August 3, 2024 • 15 mins
Have you ever thought about how God's correction shapes your journey? This episode is packed with insights and reflections on how discipline isn't just about punishment but about God's loving guidance. I'm sharing my own experiences about staying humble and grateful for God's redirection. Look for new Episodes Wednesdays and Saturdays. Listen to the Dwelling Richly podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify - your favorite app! Sharing, liking, commenting is a free and easy way for you to help me grow this ministry. I don't charge for any content, don't use any ads - so any organic interactions are really helpful. Thank you! Transcript and other resources available on the Dwelling Richly Podcast page JenniferGRichmond.com/teaching 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. Keep Growing:
- (1) Reflect on how God's discipline has guided you in your life.
- (2) Read and study Psalm 119:65-72, Jeremiah, and Hebrews 12:5.
- (3) Take one or two verses from this passage and pray them back to God
- (4) Ask God to make you more aware of ways He is disciplining you and thank God for disciplining you - remember, it's a sign of His love!
Questions about the Bible? I'm working on a new series! "So Glad You Asked" which will take 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 to the Dwelling Richly podcast. This is Jennifer,
and today we're going to be looking, continuing in Psalm 119.
Today we're going to be reading through verses 65 to 72.
Grab your Bible, and I have a
question for you. What place does the discipline of God have in your life?
Or, think of it this way, how open are you to the discipline of God?
(00:28):
God correcting you. How open are you to that?
And we're going to talk about that because it comes up in this particular psalm.
So let's go ahead and dive into that.
This has been a great study. I've enjoyed having you with me.
I hope that you are already subscribing, following along, and hitting notifications
wherever you're listening from.
And if you haven't already, please consider listening from my website,
(00:52):
jenniferjrichman.com.
I've got a podcast page right there. It's got a ton of resources for you.
Not only do we be able to listen to this message, but you will actually be able
to follow along with a transcript.
I'm going to give you some talking points and teaching points,
I should say, and some follow-up things that you can do.
Go over to jennifergrichman.com or just click the link right here below in the
(01:14):
show notes if it's available to you and follow along right there.
And that way you can take advantage and enjoy some of the other resources that
I have there for you. And also share.
Share right there from that podcast page on my website.
Share Facebook or Pinterest or wherever you want to share it to.
(01:35):
Instagram, all the good things. And let other people know that you're listening
along and then do me a favor and just say hi, leave me a comment.
Just let me know that you were here stopping by, kind of like a little note.
Since I wasn't home in a sense on that.
Podcast page, you can just say hi. All right, let's go ahead and get into God's
word. Thank Thank you for doing any or all of the above.
(01:56):
I love engaging with you in that way. And as I was reading through this passage
today, I was thinking about the place of God's discipline in my life.
Am I aware of it? Like David, writing this psalm, he seems to be very aware
that he's been disciplined by God and he loves it.
And so I want us to think about that in terms of how we study the Bible.
(02:16):
Do I study the Bible and thank God for disciplining me?
And am I aware of it? when it happens. And I know in my own life,
I've had those moments where I think, well, wow, that was God really,
you know, maybe redirecting me.
I don't know that I think of God punishing me as much because Christ has taken
my punishment for my sin, but I definitely think of God correcting me and disciplining me.
(02:42):
And we'll talk about that as we read through. Let's go ahead and read through
this portion, and we'll talk about it and make some of those connections.
Here we go. Psalm 119, 65 through 72
reading from the english standard version you
have dealt with your servant oh lord according to your word teach me
good judgment and knowledge for i believe in your
commandments before i was afflicted i
(03:04):
went astray but now i keep your word you are good and do good teach me your
statutes the insolent smear me with lies but my whole heart i keep but with
my whole heart I keep your precepts.
Their heart is unfeeling like fat.
(03:25):
But I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
All right, there's a little bit to unpack here. I want to make sure you're understanding this.
