Hidden Treasures of Psalms 119: Verse 15: Digging For Mothers

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. So join us taking this deep dive mining with King David in the 119th Psalm. On today's mining expedition, we are digging for mothers.

You're going to go, wow, Robbie, how did you get here from there? Well, we're on verse 15. And verse 15, I'll read it first and then we'll start digging. So it's, I will meditate on your precepts and have respect for all your ways. It's actually, if you look at in Hebrew, just four words, very short four words, but oh my goodness, where all they can take you when you really begin to meditate on what he is saying. Because that word meditate to begin with, I don't know that that's such a great translation. If you do a little word study on that, it's a beautiful thing to go see how many different places that word is used. And quite often it's used to just talk and sometimes it's used to pray and sometimes it's used to complain.

But the idea actually is commune. OK. And so if you're going to commune with the precepts, as we talked about before, these are these beautiful, beautiful concepts of actually love, like love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. And when you look deeply into that and you begin to meditate on that.

You go, huh? That's interesting that if to meditate is to talk. Think how often you get a chance to talk about God. Like if you're with me for a week, you'd be shocked at all the different groups the Lord has given me an opportunity to go be with. So I have a Tuesday night men's group that we call the Band of Brothers that we do the masculine journey together. And we've met together for years and years and years. And I have a Thursday morning group I meet with that is used to be called Christian Business Men's Committee.

But it's long since maybe 25 years ago changed into we had men and women in that group. And it's absolutely beautiful thing. And then I have, you know, clearly all the people I meet with here, you know, with the Truth Network. But I also have a devotion at a nursing home every Thursday morning. And then I have my Sunday school class, which is a special needs class, and I get to meet with them and I get to meet with all those teachers. And so as you begin to think about all these different places, you talk about God's word. So if you if you are studying something, I'll bet you anything you start in all those groups that you belong to.

Especially if they are godly groups like these. You begin to talk about that which you're studying and what you begin to learn and you get other people's insight as well as a deeper understanding of your own. Because as you begin to explain it to them, sometimes your own verbal processing ability will help you to understand, oh, as you're explaining it to them, something light comes on as you begin to do that, even when I'm teaching here with you guys. And so if to meditate is to talk, wow, it's an absolutely amazing thing. So what are we meditating on?

What are we talking about? Well, these precepts. And these are the ones that have to do with love. Well, isn't that interesting that we are going to talk with this idea of communing, right? This precept is so much has to do with community. And so it's kind of cool that the actual verse, as we talk about it, we're doing it right this very minute, right? We're communing with one another. Well, it kind of takes me back to, like, as I have communed and talked about those precepts, then you get the back part of the verse.

And again, the words are translated interestingly. It says, I'll have respect for all thy ways. Well, the idea there is not the Derek ways. It has to do with the past or kind of what would Jesus do the way he does things or, you know, which way does he walk and what would he do? Well, I guarantee you he would be walking with a bunch of people because people are the kingdom. And so as we get back to the basic idea that we've been discussing throughout this bet section is we're building a house. And I think this is a good time to lay down the foundation that the house that God is building is the kingdom. OK. And here he's telling you the way to build the kingdom is through community.

Right. It's through those groups because when you think about heaven, I'm not excited to go to heaven. I mean, yeah, I want gold streets and rivers and all that stuff. But what I really want are all the people that are there. And most of all, what I want to do is commune with God who's there. And I want to come in with my friends and God.

I mean, this is in my family and all these things. And it has to do with you might remember. And I love this love this love. When I was a little kid, they said this is the church.

Right. And you hold your up your hands like there's a little steeple and there's a steeple and you open it up and what you see all the people. Well, actually, when you open it up and you see all the people, that is the church. I mean, I'll put your fingers together if you're not driving right now and just wiggle them and go, oh, OK. Yeah, that's the church. That is the kingdom.

And so if we're going to build this house, we are going to build it in community. And the precept is right. Has to do with love. How does God do that?

You know, he does it. Love is a verb and which has to do with understanding. Right. If you go about loving people, then. Oh, my goodness.

