August 31, 2024 • 19 mins
Read the transcript, Follow along with an outline, get a Devotional for this passage and more!
This series is all about practical tips for engaging intentionally with the Bible, avoiding errors, and growing spiritually. Today, we're focusing on Psalm 119:129-136, exploring how to make meaningful connections within scripture and integrate it into our lives. Remember, this journey isn't just about reading; it's about letting the word dwell in us richly. Grab your Bible (yes, the physical one with pages!) and let's dive in together.
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 Psalm 119! Read about that here. Bookmark the series here and look for new episodes Mondays August-October, 2024. His insights are so helpful! You will blessed, and, like me, you'll wish we had all of his teachings!
"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
September-November, 2024 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...-
Make Connections Between Passages: Strengthen your understanding of Scripture by linking related verses, creating "hyperlinks" in your mind that reveal the interconnectedness of God's Word.
-
Engage with a Physical Bible: Use a physical Bible to engage your senses—highlight verses, make notes, and let the tactile experience help you internalize Scripture more deeply.
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Pray for Insight: Before and during your study, pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you, helping you uncover new insights and apply God's Word to your life.
- Get the devotional for this passage. (link at the top)
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
Share with others and thanks for saying Hi! Leave a Comment ⤵
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back. I'm Jennifer Richmond, and this is the Dwelling Richly podcast,
where we love God heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We are women who enthusiastically and intentionally dwell in the Word and let
the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.
You can find Bible studies and teaching like this on my blog and right here on this podcast. Hi!
(00:20):
And so please subscribe to this channel wherever you're listening.
Tap a church bell, notification bell, so you can get those updates whenever
I drop a new episode. and let's get into the Word today.
All right, well, this is a continuation of the How to Study the Bible series,
and they'll be kicked off at, what are we at, like three months back since we've
(00:43):
started this series, so glad that you are continuing with me if this is your first time joining me.
I encourage you to hop, skip, and jump backwards a little bit and check out
the other episodes in this series.
The whole point of this series is rooted in the idea of the entire point of
this ministry, the Dwelling Richly ministry,
(01:04):
that the idea is that we would let the word of Christ dwell in us richly,
and then we return the favor by dwelling in the word, not doing a Bible study,
not just simply reading, but really moving into the word with heart,
soul, mind, and strength and making that part.
And so the whole goal, my focus of this particular series has been to say,
(01:25):
okay, well then how do we do that?
What are some practical things that I can do so that when I'm in God's word, I'm.
I'm intentional. I really am intentional. I am trying to just dwell in the word
and not just check it off a list or what have you.
So I've been going through some tips, some ideas, some ways to approach the
word, some ways to avoid approaching the word, ideas on how to grow spiritually,
(01:51):
ideas of how to recognize error, stay out of those traps of error as we're in God's word.
And we are engaging with God's word in order for it to teach us.
So rather than writing a book on how to study the Bible, here's 10 principles,
we're literally reading the Bible and letting God's word inform us on how we
(02:12):
can better study it. We can be better students of the word.
And that all goes to the bigger vision, really, that we are called by Christ
to accomplish. accomplish, of course, that's to love God with our heart,
soul, mind, and strength.
And the rest of that verse says to love our neighbor as ourselves, doesn't it?
And so God, Christ, has given us that great commission to take the good news
(02:38):
of his gospel and to get it out there and to tell others.
And we can't help but tell others. I see people post on Facebook,
Instagram, whatever, social media, share a photo of a beautiful sunset.
And so often we see the comments coming back saying things like, isn't God amazing?
Isn't God amazing? And He is. And just the way we live our lives is a simple
(03:00):
way for us to tell the glory of God, just by making a simple comment.
And, you know, people can do with it what they will, but that's our mission
is to give credit to God wherever we go and to point people, you know, to him.
So that's the idea of this podcast as well. We want to study God's word,
not just so we can, you know, study it, but we want to study it so that we can
(03:22):
be more effective in understanding it and ingesting and internalizing it and
then getting it back out there,
using it in the world to bring people to him. Right?
All right. So we're going to continue to do that. Today, we are continuing on
in our study through Psalm 119.
You can open your Bible if you've got it handy, or if you're just listening
(03:45):
while you're doing a walk or a jog or errands and what have you.
I do the same thing sometimes.
I just listen to podcasts when I'm out and about. So maybe that's you. All right.
