Pslam 119:65 - Good Grief

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Song.

Oh my goodness, the nuggets that we get to mine today. I still feel worthy of sharing some of the stuff that's in the verse 22. I'm almost waited to be able to share this verse with you for the whole thing. It's like Easter morning here for King David, I can assure you, in oh so many ways.

The somewhat sad news is that so many people don't see this, and it's really sad that the Jews don't see it themselves. Because you have to, I guess, know the New Testament in order to appreciate all that's in this particular verse. But it was certainly Easter morning for King David in verse 22. So the way that the verse reads, sadly in my opinion, in the King James Version is, Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have guarded thy testimonies. So again, this thing, the very first word in this verse is gal, which it means wheel, but it's very, very, very cool. It's like a lesson in understanding the Bible and that the first word that you find, the first place you find this word in the Bible is always like a dictionary for what the word means. And this particular word is one of the most beautiful words in the Bible. I think you'll agree with me that it's definitely an Easter morning word because it actually means to roll.

So the first place you find this word is in Genesis 39 when Jacob is on his way to meet his future bride, Rebecca. And in order to water the sheep, they have to roll away the stone. And so you can't miss this, that, you know, the water for the sheep comes as a result of rolling away the stone.

OK, so this is a clear, clear, clear picture of Jesus. It couldn't be more clear that Genesis 39 is a picture of the stone being rolled away so that we can water the sheep. OK, the next place we find this word or not the very next place, but one of the very ones that I know that King David was quoting when he used the word was in Joshua 5 9. Very, very key verse, because here God is going to tell the Jews that he is going to roll away their reproach. OK, so when when King David uses this word, this girl, which starts with a gimel, right, as we're talking about, this is the gimel section.

And here's the really beautiful part of right. How great is our God? Well, you realize that the word great is that letter, that gimel, that because that's the idea of the rich man running after the poor man. Well, how great is it that he rolled away that stone to take away our reproach? Now, when I first heard that word reproach, it kind of stunned me because I didn't really know what it meant.

So I went and got a dictionary. And when I looked for the English translation of the word reproach, it said that it was the look of disappointment on someone's face. So immediately I thought of my father and an agreement that I had made years ago that I was a disappointment to my father, not because of anything he'd ever said, but just the look on his face at times, like when I would bring my report card home and things like that.

And so the word reproach, I was like, oh, this is a major agreement I broke in my life that I'm not a disappointment to my father. OK, and so that that stone being rolled away, that the tomb was empty, you see rolls away like look inside. That reproach is gone.

It's been rolled away. OK, there that tomb is empty. Jesus came out of there and the and your reproach, your disappointment to your father and your heavenly father was rolled away.

Right. Is that just to say it's the Easter morning sermon, just the first two were the way my reproach. Now, getting back to what we said yesterday, right, that you see the connection between verse twenty one and twenty two, because in verse twenty one, right, he's talking about rebuke the proud, cursed. Well, here we have the next very next verse. He says, roll away my. And in other words, he's taken that. How could that not be connected to the previous verse that he was being reviewed? And now he wants to roll away his reproach. And then the next word that's translated in English, contempt. I once again, to me, is a lesson in going back to the first place you find this word in the Bible.

And and I think Alan Wright's going to love this word when he hears it, if he may have already known this. But that word that is translated there, contempt, the first place you find that in the Bible, it's translated shame because what had happened was you may remember the incident with the incident with Judah and Tamar, his daughter in law, where she dressed up as a harlot and he gave her a goat. Right. And he was supposed to or he was supposed to replace. I mean, he gave her a signet ring in his staff and he was supposed to replace it with a goat. And when the man went to go give her the goat, he couldn't find her because she wasn't really a prostitute. And Judah said to his servant, you know, don't worry about it.

We'll just let her keep the staff and the significant because otherwise we will be shamed. OK. And that's the word that King David used. And it has to do with the sexual sin here. And when you think about King David, this is a critical thing that he wants rolled away from him.

Right. He wants rolled away the reproach, the disappointment in his father's face. And he wants that shame going away so that that tomb that is rolled away. Now, another beautiful thing about that world word gal there that I don't want anybody to miss is that where that took place, where we're where David is quoting this from. When Joshua five nine, they played, they called that town Gilgal.

Right. Because it was a place that had quarries where they made these round stones that they could roll away. But it also was the place where God rolled away the shame and reproach of Israel.

And I won't rob anybody of the study of just go study what all's happened in Gilgal. And and the fact that the twelve stones of the tribe of Israel all there. I mean, there's so much in this verse is just absolutely incredible. Just an Easter passage for anybody that wants to preach it.

OK. And then it says, OK, roll away my. In this case, reproach, the disappointment on my father's face and my shame, for I have guarded your testimonies. It actually says I have kept your testimonies. But again, if you go back and you look at this word, it's not the same word as keep is used throughout, which is Samar, which is has to do with hearing and obeying.

This word is literally. A guard, but it is also the word that Isaiah used for the righteous branch that would come out. So this Netzer, this idea of a branch.

Well, you think about what Jesus told us, right? I am the vine and you are the what? And so here David is saying, I'm a I'm a branch. And this is not just any old branch. This is a righteous branch, because the middle letter in this is a Zadik. OK. And it starts with a nun, which does have to do with green and verdant. OK. And so here's this green branch. Right.

Because I have been a green branch. That means I'm connected to the vine and guarding is what is testimonies, which are remembrances. In other words, this is somebody who's in communion, taking communion, been baptized. And this is this is an Easter sermon right here. OK. And if you don't see Jesus in this verse, I mean, you're really missing out. So, again, I don't want to rob anybody of the joy of just go study these words. Right. Just go back to this verse 22 in Psalm 119 and look at that word that is translated take away or whatever.

It is rolled away. OK. Look at the word that that is used to guard, which is translated branch Netzer in other places. I know that the grammar may be different, the little dots that are underneath the letters or whatever, but understand that those were all added after Babylon.

And so the original way that that was written, when God wrote the word and when Isaiah wrote the word, however you want to put it, and when David wrote the word. All right. You can say that it's Netzer.

OK, which means branch. You can't get away. I know went a little long on this one and I still don't feel like I've come close to plumbing the depths that are actually able to be mined in this verse. But again, I hope you've enjoyed today looking at these nuggets of rolling away our reproach, our disappointment and rolling away our shame so that we can be a righteous branch guarding those testimonies. Thank you for listening.