Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, January the 30th, 2025. It is currently 1041 a.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, when you wake up on Sunday mornings, right? You wake up, you get ready, you eat some food, you get everyone dressed, you get in the car, and you drive to your church. When you walk into that church, when you walk into that building, What are your expectations? I mean, you're expecting something, right? I know you expect that certain things will happen, right? I mean, you are expecting you're going to sing some songs, you're going to stand, you're going to pray, there's going to be some Bible reading, there's going to be a sermon, you're going to see people that you know, you may shake hands, you may catch up with them, maybe there's some coffee, donuts. You've got certain expectations, but those expectations are more along what you just kind of expect to happen. But don't you have some expectations about what you are going to receive, what you are going to get once you get there, right? I mean, don't you have an expectation that I'm going to go into this building called a church and at some point, whether it's in a Sunday school class or whether it's sitting in a pew in the sanctuary, I am going to receive instruction in the Word of God and I think this would be accurate, don't you have the expectation that that instruction, that that teaching, that that preaching is going to be accurate, it's going to be truthful, and it's going to help you learn and understand the text better so that you can grow spiritually? Don't you have an expectation? I mean, at a minimum, that what is being preached is accurate, true, and it's going to help you have a correct understanding of the text. I mean, is that, that has to be at least part of your expectation, right? Or is that, I mean, where do you rank that? When it comes to church, not only what do you expect, what do you kind of like, this is a requirement. I mean, is it a minimum requirement that you walk into church and you receive a correct teaching of God's word so that you have a correct understanding of it? I mean, I would think everyone has that expectation. Everyone expects that. Everyone kind of requires that. Like, the reason I go to this church is because I get the right teaching of God's Word. Now, I'm going to throw out an idea here that is going to be very unpopular. I believe that for most of you, you should just get rid of that expectation. You should just get rid of that requirement because the way the sermon structure is set up is it actually will keep you further from the text. I believe sermons in most cases actually prevent you from having a right understanding of the text. It gives you a wrong understanding of the text. Instead of a sermon being worried about giving you a right understanding of the text, the sermon is more worried about making sure it's engaging, making sure it's interesting, making sure that you are moved emotionally or that you are moved to do something. It's about application. It's about you. The sermon is more focused on the audience than it is on the text. The sermon is all about engagement and about being interesting so people won't be bored, so that they will come back next Sunday because obviously you've got to keep people coming back, because you've got to keep people giving, because if you don't have people coming back and people giving, well then the church won't have enough money to pay all the bills it requires to keep the doors open. so it's kind of like it becomes this vicious cycle. The sermon has to be more focused on making sure the people like it so that they will come back, because everyone there—the pastor requires money to get paid, the church requires money to pay the bills, and so I believe it may be unintended consequences But I believe the way the sermon is designed, it will actually keep you from the text. Sermons are the enemy to understanding the text. Let me state it again. The sermon is the enemy of proper understanding of the text. I know we disguise it as, oh, no, no, no. We're worried about the in-depth teaching of Scripture. I know that's the way, maybe we even convince ourselves it's true, but the sermon is, think of it this way, the foundational problem of sermons is that the sermon is audience-focused, Not necessarily text-focused. Now the pastor was saying, no, no, no, no, my focus is on the text. But reality is pastors go to the text and figuring out how they can preach that to the people. They can show the people why it's for them. It's all about application. And that ultimately destroys the meaning of the text. I know not everyone, 99% of you will not agree with my hypotheses, and that's okay. But I think I've been able to prove that over and over and over in all the sermon reviews I have done. Sermon review after sermon review, and you're like, what are you doing with the text? How many sermons have we reviewed between Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 55? And every single time by the end of it, I'm yelling and screaming going, what are you doing? You've You've completely destroyed any proper understanding of this text. You've moved out the original recipients. You've moved us in. You've made it about us, us, us. You've spiritualized it. You've allegorized it. You've done this. You've done that. Stop it! That's the whole reason we've been doing the work on Isaiah 40 through 55. We've seen the same thing with even placing sermons, you know, artificial intelligence against sermons. And what have we discovered? That over artificial intelligence is like, this is not a right handling of the text. This is a mishandling of the text. This is over spiritualizing. This is this, this is that. This is not applicable. And all of those problems, and it becomes maddening. So we've talked about how pastors have done this between Isaiah 40 and 55. going to expand my hypotheses and I'm going to say that when you really break it down that the book of Psalms is at war with the church, that the church consistently, systematically, mishandles, misapplies, misinterprets, and teaches the Psalms in such a way they actually mislead people and keep people from understanding the Psalms. I think, at large, the church's understanding of the Psalms is fraudulent, it is flawed, And if you go to church and listen to preaching on the Psalms, basically, you're not going to actually get the Psalms. You're going to get a complete misunderstanding of them. Now, why are we talking about the Psalms? Well, if you remember, I don't remember, I don't have the date in front of me. Some episodes back, again, I would have to look, I had the Sword of the Lord newspaper right here. Sword of the Lord newspaper. This is from January the 3rd, 2025. Sword of the Lord newspaper. On the very