Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / June 3, 2026 - Numbers 15 & Psalm 119:17-24

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June 3, 2026 - Numbers 15 & Psalm 119:17-24 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

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  Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where you're seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way.
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  I'm Josiah Smith joined by Tyler Sanborn.
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  Today is Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026.
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  Here's a quick summary of Numbers 15.
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  Now, the first section of Numbers 15 details the specific laws and procedures for the sacrifices that Israel was to make upon their entrance into the land.
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  It says there in verse 2 speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land, you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, and you offer to the Lord, and then the details a sacrifice, sacrifices that are a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
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  Now there's even details concerning unintentional sins, what they are to do with those, high-handed rebellion.
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  This is sort of a reiteration of what we talked about earlier in Leviticus 1 through 6 with all of those different sacrifices.
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  We also have just an instance of a Sabbath breaker and his execution that we see.
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  And of course, it ends with the tassels on the bottom of the garments that were to serve as a constant reminder to remember to do all that God commanded and to be holy as God was holy.
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  So that's Numbers 15.
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  Starts with the laws about the sacrifices, details, unintentional sins, high-handed rebellion.
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  There's a Sabbath breaker that is executed, and then it ends with tassels that are to be sown with a blue thread that were just remind the people of Israel to keep the commandments of God and to be holy as he is holy.
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  Listen intently to God's written word.
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  Psalm 119, verses 17 through 24.
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  Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word.
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  Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
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  I am a sojourner on the earth.
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  Hide not your commandments from me.
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  My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.
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  You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones who wander from your commandments.
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  Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.
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  Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.
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  Your testimonies are my delight.
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  Now the end of Numbers 15, Tyler, actually has me thinking about Deuteronomy.
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  Would you believe it or not?
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  Deuteronomy chapter six, specifically.
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  The Shema, it's called, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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  And there's instructions to parents to train their children in the fear of the Lord.
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  Now, the reason why I'm reminded of that is because of the tassels that are spoken of here that were to be sewn onto the garments.
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  Verse 38: Speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.
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  And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.
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  So you shall remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God.
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  I am the Lord your God.
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  He brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.
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  I am the Lord your God.
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  So it has that kind of same structure, if you will, of Deuteronomy 6 is the Shema.
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  That's just a Hebrew word that means to hear or to listen.
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  And it says you are to teach and to train.
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  And when are you to do that?
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  When you walk by the way, when you rise up, when you go to bed, bear it as frontlets on your eyes.
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  It says in Deuteronomy 6, and even here in Numbers 15, you are to sew these tassels on the corners of your garments as just a constant daily reminder, almost as if when you rise up and when you lie down and when you walk by the way.
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  And so they were to guard their heart and to guard their eyes.
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  And there is this relationship, Tyler, between our eyes and our heart, what we see, what we look for, what we consume, even, and the way that it shapes our heart and the way that it can lead us towards ultimately a disregard for the commandments of God.
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  So I just think this is a great passage that is just intended for us, even applicationally, to remind us to kind of set up things in our lives.
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  It may not be tassels that we sew onto the, you know, the what are these things called at the bottom of our pants?
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  The hem?
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  Is that what it is?
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  The hems?
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  Yeah.
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  The hems of your pants.
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  You may not sew these things onto the bottom, but nevertheless, we should have things in our lives that help us to remember the commandments of God, to remember that he has called us to be holy as he is holy.
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  That's said here in Numbers 15.
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  And it's also reiterated in the New Testament by Peter himself.
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  And so there are things that we should have.
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  Maybe it's uh a picture in your house, or it's a a Bible on your nightstand, or it's a note card in your mirror, or uh any number of things that help us to remember what God has called us to do.
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  And we have some of those things uh in our house.
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  We have uh a cross that we had made for our wedding with uh kind of a three-chord strands that we wove together that is on the cross that reminds us that we're we're we're seeking uh to build our life on the foundation of Christ.
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  And that is in our house.
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  And we look at that and we want to remember uh the commandments of God.
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  We want to remember what he has called us to do.
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  And even in my office, I have um a verse, Romans 5.8, that is kind of the wave file, actually, the audio file in picture format that is a reminder uh that God's love for us is demonstrated that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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  I have uh just different things that remind me of the commands that God has given, of the even encouragement from God's word, uh, really the command and the expectation of God's word to pursue holiness as God is holy.
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  I think that's a good thing for us to do, to have things in a tangible physical sense in our life that remind us of uh who God is and what he has called us to do.
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  Yeah, it's speaking of things that remind me, uh, I have in my office uh a framed, uh shadow box looking frame with flies in there.
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  Flies that would be used.
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  Not not the bugs, right?
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  Flies that would be used to go fly fishing.
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  And what what a more uh higher call and a greater call to be uh to be a fisher of men, and that's a reminder for me to understand what God has done for me in my life and the people that he used to draw me to himself, and as I seek to go and make disciples as well, it's a reminder for me to understand uh that God is is called uh every one of his children to go forward and and make uh disciples to become a fisher of men.
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  So that is uh a reminder for me, and and oftentimes we have um pictures of the people or the commitments that we make to each other.
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  Uh if you're listening to this and you're married, you might have you might have a wedding picture.
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  Uh and that is a reminder of your commitment to your spouse, a reminder of uh your union before God and the promises that you have uh vowed to keep uh in front of uh the Lord.
