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Psalm 119:153-160 - Resh · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. And if you are watching the
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  video version of this podcast, you might go Brian, where in the
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  world are you? I'm actually recording my first
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  episode at home since you might not believe this right now, I'm
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  recording in the year of our Lord 2026.
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  The last episode that I recorded at home of Tabernacle Talk was
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  back in October of 2024. So I can say it's been quote UN
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  quote, 2 years since I have recorded at home.
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  But I just got back from doing some things with my family for
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  New Year's. And so it was a tremendous time.
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  I, I hope that you have had a good start to 2026 and I hope
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  that you will continue to pursue God through his word in 2026.
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  And I am looking forward to finishing up after this episode.
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  We've got two more episodes in Psalm 119.
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  So today is Psalm 119 versus 153 through 160, and then next
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  episode is 161 through 168. Those are all of the verses in
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  Psalm 119 that start with the Hebrew letter sin or shin,
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  depending on it's like where the dot goes above one of those
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  letters determines what that is. And then our very last episode
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  is verses 169 through 176, and those are all the verses that
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  start with the Hebrew letter TA. And so I am looking forward to
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  today's verses, which one more time is 153 to one, 6153 to 160.
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  Let's read through the passage and see what the Lord has for us
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  today. The psalmist says, consider my
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  affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten your
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  instruction. Champion my cause and redeem me.
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  Give me life as you promised. Salvation is far from the wicked
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  because they do not study your statutes.
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  Your compassions are many. Yahweh.
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  Give me life according to your judgments.
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  My persecutors and foes are many.
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  I have not turned from your decrees.
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  I've seen the disloyal and feel disgust because they do not keep
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  Your word. Consider how I love your
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  precepts. Yahweh.
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  Give me life according to your faithful love.
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  The entirety of Your word is truth.
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  Each of your righteous judgments endures forever.
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  Man, I love these verses. One thing that I want to focus
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  on today from this passage is that God is our champion like
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  He's our victor. He is the one that gives us the
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  win. I don't know about you.
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  Over the past couple of days, I played some different card games
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  and board games and things with my family.
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  And I'm not an incredibly competitive person.
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  Like I want to do well. And if I feel like perhaps I
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  didn't do my best or if I have teammates that I'm like, man,
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  we, we should have gotten that. We should have won.
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  You know, I, I might be a little sad about that.
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  I've got some friends that are very competitive.
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  I don't think he listens to this, but one of my best friends
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  in the world, Pastor Micah Bosworth, who pastors Ridge
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  Point Church in Wenatchee, WA. Him and his wife Rebecca are
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  some of the most competitive people that I have ever met.
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  And they want to win every single time.
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  And when you think about it, you know, no one really wants to
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  lose in the game of life. They don't want to lose in their
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  relationships. They don't want to lose in their
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  job. They don't want to lose at
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  church. And I see here that the psalmist
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  anchors any hope of victory or certainty or purpose in God,
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  that God is the one that gives the victory.
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  You could think of some old songs.
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  Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.
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  He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood.
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  He loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due Him.
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  He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing blood.
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  There's a lot of other ones. Faith is the victory we know
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  that overcomes the world they're quoting from.
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  I believe it's first John 5, I think, if I remember correctly,
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  because we went over it together on Tabernacle Talk.
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  So how do we see God's victory? How is it accomplished?
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  How do we tap into the victories that God wins?
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  Because we know God's not, if you will, God's not a loser.
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  He always wins. And so how do we tap into the
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  winds of God? Let's find that out as we look
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  through these verses today. Verse 153 consider my affliction
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  and rescue me, for I have not forgotten your instruction.
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  What I find so interesting here is he doesn't say, God, I
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  remember your instruction and so I can win.
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  I think here what the psalmist notes is something that we
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  always need to take care to remember that our victory does
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  not come from us doing all of the right things.
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  Now we might have a better marital relationship as we
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  follow God's instructions for marriage and how we treat other
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  people. We might have a better time at
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  our workplace as we follow what God tells us to do as those that
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  are employed by others to to work.
