August 24, 2024 • 19 mins
What do "hope" and "hate" have to do with "How to Study the Bible"? Today, we're diving into another exciting part of our "How to Study the Bible" series. We'll be breaking down a section from Psalm 119, specifically verses 113 to 120, focusing on the letter Samech. Isn't it fascinating how God's Word is meticulously crafted to aid our memory and spiritual growth? We'll explore the intense emotions of the psalmist, from hating double-mindedness to finding hope in God's law. Plus, I'll share some cool connections to other Bible passages and how they can help us be better students of the Word. Grab your Bible and join me as we unpack these verses together!
If you'd like to read the Hebrew/English version...https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt26b9.htm
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Read the Blog post for this message: here. A Bible study You'll Love"Galatians: Free and Filled." Sept-November, 2024 - a 12-week study through Galatians. Details/Register here.
"Rediscovering Dad"Did you see the exciting news? I discovered a great treasure! A collection of cassettes from 1981 containing recordings of my dad's messages through the Bible! Read about that here. Bookmark the series here and look for new episodes Mondays August-October, 2024.
"So Glad You Asked""So Glad You Asked" - podcast series where we'll tackle your burning questions about the Bible and life. Submit your questions through the link below
Podcast schedule:
- Sundays - "So Glad You Asked" (every other week)
- Mondays - "Rediscovering Dad" (Aug-October, 2024)
- Wednesdays & Saturdays - "How to Study the Bible" (April-August, 2024)
- "Galatians: Free & Filled" Messages and lessons coming soon (Sept-Nov, 2024)
Dwelling in the Word and letting the Word dwell in us richly is different than reading the Bible or reading a devotional with Bible passages. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly and return the favor by dwelling in the Word - not "doing" Bible study, not simply reading - but moving into the Word with heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's being intentional in making a shift from treating the Word of God like a self-help book to letting it dwell in us as the living Word of God that it is.
Growing Deeper...- Reflect on areas where you may be double-minded and ask God for clarity.
- Commit to daily Bible study, focusing on consistency and depth.
- Memorize key verses like Psalm 119:113 to anchor your thoughts.
- Engage in discussions with others about the insights you gain from Scripture.
- Challenge yourself to apply what you learn in practical ways each day
The new series, "So Glad You Asked" has launched! I'm taking your questions about the Bible, living the Christian life, dealing with difficult situations/people/life issues...really anything on your mind and I'll share my thoughts and responses. I'd love to hear from you. No question is off-limits - Submit questions about this or any topic to DwellingRichly@gmail.com or https://www.jennifergrichmond.com/podcast/#question
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, hello, we are back. This is Jennifer. I started the podcast different today.
I was getting a little tired of, hey, welcome back. Anyway, I'm glad you're here with me.
This is Jennifer, and this is the Dwelling Richly podcast, of course.
And I'm really glad you're here with me again today. We're going to get right into it.
We're continuing on in the How to Study the Bible series.
(00:22):
And that's important to keep in mind because we're going going to be breaking
down into another stanza or section from Psalm 119.
And as much as I would love to do a Bible study on this, that's not the purpose
of this particular podcast.
And Bible studies coming up, by the way, I'll give a shout out to the new upcoming
Dwelling Richly Community Bible study.
And that begins just in a few weeks here.
(00:45):
We're going to be going through Galatians in a study I've called Free and Filled.
And I know you're going to be super blessed by that. out. So be sure to check
that out and stay tuned, get on the podcast or the La Mirada Church website,
and want to encourage you to be a part of that. All right. So that's Bible study.
This is more, this is a series. This is a series about how to study the Bible,
(01:07):
how to enjoy the Bible, how to love the Bible, how to apply the Bible,
how to above all, let the word of Christ, And you can finish the sentence by now, right?
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And what do we do? We return the favor.
Instead of just checking off the Bible like a to-do list, instead of treating
the Bible like a self-help book.