front page, there was an article entitled, or a sermon, it's actually a printed sermon. There was a sermon entitled, What Do You Do When Trouble Troubles You? All right, now just now, even the title, it's about you. What Do You Do When Trouble Troubles You? So the sermon was there to offer you hope and comfort and encouragement, because I think what people most expect and require in church is they leave feeling better. They feel encouraged. They feel they have hope. They have joy. They go for an experience, okay, more than the text. Well, guess what? This sermon is right here to provide you some hope, some encouragement, because what do you do when trouble troubles you? Well, after it gives this kind of introduction, offers some scripture, the Sword of the Lord newspaper tells me to turn to page 20. You turn to page 20, and then you have this section entitled, how to get out of trouble. Okay, well in life you find yourself in difficulty, you find yourself in periods of pain and suffering, times of trouble. Well, how do you get out of this trouble? Know, this is what they say, I'm quoting from the sword of the Lord, this sermon, this printed sermon, know that God is most anxious to help. How do you get out of trouble? Well, you start with, you've got to know that God is anxious to help you. He's like, okay, I'm ready. You know, He, God is there. He's anxious to help you. He's ready to help you. He wants to help you. And what do they give us as scripture proof that God is anxious to help? They quote Psalm 91 14. God speaks of the one who has said his love upon the Lord and he and has known his name. Immediately he promised he shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. So what does the sermon do? Hey guys, are you going through periods of trouble? Well, Psalm 91 14, God is anxious to help you. And all you have to do, if you will call upon Him, He will answer you. He will be with you in trouble. He will deliver you. Now take a Psalm, a verse in the book of Psalms, and they make it about you. They make it about me. They immediately apply the Psalms to you, to your situation, to your trouble. But they don't stop there. Then they go down It says, find and claim His promises. Then it reads, it is not enough to know that God can help and that we can refresh ourselves with His promises. We must learn to wait upon Him. And then it quotes Psalm 27 14. He says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. And once again, This is applied to us. It goes down a little further. It quotes Psalm 66 13 through 14. The sermon gives us verses from Psalms, from the Psalms, multiple times, to tell us what we are to do in times of trouble, and tries to give us promise, try to give us encouragement, try to give us hope. And if I was there on a Sunday night, and I'm like, some of you may be tired from today, you've got the week in front of you, and you may have some burdens, and you may be tired, and you may have some trouble. Well, this evening, for our Sunday evening message, I just want to do a time of devotional study, and we're going to look at some verses in the Psalms to bring you peace, and to bring you comfort, and to bring you hope. And after this sermon, people would come up and go, Pastor, Thank you so very much. I feel so encouraged. I feel so blessed. You don't know how much this means to me. Thank you so much." And they walk out. Everyone is happy. Everyone thinks it's great. The only problem is the Psalms are not properly understood because they were misapplied and people were giving a false assurance, false sense of hope, and I get sick and tired of it. I get sick and tired of it, that sermons are the enemy of biblical understanding, and that the church is the very place you don't want to go if you want to understand the text. You're like, hey, we want to understand the Bible. Drive past the church. Better to go to the liquor store than go to the church. Okay, maybe that's a little bit of hyperbole. You get the idea. Now, so I'm going to take this idea and I'm going to work on this a little bit here. I'm going to do it live. We're going to work through this and hopefully, hopefully this will be beneficial. All right. I think that there's a concept here when it comes to the Psalms that is often overlooked. I think it's overlooked. I don't have a percentage. But I think most of the time, this concept is often overlooked by pastors, Bible teachers, Sunday school teachers, and Christians when it comes to the book of Psalms. I think that there's a concept here that's constantly overlooked, which leads to this entire problem. The Psalms, I want you to hear this. The Psalms, like much of the Old Testament, They are rooted in God's covenant relationship with Israel. I cannot stress this enough. Most of the Old Testament, especially the Psalm, everything you're reading there, it is rooted in God's covenant with Israel. You cannot go to the Old Testament, just read verses and forget God and His covenant with Israel. You can't just go in, take the promises, take everything and make it about you. It's not about you! It's about them. How many times have I said this in my frustration with the sermon after sermon after sermon, especially from the sermons on Isaiah 40 through 55 or any Old Testament sermons. It's like, how did we get there? Just the pastor begins the sermon and we're there. It's about us. And it's like, how did this become about us? When you read the Psalms and you read the descriptions of God's actions, you read about God's interventions, and you read about God's promises, you must understand the descriptions of God's actions. You must understand the description of God's intervention. You must understand the description of God's promises. You must understand them within that covenantal framework. You have to understand it that way. This means that while the Psalms offer great comfort, wisdom, and insight into God's character, they are primarily descriptive of God's dealings with Israel rather than a prescriptive guarantee for all people in all situations. I want you to hear that again. The Psalms offer great comfort, wisdom, and insight into God's character. but they are primarily descriptive of God's dealings with Israel rather than prescriptive guarantees for all people in all situations. In other words, when you go to the Psalms, it is describing God and his relationship with Israel and in the connection of the covenant promises given to them. It is It is describing that. It's not prescribing how God is going to do something for me or prescribing that these promises are for me. It's about them. I want you to consider some things here. Consider the covenant context. I cannot stress this enough. Consider the covenant context when it comes to the promises of protection. When it comes to the promises of deliverance, when