The Messianic Psalms

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A new series looking at the Messianic Psalms

WHY “Messianic” Psalms?
“… where there is a reference to the Messiah in a psalm, and it is applied to Christ and expounded in the New Testament. Sometimes a whole psalm applies to Christ, e.g., Psalm 22. Sometimes a paragraph, e.g., Psalm 40:6-10. … Sometimes a single verse, e.g., Psalm 41:9.” (https://plymouthbrethren.org/article/11672)

"It is obvious that some of the psalms are occupied entirely with the Person and the thoughts and feelings of our Lord while others clearly refer to the experience of the psalmist, … [In Psalm 69] … When David exclaims: “O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee,” he obviously is referring to himself (v. 5)." (https://plymouthbrethren.org/article/11672)

“... let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher (or originator and perfector) of our faith …” (Hebrews 12:1,2)

"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may [i]obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize [j]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

Waiting On The Lord - Psalm 40

Psalm 45 (from NKJV)
To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.
1 My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
3 Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One,
With Your glory and Your majesty.
4 And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness;
And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies;
The peoples fall under You.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
8 All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia,
Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.
9 Kings’ daughters are among Your honourable women;
At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.
10 Listen, O daughter,
Consider and incline your ear;
Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;
11 So the King will greatly desire your beauty;
Because He is your Lord, worship Him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;
The rich among the people will seek your favour.
13 The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace;
Her clothing is woven with gold.
14 She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colours;
The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.
15 With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;
They shall enter the King’s palace.
16 Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons,
Whom You shall make princes in all the earth.
17 I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

As for the way love and wisdom form a unity in things beneath or outside us--in the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom--this will come up throughout the following pages. I may mention three things by way of preface. First, there was a marriage of goodness and truth in the universe and in absolutely everything in it that the Lord created. Second, this marriage was broken up in us after creation. Third, it is a goal of divine providence that what has been broken apart should become a whole and therefore that the marriage of goodness and truth should be restored. (Divine Providence, 9)

Recorded on Sunday 27 October 2024

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The Divine Marriage - Psalm 45

Examining Psalm 109

Verses 1-5

This is regarded as a "Messianic Psalm" - How does it relate to the Lord?
The trial of Jesus - Mark 14:53-65

Verses 6-20

It seems difficult to accept that the psalmist might speak these words about another person!

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (on vv6&ff):  “Some hold that these are the psalmist’s words (his prayer against his enemies); others understand them as those of his adversaries quoted by him. The latter is more likely.”

BUT …
“v. 8 quoted in Acts 1:20 (along with Psalm 69:26) as scriptural warrant for the election of Matthias to replace Judas in the 12.” [“Let his days be few, And let another take his office.” (v. 8)]
Verse 20 is certainly spoken by the psalmist - if 6-19 are spoken by others, he wishes these results also upon his enemies [“Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, And to those who speak evil against my person.” (v. 20)]

These verses do reflect a great spiritual truth:

“Let…”
הָיָה Hebrew 1961. (vv. 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 19) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out. 
The Hebrew verb "hayah" is a fundamental term in the Old Testament, often translated as "to be" or "to become." It conveys the idea of existence, occurrence, or coming into being.

Also found in the Creation story!
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־
said, Let there be light: (Genesis 1:3)

And even before that:
וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ
And the earth was without form (Genesis 1:2)

"The Divine Esse is at once Esse [Being] in itself and Existere [Manifestation] in itself. Jehovah God is Esse in itself, because He is the I Am, the Only, and the First, from eternity to eternity, the source of everything that is, without whom it could not be. In this way and not otherwise He is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega." (True Christian Religion, 21)

verse 17 “As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.”

