January 10, 2026 - Genesis 9 & Psalm 9

Genesis 9 & Psalm 9 detail the establishment of human government, the blessings of obedience and the curse of habitual sin, and how the Lord is to be praised. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Readings
• 0:28 God’s Covenant With Noah
• 2:35 Human Life, Justice, And Government
• 9:20 Noah’s Shame And Prophetic Curses
• 15:58 Counting God’s Deeds In Psalm 9
• 20:54 Justice, Comfort, And Gratitude
• 21:39 Closing And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

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. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Saturday, January 10th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 9. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hands they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood, and for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it, and from man, from his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image, and you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it, and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. After the flood, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

SPEAKER_00: 3:29

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations, you have made the wicked perish. You have blotted out their name for ever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins, their cities he rooted out. The very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits and throned forever. He has established the throne, his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness, he judges the peoples with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble, and those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples of his deeds, for he who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord, see my affliction from those who hate me. O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they made, in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known, he has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God, for the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord, let not men, let not man prevail, let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord, let the nations know that they are but men.

SPEAKER_01: 5:45

Well, today we have a lot going on in Genesis nine. But there in verse one of Genesis nine, it said, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. So you see there that parallel language from the creation of count in Genesis one and two, this being a new creation, so to speak, as Noah and his family are now safely off of the ark and are on dry ground. But even beyond that, we see in Genesis 9 this command given, specifically as it connects to food that they are to eat. It says in verse 3, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And so there is this explicit command of what they are to eat and what they are not to eat. And again, that parallels the creation account. You can have all of the fruit of the trees except for that one tree. And with this command, we see the institution of human government. There is going to be now moving forward, this institution and this ability for man to enact justice on behalf of other men. So it says there in verse six whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And there in verse six, we see a couple of things. One, the reaffirmation of the dignity and the value of human life. And because of the dignity and value of human life, we also see the institution of policing, so to speak, uh humans and being being able to enforce laws and to enact punishment for those who would treat human life with anything less than the dignity that it deserves. So we see the institution of human government, and that will continue to unfold, and there'll be laws that are added to that. And then, of course, we see that connection in Romans 13 that talks about human government being the institution that was created by God, and even the leaders within that government are placed there by God, and they are to bear the sword and protect the people and all of those things. But we see the first fruits of that here in Genesis 9.

SPEAKER_00: 8:08

You know, something that I'm connecting in my own home to this passage, Josiah's, is sometimes my my children will come to me and they'll they'll tell me one of their siblings is doing something that is not right, that is not just, and they come to me, and if if I'm in a if I'm in a situation where I I don't want to or I it's not convenient for me to go and address it firsthand in in their presence, I will tell them to share a certain message with their sibling and said, Dad said this. And there's there's this there's this authority that is given to man from God and it's it's instituted, and there's this this reverence and authority that's implied where we're to do this because God told us to.

SPEAKER_01: 9:01

Right. As you were telling that, uh I would I just was imagining you in a judge robe with a gavel. All right, with your your kids. All right, kids. Let's state your case, and then you make the final pronouncement. But yes, uh, that's a that's a great illustration. We we see that there is a lot uh of need for this with the the sin that is compounding in the world, and even in Genesis 9, we're gonna see in just a second, the the sin that continues to plague humanity that connects back to Genesis 3. But there is this need for someone on earth, a physical representation of God's justice, uh, to be displayed and you could say even doled out by another human, by a father in this instance, or by a police officer in our modern age, or by uh a judge, or whoever, there there is this need uh to be able to hold one another accountable and to be able to enact justice. Now, in Genesis 9, of course, this command is directly from God. So it's a divine command, it's a divine decree, and the stakes are high because it says whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. So we're talking about uh life or death with these commands specifically. So that's the first fruits of human government that that continues to grow and of course has evolved to what we see today. But towards the end of Genesis 9, specifically in Genesis 9, 18 through 28, we see an interesting episode, you could call it, uh, of blessings and curses. And there's a weird, you know, the the weird, I don't know what's going on with uh Ham going and seeing his father's nakedness and and then running out of the tent to tell his brothers. And there's a there's a lot of strange things happening. And then Noah wakes up and pronounces this curse on Canaan, Ham's son. Uh well, there's a lot of things culturally that they need to be understood. What Ham ended up doing in interacting and seeing his father's nakedness and then going and sharing that with his brothers, this was a uh something that brought immense shame on the family. This was something that was derogatory towards Noah, the way in which Ham stumbled upon uh his father's nakedness, and then the way in which he went out and almost sort of boldly and brazenly uh told his brothers, you can kind of picture perhaps there was some some chuckling in his voice as he's communicating this, and he's not honoring his father. This is something that brought immense uh shame. And so Noah wakes up and he pronounces this curse. He says, there in um verse 25, uh he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. Now, what's going on here? Why is Canaan Ham's son being cursed? Well, what this is think of this not necessarily as Noah saying, This is exactly what is going to happen, and because Noah says it, that's why it's happening. That's not really what's going on here. What Noah is doing is he's actually speaking uh uh in biblical terms, sometimes it's called an oracle, or perhaps more familiar to you, is a prophecy. So this is a prophecy where Noah basically is saying that the line of Ham, that the Canaanites ultimately, they are going to be plagued by the sin of Ham. So it's not Noah's words that he's somehow binding them to that sin. It's just a prophetic pronouncement that their sin of uh wickedness and uh even the sin of bringing shame to others and ultimately shame to the Lord, and there's some even some sexual innuendo kind of going on in this connection to Ham and his father's nakedness, and all of that is going to basically mark the Canaanite nation as a whole. So it's it's prophetic, and so it's their sin that binds them, it's their sin that ultimately curses them. It's not Noah's words, it's not causative, it's not Noah says it and then it happens, and the reason why it happens is because Noah says it. He's prophetically saying this will happen, and he's just kind of telling that ahead of time that in a prophetic way. So hopefully that is clear, and really what we're seeing is the again the devastating effects of uh sin, the devastating effects of sin continuing to plague this family. And you could even kind of parallel this to almost a reenactment of the garden where uh Ham and his family, the Canaanites, they're kind of getting kicked out. And instead of a uh an angel, a cherubim standing with a flaming sword, keeping them from coming back, it's their own sin this time that is really barring them from receiving the blessing of the Lord. So we have blessing and cursing, and the people who are blessed in this passage are those who obey the Lord, those who serve the Lord. And so we want to make sure that you understand that what's going on here is Noah is speaking a prophecy, right? It's not, we think of Noah saying, Well, you're cursed, and uh, it was Noah saying those words that made it happen. Well, no, that he was just uh under the inspiration of the Spirit is seeing and prophetically what's going to plague this nation, the Canaanites. And if you know or familiar with the story, in the Old Testament, the Canaanites became almost enemy number one to the nation of uh Israel. So that's all kind of bound up in uh what's going on. And as we close chapter 9, uh it says in verse 29, all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. So that's just again a kind of a almost a sudden reminder calling back to Genesis 5, where there's that genealogy of Adam, and they all died. This person lived this long for this many years, had this many children, and then they died. Here it is again. And I wrote a note in uh my Bible. I don't know when I wrote this, but it just says, curse still cursing. Uh so that that's a very technical way to describe what's going on here in uh verse 29. The curse is still cursing. Uh there sin continues to bring uh corruption and death, and uh even the nation of Canaan and the Canaanites, they are plagued with this sexual sin and idolatry and heaping shame on themselves and ultimately on the Lord, and then all of that's bound up in really disobedience or obedience, and we see obedience leading to blessing, obedience leading to the Lord, uh showing his favor and his grace to his people.

