Psalms 119:105 - Get Your Candle Lit

Hidden treasures of the 119th Psalm. How spectacular, I mean spectacular is the transition between the Mem and the Nun. As we get to go to verse 105 today, the first verse in the letter Nun, but this transition, since I can see this one I can't help but wonder, wow, if I could only see the true transition between all of them, I think it would just absolutely blow my mind.

But anyway, this blows my mind enough and I'll share it with you that, you know, the Mem is in so many ways the Messiah and Jesus and so this is the one we've studied for the last eight verses. So we're transitioning from the Mem, living water and all those things that are the Word of God, Torah, over to the Nun. And the Nun is the first letter in the word Nefesh, which is the Spirit, right? And if you think about when Jesus came, right, he brought at the end, right, the Holy Spirit. I mean, it was the Holy Spirit that came after Christ. He said he would send the Comforter and here he comes in the Nun.

I mean, it's just absolutely beautiful. And what did the Nun do? He was going to testify to all that Jesus had done. And so, you know, how amazing is it the very first verse in the Nun section, you know, somebody ought to write a song. You've heard it many times, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so, you know, obviously the psalmist knew the spectacularness of what was happening as Christ came and we got a chance to see this.

It's beyond beautiful. The neat thing about the Nun here that actually I learned as I was studying for this whole section of memorizing this and as I've been working, working, working on it, is I guess I didn't understood that the word Nun, excuse me, well, it's a word and it's a letter, but the letter Nun is the first letter in the word candle. And when you hear the Jews speak of this verse, they don't say thy word is a lamp, they say thy word is a candle. And so this idea of getting your candle lit, which is exactly what the Holy Spirit does, is all over this verse. We all want our candle lit and the word is the way we do, right?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so, you know, here we get a chance to get our candles lit and that will keep our feet from stumbling because the idea of this verse is thy word is a lamp. And what does the lamp do is, but it reflects the light candles in their own way. What they do, they aren't the light, but they reflect it. However that works, this is what he means by a lamp.

And you don't want to put that under a bushel, obviously, because you're reflecting what? You're reflecting the light, which is Christ, the light of the world. And so it's really, really cool that, you know, when we get our candle lit, it's our opportunity to shine, but that's what we're doing. We're shining from the light that was given to us.

And then it says it switched from the lamp to the light itself for the path. And that word light is, you know, or, and it is as it's pronounced in Hebrew, but it begins with an aleph. Once again, hand in hand with God. This idea that God will be the light, right? And when we're in heaven and he was the light from the beginning, from the point in time he said, let there be light. And we know that Jesus is the light of the world. So, I mean, how cool is it that this works out that we not only have this lamp, this way that we reflect light, that we don't stumble, but then, you know, God himself is going to light your way. And so I thought I might illustrate this with my own life to some extent, as God has surely done that in my life. And I don't know that I've ever really explained this, but a lot of people wonder, Robbie, where, what happened? It wasn't that you got such an interesting Bible knowledge.

You know, how is it that, that, you know, this happened? And so what happened is right after I came to Christ and, you know, I came to Christ through the Bible, right? And it through, you know, Norman, Vincent Peale's, you know, the power of positive thinking, I was reading the word and by the same time, you know, my wife had us going to church. And so, you know, I became aware of the gospel at the end of the reading, you know, it just all came together into one package to where, you know, I got my candle lit.

Okay. Once my candle was lit, for whatever reason, that was a season in my life that I was driving long distances for a period of about three or four years. It seemed like I lived in Raleigh and worked in Greensboro. And about the time I got moved to Greensboro, then they would transfer me back to the Raleigh area or the Chapel Hill area. And I would drive every day from Greensboro to Raleigh.