It took me a minute to kind of make sure I was on track and understanding,
(03:46):
so I want to make sure you are as well.
Again, I'm reading from the English Standard Version, and this passage opens
up with you've dealt well with your servant.
And then he goes on to talk about being afflicted. That's an interesting Hebrew
word, this idea of being or the word being afflicted.
(04:11):
The root word here, if you look it up in your Hebrew concordance or lexicon.
You're going to see the basic root word here is anah, anah.
But what's really cool about this particular passage is that use of the word
anah in verse 67, before I was anah, before I was afflicted, I went astray.
(04:33):
That's the very first time the idea of this word is used in this way.
Before I was afflicted, before I was punished, redirected, I went astray.
If you open up your Bible and you read from other translations,
(04:55):
which I encourage you to do, sometimes you might find it is helpful to read
from a paraphrase to help you kind of get that understanding.
Let's take a look at verse 67 from the Living Bible.
And it says it like this. I used to wander off until you punished me.
Now I closely follow all you say.
(05:17):
So I appreciate the insight that the Living Bible gives to this word afflicted,
because the idea here is not of God afflicting us with disease necessarily,
because I personally think of the idea of affliction as some kind of a torment
or difficult season of life.
(05:39):
But the idea really of this word is being humbled before God,
being disciplined by God one of them one of the ways that you can I want to
encourage you to get into the word and study the word is to keep a concordance.
Handy use the concordance in the back of your Bible or use one when you you
(06:03):
know study online you could always just use you know Bible gateway you could
use a Bible hub which is one of the ones that I love using,
But you could also just simply use the cross-references that are already in your Bible.
And I hope that you do have a Bible with cross-references.
One of the things that I encourage people when they study the Bible is to,
(06:24):
you know, have a Bible that has study notes in it is great.
But you have to remember when you use a Bible that has study notes at the bottom
there, you are reading commentary.
You're reading someone or a group of people's interpretation of that word.
And it might interfere with you just getting a raw reading and understanding,
(06:47):
without somebody else's influence.
I encourage a Bible that has no study notes in it when you're doing your Bible
study, but that does have cross references.
And cross references are simply this, the little letter A, B, C, D, whatever.
Attached to a certain word or phrase that connects it to another word or phrase
(07:09):
that is appropriately connected to this particular verse.
And this is especially helpful today.
So in our quest to study the Bible, to love the Bible, to dwell on the Bible,
God's word dwell on us richly, we're talking about how to do that.
This is something that you want to write down. This is a good way to do it.
(07:30):
Use a Bible that has cross-references. Let's take a look quickly at the cross-reference
for this Bible that the English Standard Version includes. foods.
And you will see that it connects.
To a verse in Jeremiah, as well as a verse in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews.
In Jeremiah, we see the connection. It says, I have heard Ephraim grieving.
(07:53):
You have disciplined me and I was disciplined like an untrained calf.
Bring me back that I may be restored for you are the Lord, my God.
For after I turned away, I relented. And after I was instructed, I struck jerk my thigh.
I was ashamed. I was confounded because I bore the disgrace of my youth.
(08:14):
So this passage here in Psalm 119, talking about before being afflicted,
I was led astray, connects us to the idea of what that looks like to be disciplined.
And that's not just affliction, like you would be afflicted with a bad thing
happening in your life, disease or something terrible, but it's God's hand of discipline.
(08:34):
And then again, it connects to this great passage in Hebrews chapter 12,
beginning in verse five, where it says, and have you forgotten the exhortation
that addresses you as sons?
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.
Do not be weary when we proved by him for the Lord disciplines,
the one he loves chastises, every son when he receives it is for discipline
(08:58):
that you have to endure. Why God is treating you his sons.
For what son is there whom the father does not discipline?
So this connection helps so much in giving us understanding of this passage that David is saying,
I am so glad that you afflicted me, that you disciplined me,
(09:20):
that you humbled me because I am prone to wander off.
