Psalms 119:108 -The Might of Faith

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Song. So today we get to do the might anointing of the letter Nun. And so just as thinking about that concept, we're talking about the anointings that Jesus gets, literally every letter will get based on because every letter is Jesus. Isaiah 11 shows wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord and delight in the fear of the Lord. So that's always the seven of the eight verses with the eighth verse being the miracle verse.

So that lands us on might today. So what is the might of the letter Nun? And boy does this verse mighty and you'll also find just a ton of nuns in the verse. So clearly the psalmist understood some things about this that are really remarkable in my opinion.

And I think you will agree with me at the end of this discussion that there is a tremendous amount of might in these words. So to read verse 108 in the Nun section, again, maybe I should say before that, that the Nun is the letter that I guess is called Paleo-Hebrew in the old, old version that they used in the days of David Amalek or King David. They used it for common use. It was my understanding that the square Hebrew letters that we see today were the ones when they were writing something of the Torah, but for common use, they use this other and the Nun was a seed. And when you look at the regular Nun that's in the square version, you can see that as well. And the idea of faith is very much there. And the idea of the soul because the soul is in the fetch and the Hebrew sages of years have taught. And I think this is important to understand in my opinion is that your soul is a faith machine.

In other words, it runs on faith, which makes sense that the Nun would be a seed and that the soul would be the Nefesh. And so we see all these things. And I'm sure that you can see the might of faith is pretty substantial. And so as we look at this particular verse, I'm sure you can see that all over it. So the way it reads in English again is except I beseech thee the free will offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments. Now, a really cool thing about this verse.

Number one, you can tell the formats a bit different than any other verse that I see in the Psalm. And also it is the verse that the Jews repeat right before on Rosh Hashanah, they blow the shofar and they will recite this verse if you know, I might put it in my show notes for that show the different blessings that they do before they blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. But this is the one that they do right before that because they're looking for that might there. They're pleading with God to accept their prayers, essentially their faith. And so it's really cool. And they also teach that this is a quid pro quo. I guess that's the way you say that. I'm not sure, but it's like it's making a deal with God. I'm going to do this for you if you will do this for me. And the idea is a very interesting one, something you've got to be very careful with, from what I understand.

If you've ever done it, you'll know what I'm talking about. But we're talking about vows. And apparently vows are important to your soul. Based on what we see throughout the nun section, we see that vows are all over this where he might remember in the second verse, he swore. Well, here he's making essentially a vow. And the Jews compare this to Hannah's prayer, where, you know, Hannah said, Lord, if you'll give me a man child, if you go back to First Samuel one, you'll see where she prayed and she made a deal with God.

If you give me a man child, I am going to give him back to you is essentially the deal. And here, you know, it's kind of cool that King David does the same kind of thing. He makes a deal with God, but it's for God as well as with God.

So except this month, you know, I'm going to give you these freewill offerings in my mouth, so that you will teach me thy judgment. So hopefully, you know, he can continue to grow in that relationship with God through those judgments, as again, we talked about in Deuteronomy, for one, that this idea of living from a standpoint of being connected to God and relationship has just a whole lot to do with this idea of judgments. It has a whole lot to do with real life. Real life is being connected to God. And so as you think about this, have you ever met a deal with God, you know, and it's interesting how that happens that I, you know, as I was talking about yesterday, that when I was afflicted from, you know, I had this friend and I've told the story before that he was dying of pancreatic cancer, actually. And I had never witnessed to him. And so when the doctors told us that he was dying, I actually went out and I made this deal with God. And I, I did it. You know, I didn't premeditated ago, I need to go make a deal with God.

That isn't how it happened. I just remember praying. I was, I was so heartbroken that Johnny might die, not knowing Christ. When I found out that, you know, here, I'd worked with this man for years and did not know where he stood. And when I found out that he, his, his own wife and his best friend didn't know I was afflicted.

I was like, how could I, how could I be? So I went out and heartfelt made a deal with God, that I basically said, God, if you will give Johnny more time, I promise, I promise that I will either introduce him to you or help him to get to know you better. So, you know, I didn't, again, that wasn't, you know, I'm just praying. I'm just praying what was in my heart. And interestingly, it was, I was making a deal with God.

I hadn't really thought about it until I actually heard, Mendel Cohen is this unbelievable Jewish rabbi that I often listen to. And when he, he explains this, he explains it beautifully and, and talks about how the vow works when it, when it comes to your soul. And there's a really neat thing that I also want to mention about this verse when you look at it in Hebrew, is that word beseech thee, that it's like saying, please, please, God, please, which is kind of where I was when I was praying for Johnny that time, like, please. And that word, you might remember, we talked about in the MEM section that the word, how this X, you know, this, this interrogative pronoun pronoun of like the big questions was ma, which was a MEM and an aleph, which is ma, which is interestingly, you find that same ma, just going to make that note when it says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Well, that's that ma right there. Okay. It's a big interrogative pronoun. Well, the word nah, in other words, if you take a nun and you put an aleph after it, then you have this, that's beseech. It's like, please nah. And it's like, your soul is saying father.

Okay. Because you got the nafesh sitting next to the aleph, which is normally the father. So you, you get this idea of father, please, please. Um, and, and here the psalmist is making this wonderful faith. I mean, the, think of the power of this, that they're, what they're, the Jews clearly see that it's powerful. That's why they are saying it right before they blow the chauffeur on Rosh Hashanah, the day of their Jewish new year.

I mean, this is a big deal. They're asking for God and they're pleading and they're saying, if you'll do this, then, then teach us your judgments. It's, it's, it's absolutely spectacularly powerful. And, um, uh, I hope as you just study, look at this word, this verse, I hope you're like me and you, and you've begun to memorize this song because as I go through this, right, you might go, okay, except I beseech thee the freewill offerings of my mouth. What are the freewill offerings of the psalmist's mouth? Well, you got 107 verses that you said before you say this one, right? And so it's kind of cool that you get here and now you're, you're, you're asking father, please, all these things I've been saying 106 verses before this, accept them as the freewill and teach me, teach me those judgments that I might live with you. You know, it's just, it's just a beautiful thought. And I really love this verse. And of course, I guess my soul it helped us to relate to the faith that's involved with what the psalmist writes here. And so I hope you enjoy this first today on the 119th Psalm.