(01:30):
Which both could be true. We want to check it off our list. Some days we just
need to be, you know, simple-minded in that way.
And it is definitely helpful. But that's not why we go to the Bible.
We go to the Word of God because it's the living, powerful, two-edged sword.
And it separates out fact from fiction.
It keeps us focused on God and his truth if we approach it like that.
(01:55):
So that's what we're going to do. That's what we've been doing this whole time.
So we're moving our way through right now through Psalm 119.
We are in the 15th section of the longest psalm in the entire Bible.
How many verses does Psalm 119 have in it?
Good job, 176 verses.
Today we'll be covering verses 113 to 120.
(02:16):
This is a section of the psalm that every letter, every word of this psalm in
the Hebrew begins with the same letter as it has been in the pattern for the
whole psalm. And today's letter is Samech.
It's the 15th letter. It makes the S sound.
And we're going to talk about the meaning of Samech and how that plays a role
(02:39):
in this particular portion of the psalm. Isn't God smart?
Isn't God smart? Aren't his people brilliant and well-inspired to write his
word out in such a way that helps us, even today, remember his word?
And so we're going to dive into this section. We're going to talk about what
Samech means, how it applies to this section, and how we can be better students
(03:02):
of the word because of this portion of the psalm. All right,
let's go ahead and jump in.
I'll read from the English Standard Version yet again today like I normally do.
And then we'll go back through and we'll break it down verse by verse.
Here we go. Verse 113. Verse 113.
I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.
You are my hiding place and my shield.
(03:24):
I hope in your word, depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
Uphold me according to your promise that I may live and let me not be put to shame in my hope.
Hold me up that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually.
Continually, you spurn all who go astray from your statutes,
(03:49):
for their cunning is in vain.
All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross, therefore I love your testimonies.
My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.
All right, let's take a look at this. This is one of those psalms,
the section of this psalm, that I read and re-read, read and re-read,
(04:11):
and just got more and more and more excited about it.
There's so many extremes in this particular portion and so many reminders of
how we can study the Bible and get better at studying the Bible.
And, you know, you can see from the title of this particular episode,
(04:31):
I'm calling this Hope, Hate, and Holding On.
And I love how this particular psalm kind of gave the title to me in a sense.
Because the psalmist opens up with that very simple phrase, I hate, all right?
(04:52):
And in the previous psalm and many of the psalms before this,
the psalmist is going on and on about how much the word is a light,
it's a lamp to our feet. Of course, that's beautiful.
Accept my freewill offerings. You hold on to my life.
I hold on to my life. I hold it in my hand. and it's tenuous,
but I trust in your word and all that, that your testimony to the joy of my
(05:14):
heart, I incline my heart to perform your statutes, verse 112.
And then 113, I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.
So I love the passion of the psalmist in this particular section.
And a couple other passages came to mind as I was reading it.
There's a portion in 1 Kings during the prophet Elijah's life,
(05:40):
And he comes to the people, and he kind of puts them on blast.
Listen to 1 Kings 18, verse 21.
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long, listen to how he
phrases this, How long will you go limping between two different opinions?
(06:02):
It's just so, just blast them out for that.
If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.
Him and the people did not answer him a word, right?
So this is that infamous portion of 1 Kings, an account with Elijah challenging
the people like, hey, look, you choose who you're going to serve.
How long are you going to go on limping between two different opinions?
(06:25):
And we see the psalmist kind of saying the same thing in the opening in this
psalm. He says, I hate the double-minded.
I love your law.
They're out there. They're the ones who are double-minded. They can't decide,
are we going to serve Baal or are we going to serve the Lord?
And that's honestly the choice that we have in front of us today.
(06:46):
If we're going to do like I talked about in the previous episode,
take God's word seriously, or like the psalmist said in verse 106,
Psalm 119, verse 106, he said, I've sworn an oath and confirmed it to keep your
righteous rules. This is serious business.
