Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / May 21, 2026 - Numbers 4 & Psalm 110

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May 21, 2026 - Numbers 4 & Psalm 110 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word letting the way.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Thursday, May 21st, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a quick summary of Numbers chapter 4.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Numbers 4 details the specific responsibilities of the Kohthites, the Gershonites, and the Merorites.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Kohathites are from the line and the family, the lineage of Kohath.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And all of these, by the way, these three families, these three clans, if you will, uh, have a very similar shared responsibility of carrying the items of the tabernacle.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now they differ in what they carry, but they are all carrying different items.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's a part of their central responsibility.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the Koathites, they carry the the holy items as they are referred to.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: They the things that are inside the tent of meeting, and the Gershonites, they carry the the curtains and the things that go over the actual tent of meeting, the uh the goat skin and the curtains and uh the different uh things that go into that, the covering as it's called, the hangings, the hooks.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then the Merorites, they actually carry the pillars, the the bases, and uh, you know, the pegs and the cords and all the kind of heavy equipment.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So those are detailed here in Numbers chapter four.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word, Psalm 110.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sit.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word, Psalm 110.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter, rule in the midst of your enemies.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is at your right hand, he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath, he will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses, he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth, he will drink from the brook by the way, therefore he will lift up his head.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we continue through our reading of the book of Numbers, I want to zoom out today and kind of just give you the bird's eye view of what's happening in Numbers, just to help us not get lost in the weeds and the in between.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to be paying attention to details, of course, and that's why we read chapter by chapter each day.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: But we also need to keep in mind the whole context of the book and even what we've read prior to Numbers in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, that helps take shape just some of the things that are going on in Numbers.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So Numbers opens up and Israel is still at the base of Mount Sinai.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So even there geographically, make sure that that's kind of pictured in your head.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're still there at the base of Mount Sinai.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And throughout the book of Numbers, they're going to travel to two other locations.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So from Numbers one through numbers 10, they're still at Mount Sinai.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then they make their journey to Peron.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some things that happen in Peron that are pretty unfortunate.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's rebellions that go on, there's complaining and grumbling, disobedience, all kinds of things.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then they actually end up at what's referred to as the plains of Moab, which is right outside the border of Canaan, that is the promised land.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So they're in the plains of Moab, kind of on the verge of entering into the land that God promised them in chapters 22 through 36.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the journey that they're taking from Mount Sinai to Peran to the plains of Moab.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the book of Numbers as a whole, of course, opens with a census for the purpose of identifying just both how many people are in Israel as a whole, but also the warriors that are going to be a part of the battles that are necessary to take the land that God had promised Israel as a nation.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then there, of course, in chapters two and three and four, even today, there's details given to some of the specific duties of certain clans, specifically with the tribe of Levi, their responsibilities in the tabernacle, and that will continue.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a furthering of instructions and details, even how they were to set up camp, how they are to carry the tabernacle and the different pieces, especially there's a warning to the Kohethites that they are to do do that in such a way uh where they uh are careful and uh they don't actually touch the holy things.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 15.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary, you know, they take the the veil and they cover the ark of the covenant and they cover all the different uh furniture items.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: It says, when they finish all the covering all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out after that, the sons of Koath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things lest they die.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things the tent of meaning that the sons of Koath are to carry.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh there's some specific instructions that Israel is supposed to obey, they're supposed to listen, they're supposed to do what God has said, and they are to organize their camp in the way that God has instructed.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: They are to pick up and leave, and even those who are to carry the different items, the the Koathites, the Gershonites, and the Merorites, uh, they have very specific things that they're supposed to carry in very specific ways.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so there is an expectation of obedience that's connected to the covenant.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you remember there at the end of Leviticus, there was a whole chapter on covenant blessings and covenant punishments.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: You remember that the Israelites, God Himself says, if you obey, uh, good things are going to happen.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I will bless you.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: He talked about how his in their enemies will be vanquished, how their uh planting, whatever plants they they they plant are going to yield a great harvest.