Like the hymn says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love. But God brings us back through his discipline.
And then the psalm continues on in Psalm 119.
So you've disciplined me. You brought me back. I went astray.
(09:41):
You keep me according to your word. Verse 68, you are good and you do good. So keep teaching me.
He's being humble before God, just like I need to be, just like you need to
be, humble before God and open to the possibility that what I'm going through
right now in my life is God's discipline.
God's redirecting me, making me pay attention to something, right?
(10:05):
And so then it goes into this next passage in verse 69, which actually says,
reminds me of what he said back in the previous passage, where he was talking
about the cords of the wicked in verse 61, the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.
Well, right here in this passage, he says, the insolence smear me with your
(10:28):
lies, but with my whole heart, I keep your precepts.
No matter what they do, no matter what they're going to try to do,
they're going to smear me with lies, but I keep your precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart, verse 70, their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.
(10:49):
And this is another incredible passage because you might think their heart is unfeeling like fat.
And it can be clarified if you read through another translation,
for example, in the Complete Jewish Bible, I love it how it words it here,
verse 70, their hearts are as thick as fat, but I take delight in your Torah.
(11:12):
In other words, they're calloused in their heart.
They have like a fat layer over their heart, but not me, God.
I'm tender toward you. I'm tender toward your word. I appreciate that I've been disciplined.
It's tough. It's rough. I don't necessarily like it in the moment,
but I appreciate it because I don't want a callous thick layer of fat over my heart.
(11:38):
I want my heart to be tender.
I want to delight in your law. And here's what's really cool that is missed
when you study it and just read it and just in your English.
You know, what's really cool about this is there's a word play going on in here.
In verse 69, it says, the insolence smear me with lies.
(11:59):
Do you know what the root word of delighting in your law, where it says their
heart is unsealing like that, but I delight in your law.
Do you know what the root word means in verse 70, I delight.
It's the same idea of being smeared.
It's, it's smearing with your law. It, it.
And so he's like making this play on word. I'm getting, they're smearing me with lies.
(12:22):
It's, but their heart is smeared with fat and I'm smeared. I,
my heart is delighting in your word.
I'm, I turn and I'm, I'm covered in delight with your word is what he's saying.
So I just, I love the word play.
Also, it's the first time all of these words are ever used in this way in all
(12:44):
of the entire Bible, into all of the entire Bible.
This idea of being afflicted, first time it's being used in this manner.
The idea of them smearing with lies, first time it's used.
The fact that I delight in your law in this format. We know that we've seen
delight before in the Bible, but it's the first time it's used in this exact way.
And then it's good for me that I was afflicted, verse 71.
(13:09):
It is good for me that I was afflicted. Why? So I can learn your statutes.
Nothing is better than the law that comes out of your mouth.
A thousand pieces of gold could be stacked up and I would still choose your
word. Why? It redirects me.
It guides me. It disciplines me.
And I would rather be afflicted by God than worry one single tiny bit about
(13:35):
what my enemies are saying or doing.
Let God take care of them just like God will take care of me. As you study God's word.
I pray that you would get excited, like we talked about in our last podcast.
You would be filled with love and enthusiasm for God's word.
I pray that you'd be excited about God's word. And I pray that God would open
(13:59):
up your heart and your mind to understand when he's disciplining you and that
you would be humble and say, thank you, God.
Thank you, God, for disciplining me.
Let's all encourage each other to be in the word of God, to thank him for his
discipline, and to study God's word.
How do we study it? We study it with a humble heart, open to the possibility
(14:20):
that God is disciplining us in redirecting where we need to be going,
and then be thankful like we hear out of Psalm 119.
Thank you, God, for disciplining me and redirecting me. I get off,
boy, I get off in the wrong path easily.
And I thank God that he disciplines me. I pray that that'll be your heart as
(14:41):
well, that you will love God's word enough to really be submitted to it and let it discipline you.
