Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / June 10, 2026 - Numbers 21 & Psalm 119:65-72

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June 10, 2026 - Numbers 21 & Psalm 119:65-72 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bybreoding 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.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Wednesday, June 10th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a quick summary of Numbers 21.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Numbers 21 details Israel's journey, specifically as they are heading towards Canaan properly, and some of their enemies along the way that actually God delivers into their hand, even in the midst of their complaining and their grumblings.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: We also have this vignette, this scene beginning in verse 4 of a bronze serpent that needed to be lifted up in order to rescue those who were grumbling and complaining against God and against Moses.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it says if they were to look upon the bronze serpent that was lifted up, it says that he could live.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of interesting things going on here in Numbers 21.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: But God delivers enemies into the hands of Israel.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: They have victory over several kings, King Sihon and uh King Og, and also just even God providing a means for them to experience life even in the midst of their continuing grumbling and complaining.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119, verses 65 through 72.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: You are good and do good, teach me your statutes.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: The insolence smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Numbers twenty-one is an interesting chapter.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but one of the things that it does is it highlights the kindness and the mercy of God.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because you remember, Israel, up and up until this point actually has been given over to grumbling and complaining on a variety of different occasions.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And yet God continues to preserve, it continues to protect, he continues just to even providentially lead them, even if they're wandering in the wilderness, as that generation was pronounced by God to do, to wander in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief, even though they were banished from the promised land, God is still protecting them, God is still providing for them, and even is delivering their enemies into their hand.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see again this sort of divine intermingling of justice and mercy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Justice, of course, where God does not allow them to go into the promised land because of their unbelief.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, mercy in the meantime, while they wander, while they travel, while they while they are making their way across the desert into the wilderness of Zen or around that area, um, God protects them.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: God delivers kings that would seek to do them harm and preserves his people, and in so doing, preserves his promise.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so again, we got to hold those things in tension.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just divine justice and divine mercy, they're not always as far apart as we'd like them to be.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here, actually, we see them kind of intermingling and working together, where God is both upholding justice, uh, even against his own people who were rebellious against him, but also still showcasing mercy in the midst of it.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's such a great picture of just the Lord's kindness.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think of uh even in Romans when Paul talks about God being the just and the justifier, where he upholds justice, he is the the just, he is the judge, but he's also the justifier, he's the one that provides mercy, he's the one that makes receiving mercy and grace through Jesus Christ possible.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he's the just and the justifier.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that here in Numbers 21.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's the just, he's upholding his his really promise that they would not make it into Canaan, but he's also the justifier in the sense that he is uh again delivering them from the hands of some of these kings that would do them harm.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So justice and mercy kind of interwoven together here in Numbers 21, and some great encouragements of just the character of God that we see here as he is faithful to deal with his people.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm so encouraged that uh the Lord ensures victory.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm encouraged by the ways that as Israel is following Yahweh, he is making uh for them the provisions that they need to get his people to the land that he promised.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the we see the patterns of obedience and disobedience.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we see in the end of this chapter in Numbers 21, the a people completely erased, and God is the one that provides the victory for his people, ensuring that they continue on, even though they are wandering for a period of four decades.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, his promise to get them to where uh the land that he has promised them to be, he will deliver them there.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as we look to our psalm today in Psalm 119, uh verses 65 through 72, uh, in the margin of my Bible, uh verse by verse, I just was writing down uh the ways and I guess categories that David is um is calling out to the Lord, just letting his heart be known to the Lord.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I have thanksgiving, I have requests and confessions and vows of obedience, praise.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's times when he is reflecting.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh as we look at the the beginning of this section, he's acknowledging the Lord's goodness in his life.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: You've dealt well with your servant according to your word, and his call out again his his heart to receive instruction.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's asking for help, uh, teach me good judgment in knowledge, for I believe, I believe in your commandments, and he's submitting his life under the law of Moses, under the Old Testament scriptures.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a great reminder for us today to think about the ways that we can be gleaning still from the words of David, the reflections on God's heart through his word.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: And also as we look to the Old Testament, there's much to be gained, much to uh to be molded by as we look at the hearts of Israel, as we look at their their lives and kind of put our life kind of in parallel with them.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's much to learn about the different complaints and grumblings that we have and how the Lord corrects us, how he humbles us, and uh, it's all for our good.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's all for God's glory and in the way that we uh we see God's working in our lives.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's moments that we can pause, moments that we can reflect and look back.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a great opportunity for us today to reflect on the the attitude, the tunings of our heart.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Are they are they numb?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Are are they unfeeling uh or are they sensitive?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Are they interested?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh are they uh obedient to the laws of the Lord?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's some of the takeaway, um, some of the takeaways that I'm I'm getting today, PJ.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: How about you?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just a continuing plea through prayer to the Lord for insight into his word, into his law, his precepts, his statutes, but ultimately his character.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love even in verse 66, teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the connection to being taught good judgment and knowledge, to recognizing who is fully and completely and 100% good.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 68, you are good and do good.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't help but think of James.