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna uh enjoy physical, tangible blessings.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But if they disobey, they are going to face consequences, they're going to experience discipline.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so here in Numbers, we continue to see instructions that God gives through Moses and Aaron, and there's a continuing expectation of covenant faithfulness.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the book of Numbers as a whole, it the way that it develops the story of Israel is that of course we've seen Israel's unfaithfulness in a variety of ways already.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen the golden calf, we've seen complaining when they just are rescued from Egypt and they're what they're worried about food, they're worried about water.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: We we've seen those things, but Numbers really makes their disobedience, their unfaithfulness, a primary theme, especially in later chapters.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a whole rebellion against Moses and Aaron.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even Moses' own family tries to rise up against him and complain about him.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Moses himself, instead of doing what God commands, he disobeys and strikes the rock.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if you remember that story, there's just lots of unfaithfulness, there's lots of disobedience, and there's lots of just not doing what God has uh commanded.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see that unfold throughout the book of Numbers.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, even just something to keep in mind for later here in chapter four, the instructions given to these families, the Koathites, the Gershonites, and the Merorites, to carry certain things actually becomes one of the grievances that leads to the rebellion.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you notice, especially towards the end of chapter four, where it talks about uh the different uh clans, the Gershonites uh and the Merorites, they are to be uh kind of under the supervision, the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron's uh of Aaron the priest.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh they are both, all of these clans are kind of serving at the discretion of the priest, and they are doing a job that is difficult, carrying around heavy things, and it's not glamorous, and they start to be filled with envy, as we'll read in later in the book of Numbers, of the priestly role.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they feel like they should be able to go inside the the tent and they should be able to do just the all the same things that Moses and Aaron are able to do, and it becomes a battle of uh, you know, who who's who's who, essentially, and that leads to a rebellion.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So this is kind of the seeds.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh of course, God does not uh tell them to do these things just so that they would rebel.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying, but the seeds in the sense of these responsibilities prick their hearts in such a way that um it leads to a rebellion later on, and of course, just all of the things that they end up doing uh and in disobedience and um just in complete defiance of God's commands lead to them wandering in the wilderness in the book of Numbers.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So Numbers chapter four, again, the specific Koethites, Gershenites, Merorites, they are carrying uh, you know, the Koethites carry inside the tent.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Gershonites, they carry kind of the curtains of the tabernacle, and the Meraorites, they carry the pillars, the bases, and the bars.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so they every time the camp picks up and moves, and if you remember the book of Exodus, the the cloud, as long as it stayed in the center of the camp where the tabernacle was constructed, uh they would stay.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when the cloud would depart, they would pick up and they would move and they would depart.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what we see happening here.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so they have these clans and these families that are dedicated to uh carrying all the different items necessary for the tabernacle.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, again, that that leads to jealousy, that leads to complaining, and ultimately a rebellion, where God opens up the ground and swallows uh many, many people.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we transition to Psalm 110, we need to recognize how significant this psalm really is.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 110 is one of the most quoted psalms in all of the New Testament.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's quoted by Jesus himself in the Gospels, it's quoted by Paul in the book of Acts, it's quoted by the author of Hebrews in several different chapters.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 1, verse 13.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you can think back, that is quoted.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh it will quote Psalm 110, verse 1.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that is in connection to Christ in Hebrews chapter 1.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh later on in Hebrews chapter 7, um, the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 110, verse 4.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a highly significant psalm.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a royal psalm because there's anytime you see royal, it's usually talking about kings, kingdoms, but it's also a prophetic psalm because David is given an oracle.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's given this sort of insight.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's it's almost like he's overhearing a conversation between the Father and the Son.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, the Lord, that's Yahweh, says to my Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then there's this quotation that gets attributed directly to Christ in the New Testament by multiple authors.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's the author of Hebrews' whole point in chapter one.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: To which of the angels did God ever say?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God never said that to the angels.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: The angels don't rule, the angels don't reign.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Son who rules, it's the Son who reigns, and Jesus is the Son of God that took on flesh.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So Psalm 110 is a prophetic psalm, of course, because this was written long before the incarnation.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: This was written long before Jesus came.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, as you read Psalm 110, I think you should come away with this sense of if you are in Christ, you will win.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is what Paul talks about.
