August 7, 2024 • 16 mins
Today, we're diving deeper into our series on "How to Study the Bible." It's not just about the "how," but also the "why," "when," and even "how not" to study the Bible. Did you know that this Psalm is the longest chapter in the Bible and is divided into 22 sections, each corresponding to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet?
We'll focus on the 10th letter, Yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and see how it plays a big role in this segment. It's all about the contrast between God's greatness and our smallness, beautifully illustrated through the verses.
In the episode I mentioned a little surprise coming at the end, but I decided to create a special episode about that...so look for that episode coming soon!
Read and listen to this podcast on my website here:
https://www.jennifergrichmond.com/teaching/
If you'd like to read the Hebrew/English version...
https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt26b9.htm
Growing Deeper...- (1) Reflect on the significance of God's creation and your place in it.
- (2) Read Psalm 119:73-80 and Psalm 139, focusing on the details.
- (3) Practice attentive and detailed Bible study in your daily routine.
- (4) Share insights from this study with your community or Bible study group.
- (5) Meditate on God's steadfast love and seek to understand His commandments
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):
Hey, welcome back. This is the Dwelling Richly podcast, and this is Jennifer.
I'm Jennifer, and we are continuing on in our series, How to Study the Bible.
We've kind of answered more than just how, but why we study the Bible,
and maybe when or under what circumstance might we study the Bible,
how not to study the Bible.
(00:21):
So it's been more than just how to study the Bible. It's just how to approach the Bible.
And I love that you're here because you're interested in getting the answer to that question.
I think a lot of people I talk to are in that same love for the word of God,
for your faith in Christ.
You're in the same love boat, in a sense. That's kind of an awkward way of saying
(00:43):
it, but we're all in that same boat together.
We love God's word. We love being a Christian and our faith in Christ and our
fellowship we have in church. But how?
How do we do it better? And I love the heart and desire that we have as a community
to do it right and do it well and do it better and keep on growing in our faith, right?
(01:05):
And I'm hearing from you, and I appreciate that. I love hearing from you that
you have questions and you want to grow and learn more.
And so today we're going to talk a little bit more about that.
And last time or the time before that, I mentioned a little surprise that I have coming up.
And I'll talk about that again at the end of today's episode,
so stay tuned for that. but today we're continuing on in Psalm 139.
(01:29):
We're actually going to talk about Psalm 139, but we're not in that Psalm today,
are we? We are continuing through Psalm 119.
And today we'll pick up at verse 73. I'll read from the English Standard Version
today and listen to God's Word.
Just let it met. Even if this is all you do is just hear God's Word read to
(01:50):
you, you're going going to gain so much.
So if you have to leave after this, it would be a pity to lose you,
but I come back and finish the rest, but at least listen to God's word.
Let's get into it together. And then we'll talk about some more ideas on how
to study the Bible from the English standard version, Psalm 119, beginning at verse 73.
Your hands have made me and,
(02:13):
Fashion me. Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice because I have hoped in your word.
I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
(02:34):
Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.
Let your mercy come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.
Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood.
As for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
(02:58):
Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.
May my heart be blameless in your statutes that I may not be put to shame.
Such beautiful words.
So let's go back to the beginning, the beginning, beginning,
(03:20):
and talk about what we introduced at the very opening of this study through Psalm 119.
And that is this Psalm has some unique features. One of them being,
it's the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses.
And that's pretty unique right there. But what's especially interesting,
(03:42):
more than just unique, is that this psalm is grouped in eight verse chunks,
little passages, small little verses together.
And so that the entire psalm has 22 sections that correspond with the letters
of the, and you know the end of the Hebrew alphabet. Good job.
(04:06):
And so we come today to the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
And that letter is unique in and of itself because it is the smallest letter
indicator, little way of writing in the entire Hebrew alphabet.
That letter, you might be seeing it as you read through your own Bible,
(04:28):
as you open it up and read it, is the letter Yod, letter Yod.