And that you would be, again, encouraged in your daily life to be in God's word
in such a way that you allow it to discipline you as well.
Thank you for being with me here again on the podcast. Don't forget to say hi,
drop a comment. If you're over on my website, thank you for doing that.
(15:03):
Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you.
And let's be in God's Word together. Let's continue on and reading and loving God's Word together.
I pray that you're blessed. I pray that you will continue to grow your faith and love in God's Word.
And know as always that you are loved and you are prayed for.
I look forward to being back here dwelling in the Word with you again real soon. Bye-bye for now.
Welcome back to the Dwelling Richly podcast. This is Jennifer,
and today we're going to be looking, continuing in Psalm 119.
Today we're going to be reading through verses 65 to 72.
Grab your Bible, and I have a
question for you. What place does the discipline of God have in your life?
Or, think of it this way, how open are you to the discipline of God?
(00:28):
God correcting you. How open are you to that?
And we're going to talk about that because it comes up in this particular psalm.
So let's go ahead and dive into that.
This has been a great study. I've enjoyed having you with me.
I hope that you are already subscribing, following along, and hitting notifications
wherever you're listening from.
And if you haven't already, please consider listening from my website,
(00:52):
jenniferjrichman.com.
I've got a podcast page right there. It's got a ton of resources for you.
Not only do we be able to listen to this message, but you will actually be able
to follow along with a transcript.
I'm going to give you some talking points and teaching points,
I should say, and some follow-up things that you can do.
Go over to jennifergrichman.com or just click the link right here below in the
(01:14):
show notes if it's available to you and follow along right there.
And that way you can take advantage and enjoy some of the other resources that
I have there for you. And also share.
Share right there from that podcast page on my website.
Share Facebook or Pinterest or wherever you want to share it to.
(01:35):
Instagram, all the good things. And let other people know that you're listening
along and then do me a favor and just say hi, leave me a comment.
Just let me know that you were here stopping by, kind of like a little note.
Since I wasn't home in a sense on that.
Podcast page, you can just say hi. All right, let's go ahead and get into God's
word. Thank Thank you for doing any or all of the above.
(01:56):
I love engaging with you in that way. And as I was reading through this passage
today, I was thinking about the place of God's discipline in my life.
Am I aware of it? Like David, writing this psalm, he seems to be very aware
that he's been disciplined by God and he loves it.
And so I want us to think about that in terms of how we study the Bible.
(02:16):
Do I study the Bible and thank God for disciplining me?
And am I aware of it? when it happens. And I know in my own life,
I've had those moments where I think, well, wow, that was God really,
you know, maybe redirecting me.
I don't know that I think of God punishing me as much because Christ has taken
my punishment for my sin, but I definitely think of God correcting me and disciplining me.
(02:42):
And we'll talk about that as we read through. Let's go ahead and read through
this portion, and we'll talk about it and make some of those connections.
Here we go. Psalm 119, 65 through 72
reading from the english standard version you
have dealt with your servant oh lord according to your word teach me
good judgment and knowledge for i believe in your
commandments before i was afflicted i
(03:04):
went astray but now i keep your word you are good and do good teach me your
statutes the insolent smear me with lies but my whole heart i keep but with
my whole heart I keep your precepts.
Their heart is unfeeling like fat.
(03:25):
But I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
All right, there's a little bit to unpack here. I want to make sure you're understanding this.
It took me a minute to kind of make sure I was on track and understanding,
(03:46):
so I want to make sure you are as well.
Again, I'm reading from the English Standard Version, and this passage opens
up with you've dealt well with your servant.
And then he goes on to talk about being afflicted. That's an interesting Hebrew
word, this idea of being or the word being afflicted.
(04:11):
The root word here, if you look it up in your Hebrew concordance or lexicon.
You're going to see the basic root word here is anah, anah.
But what's really cool about this particular passage is that use of the word
anah in verse 67, before I was anah, before I was afflicted, I went astray.
