Thursday, February 8th | Actualizing Identification with Israel’s Salvation History (or Something Like That...)

This episode of Clearview today is brought to you by Mighty Muscadine. David, let me ask you, how's your immune system lately?

It's honestly in critical condition. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, but what if I told you that similar to our immune system, which produces more antibodies when under attack, the Muscadine grape also produces more damage-fighting antioxidants when under stress from the environment it grows in, leading to a host of health benefits. I'd gobble them up like Tic Tacs.

My friend MightyMuscadine.com has everything you could ever need to take your health game to the next level. All their products are gluten-free, trans-fat-free, non-GMO, dairy-free, and best of all, they actually taste delicious. I can attest to that personally. I had some of their protein powder just this morning and it's delicious.

I know that's right. Their grape juice is delicious. Tell it. Their antioxidant beverages, delicious.

Preach it on. Their shampoo, their body lotion, all delicious. What?

Best I've ever had. I'm glad to hear that you liked it, but try not to eat the shampoo. Too late, and I'll tell you something else. Mighty Muscadine believes in protecting God's great earth for generations to come.

That's why their farming and production is environmentally friendly, and they make every effort to protect and preserve without the use of pesticides and herbicides. You ate shampoo, though. Said your immune system was in critical condition. I think I know why. The only problem is I'm a little short on funds. Well, fret no more, my friend.

We're going to talk about that later, but fret no more. Again, visit MightyMuscadine.com and use promo code today. That's T-O-D-A-Y to unlock exclusive savings at checkout. Again, use promo code T-O-D-A-Y at checkout to enjoy a significant discount on all your purchases of Mighty Muscadine products. And listen, every single dollar you spend using that promo code helps support us here at the Clearview Today show. Remember, that promo code is today.

T-O-D-A-Y. A healthier, happier you is just a click away. If you have any questions for Dr. Shot or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028 or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep this conversation going forward by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. Leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify where you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave some links in the description so you can help us do just that. The verse of the day today comes from Psalm 66 verses 16 and 17. Come and hear all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul.

I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. I'm going to take you guys back to, golly, I'm going to say 2007? 2008? It was a song by the David Crowder Band. It was a short song. It didn't get a lot of radio play, but it was called Come and Listen. It was on the A Collision album. Oh my gosh, let me Google it real quick. Come and Listen. It's based off this song.

2005? Oh my goodness. It's basically just this. Come and taste and see that the Lord is good, and praise the Lord. All you who fear the Lord, praise Him.

That's our appropriate response. I don't usually do this, but I would really recommend you go and listen to that song. It's an old one, and it's very, very simple, but man, that song has such a heart for this Psalm. Just come to the water's edge, all you who know and fear the Lord.

So good. I love the Psalms because it's just this idea of the cry of your heart, this intense desire. Come and hear all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul. There's a point where, when we look back at what God has done for us, and we look at all that God has brought us to and brought us through, that it should inspire worship that inspires other people to worship. The Psalms, yeah, I agree 100%, and that's sort of what our worship is. Today's episode is going to focus a lot on the heart of worship, why we worship, the way that we worship, what is worship, but it's just a response. It's a response to how good God has been to us, and so I tell the team all the time, you're not musicians, you're not singers, you're not tech volunteers, you're worship leaders. The worship leader is not the person up there with the microphone front and center, front man, and everybody else is his band. If you're on stage leading worship, you are a worship leader. If you're in the booth, you are leading people in worship. And so all you're doing is you're inviting people to respond to how good... God has already done everything. We're not facilitating any desired, what am I trying to say, response on God's part. We're not like, hey, God, we're going to sing these songs as best we can so you'll bless our church. He's already given you more, and all of us, more than we could ever imagine.

This is our response to him, this is our thank you. Yeah, that's so good. We say the same thing in the theater ministry, is that everything you do, whether it's sometimes when you're working on shows and rehearsing for months on end, things can get kind of dry. But in memorizing lines and memorizing your blocking and programming tech and building the sets and moving set pieces, everything that you do needs to be an act of worship.

That's right. Which changes then how I approach the task of memorizing my lines. Am I going to memorize my lines so I can get through it, or am I going to memorize my lines to God's glory? Yeah, and I think that's something, maybe we'll talk to Dr. Shaw about this, but where we can start this thing on the show where we just dive into the Psalms. I love the Psalms. I think they're so, so, not even just good for worship. They just are pure praise. They're pure worship. We're going to talk about some of the Psalms today, especially one in particular we just read from Psalm 66. If you have a favorite Psalm, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Don't forget to head over to MightyMuscanine.com. They're the sponsors of today's episode. Check out their line of products and use the promo code today, that's T-O-D-A-Y, when you check out. We'll see you guys after the break. Elizabeth, my darling bride, what would you say is the most beneficial thing you could do for yourself in the morning? Probably drink an entire pot of coffee when sitting.

