Psalms 119:88- Eye Witness - Loving Kindness

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm. Well, I hope like me today you're excited for the miracle verse.

We all could use a miracle, right? And verse 88 of the 119th Psalm is the eighth verse in the hoof section or the desire section of the 119th Psalm. And so really, really cool when you think about the ultimate desire that is just fascinating that the psalmist has been talking about his enemies, his enemies and enemies for several verses.

And now he comes to this one, which gives you the ultimate desire of what he's really trying to do. And so let's go ahead and read it in English. It says, quicken me after thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. So that word loving kindness, you might guess is the word chesed is like in the 23rd Psalm where surely, you know, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That word mercy is that loving kindness, that same chesed that's beautifully in the 13th Psalm where it says, you know, I love that verse where it says, but I have trusted in the Lord's chesed, and in my heart I will rejoice in your Yeshua, your salvation. And so, you know, this gives us this idea of like, quicken me, make me come alive in this loving kindness that is so much a part of God. And what a desire this is, right? That you love one another. I mean, that's what Jesus gave us.

It's this desire, right, that you love one another. And so like the king that he was, he was wanting to be quickened after this loving this loving kindness, but then note how he does it. And so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. And so here is another amazing part of the miracle part of the, you know, since the eighth verse, and we've talked about before that you got the seven anointings, and then this on the eighth day is when the miracles happen. And here we see this idea of testimony, where you might remember an axe that says you're going to receive power to be my witness, and the power of your testimony. And so the idea is that it's through your testimony that you really show loving kindness in power, in miracle force, in so many different ways.

And so how does this look practically? And so I'll never forget when I was given this opportunity. I've talked about it throughout this set of verses on the hoof of when my office manager, you know, chose to not pay our payroll taxes, and somehow or another a bunch of money got gone, and all these different things happened. And and as it happened, that I got a call from the State Department of Revenue the day that she was going to be sentenced. And they asked that I would appear on the stand so that the judge would get a sense that this crime, that this crime was not a victimless crime, like so many times white collar crimes people feel like are victimless. Well, they wanted the judge to get a sense of the people that had lost their jobs and the people that and faced a lot of hardships as a result of what happened in the choices that that Frankie had made. And so it was an interesting thing, like, oh my goodness, talk about an opportunity for mercy or loving kindness, because here you have a situation where you're going to be the one to actually testify.

And that, you know, so here you go. That's a testimony right here. And that was a testimony that they were asking for. And fascinatingly, I'll never forget that I, I actually was somehow or another given the understanding as God let me know that the judge was going to ask me to provide the sentence. In other words, I knew in my heart that the judge was going to turn to me and say, Robbie, how long should I give her?

And so I had an opportunity to pray a lot about that because I knew that was the question that he was going to ask. And as you might imagine, as I came into the courtroom, I had not seen Frankie in many months since she'd been arrested and, and all these things had happened. And she looked very bitter and she, every time was asked to speak, she wouldn't comment. And she looked very angry.

She certainly looked angry at me. And, and so here all this stuff went. And so the judge asked, you know, about the people that lost their jobs and all these different things. And then, you know, he turned to me just on cue, like I thought. And he said, Robbie, of all the people that know of this crime and know all that's going on, you probably know best the appropriate sentence.

So how long do you think, you know, she ought to serve or, you know, she's pled guilty at this point in time. So what should the sentence be? And of course, I had my prepared answer because I'd prayed a lot about it. And so I just turned to him and I said, well, you know, I don't know much about the law.

You've studied it your whole life. And I trust you and God completely that you'll, you'll do exactly the right thing. And he looked at me and he goes, I'm not letting you off that easy.

He said, I want to know how long do you think she should serve? And like, Oh man, if there was ever a time to be quickened in loving kindness, quickened in hesed mercy, this was the moment, right? You're right there. And it's your testimony.

That's going to be the wonderful. And so I love what the Lord gave me to speak in that moment because I had my prepared answer was now getting washed out. And so here had to come something that God gave me. And I thought about it often that the words that he gave me were exactly, um, how I felt. And so when I turned to the judge and I said, well, I don't personally see how the state of North Carolina would benefit from, you know, a 68 year old grandmother spending a lot of time in prison.

But by the same token, when I go home and I face all the people that have been hurt, the people that lost their jobs, people that lost, you know, lots of money and people that lost their security and people that lost, you know, their life's work. I mean, I can't look at them and say she got away with it. And so somewhere in between those two things is what's right.

And I honestly don't know. And the judge said, that's more like what I wanted to hear. He got up and he walked away. And in about five minutes later, he came back and he said, you know, I hereby sentence you to five years, but I'm going to, um, I forget what the word he used, but it was essentially, you're going to have to serve six months and then you'll be on probation. And so I've often thought that, wow, you know, she didn't get away with it.

And she did have to spend some time actually in prison, but by the same token, I don't see how it would serve the state of North Carolina. And certainly, um, I was so grateful that God gave me no bitterness or no anger that it was in loving kindness that I said what I said that day. And so, you know, I think that this is a wonderful, miraculous, um, request as, as we know that this is Jesus's words to us is, you know, this is how people know that you're my disciple. If you love one another well quick at me in my loving kindness, right. That I might keep the testimonies of thy mouth, which we know are always going to be, um, loving kindness.

Cause that's, that's what God is. Thank you so much for listening today. And I'm so excited as we get to transfer, as we get to transition now from the hoof into the lament and the lament is, Oh, it's just an absolutely amazing letter. As you, as you would understand, we'll get into how the hoof, um, takes us there and how it sets up the memo. There's so much coolness coming as we're getting right near the middle, depending on how you look at it, of the 119 song, we'll get into all that. When we look at the Lamed next time on Hidden Tritions.