Elijah's stake puts it all out. You're either serving basically Satan,
(07:09):
Baal, or you're serving God.
Don't go limping between two different opinions.
And then we jump over to the New Testament, and the brother of Jesus says the
same thing in the same way.
He says, let me open this up.
He says, to be succinct about it, James chapter 1, verse 8, he says,
(07:29):
he's a double-minded double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Who's a double-minded man? James chapter one, verse eight.
Well, he says it like this. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who
gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like the
(07:50):
wave of a sea, driven tossed by the wind, for that person was not supposed that
he will receive anything from the Lord.
And here's how How he describes him, a double-minded man.
And what's he like? He's unstable in all his ways.
And that's from James chapter one and beginning of verse five,
going through verse eight, James five, James one, five, three, wait, all right. So...
(08:12):
He talks about being double-minded and that you can have a repentance from being
double-minded later on in James chapter 4.
He says in verse, James chapter 4, verse 8, he says, let me find it in my Bible
here. Draw near to God. Here we go.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hand,
you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
(08:34):
There's hope for the double-minded. it. And like I said at the beginning,
the purpose of this particular series is not to do Bible study,
although we're doing a little bit of that now, is to get our mind right on how to study the Bible.
And so what do we learn then from studying this particular psalm?
(08:56):
Well, we take a look at this and we see that we should not be double-minded.
We should be like the psalmist, David, Ezra, or whoever it is, right?
We should place value.
We should have loyalty in God's word. We should not be double-minded.
We should do like he said in the previous passage, be committed,
take an oath to God and his word over anything else, right?
(09:21):
And I would ask that our prayer could be today that you would ask God, you know what, God,
reveal to me any areas of my life that I actually am I'm acting very double-minded
because I don't think we go to bed at night and say, oh, I'm so glad,
you know, I'm not, at least I'm not double-minded.
But I think we live like we are. We treat the Bible in such a way that it makes
(09:44):
it look like we are double-minded.
And again, I talked about this last time. The importance of taking the Bible
seriously might look like stepping up your game and actually bringing your Bible
with you wherever you go.
Bring it to church with you. There's a thought. Bring it to Bible study.
There's a thought. I know you have your Bibles on your phone.
I know it's on your tablet and whatnot. It's even on the screen, right?
(10:06):
Bring it with you to church anyway. Hold it in your hand. Take notes in it, right?
Maybe this will help taking it seriously. And also, like we see in verse 113,
I hate the double-minded. I love your law.
There's that juxtaposition. And then he says in verse 114, you are my hiding place and my shield.
(10:30):
And he's, of course, talking about God's law there and how beautiful that is.
And then he says, I hope in your word.
I hate the double-minded. I hope in your word.
And then he ramps it up and he's thinking about how much he loves God's word.
And he gets to verse 115 and he says, depart from me, you evildoers,
that I may keep the commandments of my God.
(10:51):
In other words, when those people around him who are double-minded,
when they're around him, he's distracted.
And so he's like, get away from me, you evildoers. I want to focus on,
I want to keep God's word. I don't want distraction.
And again, in line with a previous portion of this Psalm, the noon section,
(11:12):
the 14th section, we have the seriousness that he takes the word of God.
You know, in Psalm 73, verse 26, one of my absolute favorite verses,
we read, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(11:32):
What a beautiful connection and a beautiful reminder in that,
that I could take God seriously, take his word seriously, love and respect God's word.
And even though I might fail, God's word, God is the the strength of my heart.
He is my portion. We talked about this last time as well.
(11:54):
He's my portion forever. And we also see this incredible heart.
Of reality that the psalmist has and it reminded me
so much of david it's one of the reasons why i i
think about this psalm and i think actually it feels like david good of britain is
because listen to what king david wrote in psalm
139 verses 19 to 22 he's just gotten finished saying how much he loves god how
(12:18):
in awe he is of the mystery of who god is and how god's always with him and
then in verse 19 he shifts gears and he changes tone he gets really ticked off
and he says It says, oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God.