And hey, speaking of maybe that's you, who are you? I would love to hear from
you. Maybe you're tuning in and you've never even said hi, and let me know you're listening.
(04:05):
It's so quick and easy. Just say hello and then say your name, who you are or whatever.
You can give me a code if you want, if you want to be more anonymous on that.
But anyway, say hi, let me know you've been, click the like and give me a 10,
15 star review or whatever. Let me know that you were listening. All right.
So again, today we are continuing in with our study of, through,
(04:26):
not study, but we're moving through Psalm 119 to to allow it to teach us how to study the Word.
And I've mentioned this before, I'll mention it again.
You know, we could do a study on Psalm 119, and I've talked about this before.
I'm very likely that I will one day break it down and do an actual deeper dive into Psalm 119.
But that's not particularly the purpose of this podcast right now, not this series.
(04:52):
So we're not breaking it down too deeply. We're just allowing it to help us
to think more about what it looks like to study God's Word.
So let's take a look at Psalm 119. We're going to read verses 129 to 136,
and we'll talk about that, and then we will have some thoughts and ideas on
what that looks like to study the Bible more.
I want to remind you also that with this podcast, if you go to my blog and listen
(05:17):
to this podcast from my blog page,
you will not only be able to hear the message, you will also be able to have
access to resources that help you and move through it.
So you'll see maybe an outline, you might see a fill in the blank that you can actually fill in.
And then here and there, I've been actually providing devotional studies.
(05:39):
So you can take this passage and then over the course of two,
three or four days, five days, maybe however long I write the study for,
you can actually do that deeper dive into this particular song.
And we're back. That was a quick little interruption. Someone was at the door.
All right. So let's go ahead and get into the word Psalm 119,
(05:59):
129 through 136. Your testimonies are wonderful.
Therefore, my soul keeps them.
The unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple.
I open my mouth and pant, kind of like I'm doing right now as I bolted downstairs
(06:19):
to check the door and come back upstairs.
I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments.
Turn to me and be Be gracious to me as is your way.
And with those who love your name, keep steady my steps according to your promise
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
(06:45):
Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes.
My eyes shed tears, shed streams of tears, because people do not know your law.
(07:06):
All right. So as I was reading through this psalm and preparing for our time
together today, always thinking about, you know, what is this psalm?
What is this portion in particular? How does it speak to me in terms of how
to study the Bible, giving me better ideas on how to study the Bible?
So here's a couple of points I want us to take away as we read this.
(07:30):
For starters, I want to encourage you, I want us to be better at making connections,
hyperlinks, if you will, from one portion of the Bible to the other.
Backward from wherever that point is and forward.
So here's what I'm saying. When you're reading something in the Bible,
(07:50):
maybe it strikes in your mind and makes you think of another verse and you think, that sounds familiar.
Maybe the word sounds familiar. Maybe a phrase sounds familiar.
Maybe And I want you to, as you approach the Bible, of course,
(08:13):
we've talked about this many times before, always pray, always invite the Holy
Spirit into your time. And then I want you to trust the Holy Spirit.
Then what you do is you find that verse that sounds familiar to you,
something that resonates like, hey, I think I've heard this before.
And then go ahead and move in on that. That's an aspect of studying God's Word,
(08:34):
is to make a connection with previous passages from the Bible or passages that are going to come later.
And so here we are in Psalms, which is just about the middle of the Bible,
but it's in the middle of the Old Testament, the foundational Testament, we like to call it.
And of course, we know what's coming later with Christ.
(08:55):
He sets up the New Covenant or the New Testament. it.
And so maybe as you're reading or getting into the word, you're thinking,
oh, that does sound familiar. I think I've heard that before.
Move in on that and trust that that's the Holy Spirit leading you and start
making those connections.
It's going to do a couple of things. It's going to affirm the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
(09:17):
You're going to say, yes, God is working in my life. I am getting better at
understanding and making connections. sections.
And number two, it's going to help you recall God's word even more because now
if you've made, let's see,
I'm going to point it out in just a second, but if you read one scripture here
in Psalm 119 and you think of a scripture that came before and then another
(09:37):
scripture that came after it,
now you're going to always remember more easily all three of those scriptures
and that'll help you to remember.
It's one of the reasons why I want to press upon you to please do your Bible
study time in a Bible, an actual physical Bible, you know, Bible with pages.
You can flip through and highlight and feel the pages in your hand.