In Hebrew, when you write it, it looks like a little apostrophe,
a little bit like an apostrophe.
And you can think of an apostrophe. That's a really small mark that you might
write. You know, you know how small that is.
Well, Yod is very small as well.
(04:49):
And the reason why I want to take the time to talk about this letter and that
it's the 10th letter and that it's a very small letter, there's a couple of reasons.
But the main one is because I believe that the author, whether it's David or
Ezra or Jeremiah, we've talked about that before that, you know,
(05:10):
we're not 100% sure who wrote this.
Whoever the author was, was intentional on the content of this particular stanza,
this group of eight, what we call verses.
There would not have been any verse numbers when this was originally written.
But this particular group of verses all is oriented around this letter Yod.
(05:38):
And that means that the first word of every line in this section,
as is for every one of the sections of Psalm 119, begins with the letter Yod.
If you read it in the Hebrew, the original Hebrew, you can see that.
It gets hidden when you read it in English, because we have to translate it,
(06:02):
and our words don't start off the same.
But if you read through in the Hebrew, you'll see it. It's pretty cool.
I encourage you to go to the Hebrew. I'll go ahead and leave a link here to
a Hebrew alphabet page that has the Hebrew Bible on one side and the English Bible on the other.
And you'll be able to see a little bit better when you do it that way.
(06:22):
You'll just see this repeated letter, Yod, Yod, Yod, Yod.
At the beginning of each one for example verse 73
says your hands have made and fashioned me your hands well the word your hands
is the word yadaka yadaka and it begins with the y the yod the little yod yadaka
(06:44):
and then the next verse verse 74.
It's a verse that says, those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
depending on your translation.
It's actually one of the reasons why I really appreciate the English Standard
Version and the New American Standard Version as well.
Because they keep the syntax, which is the order of the words,
(07:04):
they keep the syntax in this order,
which really helps, especially because of this whole starting the stanzas off
with the letter of the alphabet. of it.
So the phrase, those who fear you, is the word in Hebrew, Yereheka.
(07:25):
Now my Hebrew pronunciation is not great. I try my best.
So those of you out there who speak Hebrew, my apologies. I do my best on that.
But that word Yereheka means those who fear you. And it starts So again,
with the what letter of the Hebrew alphabet?
The yod, exactly. The little teeny tiny.
(07:47):
The third verse in this group is.
The 10th group of Psalm 119 starts with those who fear you shall see me and rejoice.
That's verse 70 that I do. Oh, I'm sorry. I should have gone to verse 75.
Verse 75 says, I know, O Lord, where the word I know is yadati.
(08:11):
Yad comes from the root word yada in Hebrew. So you get the point.
Ya for the Yoda and each of the beginning words of this Psalm.
Isn't that great? right? Okay, that's cool. You know, a little trivia, I guess.
But here's why I think it's particularly important because the author of this
psalm didn't just do that by, it didn't just happen to be he was writing and,
(08:31):
oh, here's what's on my mind now and I'll just write it this way. There was a reason.
He took the time to make sure every single first word of this group of verses starts with Yod, right?
Let's go back to the very first idea in verse 73.
Your hands have made and fashioned me.
(08:53):
And I want you to think as you approach that, I want you to think what it would
mean that the hand of God, the hand of God, the idea that God made me.
If you're like me and you you've ever been outside and looked up at the stars,
you might have what the psalmist had asked as well.
(09:15):
What is man that you are mindful of him, right?
You look up at the stars, you look at the heavens, and you think,
my goodness, I'm so small in comparison.
So the writer here, I believe, is making that big comparison and then using
the smallest letter of the alphabet to help us to remember our smallness and God's greatness.
(09:37):
He uses the yod throughout this entire chunk to help us to see that.
And you miss it when you read it in English.
And so when we think about the idea here of our summer study,
that we're working on ways to study the Bible, how to study the Bible,
how we approach the Bible,
I want us to gain the skill of being attentive to the details.