I'd say that's a close second. Now, the best thing you can do for yourself is to start every morning with a daily devotional. Only be one to talk about.

Well, as it turns out, we have two. Right now, you can unlock the power of daily inspiration, wisdom, and spiritual growth in our devotional series, 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning. Written by our pastor, Dr. Abaddon Shah, and his wife, Nicole, the 30 Days devotional series is designed to reveal new biblical truths every single day. That's right, and every day is a new revelation to guide you on your Christian journey toward a more meaningful and purposeful life. You can pick up your copy today from our website, that's ClearviewBC.org, or you can grab both books on Amazon, Apple Books, and Audible.

That's 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning by Abaddon and Nicole Shah. And don't forget, these are only the first two in an expanding devotional series, so keep your eyes peeled for future installments. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, we're here once again in the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, earlier in the intro today we were talking about the Psalms. I don't know if you remember, but you gave me a book on the Psalms, because I was doing an entire class focused on the Psalms.

By Tramper Longman. Yes, and so many people, including myself as a worship leader, are surprised by how in-depth the Psalms are. This Psalm that hopefully we're going to look at today helps us see that we have faced worse situations before, and God has been faithful. And if He has been faithful there, He will be faithful now, and He'll be faithful tomorrow. My job, your job, is to live in the today. We often hear people say, well, live in the tomorrow. No, your job, my job, is to live for today. Not even past, not even present, today. And what you'll find is that God is more than sufficient for today.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble, right? Jesus said that. So focus on today, worship God today, glorify Him, and if He was faithful then He'll be faithful now.

And in the future, I can pray to Him in confidence and know that He will answer the prayer of a clean heart. You know, I mentioned this, I think, last week when we did the episode with Nicole, but I think everybody, but especially millennials, tend to view everything through my own personal lens. Like, this is happening to me. Life happens to me, so at the center I'm the nucleus, and everything that happens sort of happens and revolves around me. And a lot of times we put God in that is one of those orbiting bodies as well. But I love that what you're saying is we look at our trials through us as a Christian body, as a church. And Psalm 66 does a profound job in bringing out that corporateness to our lives, especially when it comes to worship. And then we transition to the personal worship. So corporate worship first and then personal. Coming together, singing together, and then moving towards the personal.

What we typically do is we just quickly want to get to our personal so that we can do the corporate better. Think about Sunday morning when you walk in here. Do you have your own personal time of singing?

No. You sing with a congregation, and then hopefully by the time you're done with the first, second songs, I don't care what style of worship you're having. You may have hymns in your church, you may have praise and worship, it doesn't matter. But I hope that as you begin singing together, that in time, in those worship songs, your heart will be more focused upon God and you will see no one but yourself standing before God.

That's right. There will be that transition. And Psalm 66 does a great job in bridging those two, beginning with the corporate, but then focusing on the individual. You want us to read it?

Yeah, so let's do that. So listen to verse one. This is Psalm 66 for those of you who are listening in. Verse one says, make a joyful shout to God, all the earth.

Can't get more corporate than that. That's right. All the earth. The choir is calling all believers to praise God for his wonderful works. And he's referring to God as the God of all the earth. Verse two says, sing out the honor of his name, make his praise glorious. So keep in mind, we come short of the glory of God. But here, moving on to verse three, it says, say to God, how awesome are your works through the greatness of your power, your enemies shall submit themselves to you. So all of us are enemies of God, but through Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled by his death.

That's right. Also, Colossians 1 21 tells us you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. So once we receive Christ as our savior, then we can join the throng of all those who are praising God, who are glorifying his name. Prior to knowing Christ, you can sing. But when you know Christ, then you can glorify. That's right.

There's a difference. I love that you put it that way because it gives a purpose after salvation. You know, a lot of times people think of salvation as an event.

Like, I've been saved from my sins. Great. And that's the end. That's as far as it goes. That's the finish line to them. Yeah, there's purpose beyond that.

And part of that purpose is to worship God and declare who he is and praise him for what he's done. That's right. Yeah, and that verse we just read in Colossians was actually our verse of the day a couple of, I think that was last week?

Yeah. Or maybe it was, maybe it was... Might have been the week before. It might have been yesterday.

