Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / May 12, 2026 - Leviticus 23 & Psalm 102

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May 12, 2026 - Leviticus 23 & Psalm 102 · 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 lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Tuesday, May 12th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a quick summary of Leviticus 23.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 23 outlines the feast that the nation of Israel were to celebrate on a specific rhythm that was tied to the yearly calendar.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Sabbath sort of serves as the backbone of that, kind of the foundation of that, that was to be observed weekly.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have things like the Passover, which is connected to the Exodus, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, which we've already talked about in Leviticus, the Feast of Booths, and all of these different feasts, again, and all their instructions of how they were to celebrate, what they were to remember, what these feasts were intended to commemorate, and how they were to do that on a yearly basis, and sometimes even more than a yearly basis.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what Leviticus 23 is all about.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 102.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come to you.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear to me.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Answer me speedily in the day when I call.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: For when my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace, my heart is struck down like grass and is withered.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I forget to eat my bread.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I lie awake, I am like a lonely sparrow on the house top.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: All the day my enemies taunt me, those who deride me use my name for a curse.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger, for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: My days are like an evening shadow, I wither away like grass.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You are remembered throughout all generations.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: You will arise and have pity on Zion.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is the time to favor her.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: The appointed time has come, for your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord builds up Zion, he appears in his glory, he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord, that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gathered together in kingdoms to worship the Lord, he has broken my strength in mid-course, he has shortened my days.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: O my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days, you whose years endure throughout all generations.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: They will perish, but you will remain.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: They will all wear out like a garment, you will change them like a robe, and they will pass away.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: But you are the same, and your years have no end.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The children of your servants shall dwell secure, their offspring shall be established before you.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Six days the Lord created.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: On the seventh, he rested.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So they were not to work, they were to rest, and it was to be observed throughout all Israelite settlements.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And beyond this weekly rhythm, right, there were three major festivals that really kind of structured the year.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was the Passover, also connected to the first fruits, uh the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, that's kind of marking the spring harvest, and the feast of tabernacles, which was associated with the fall harvest.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So each of these carries both uh kind of an agricultural and religious uh significance.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh Passover, again, that connects back to the Exodus event, that occurs, it says in Leviticus 23 and in Exodus on the 14th day of the first month at twilight.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, the feast of unleavened bread was for them to remember the haste that God sort of delivered them, pluck them out of Egypt.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so so quickly did they have to pack up and leave that their bread wasn't leavened.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't even have time to mix the leaven in with the bread.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so they were to leave it in that condition and to have a whole feast dedicated to remember that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that feast was to last seven days.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then the feast of first fruits involves bringing the sheaf of the harvest firstfruits to the priest who presents it as a wave offering before the Lord on the day after the Sabbath.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's accompanied by kind of a male lamb offering as a burnt offering.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in addition, the the calendar, this calendar year that Israel was to observe, also includes the Feast of Trumpets, that's the first day of the seventh month, the day of atonement, that's the tenth day of the seventh month, and the feast of booze, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: The 15th through the 22nd of the seventh month.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a lot of a lot of dates and a lot of months to remember.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but these feasts are important.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: They kind of again establish a yearly rhythm for the nation of Israel.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to make sure that we are understanding what these are and kind of even what they point forward to.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so unlike festivals in surrounding um, you know, ancient Near East cultures that sort of commemorated, I don't know, just their deities in general, uh, Israel was to have these feasts to explicitly remember their historical deliverance from the nation of Egypt, right?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, particularly Passover and the unleavened bread and tabernacles, these feasts, um, they all recall very expressly God's rescue from Egypt.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then addition that the free festivals of Passover, first fruits, and weeks, those are often considered, if you read different commentaries, uh, as these feasts that point forward and ultimately find their fulfillment in what we now sort of celebrate as New Testament Christians in Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh these feasts in Leviticus 23, they anticipate, anticipate ultimately what Christ would accomplish on the cross as they pointed to him, uh, like the Old Testament sacrifices did as a whole.