Oh, men of blood, depart from me. They speak of you with malicious intent.
Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, oh Lord?
And don't I loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with a complete
(12:43):
hatred and I count them my enemies.
Same sentiment going on right here.
Verse 115, depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of
my God. And then in verse 116 is the actual word that sounds very close to the letter of the alphabet.
The letter of this alphabet for this portion, the 15th portion,
(13:04):
is the samech, like I said earlier.
And this very first word in Hebrew is, if I'm pronouncing it correctly,
is samechen, samechani.
Uphold me, samechani. Uphold me according to your promise. Why? That I may live.
It's a life and death situation. That's how seriously, again,
(13:25):
he takes the word. And he says, don't let my hope be put to shame.
Uphold me, right? And then in verse 17.
Hold me up. That's literally what samech as the alphabet letter actually means.
It means to lean upon, to be upheld.
It came to also being associated with a laying on of hands.
(13:48):
Hold me up that I may be safe. You have and regard your statutes continually.
You spurn all who go astray from your statutes. I don't want to be counted among
those. I don't want to go astray. I don't want to be distracted.
And he says, for their cunning is in vain.
Whatever they can do, they're in vain in their efforts, right?
(14:10):
All the wicked, verse 119. I love that. This is 119, 119. Ready?
All the wicked, the segim, segim, all the wicked of the earth.
Oh, no, I'm sorry. I said the word segim. That does not mean all the wicked.
Segim refers to the dross. All the wicked of the the earth
you discard like dross the sagim is the
(14:30):
is the dross in other words david is saying look or ezra whoever is saying look
you're gonna burn with fire you're gonna like you do with gold and the dross
is gonna be the wicked and you're just gonna skim them off and be done with
them and he's happy about that what did he say he said i hate the double-minded
they're like dross he says,
(14:50):
therefore and he's reiterating again i love your testimonies and then he says
my flesh trembles for fear of you.
I'm afraid of your judgment. In other words, like it says in Psalm 73,
26, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And so often I read that Psalm 73, verse 26, and I thought, oh,
(15:12):
about, you know, the times in my life and my heart may fail,
my flesh may fail. And that's true. But,
that also speaks to incredible submissive reverence completely laid out for the Lord.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(15:33):
So I love how 14 and 15, these two sections, Nun and Samech, connect together.
This connection also between bleeding of the wicked and the hope that we have in God.
And then the focus here on how the idea of Semech comes into play,
(15:55):
because the definition and the symbolism of Semech, well, the letter itself,
and you can see this if you look in your NIV Bible,
it's written out there for you, the Hebrew letter Semech is shaped like a circle, right?
And so it's often associated with
support and protection, the idea of surrounding, the idea of upholding.
(16:15):
And this ties right in with the idea of relying on God, letting him be our refuge.
And the circle imagery of the protection, I picture when they would gather wagons
around and circle the wagons, they would say, that's what God is for us. So, all right.
(16:37):
As we approach the Bible, as we approach God's word, and we ask that question,
all right, how can I study the Bible? How do I study God's word?
When we take a look at a passage like this.
We want to see that hanging in there with God's word,
making it a priority, being serious about God's word, and then understanding
(17:01):
that there's power in the distinction of what we hate and in whom we hope, right?
And to be clear on that, I think oftentimes in our day and age,
we're afraid of even saying that we hate anything because you're going to be
called judgmental or whatever. But let's hate what God hates, right?
(17:22):
Let's hope in him. Let's hope in his word. Let's approach God's word and say,
God, as I read your word today, how do I study the Bible?
I study it with a mind open to having God teach me what I should hate and where my hope should be.
And so to answer the question for us today, how do I study the Bible better? Ask God.
