Psalms 119:172 - The Proof Of The Pudding

This is the Truth Network. I may have a new definition, easy definition of my own mind for the letter tav. If we talked about it's the last letter in the word truth in so many ways, we're gonna know the truth in the end. And as we've talked about many times, actually the fourth verse in every section kind of gives us the definition and certainly the might anointing for the letter. And so when I get that on the letter tav, it's kind of like the proof the pudding will be in the eating or as Jesus said, you'll know they're my commandments when they love one another, right? Or you'll know they're my disciples, excuse me, when they love one another.

That's more along the idea of at the end, you're gonna know what the truth is. And so clearly as we see what this verse has to say, I think you'll see the proof of the pudding is definitely in the eating in this one. So verse 172 in the English says, my tongue shall speak of thy word for all thy commandments, our righteousness. And so the idea of speak is the word that begins with a tav here in this particular verse, because you know the first word in every verse starts with that particular letter. And that idea of shall speak has to do with as a result of something, right? That again, the proof of the pudding of my tongue is going to be in how all these commandments are righteousness.

That's kind of what is said here. But the interesting thing, and again, we've talked about it many times, David being a psalmist and him being a shepherd, you can imagine that him being the Torah scholar that he was and being a shepherd, there were things in the Torah that actually stuck out to him and it's pretty clear to me that if you look in Genesis 30, that there is this story that I believe that this particular line in the Psalm is going after, because Jacob actually makes reference to these, several of these words in this one particular verse that I'll show in the show notes. But if you might remember in the story of, and you might wonder how in the world does this have to do with this verse?

Well, it has everything to do with the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. And you might remember that Jacob was getting messed around by Laban, his brother-in-law, excuse me, his father-in-law first over the price of the brides and what his wages were gonna be. Well, near the end here in Genesis 30, 15 of their relationship, Jacob goes to him and makes him a deal about the spotted and the striped sheep and goats, you might remember. And the reason that King David is this as an expression of what he's talking about is Jacob says that my righteousness is gonna be obvious by the sheep and goats that I have.

In other words, if you see my sheep and goats are spotted and striped, they're obviously not your goats. And part of the deal that would be the proof of the pudding would be in the goats that you're actually seeing are gonna be spotted and striped, which this story is absolutely beautiful because it has a lot to do with righteousness. I guess what did Jacob put in the troughs of the water in order to get the sheep that he wanted, which were the spotted and the striped were sticks, right?

Sticks or pieces of wood or tree as the case may be of almonds and poplars and willows. And interestingly, Ken Ham, and I'm gonna put it in the show notes, does a beautiful job of giving you all the science that's behind why that would have made a wonderful tea for breeding sheep for them to drink, but also, God's help in selecting the ones that were spotted and striped. And again, this story has all sorts of science behind it and it's very, very cool if you read what Ken Ham in Answers in Genesis writes about why this all happens. But if you just picture that in the Bible time and time again, trees have to do with righteousness, right? That obviously the ark was made out of a tree, you know, the ark of the covenant was made out of wood, you know, all the sacrifices were burned on wood and clearly Jesus ended up on the cross. And the idea of these trees being put into the water, you know, it gives you this picture that God is always painting of Jesus and making things right, which he's gonna make the situation between Laban and Jacob right as far as his wages through this idea of putting these sticks in the water.

Really a beautiful picture in so many different ways. But again, it speaks to what King David is saying, that my lips, you know, excuse me, that my tongue, the last verse was my lips were gonna out of praise. Well, in this case, my tongue shall speak of thy word for all thy commandments are righteousness. So, you know, James obviously talks about how difficult it is to contain the tongue.

And again, Jacob just did what he was told to do in a dream as far as cutting those sticks and all that. But the idea is we do what we can do to keep the commandments, but it's gonna be up to God to control our tongues. But it's so beautiful that when you think about, you know, that people will tell of, again, how you are doing as far as keeping the commandments of loving your neighbor as yourself and loving the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength and all those things as a result of how your tongue is. And so, you know, I can't help but think in the Masculine Journey radio show time and again, you know, we have men that contact us that wanna be part of the group because, you know, they see the fruit of disciples that love one another. They hear the voices of men that are, you know, having a good time and fellowshiping and being in community and helping each other heal and grow closer to God. And again, it's the fruit of, just like there was the fruit of the spotted and the sheep goats as they looked upon the branches, you know, as we look upon Christ, our fruit gets better.

And again, it's cool because from my standpoint, it's really cool. My tongue will speak of thy word, right? That here again, our tongue as it begins to speak the word shows the proof of the pudding, so to speak. So as we think about this letter, Toph, and what the Psalm is teaching here is that as we immerse ourselves in his word and in his commandments and in essentially just being a disciple and loving one another, you know, the fruit of that is gonna be absolutely wonderful for the tasting.