(10:02):
As convenient as having your Bible online, and it is as wonderful as it is to
have it at our fingertips on our phone and our tablets and all of that is true,
you will not remember it.
As well as you will if you just get your hands on the physical word of God.
So anyway, just go ahead and do that. All right.
So as I was reading through this, I had several things that chimed into my brain.
(10:26):
One of them was this phrase here where he says, verse 135, make your face shine upon your servant.
Now raise your hand if that sounds familiar to you.
For starters, right inside Inside this verse, the idea of shine and the idea
of light comes forward because in verse 130, he says, the unfolding of your words gives light.
(10:52):
The unfolding of your words. Now, literally that word means the entrance.
As it enters, it gives light.
And I picture someone's like coming onto the scene and light fills the room.
That's the idea the author is giving here. But this idea of light,
and then he's saying, make your face shine upon your servant.
(11:15):
This is something that we came across, if you were with me in our previous study,
through the Old Testament, the Torah, the book of Numbers.
And if you go back in your Bible to Numbers chapter six, you're going to find
one of my most favorite verses. It's a prayer, it's a blessing.
And you might have heard it called the Aaronic Blessing. It's the blessing that
(11:36):
God gave to Aaron that he would bless his people. Listen to this.
Verse 24 of chapter 6, Numbers 6, 24.
The Lord bless you and keep you. Now verse 25, the Lord make his face to shine
upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, that's his face, and give you peace.
(11:58):
Did you catch that? The Lord make his face.
It's like the original, most beautiful blessings in the Bible.
And the writer, the psalmist, is making that connection.
That's how he wants to engage with God and His Word.
So in terms of you studying the Bible, I want us to be in the pattern of,
number one, praying so you trust the Holy Spirit, so that you make those connections,
(12:22):
and then confirm that connection.
Go back. Go back and confirm it. Maybe you will confirm that connection in your
Bible study by doing what I originally did, And I just looked at the cross references
and I thought, gosh, you know, I know that verse comes up in verse.
Numbers. I wonder if the people who wrote out the cross-references for this
(12:42):
edition, I'm in the ESV, I wonder if they included that.
So I look to the teeny tiny little letters and the number there and I find this
passage, verse 135, and I just looked it up in my column here and it actually
did not refer me to numbers.
It referred me to an earlier psalm and it sent me over to Psalm chapter 4, verse 6.
(13:06):
Psalm 4, 6 reads, there are many who say, who will show us some good,
lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. Isn't that beautiful?
Then I thought, gee, I wonder if that one connects to Numbers.
And so I went from Psalm chapter 4, verse 6, and I looked at my little numbers
in the column there for the cross references.
And sure enough, there it is. It's Numbers chapter 6, verse 26.
(13:31):
So, you know, that took me on this little biblical journey and it helped me
now to anchor that. So I highlighted each of those.
That is a simple way for you to grow in your ability to study the Bible.
Look up things, pray, ask God to help you make the connections either backward
like I did with this passage or forward into the New Testament.
(13:53):
And maybe even as you're listening right now, you're thinking,
hey, that verse totally reminded me of, and then there's another verse that it reminded you of.
And, you know, just be careful. You don't want to invent connections or press the point.
But those connections are there and they're rich and they are meant to be there.
The writer of this psalm certainly would have been thinking about that beautiful
(14:17):
blessing that God gave to Aaron.
All right, then the next portion I want us to think about as in terms of how
to study the Bible is as you begin reading a passage, look at it and say,
what are some repeated themes I see in this passage?
And they might literally connect because the words line up or the idea of them connect.
(14:40):
So let's see if you connect in the same way I did as I read through this.
At the beginning of this psalm, it says, your testimonies are wonderful.
Therefore, my soul keeps them. Now, when I think of my soul and the way the
Old Testament authors would have had it, you know, connected as well,
it's that deepest, deepest part of us that we can't touch. It's not physical.
(15:01):
We can't touch it, right?
But it's just that the being of it inside of me. The word in the Hebrew, by the way, is nefesh.
So your testimonies are wonderful. Therefore, my soul keeps them deep down inside.
Side. Now let's move down to verse 131.
I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments.
To me, there's the connection. And you know what's beautiful about that?
(15:25):
Where does the longing come from? I feel it deep inside my soul.
Yes. But how is it expressed physically?
And he says, I open my mouth and I pant, right? And so that reminds me of that
other beautiful passage.