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  You can think of Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 are supposed to
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  work our jobs as to the Lord and not to men.
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  We're working for God's as a result of God's approval.
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  We want to hear God say well done.
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  We are not just working for, you know, in my situation, I'm not
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  just working for the elders or for the congregation of
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  Tabernacle. I am working for God and I want
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  God to be happy with me, even if other people aren't as much.
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  But doing things even following God's way does not always mean
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  that we are going to quote UN quote when in life.
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  Because I can do everything that I feel like God would have me
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  to. I can follow the instructions
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  for God's church, but there might still be someone that
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  goes, well, yeah, I know you're doing what God wants you to do,
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  but you're not doing what I want you to do.
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  And so I'm upset with you. And so in those moments, I could
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  feel like, well, God, I'm not winning because a person isn't
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  satisfied with me. And God, I'm doing all the right
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  things, so why aren't I winning? Like you're letting me down.
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  And of course, that's the wrong mindset to have.
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  The right mindset is God. Any victory, any win only comes
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  from you. And so yes, I will not forget
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  your instruction. I will follow your instruction,
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  but I'm not going to base the results of my life off of my
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  works. I am going to say God, anything
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  good only ever comes from you. So here the psalmist says,
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  consider my affliction and rescue me.
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  I'm going through a hard time, but I remember who you are God,
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  not God. Remember all of my goodness.
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  He says, God, I remember who you are.
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  I remember your instruction and your instructions say you are
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  the rescuer, you are the Savior, and so I believe that you can
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  rescue me. Verse 154, He says champion my
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  cause and redeem me. Give me life as you promised.
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  I note here three things that the psalmist says in verse 154
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  that he's dealing with #1 he says champion my 'cause he needs
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  someone to argue for the person. In the New Testament, you might
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  see the word intercessor or advocate, which are ways that
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  the Holy Spirit is described, ways that Jesus is even
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  described. And we need someone to be in the
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  rooms that we can't be in. We need someone to be in the
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  mind and conscience of others that we cannot be in right now.
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  There are some situations even at our church that I'm praying.
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  God, you see these individuals and God, you know what is in
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  their hearts. You know how they love you.
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  You know how they love others. God, you know the sin that
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  they're battling right now. God, would you work in them and
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  would you cause your spirit to just move and transform?
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  Would you? I'm praying here along with the
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  Psalmist champion my cause in their hearts, that they would be
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  able to see your plans for them, that they would experience this
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  new life. So here this psalmist needs an
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  advocate. So he says, Champion my 'cause
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  God would you be the one that, if you will, you're selling this
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  to others. I think far too often we
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  overestimate our ability to sell our cause to others and we
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  undervalue the fact that God can be the advocate and that if it
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  truly is the will of God, that God can move, that other people
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  would go, oh, yeah, that's that's right.
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  That's exactly on the point. I think that's wonderful.
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  I am so glad that there's been times in my life where God
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  championed someone else's 'cause that maybe first time I I heard
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  them say something, I was like, yeah, I don't really think so.
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  But then God used it in an incredible way because I went,
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  I, I just spent time in prayer and I tried to listen to the
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  Lord and I tried to be open to his moving.
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  And when that happened, God championing someone else's cause
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  in my heart allowed me to go, OK, I can operate in love and
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  forgiveness, or I can operate in faith and boldness and, and take
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  a risk and that God used it for, for his glory.
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  So believe that God really can change and work and transform
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  people even when you're not there.
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  And place more confidence in God's ability to change the
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  hearts of others. Then you have confidence even in
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  your ability to change others. If you're like, man, I'm just
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  not getting anywhere with my spouse.
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  They just won't listen to me. Pray and ask for God to champion
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  your 'cause when it's maybe someone at your, at your church,
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  like let's say you know someone that's listening to this, like
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  man, God, I just really wish Brian or the elders or you know,
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  Theresa or someone would change this or this or that about how
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  they do things or about what they're saying in this scenario
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  or whatever it might be. Pray and ask the Lord to
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  champion your cause. I promise you he is more
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  powerful than you. He's more persuasive than you.