(04:33):
That's the very first time the idea of this word is used in this way.
Before I was afflicted, before I was punished, redirected, I went astray.
If you open up your Bible and you read from other translations,
(04:55):
which I encourage you to do, sometimes you might find it is helpful to read
from a paraphrase to help you kind of get that understanding.
Let's take a look at verse 67 from the Living Bible.
And it says it like this. I used to wander off until you punished me.
Now I closely follow all you say.
(05:17):
So I appreciate the insight that the Living Bible gives to this word afflicted,
because the idea here is not of God afflicting us with disease necessarily,
because I personally think of the idea of affliction as some kind of a torment
or difficult season of life.
(05:39):
But the idea really of this word is being humbled before God,
being disciplined by God one of them one of the ways that you can I want to
encourage you to get into the word and study the word is to keep a concordance.
Handy use the concordance in the back of your Bible or use one when you you
(06:03):
know study online you could always just use you know Bible gateway you could
use a Bible hub which is one of the ones that I love using,
But you could also just simply use the cross-references that are already in your Bible.
And I hope that you do have a Bible with cross-references.
One of the things that I encourage people when they study the Bible is to,
(06:24):
you know, have a Bible that has study notes in it is great.
But you have to remember when you use a Bible that has study notes at the bottom
there, you are reading commentary.
You're reading someone or a group of people's interpretation of that word.
And it might interfere with you just getting a raw reading and understanding,
(06:47):
without somebody else's influence.
I encourage a Bible that has no study notes in it when you're doing your Bible
study, but that does have cross references.
And cross references are simply this, the little letter A, B, C, D, whatever.
Attached to a certain word or phrase that connects it to another word or phrase
(07:09):
that is appropriately connected to this particular verse.
And this is especially helpful today.
So in our quest to study the Bible, to love the Bible, to dwell on the Bible,
God's word dwell on us richly, we're talking about how to do that.
This is something that you want to write down. This is a good way to do it.
(07:30):
Use a Bible that has cross-references. Let's take a look quickly at the cross-reference
for this Bible that the English Standard Version includes. foods.
And you will see that it connects.
To a verse in Jeremiah, as well as a verse in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews.
In Jeremiah, we see the connection. It says, I have heard Ephraim grieving.
(07:53):
You have disciplined me and I was disciplined like an untrained calf.
Bring me back that I may be restored for you are the Lord, my God.
For after I turned away, I relented. And after I was instructed, I struck jerk my thigh.
I was ashamed. I was confounded because I bore the disgrace of my youth.
(08:14):
So this passage here in Psalm 119, talking about before being afflicted,
I was led astray, connects us to the idea of what that looks like to be disciplined.
And that's not just affliction, like you would be afflicted with a bad thing
happening in your life, disease or something terrible, but it's God's hand of discipline.
(08:34):
And then again, it connects to this great passage in Hebrews chapter 12,
beginning in verse five, where it says, and have you forgotten the exhortation
that addresses you as sons?
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.
Do not be weary when we proved by him for the Lord disciplines,
the one he loves chastises, every son when he receives it is for discipline
(08:58):
that you have to endure. Why God is treating you his sons.
For what son is there whom the father does not discipline?
So this connection helps so much in giving us understanding of this passage that David is saying,
I am so glad that you afflicted me, that you disciplined me,
(09:20):
that you humbled me because I am prone to wander off.
Like the hymn says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love. But God brings us back through his discipline.
And then the psalm continues on in Psalm 119.
So you've disciplined me. You brought me back. I went astray.
(09:41):
You keep me according to your word. Verse 68, you are good and you do good. So keep teaching me.
He's being humble before God, just like I need to be, just like you need to
be, humble before God and open to the possibility that what I'm going through
right now in my life is God's discipline.
God's redirecting me, making me pay attention to something, right?