it comes to the blessings, they are all tied. Let me state it again. When it comes to the protection, when it comes to the deliverance, when it comes to promises, when it comes to the blessings, they are all tied in the book of Psalms to the Mosaic and Davidic covenant, which were specific to Israel. So the promises, the deliverance, the blessings, everything, it is tied directly to the Davidic and Mosaic covenant given to Israel. You can't just go in and insert yourself into it. God's interventions, whether in a battle or if it was protection from enemies, or if it was about national prosperity, they are direct responses to Israel's covenant faithfulness and or disobedience. These promises in the Psalms—if you go through the Psalms and you see promise after promise after promise or descriptions of intervention or blessing or whatever the case may be—they align with the blessings and curses laid out in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, where Israel's obedience leads to divine protection and provision while disobedience results in judgment. So everybody wants to say, oh, the Psalms, that's our, the church's hymn book. That's our worship book. It describes God and Israel, not God and us. And it all must be understood in light of these covenant, especially the blessings and curses that are laid out in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 and following. I've talked about this a million times. But sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon makes it about you, makes it about me. So you, just the entire Old Testament, you just need to go to your Bible and you just need to put, above every page in the Old Testament, covenants with, okay, a context, covenant with Israel, covenant with Israel, covenant with Israel. And then understand the promises, the deliverance as being descriptive of everything working out within that context, within that economy, if you want to use that term. If you want to use the term dispensation, within the dispensation of God's dealings with Israel. It is descriptive. It's not prescribing anything for you because those promises aren't for you. Those promises were for Israel based off the covenant made with them. How do we not understand this? So, the covenant context. Second thing to consider. Descriptive, not prescriptive. I've already emphasized this. The Psalms describe how God interacted with his covenant people in a specific historical context. It's not that hard to figure out. The Psalms are describing how God interacted with his covenant people in a specific historical context. They are not—let me stress this again—they are not—if I was standing behind a pulpit, I would start pounding the pulpit—they are not universal promises to all believers in all times. They are not universal promises to all people at all times. They are not The Psalms are filled with promises given to Israel based off the covenant that he gave to them, not to you, not to me, not to the church. Christians, look, I've seen it so many during COVID. Oh, oh, look, look at this Psalm. Oh, I remember, I remember I was placed as a guard on September the 11th, 2001, when the world was in chaos and craziness was going on. I was placed to be a guard for the hospital there because we were worried of attack. So I was placed outside to be a guard. We had to search things. I mean, it was a stressful situation, right? And I remember someone walking towards the door and I was like, okay, stop, stop, stop. So they came up trying to find out what they needed, what they wanted. Should I give them access to the hospital? What should I do here? Making my determination. And they were like, you know, yes, this is a horrible day. You need to read Psalm. I can't remember. And they gave me some Psalm as some form of encouragement. And I wanted to scream, it's not for me! Stop giving me a Psalm! What are you doing? I wanted to scream at it, but I mean, of course, I was just more like, you know, I got a job here to do. But it was so just frustrating. And Christians love to do that. Oh, you're going through a difficult situation? Let's just rip a verse. Let's just grab some things from the Psalms. Who cares about what it's about? It is describing how God is interacting with His covenant people in a specific historical context. They're not universal promises. So this can explain why, even among faithful Christians, We have experiences of suffering, persecution, hardship, disease, death, financial ruin. In fact, all of those things are common despite the language and some of the Psalms that seem to suggest absolute protection or absolute deliverance or absolute intervention. So Christians, we take them and apply them. And you know what that leads to? It ultimately leads to people becoming very disillusioned because they claim promises and then it doesn't happen. They can't figure out why. And it can lead to some really messed up things. Because if you go to the Psalms and, well, God's going to deliver you, God's going to protect you, God's going to provide for you, well, really bad things can happen. If you want to go to the Christian Post today, you'll see an article about a number of charismatics Pentecostals who have been arrested. And why were they arrested? Because an eight-year-old—I think she was eight years old—an eight-year-old girl died. Why did she die? Because she just needed some medical intervention, some medication. She would have been perfectly okay, but not to the Charismatics! No! God's going to intervene! Because we've got this promise, and we've got this promise, and we've got this promise. And they take promises, ripped them out of context, prayed for the girl, and of course, their prayers were useless, and the girl died. So they've all been arrested. Oh, and after she died, they didn't even contact the authorities. They prayed for 24 hours, saying for God to resurrect her. And of course, she wasn't resurrected. That's the nonsense that happens, and that's the extreme version. That's the extreme version. But there's a little bit of that built into Christianity, because time and time and time, you go to church, and instead of getting the text, you're like, this is about you, this is about your problem. Oh, if you're going through difficulties this week, remember this Psalm, and remember this Psalm. What are you doing? The Psalms are in a covenantal context. You're not Israel. Those covenant promises were not for you. They were for the nation of Israel. They fit in within a historical context. And then you see in the Old Testament, God interacting with them on the basis of that covenantal context. Therefore, what you are reading in the Psalms is it is describing, it is descriptive of how God interacted with his covenant people in that specific historical context. They are not universal