The Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm. So how delightful it is from my perspective, because that was the word that God gave me for the year of 2022, is to delight.
And I certainly do delight in these verses of the 119th Psalm, as we're in the Resh section, and today we get to dig into the 158th verse, which is the anointing of the fear of the Lord when it comes to the idea of the Resh. With the Resh, again, I like to give that general definition at the beginning to talk about it. It has to do with beginnings.
It has to do with choices and headship, kind of like when a river heads in one direction. It's going to continue to go that way, that the head of the Nile River is kind of the idea. And so with this idea of the Resh and the head, we're going to go into the fear of the Lord here, which is in English, I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy word. And, you know, this idea of to be held or the idea is to see, actually, the word that is in Hebrew that starts with a Resh has to do with seeing. And so the interesting thing is for us to see, we have to make a decision that we're going to look.
And so the beginning of seeing is making a decision to look. And here the Psalmist has made a decision to look at the transgressors. And that word transgressor has to do sort of with this sinister idea or someone that's hiding a bad motive. And so you're actually looking at something that has been disguised and actually seeing the evil that was there. And so when he says, I beheld the transgressors, what he's saying is I saw what evil they were up to and he was grieved.
And because why? Because they kept not at which that word kept has to do with. They didn't care one way or the other about thy word, meaning a mirror, meaning the word of God. And so the idea here, if this was somebody that was acting like they kept, they cared about the word, but now he is seeing that they really don't care anything about the word of God. And that is a very grieving thing, especially when you think about the fear of the Lord. In other words, he's saying, because he has a fear of the Lord, he kept the word of the Lord. And because he understands that this is something that we ought to be in awe of and is extremely important to give an example of this.
I was wondering, you know, when you look at your own life, if you ever beheld transgressors and were grieved, you know, what did that exactly look like? Well, unfortunately it often looks like people in the church because they're acting like they really care about the word of God. But he says very clearly, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments, right?
And as you did unto the least of these, you did unto me. Well, you know, the example I saw of this story I'll tell is my son had a counselor that was involved in all sorts of ministry at Calvary Baptist Church. And then he went to seminary. And so he was in seminary in Raleigh. And he was also at the time belonged to a church there. And he was teaching in that particular youth group. And unfortunately, and I do mean unfortunately, he was caught in the back seat with one of the boys from his youth group, which led to all sorts of horrible arrests and trials.
And eventually, he spent 13 years in prison. And as it turned out, this young man was very good friends of ours. We'd actually had taken him on vacation. And, you know, and sometimes obviously if you were us, we might've thought, was he grooming our son?
You know, all sorts of things that went through our minds. However, what grieved me so was at the point in time when he was captured, the church ran from this young man like nothing you've ever seen. In fact, they didn't only run from the young man himself. They ran from all the students that were involved as well. They didn't come to the trial. They weren't involved. And they certainly not only didn't associate with these people, any of the people that were involved ever again. I mean, people that loved this friend of ours, you know, he never heard from him again.
There was no discussion and whatever. And so as I beheld this, you might remember, you know, when I was in prison, when did you visit me, right? And all these church people literally turned their back on this young man and turned their back not only on him, but on every one of his victims.
And I've never forgotten it like, oh my goodness, these people act like they care about people, but, and I understand that these people made horrible mistakes and they're horrible sinners. And yes, he went to prison, but yes, we visited him in prison. We visited him in prison all 13 years, many, many, many, many times. And, you know, walked with him through that and certainly he's been out and now on parole. And, you know, God doesn't turn his back. If we go to prison, if we make a horrible mistake, you know, these are things that I remember how grieved I was when this happened. I actually did a show on Truth Talk Live back then.
We had a live show that was on every day at four o'clock. And the show that I did is, will your pastor go to hell because he didn't go to prison. By that I meant like, oh my goodness, it's one thing to visit prisoners that obviously, you know, need God, everybody needs God, but what about the people that have fallen within your own church? Isn't it our responsibility to be their friends? Isn't it our responsibility to have grace for the unlovable? I mean, oh my goodness. And so when I beheld these transgressors, which were in my opinion, church people, I was terribly grieved because they didn't see that, oh my gosh, yes, he made horrible mistakes and yes, he was paying for those mistakes. And I wouldn't wish that on anybody in the world that they would be affected by this in a bad way, but that doesn't mean we can't love on the people and continue to try to walk with them through whatever situation, because really if it was your son, would you turn your back on him?
I mean, that's the point. And I wonder, I really wonder where I am missing it. Like where am I, the transgressor, I'm hiding the fact that I'm not doing his commandments.
Where does that actually work? And so it's a neat thing to pray because I want the fear of the Lord. I want to be doing what it is that he would have me doing. And there's no doubt, I mean, no doubt in my mind that one of the places he does some tremendous work is in prisons. And yes, those people are in prison a lot of times because they belong there. And you might even remember my favorite story in radio was the Vietnamese pastor who was in prison. And I remember thinking that, oh my goodness, he was in this swamp and ministering to these people risking, I mean, actually he could have very easily died in that swamp, but God sent him as a pastor to lead the people that had stolen and raped, and whatever reason they were in that prison that they belonged in there, I get it.
But God sent them a pastor because he was leading people to Christ in that swamp. And I've always thought that was such a beautiful picture, but oh my goodness, do we think that in an American jail people can't be led to Christ? We don't think in an American jail people can recommit their life to Christ? We don't think in an American jail people can repent if they've gone away from Christ?
Like, oh my goodness, it's obvious when it's overseas maybe, not so obvious when it's right in your backyard and you knew the person. Well, unfortunately, those are the people that when, man, when they see us turn our backs on them, and unfortunately I have another friend that was in ministry that recently this happened where he unfortunately got involved with something on his wife and everybody, I mean, oh my gosh, how they all turned their backs on him. He repented, got back together with his wife, but none of these people will talk to him. And I'm like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, this isn't what God has in mind.
And so, you know, it's a neat thing that as we get an idea to turn our eyes to see where are people saying they're one thing, but they're acting, you know, like another, and how can we even help them? How can we pray for those transgressors? And I really believe that's what King David is doing here. He was grieved, not just of their behavior, but he was grieved because they were missing out on the relationship with God.
If they would, obey his commandment. Thanks for listening.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-10 07:37:21 / 2023-05-10 07:41:23 / 4
