56
  And allegorically to Christ. And this works because those
• 12:00
  ancient figures, the patriarchs, the priests, the kings were what
• 12:03
  he calls typical characters. Their lives were designed to
• 12:07
  foreshadow something, yes. God in His Providence designed
• 12:11
  their offices and the remarkable events of their lives to shadow
• 12:15
  out parallel occurrences in the story of redemption.
• 12:18
  David's depressions and his victories were orchestrated to
• 12:21
  for show the suffering and the glory of the Messiah.
• 12:24
  Watson has an incredibly visual way of describing how the
• 12:27
  spiritual sense appears in the text, he says.
• 12:29
  Sometimes it just breaks forth at intervals.
• 12:31
  It's beautiful imagery, isn't it?
• 12:33
  He says. Sometimes the literal sense is
• 12:35
  ruling, and you're reading along, thinking about David's
• 12:38
  life, and then suddenly the language just shifts.
• 12:42
  It gets bigger. It gets bigger.
• 12:43
  Other times the spiritual sense is the capital figure.
• 12:46
  It's so splendid that the literal sense is thrown into the
• 12:50
  shade and almost disappears entirely.
• 12:52
  And he uses that analogy. It's like a flash of lightning
• 12:55
  from the clouds. I love that you're reading
• 12:57
  along, thinking about David's troubles, and suddenly, flash,
• 13:00
  you're seeing Christ on the cross.
• 13:02
  The language becomes too big for David.
• 13:05
  It transcends the historical moment.
• 13:07
  It's a burst of revelation. Let's let's look at a case
• 13:10
  study. I think examples really help
• 13:11
  ground this. He brings up Psalm 2A.
• 13:14
  Classic Why do the heathen rage a coronation Psalm?
• 13:17
  Right. So it's the devil's sense there.
• 13:18
  Well. Literally, it's about David
• 13:20
  establishing his throne against the opposition of surrounding
• 13:23
  nations. He's got Philistines on one
• 13:25
  side, Moabites on the other. But Watson points out that the
• 13:28
  language has an uncommon glow. It's exaggerated for just David.
• 13:32
  He says the diction is too bold for a human king.
• 13:36
  Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
• 13:38
  inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
• 13:41
  possession. Did David own the uttermost
• 13:43
  parts of the earth? No.
• 13:45
  His Kingdom was big for the time, but it was regional.
• 13:48
  If you apply that language only to the literal David, it feels
• 13:52
  almost like a court propaganda. It's hyperbolic.
• 13:55
  But when you apply it to the spiritual David, it's a Christ.
• 13:58
  It fits perfectly. It's no longer too bold, it's
• 14:00
  just accurate. Christ is the one who truly has
• 14:03
  the nations as His inheritance, so the two senses run parallel
• 14:07
  and they illustrate each other. They harmonize.
• 14:09
  Yes, Watson says. The analogy is so exact that
• 14:12
  either could almost pass for the original.
• 14:14
  But the spiritual sense is the one that fills the container
• 14:17
  completely without overflowing. And then he contrasts that with
• 14:20
  Psalm 72. Right.
• 14:22
  Psalm 2 is about war establishing a throne.
• 14:24
  Psalm 72 is what Watson calls the inauguration of Solomon.
• 14:28
  The literal subject is Solomon, David's son.
• 14:30
  And the allegorical. The reign of Messiah.
• 14:33
  But notice the shift in tone. Psalm 72 isn't about war.
• 14:37
  It paints this picture of peace and prosperity.
• 14:40
  It uses all these images from creation in nature.
• 14:42
  It does. It talks about rain falling on
• 14:44
  mown grass, about grain being abundant on the mountain tops.
• 14:48
  It shows how the parabolical style of Hebrew poetry is
• 14:51
  perfectly adapted for this. The natural images sun, moon,
• 14:56
  rain can apply to Solomon's peaceful rain, sure, but they
• 14:59
  apply even more significantly to the spiritual abundance of
• 15:03
  Christ's Kingdom. So the rain is the spirit.
• 15:05
  And the grain is the word. It's just a masterpiece of
• 15:08
  literature, the way it weaves those two layers together.
• 15:10
  It is, and this brings us to the insights from Bishop Horsley,
• 15:13
  whom Watson quotes quite a bit. Horsley takes a very strong
• 15:16
  stance on this. He doesn't see David as just a
• 15:19
  poet expressing his feelings. No, he doesn't mince words at
• 15:21
  all. He goes right back to David's
• 15:23
  own authority. David himself said, The spirit
• 15:26
  of Jehovah spake by me. That's the anchor for the whole
• 15:29
  argument. It is, Horsley argues, that
• 15:32
  David wasn't just, you know, venting personal frustration in
• 15:35
  a diary. The Spirit enabled him to
• 15:37
  describe his sufferings and his escapes in a way that actually
• 15:40
  matched the Messiah's future experience more than it matched
• 15:44
  David's own past reality. And Horsley says that Miss
• 15:47
  applying the Psalms only to the literal David does more mischief
• 15:51
  than almost any other misinterpretation.
• 15:53
  That is a heavy warning. It is.
• 15:55
  It's a strong warning because if you do that, you strip the
• 15:58
  psalms of their real power. If Psalm 22, my God, my God, why
• 16:02
  have you forsaken me if that's just about David having a bad
• 16:05
  day? It's tragic, but it's just human
• 16:07
  suffering. Right, but if it's the spirit of
• 16:09
  Jehovah describing the crucifixion of Christ through
• 16:11
  David's mouth, then it's salvation.
• 16:14
  It turns the text from a complaint into a prophecy.
• 16:17
  And this gets into the nature of Hebrew poetry itself.
• 16:20
  Watson and Horsley classified the different styles.