As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul, what?
Longs for you, right? And so here, the author, the psalmist is saying,
(15:49):
I open my mouth and I pant because I long for your commandments.
It's, sure, water would be wonderful, but I want to be filled and refreshed by your word.
And what's interesting is this is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter is Peh.
It also can be pronounced Fae, depending on the little dots it's given.
It has a dot inside of it. It's Peh. And if it doesn't have a dot, it's like an F sound.
(16:13):
Peh or Fae. And guess what that word means? It means mouth. It means mouth.
And so although it doesn't connect with the word panting, literally,
but it helps me to remember because the letter is pay, then I think of the word pant.
And then I think of him panting with his soul and longing for commandments.
(16:33):
All right. And then the another connection I made goes back to this idea of light.
Because at the beginning, it
says the unfolding or the entrance of your words gives what gives light.
And that's what imparts understanding to the simple. And then Then we see in
verse 135, make your face shine or give its light upon your servant, right?
(16:55):
All right. So I'm making that connection again. So make those connections inside
the verse, make those connections outside from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, wherever you're going.
And I want to close on verse 136. It says, my eyes shed streams of tears because
people do not keep your law.
(17:16):
Ah, so that in closing is my heart and where I feel also.
I, you know, I preached this last Sunday at church and I teach a Bible study
or I put out these podcasts and honestly.
My soul longs for God and it longs for you.
And if I'm standing and I'm preaching and I'm looking out at the congregation
(17:38):
and I see people distracted or it's like we had this last Sunday,
their phone's going off in church and chit-chatting with their neighbor.
People don't think that the person up in the front can see all that.
But it made me sad in my heart to think of the distraction. And I just,
I longed for people to have a thirst to hear from God and from his word.
(18:00):
And so that's my longing, I guess, for you as well today.
The streams of tears would be streams of joy, not of sadness because people
don't have your word, but because I'm joyful with you, that you are in God's words.
And unlike the author at this point in the psalm, he says, I'm shedding streams
of tears because evil don't keep your law.
(18:21):
You know, I listen and I hear from you and I shed streams of tears that are
joyful because I know you are longing and I pray that you will continue to be
in that longing of the word of God as you grow, as you grow in your faith.
Thank you again for being here with this short little podcast today and being
a part of the Dwelling Richly community.
Bible study is kicking off soon. Please be involved in that.
(18:44):
I'm excited about this upcoming Bible study. I want you to be a part of that
as well. also look for information in the notes here below and wherever you're listening.
And I do encourage you to go over to my blog site, jennifergrichmond.com and
get the resources that I'm trying to make available.
I'm making a blog post for you so you can read.
I'm trying to make outlines and different ways for you to integrate God's word
(19:05):
into your life. And then share this.
Invite other people to be a part of what you're learning and how you're growing as well.
All right. God bless see you once again. It's always wonderful to have you here with me.
Know, as always, that you are loved and you are prayed for, and I look forward
to being back here with you again real soon. Bye-bye for now.
Welcome back. I'm Jennifer Richmond, and this is the Dwelling Richly podcast,
where we love God heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We are women who enthusiastically and intentionally dwell in the Word and let
the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.
You can find Bible studies and teaching like this on my blog and right here on this podcast. Hi!
(00:20):
And so please subscribe to this channel wherever you're listening.
Tap a church bell, notification bell, so you can get those updates whenever
I drop a new episode. and let's get into the Word today.
All right, well, this is a continuation of the How to Study the Bible series,
and they'll be kicked off at, what are we at, like three months back since we've
(00:43):
started this series, so glad that you are continuing with me if this is your first time joining me.
I encourage you to hop, skip, and jump backwards a little bit and check out
the other episodes in this series.
The whole point of this series is rooted in the idea of the entire point of
this ministry, the Dwelling Richly ministry,
(01:04):
that the idea is that we would let the word of Christ dwell in us richly,
and then we return the favor by dwelling in the word, not doing a Bible study,
not just simply reading, but really moving into the word with heart,
soul, mind, and strength and making that part.
And so the whole goal, my focus of this particular series has been to say,
(01:25):
okay, well then how do we do that?
What are some practical things that I can do so that when I'm in God's word, I'm.
I'm intentional. I really am intentional. I am trying to just dwell in the word
and not just check it off a list or what have you.
