Hidden Treasures of Psalms 119 - Digging Into Precepts

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm.

So, we are going on a treasure hunt, and the gold we are seeking in this treasure hunt is actually the face of God, pure light. And how fun to actually mine this treasure with King David, a man who sought God with his whole heart and his understanding of God's expression of the Hebrew language itself as he goes through the 119th Psalm, letter by letter, giving us eight verses, which the Jews teach as eight faces of each letter of expression. So, join us taking this deep dive mining with King David in the 119th Psalm. Once again, I am so honored that you would join me on this dig into the 119th Psalm, I really am. And I would mention that if you missed any of the episodes, one or two, that you can go back to christiancarguy.com, the podcast there on any of your podcast provider, and find these hidden treasures, hidden treasure episodes.

And so, we left off with a different type of mitzvah last episode. And so today, we're going to start off with this idea that's normally translated precepts in the 119th Psalm, the King James Version, which actually was where I originally got really curious as to what this meant, especially in the culture, because as I looked into the Hebrew itself, and studied it, I just had a sense that what the psalmist was talking about didn't seem to be line up with what I was understanding the word precepts to mean, or what I saw in the Hebrew. But now that I had a chance to study this and see how it all comes together, it's really remarkable to me, what a treasure that particular word is, and I think you're going to enjoy it with me very much. So, I went to chabat.org, and you'll find that link in previous episodes, and saw this Rebbe teaching on this idea of precepts. And what he said was, these are concepts from the Torah, from God's Word, that you hide in your heart. In other words, these are things, and again, when you find it there in the first verses, where David is talking about people keeping these precepts, well, when you have something that strikes you so hard that you literally place it there in your heart, it is a way that you—it's almost like a paradigm shift, right? So, the perfect example for me is the word grace.

I remember being so confused by it for years and years and years. I mean, some people said grace when they prayed, and that when somebody walked into the room that had some kind of royal blood, that was his grace. And, you know, some preachers would go on and on and on and on about grace, and I just didn't get it.

I mean, I really didn't understand the word. And so, I had another friend by the name of Darren who said, well, you know, think about it from the standpoint of the word favor. And as I began to think about that, I went back to the 61st chapter of Isaiah where, actually interestingly, it's not the word grace that he used, but it worked for me so well that it changed my whole paradigm on the idea that what he said is he's going to declare this the year of the Lord's favor, which actually is the word ratzon, which has to do with the light, but just work with me here for a minute because as I began to think about the word favor now in this light that, wait a minute, I'm Jesus's favorite. And the Bible says that Jesus was full of grace and truth. In other words, and I've been around people, and I'm specifically pastor courts for those of you who may have known them at Calvary Baptist Church, when you were in his presence, you felt like you were his favorite. And just to be there with him, and I went, oh, that's grace.

And once I really understood the word favor and like what it would like to be around somebody who treated you like you were their favorite, all of a sudden the word grace became a different paradigm to me. Now, when I actually discovered what the Hebrew word grace was, where you'll find it in, you know, when Noah found favor, that word there is actually the Hebrew word for grace. And Noah found it in God's eyes. And why did Noah find it? Because Noah was looking for it, right?

You're only going to find what you're looking for. And so, with this paradigm shift, I got the idea, oh, this is a piquitum. This is that word in Hebrew, which makes perfect sense to me, especially since it was such a shift and something that went in my heart. Now, when I looked at the Hebrew, on the way that this word precept is made up, all of a sudden, it just was so beautiful. Because it is like the face of God, it's the word presence or mouth, which is a pay, followed by the kuff again, which is this hidden.

So, right? So, it's like you're taking God's mouth and you're hiding it there in your heart. Then there's a vav, seeing it's coming down from heaven, a dalad, meaning that it's a doorway, and then to living water.

That I'm on the end of it would be that kind of thing, like, oh my goodness. That there are things in your heart that when it comes to God's word, when you see them or hear them, because you've stored them down in there, they're complete paradigms, the way that you use a lens to see things. And so, later on, as we look at the 119 Psalm and talk about these piquitum or these precepts, I think you'll see with me what exactly the psalmist was getting at and what a treasure that is. And so, I know that it's a long way around the precepts thing, but it was such a favorite of mine when I understood it and I began to see it, that like, oh, now when I see that in the 119 Psalm or I see it in other places where they're talking about precepts, oh, it's so beautiful to me. And, you know, this is something I'm hiding in my heart, even in this episode. So, once again, the ten words are on a PDF that will be there in the show notes for this, as well as other episodes. And again, thank you so much for taking this deep mining train ride with me, buckling up on the 119 Psalm.