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was a lot uh for Leviticus 23, but I just want you to kind of slow down and read uh just the different feasts that are present in Leviticus 23 and kind of make the connections because, of course, there's all these connections to the Passover, to the Sabbath, uh, and the Gospels, the day of Pentecost, of course, which is connected uh to some of the feasts here that we're reading in Leviticus 23 and some prophecies that Joel, uh the prophet Joel makes in Joel chapter 2.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of just uh contextual, intertextual connections that begin here in Leviticus 23 that are important for just getting a sense, kind of wrapping our arms around the story of the Bible as a whole.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Psalm 102 is uh just a great psalm.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the psalms are rich and they are uh so good to kind of walk through at the pace that we are that we are able to, just one a day where we get to reflect and pray along with the saints from old to our God and remember his faithfulness.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the superscription of this psalm is a prayer of one afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so one thing that I just want to draw your attention to in this psalm.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: You probably, if you've already read it, guessed it from the the end of this song, psalm.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, this is a quotation that feels and sounds very familiar for uh from what we have been talking about on Sunday morning.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in verse 25, of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: They will perish, but you will remain.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: They will all wear out like a garment, you will change them like a robe, and they will pass away.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you are the same, and your years have no end.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: That, of course, is a quote by the author of Hebrews at the end there of Hebrews chapter one, to establish the authority of Jesus, his divinity, his rule as king that extends forever and ever and ever.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: He is the king of righteousness, he does the right thing in the right way at the right time, every single time he rules with the scepter of uprightness, as we talked about from Hebrews chapter one.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And here, this was the idea that Jesus is not going to change, and that's such good news because he he's not going to one day wake up, as it were, and decide that he is no longer for us.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna wake up and decide that he's gonna he's gonna love wickedness rather than righteousness.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, he he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, unlike creation, that's like a robe uh that will roll up and and pass away.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus and his years will have no end, his rule will have no end, and that's how the author of Hebrews uses this quotation, uses this psalm specifically to talk about Jesus.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, even the context of Psalm 102, we talked about the superscription, is a prayer of one afflicted.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it would be appropriate from a pastoral perspective that the author of Hebrews would quote this to encourage those who are currently experiencing affliction, these Jewish Christians that are experiencing persecution for their belief uh to Christ, their devotion to Christ, and they are really tempted to look over their shoulder to want to go back to Judaism, to the sacrificial system.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so the author of Hebrews, with great pastoral concern in his heart for these people that are afflicted, he says, Remember what your fathers used to pray about in Psalm 102?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were praying for the one that you now know is Jesus, the eternal Son of God that took on flesh, who rules with the scepter of uprightness, who loves righteousness and hates wickedness.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he is seeking to encourage them by saying, You laid the foundation of the earth.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is who you are trusting in.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: The heavens are the work of his hands, they will perish, but he will remain.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: The things that you're looking to, they're gonna fade away, but he will remain.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like a garment, they will all wear out.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: You will change them like a robe and they will pass away.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you are the same and your years have no end.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how it ends here.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: The children of your servants shall dwell secure, their offspring shall be established before you.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta think if you're a part of this Jewish Christian audience that was uh originally intended of the writing of Hebrews, and they're hearing this quotation from Psalm 102.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we gotta assume that there's some level of familiarity, probably.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's likely, uh, it's reasonable to consider to uh at least consider that they would have just a great awareness of Psalm 102.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're hearing this quotation, and and what they're receiving, uh hopefully by faith, is that the children of the servants of the Lord shall dwell secure, their offspring shall be established before him.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so in the midst of their persecution, in the midst of their uncertainty, the author of Hebrews says, Hey, Jesus is the one that those who were afflicted of old, your your fathers who were afflicted of old, that they were hoping in, that they were trusting in it's Jesus.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you can see just a lot of textual continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament, even between Leviticus and Hebrews, or uh Leviticus and just the gospel in general, or Psalm 102 and Hebrews specifically, as it's quoted there in chapter one.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So just a lot of great connections, a lot of things that we can see, uh, how God divinely created this tapestry in the scriptures that give us this great grand picture of who our Savior is.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Bally, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is the lamp to your feet and a light to your path.