(10:03):
And obviously, we can just read the Bible and enjoy it and be blessed by it.
But the enriched study that happens when we are attentive to detail,
when we take the time to read something once through and then pause and think,
and then go back through it and read it again.
Because it was probably on the third or fourth pass through,
as I read this passage that that concept connected with me when I started realizing,
(10:29):
wait a minute, Yod is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
He opens with the biggest thing, God's hands, making and fashioning us.
And he's using that juxtaposition, that striking difference between the bigness
of God and the smallness of who we are to make a point. And what's that point?
(10:51):
Well, let's go ahead and continue reading.
Your hands have made me and fashioned me. And what's beautiful about this,
just a quick reminder about this, is it brought me immediately back to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 is a psalm that we read that God made us. We are created and we are
(11:14):
fearfully and wonderfully made. we are made in the image of God.
And that truth comes through in Psalm 139. So when I read this little portion
right here, your hands have made me and fashioned me and give me understanding.
It reminded me at the very beginning of Psalm 139.
Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me before word is on my tongue.
(11:35):
He says, you know everything about me.
Everywhere I go, you're there in front of me, behind me.
And then in verse 13, it says, you created my inmost being. You knit me.
And he's, you know, in Psalm 139, who's written by David, echoes this idea here.
(12:01):
Your hands made me and fashioned me. And then what's the result of that? Give me understanding.
You know everything about me. You're the one who can give me understanding. Why?
What's the end of that? What's the goal of that? That I may learn your commandments.
And then verse 74, he says, those who fear you will see me and rejoice because
I have hoped in your word. What was his hope?
(12:23):
That he would get understanding and that he might learn the commandments.
Isn't that beautiful? And then he's saying, look, God, I do this for the purpose of your glory.
He says in verse 75, I know, oh Lord, that your rules are righteous and that,
and listen to this, because it's a little bit painful, but that in faithfulness,
you afflicted me, do you remember before.
(12:47):
In this psalm, he talked about being afflicted. In fact, in verse 61 and verse
71, he simply said, I was afflicted. But now he's saying it was the Lord who afflicted him.
And then later on in the psalm, in verse 107, he's going to say that he's severely
afflicted, but he's thankful for it.
(13:08):
He knows that God's rules are righteous, and he knows that those who fear him
are going to look to him and then rejoice because he has hope in his word.
And then in verse 76 we see another familiar word
we talked about this the steadfast love of
god the chesed of god it occurs seven times
in psalm 119 and verse 41 verse 64 right here in verse 76 and then we'll see
(13:34):
it again four more times but let your steadfast love your your chesed comfort
me according to your promise to your servant and he says let your mercy which
is connected to his steadfast love.
Come to me that I might live for your law is my delight. I delight in your law.
I love being in your law, right? Just like we are trying to be today,
(13:55):
right? Love being in God's law.
And then he brings up the idea of insolent. And we talked about this again.
We talked about this a couple times before, but he said, let the insolent be
put to shame because they wrong me with false and there's no reason for that.
As for me, I'll just keep on meditating on your precepts. Verse Verse 79,
let those who fear you, he talks about this again, turn to me that they may know your testimonies.
(14:17):
And verse 80, may my heart be blameless in your statutes. Why?
That I may not be put to shame. Because in verse 78, he says,
let the insolent be the ones to be put to shame.
Those arrogant people, let them be put to shame.
But my heart remains blameless. Why? I'm in your word. How could a young man
keep his way up here? Keep it according to your word. He said that earlier.
(14:39):
And so may my heart be blameless in your statutes that I may not be put to shame.
As small as I am, like the little yod, the small thing that I am,
your hands have made me the biggest in the universe.
You, oh God, has made me. I am very small, but people will look to me,
my small little life, because I fear you, they will fear you,
(15:00):
and then they will also be able to rejoice.