(10:05):
And so then it goes into this next passage in verse 69, which actually says,
reminds me of what he said back in the previous passage, where he was talking
about the cords of the wicked in verse 61, the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.
Well, right here in this passage, he says, the insolence smear me with your
(10:28):
lies, but with my whole heart, I keep your precepts.
No matter what they do, no matter what they're going to try to do,
they're going to smear me with lies, but I keep your precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart, verse 70, their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.
(10:49):
And this is another incredible passage because you might think their heart is unfeeling like fat.
And it can be clarified if you read through another translation,
for example, in the Complete Jewish Bible, I love it how it words it here,
verse 70, their hearts are as thick as fat, but I take delight in your Torah.
(11:12):
In other words, they're calloused in their heart.
They have like a fat layer over their heart, but not me, God.
I'm tender toward you. I'm tender toward your word. I appreciate that I've been disciplined.
It's tough. It's rough. I don't necessarily like it in the moment,
but I appreciate it because I don't want a callous thick layer of fat over my heart.
(11:38):
I want my heart to be tender.
I want to delight in your law. And here's what's really cool that is missed
when you study it and just read it and just in your English.
You know, what's really cool about this is there's a word play going on in here.
In verse 69, it says, the insolence smear me with lies.
(11:59):
Do you know what the root word of delighting in your law, where it says their
heart is unsealing like that, but I delight in your law.
Do you know what the root word means in verse 70, I delight.
It's the same idea of being smeared.
It's, it's smearing with your law. It, it.
And so he's like making this play on word. I'm getting, they're smearing me with lies.
(12:22):
It's, but their heart is smeared with fat and I'm smeared. I,
my heart is delighting in your word.
I'm, I turn and I'm, I'm covered in delight with your word is what he's saying.
So I just, I love the word play.
Also, it's the first time all of these words are ever used in this way in all
(12:44):
of the entire Bible, into all of the entire Bible.
This idea of being afflicted, first time it's being used in this manner.
The idea of them smearing with lies, first time it's used.
The fact that I delight in your law in this format. We know that we've seen
delight before in the Bible, but it's the first time it's used in this exact way.
And then it's good for me that I was afflicted, verse 71.
(13:09):
It is good for me that I was afflicted. Why? So I can learn your statutes.
Nothing is better than the law that comes out of your mouth.
A thousand pieces of gold could be stacked up and I would still choose your
word. Why? It redirects me.
It guides me. It disciplines me.
And I would rather be afflicted by God than worry one single tiny bit about
(13:35):
what my enemies are saying or doing.
Let God take care of them just like God will take care of me. As you study God's word.
I pray that you would get excited, like we talked about in our last podcast.
You would be filled with love and enthusiasm for God's word.
I pray that you'd be excited about God's word. And I pray that God would open
(13:59):
up your heart and your mind to understand when he's disciplining you and that
you would be humble and say, thank you, God.
Thank you, God, for disciplining me.
Let's all encourage each other to be in the word of God, to thank him for his
discipline, and to study God's word.
How do we study it? We study it with a humble heart, open to the possibility
(14:20):
that God is disciplining us in redirecting where we need to be going,
and then be thankful like we hear out of Psalm 119.
Thank you, God, for disciplining me and redirecting me. I get off,
boy, I get off in the wrong path easily.
And I thank God that he disciplines me. I pray that that'll be your heart as
(14:41):
well, that you will love God's word enough to really be submitted to it and let it discipline you.
And that you would be, again, encouraged in your daily life to be in God's word
in such a way that you allow it to discipline you as well.
Thank you for being with me here again on the podcast. Don't forget to say hi,
drop a comment. If you're over on my website, thank you for doing that.
(15:03):
Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you.
And let's be in God's Word together. Let's continue on and reading and loving God's Word together.
I pray that you're blessed. I pray that you will continue to grow your faith and love in God's Word.
And know as always that you are loved and you are prayed for.
I look forward to being back here dwelling in the Word with you again real soon. Bye-bye for now.
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