Psalm 104 Study Guide: OLD TESTAMENT Part 1 (Physical Water) 1. Read Genesis 1:2,6-10. When it isnʼt being held back and put in its place by God, water is a deadly thing. (cf. Genesis 7) 2. Read Genesis 2:5-14. This account of Eden shows that God gave man an ongoing and adequate supply of water that wouldnʼt run out. What are the differences between the water in Genesis 1 and the water in Genesis 2? (Thereʼs no difference in the water itself, simply in its situation and activity.) 3. Psalm 104 This Psalm describes the principle that water is life. List the creatures and activities which are sustained by water in this Psalm. This Psalm affirms the principle that God controls the water. List the verbs that describe Godʼs control over the water. If you want, read Genesis 1 using the lens of Psalm 104. That is, read the creation account as a description of God commanding water. List the ways in which water is governed and ordered to sustain life in the first four days of creation. In the fifth and sixth days, think about how each kind of creature lives (habitat and food) by the order God has placed in the waters. (Conversely, think about how it was all destroyed by the release of those waters in Noahʼs story in Genesis 7.) 4. Read Exodus 7:14-25; 14:10-31. The Egyptians depended on the Nile River as a source of life. The water from that river was probably what fueled Egyptʼs wealth, power, and culture, which dominated the known world throughout the time of the Old Testament. As the king of Egypt, Pharaoh knew that to control water was to have control. Notice in the selection of passages from Exodus 7 and 14 how Godʼs first and last demonstration of power to Pharaoh involved water. (Romans 9:17)
5. Read Exodus 15:22-27; 17:1-7. The Israelites had been in Egypt for around 400 years. They needed the same lesson Pharaoh did: the God who controls water controls everything, because water is life. Israelʼs time in the desert was largely for them to learn to trust Godʼs supreme and absolute power, and this lesson was learned in no small part through demonstrations of his ability to command water. What are the similarities and/or differences in the way God demonstrated his power over water to Egypt and to Israel? What are the similarities and/or differences in the way Egypt and Israel responded to Godʼs power over water? 6. Read Deuteronomy 8:1-20; 11:1-32. Here God tells Israel explicitly why he has brought them out of Egypt and into Canaan: it has to do with the way water is supplied. What is the difference, in terms of water supply, between Egypt and Canaan, and why is Canaan a better place for Israel to learn to trust God? In Deuteronomy, God compares his word to bread, or food. What is the connection between water and food? What is the danger of God providing physical water and therefore physical food for Israel in Canaan? (Deut 8:10-12). What must they remember? 7. Read Deuteronomy 28:9-12,15,23-24. How, according to the passage selections, will Israel know when they have obeyed the covenant and pleased God in Canaan? How will they know they havenʼt? 8. Read 1 Kings 16:29-17:16. Ahab was a Baal worshipper. What you may not know is that Baal was the god of thunderstorms and fertility. So, in addition to the fact that God had promised to withhold rain from Israel if they worshipped idols, this punishment was particularly appropriate for King Ahab. During the drought, Baal was shown to be impotent. God provides additional miracles to assure people that he is controlling the drought to send a message. Look up these passages and compare with 1 Kings 16:29-34 the ways King Ahab disobeyed Godʼs word:
Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3 Exodus 34:13 Joshua 6:26 9. Read 1 Kings 18. Youʼre probably familiar with this story already, but have you ever noticed the role of water in it? On the heels of our study, read it again with water in mind. Remember, Baalʼs job was supposedly to send rain and therefore provide crops. The duel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal was literally a battle to see which god--baal or Jehovah--controlled the water. What was the ironic result of Ahabʼs Baal worship? How did God specifically prove in this chapter that he has power over water? 10.Read Psalm 107:33-43 How is water used by God according to this passage? OLD TESTAMENT Part 2 (Spiritual Water) 11.Read Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1; 143:4-8. Spiritual thirst and physical thirst are very closely related, and more than simply a metaphor. Remember what Adamʼs curse was (Genesis 3:17-19)? God cursed Adam by cursing the ground to be dry, unfruitful, and ultimately the place of his death. The ground becomes, in this curse, a mirror revealing the condition of our sinful hearts. Because of sin, because we are alienated from the spiritual water source (God) we are dry, unfruitful, and dead. Therefore, when David speaks of spiritual thirst, he is comparing himself with the cursed creation--cursed and thirsty and dying apart from God. The answer? Seek water. Seek God. When you get spiritually dry, do you tend to wander around in the desert, hoping water will come to you, or do you know where to quench your thirst? Read both of these Psalms all the way through. What kinds of things might David recommend you do when you are in a spiritual drought? 12.Read Isaiah 41:17-20. Iʼm not sure if this passage is talking about spiritual water or physical water, but either way, God is the source, and surely the passages in OT Part 1 have convinced you that a lack of physical water often drives Godʼs people to seek him, the spiritual water. In the end, there isnʼt a