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  SPEAKER_00: If if God is for us, who can be against us?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
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  SPEAKER_00: No weapon formed against us shall stand, shall prosper.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and we get that kind of confidence here from Psalm 110.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's a sense of victory, there's a sense of uh this warrior, priest, king.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's all of this is combined.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a king who is said to be a priest who's also a warrior.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, in this passage, look at uh Psalm 110, verse 2.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's a connection all the way back.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you can think back to our study of Genesis, where Judah, the tribe of Judah, it's talking to it talks about as Jacob's giving his sort of uh pronouncements and his blessings to his sons, he talks about the scepter that will not depart from Judah.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so here it is, Psalm 110, verse 2.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord sends forth from Zion, which Zion, by the way, is another name for Jerusalem.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's used in a variety of different ways in the Bible.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: It can refer to Jerusalem, kind of the capital city of Jerusalem.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: It can also refer to the place where God dwells, God dwells with his people.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So Zion becomes this reference to that the kind of holy hill that God dwells on.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's also uh the people of God is referred is referred to as Zion.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so it says the Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a clear sort of prophetic pronouncement that the Messiah would come from Zion.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord sends forth from Zion, from the people of Israel, from the place where God dwells, his mighty scepter, from Judah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: He will rule in the midst of his enemies.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we have this king that rules with this scepter, the scepter of uprightness, as the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter one.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he's not just a king, but he's also going to be a priest.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, on the other side of the New Testament, uh, Jesus being our priest and king seems somewhat a given if you recognize that threefold office of Christ as our prophet, as our priest, as our king.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But in the Old Testament, this was sort of uh scandalous.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have kings that are priests, they were separate offices with separate ordinations, and they were not to mix.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we have kings, we have examples of kings uh getting in trouble uh because they uh go into the the the holy place and offer uh sacrifices or uh or try to do like different offerings and things like that when they're not supposed to.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's not their role, that's not their responsibility.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so here in in Psalm 110, we have this king who has the mighty scepter, he comes forth from Zion, from Jerusalem, and one of the tribes of of Israel was Judah.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then we talked about that from Genesis.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a king who is also a priest, but he's a priest of a different order.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we're reading in Numbers and Leviticus the order of Aaron, and Psalm 110 is talking about a different order, a different kind of priest who's not just a priest, but he's also a king.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then it finishes here in verses 5, 6, and 7: The Lord is at your right hand, he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath, he will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses, he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth, he will drink from the brook by the way, therefore he will lift up his head.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I said if you read Psalm 110, you should come away with this sense of because Jesus is the king who is also the priest, he is a priest king, and he is a warrior, I will win.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I will win in Christ, because he will vanquish his enemies, he will shatter the kings on the day of his wrath.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So this is uh eschatological, that's that's a fancy word for the end.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: The word eschatology means the study of end things, the the study of end times, not just in Revelation, but of course, that includes our death, what happens to our bodies, all that's included in eschatology.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is talking about the end, and there's this sort of cosmic battle that happens, and this priest king that we now know to be Jesus is the victor.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one who secures the victory.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: He will drink from the brook, by the way, therefore he will lift up his head.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so Psalm 110 is just such an encouraging, messianic, royal, prophetic psalm that points forward to Christ, our priest king, who conquers not only sin and death, but will one day upon his return, he will vanquish all of his enemies.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why it starts by sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is again an oracle given to David.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's like he's overhearing a conversation between the Father and his Messiah, his son.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he's overhearing this.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I just can't even imagine, even in a prophetic sense, what that would be like to hear this kind of language as David is a king himself over the people of Israel.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yet there's a coming king that David himself refers to uh as his Lord.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ is David's Lord, he is uh the one who is the priest, he is the one who is the king, he's the one who is the one that will execute judgment among the nations.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of John talks about that.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So Psalm 110 is such an encouraging psalm.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a psalm of victory, it's a psalm that points forward to our Messiah, to our priest, to our king.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And again, there's that sense of we win if we are in Christ.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, whatever evils are in this world that we feel like are triumphing, that are basking in their the glory of their evil ways.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 110 is a reminder that we win in Christ.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so we should have great encouragement because of that.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.