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  He can dig in deeper with that conviction, even deeper than you
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  can't rely on the championing of God.
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  So first he says champion my cause.
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  Secondly, he says redeem me that God.
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  We went over this in Leviticus. This would be a phrase someone
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  perhaps had a debt that was too large, they couldn't pay it and
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  so then they had to go into indentured servitude or in
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  perhaps other nations more slavery.
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  Now in Israel that was limited by the fact that you were you
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  could not be held longer, held in indentured servitude, paying
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  off your debt for longer than seven years.
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  So that was, you know, huge praise.
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  That's great. But you could still need to be
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  redeemed, bought back, that your debt would be paid off so that
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  then you could just be free to, you know, till the land or
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  whatever your particular place of work or the way that you
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  worked was. So there's redemption that is
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  needed. And I know I've been in hard
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  times before where I'm like, OK, God, I really need you to like
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  bail me out of this because I've dug myself into a hole and I
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  need you to Get Me Out of the hole.
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  And I'm so thankful that the Lord is faithful to do that,
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  that he's faithful to forgive. He's faithful to transform and
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  to change us. Think of first John 19.
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  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
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  our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  And then the end of verse 154, not only does God champion us,
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  champion our 'cause he's our advocate, our intercessor.
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  Not only is He the one that buys us back from disaster and
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  slavery to to sin, but also he says at the end, give me life as
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  you promised. God is the one that gives new
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  life. Now we know God is the one that
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  gives life at the very beginning.
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  That's why we would believe that God is the author and the
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  finisher of life that I don't get the choice to say this is
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  when someone else's life is going to end.
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  I don't even have the right to say this is when my life is
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  going to end. I should allow that to be within
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  the hands of God. Same with the beginning of life.
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  But I think here even of what Jesus tells us in John 10, that
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  Jesus came so that we would have life and that we would have it
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  in abundance. And so here this life that can
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  be given, it can be perhaps a brand new spiritual life.
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  And maybe you have never placed your faith in Christ for
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  salvation. You've never called on Jesus to
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  be your Lord and Savior. And when you call on Jesus to be
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  your Lord and Savior, you ask Him to forgive your sins and
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  that you're turning your life over to Him, that He calls the
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  shots now, that you will experience everlasting life,
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  eternal life, just as we would hear in John 316.
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  God loved the world in this way that He gave His one and only
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  Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will
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  have eternal life. So there can be that life.
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  It could be an abundant life in the here and now that perhaps
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  you have been living life and it does not feel like life.
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  It feels like drudgery. It feels like you've been in a
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  living hell and you can call on the Lord to give you new life,
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  abundant life, that joy filled life, that peace filled spirit
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  filled life that you would experience God's presence in
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  each moment as you're walking through.
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  And you can ask God to give you life.
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  You can't bring yourself to spiritual life.
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  That's something that has to come from God.
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  You cannot redeem yourself either from sin ultimately, like
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  your your end destination, you can't redeem yourself from hell
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  and you will also can't redeem yourself from the sin that
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  you're facing now today. You can't rescue yourself from
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  your own sin. You need the Lord to help you
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  that he would pull you out. So I I spent a lot of time on on
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  verse 154, but it's just so rich.
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  I really, really love that As we kind of finish here with these
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  remaining verses, what a joy that God does not leave us to
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  our own devices. Instead, He's the Savior who
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  pursues and advocates for us and buys us back and gives us new
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  life. He's the one that can rescue.
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  The opposite of this verse 155 is salvation is far from the
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  wicked because they don't study your statutes.
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  The wicked have no idea where salvation or help comes from
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  because it comes from the Lord, as we find out in His statutes,
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  in His Word. 156 says your compassions are many.
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  Yahweh, give me life according to your judgments.
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  I'm thankful that God, the rescuer, the Redeemer, the life
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  giver, He is not indifferent to you or me.