“Anyone there who does good to another with all his heart receives good in like measure; and therefore one who does evil to another with all his heart receives evil in like measure. For good done with all one's heart carries its own reward together with it, and evil done with all one's heart carries its own punishment together with it. So it is that heaven is the reward for good people, and hell the punishment for evil ones.” (Heavenly Secrets, 9049)

Verses 21-31

V. 6-20 is a principle that applies to us all universally. None escape it. Without this DIVINE work, we are all doomed.

"… there is nothing of good and nothing of truth in a person except from the Lord, … all evil and falsity are a person’s  from his Own; and … any person, and spirit, and even angel, if left in the least to himself, would rush of himself into hell; ... This is acknowledged by angels, and he who does not acknowledge it cannot be among angels. It is the Lord’s mercy alone that liberates them, and even draws them out of hell and keeps them from rushing thither of themselves. That they are kept by the Lord from rushing into hell, is manifestly perceived by the angels." (Heavenly Secrets, 868)

"... the Lord came into the world and took on the human state of being with all its weakness, for by doing so He was able to be tempted as regards the human and by means of temptations to suppress the hells. He was able to restore every single thing to obedience and to order, and to save the human race which had removed itself so far away from the Supreme Divine." (Heavenly Secrets, 2795, end)

Recorded on Sunday 24 November 2024

Psalm 109

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Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:1-3)

It's easy to project this outward: “Look how bad THEY ARE!!”
I must remember that I am part of a NATION, ruled by a “KING OF THE EARTH”
BETTER STILL, remember that they manifest IN ME.

What do these Nations & Kings of the earth IN Me rage against?

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Heavenly Secrets, 2034 - After everything (heavenly) with (people) perished, that is, all love to God, so that as a result the will for what is good existed no longer, the human race was separated from the Divine. For nothing other than love effects conjunction, and when love has been reduced to nothing, disjunction has taken place. And when the latter has taken place destruction and annihilation follow. At that point therefore a promise was given concerning the Lord's Coming into the world, who was to unite the Human to the Divine, and by means of this union was to join (to the Divine) the human race that was abiding in Himself through faith grounded in love and charity.

But once faith springing from love did not remain any more in the world the Lord came and united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence so that these were completely one, as He Himself states explicitly. At the same time He taught the way of truth to the effect that everyone who believed in Him, that is, who loved Him and what was His, and who abided in His love, which is a love directed towards the entire human race and so towards the neighbour, would be conjoined and thus saved.

Once the Human had been made Divine, and the Divine made Human in the Lord, an influx of the Infinite, or the Supreme Divine, took place with (people) which could not possibly have manifested itself in any other way. Also by means of that influx the dreadful false persuasions and the dreadful desires for evil were dispersed with which the world of spirits had been filled and was constantly being filled by souls streaming into it from the world; and those who were actuated by such persuasions and evil desires were cast into hell and so separated. Unless this had been done the human race would have perished, for it is by means of spirits that the Lord rules the human race. …

The rod of iron …

QUOTED in Revelation 2:27, also …
She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. (Revelation 12:5)
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. (Revelation 19:15)

AC 4976.9 - 'A stick of iron' stands for the power of spiritual truth within the natural, for all natural truth that has spiritual truth present within it possesses power. 'Iron' means natural truth, 425, 426.

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:15-17)

OTHER VIDEOS:
Wrath of the Lamb - https://youtu.be/E5xvYIeKRYI
The Wrath of God (Things you can get wrong reading the Bible) - https://youtu.be/9hYcAlBEm7c

Psalm 2: The RULES you can't avoid

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ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, WHO or WHAT is the enemy Jesus is said to defeat?
“So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)
Referring to: “[The LORD] will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8)

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4)

Is that VICTORY yet to come? Is it a future promise?

NO, it can be a PRESENT REALITY

This world is called the “land of the shadow of death” (Isaiah 9:2 [Matthew 4:6; Luke 1:79]; see also Psalm 23:4; 44:19; 107:10,14; Jeremiah 2:6; 13:16; Amos 5:8)

How can we be said to be victorious over death? 
* Physically, we will all die.
* I would contend that it is another death that is being spoken of - the SECOND DEATH - spiritual death.