I don't know. But it was really recently. But we talked about that. And the body of his flesh through death means that that work on the cross is what enabled it for us. Right. And I love that this is just something else that I love about Clearview Church and I love about Dr. Shaw's preaching is that the cross is at the center of everything. I have never in ten years here heard you preach a message that didn't feature the cross or come back to the cross.

Never one. Right. You know, sometimes people focus on the resurrection. They say, well, the cross is good, but resurrection now it does it.

And I do emphasize the importance of resurrection. Right. But never to the expense of the cross.

That's right. It's the cross that is the pinnacle of everything. And it's important distinction. Absolutely.

Very important. And then going back to Psalm 66, verse 5, the choir invites all believers to take a trip down memory lane. Oh, Christians love that.

Yes. Christians love that. So listen to what he says. He said, come and see the works of God. He is awesome in his doing toward the sons of men. He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. So he's referring to the exodus, of course, how they came through the Red Sea and how Pharaoh's army drowned. The chariots were drowned.

But this massive crowd of three million people walked on dry land. Sometimes we need to remind each other of God's faithfulness in the past. Our worship should remind each other, hey, God has been faithful. He has done great things.

That's right. He has done great. I mean, it's past, but that's okay. We need to remind ourselves. He has. Yeah.

Yeah. Because when you think about what God has done in the past, if he has done it once and you truly believe he doesn't change, then he will. It's not only he can do it again. He will. Right? Because he doesn't change.

He changes his mood willy-nilly all the time. If he has been faithful in the past, it's guaranteed, not just likely, but guaranteed he will be faithful in the future. Yeah.

If failure is not a part of his MO in the past, it's not going to be a part of his MO in the future. That's right. Right.

That's right. And just looking at the people of Israel's story, they were afraid. Their ancestors, of course, were afraid when they saw Pharaoh's army approaching behind them, the Red Sea before them.

It says in Exodus 14, when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. Can you imagine this army marching after you? Yeah, that's insane.

Yeah. That'll put the fear of God right in you. I mean, imagine these soldiers with one thing on their minds. They have lost their firstborns. They have just lost the crown prince of Egypt, and they want to kill.

They have only one thing in mind. You will die. Yeah. These slaves will die. They will be the enemy host.

And like you said, the only thing that they care about is getting you. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah.

That's rough. And the people of Israel at that point are not like, yes, we will trust God. No, they are at that point like, let's go back to Egypt. What are we doing? Why are we following this man, Moses?

Let's go back. And of course, Moses' response was, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. But at that moment, as you're seeing that dust cloud rising, it looks like a sandstorm coming.

Pharaoh's chariots, his army just keeps on marching, and all you have behind you is this Red Sea, this ocean of water. You're like, no way. Not going to happen.

No way. It's crazy because you really are in an impossible situation, and there are so many times where we make the events in our lives and the circumstances of our lives, we make them to seem just as impossible. Yeah. But I mean, imagine physically being there in that situation. Yeah. Like, when I think about that, it's like, bro, I can handle an insurance company.

I can handle, like, family drama. Right. I can handle all the things that seem- It's not a legion of chariots bearing down on me. Right.

These things that seem so insurmountable to me and make me lose my own faithfulness. Yeah. You're looking at this like I can handle it.

Not I can handle it, but you know what I mean. Yeah. And then for them, going back to Exodus 14, the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went before them and stood behind them.

I mean, this is powerful what's happening. So as this is happening, this is the preincarnate Jesus Christ who is protecting his people. He is the one in the pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud. And so this was their experience, and that's why we can say in Psalm 66, he turned the sea into dry land.

They went through the river on foot. There we will rejoice in him. Doesn't that just get you hyped? Yeah. That's one of my favorite things that you emphasized, Dr. Shaw, is that when you have those physical appearances in the Old Testament, where you talk about the angel of the Lord or the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire, those are the preincarnate Christ. It's not that Jesus was a new character in the New Testament.

Right, right. He's been there since the beginning, and we see him in the Old Testament. It's not like he'll be there one day. He's just sort of a mystery character. No, he's there.

Although he was not born as a baby yet, he was there. I don't know what it is, but something about that preincarnate Christ physically showing up in the Old Testament, like, I always get hype. Even if it's when he's just sitting around talking with Abraham, I get hype. If he's in the pillar of cloud, I get hype. If he's in the furnace, I get hype. I don't know what it is, but something about it just feels so victorious to me when we talk about this angel of the Lord, this preincarnate Christ coming and just, like, saving the day. It just appeals to the little kid in me, like, the superhero swooping in, changing the game, and then peacing out.

I don't know. I love it. But what's important here, along with that, the person of Christ, is that there's a shift in the person from third to second. So these people are singing, even though they were not there, they're singing because their ancestors were there, and if those people had not been saved, they wouldn't be existing today. So in a sense, they are, like, reminiscing about something that didn't happen to them.