So I've been going through some tips, some ideas, some ways to approach the
word, some ways to avoid approaching the word, ideas on how to grow spiritually,
(01:51):
ideas of how to recognize error, stay out of those traps of error as we're in God's word.
And we are engaging with God's word in order for it to teach us.
So rather than writing a book on how to study the Bible, here's 10 principles,
we're literally reading the Bible and letting God's word inform us on how we
(02:12):
can better study it. We can be better students of the word.
And that all goes to the bigger vision, really, that we are called by Christ
to accomplish. accomplish, of course, that's to love God with our heart,
soul, mind, and strength.
And the rest of that verse says to love our neighbor as ourselves, doesn't it?
And so God, Christ, has given us that great commission to take the good news
(02:38):
of his gospel and to get it out there and to tell others.
And we can't help but tell others. I see people post on Facebook,
Instagram, whatever, social media, share a photo of a beautiful sunset.
And so often we see the comments coming back saying things like, isn't God amazing?
Isn't God amazing? And He is. And just the way we live our lives is a simple
(03:00):
way for us to tell the glory of God, just by making a simple comment.
And, you know, people can do with it what they will, but that's our mission
is to give credit to God wherever we go and to point people, you know, to him.
So that's the idea of this podcast as well. We want to study God's word,
not just so we can, you know, study it, but we want to study it so that we can
(03:22):
be more effective in understanding it and ingesting and internalizing it and
then getting it back out there,
using it in the world to bring people to him. Right?
All right. So we're going to continue to do that. Today, we are continuing on
in our study through Psalm 119.
You can open your Bible if you've got it handy, or if you're just listening
(03:45):
while you're doing a walk or a jog or errands and what have you.
I do the same thing sometimes.
I just listen to podcasts when I'm out and about. So maybe that's you. All right.
And hey, speaking of maybe that's you, who are you? I would love to hear from
you. Maybe you're tuning in and you've never even said hi, and let me know you're listening.
(04:05):
It's so quick and easy. Just say hello and then say your name, who you are or whatever.
You can give me a code if you want, if you want to be more anonymous on that.
But anyway, say hi, let me know you've been, click the like and give me a 10,
15 star review or whatever. Let me know that you were listening. All right.
So again, today we are continuing in with our study of, through,
(04:26):
not study, but we're moving through Psalm 119 to to allow it to teach us how to study the Word.
And I've mentioned this before, I'll mention it again.
You know, we could do a study on Psalm 119, and I've talked about this before.
I'm very likely that I will one day break it down and do an actual deeper dive into Psalm 119.
But that's not particularly the purpose of this podcast right now, not this series.
(04:52):
So we're not breaking it down too deeply. We're just allowing it to help us
to think more about what it looks like to study God's Word.
So let's take a look at Psalm 119. We're going to read verses 129 to 136,
and we'll talk about that, and then we will have some thoughts and ideas on
what that looks like to study the Bible more.
I want to remind you also that with this podcast, if you go to my blog and listen
(05:17):
to this podcast from my blog page,
you will not only be able to hear the message, you will also be able to have
access to resources that help you and move through it.
So you'll see maybe an outline, you might see a fill in the blank that you can actually fill in.
And then here and there, I've been actually providing devotional studies.
(05:39):
So you can take this passage and then over the course of two,
three or four days, five days, maybe however long I write the study for,
you can actually do that deeper dive into this particular song.
And we're back. That was a quick little interruption. Someone was at the door.
All right. So let's go ahead and get into the word Psalm 119,
(05:59):
129 through 136. Your testimonies are wonderful.
Therefore, my soul keeps them.
The unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple.
I open my mouth and pant, kind of like I'm doing right now as I bolted downstairs
(06:19):
to check the door and come back upstairs.
I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments.
Turn to me and be Be gracious to me as is your way.
And with those who love your name, keep steady my steps according to your promise
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
(06:45):
Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes.
My eyes shed tears, shed streams of tears, because people do not know your law.
(07:06):
All right. So as I was reading through this psalm and preparing for our time
together today, always thinking about, you know, what is this psalm?
What is this portion in particular? How does it speak to me in terms of how
to study the Bible, giving me better ideas on how to study the Bible?
So here's a couple of points I want us to take away as we read this.
(07:30):
For starters, I want to encourage you, I want us to be better at making connections,
hyperlinks, if you will, from one portion of the Bible to the other.
Backward from wherever that point is and forward.