promises. So that I state all of that, and even though I've already kind of given you some examples, let me just state it again one more time just to make it very clear. The reality of life proves my entire point that the Psalms are covenantal. They are descriptive. They are based off a covenant and they are descriptive. If you read many of the Psalms as personal, if you read them as personal, if you read them as somehow about you, if you read them as somehow about us, well, you see almost as if there's unconditional promises. You almost expect an unwavering protection from harm, victory over your enemies, and physical deliverance in every situation. Yet reality shows that believers still experience suffering, loss, and even death. New Testament presents more of a nuanced approach to these subjects. But the Psalms, if you go in there, it sounds like, and you're just going to read them as like they apply to us. You're going to be like, well, where's my deliverance? Where's this? God's going to protect. God's going to provide. God's going to deliver. God's going to do this. God's going to do that. And I've seen Christians do that countless times with the Psalms. And even in churches that don't go that far, it is still preached as, this is for you. This is for you. This is for you. Find comfort. Memorize this. Put it on your refrigerator. This is for you. It's not! Now, the Psalms may give us valuable lessons. Some may say, well then, how do the Psalms apply to us? Well, here's some possible ways. The Psalms could possibly remain valuable for us today because it reveals God's character. reveal his faithfulness. How? It's, in many cases, revealing his faithfulness to what? His covenant promises to Israel. So, we see God's faithfulness. We may see his justice. We may see his mercy. We may see his sovereignty. Now, all of those, so in other words, we see, we learn about God, we learn about his character, we learn some of his attributes, It doesn't mean that the way he acts and the exercise of those attributes in that specific historical context then becomes a guarantee that he's going to act in our historical context in the same way because he's acting in that way based off those covenant promises. But we can learn about his character and his attributes in the Psalms. Some say that the Psalms may teach us how to pray. Now, there still would be a little bit of problem there because many of the prayers, you got to remember those prayers would be focused on the covenant relationship God has with them. They can pray differently because they've been given specific promises. Could teach us how to worship. Definitely can teach us how to lament, how to cry out to God. Some, we could argue, that many of the Psalms are very, are messianic Psalms, so they point to Christ. That would be valuable for us. And I think we could do this. We could say that the Psalms may speak of God as rock, refuge, shield, deliverer, as long as we understand that for us, for us, that all points to spiritual and eternal things. God is my rock and my refuge, spiritually and eternally speaking. He's my rock and my refuge from the condemnation of sin, from the wrath of God. Christ is that. He's my rock and my refuge. God is my rock and refuge in the sense that he provides his son, Christ, who died for me, if we see it in a spiritual context. Now, the only danger there is you're kind of over-spiritualizing the Psalms, and you've got to be careful with that, right? Because in many cases, it's talking about physical, material provision and deliverance for Israel, but that doesn't apply to us. So if we're going to make it applicable, we'd have to see how it would apply to the original recipients and say, okay, well, God doesn't give us those same guarantees, but in Christ Jesus, I am declared to be perfect and righteous because of imputed righteousness. I am guaranteed that I will be in heaven. There'll be no more pain, no more suffering, no more death. He will ultimately be my deliverer. So in a sense, he is my rock, he's my refuge, and he's my shield, but all in a spiritual way. You don't want to over-spiritualize that you destroy the historical meaning, but if you're going to draw some meaning, that's what you have to do. So if you want to try to make it applicable, those are just some quick ways of trying to do so. But you cannot forget all the things that we've just mentioned. So we have to avoid a misguided application. I would argue, I think this is fair, many, I think many is an accurate term, many preachers and teachers take promises in the Psalms and then apply them directly to Christians today without regard for their covenantal context. What does this lead to? It leads to unrealistic expectation. It leads to disappointment. It leads to depression. It leads to discouragement. It leads to deconstructing. It leads to people doing crazy things because they think they have some promise in which they don't. So if we want to be faithful, we would approach the Psalms and recognize that the Psalms reflect timeless principles such as God's care, but that the specific interventions described are not universal guarantees. We have to—until we figure this out, the Psalms are going to continue to be abused and misused in churches. Now, I know I'm just screaming into the wind, because no one cares. Everyone's going to go to church on Sunday, and if the Psalms are misapplied, they're going to be like, Amen, that's far better than that idiot on the Theology Central podcast. I'm going to take these promises. And go ahead, build yourself up with a life of false illusion and hope. And as long as the illusion and the mirage works, then great, be happy. But when it all comes burning to the ground, well, you know why? Because you didn't want to go to church to get the truth of the text, you wanted to go to church to get a sermon. So I decided then to ask AI a question. I asked artificial intelligence, would it be more accurate And would it be more correct to say that the Psalms are about God and Israel, not about God and us? So I went to Artificial Intelligence and said, would it be more accurate, would it be more correct to say that the Psalms are about God and Israel and not God and us? AI said, yes. That would be a more accurate and correct understanding. The Psalms are fundamentally about God and Israel, not God and us, in a direct, personal, or universal sense. They reflect God's covenantal relationship with Israel, His dealings with them as a nation, and His response to their faithfulness or disobedience. So AI, even AI is like, stop making the Psalms about God and us. It's about God and Israel. And I'm like, well, thank you. So then I, you know, I need to know why. So AI gave me the why. Why is this the correct view? So at least, look, everyone in the church is going to disagree