And then about the time that we got moved back to Raleigh, you know, within a month or two, you know, I got fired at Crown and got a job in Winston-Salem. And so for a period of time, you know, I was driving every single day from Raleigh, really downtown, you know, off Capitol Boulevard, Raleigh, where we lived all the way to Winston-Salem, which is a good long ride. Well, during that time, I fell in love with the Bible on tape. And I would just listen to the Bible through and through and through and through. I mean, it just was absolutely, you know, and faith definitely did come from hearing because I was hearing the Word of God every single day for years. As I went back and forth on my journeys, I would listen, you know, and I'd go through it one time and go back and go through it again.

And you may know that, you know, obviously, the Bible's two thirds Old Testament, one third New Testament. And so, you know, whenever I would get a question, then I would the next morning in my quiet time, go back to the Bible and study that which I was listening to the day before, listen again, study more, listen, listen, study, study. And oh, my goodness, what it gave me, as far as a background understanding is I was just fell in love with that for a period of time. And so when and as you know, my story in 1996, so I came to Christ in 91. So five years later, after all this education that God had been giving me, you know, that is when I got cancer, and went through the chemotherapy and then got crushed by the Jeep.

And this was definitely a time of testing. And at this point in time, if you look, well, I have all these journals that God instructed me to keep track of my life with him and my journeys in the adventure of the relationship with him. And when I look back in my journals at the time of all that happened, oh, how precious the book of James was me and I, you know, you know, consider it pure joy when you've experienced trials.

And then, you know, in James four, when it says, you know, don't say that you're going to go do this and that, you know, unless it be the will of the Lord James four. And so those two passages really kept me from stumbling and really helped me see that what was going on here was that I really was in a crucible and it and it really was refining me as this fire. He had started, you know, was was doing these things. And, and so it kept me grounded in knowing that God was up to something. The Bible itself kept me from stumbling at this point in my in my journey. Well, if you fast forward 10 years and a continuing study every day and in driving and everything I did was was studying the word of God. Well, 10 years later in prayer, you know, one night, God comes to me and says, Robbie, I want you to get into radio.

I want you to start the Christian Car Guy show. You see, that was the light unto my path. I know that the word of God, you know, I'm talking the Bible can be that too. But God didn't stop speaking.

The Bible is a book of examples of people hearing from God. And there's no doubt in my mind that God called me into radio. I was in the car business.

I never dreamed in a million years. My father was in the car business at this point in time when he called me in 2006. I'd been in the car business since 1971.

So do the math. It was a long, long, long, long time I'd been in the car business and never thought I would do anything but the car business. But interestingly, God comes to me one night and says, I want you to start doing this radio show. And I've told the story before in this, that that radio show led to a career in radio and talk about a completely change and say, well, Robbie, are you sure you were called? Well, let's just look at how many radio shows were around in 2006 that are especially something as crazy as the Christian Car Guy that's still around to this day.

And why? And a lot of people say, Robbie, where do you get fresh content? You know, all those years that you've been doing that show? Well, God gives me the show stuff every single week. I mean, I never, never fails that he is going to give me what he wants in the show.

And the show has always been directed by the Holy Spirit and God and then Jesus. And, and, and so I, you know, I can't miss as far as, you know, doing what he asked me to do. And at whatever point in time he, I hear from him clearly, either through his word or through his actual words in my ear in prayer, because I spend a lot of time in prayer every single day asking God, what are we doing?

Where are we going? You know, where, what, what am I missing? And all these things that we're learning in this Psalm have to do with a relationship. And the relationship is, is so much richer as a result of the word, the Bible itself, you know, and so that, but if you miss the relationship, you're missing the point of the whole deal.

I mean, from my perspective, I mean, if this doesn't result in prayer time, if this doesn't result in you loving and rejoicing and, and, and worshiping, then, then you've missed the point of the word. I mean, it, it all has to do with pointing us into this relationship. And that is the light to the path.

Okay. The path is this, what we are becoming together with God. Absolutely amazing, beautiful verse. Like I said, I think they ought to write a song. Um, but His word, um, I hope you see that it is certainly a lamp, something that we reflect so that we don't stumble, but how exciting when He actually lights your path and you get to go on the journey with Him, um, with His light. Thank you for listening.