(17:42):
Say, God, give me a heart that's not double-minded, that's focused on the things that you love,
and open up in me an understanding of anything that is double-minded in me so
that I can fully, truly trust in you, to lean on you, to be upheld by you.
Like it says in this particular Psalm, uphold me according to your promise that
(18:06):
I may live and let me not be put to shame, right?
Because of my own double-mindedness, because of my own failure to hold true,
to take God's word seriously, let me not be put to shame in my hope.
I pray for you today that that would be true of you, that you would have a passion
and desire to love God in that strength of that way, right?
(18:28):
All right, share your questions and your thoughts. I love to hear from you.
If you're listening to this podcast, just let me know what you're thinking.
Tell me what it said to you and how it fed you. I'll do a blog post based on
this podcast as well. You can go read that and be sure to follow.
Follow me wherever you're listening to the podcast. Maybe you're listening on
YouTube or on Apple. Maybe you're right here on my blog listening.
Maybe we're on Podbean, wherever it is.
(18:51):
IHeartRadio, all the things, right? Tell me you're listening.
Let me know you stopped by.
Ask a question and give me a thought that I can improve on how I approach these
podcasts. I'd love to hear from you is the point. All right.
God bless you. I always enjoy being here with you. And know as always,
you are loved and you are prayed for.
I look forward to being back here again with you real soon. Bye-bye for now.
Well, hello, we are back. This is Jennifer. I started the podcast different today.
I was getting a little tired of, hey, welcome back. Anyway, I'm glad you're here with me.
This is Jennifer, and this is the Dwelling Richly podcast, of course.
And I'm really glad you're here with me again today. We're going to get right into it.
We're continuing on in the How to Study the Bible series.
(00:22):
And that's important to keep in mind because we're going going to be breaking
down into another stanza or section from Psalm 119.
And as much as I would love to do a Bible study on this, that's not the purpose
of this particular podcast.
And Bible studies coming up, by the way, I'll give a shout out to the new upcoming
Dwelling Richly Community Bible study.
And that begins just in a few weeks here.
(00:45):
We're going to be going through Galatians in a study I've called Free and Filled.
And I know you're going to be super blessed by that. out. So be sure to check
that out and stay tuned, get on the podcast or the La Mirada Church website,
and want to encourage you to be a part of that. All right. So that's Bible study.
This is more, this is a series. This is a series about how to study the Bible,
(01:07):
how to enjoy the Bible, how to love the Bible, how to apply the Bible,
how to above all, let the word of Christ, And you can finish the sentence by now, right?
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And what do we do? We return the favor.
Instead of just checking off the Bible like a to-do list, instead of treating
the Bible like a self-help book.
(01:30):
Which both could be true. We want to check it off our list. Some days we just
need to be, you know, simple-minded in that way.
And it is definitely helpful. But that's not why we go to the Bible.
We go to the Word of God because it's the living, powerful, two-edged sword.
And it separates out fact from fiction.
It keeps us focused on God and his truth if we approach it like that.
(01:55):
So that's what we're going to do. That's what we've been doing this whole time.
So we're moving our way through right now through Psalm 119.
We are in the 15th section of the longest psalm in the entire Bible.
How many verses does Psalm 119 have in it?
Good job, 176 verses.
Today we'll be covering verses 113 to 120.
(02:16):
This is a section of the psalm that every letter, every word of this psalm in
the Hebrew begins with the same letter as it has been in the pattern for the
whole psalm. And today's letter is Samech.
It's the 15th letter. It makes the S sound.
And we're going to talk about the meaning of Samech and how that plays a role
(02:39):
in this particular portion of the psalm. Isn't God smart?
Isn't God smart? Aren't his people brilliant and well-inspired to write his
word out in such a way that helps us, even today, remember his word?
And so we're going to dive into this section. We're going to talk about what
Samech means, how it applies to this section, and how we can be better students
(03:02):
of the word because of this portion of the psalm. All right,
let's go ahead and jump in.