He's asking that his entire life will be a testimony to God.
So as you consider how how to better study the Bible, how to get into God's word.
I pray that you will have an attention for detail, that you will be like the
writer here and think about the tiniest thing that we are and know that that
(15:21):
can make a big difference when we make it about who God is and we have fear
and love and reverence for God's word.
I pray that you'll meditate on this more and more today, that that will be an
encouragement to you as well.
Thank you for being here with me in this our short episode today and know as
always that you are loved and prayed for and I look forward to being back here
(15:42):
again with you real soon. Bye-bye for now.
Hey, welcome back. This is the Dwelling Richly podcast, and this is Jennifer.
I'm Jennifer, and we are continuing on in our series, How to Study the Bible.
We've kind of answered more than just how, but why we study the Bible,
and maybe when or under what circumstance might we study the Bible,
how not to study the Bible.
(00:21):
So it's been more than just how to study the Bible. It's just how to approach the Bible.
And I love that you're here because you're interested in getting the answer to that question.
I think a lot of people I talk to are in that same love for the word of God,
for your faith in Christ.
You're in the same love boat, in a sense. That's kind of an awkward way of saying
(00:43):
it, but we're all in that same boat together.
We love God's word. We love being a Christian and our faith in Christ and our
fellowship we have in church. But how?
How do we do it better? And I love the heart and desire that we have as a community
to do it right and do it well and do it better and keep on growing in our faith, right?
(01:05):
And I'm hearing from you, and I appreciate that. I love hearing from you that
you have questions and you want to grow and learn more.
And so today we're going to talk a little bit more about that.
And last time or the time before that, I mentioned a little surprise that I have coming up.
And I'll talk about that again at the end of today's episode,
so stay tuned for that. but today we're continuing on in Psalm 139.
(01:29):
We're actually going to talk about Psalm 139, but we're not in that Psalm today,
are we? We are continuing through Psalm 119.
And today we'll pick up at verse 73. I'll read from the English Standard Version
today and listen to God's Word.
Just let it met. Even if this is all you do is just hear God's Word read to
(01:50):
you, you're going going to gain so much.
So if you have to leave after this, it would be a pity to lose you,
but I come back and finish the rest, but at least listen to God's word.
Let's get into it together. And then we'll talk about some more ideas on how
to study the Bible from the English standard version, Psalm 119, beginning at verse 73.
Your hands have made me and,
(02:13):
Fashion me. Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice because I have hoped in your word.
I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
(02:34):
Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.
Let your mercy come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.
Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood.
As for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
(02:58):
Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.
May my heart be blameless in your statutes that I may not be put to shame.
Such beautiful words.
So let's go back to the beginning, the beginning, beginning,
(03:20):
and talk about what we introduced at the very opening of this study through Psalm 119.
And that is this Psalm has some unique features. One of them being,
it's the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses.
And that's pretty unique right there. But what's especially interesting,
(03:42):
more than just unique, is that this psalm is grouped in eight verse chunks,
little passages, small little verses together.
And so that the entire psalm has 22 sections that correspond with the letters
of the, and you know the end of the Hebrew alphabet. Good job.
(04:06):
And so we come today to the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
And that letter is unique in and of itself because it is the smallest letter
indicator, little way of writing in the entire Hebrew alphabet.
That letter, you might be seeing it as you read through your own Bible,
(04:28):
as you open it up and read it, is the letter Yod, letter Yod.
In Hebrew, when you write it, it looks like a little apostrophe,
a little bit like an apostrophe.
And you can think of an apostrophe. That's a really small mark that you might
write. You know, you know how small that is.
Well, Yod is very small as well.
(04:49):
And the reason why I want to take the time to talk about this letter and that
it's the 10th letter and that it's a very small letter, there's a couple of reasons.
But the main one is because I believe that the author, whether it's David or
Ezra or Jeremiah, we've talked about that before that, you know,
(05:10):
we're not 100% sure who wrote this.