That's kind of beautiful. So you and I can also praise God for mighty things in the past. If we were not there, we can still praise God.

The founding of our nation, praise God for that. You say, well, I wasn't there. Well, it doesn't matter.

World War II, thank God that he gave good people victory. You were not there. It doesn't matter. But God was faithful. But here now, there's a shift from the third person to the second because now they're claiming that victory for themselves. So they're actualizing, it's called the actualizing identification with Israel's salvation history. That's a big word, yeah. I don't know why theology always has them big, big, big words. Actualizing identification with Israel's salvation history. Bro, this, I don't know. We should make that the title of the episode. The actualization identification with Israel's salvation history. Bro.

They'll be like, I'll skip that one. Put in an example, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound That Saved a Wretch Like Me, written by John Newton. Now, he wrote that song from his experience. He was walking in the world. He was a slave ship captain. I mean, not a lot of bad things he did.

Many times he wandered away from the faith and all that stuff. But he wrote that song. But how many millions of people have sang Amazing Grace and had tears come down their face? That's right, because they put themselves there. They are actualizing identification with John Newton's story. So we do that. We do this, we just don't realize that we do it. And we do it all the time, and not only do we do it, but we're so happy to do it when it's secular stuff. When it's like movies that we like, or sports that we like, or anything that we're into, we race to do it.

We want to put ourselves right in the middle of the story. But it's so beautiful when we do it for God's purposes. Absolutely, and that's what the choir is doing in Psalm 66, and that's what we are supposed to do. But the choir continues, the congregation continues singing, and verse 7 says, He rules by His power forever. His eyes observe the nations.

These are all present tense now. Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves, Selah. O bless our God, you peoples, and make the voice of His praise to be heard, who keeps our soul among the living and does not allow our feet to be moved.

Wow. That right there is the key verse of this Psalm. God has prepared, has preserved our feet from slipping into the netherworld. I say this every time we go through the Psalms, but if I write every single day and I just work at becoming a better writer, I hope that by the time I'm 90, I'll be like a tenth of what David is. Every time I read them, I get so, I'm just in awe. You're a text critic, do you ever just watch the Masters and just be in awe when someone's so good at what they do? There's no doubt, and this kind of goes back to what we were saying at the beginning, that this is God's word.

Because how could a human being put this on paper and just come up with it? Without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it's not going to work. Yeah, God's word. I mean, reading the Psalms, you identify yourself.

Sort of like we were talking about the actualizing identification. You read yourself into the Psalms because David is saying things and he's expressing emotions that we all feel. He's expressing things that we can resonate with and that lets you know that it's God's word.

That's right. Now moving along to verse 10, Psalm 66, verse 10. For you, O God, have tested us.

You have refined us as silver is refined. You have brought us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs.

You have caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us out to rich fulfillment. So he's taking everything that happened in the Exodus story and now it's personal, now it's for us.

Fire and water. Yeah, is this like the first instance, or maybe not the first instance, but like how we take the scripture and like apply it from the pulpit to our personal lives? I wouldn't say this is the first one, but definitely this Psalm really brings it out in a profound way, I would say. I love that.

I love it. But now in the second half of the Psalm, there's a shift. The individual now begins to proclaim his personal thanksgiving to God and promises God that he will keep his vow.

Mm. So we're shifting from that corporate sense to more of an individual sense. And that's what should happen with worship.

You begin with the group, the people. You know, often people complain about, like when I see these contemporary songs, you know, I just don't feel like I used to feel. Well, you're confusing nostalgia with worship. Yes, because I feel nostalgic about lots of stuff, but that doesn't mean that that stuff was better. Because I remember my parents watching the cartoons I used to watch and be like, this is trash.

But like if I was to think about them now, I'd be like, they just don't make them like that no more. Right. And you're talking about SpongeBob?

Yeah. Like, hey, Arnold, Doug. Like my parents would be like, these aren't cartoons. Where's Daffy Duck?

Where's Bugs Bunny? But I remember them so fondly. It's the same way with even our styles of music.

Like of course you like what you grew up with. Yeah. So instead of getting caught up in a style or tempo or some melody, let's focus on the words. Let's focus on the truth behind them.

Begin with the corporate, and it will lead you to the individual, right? So the individual begins in verse 13. This is Psalm 66 verse 13. I will go into your house with burnt offerings.

I will pay you my vows. It's kind of cool because it was in the third person. No. Then it went to the second person.