with me. Pastors are going to disagree with me, but I don't really care. I would rather have AI agree with me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I almost would because, because I've seen all of the way these texts of scripture are constantly mishandled. But AI gives me the reasons why. Guess what the first reason why that this view is right, that the Psalms are to be understood about God and Israel, not about God and us. You ready for number one? I think it's going to sound very familiar because I just spent 30 minutes screaming this. Why is this the correct view? Covenantal context. Wait, what? No, how could you think that AI? That would be crazy talk. The Psalms were written within the framework of the Mosaic and Davidic covenant. Wait, I just said that. Both are which, are you ready for this? Both of which were, and this is put in bold by AI, exclusive to Israel. Even AI knows that. That these covenants, the Mosaic and David Covenant, are exclusive to Israel. Many Psalms are direct prayers or praises from Israel's kings, priests, or people, reflecting national concerns, victory over enemies, land blessings, and temple worship. It is Israel-focused. It is about that covenant. So why is the Psalms, if you're gonna understand the Psalms, they were about God and Israel, they're not about God and us, because of the covenantal context, which is what I just spent 30 minutes screaming about. AI goes on to give a second reason, historical and theological focus. The Psalms recounts Israel's history and emphasizes God's faithfulness to His covenant people. They include prayers for deliverance from Israel's enemies, not yours, blessings for Israel, not you, these blessings tied to the land, not your house, not America, and the role of the Davidic king, not Trump, These are things that are not promised to the church or individual believers today. These promises have nothing to do with you, have nothing to do with me, have nothing to do with America, have nothing to do with the church. They're about Israel in that context. So why is this view right that the Psalms are about God and Israel? Because of the covenantal context, because of the historical and theological focus, and number three, because of the messianic and Christ-centered fulfillment. Some Psalms are prophetic. Psalm 2, Psalm 22, et cetera, and point forward to Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of Israel's hope. Please note, even when it's prophetic, it's still in regards to Israel. I know reform people are going to be like, no, it's not. No, it's not. Israel's done. Okay, you can throw Israel out all day long. Go ahead. And then just turn the text into whatever you want it to be. But that context is to Israel. So even these, even these prophetic Psalms, this is what AI says, and it puts this in bold, are first about Israel and its Messiah. Did you hear that? Even AI knows that when you read these prophetic Psalms, they are first about Israel. puts that in bold, and it's Messiah, not directly about us as individuals or the church. Even the Messianic Psalms is about Israel. How do we not get this? Oh, because we need a sermon, and we've got to make the sermon about us so that people will be like, oh, the sermon was applicable, and the sermon was relevant, and the sermon made me feel good, and the sermon gave—okay, great, you've got—you've You got a little bit of church. The only problem is church is usually the antithesis of actually studying the Bible. So how should we read the Psalms? So AI gave me all of those reasons why, hey, it's better to say that the Psalms are about God and Israel, not about God and us. So, how Christians should read the Psalms. This is AI, this is not me. AI says that we should read the Psalms understanding they teach us about God, his attributes, his sovereignty, and his faithfulness to his covenant. They teach us how to worship and pray, which we mentioned a little bit. They model lament, that's what I mentioned. Praise and thanksgiving, they do model all of that. They point to Christ, as we talked about. They do contain at times general wisdom and truth, but they do not give direct promises to individuals or the church in a way they did for Israel. So we may see some general wisdom. We may see some general truth. We may see some examples of praying. They point to Christ and they teach us about God. There are some things we can get from it, but not direct promises. Not, hey, this is, hey, you're in a time of trouble. Go to the Psalms and do what? Rip verses out of context? This is what AI says. The Psalms are about God and Israel, not God and us. We can still learn from them. We may use them in worship and see Christ in them. We must not. We must not misapply them as if they are some personal guarantee. Understanding them in their original Israelite context preserves their theological integrity and prevents distorted application. Once again, AI is better than sermons and the church. I think that's kind of becoming the theme this year. So then at this point, I realized, okay, AI is seeing it the way I feel that we should. It's agreeing with my hypothesis, but when I gave it, I didn't ask it about my hypothesis. I just said, what's the correct way? Is the Psalms about God in Israel, about God in us? And AI was emphatic. It's about God in Israel. So then I asked AI this question, I said, wouldn't this correct, wouldn't, would not this correct approach basically nullify most sermons preached on the Psalms and absolutely call into question the accuracy of most sermons on the Psalms? So I basically, AI, look, if we go with the approach you are presenting, doesn't this basically nullify all the sermons we hear? This is what AI says, yes. Adopting this correct approach would nullify most sermons preached on the Psalms and call into question the accuracy of how they are commonly taught. That's fascinating to me. It's like, yeah, if you understand the Psalms correctly, it basically nullifies all the sermons you hear. And it's like, whoa, that's... Okay, but so I wanted AI to tell me more. A.I. said, this is because many sermons and teachings on the Psalms misapply them by treating them as a direct promise or personal assurance for all believers without considering their original, covenantal, historical, and national context. why most sermons on the Psalms are problematic. Please note, AI even says most sermons are problematic. Why? Number one, they ignore the covenantal context. Most sermons treat the Psalms as if they're written directly to all believers rather than recognizing them as an expression of God's relationship with Israel under the Mosaic and Davidic covenant. Promises of protection, prosperity, or victory are frequently applied universally even though they were national promises tied to Israel's obedience or