So here's what I'm saying. When you're reading something in the Bible,
(07:50):
maybe it strikes in your mind and makes you think of another verse and you think, that sounds familiar.
Maybe the word sounds familiar. Maybe a phrase sounds familiar.
Maybe And I want you to, as you approach the Bible, of course,
(08:13):
we've talked about this many times before, always pray, always invite the Holy
Spirit into your time. And then I want you to trust the Holy Spirit.
Then what you do is you find that verse that sounds familiar to you,
something that resonates like, hey, I think I've heard this before.
And then go ahead and move in on that. That's an aspect of studying God's Word,
(08:34):
is to make a connection with previous passages from the Bible or passages that are going to come later.
And so here we are in Psalms, which is just about the middle of the Bible,
but it's in the middle of the Old Testament, the foundational Testament, we like to call it.
And of course, we know what's coming later with Christ.
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He sets up the New Covenant or the New Testament. it.
And so maybe as you're reading or getting into the word, you're thinking,
oh, that does sound familiar. I think I've heard that before.
Move in on that and trust that that's the Holy Spirit leading you and start
making those connections.
It's going to do a couple of things. It's going to affirm the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
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You're going to say, yes, God is working in my life. I am getting better at
understanding and making connections. sections.
And number two, it's going to help you recall God's word even more because now
if you've made, let's see,
I'm going to point it out in just a second, but if you read one scripture here
in Psalm 119 and you think of a scripture that came before and then another
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scripture that came after it,
now you're going to always remember more easily all three of those scriptures
and that'll help you to remember.
It's one of the reasons why I want to press upon you to please do your Bible
study time in a Bible, an actual physical Bible, you know, Bible with pages.
You can flip through and highlight and feel the pages in your hand.
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As convenient as having your Bible online, and it is as wonderful as it is to
have it at our fingertips on our phone and our tablets and all of that is true,
you will not remember it.
As well as you will if you just get your hands on the physical word of God.
So anyway, just go ahead and do that. All right.
So as I was reading through this, I had several things that chimed into my brain.
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One of them was this phrase here where he says, verse 135, make your face shine upon your servant.
Now raise your hand if that sounds familiar to you.
For starters, right inside Inside this verse, the idea of shine and the idea
of light comes forward because in verse 130, he says, the unfolding of your words gives light.
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The unfolding of your words. Now, literally that word means the entrance.
As it enters, it gives light.
And I picture someone's like coming onto the scene and light fills the room.
That's the idea the author is giving here. But this idea of light,
and then he's saying, make your face shine upon your servant.
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This is something that we came across, if you were with me in our previous study,
through the Old Testament, the Torah, the book of Numbers.
And if you go back in your Bible to Numbers chapter six, you're going to find
one of my most favorite verses. It's a prayer, it's a blessing.
And you might have heard it called the Aaronic Blessing. It's the blessing that
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God gave to Aaron that he would bless his people. Listen to this.
Verse 24 of chapter 6, Numbers 6, 24.
The Lord bless you and keep you. Now verse 25, the Lord make his face to shine
upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, that's his face, and give you peace.
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Did you catch that? The Lord make his face.
It's like the original, most beautiful blessings in the Bible.
And the writer, the psalmist, is making that connection.
That's how he wants to engage with God and His Word.
So in terms of you studying the Bible, I want us to be in the pattern of,
number one, praying so you trust the Holy Spirit, so that you make those connections,
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and then confirm that connection.
Go back. Go back and confirm it. Maybe you will confirm that connection in your
Bible study by doing what I originally did, And I just looked at the cross references
and I thought, gosh, you know, I know that verse comes up in verse.
Numbers. I wonder if the people who wrote out the cross-references for this
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edition, I'm in the ESV, I wonder if they included that.
So I look to the teeny tiny little letters and the number there and I find this
passage, verse 135, and I just looked it up in my column here and it actually
did not refer me to numbers.
It referred me to an earlier psalm and it sent me over to Psalm chapter 4, verse 6.
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Psalm 4, 6 reads, there are many who say, who will show us some good,
lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. Isn't that beautiful?
Then I thought, gee, I wonder if that one connects to Numbers.
And so I went from Psalm chapter 4, verse 6, and I looked at my little numbers
in the column there for the cross references.
And sure enough, there it is. It's Numbers chapter 6, verse 26.
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So, you know, that took me on this little biblical journey and it helped me
now to anchor that. So I highlighted each of those.
