Psalms 119: Review - What's A Staute - What's A Judgement

So, today on Bible Wonders, I felt God leading me back to circle around in this review of going back to where we started, which is, you know, to define these words that are repeated over and over and over again. And very specifically, today, I want to talk about, I felt the Lord leading me to discuss, you know, what in the world are these words, commandments, judgments, statutes, and precepts, those particular four words that are repeated over and over and over again. And when I really intellectually think about those words, not exactly sure what they mean. I mean, I think I know what they mean. And I certainly have studied it and thought about it and prayed about it. And but I keep coming back and the beautiful thing of it is, is it just continues to be a discovery.

I guess it gets back to that childlike heart. Like, I'm not exactly sure what a statute is, but I think I have a whole lot better grip on it than I did 200 episodes ago. I'm not exactly sure what a precept is, but I feel like I got a whole lot better grip than I did 200 episodes ago. And we continue to discover and discover what the psalmist meant, which he understood.

Maybe, I don't know, but certainly a lot better than I did. And so as we study these things, I think it's very interesting to note, I really do think it's interesting to note, not just what he said, but what he did not say in the 119 Psalm. And most specifically today, I want to hone in on the idea of statutes and judgments. I think that we can tell that when he talks about commandments, which in Hebrew is mitzvah, that actually statutes and judgments and precepts kind of fit into those as a category of mitzvah or of commandments.

But certainly, you know, within that, you know, what exactly is this idea of a statute, which we know in Hebrew is a hukam, and what exactly is a judgment, which in Hebrew has this idea of misbut. So as we dig into that idea, you know, what I was saying a minute ago is that it's interesting what he did not say, because as we go through the whole, you know, 119 Psalm, I find it absolutely fascinating that he talks about give me understanding about commandments. He talks about give me understanding about precepts. He talks about give me understanding about the law and about my way, but he never asks to be given understanding when it comes to either judgments or statutes. And interestingly, most of the time, he will mention the word statutes before he mentions judgments. And the other thing that you'll note is how many times that he asks in both statutes and judgments to be taught. In other words, there rather than asking for understanding, he says, teach me your statutes. And at one point, he says, teach me your judgments. But in another point, he says, give me good judgment and knowledge for I believe your commandments. So, you know, the idea there is interesting to me that he never says give me understanding, like he does with testimonies and like he does with commandments.

And so apparently, these don't necessarily have the same elements to them. And so what takes us back to this passage that I think is key to understanding what statutes and judgments are, it's in Exodus 15, specifically 25 and 26, as far as the verses, and I'm just going to read them out loud and then want to talk about them for a few minutes, because I think it's really critical to the understanding of the idea of what is a statute, and what is a judgment. And so as we pray these things and talk about them, I think it's critical that we actually know what they are.

And it would be good that you know, it's just made obvious, but as the more I studied it, the more I realized it's the joy of discovery when it comes to these. So they're talking about Moses, and they had been in the desert, and they were very thirsty. And Moses cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance.

And there he proved them. Well, it's translated ordinance there. But actually, when you look at it, he made for them a statute and a judgment, because that word ordinance there is the mispat, which is that idea of judgment. So there, he made for them a statute and a judgment, and there he proved them. And right after that, it says, and I think this is where he actually gives us the statute and the judgment to go with it, which shows you the connection.

Quite often, there seems to be between a statute and a judgment, kind of like the connection between wisdom and understanding. So here we have verse 26, and said, If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in thy sight, and will give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought unto the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. In fact, this is the whole Lord that healeth the Jehovah Rapha, which is critical to the understanding of the thing I'm going to get to in a second. But it's so it only disappears that he's going to give us the statute first, which makes sense that we will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord. And then the judgment would be, and then do what's right in his sight. Well, that really is beyond cool to think that this is beyond just what is in his written word, right? That if we will diligently hearken unto the word of the Lord, if we will diligently hearken unto his voice is what it says, and if we will do what is right in his sight, that's good.

That is keeping a statute and a judgment. And then we get Jehovah Rapha, which we'll get to in a minute, which is really, really cool when you see how that connects to the 119 Psalm. It's beyond cool. But the idea that I think is fascinating here is time and time again, the psalmist says, teach me your statutes. Well, what did the disciples ask Jesus? Teach us to pray.

Why? So they could hear the voice of I mean, they can't think about it. We want to pray, obviously, so that God will know what's going on. But the real idea is that we can hear from God and get some sense of what's going on to get his interpretation of our life, and so that we can get good judgment, right? So that we can see the direction to go.

And so this seems to me to be broader than I had perceived earlier. That the idea is if we can hearken unto his voice, and then do what is right, which, you know, I've been taught all that all my life, you know, just do what's right. Well, in order to know what's right, right, we need to hearken unto the Lord's voice, which clearly is all through the Bible.

And I think we need to know that. But sometimes we need to pray. And like, but like the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. And I think that's a significant thing that they asked to be taught this, like any child, like, teach me this, Lord. Now, the thing that's just spectacular.

When I did this, I was like, Oh, my gosh, look at that. So when you look at the word, Rafa, which is obviously we know, Helethi, and you do that with my little idea on 119th Psalm to take the miracle verses and spell that out. Well, let me just give you the last letter in the word Rafa, and then we'll back up from there.

Because to me, it's just like, whoa, I'm going to give you the ice cream before I'm going to give you the dessert before I give you the food. But anyway, the last letter in the word Rafa is an aleph. And you might remember the miracle verse, which didn't seem to make much sense to me at the time. And I don't know that makes sense to me yet, but it sort of fits in with this. The miracle verse in the aleph section is, I will keep your statutes. Oh, forsake me, not utterly.

Remember? Well, what did he just tell him? That if he'll keep his statutes and his ordinance, he's not going to put any of those diseases on him. In other words, as we learn these statutes, and we obviously use the judgment, you know, then we are getting healed.

You know, we're getting that miracle, that as we do his statutes, right, he will not forsake us utterly. So if we go back to the first letter, which is a reish in the word Rafa, you can hear that R sound. And so you might remember in the miracle verse, which fits perfectly with this, by the way, it says, the beginning of thy word is truth, or thy word is the true in the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.

Like, how cool is that? That's the beginning letter of the word Rafa, or the God that healeth thee, right? And then the second letter in the word Rafa, that you can hear that P sound, or that P-H sound, and that's because it's a pay. And you might remember that the miracle verse in the letter pay, and you might remember that the miracle verse in the letter pay is that rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. And the idea of that pay is literally the mouth, or the face of God, his presence, and his presence speaking. So as God's, you know, if you think about this, the idea of the letter reish is God chooses to speak to us as the Father, you know, that's how we're going to get healed. I mean, that's just the idea of the Lord that healeth thee. And so when you think about that in your own life, I mean, it's just spectacular to me. It's spectacular that if we will keep these statutes, in other words, we'll hearken unto the voice of the Lord, and then we'll do what's right, then man, the Lord will heal with thee. Isn't that spectacular? So I thought you'd enjoy that review today of the idea of statutes and judgments. And again, I'm going to tell you, I don't know exactly what these things mean, but it is so fun to keep digging into it. Thanks for listening.