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You just finished up your study in James and the South Valley student ministry here at South Valley.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and James talks about every good and perfect gift comes from above, the Father of lights, right?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see here that echoed in the Old Testament.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: God is good and he does good.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that he is is good, everything that he does is good, and it's his goodness that's the foundation for us to have good judgment and to pursue good things and to even experience good things.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think um there is this reality of uh a desire, a longing for understanding, perhaps in in deeper, more rich ways, the character of God that we're seeing here in Psalm 119.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um even like you were talking about, Tyler, the idea of our hearts uh or the hearts of those who do not keep the precepts of God, their heart is unfeeling like fat, the sense of uh there's a lack of nerves, a lack of uh a lack of sensation.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but what we should be as Christians, those who seek to honor the Lord and recognize that he is good and does good, is that we should delight in his law.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that even in verse 71, we can come to this place where we can say, It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: What a perspective on suffering and affliction that results from understanding God's law, his word, his character.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Even in verse 72, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is precious.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we ought to long to know God through his word.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in this pursuit of knowing God, uh, the target is not his word, the target is God, right?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, we're not aiming for the Bible.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is we're not aiming for the Bible as an end in and of itself.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we consume the scriptures because we recognize that they are from God and they teach us about God.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so God is the target, he is who we are aiming at.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's he is who we are desiring to be more liked, desiring to know more of.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And his word, his law, his statutes, his precepts teach us about him.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the high point of God's word is not the word itself, uh, but God himself.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so we want to dive into God's word because that's the divinely instituted means that God has intended for his church to grow into Christ's likeness and to grow in the knowledge of God.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we want to have this kind of perspective of the law of God's mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because it teaches us about who God is, it helps us to grow in our knowledge of God, it sharpens our service to God.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what the word of God does.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's again, it's not an end of itself.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: The high point as a Christian is not mastering the Bible as if we could do that.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the high point for a Christian is getting into God's word so that we get more of who God is.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when He we get a higher understanding of His holiness, we get a richer, uh, sort of even experiential understanding of His goodness and the things that He does are good.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is good and He does good.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: We we have a better understanding of how to obey Him because that's so essential, even as we've been talking about in Hebrews, that faith and obedience are inseparable.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, God's word does that for us.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's what God has given us to know him, uh, to experience a relationship with him, to grow in our knowledge of him.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And God's word is a gift to his people.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if God did not speak, we would not know.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so God has given us his word, he has spoken, he has revealed, he has pursued us.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And our response should be this is precious.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: The word of God is precious.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I love this uh connection between uh obedience and faith, and you you cannot uh you cannot do that without humility, without God humbling you, um, without you uh sticking to your own way.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we need God's help to help our eyes and our hearts to see that his way is better than ours.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: So there is a road and a path to follow that is not our own, and we find that we want to buck against any kind of authority.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: We you and I, uh PJ, were talking about um just the the nature of um uh people that are against authority.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's different uh different storylines throughout uh history of mankind that would show uh the error of anyone's uh desire to make themselves the highest authority.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's probably one of the one of the greatest dangers to mankind is us thinking that our own way is is best.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: And from the uh the deception in the garden till now, like man, mankind struggles with this idea of my way's better.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Surely this way isn't best because they don't they don't know like I know.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it is a grace and a gift of God that He would um correct that affliction would come our way when we are astray.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: And as I wrapped up, you're speaking to James, uh, the last two verses of James chapter five, which conclude the book, um, charge the individual, anyone, whomever, would go after one who is wandering and bring them back.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there is a great, a great prize, a great treasure to be had because that person uh would help save that person from their sins to call people back to the truth.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a big theme here in Psalm 119 is remembering, coming back to day by day, thinking about the commandments and the the statutes and the word, the commands of the Lord, and calling people back.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's a we have a put a role to play as we see people in our lives drifting away from the truth, wandering away.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's there's a great uh a burden for us to see these people and with love, with kindness, with empathy.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um we are all all like sheep that have gone astray at one point in our lives before we came to Christ.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And those those who um James is speaking to that are in this church, if you see them drifting away, bring them back, bring them back.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: We have a role to play in in God's uh sovereign plan at preserving his people to the end.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I find great encouragement in that.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh to conclude the section of the Psalms, that the law of your mouth is better to me, better to me than great wealth, silver and gold pieces.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I wrote in the margins of my Bible uh God's commands are more valuable, more powerful, more influential uh for our sanctification.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: They bring us more joy, they're more precious than anything else this world can offer.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when our brothers and sisters wander, their eyes are drawn away from this rich reality of God's word being so precious, and we can easily wander.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we need to be doing our part in helping our brothers and sisters as we submit to the word of God and obey him, going after the people that would lose sight of the heart of Psalm 119, of just the great value and worth of God's law.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hopefully that's an encouragement for you today.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is the lamp to your feet and the light to your path.