Whoever the author was, was intentional on the content of this particular stanza,
this group of eight, what we call verses.
There would not have been any verse numbers when this was originally written.
But this particular group of verses all is oriented around this letter Yod.
(05:38):
And that means that the first word of every line in this section,
as is for every one of the sections of Psalm 119, begins with the letter Yod.
If you read it in the Hebrew, the original Hebrew, you can see that.
It gets hidden when you read it in English, because we have to translate it,
(06:02):
and our words don't start off the same.
But if you read through in the Hebrew, you'll see it. It's pretty cool.
I encourage you to go to the Hebrew. I'll go ahead and leave a link here to
a Hebrew alphabet page that has the Hebrew Bible on one side and the English Bible on the other.
And you'll be able to see a little bit better when you do it that way.
(06:22):
You'll just see this repeated letter, Yod, Yod, Yod, Yod.
At the beginning of each one for example verse 73
says your hands have made and fashioned me your hands well the word your hands
is the word yadaka yadaka and it begins with the y the yod the little yod yadaka
(06:44):
and then the next verse verse 74.
It's a verse that says, those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
depending on your translation.
It's actually one of the reasons why I really appreciate the English Standard
Version and the New American Standard Version as well.
Because they keep the syntax, which is the order of the words,
(07:04):
they keep the syntax in this order,
which really helps, especially because of this whole starting the stanzas off
with the letter of the alphabet. of it.
So the phrase, those who fear you, is the word in Hebrew, Yereheka.
(07:25):
Now my Hebrew pronunciation is not great. I try my best.
So those of you out there who speak Hebrew, my apologies. I do my best on that.
But that word Yereheka means those who fear you. And it starts So again,
with the what letter of the Hebrew alphabet?
The yod, exactly. The little teeny tiny.
(07:47):
The third verse in this group is.
The 10th group of Psalm 119 starts with those who fear you shall see me and rejoice.
That's verse 70 that I do. Oh, I'm sorry. I should have gone to verse 75.
Verse 75 says, I know, O Lord, where the word I know is yadati.
(08:11):
Yad comes from the root word yada in Hebrew. So you get the point.
Ya for the Yoda and each of the beginning words of this Psalm.
Isn't that great? right? Okay, that's cool. You know, a little trivia, I guess.
But here's why I think it's particularly important because the author of this
psalm didn't just do that by, it didn't just happen to be he was writing and,
(08:31):
oh, here's what's on my mind now and I'll just write it this way. There was a reason.
He took the time to make sure every single first word of this group of verses starts with Yod, right?
Let's go back to the very first idea in verse 73.
Your hands have made and fashioned me.
(08:53):
And I want you to think as you approach that, I want you to think what it would
mean that the hand of God, the hand of God, the idea that God made me.
If you're like me and you you've ever been outside and looked up at the stars,
you might have what the psalmist had asked as well.
(09:15):
What is man that you are mindful of him, right?
You look up at the stars, you look at the heavens, and you think,
my goodness, I'm so small in comparison.
So the writer here, I believe, is making that big comparison and then using
the smallest letter of the alphabet to help us to remember our smallness and God's greatness.
(09:37):
He uses the yod throughout this entire chunk to help us to see that.
And you miss it when you read it in English.
And so when we think about the idea here of our summer study,
that we're working on ways to study the Bible, how to study the Bible,
how we approach the Bible,
I want us to gain the skill of being attentive to the details.
(10:03):
And obviously, we can just read the Bible and enjoy it and be blessed by it.
But the enriched study that happens when we are attentive to detail,
when we take the time to read something once through and then pause and think,
and then go back through it and read it again.
Because it was probably on the third or fourth pass through,
as I read this passage that that concept connected with me when I started realizing,
(10:29):
wait a minute, Yod is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
He opens with the biggest thing, God's hands, making and fashioning us.