I'll read from the English Standard Version yet again today like I normally do.
And then we'll go back through and we'll break it down verse by verse.
Here we go. Verse 113. Verse 113.
I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.
You are my hiding place and my shield.
(03:24):
I hope in your word, depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
Uphold me according to your promise that I may live and let me not be put to shame in my hope.
Hold me up that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually.
Continually, you spurn all who go astray from your statutes,
(03:49):
for their cunning is in vain.
All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross, therefore I love your testimonies.
My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.
All right, let's take a look at this. This is one of those psalms,
the section of this psalm, that I read and re-read, read and re-read,
(04:11):
and just got more and more and more excited about it.
There's so many extremes in this particular portion and so many reminders of
how we can study the Bible and get better at studying the Bible.
And, you know, you can see from the title of this particular episode,
(04:31):
I'm calling this Hope, Hate, and Holding On.
And I love how this particular psalm kind of gave the title to me in a sense.
Because the psalmist opens up with that very simple phrase, I hate, all right?
(04:52):
And in the previous psalm and many of the psalms before this,
the psalmist is going on and on about how much the word is a light,
it's a lamp to our feet. Of course, that's beautiful.
Accept my freewill offerings. You hold on to my life.
I hold on to my life. I hold it in my hand. and it's tenuous,
but I trust in your word and all that, that your testimony to the joy of my
(05:14):
heart, I incline my heart to perform your statutes, verse 112.
And then 113, I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.
So I love the passion of the psalmist in this particular section.
And a couple other passages came to mind as I was reading it.
There's a portion in 1 Kings during the prophet Elijah's life,
(05:40):
And he comes to the people, and he kind of puts them on blast.
Listen to 1 Kings 18, verse 21.
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long, listen to how he
phrases this, How long will you go limping between two different opinions?
(06:02):
It's just so, just blast them out for that.
If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.
Him and the people did not answer him a word, right?
So this is that infamous portion of 1 Kings, an account with Elijah challenging
the people like, hey, look, you choose who you're going to serve.
How long are you going to go on limping between two different opinions?
(06:25):
And we see the psalmist kind of saying the same thing in the opening in this
psalm. He says, I hate the double-minded.
I love your law.
They're out there. They're the ones who are double-minded. They can't decide,
are we going to serve Baal or are we going to serve the Lord?
And that's honestly the choice that we have in front of us today.
(06:46):
If we're going to do like I talked about in the previous episode,
take God's word seriously, or like the psalmist said in verse 106,
Psalm 119, verse 106, he said, I've sworn an oath and confirmed it to keep your
righteous rules. This is serious business.
Elijah's stake puts it all out. You're either serving basically Satan,
(07:09):
Baal, or you're serving God.
Don't go limping between two different opinions.
And then we jump over to the New Testament, and the brother of Jesus says the
same thing in the same way.
He says, let me open this up.
He says, to be succinct about it, James chapter 1, verse 8, he says,
(07:29):
he's a double-minded double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Who's a double-minded man? James chapter one, verse eight.
Well, he says it like this. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who
gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like the
(07:50):
wave of a sea, driven tossed by the wind, for that person was not supposed that
he will receive anything from the Lord.
And here's how How he describes him, a double-minded man.
And what's he like? He's unstable in all his ways.
And that's from James chapter one and beginning of verse five,
going through verse eight, James five, James one, five, three, wait, all right. So...
(08:12):
He talks about being double-minded and that you can have a repentance from being
double-minded later on in James chapter 4.
He says in verse, James chapter 4, verse 8, he says, let me find it in my Bible
here. Draw near to God. Here we go.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hand,
you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
(08:34):
There's hope for the double-minded. it. And like I said at the beginning,
the purpose of this particular series is not to do Bible study,
although we're doing a little bit of that now, is to get our mind right on how to study the Bible.
And so what do we learn then from studying this particular psalm?
