Psalms 119:87 The Delight of Gathering

Hidden treasures of the 119th Psalm.

Oh, this is so much fun, fun, fun. I can tell you, we get to do verse 87 today in the 119th Psalm, and we'll be digging around in what is the seventh verse in the hoof section. Again, the hoof being the letter that means so much desire.

It also means blessing, like when you hold your hand out, you're going to get that. And the idea of the hammock over the head, and this being the seventh verse, if we're going along with the seven anointings of Christ from Isaiah 11, that would be a delight in the fear of the Lord. So yesterday's verse is very connected to today's verse, because it's actually talking about the same group that had been persecuting him. And so here you're going to see his delight as he fears in the Lord, and how that all works out for him, because he'd asked to be helped.

And here he shows that clearly that happens. So in verse 87, again, when you think about the desire he's talking about here, it's really, really cool, because you're going to find delight in here. And I think I discovered something that I'd been wrong about, and I always like it when I find things that I've been wrong.

Maybe I'm getting a little bit more closer to the path. But anyway, here's the verse in English. It says, They had almost consumed me upon the earth, but I forsook not thy precepts.

So you may wonder, Robbie, how do you delight? Well, you're going to see this is a very delightful verse. In other words, the actual word that starts the verse is the word almost in Hebrew, and that's the word that, again, he's coming with the hoof to talk about this desire was that he not get completely consumed, obviously.

And so, you know, here God came through because he wasn't consumed. And it says, But I forsook not thy precepts. And here's the word that starts the verse.

Wait, made studied studied, because, you know, I've never been comfortable with what does this word precepts mean. And the word in Hebrew is piqued. And when you look at it, there's this Law pay in the front of it which is like the face or the mouth of God. And and then you know, there's it's holiness in the in the word.

And there's something that I just had been missing. And so when I really studied it this time, I noticed that the root there was therium of its at the root of the word, like pakud, without the pakudim meaning plural pakud, pakud means to visit or to muster. And of course, King David knew all about muster being a general for all those years, but it also, more importantly, when you think about what he says, I forsook not thy precepts. Well, you might know in Hebrews 10, right, he talks about don't forsake your gathering of yourselves together. I think it's Hebrews 10, 25 where it says that.

And so the idea is the same thing. Like the writer of Hebrews took up the same idea of forsaking not the gathering of yourselves together. So if precepts are in fact the musterings or the visits, and again, when you see the first time that the word pakud comes in the Bible, it has to do when God visited Sarah. And so when I look back in my own life, right, and I think of some of the most delightful times that I could possibly imagine were when God visited me. And so when we are visiting other people, and one of those visits I've talked to you about before was when God showed up and asked me what I wanted, and then he showed me, talked about how I was serving him, and he showed me all these different things that he'd asked me to do that I hadn't done. Well, when you think about it, when I thought about that this morning, I realized every single thing that he had asked me to do was to visit somebody.

In other words, they were all visits. And my delight had come from, in so many different ways, those visits with other saints, that idea of not forsaking your gathering of yourselves together, which you can certainly see in the times that we live in today. But let me just share this story with you that I think gets right along these lines, as we were talking about the people yesterday that were pursuing us. Well, I can remember as I was losing the dealership, the day that I was to close the doors and actually put a key in the door and lock it, there were several things that happened. But one of the beautiful things that happened that I'll never forget was that was the same day that I did devotions at the retirement home that was back behind the dealership.

And I did them all every year that I had the dealership for 10 years. I had not forsook the gathering. In other words, I got a chance to visit those folks in the nursing home for those 10 years.

And the other thing that I really delighted in when I was in Mocksville was I was the chairman of the Christian Businessmen's Committee. So I had had a real struggle, I really did, when I had gotten fired from what was Bob Neal, Chrysler, Plymouth, Jeep, Eagle, it really, really, really hurt me. And I hated, I literally hated to even drive by the place. And it took me years to somewhat get through that. And I worked for the God because I could see that there was some bitterness there that was still there.

But I remember I just, you know, we recently had built this new building for West Side Chrysler Dodge Jeep that we were losing that I was locking the door on. And as I looked across the street and saw the new building that we'd worked so hard to build, I said, God, I hope I don't hate this place the way I hate driving by North Point. In fact, you know, it would be really nice, God, and it was a prayer that I said that I know he came through was, I said, it'd be really nice if I could continue to visit the nursing home and I could continue to be the chairman of the Christian Businessmen's Committee. Well, all that happened in the year 2007. It was Christmastime 2007 as I was walking across the street, praying that prayer.

Well, here we are in 2021. And this Thursday, I will not only have a chance to go to that same nursing home that I've gone to for all these years, they wouldn't let me in during COVID for some times, which really broke my heart, but they've let me in back again now because I've been vaccinated. And I get to still have my meeting with my Christian Businessmen, which I can't even begin to tell you all the fruit and all the delight that has come from those two things for all these years. I mean, it's just unbelievable to me. You know, this delight in the fear of the Lord, in other words, he not only did that, but I have to tell you, there's a bit of a joke too, in that when I, that same day, my boss, today, Stu Epperson, you know, shortly after that prayer, I walked over to the dealership and Stu Epperson was leaning up against the door and he looked at me and he said, Robbie, do you know where I could find a sales manager?

He had no idea I was losing dealership. And I was like, yeah. And that's how I ended up working at Truth Broadcasting. That same day, I prayed that prayer.

Stu was waiting on me as I locked the door. And again, I work at Truth Broadcasting to this day. And all those things happen to this day, okay? So do you know, you know, and I think about this pecudum and I think, wow, don't forsake the gathering of yourselves together, of those visits, right?

Whether it's a visit to somebody in prison or a visit to somebody in the hospital or a visit of an old friend or a visit of a family person. In other words, there are so many of these things that are essentially these commandments that have to do with mustering, they have to do with holidays, as we're getting ready for the Christmas season, a visiting with your family, a visiting with your friends and all those things that come together as we don't isolate ourselves. But think about how many times, when I started to see that I had been wrong about the word pecudum, I'm really quite convinced that I'm right now that it has to do with the commandments that have to do with gathering.

And you could see that, can you imagine, with all these people coming after you because you're a crook and you still are coming to church? I mean, he's still going to the, because for him, all these people coming after him were there at the temple, right? But he didn't forsake it, in other words, he's saying all these people that said that I'm a liar and all these people that said that I was this and I was that, it didn't change the fact that he was still at the temple. He was still visiting, he was still doing what he was doing and I think it was absolutely beautiful. So I know I went a bit long in this, but when I'm wrong, I'm wrong and I really think, I really, really do, that this pecudum, this idea of precepts are those things which are the commandments that we forsake, not our gatherings of ourselves together, whether that's on holidays or whether that's going to church or with the meetings that you know that God has put on your heart. And if you don't forsake those, there's no doubt in my mind, you're gonna delight, you're going to delight in the fear of the Lord. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time.