disobedience. I cannot stress that enough! Even AI knows this! Sermons at large ignore the covenantal context. They may mention it just giving it a little bit of lip service and then they just move right along and it's about you, you, you, you, you, me, us, we, me, you, us, we, me. Never them, never they, it's always us. A.I. goes on to say, why are most sermons on the Psalms problematic? Number two, they misapply God's actions and promises. Many preachers take verses where God promises deliverance, protection, or success, and teach them as if they apply to every Christian in every circumstance. This leads to false expectations, as reality shows that Christians do suffer, face danger, and experience loss, even when they love and trust God. Another reason the sermons get it wrong so much. Number three, they turn the Psalms into self-focused encouragement. Many sermons turn the Psalms into personal encouragement devotionals rather than theological reflections on God's relationship with Israel. While the encouragement can be drawn from the Psalms, they are often preached as if they were written to modern Christians rather than ancient Hebrew poetry rooted in Israel's history. It's ancient Hebrew poetry written about Israel, not about us! And in many of these sermons, AI goes, I'm not going to go through everything it says here. I'm skipping some. AI says one of the problems with many sermons is they fail to acknowledge the reality of life. If Psalm 91, for example, truly meant absolute protection for all who trust God, then no Christian would ever suffer harm or death. Yet the apostles and countless faithful Christians throughout history suffered and died, proving that these Psalms cannot be read as direct promises for all people at all times. So, how should we preach them correctly? AI says we have to emphasize the original Israelite context. Isn't that crazy? We have to recognize that the Psalms are about God's relationship with Israel, not about individual believers today. Even AI knows that. Teach them a theological reflection on God's character. Show their fulfillment in Christ. And acknowledge their limitation for direct application. So AI is like, you know, the church gets it wrong over and over and over and AI goes on and say a lot of other things, but it would take, you know, another 45 minutes to go through everything, but it takes it all apart. So then at this point I was like, wow, okay. So my hypotheses, all right, seems like that I'm onto something here. Okay, good. AI is emphatic that it's not about us, it's about them. Okay, great. So then I asked AI a very, this is more personal question. Do you think, now I'm asking AI to just give me its thoughts, do you think the church at large would reject the correct preaching of the Psalms and the pastor would most likely find himself rejected by most? I already feel like I know the answer, right? But some could argue, well, you're doing so from an emotional perspective. You're being hyperbolic. There's no way you can be necessarily unbiased here. And you're probably right because I just feel like that over and over and over when I try to get to the text, get to the text, Christians get ticked off. Christians get ticked off. They don't ever like to be challenged. It's like, you just have to, I mean, I could go through all of my issues with it. I mean, and all the sermons I've listened to could lead me to maybe a wrong perspective. So I wanted AI to give me its perspective. And here's what AI said. It's an emphatic yes. If a pastor were to correctly preach the Psalms, emphasizing their covenantal context, their focus on Israel, their fulfillment in Christ rather than universal personal promises, he would likely face significant rejection from the church. That's good news. Hey, if you preach the text right, you're going to be rejected by the church. What world? That's where we are. You go to church not to get an accurate teaching of the text, because the church is designed for something different. Now, here's why. This is AI gives me the reasons why. Number one, the church's desire for personal application. Many Christians approach the Bible looking for personal encouragement rather than seeking to understand its original meaning. Oh, no way. Are you telling me Christians just want to feel good? You're telling me Christians just want it to be all about them? They don't really care about the original man? Here's what Christians do. They want it to be about them. They want application. They want encouragement. Oh, you know what else they want? They want confirmation of their already, the theological system which they have adopted. Like, if they're Reformed, they only want sermons that's going to give them the Reformed perspective. The text will always give them the Reformed perspective. If they're not Reformed, it's always going to give them that. They want to go to church to get encouragement and just confirmation bias that, hey, what I believe is right because everything I hear in church says that I'm right. They never want to be challenged because if the pastor says, well, let's challenge this theological perspective, ooh, they're going to get mad, they're going to get ticked off, and they're going to run to another church. gets so tired of it all. Such a game. Christians approach the Bible looking for encouragement, looking for confirmation bias. That's all they want. They don't want the original meaning. You start digging into the original meaning, oh man, the Christians are gonna be like, well, this is boring, this is too academic. I don't know, I feel like I'm going to school and I don't like it and it's making me uncomfortable. Okay, whatever. Church is such a game in so many cases. A.I. says the way the Psalms are commonly preached, they're preached as personal devotionals and as direct promises for today. And this fits their expectation. People have this expectation, and so how do the pastors preach it? To fit that, almost as a devotional message, as a direct promise, as a source of encouragement, as hope to make you feel good today. This is what AI says, a pastor who teaches the Psalms correctly, that they are about Israel and God's covenant dealings with them, not about us, would disrupt this deeply ingrained expectation. What's your expectations when you go to church? What are you expecting? and many in the congregation may feel the pastor is taking away their source of comfort." How many times do you hear Christians say, Oh, the Psalms, they give me so much comfort. They bring me so much comfort. What are you talking about? So why does the church constantly do this and mishandle this? Well, why would the church reject a pastor trying to preach the Psalms correctly? Because the church desires for personal application. They want personal application to make them feel