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  In fact, He has compassion for us that He is moved in his
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  innermost being to reach out in love and kindness and grace and
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  gifts to us. That is his natural hearts
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  state. And so our sins do not, if you
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  will, they don't alienate us from God in that he says, you've
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  sinned. And so I can have nothing to do
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  with you. In fact, when we sin, God
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  reaches out all the more. His grace, his love, his
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  forgiveness, his mercy is greater.
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  It it is shown to be so much greater in our brokenness and in
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  our fallenness. And so I'm so thankful that
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  that's the kind of God that I serve, one who does not love
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  begrudgingly, but one who eagerly loves me.
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  Verse 157 my persecutors and foes are many.
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  I have not turned from your decrees.
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  He says, God, it doesn't matter how many people are against me.
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  I know where my hope is. I knew where my attention needs
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  to be. My attention needs to be on you
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  and on your word and on the way that you have called me to live.
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  And so it doesn't matter how many people I have against me
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  when I know I'm supposed to be following you and I'm not going
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  to allow others to deter me from following you.
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  Verse 158. I've seen the disloyal and feel
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  disgust because they do not keep your word.
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  I, I feel here, this word disloyal is so vivid.
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  It is one that would perhaps pay lip service to God, say, Oh
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  yeah, I, I'm a Christian. I don't really do the church
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  thing. And and I don't know, I don't
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  really have to like follow what the Bible says.
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  I can just, you know, kind of live my life.
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  I I commiserate here with the psalmist.
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  That's disgusting that like to try and say yes, God is truth
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  and love and savior of my life, and also I'm going to ignore him
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  and I'm going to do whatever I want to do.
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  That is the height of arrogance. And may we as the people of God
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  never stoop that low. May we say, no, God, if you
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  bought me, if you redeemed me, if you saved me, if you gave me
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  everlasting life, then my whole life belongs to you.
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  And so I'm going to act and speak and think today like
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  you're in charge of me. Verse 159 Consider how I love
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  your precepts. Yahweh, give me life according
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  to your faithful love. We can have our love for for
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  God, for his word, for his command, for his way of living,
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  but what is most important is not our love for God.
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  It is God's love for us. I just noticed there.
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  Consider how I love your precepts.
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  He doesn't say y'all would give me life according to my love for
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  your precepts. He says God give me life
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  according to your faithful love. My love is just a little shadow
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  of his immense, beautiful, wonderful love.
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  And then finally in verse 160, the entirety of your word is
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  truth. Each of your righteous judgments
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  endures forever. This is one of the reasons we
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  would believe in the, yeah, certainly the inspiration of
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  Scripture, that Scripture is not strictly from man, but holy men
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  of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
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  And we would believe in verbal plenary and inspiration.
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  That is that God inspired every word of Scripture and that all
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  of Scripture is true, and that there's no point in Scripture
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  where I can go to and I can say, well this is right, but this is
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  incorrect. Now we want to determine divide.
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  Scripture correctly. We're going to read Proverbs
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  differently than we read the epistles.
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  We're going to read the narrative portions of Scripture
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  differently than we read the like prophetic or the
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  apocalyptic portions of Scripture.
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  We read them according to the genres in which they are given.
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  But all the Scripture is given by God as breathed out by God,
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  as Second Timothy 316 says. And it is profitable for
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  doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction and
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  righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete,
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  thoroughly equipped for every good work.
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  And how do we have this word of God?
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  Because He gave it to us. Because He wants us to know what
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  His will is so that we can follow it.
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  He doesn't want to leave you in the dark as it relates to your
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  walk with Him or about what your life would entail.
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  He wants to give you all of the tools because He is the one that
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  saves, that gives victory, that redeems the Champions, That is
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  our intercessor. He is the compassionate God.
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  He is the one that is loyal to us, the One that loves us.
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  And so pardon me. And so this truth telling, truth
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  giving God is the one that we should give ourselves over
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  entirely to. Thanks for tuning in today.
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  I hope that it was an encouragement to you.
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  Next episode will be in verses 161 through 168.
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  Thanks for tuning in.