(08:56):
Well, we take a look at this and we see that we should not be double-minded.
We should be like the psalmist, David, Ezra, or whoever it is, right?
We should place value.
We should have loyalty in God's word. We should not be double-minded.
We should do like he said in the previous passage, be committed,
take an oath to God and his word over anything else, right?
(09:21):
And I would ask that our prayer could be today that you would ask God, you know what, God,
reveal to me any areas of my life that I actually am I'm acting very double-minded
because I don't think we go to bed at night and say, oh, I'm so glad,
you know, I'm not, at least I'm not double-minded.
But I think we live like we are. We treat the Bible in such a way that it makes
(09:44):
it look like we are double-minded.
And again, I talked about this last time. The importance of taking the Bible
seriously might look like stepping up your game and actually bringing your Bible
with you wherever you go.
Bring it to church with you. There's a thought. Bring it to Bible study.
There's a thought. I know you have your Bibles on your phone.
I know it's on your tablet and whatnot. It's even on the screen, right?
(10:06):
Bring it with you to church anyway. Hold it in your hand. Take notes in it, right?
Maybe this will help taking it seriously. And also, like we see in verse 113,
I hate the double-minded. I love your law.
There's that juxtaposition. And then he says in verse 114, you are my hiding place and my shield.
(10:30):
And he's, of course, talking about God's law there and how beautiful that is.
And then he says, I hope in your word.
I hate the double-minded. I hope in your word.
And then he ramps it up and he's thinking about how much he loves God's word.
And he gets to verse 115 and he says, depart from me, you evildoers,
that I may keep the commandments of my God.
(10:51):
In other words, when those people around him who are double-minded,
when they're around him, he's distracted.
And so he's like, get away from me, you evildoers. I want to focus on,
I want to keep God's word. I don't want distraction.
And again, in line with a previous portion of this Psalm, the noon section,
(11:12):
the 14th section, we have the seriousness that he takes the word of God.
You know, in Psalm 73, verse 26, one of my absolute favorite verses,
we read, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(11:32):
What a beautiful connection and a beautiful reminder in that,
that I could take God seriously, take his word seriously, love and respect God's word.
And even though I might fail, God's word, God is the the strength of my heart.
He is my portion. We talked about this last time as well.
(11:54):
He's my portion forever. And we also see this incredible heart.
Of reality that the psalmist has and it reminded me
so much of david it's one of the reasons why i i
think about this psalm and i think actually it feels like david good of britain is
because listen to what king david wrote in psalm
139 verses 19 to 22 he's just gotten finished saying how much he loves god how
(12:18):
in awe he is of the mystery of who god is and how god's always with him and
then in verse 19 he shifts gears and he changes tone he gets really ticked off
and he says It says, oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God.
Oh, men of blood, depart from me. They speak of you with malicious intent.
Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, oh Lord?
And don't I loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with a complete
(12:43):
hatred and I count them my enemies.
Same sentiment going on right here.
Verse 115, depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of
my God. And then in verse 116 is the actual word that sounds very close to the letter of the alphabet.
The letter of this alphabet for this portion, the 15th portion,
(13:04):
is the samech, like I said earlier.
And this very first word in Hebrew is, if I'm pronouncing it correctly,
is samechen, samechani.
Uphold me, samechani. Uphold me according to your promise. Why? That I may live.
It's a life and death situation. That's how seriously, again,
(13:25):
he takes the word. And he says, don't let my hope be put to shame.
Uphold me, right? And then in verse 17.
Hold me up. That's literally what samech as the alphabet letter actually means.
It means to lean upon, to be upheld.
It came to also being associated with a laying on of hands.
(13:48):
Hold me up that I may be safe. You have and regard your statutes continually.
You spurn all who go astray from your statutes. I don't want to be counted among
those. I don't want to go astray. I don't want to be distracted.
And he says, for their cunning is in vain.