And he's using that juxtaposition, that striking difference between the bigness
of God and the smallness of who we are to make a point. And what's that point?
(10:51):
Well, let's go ahead and continue reading.
Your hands have made me and fashioned me. And what's beautiful about this,
just a quick reminder about this, is it brought me immediately back to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 is a psalm that we read that God made us. We are created and we are
(11:14):
fearfully and wonderfully made. we are made in the image of God.
And that truth comes through in Psalm 139. So when I read this little portion
right here, your hands have made me and fashioned me and give me understanding.
It reminded me at the very beginning of Psalm 139.
Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me before word is on my tongue.
(11:35):
He says, you know everything about me.
Everywhere I go, you're there in front of me, behind me.
And then in verse 13, it says, you created my inmost being. You knit me.
And he's, you know, in Psalm 139, who's written by David, echoes this idea here.
(12:01):
Your hands made me and fashioned me. And then what's the result of that? Give me understanding.
You know everything about me. You're the one who can give me understanding. Why?
What's the end of that? What's the goal of that? That I may learn your commandments.
And then verse 74, he says, those who fear you will see me and rejoice because
I have hoped in your word. What was his hope?
(12:23):
That he would get understanding and that he might learn the commandments.
Isn't that beautiful? And then he's saying, look, God, I do this for the purpose of your glory.
He says in verse 75, I know, oh Lord, that your rules are righteous and that,
and listen to this, because it's a little bit painful, but that in faithfulness,
you afflicted me, do you remember before.
(12:47):
In this psalm, he talked about being afflicted. In fact, in verse 61 and verse
71, he simply said, I was afflicted. But now he's saying it was the Lord who afflicted him.
And then later on in the psalm, in verse 107, he's going to say that he's severely
afflicted, but he's thankful for it.
(13:08):
He knows that God's rules are righteous, and he knows that those who fear him
are going to look to him and then rejoice because he has hope in his word.
And then in verse 76 we see another familiar word
we talked about this the steadfast love of
god the chesed of god it occurs seven times
in psalm 119 and verse 41 verse 64 right here in verse 76 and then we'll see
(13:34):
it again four more times but let your steadfast love your your chesed comfort
me according to your promise to your servant and he says let your mercy which
is connected to his steadfast love.
Come to me that I might live for your law is my delight. I delight in your law.
I love being in your law, right? Just like we are trying to be today,
(13:55):
right? Love being in God's law.
And then he brings up the idea of insolent. And we talked about this again.
We talked about this a couple times before, but he said, let the insolent be
put to shame because they wrong me with false and there's no reason for that.
As for me, I'll just keep on meditating on your precepts. Verse Verse 79,
let those who fear you, he talks about this again, turn to me that they may know your testimonies.
(14:17):
And verse 80, may my heart be blameless in your statutes. Why?
That I may not be put to shame. Because in verse 78, he says,
let the insolent be the ones to be put to shame.
Those arrogant people, let them be put to shame.
But my heart remains blameless. Why? I'm in your word. How could a young man
keep his way up here? Keep it according to your word. He said that earlier.
(14:39):
And so may my heart be blameless in your statutes that I may not be put to shame.
As small as I am, like the little yod, the small thing that I am,
your hands have made me the biggest in the universe.
You, oh God, has made me. I am very small, but people will look to me,
my small little life, because I fear you, they will fear you,
(15:00):
and then they will also be able to rejoice.
He's asking that his entire life will be a testimony to God.
So as you consider how how to better study the Bible, how to get into God's word.
I pray that you will have an attention for detail, that you will be like the
writer here and think about the tiniest thing that we are and know that that
(15:21):
can make a big difference when we make it about who God is and we have fear
and love and reverence for God's word.
I pray that you'll meditate on this more and more today, that that will be an
encouragement to you as well.
Thank you for being here with me in this our short episode today and know as
always that you are loved and prayed for and I look forward to being back here
(15:42):
again with you real soon. Bye-bye for now.
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