Now it's in the first. Wow. Verse 14, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer you burnt sacrifices of fat animals with the sweet aroma of rams.

I will offer bulls with goats. Many different sacrifices, but the point is it is personal to him now. And when it comes to worship, that's what we want people to do, is come together, have your worship pastor. Forget about the style of the music and how loud it is. Leave all that alone. Come together, start singing, following his lead.

He's doing the best he can. Follow his lead. Sing corporately. In time, whatever your personal preference will sort of fade away, and you'll find yourself worshiping God from your heart.

That's right. That's one of the things I appreciate so much about you, Dr. Shaw, and about John, the way that you guys craft together the worship sets in a way that directs people's focus to where it needs to be, to Christ. We were talking about this recently on the show, but so many worship songs today are about how I am the center of the world, and my life is this, and God has done this for me, and I will be victorious. But the way that the two of you craft worship services and focus the worship toward Christ, and it aids in that corporate to individual mindset, that shift in worship.

It helps direct our focus where it needs to be. That was learned for me, because Dr. Shaw had to... I was a product of that, like, hey, I was down, I was out, I went through everything.

Because that was what I heard on the radio. That was what I heard in churches growing up. Like, I got saved in 2007, and there was a lot of that, and having to switch that was not... It wasn't natural for me to focus on who God is.

Because I think you brought it up to me at one point. It was like, what do you do for the person who's had a pretty great life, who hasn't been through the ringer? Shouldn't he still be able to worship God? When you focus on how good God is, how bad life has been to you doesn't become as important to you. That's right, that's right.

Well, I'll be honest with you. John and I did work on worship in the early years, and time to time we still do, but not much anymore. Because, I mean, he gets it. So usually he'll take what I'm preaching, and then he will work out the worship time, and then they're great. Because the mindset is already there.

This is what we're trying to do here. Not necessarily just prepare the hearts of the people so they will hear. That's important, but I don't think that's all there is to worship. It's more than just a perfunctory or first few minutes of idle time that we have to fill until we're ready to preach.

It's more than that. It's actually getting our hearts upon God, and upon the truth, upon his word, maybe even lead the person to repentance. Maybe lead the person to remember and reconsider their union with Christ. And if they don't have that union, then they will get saved and have the union. And then be eager to hear the word that God has for that person.

That's right. Be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in that person's life so that they will become a blessing to the community they're in, in the church, but then also reach the lost. It's like any good conversation. Even now we're talking to each other, and we're talking to them, but we're also listening to each other. And I think it's like the worship, we're not talking at God, but we're responding to his goodness. It's our chance to say, God, thank you so much for everything you've done.

You've been good to me. Here's my response, my praise. And then that preaching is where I get to listen to him.

I get to hear his word through a man that I trust, through a man that I've chosen to follow. And it's such a great picture of, I think, just listen and respond. And then even then with the respond at the end with the invitation, the altar calls that you always do, I mean, it just works. I don't know how to say it. It just works.

It just works. So good. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if it was helpful for you, write in and let us know, two five two five eight two five zero two eight. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Don't forget you can partner with us financially on that same website. Be a part of what God is doing here today through the Clear View Today Show.

And I wanna encourage you to visit MightyMuskatine.com. Big thank you to them for sponsoring this episode of the Clear View Today Show. Check out their line of products and use the promo code today.

That's T-O-D-A-Y when you check out. It's gonna get you a discount and a portion of your purchase is gonna come right back here. It's your favorite podcast, the Clear View Today Show. Jon, what's coming up on tomorrow's episode? Tomorrow we are talking about John Quincy Adams. There was a point in his life where he stood against slavery. As you guys know, February is Black History Month.

So we're looking at some historical figures who contributed to what would eventually happen in the Emancipation Proclamation. Gonna be taking a look at Mr. Johnny Q tomorrow and see how he actually joined the good fight a long time before everyone else did. Fun fact, he did prefer to be called Johnny Q. My boy Johnny Q.

That's what he likes. Johnny Quest. Johnny Quest. Very nice.

Sim Sim Sala Nim. Deep pull, deep pull, Johnny Quest. Did you ever watch Johnny Quest pass a shot?

I hate to admit, I don't even know what he's talking about. Oh man. That was like new John Quincy Adams. Yeah, I knew John Quincy Adams. Johnny Quest was like late night Cartoon Network. That was like at least 80s, right?

That was a long... 80s, 90s. Yeah, Johnny Quest. Shout out to Johnny Quest. We will not be talking about Johnny Quest tomorrow, but we will be talking about another Johnny Q who really attacked slavery in a cool way.

That's right. Stay tuned. We love you guys. We'll clear you today. Bye.