“He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” (Revelation 2:11)

“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14; see also 20:6; 21:8)

3 things to learn:
* Conquer your own enemies first - otherwise you will never conquer your external enemies. 
* Understand that your external enemies function to show your the internal enemies that really need your attention.
* Spiritually, NO OTHER PERSON can affect your spiritual destiny, “Do not fear him who kills the body, but cannot destroy the soul.”

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The Enemy Within

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In this video, we explore the differing uses and meanings of the word 'fear' in Biblical scriptures, particularly in Psalm 118. We delve into its Hebrew origins, distinguishing between 'fear' as being afraid and 'fear' as reverence or awe. We analyze various verses to identify the contextual meaning, discuss the importance of understanding verb tenses in the text, and examine the metaphorical significance of 'corners' as a foundation in both Biblical teachings and historical structures.

00:00 Introduction to the Concept of Fear
00:38 Different Meanings of Fear in Hebrew
01:50 Examples of Fear in Scripture
06:51 Discussion on Perfect and Imperfect Tenses
13:57 The Significance of Corners in Scripture
17:03 Concluding Thoughts and Reflections

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Insights from Psalm 118

Palm Sunday: Embracing Divine Truth and Self-Reflection

This episode explores the dual responses to Jesus' triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, focusing on the welcoming children and the rejecting religious authorities. It delves into the internal and external aspects of Christian faith, highlighting the story's application to our lives. The episode emphasizes the importance of internalizing divine truth, reflecting on Psalm 8's concept of 'visit,' and understanding its implications of care, judgment, and transformation. By recognizing and embracing uncomfortable truths, believers can undergo a transformative journey towards a brighter future.
00:00 Introduction to Psalm Eight and Palm Sunday

00:11 Contrasting Responses to Jesus' Entry
00:44 External vs. Internal Religious Focus
02:51 Understanding the Call of Christianity
04:35 The Deeper Meaning of 'Visit' in Psalm Eight
06:19 Parables and Judgment
07:32 Welcoming Divine Truth
08:42 Reflecting on Our Own Responses
10:27 Transformation Through Embracing the Light

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Jesus visits Jerusalem

Understanding Spiritual Life through Psalm 34

We delve into Psalm 34 and discuss the true meaning of a spiritual life. We explore the distinction between intellectual acceptance of religious facts and the deeper qualities that constitute a spiritual life, such as love, joy, peace, kindness, and self-control. We also examine the messianic elements in Psalm 34, the significance of the name 'Abimelech,' and how spiritual truths can be misjudged through a purely rational perspective. Finally, we discuss applying spiritual principles in our daily lives and experiencing the transformative power of practicing charity, humility, and forgiveness.

00:00 Introduction to Spiritual Life
01:46 Exploring Psalm 34
04:00 Literal vs. Spiritual Interpretation
06:42 Faith and Rationality
10:12 Living the Spiritual Life
15:00 Conclusion: Practice and Reflection

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Psalm 34

Join us as we explore Psalm 102, an ancient prayer of profound suffering, and discover how its raw emotions echo the modern journey of faith deconstruction. Many leaving evangelicalism struggle with the image of a distant, punitive God, the fear of judgment, and the pain of religious trauma. The Psalmist's lament about God's 'indignation and wrath' can be deeply triggering for those who have experienced such fear in their faith.

In this talk, we dive into:

The progression from a 'shrunken, anxious world' (verses 1-11) to a 'wider perspective' and glimmer of hope (verses 12-22).

How voices like C.J. Cornthwaite, Jim Palmer, Rob Bell, and Kristi Burke articulate the struggles with traditional theology and church experiences.

Emanuel Swedenborg's liberating insights: Discovering God as pure Divine Love and Wisdom—incapable of anger or punishment—and understanding how hell is a chosen state, not divine retribution.

The crucial distinction between our 'words' for God and the 'meaning' we seek, and how embracing a spiritual understanding can bring profound comfort.

Finding peace with God, not just peace from God.

Moving beyond deconstruction towards a meaningful reconstruction of faith, grounded in love, compassion, and authentic living.

This message offers a compassionate lens for those healing from religious hurt and seeking a deeper, more loving understanding of the Divine. Whether you're actively deconstructing, curious about alternative Christian perspectives, or simply seeking a more expansive view of God, this video is for you.

