Hello everybody and welcome in to episode 203 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Psalms 13 and 14 today and our focus is on  How Can Anybody Go to Heaven if Nobody is Righteous? How the Psalms Help us Process Our Emotions.  We are a daily 10 minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in . Thanks for listening!  Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast! Don’t forget about our web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more– Click here for our Bible 2021 reading plan\

One of the things we see in the Psalms is a Spirit led, Spirit inspired and Spirit breathed processing through emotions by the Psalmist. “How long – will you forget me forever, O Lord?”  begins the opening lines of Psalm 13 – reflecting a common feeling so many of have wrestled with. How many of us have prayed and felt like God’s answer was so delayed that it wouldn’t ever come? And yet, here we see David, a mighty man of God, a man after God’s own heart, struggling with the same emotions, and the same feelings. I find that strangely comforting for a couple of reasons. First, it tells me that my experience of impatience and wondering if God will ever answer is not uncommon to the saints of God, and second, it tells me that I can still be faithful and a genuine follower of God, and yet wrestle with such emotions.

Verse 2 is similar, “How long will I store up anxious concerns within me,
agony in my mind every day?” I have not spent most of my life storing up anxious concerns which cause agony in my mind every day, but I will tell you that I have through multiple seasons, including much of 2020, when that was a PERFECT description of my mindset – too much anxiety causing too much agony in my mind. No, that didn’t happen every day, but a quick survey of the Psalms will show that some days David was walking in incredible joy, full assurance of the Lord’s hearing, and not really displaying any negative emotions at all…and other days are Psalm 13 days. Where are you God – I am so anxious that I’m in agony! And, how does a mighty man of God – a man after God’s own heart handle such debilitating feelings and deep questions? He reminds himself to trust God, worships and assures Himself of God’s faithfulness!

But I have trusted in your faithful love;
my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.
⁶ I will sing to the Lord
because he has treated me generously. Psalms 13:5-6

Far from unlucky, this Psalm shows us the commonness of some very dark feelings, and how we should process them as people of faith. Let’s read both Psalms and then discuss Psalm 14.

There is nobody righteous, not even a single person, says Psalms 14, also quoted by Paul in Romans 3. Let’s read that passage where Paul quotes this Psalm and then listen to pastor David Platt explain how it is possible for people to go to Heaven, given that not a single person is righteous:

There is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they together have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Our throats are open graves, our tongues practice deceit, the poison of vipers is on our lips, and our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Ruin and misery mark our way. The way of peace we do not know. There is no fear of God before our eye … whatever the law says it says to all of those who are under the law so that every one of our mouths will be silenced and the whole world accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3

In other words, the law only makes us more guilty. It gets to verse 20, and whether he’s writing and puts the pen down, or whether he’s paused for a second, you can see the tears in Paul’s eyes as he is overwhelmed with the guilt of man before God. This is heavy! Thankfully Paul picks the pen back up, and he says to the person … this is one of the greatest transitions in all of Scripture … Romans 3:21, “But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

That’s a good verse to know too. Not that we all fall short, but we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. This paradox comes back in. How can God be just and also justify us in all of our sin? How can that be so? Romans 3:21–26, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

He is just, His condemnation is poured out. He justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ because His condemnation is poured out on His one and only Son, so that He could say, just like he said to that woman, “Neither do I condemn you; you are forgiven; you have a fresh start, and you are free.” He says, “Amidst the emotional weight of our sin, you are free…” I don’t know what your past has been like, and I don’t know what things there are there that weigh heavily on you at different times in your life. I don’t know the guilt you have felt from falling short in the area as a husband or a wife, as a teenager, or in this relationship or that relationship, or this thing or that thing that nobody else knows about. I don’t know all about those things in your life. However, I do know this. He says that, through Christ Jesus, you are free. You’re free! You’re free! [if you follow Jesus and trust Him to save you]  David Platt, “God’s Story in a Guilt-Based Culture,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 759–760.

Bible Memory verses for the month of July: ^47 “I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them: ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built.” Luke 6:47-48

The Bible 2021 Podcast Is a ministry of Valley Baptist Church, A Salinas, California Church.

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