Psalms 119:132 The Blessing of His Name

This is the Truth Network. Hidden treasures of the 119th Psalm. Oh, the power we get to experience in the might verse or the fourth verse of the pay section. We get to do that today on our continual digging around in the 119th Psalm. And then we're talking about the letter pay because these are the eight verses that have to do with that letter. And that letter in Hebrew has to do with God's presence, very much his face and really, really cool when we look at the might of that is just unbelievable.

And, you know, if you are familiar with the Numbers chapter six blessing, the Aaronic blessing is what they call it, you know, that just listen to this in in relation to that. So here's the fourth verse. It says, Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou used to do under those that love thy name. Now, my view of this is that's a really bad translation. So let me read it to you in a way that I think makes more sense. Because there's some critical aspects of it that you got to see in order to see the full power of the verse, in my view, because when he says, Look upon me and be merciful, the word that they translated for whatever reason, mercy here is normally translated gracious.

Okay. And so when you say, you know, May the Lord, you know, turn his face upon you and be gracious. That's that's exactly where the word that that King David used when he wrote this. And so why they didn't translate it that way.

I have no idea. But it's clearly that word. It's the word for for grace. It's the word that, you know, where Noah found favor in his in his father's eyes because he was looking for it. And there's a big connection between Noah's name and the word grace.

And there's a big connection between grace itself and name. And, you know, as I was studying this verse, I couldn't help but note that it's like really, really cool. The end of the Aaronic blessing that very few people ever quote. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard anybody quote it when they were quoting the Aaronic blessing. But the verse right after that.

Well, if you look at it, here's what it says. We'll just do the blessing first. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them. So you see the connection here to God's name.

This is really, really cool. You know, you'd have a name, the Yahweh name that that is so spectacular. And what he's saying is, is God turns his face upon you. He puts his name upon you. Right.

And they shall put. In other words, when they're doing this blessing, as God is turning his face upon you, he's putting his name on you. And that's why you're called Christians.

Right. You're in Christ. Or this is why these these the the whole idea of being God's children is what's going on here. And that's part of the blessing is that when he turns his face to you, you're his child. He's being himself. He's it's coming back to what he originally designed for you. And so when you see the power of this and I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's it's certainly taught that that when God turns his face towards you.

Right. It's bringing a blessing. But when he turns his face away from you, it's bringing a curse.

In other words, he's he's allowing whatever happened to happen so that you can get to the point where he would turn his face back to you. So I want I want you to see how the Bible just comes together right here. The power of this versus is incredible because, you know, the whole idea of one hundred nineteen Psalm is that we would get a look at the different facets of God's face based on these different expressions in Hebrew, the twenty two Hebrew letters. And so here we come to this verse, which just kind of like a crescendo to me.

This is like, man, this is what we've been looking for right here is the face of God. And so, you know, the whole idea of Noah found favor in his father's eyes. Well, the only way you could find favor in his father's eyes is if his father had turned his face right to him and his name. Noah is grace spelled backwards and grace has everything to do with favor. And so you see this, that when you favor something, you know its name, you call it by name. I've taught that for years on The Christian Car Guy Show, those people who really love their cars, they always name them. And you think about all the pet names that you have for people that you love.

And it has to do with favor and it has to do with turning your face. And God named all these people based on his favor of them, you know, that they're his favorite. And so you can see that by God putting his name on you like this is gigantic.

This is huge. And, you know, if you think about the story of the prodigal son, because this is where this is what we're really hoping for, right? That here here is this boy that he's on the pig, you know, pen and whatever. And he's turned so far away from his father.

You know, it's unbelievable. But now he turns his face back towards his father saying, you know, his servants live better than I do. And he decides to go back and repent. And as he turns his face back towards the father, of course, this loving father, you know, comes, puts his signet ring, which, by the way, is his name on it. And he puts the robe on him. In other words, all these things have to do with identity and all these things have to do with favor.

And he kills the fatted calf. You can see the blessing that the father puts on the prodigal son. This is the opportunity for all of us, not just, you know, the one time we turned to Christ when we originally were saved, but every single moment of every single day, we have an opportunity for this particular verse. Now, the other aspect of this verse that is a bit confusing that, again, when I look at my own translation of it, it's significantly different, is when, you know, that whole idea of thou used to do for those who love your name. Well, that isn't the way that it reads, actually, in Hebrew, even close.

I don't know how to put it. But the word that he uses, which is very consistent with the words that he used throughout this whole psalm, is the word that we talk about constantly. You know, it's one of the 10 words. It's the word judgment. And the idea of this refining. And so when he says, look upon me graciously, as per your judgment, in other words, as per the way you're refining me for good, look upon me graciously and be refining me for good. Like those who love your name is actually a better way to translate that. And so that's another just little aspect to this verse when you look at it in Hebrew that unlocks more of the power of it, in my opinion.

So I know I get all excited, but it's just beyond cool to me. And so as you think about this verse, you know, when was it in your life that you knew that he was just blessing your socks off? He turned his face upon you. Well, I've told you before about the time that I actually started to see his face, and I don't know if you've ever or if I've ever mentioned the timeline, but nearly like three. I was just in a season there where I was just getting a chance to see his face constantly and in my own way. And within three weeks of that event, of the night, you know, where I got a chance to repent and write all those things down.

I think I've told that story a couple of times during this hundred and fifty some odd episodes of the hundred nineteen song. But within three weeks of that, as I recall, is when he called me to do the Christian car guy show and like, which was totally his idea. I never would have dreamed in a million years I was a car salesman.

I would never want to be on the radio. And he gave me that very clearly. This is what I want you to be. He gave me the name, the Christian car guy show. He gave me the original logo, which looked like a fish with wheels.

In other words, the whole thing was his idea. What a blessing. I mean, to walk into what God did when he gave me this calling to be the Christian car guy, which, again, if all that went away tomorrow, I still had the relationship, all the joy and all the different times that we've been together doing so many different things since the day he called me and blessed me and turned his face towards me. And Sarah, I'll be here.

We're going to go on this adventure. It's going to be the Christian car guy show. And it happened right in that same season within a few days. And when I think about even this weekend, right, as I had listeners. Oh, man, listeners were calling me and so excited about things within the show and single moms and widows that have things that that are going on that I get to see. And I see listeners that are praying for single moms and widows. And I saw gifts come in for the for the Jesus labor love.

And I just think, oh, my goodness, God, you know, how much fruit have you provided? Through the way that you bless me, turn your face to me. And so as we get a chance to pray this verse. Oh, my goodness.

Right. I just want to say it one more time in my translation. That we could ask Lord for this.

I mean, how amazingly fun we get to do this. So if I were to translate this verse, this is how I would actually go about translating it. And we'll say it sort of like in a prayer for all of us all the same time.

What do you think? So here again is verse 132. And it is the fourth or the might or the power verse of the pay section. And here's my translation. Look upon me graciously as your good judgment is for those who love your name. And may God bless us all right by turning his face upon us and by placing his name on us.