Psalms 119:104 - The Miracle of The Way

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm. Oh, I do love the miracle verses. And how about the miracle verse for the Mem?

How awesome is that? We get to study that today, which is verse 104, the eighth verse in the Mem section. So as we have talked about the Mem being the king and the messiah and the living water, all these things that the Mem represents. Just think how cool this verse really is as it all comes together.

So in English, it reads like this. Through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way. Well, we've talked about this idea of precepts being these meetings that we have both individually with God and corporately with God. And the precepts that are described, you know, throughout the Bible.

And clearly, you know, David had enjoyed many, many, many of these. And in doing so, it obviously has kept him from a lot of false ways because he, you know, you end up as you see that this would be a false way, would be almost the Antichrist. It's something that's actually from the word false witness that has to do with the fake. And I think of all the different ways that we, I guess, hide, you know, through a mask that we wear and all those things that, you know, we're looking for authentic people. It's an absolutely beautiful thing.

And it's if you ever wondered why, you know, when somebody is being fake, you kind of hate that. Well, it's right along the idea of this miracle. Well, the miracle is when we can actually get a look at our own true identity and when we can see God's identity. If we talked about if we could be ourselves around God, he could be himself around us. And there you go. We get rid of the false and we walk into the truth.

I mean, it's an absolutely beautiful thing. And there's a hint at the end of this verse. I got to admit, I've never really looked at the word way there.

There are two ways to dispel way in Hebrew, just like, you know, a road or a path, something like that. And there is this oric, which is this word. And there's Derek, which we've talked about in the very first verse.

You know, blessed are the undefiled in the way. Well, that's Derek. Well, here we've got oric, which is very similar. The Derek starts with a Dalet, which we've studied that letter, which is a humble servant. But the oric starts with an aleph. And as I was looking at that today, just studying it and thinking about it, an aleph, if we talked about when you look at the makeup of that letter, which is the very first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, it's a yud with a vav between another yud. And the idea has always been told that, you know, you've got a yud that represents man that is going up and a yud that it represents God that is coming down in the Bibles between them. And that's how we, you know, connect with God.

That's how we touch each other's hands. Well, as we think about what the yud is in the very first verse of the yud, of course, you know, it was the hands that fashioned me because that yud, that idea of Yiddish that you might have heard is that we are the hands of God. And so when you think about when we're in the way that he's talking about here, if we're in the right way, we're actually hand in hand with him, with essentially Jesus being how we got hand in hand with the Father.

And what a miracle that just that is in itself is a miracle to be in the way, right? Just as it says in the very first verse, which is a Derek, which has another interesting angle to it. But right now, I just want to stay on the oric and this idea of being hand in hand with God and to finish out the spelling. It's a race and then a hat. And that hat we've talked about is being united with God. And the race is sort of like being the head of or, you know, the spirit of. So it's kind of like, man, this oric is really walking together with the head who is going to take us into union. And that and that idea of of being in union with God as we become ourselves, as we spend time in these precepts, he can be himself.

And so interestingly is to set up the nun, which is the next letter. It's so beautiful that Jesus is the way, OK? He is the way, the truth and the life. And so it's kind of cool that here we've got a king who doesn't want you to take the wrong way. You've got to go the right way.

And the right way, obviously, is being hand in hand with God. Well, one time I was deer hunting and I got so entranced with chasing a deer, as you might, that that I got myself lost. I was way in the in the way from Troy, North Carolina, in the wilderness up there.

And, you know, it was I don't know how many square miles that we could hunt up there, but it was a huge piece of property. And I had probably spent two hours, you know, trailing what I thought was a deer that I could get. But instead, I got myself lost. Well, back in these days, cell phones weren't so good, but I did. And I had one. And so I climbed up to the top of the highest hill I could find.

And I finally got enough coverage to make a cell phone call to the person who at least the land from to hunt from and explain my situation. And he said, well, can you see, you know, because that land had been cut, you know, the the good wood had been cut out and they had replaced it with pine trees. And he said, so can you see the line between the hardwoods and the pines?

And I said, yeah. And he said, well, then it's easy to get out. All you got to do is keep the hardwoods on your left to keep the pines on your right. This is the way that you're going to get out.

Hardwoods on the left, pines on the right. You know, just keep on that line right there and eventually you'll come out to the road. Well, I started that way. And believe me, that was a false way based on where I was. Of course, he probably gave me great directions where he thought I was, but I wasn't there apparently because for miles and miles and miles, I kept the hardwoods on my left and the pines on my right. I went through briars and thickets.

And oh, my gosh, what I went through for miles and miles. And by the time and this was, by the way, in late December, it was bitter cold. And I think it was going down to like one degree or something that night.

I know it wasn't like maybe 15 to 20 degrees as I'm walking around out there. So it's freezing cold. And I am so lost.

And eventually after hours of doing this right about four o'clock, right when it just begins to think, oh, man, the sun is going to go down in a minute. And guess what? There were no there was no more line. There was no more hardwoods versus pines.

It was all mixed together. And it was clear that this this way I could see where the two, you know, where I had been, where the pines had been one side and the hardwoods on the other. But where I came out was still in the middle of the woods with nothing. And so there I was totally lost with the sun going down.

And as I and as I just sat down and pondered what to do, of course, I could see no more hills. I couldn't get any cell phone coverage. My phone was dead anyway.

It didn't matter. And I really thought, man, this is going to be one cold night. I hope I can make it and I hope they can find me eventually because I'm way back, way, way, way back in the woods.

And I have no idea. So as I sat there in the dark pondering my situation, deciding I wouldn't walk any further because obviously I was just getting lost. So I sat there in the woods and it was an interesting thing that happened. As it became dark, all of a sudden, way out in the woods, way, way, way, way aways, I could see a light. OK, that was clearly a manmade light. It was probably in itself maybe two miles away. But it didn't matter because it was the light.

Right. And it was the way I'm going to just tell you. And I saw that light and you know what? It's pretty even in the dark. You can see where that light is and you can go in that direction. Of course, I had no flashlight.

My phone was dead. So, you know, you're walking in the woods a little dangerous, but nonetheless, I saw the light. And believe it or not, that light was a house that was on a street, but that street was not paved. And there was a long ways to a regular road and it was a long night ahead of me.

But nonetheless, I did get out of there. But you may know that as we transition from the yud to the nun, that the first verse of the nun section is, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so you can see the wonderful transition here between the idea of the mem and the nun, which is so much fun as we get into that. But the miracle of the light that came into the world.

OK, it's such a miracle that it's unbelievable. And so I will leave you with that as we get ready to go into the nun section. I've enjoyed the mem so much and I love the way that it ends, that as we grow in that relationship, those precepts where we are meeting or we're having our meetings with Christ, that he is teaching us because, right, he is the way, he's the truth. And so when we get a good look at the truth, you know, we get a better idea, you know, what's false. You've heard the old saying that, you know, the best way to understand currency and make sure you don't get a counterfeit bill is to study, study, study the authentic. Well, the beautiful thing for all of us as we study God's word in this 119 Psalm and wherever you're studying today, whatever part of the Bible you're studying, by studying it, you're seeing the authentic, right? And it's going to help us to see just like the Psalmist talks about, every false way. Thanks for listening.