That is a simple way for you to grow in your ability to study the Bible.
Look up things, pray, ask God to help you make the connections either backward
like I did with this passage or forward into the New Testament.
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And maybe even as you're listening right now, you're thinking,
hey, that verse totally reminded me of, and then there's another verse that it reminded you of.
And, you know, just be careful. You don't want to invent connections or press the point.
But those connections are there and they're rich and they are meant to be there.
The writer of this psalm certainly would have been thinking about that beautiful
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blessing that God gave to Aaron.
All right, then the next portion I want us to think about as in terms of how
to study the Bible is as you begin reading a passage, look at it and say,
what are some repeated themes I see in this passage?
And they might literally connect because the words line up or the idea of them connect.
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So let's see if you connect in the same way I did as I read through this.
At the beginning of this psalm, it says, your testimonies are wonderful.
Therefore, my soul keeps them. Now, when I think of my soul and the way the
Old Testament authors would have had it, you know, connected as well,
it's that deepest, deepest part of us that we can't touch. It's not physical.
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We can't touch it, right?
But it's just that the being of it inside of me. The word in the Hebrew, by the way, is nefesh.
So your testimonies are wonderful. Therefore, my soul keeps them deep down inside.
Side. Now let's move down to verse 131.
I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments.
To me, there's the connection. And you know what's beautiful about that?
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Where does the longing come from? I feel it deep inside my soul.
Yes. But how is it expressed physically?
And he says, I open my mouth and I pant, right? And so that reminds me of that
other beautiful passage.
As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul, what?
Longs for you, right? And so here, the author, the psalmist is saying,
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I open my mouth and I pant because I long for your commandments.
It's, sure, water would be wonderful, but I want to be filled and refreshed by your word.
And what's interesting is this is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The letter is Peh.
It also can be pronounced Fae, depending on the little dots it's given.
It has a dot inside of it. It's Peh. And if it doesn't have a dot, it's like an F sound.
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Peh or Fae. And guess what that word means? It means mouth. It means mouth.
And so although it doesn't connect with the word panting, literally,
but it helps me to remember because the letter is pay, then I think of the word pant.
And then I think of him panting with his soul and longing for commandments.
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All right. And then the another connection I made goes back to this idea of light.
Because at the beginning, it
says the unfolding or the entrance of your words gives what gives light.
And that's what imparts understanding to the simple. And then Then we see in
verse 135, make your face shine or give its light upon your servant, right?
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All right. So I'm making that connection again. So make those connections inside
the verse, make those connections outside from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, wherever you're going.
And I want to close on verse 136. It says, my eyes shed streams of tears because
people do not keep your law.
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Ah, so that in closing is my heart and where I feel also.
I, you know, I preached this last Sunday at church and I teach a Bible study
or I put out these podcasts and honestly.
My soul longs for God and it longs for you.
And if I'm standing and I'm preaching and I'm looking out at the congregation
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and I see people distracted or it's like we had this last Sunday,
their phone's going off in church and chit-chatting with their neighbor.
People don't think that the person up in the front can see all that.
But it made me sad in my heart to think of the distraction. And I just,
I longed for people to have a thirst to hear from God and from his word.
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And so that's my longing, I guess, for you as well today.
The streams of tears would be streams of joy, not of sadness because people
don't have your word, but because I'm joyful with you, that you are in God's words.
And unlike the author at this point in the psalm, he says, I'm shedding streams
of tears because evil don't keep your law.
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You know, I listen and I hear from you and I shed streams of tears that are
joyful because I know you are longing and I pray that you will continue to be
in that longing of the word of God as you grow, as you grow in your faith.
Thank you again for being here with this short little podcast today and being
a part of the Dwelling Richly community.
Bible study is kicking off soon. Please be involved in that.
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I'm excited about this upcoming Bible study. I want you to be a part of that
as well. also look for information in the notes here below and wherever you're listening.
And I do encourage you to go over to my blog site, jennifergrichmond.com and
get the resources that I'm trying to make available.
I'm making a blog post for you so you can read.
I'm trying to make outlines and different ways for you to integrate God's word
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into your life. And then share this.
Invite other people to be a part of what you're learning and how you're growing as well.
All right. God bless see you once again. It's always wonderful to have you here with me.
Know, as always, that you are loved and you are prayed for, and I look forward
to being back here with you again real soon. Bye-bye for now.
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