good, and they want personal application to give them confirmation bias to their theological team that they have joined. Number two, the attraction of a feel-good message. Many churches operate on encouragement-based preaching, where sermons are designed to uplift comfort and make the audience feel good. Preaching the Psalms correctly would mean explaining that, number one, hey guys, all of these promises, That don't apply to us. That don't apply to us. Number two, hey, God's intervention that we read about here is not some promise of intervention for us. It's tied to Israel's covenant with, God's covenant with Israel. Hey guys, I know we're reading the Psalms, but let me remind you that life is marked by suffering, no guarantee of physical protection, no guarantee of physical prosperity, and your life is going to be filled with pain, suffering, and death. And for some of you, it's going to be worse than others. Now, see, the minute a pastor preaches it that way, he's gonna end up in a clash with the expectation, not the band, he's gonna end up in a, how to make a musical reference, okay, the clash, I mean, you know, there's music and there's bands and then there's the clash and once, okay, all right, nevermind. You don't get it, all right, all right, that's okay. So, this would clash with the expectation of a feel-good message, making the pastor, this is what AI says, it will make the pastor, are you ready what AI says? Very unpopular with many listeners. AI's like, hey, don't do it the right way. You're going to be unpopular. And then another reason a pastor preaching the Psalms right is going to be rejected, AI says, because of the popularity of misapplied theology. Many well-known preachers and Christian books misapply the Psalms by turning them into self-help, success-driven, or comfort-based promises. People have been taught for decades that Psalm 91 guarantees protection, Psalm 23 guarantees provision, and Psalm 37-4 guarantees desires fulfilled, even though these interpretations ignore the original context. A pastor who preaches against the widely accepted, yet incorrect view, risks being seen as, this is what you're going to be accused of, right? Here's what you're going to be accused of. If you preach the Psalms the right way, a pastor will be accused of, you're too intellectual, you're too theological, or you just lack faith. So how do you know if you've been preaching the Psalms right? You're going to be accused of being too intellectual, too theological, or you just don't have faith. Same tired attacks. A fourth reason a pastor is going to be rejected is because of institutional resistance and theological inertia. Now, AI's going all in here, right? What does AI mean by institutional resistance and theological inertia? AI says churches often resist significant theological shifts, especially if they challenge long-held but incorrect interpretations. See, if you're a pastor, you can't challenge anyone's interpretation. They'll get ticked off, and you'll end up in a church split. They just want to be told, this is what I believe. Just tell me I'm right. Week after week after week. Never change anything. We never grow. We never explore. We never struggle. Just give me the same tired, just record a message and just play it. Just stand up and say, guys, you are all right about everything. You're wonderful people. God loves you. God's going to do this for you and this for you. Go forth and be comforted. Just make it a five minute little self-help speech and everyone will be happy. Oh, they'll say, no, I want a church that preaches the Bible. Until you really preach the Bible, then they get ticked off. No theological shift, no theological struggle. No, no, no, you can't do any of that. The church doesn't like that. So if you come in and say, hey, hey, I know the church forever has preached the Psalms this way, but we've done it wrong. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're going to get in trouble. pastors who challenge these traditional myths applications will lose their job, lose financial support, and be pushed out. That's what AI says. This is hard for me to wrap my mind around. AI is telling me, look, Just listen to that. If you challenge the traditional misapplication, AI says, look, if you preach opposite to the misapplication, in other words, they are all wrong. They're misapplying the Psalms. If you teach them right, this is what AI is saying is going to happen. You're going to possibly lose your position. You're going to lose financial support. and you're going to be pushed out. Even AI knows the church will not tolerate it. Many church members and even fellow pastors will probably label your teaching as unnecessary intellectualism and that you are removing the power of God's promises. Of course, they're always going to come after you and make you sound like you're not the spiritual one. They're the spiritual ones, even though they're all mishandling the Psalms, but that's okay. They're the godly ones. AI goes on to say, the reality of rejection for teaching correctly. If a pastor consistently teaches that the Psalms are about God and Israel, not God and us. If a pastor consistently teaches that the promises in the Psalms are not universal guarantees, but covenantal realities for Israel. If a pastor consistently teaches that the ultimate fulfillment of the Psalms is found in Christ, not in personal success or protection today, then many Christians, especially those conditioned by certain theological systems, self-help preaching, or devotional Christianity, will reject this teaching. This will lead to declining attendance, will lead to financial struggles, and will lead to pressure from leadership to return to popular preaching. AI knows the church is just a business. It's a racket. You gotta just follow. You gotta color within the lines. You gotta do what they tell you to do. So then AI goes on to say, would a pastor be rejected? Most likely, yes. If a pastor teaches the Psalms correctly, he will face resistance, criticism, rejection from those who prefer the misapplied, self-focused version that dominates modern preaching. If he remains committed to truth over popularity, however, if he remains committed to truth over popularity, he would be faithful to the scriptures, even if it means loss. So in other words, if you want to be faithful to the scriptures, you're going to endure loss. That is a depressing, like, that just makes me just want to give, even AI is like, hey, don't even bother. Don't be faithful to the text. You're going to lose everything. Now, A.I. goes on to say a bunch of other stuff. So, we have an example of exactly what A.I. is saying. Sword of the Lord, taking verses from the Psalms, applying them to us, doing it the typical, misapplied way. you go against that, nobody likes