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  Now, as we uh look forward uh to the next eight verses in Psalm 119, we have Psalm uh 119 verses 17 through 24.
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  And at uh at the first verse, after I read this uh reading, deal bountifully with your servant that I might live and keep your word, uh, I'm thinking of the other side of a servant's relationship.
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  Every servant has a master, and I'm um drawn to the the positional dependence that I have, that Christians have in obeying and following the lead, the commands of the master.
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  And uh, as I think about the difference between a harsh master and a kind um and loving master, we we have a uh a kind and sacrificial master who has laid his life down for us.
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  All he does is good, he never deals harshly uh with his children.
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  And it's it's my desire um as a servant of the Lord to uh with the psalmist strive to keep and live by the words uh of scripture.
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  And we need God's help for that, PJ.
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  We need God's help to uh to open our eyes.
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  I love this next verse in verse 18, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
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  And that's a great reminder for us to continue to ask God, help me see, help me to have the spiritual eyes to see the glorious and wondrous things that your word has to say, um the truths that are um revealed and the light that is shown on my heart and the world around.
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  We need God's perspective and God's insight to live the Christian life.
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  Yeah, and that's that's a verse that I pray every week, actually, as I am studying God's word to prepare to preach on Sundays, or even just to prepare to lead life group.
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  This is a common verse that I go back to.
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  Open my eyes, Lord, that I may behold wondrous, wonderful things out of your law.
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  And just what a great prayer for you as you uh are consistent to open God's word and to read it and to study it and to meditate on it.
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  This is a verse that you could pray and should pray.
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  Lord, help me uh open my eyes to let me see, to help me to see wonderful, wondrous things.
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  I want to behold these things from your law, from your word.
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  And that's something uh that you should pray each and every day, that the Lord would open your eyes, help you to see uh what it is that you are reading with spiritual eyes.
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  Now, I love in verse 19 where it says, I am a sojourner on the earth.
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  Hide not your commandments from me.
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  So the whole concept of a sojourner is almost a sense of a wanderer, a someone that is um, you know, not at home.
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  They're they're traveling towards uh maybe a more final permanent destination.
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  And so he says, I am a sojourner on the earth, hide not your commandments from me.
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  So the psalmist is recognizing as they sojourn through the world, they need something to give them fixed directions, to give them something to keep moving forward.
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  And the directions that he desires is the commandments of God.
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  Hide not your commandments from me.
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  I love even the connection in verse 21.
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  You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones who wander from your commitments.
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  So there's a different kind of wandering that is away from the things of God.
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  Where we can all be sojourners to one extent or another, because this is not our final home here on the earth, but there's different kinds of wanderers.
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  One wanders away from the commandments of the Lord, and one wanders through the world, so to speak, uh, with the commandments of the Lord.
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  And so there's this desire in verse 19: hide not your commandments from me.
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  They give directions, they make me sure footed.
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  That's really Psalm 119.
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  Your let your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
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  I know where I am, I know where I'm going.
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  And uh the psalmist here understands that I am a sojourner on the earth.
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  Hide not your commandments from me.
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  And even again, verse 20: my soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.
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  Uh the Psalm 119 is uh filled with affective language, language of love, language of delight, language of beholding, of marveling, of uh understanding.
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  Uh, even we just said, open my eyes that I may behold.
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  Verse 23 it says, Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.
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  Your testimonies are my delight, it says, they are my counselors.
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  So Psalm 119 is highly affective, meaning that it's rich in this emotive language that I think is intended to grasp our hearts.
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  Psalm 19 says that the law of the Lord is more precious than gold, even much fine gold, and even sweeter than drippings of the honeycomb.
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  And so we see that here.
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  There's longing, there's delight, there's desire, uh, there's this sense of yearning to understand God, to have his directions as we sojourn on this earth, and uh, even just a sense of um confidence and uh really a clinging to the very words of God to keep moving forward.
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  So even though this is just eight verses, a lot of things here that I just really love that are really rich.
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  And what a great confidence we have that we can go to the Father who only gives good gifts, and we go to seek understanding from him, we seek insights, we go to seek um wisdom from the Lord, and and he is so gracious and and generous in the way that he would answer our prayers.
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  Uh, we we uh go and and seek and we'll find it in the scriptures.
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  God help us to understand how we are to go about this life.
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  Knock, we can go and knock, and it will be opened to us.
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  And uh as we go and seek the scriptures and search them for understanding for every aspect of our life, there are truths in God's word that apply to every season, every chapter of our lives, whether you're um a brand new Christian, you're you're just young in the faith, or if you've been walking with the Lord for decades, there is great encouragement and wisdom and insights uh that just continue to encourage uh the Christ follower and will continue to encourage us until the day that he calls us home.
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  Amen.
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  And the prayer along the way is open my eyes, Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
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  And that should be our prayer daily as we open God's word, reliant on the Spirit of God to help us to see, and not just to see with our eyes and to read with our minds, but to see with our spiritual eyes and to see with our spiritual heart.
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  And that's what God's word does.
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  We have to be prayerful and dependent on the spirit.
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  Thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
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  For more information about Compass Bible Church, South Valley, visit compass bible s v dot org.
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  Keep reading, keep growing.
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  God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.