Whatever they can do, they're in vain in their efforts, right?
(14:10):
All the wicked, verse 119. I love that. This is 119, 119. Ready?
All the wicked, the segim, segim, all the wicked of the earth.
Oh, no, I'm sorry. I said the word segim. That does not mean all the wicked.
Segim refers to the dross. All the wicked of the the earth
you discard like dross the sagim is the
(14:30):
is the dross in other words david is saying look or ezra whoever is saying look
you're gonna burn with fire you're gonna like you do with gold and the dross
is gonna be the wicked and you're just gonna skim them off and be done with
them and he's happy about that what did he say he said i hate the double-minded
they're like dross he says,
(14:50):
therefore and he's reiterating again i love your testimonies and then he says
my flesh trembles for fear of you.
I'm afraid of your judgment. In other words, like it says in Psalm 73,
26, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And so often I read that Psalm 73, verse 26, and I thought, oh,
(15:12):
about, you know, the times in my life and my heart may fail,
my flesh may fail. And that's true. But,
that also speaks to incredible submissive reverence completely laid out for the Lord.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(15:33):
So I love how 14 and 15, these two sections, Nun and Samech, connect together.
This connection also between bleeding of the wicked and the hope that we have in God.
And then the focus here on how the idea of Semech comes into play,
(15:55):
because the definition and the symbolism of Semech, well, the letter itself,
and you can see this if you look in your NIV Bible,
it's written out there for you, the Hebrew letter Semech is shaped like a circle, right?
And so it's often associated with
support and protection, the idea of surrounding, the idea of upholding.
(16:15):
And this ties right in with the idea of relying on God, letting him be our refuge.
And the circle imagery of the protection, I picture when they would gather wagons
around and circle the wagons, they would say, that's what God is for us. So, all right.
(16:37):
As we approach the Bible, as we approach God's word, and we ask that question,
all right, how can I study the Bible? How do I study God's word?
When we take a look at a passage like this.
We want to see that hanging in there with God's word,
making it a priority, being serious about God's word, and then understanding
(17:01):
that there's power in the distinction of what we hate and in whom we hope, right?
And to be clear on that, I think oftentimes in our day and age,
we're afraid of even saying that we hate anything because you're going to be
called judgmental or whatever. But let's hate what God hates, right?
(17:22):
Let's hope in him. Let's hope in his word. Let's approach God's word and say,
God, as I read your word today, how do I study the Bible?
I study it with a mind open to having God teach me what I should hate and where my hope should be.
And so to answer the question for us today, how do I study the Bible better? Ask God.
(17:42):
Say, God, give me a heart that's not double-minded, that's focused on the things that you love,
and open up in me an understanding of anything that is double-minded in me so
that I can fully, truly trust in you, to lean on you, to be upheld by you.
Like it says in this particular Psalm, uphold me according to your promise that
(18:06):
I may live and let me not be put to shame, right?
Because of my own double-mindedness, because of my own failure to hold true,
to take God's word seriously, let me not be put to shame in my hope.
I pray for you today that that would be true of you, that you would have a passion
and desire to love God in that strength of that way, right?
(18:28):
All right, share your questions and your thoughts. I love to hear from you.
If you're listening to this podcast, just let me know what you're thinking.
Tell me what it said to you and how it fed you. I'll do a blog post based on
this podcast as well. You can go read that and be sure to follow.
Follow me wherever you're listening to the podcast. Maybe you're listening on
YouTube or on Apple. Maybe you're right here on my blog listening.
Maybe we're on Podbean, wherever it is.
(18:51):
IHeartRadio, all the things, right? Tell me you're listening.
Let me know you stopped by.
Ask a question and give me a thought that I can improve on how I approach these
podcasts. I'd love to hear from you is the point. All right.
God bless you. I always enjoy being here with you. And know as always,
you are loved and you are prayed for.
I look forward to being back here again with you real soon. Bye-bye for now.
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