difference anyway. In the new creation, there will be no thirst of any kind, no drought, and no famine. In the end, eternal life sustained by living water! But weʼre getting ahead of ourselves! Do you like this passage? Doesnʼt its poetry feel like a refreshing splash of cool water? Tuck it away for your next dry spell! 13.Read Isaiah 44:1-4; 58:11. Here again, spiritual and physical waters intermingle. What is the result for Godʼs people? (See the reverse in Isaiah 1:27-31). 14.Read Isaiah 55:1-3,10-13. What, in these verses, is the water Isaiah speaks of? What happens where the rain of Godʼs word falls? How confident can we be that the word will water our souls and make us fruitful? What must we pay for this water? What must we do to get it? GOSPEL: 15.Read Psalm 72, paying attention especially to verse 6. Okay, okay, this is an Old Testament passage. But what does it say about the Christ (Godʼs anointed king, yes, Jesus) in terms of water? How does the water of Christ prosper the kingdom? How does the water of Christ attract the thirsty? 16.Read John 4:7-15. List four things mentioned in this passage that make Jesusʼ water better than any other water. 17.Read John 7:37-39. Jesus said this on the last (eighth) day of the Feast of Booths. The purpose of this Feast was to remember Godʼs deliverance from Egypt, to thank God for the harvest they had had, and to ask him to bless the coming harvest (Leviticus 23:33-44). By Jesusʼ time, the tradition had become such that the eighth day (the Great Day ) was particularly devoted to praying for water--which, of course, was essential to the harvest they were asking for. It was a day of jubilant, celebratory worship, so that one of the ancient rabbis wrote: "Anyone who has not seen this water ceremony has never seen
rejoicing in his life." Letʼs apply the Bibleʼs two main water principles to this passage: 1) water is life and 2) God controls water. What evidence of life shows up where the Spirit is flowing? How does the image of a river describe the Spiritʼs ministry in our lives better than the imagery of an ocean, a rainfall, or a flood would? In other words, what is great about having a river as a water source for life? 18.Read Romans 8. What is the Spiritʼs ministry to you? How does his ministry resemble the ministry of a river to a parched land? Do you think heʼs a faucet God turns on and off? Is he there sometimes, but not others? What should you expect to see as evidence of life from the presence of the Spirit in you? Do you see in this passage the interconnectedness between physical life and spiritual life? Donʼt ever separate the two! Jesus Christ has come to make ALL things new, from your spirit to the ground itself. And in this newness, water is still essential, and it still comes (whether physical or spiritual) from God. NEW TESTAMENT: 19.Read Acts 2. Here we see the moment in which the Spirit is given as John noted it would be (John 7:39). What actual signs of spiritual life are described in Acts 2 for those who have been given the Spirit? (The first group to be filled is the disciples; then the camera zooms in on Peter, and finally, the 3000 new believers. Note the various ways in which the Spiritʼs presence was manifested in these three instances mentioned in Acts 2.) 20.Read Joel 2. The actual event at Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks, also from Leviticus 23) shows the Spirit coming down not in the form of water, but of fire (and also wind, another common biblical description of the Spirit). Certainly when we think of Pentecost we immediately think of the tongues of fire that rested on the believers, which may bring to mind the holy, anointing fire of 2
Chronicles 7:1 or Zechariah 2:5. But Peter turns instead to Joel 2 to explain what has just happened. In Joel 2, fire is what destroys the land in wrath for the sin of its inhabitants, and it becomes parched and unfruitful. But God becomes jealous for his land and turns to bless his people--how? By pouring down rain (2:23). And the punch line? I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, which Peter quotes as an explanation for what is happening at Pentecost. Joel compares the Spiritʼs ministry to water which will fall on the land and make it fruitful, and Peter is saying, that water has come! 21.Read Ezekiel 47:1-12. What point does this passage especially want us to understand about the water that flows from the temple? 22.Revelation 21-22, especially 21:5-6; 22:1-5,17. Notice that, in the new creation, there is no theological distinction between the spiritual and the material. Both are of God, and both are full of eternal life. How is this true of the water in the passage? How are you, in a sense, already enjoying the water of life which will be plentiful in the new creation?