• 16:22
  We have odes, elegiac poems, ethic.
• 16:25
  And enigmatic riddles. But the one I find most useful,
• 16:28
  the one modern readers often miss, is the dramatic ode.
• 16:31
  The idea that the Psalms are dialogues.
• 16:34
  Yes, this changes everything about how you read them.
• 16:38
  We tend to read it straight through as if one person is
• 16:41
  talking the whole time. But the speakers change.
• 16:43
  Speakers change constantly. Sometimes it's the psalmist,
• 16:47
  sometimes it's a chorus of priests, sometimes it's
• 16:50
  Jehovah's speaking, and very often it's Christ.
• 16:54
  And Christ is personated in different states, right?
• 16:56
  Correct. You hear Christ in his Incarnate
• 16:59
  state suffering. You hear him as a priest
• 17:02
  interceding. You hear Him as a king ruling.
• 17:05
  You hear him before the resurrection and after it.
• 17:07
  If you don't realize the speaker has shifted, you'll get
• 17:10
  completely lost. So you have to constantly ask
• 17:12
  who is saying this line? You do.
• 17:14
  It makes reading the Psalms an active engagement.
• 17:16
  It's like reading a script for a play, but the character names
• 17:19
  aren't written in the margin. You have to figure them out.
• 17:21
  It effectively turns the Psalms into a divine script where the
• 17:25
  persons of the Trinity and the Church are all interacting.
• 17:28
  It is a conversation we are privileged to overhear and even
• 17:31
  participate in. And.
• 17:32
  One of the most striking characters in that script is the
• 17:35
  Conqueror. This is our last major section
• 17:38
  and it's one of the most exciting connections Watson
• 17:40
  makes. This is what he calls the
• 17:42
  Conqueror connection. Watson and Horsley discuss the
• 17:45
  Psalms, where Christ is introduced specifically as a.
• 17:49
  Warrior and they draw a Direct Line from there to the Book of
• 17:53
  Revelation. A Direct Line to the warrior on
• 17:55
  the White Horse. The very same one.
• 17:57
  The same one in Revelation 19, you see a warrior with a crown
• 18:01
  and a bow conquering and to conquer, Watson says.
• 18:05
  We find this exact same figure in the Psalms, specifically in
• 18:08
  Psalm 45. South, the imagery is identical.
• 18:11
  The crown, the bow, the conquest.
• 18:13
  Gird thy sword upon my thigh, O most mighty.
• 18:16
  And the sequence of events is identical.
• 18:18
  This is the part that really solidifies it.
• 18:20
  In both Psalm 45 and in Revelation, the conquest is
• 18:23
  immediately followed by a marriage.
• 18:25
  The marriage of the lamb. The marriage supper of the Lamb
• 18:29
  in Revelation. The writer conquers the beast,
• 18:31
  and then we have the marriage in Psalm 45.
• 18:34
  The king defeats his enemies with sharp arrows, and
• 18:37
  immediately the Psalm transitions to the queen and
• 18:39
  gold of Ophir. The marriage of the King to his
• 18:41
  bride. So the similarities prove that
• 18:43
  the mystical conqueror is the same person in both testaments.
• 18:47
  It ties the whole Bible together.
• 18:48
  The king who conquers in the Psalms is the king who returns
• 18:51
  in Revelation. It validates that idea we
• 18:53
  started with, that the Bible is a unified story.
• 18:56
  It's not just a collection of disjointed books.
• 18:58
  No, it's one author telling one story.
• 19:02
  The spirit who spoke through David is the same spirit who
• 19:05
  revealed the Apocalypse to John. OK, so let's think to synthesize
• 19:08
  all of this. We've covered a lot of ground
• 19:10
  here, from authorship and liturgy to the devil sense and
• 19:13
  these dramatic dialogues. What's the big take away?
• 19:16
  I think the main take away is that the Psalms are not just
• 19:19
  ancient Jewish hymns. They are a complex, divinely
• 19:22
  structured dialogue about the Messiah.
• 19:24
  They are, in a very real sense, the prayer book of Christ
• 19:27
  himself given to the Church. And reading them with this key,
• 19:31
  with this crystal logical lens, it changes.
• 19:34
  Them, it changes everything. They stop being historical
• 19:37
  artifacts locked in the past. They become living spiritual
• 19:40
  worship for today. When we sing them, we're singing
• 19:43
  with the Church of all ages, and we're singing about the
• 19:45
  realities of our own redemption. It makes you want to go back and
• 19:49
  just reread the whole book right now.
• 19:50
  But before we go, I want to leave our listeners with one
• 19:53
  final thought. OK, we talked about the double
• 19:55
  sense, how David's literal life was a shadow of the spiritual
• 19:59
  reality of Christ. His struggles, his wars, his
• 20:02
  victories, they all pointed to something bigger.
• 20:06
  Well, that's true for David. What does that suggest about our
• 20:09
  lives? That's a challenging thought.
• 20:11
  Our our current struggles just literal.
• 20:14
  Is that bad day at work or that season of suffering you're going
• 20:17
  through? Is it just a random event, or
• 20:20
  could it be that our lives are also in some way shadows
• 20:23
  pointing toward a greater spiritual reality we haven't
• 20:26
  fully grasped yet? If we are in Christ, then our
• 20:30
  lives are part of that same story.
• 20:32
  It gives a weight and a dignity to our suffering and our
• 20:35
  rejoicing that nothing else really can.
• 20:39
  Something to chew on as you go about your week.
• 20:41
  Yeah, this has been reformed thinking.
• 20:42
  Thank you for diving deep with us today.
• 20:44
  It has been a pleasure. Keep reading and keep thinking.
• 20:47
  We'll see you next time.