SPEAKER_00: 15:48

So at the end of chapter nine in Genesis, Josiah, we see we see the age listed of Noah, and then he dies. Uh 950 years. Now there's a lot of counting when we look at genealogies. We look at we look at the span of life, uh, we look at numbers specifically to attach to how long someone has existed uh on the earth, and I'm transitioning to Psalm chapter 9 and like the counting of the wonderful deeds of God. Now, back when I was a kid, I I had the different ways of counting my money. I would I would stack my change that I would save. Uh I'd be doing chores and earning a nickel here, a dime here, a quarter here, a dollar if you're doing a big, a big job. And uh I would often um count, I would, I would count and recount, make sure how much money I have. Uh and as I'm saving up for a certain thing that I have my eyes on. Uh maybe it's uh um uh baseball related in the glove, batting gloves or something like that, or um some I black, I I would have to recount and make sure how much money I had, but now it's different. We just look at our bank account and just see a number. We could look at debits and credits, transactions, and it's I mean you can think of me, maybe how many times you swiped your card, but the the times that I think about um kind of mountain peak times in my life when there's big transition happening. Uh I I think about times like right now. We're we're about to to plant a church and some big things happening. And we can we can look back, um, and I can look back at the past seven years. Seven years ago, uh Sadie and I moved away from all of her family. Uh we we moved out with my parents and we started attending before launch, Compass Bible Church, Treasure Valley. And I'm I've had some moments this past week to think and reflect on God's kindness, all the wonderful deeds that that He has accomplished. And um, I I just want to challenge our listeners when you're counting things or recounting things in your life, you're reflecting back, what what are they? Are you are you keeping track of maybe your own failures, how many times you've maybe let people down, maybe you're keeping track of how many times um certain people in the workplace have have wronged you. You might be thinking about uh your children and how just so frequently they they disobey you, you're recounting all of their disobedience. Uh you may you might even be thinking about your spouse in a certain way like this. And I just want to challenge our listeners to to make sure to double check, to bring to mind God's wonderful deeds and be glad in them. Be sing his praises for them. This is this is going to frame your mind and frame your heart in a way that that looks at your circumstances, that looks at the um the people that may oppose you or oppress you or wrong you. Um where where justice, we're talking about me in a in a judge attire, uh, where justice and judgment are not honorable, they're not they're not pure. And I I want to challenge our our our listeners to do that and and to reflect as we as we walk into this this final Sunday. Um take a moment and reflect. Take a walk. Go sit down in silence and just reflect and recount all the ways that God has has blessed you, all the friendships God has brought into your life, uh, all the ways that God has filled your heart with joy and has comforted you. God has surely brought new friends into your life over the past handful of years. I can Sadie and I can say that about about our our family and our children. Um so take a moment and do that. Um take a moment and do that and uh think about primarily primarily in this setting, salvation. Think about all the people that God has brought into your life to. Help you see your need for the Savior. Uh in verse 14 uh of Psalm chapter 9, it reads, That I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. And we need to rejoice because we have a wonderful and kind and loving and uh purely just Savior. Uh there's there's gonna come a time when when all sin will be will be punished. There's a time in the future that all justice will be executed perfectly, uh purely, unadulterated. This this justice that will that will come forth will be uh will be pure and the nations will be judged. We we see David in this in the psalm singing praises to God, acknowledging that it's God that sits on the throne, it's God that is enthroned in Zion, and it's God that is gracious, he sees the afflictions, he knows when you've been done, when when wrong has been done to you. He he sees when when justice is not executed, and we can find a confidence in that, we can find a comfort in that that surpasses all understanding.

SPEAKER_01: 21:13

Amen. And may we give thanks, like David here in verses one and two, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds, I will be glad and exult in you, I will sing praise to your name, O Most High, and may we live lives of thanks, thankfulness to the Lord Most High. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.