It builds a kingdom. Let me tell you a story. So when I had finished my last chemotherapy treatment, my wife and I went to celebrate in the mountains of North Carolina in a Jeep Jamboree, as you might imagine, with a Christian car guy. And the last day of the event, the person that was behind us, we had all stopped on a hill in order to unlock our hubs, because back in those days, everybody's jeeps had locking hubs. So we stopped over on the side of the road before we got back on the highway to turn our hubs off so that we wouldn't tear up our axles. Well, the person behind me failed to put his jeep in park or put on his emergency brake. And so as I got out of my jeep to do that, my son wanted a root beer. I went to the back of my jeep and then I heard the crackling of tires behind me and this other jeep came down and crushed me between the two jeeps, which almost took off my left leg. And I won't go into a lot of details, but I will tell you this. It all resulted in an ambulance ride that I arrived at the hospital in Winston-Salem about one in the morning.

And I just had chemotherapy, so I was not in the best shape to begin. So as I am arriving all of a sudden, because my wife had told our Sunday school class what had happened, we look up and there are literally over 100 people waiting on us as we are, you know, getting out of the ambulance there. And they're all from our Sunday school class.

OK, this was our community, right? They were loving on me. And here's how it worked, that the girl that was waiting on me there, you know, in the emergency room, she said, what in the world are all these people here with you? And I said, oh, that's my Sunday school class from church. And she goes, what? Do you go to Calvary Baptist Church? And I said, yeah.

And she goes, that's what I thought, because when one of you guys show up here, you bring a crowd. I've never forgotten that testimony. And the idea is that which Jesus taught in Mark Chapter 10, right? And Mark Chapter 10, these are some of my favorite verses, and I want you to process them with me, because the whole idea of this is we're digging for mothers in this particular verse. And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there's no man that has left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold, now in this time, houses, brethren, sisters and mothers and children and lands and persecutions and in the world to come eternal life. In other words, you are going to get a hundred mothers, and I don't know if you've ever thought about just stopping and counting, like all the groups that God has allowed you to commune with that are in your church.

And again, when I think of my nursing home friends that I do that with and I think about all the different Bible studies that I get to go commune with these people and talk about precepts and I get to do this and my son. Oh, my, yes, I have way and I have all you. Right. I have way more than a hundred mothers.

I have way more than a hundred brothers and sisters. And as you commune and in other words, what David is sharing here is actually the basic principle that behind discipleship. Right.

That if you could just go to work today and start talking about God with somebody. Right. They begin to perk up their interest perks, they see God, they feel God, you're actually meditating on God with that person and you are loving on that person because as you bring God up in any way, shape or form.

Right. They go, oh, I hadn't thought about that. So they pull out their Bible and they begin to look and they begin to commune more on that particular. And the next thing you know, they get hungry and thirsty because what's a disciple? A disciple is somebody who is learning, who loves to learn about God. Well, if these are the people that are talking about God in your Bible study and and the friends that you've met at work that have similar interests. And when you know that person, that man, all every time you talk to them, they want to talk about some passage or something they just learn.

These are the disciples, the excellent ones on all the earth that David said, you know, in Psalm 16 and them, I'm completely delighted because these people, they are searching after God. So here we got four words that says, I will meditate on your precepts. And I will see your ways, in other words, as you meditate. Talk about, of course, you talk about it with yourself, you talk about it with everybody, you know, as you do that with precepts, guess what happens? You are building the kingdom.

It is the ultimate house. I mean, this is the seventh verse in the bet section. And here David gives you a whopper that says, OK, do this one. Do this one and you're going to build the kingdom, right?

Do this one and you're going to fulfill the Great Commission. If you will talk about loving the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. Every opportunity that you have, I can assure you that you will see God's ways. I mean, that's what it says, that I'm going to see his past.

If you go about talking about that, it's clear that you're going to see his past and you're going to love on other people. And you'll be there someday when somebody needs you there at the emergency room or you'll be there someday to pray for that friend in need. And you'll be there because you were you're you're doing life with them. You're in their community. You know, open up that church, wiggle your fingers one more time and get a sense of, man, it's that communion, that talking. That is how they will know that you're his disciples. Right. When you love one another. Let's be digging for mothers today. On the 119th Psalm.