you. This morning, what made me think of this is I was looking at the Sermons 2.0 app, one of the brand new sermons that was uploaded was on Psalm 61. And I was like, I wonder, oh, I bet you that sermon's gonna be about us. I was going to review it, but I'm like, I don't wanna necessarily review it, because I know exactly what's going to happen. It'll be about us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us. Now they may mention Israel, they may mention context, but almost inevitably it becomes about us. We are so narcissistic thinking everything is about us. But you can get really, like if you're going through a difficult time, you're going through trial, you're going through trouble. I remember, I'll never forget this. I was downstairs. I'll never forget this. I was downstairs walking around the living room, dining room area. I had in my hands the liturgy of the hours, which is how the early church prayed. I've talked about the liturgy of the hours forever. It's kind of mainly preserved within Catholicism, but it predates that, even then. But, you know, and it's designed that you pray. Basically, you pray the scriptures at specific hours of the day. And if you participate in the Liturgy of the Hours, you pray all 150 psalms every four weeks, right? So, I was going through a difficult time at that period in my life. I was having crazy number of seizures, neurological issues, I was just struggling with so many things, didn't think, I felt like nobody really understood, I felt alone, abandoned, I felt depressed, I felt discouraged, like I, my brain was just a mess. And of course, I mean, that's what, you know, when you're having seizures all the time, I mean, it's impacting your brain. I mean, I don't know if people truly understand what seizures do to your brain, but it, it causes some problems, right? So I'm not saying my thinking was clear in any way, but I, I remember I was downstairs walking around with the Liturgy of the Hours and I was trying to pray the Psalms, you know, because that's what you're supposed to do in the Liturgy of the Hours. And I don't remember which Psalms it were, but I just kind of, I just set it down and I was like, and I know I'm going to sound like an atheist, I'm going to sound like an agnostic, but I was like, this is such garbage. Because the Psalms were talking about, God will provide, and God will deliver, and God will do this, and God will do this. And I'm like, God, I don't need you to do all of that! I don't need you to do all—I don't need you to part the Red Sea! I don't need food to come from heaven! I don't need you to defeat all of my enemies! I just need some basic things, and some basic things that I was hoping for that time, that, you know, maybe the— The VA will come back and declare me 100% disabled, and maybe somehow, God, you could just provide extra money so that I could pay off the house and be done with my mortgage and not have to worry about that, because even if I get 100% disability from the VA, I'm going to struggle with this house payment for who knows how many more years to come. Maybe you could just take my seizures away. Maybe, and even if you can't do that, just, again, just a little bit of financial. I don't need that much, just a little bit. Get 100% disability and just something miraculously shows up that could just pay off the house. That's it. And then I'm free from it. I'm free from the struggle. And I, cause I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going, how is this all going to work out, right? But my seizures are still here. My neurological problems are still here. Having some today, if I'm being honest. Still making the house payment. Now, yes, I'm grateful that the church, you could say God has provided each month's house payment. That's great. Some say God works better that way than taking care of all your problems. I understand that. But if you look at the state of the church, the church is about, we're just waiting for the building to close, and then we don't know how all that's going to work out. There's so many uncertainties still. But if I was reading the Psalms, it would have given me the idea that, well, God's going to do this, God's going to do that. And it's like, no, I'm misunderstanding the Psalms. Those promises are not for me. It's talking about God and Israel. If I put it back in that context, then it removes that expectation or when you're at the end of your rope thinking, okay, God, I don't need you to do all the stuff that you mentioned in the Psalms. I just need you to do like the littlest part, just a little, I don't even need all of that. It doesn't work that way, does it? I mean, just think about the young girl who died. I mean, just think about the young girl who died. Now, it ticks me off at the charismatic parents not giving the child medication, but they were praying to God. They had faith. And God let the eight-year-old girl die. I may hate their parents' theology, and I made it wiped off the face of the earth. I mean, I cannot stand charismatic theology. But do you understand how, like, they were literally praying to God with faith. Don't tell me they didn't have faith. They were believing so much they weren't even doing medication or any medical intervention. And the child—God didn't even honor their prayer! because we have this expectation that God's gonna do this or God's gonna do this. And I think in so many cases, we get these ideas from passages that are nothing to do with us. Promise is not about us. about Israel and covenant. And if you look at some, if you go through the Psalms almost inevitably, you can say, okay, how does this fit with the covenant promises? What were the promises made in this covenant? What were the promises made in this covenant? What were the curses made? And you can almost probably make a chart saying, here's how the Psalms line up perfectly with the covenantal promises or the threats of curses and judgments for disobedience to said part of the covenant. We can get into, you know, Abrahamic, a Mosaic, a Davidic, some will refer to as the Land Covenant and Deuteronomy 28. But I begin to realize maybe, you know, now that can kind of take away then the comfort you may get from the Psalms. Like, well, Maybe I don't take that the way I have. And that can be depressing. That can be a crisis of faith for a little bit. And I definitely have experienced crisis of faith multiple times in my Christian life. But maybe it's those crisis of faith that pushes me towards a correct understanding of the scripture versus not going through the crisis of faith and living a delusional form of Christianity that may be more comforting, may make me feel a little bit better, but it's just a lie. It's a sham. It's a game. I'm sick of the game. The Psalms versus the church. Which side are you on? God bless.