🔔 Subscribe for more thoughtful discussions on faith, spirituality, and Swedenborg's insights.
👍 If this message resonated with your journey, please give it a like!
💬 Share your thoughts: How has your understanding of God shifted?

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Psalm 102: Deconstructing Fear, Discovering Divine Love

Have you ever felt like you were drowning in doubt? The feeling of having no solid ground beneath you is a core experience of faith deconstruction, and it's a feeling captured perfectly in Psalm 69. For centuries, we've been told to believe in a God who requires blood sacrifice and punishes those who question. But what if that's not the whole story?

In this talk, we dive into the deep waters of Psalm 69 and show how its themes of betrayal and suffering are mirrored in the story of a very unlikely prophet: Jonah. But we're not just here to talk about a Bible story. We're here to talk about you. We'll explore how Jonah's decision to run wasn't an act of disobedience, but an act of denial—and how his spiritual journey can teach us about our own.

Join us as we challenge traditional views on Jesus' resurrection, reframing it not as an act of appeasement, but as a promise that a spiritual rebirth is possible, even after the death of your old faith. This isn't about guaranteed salvation; it's about reclaiming a purpose-filled life. It’s about leaving behind a natural-level faith of judgment and control and finding a deeper, more authentic spiritual foundation.

00:00 Introduction to Psalm 69 and Its Messianic Connections
01:22 Jonah's Connection to Psalm 69
01:59 The Sign of Jonah and Jesus' Resurrection
02:32 Jonah's Mission and Its Implications
03:56 Jesus' Resurrection: A Different Perspective
05:13 Jonah's Embodiment of Israel's Errors
07:12 Natural vs. Spiritual Life
09:59 The Spiritual Life: Beyond Natural Tendencies
13:58 Invitation to Reflect on Psalm 69, Luke 11, and Jonah

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Psalm 69

Have you ever felt betrayed by God? Have you read the promises in the Bible and then looked at your own life, or the world, and felt like you were sold a lie? If so, you're not alone. Your anger is valid, and it's even biblical.

In Part 1 of this two-part series, "My Anger Was a Cage," we dive deep into the raw, unfiltered fury of Psalm 89. We'll explore the shocking shift from celebrating God's unbreakable promises to accusing God of breaking them entirely. We'll also look at why we so often misread the Bible's stories of suffering with a "hindsight bias," forgetting the terror and pain of those who lived through them without knowing the ending.

This video is not about fixing your anger. It's about creating a safe space to sit in that anger and have it validated. It's permission to feel what you feel.

This is Part 1 of a journey. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss Part 2: "Finding the Key (Job 19)," where we'll explore how to find hope and agency in the ruins.

Join the conversation: Have you ever felt the "whiplash" of Psalm 89 in your own spiritual life? Share your experience in the comments below.

0:00 - Intro: Is It Okay to Be Angry with God?

0:34 - The Shocking "Gear Change" in Psalm 89

1:44 - The Title of Psalm 89

4:17 - A Messianic Psalm

5:23 - Understanding the Covenants

7:02 - The Problem with "Hindsight Bias"

8:55 - Jesus and the Disciples' Psalm 89 Moment

11:39 - Permission to Live in "Friday and Saturday"

15:20 - A Glimmer of Hope

16:38 - Teaser for Part 2: Finding the Key

#Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #AngerAtGod, #SpiritualTrauma, #Psalm89, #FaithCrisis, #ChurchHurt, #SpiritualBypassing

Psalm 89

Our Mission is to promote and facilitate personal and community growth by developing lives of useful service to towards God, the Divine Creator, and others in accordance with biblical teaching as understood through the spiritual writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772).
Our Vision is to be part of a growing community in Victoria of spiritual believers seeking to serve God, the Divine Creator, through a deepening understanding of God’s love and care for everyone and by sharing spiritual principles in an open and non-judgmental way to foster a supportive environment to facilitate the spiritual journey.

The Messianic Psalms

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