Psalms 119:74- Hope In Fear

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm. I am having so much fun in the 119th Psalm and how fun is it? We get to learn some more.

I love to learn and it's just one of those things that's phenomenal. Every time I look at these verses they just see more than I ever saw before. Which is the case with verse 74, which we are in the second verse of the yud section of the 119th Psalm, verse 74. And as we've talked about the yud, the letter itself, as we're seeing these different faces of God through these letters, the yud is the little that means a lot, that little dot that essentially is the hands of God and it's been born from the teth as we talked about last time. And so it's really cool where this goes today in that the yud we've talked about yesterday with the first of the anointings of the Isaiah 11 anointings would be wisdom.

So today's would be the understanding and this understanding is phenomenal to me. Especially the understanding of the face of God when it comes to the hands of God. So here we have the verse in English, it says, they that fear thee will be glad when they see me because I've hoped in thy word. So it's really, really cool that the word yireh, which is fear in Hebrew, which has everything to do with the fear of the Lord, which obviously that's what they're talking about here, they that fear thee. They're talking about the fear of the Lord and that yireh is that, you know, one of the two things that they say provides, you know, understanding in so many different ways because you've got yireh is fear and hab is love. And so fear and love drive much, much, much behavior. And so interestingly, they're saying in the case of the yid, the hands of God, that fear is an understanding, a fear of God.

If you're going to be his hands, you obviously need to be in that position of awe of of what he's telling us to do in so many different ways. And so this they that fear thee will be glad when they see thee because I've hoped and the word hoped that they use here also starts with a yid. And then interestingly, there's this het, which we've already studied that word, that letter, which is also a word, the het and this idea of being married.

And so when you take a yid and you marry it to to the yid, then you get hope, which is a picture of what's happened here. So, you know, if you put this practical, you know, those who fear you will be glad when they see me because people recognize that. And I'm sure in your own circles that you have people that you know that they fear God and when they see you, there seems to be some type of a joy, a rejoicing. That glad word is actually a little bit more in Hebrew than just glad. It's more like rejoicing, like these people are going to be thrilled when they see you.

And that has been my experience on lots of occasions. And I, you know, almost every day I get to see that because I get to work around a bunch of really cool people who love the word of God and who fear God. And so, you know, we rejoice when we see each other, there's no doubt. But I want to share a story I told you before about my friend Johnny Hendrix. Listen to previous episodes about my friend Johnny Hendrix, who was to die, unfortunately, of pancreatic cancer, but came to know the Lord shortly there before. And we talked about how his salvation experience happened. But what we haven't talked about is actually the days right before his death. So here he had come to Christ, you know, probably three weeks before the incident that I'm going to talk about.

And so he was a new believer. And his wife, Geraldine, was instrumental in so many different ways in praying for him a lot of years and, you know, asking me clearly to love on him as God gave me the opportunity. And so when she found out, you know, he went back into the hospital after he came to Christ, went back in the hospital, he deteriorated fairly quickly. And the doctors told Geraldine that he was going to pass in the next few days.

And she did not want them to tell him that. She called me and said, Robbie, would you please come down here and would you share with Johnny that he's only got a couple more days? And here we get to the part where I could see when I walked into the hospital and Geraldine was there waiting on me. See, there was her rejoicing because the doctors didn't hope in his word, but she hoped, right? She was hoping because she knew that Johnny would end up in heaven and that this would be as smooth a transition as it possibly could be.

And it was fascinating. I've never thought about what you're going to say to somebody right before they pass away, but it seemed like for such a time as this. I actually have done it a couple of times since, but this was the first time it ever had happened to me. And so I immediately went into a little chapel that was there in the hospital, began to pray, God, what do you want me to share?

And how do I do this? And God reminded me that I'd been there, that when I had the infection in my brain that would not stop, it was a brain abscess. There was a day when essentially a nurse told me, Mr. Dilmore, we're hanging the last, all the antibiotics have failed.

We're going to try this one last one, hoping that it will stop the infection. But if it doesn't, you may not see the morning. That's a pretty strange thing to have happen to me. And I can remember all that went through my mind right then of like, wow, what what is life about? You really, when you're told something like that, it tends to send you to a different place than maybe you've ever been before. But the God of all comfort had comforted me with comfort that I could now turn to my friend Johnny. And so he also, God gave me a verse back then while I was in that position that really comforted me. And the verse that comforted me at that time was the last verse of the hundred and excuse me, of the twenty third Psalm.

Right. Where it says, surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, when you read there's a book out, it's called The Shepherd's Guide to the Twenty Third Psalm. And I'd read that book and and at the end of the book is just spectacular because what they point out is that the sheep are the animals with the golden hooves.

Right. And so when they pasture a certain way that the sheep eat the grass so well and with their maneuver and all, if the shepherd is good, it's a good shepherd, then you end up with these beautiful, lush, green pastures. And so when in the Song of Solomon, chapter one, when the Shulamite asks, you know, how do I find the shepherd? She's told, follow the tracks of the sheep because the tracks of the sheep will be very green. Right. And so if you are pastured by the shepherd, what it's saying is you're going to leave a pasture behind you that's green and lush for other people to feed on and find their way to the shepherd. You see what the picture is? It's absolutely beautiful. And so all that will lead to the shepherd all the days of your life.

And I thought about that many times. The word that's used in the twenty third psalm is chesed. Right. For mercy, which means loving kindness.

And Tov is the goodness. We you know, we've talked about that letter. So, wow. I go in to talk to Johnny and the second I tell him, Johnny, I've got some news that's going to be difficult to hear. And I said, you know, essentially the doctors are saying that you don't have a day or two left that the cancers spread into your brain.

And it's just not going to be long. And when I did, I saw his eyes roll up in his head like like yours would if I told you that. And and it was believable. And I could and I said, I have some sense of what you're thinking right now, Johnny, like what's life about? And he looked at me very knowingly and he said, yeah, I mean, he was like, what? And I said, well, Johnny, you don't realize it, but just in the short time that that sense. You've become a cry in coming Christ and actually published an article in the newspaper in Mocksville talking about how he'd come. How grateful he was.

I have it posted actually in a picture that I have. It was one of the things, one of the grass that he he you know, that he made green behind him. And a lot of people got to see that. Of course, many, many, many people have heard Johnny's story since. And I think about Johnny's story being the green grass that many have feeded on. In fact, one time I shared that story in a church and the entire church got up and came forward. The story of Johnny Hendrix.

So it's been extremely powerful. So as I told Johnny that, I relayed the idea of the twenty third Psalm to him and was able to share, you know, how goodness and mercy will follow him all the days of his life. And he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And I was able to pray with him and share in such a way. It's unforgettable, but I don't want you to miss the verse. Going back to what it says, it says they that fear you will rejoice when they see me, because I've hoped, because I've hoped in your word.

And that's this. What I've shared today is all about hope. And when people see you, because I know if you're studying the 2019 Psalm like this and you're listening to all these episodes, I know you're like me. You're like, man, you've hoped in the word. And so when people see you, they're going to rejoice because they want that hope that you have, that you're able to share because of your love of the word of God, which is Jesus in every single child. Until as we talked about it, we did. So thank you for giving me this little extra time the day after Thanksgiving. You've been listening on the day it was released. And God blessed you as we continue to study God's the different faces of God in the 119 Psalm.