March 19, 2026 - Exodus 17 & Psalm 63

We read Exodus 17 and Psalm 63 and see how quickly real needs can turn into quarrels that question whether God is near. We trace the Bible’s theme of hunger and thirst from the wilderness to Jesus, who alone truly satisfies and gives living water. 

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. 

Transcript

Welcome And Reading Plan Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where you 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 my Tyler Sanborn. Today is Thursday, March 19th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus 17. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarrelled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, then take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the war the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Masa and Meribah, because of the quarrelling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Then Emelech came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, Choose for us men and go out and fight with Imelech. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Emelech, while Moses, Aaron, and Her went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Emelech prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Her held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Emelech and his people with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Emelech from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it the Lord is my banner, saying, A hand upon the throne of the Lord, the Lord will have war with Amelech from generation to generation.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Psalm sixty-three. O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you, so I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my soul will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth, they shall be given over to the power of the sword, they shall be a portion for jackals, but the king shall rejoice in God, all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Well, Israel continues to not learn their lesson. And of course, as we always say, when you think about Israel, we are no better, we would do no better, we would probably be in the same situation responding in the same way, even though quail and bread have been plentiful, and they can eat literally as much as they can and are able to, as each is given their portion in the morning and in the evening. We come to Exodus 17 and the complaining continues. And now instead of food, it's water. We need some water. And of course, they go back to complaining about Egypt. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Why, Moses? And Moses is even as he's praying and crying out to the Lord, is like they're ready to stone me. They are angry, they are upset. And so we continue to see just Israel uh wrestling with the sin of grumbling and complaining. And we also see, just like we saw yesterday, God's patience on display. He continues to provide for them despite themselves, despite their lack of gratitude for all the ways that he has already provided in miraculous ways. And God provides water. He provides water from the rock that Moses, he takes his staff and says, You shall strike the rock, the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he did exactly what God commanded, and God provided exactly as he said he would. So another example of complaining and grumbling and just that that sin that they were so uh prone to and easily given themselves over to, uh, they continue that, but God continues to provide and is gracious to them despite that.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, and uh at the first paragraph chunk here in chapter 17, uh they're asking uh the Lord are essentially, are you are you gonna be who you are, who you have been? Uh and the the names of of these uh of this this place is called Massah and Meribah, and it's testing and quarreling, and there's a very appropriate name for for the the location. Um oftentimes we might be in an improper way asking God to prove himself, asking God to uh to answer the questions to our test and in an unhealthy way and uh uh irreverent way. We can be having expectations of God for him to be providing on on our timeline or in our um in our parameters, and and that just reveals a heart often in us uh that we're impatient, we're we're fearful, we too are grumbling and and we're forgetful. Um, so just another reminder for us today. Um, as we look to James 4.1, I'll be preaching on this this upcoming Sunday. Let's go. Why are there quarrels among you? Why? Um it's it's it's revealing of our heart. What's what's going on inside? You're you're not satisfied. What has been provided to you apparently is not enough, and you want more and more and more, and you you are not content in the Lord.

Amalek Attacks And The Raised Hands

SPEAKER_00 7:22

It's your passions that are at war within you. Um now, as we continue in Exodus 17, don't leave behind Genesis. Don't forget about Genesis. I know for those of you listening, maybe it's fading in your memory because we are a couple weeks away from our reading in Genesis. But here in verse 8, we have this guy, Amalek. Who is this dude? And why is he so angry with Israel? Why is he fighting against them? Well, Amalek is from the descendants of Esau. Remember that promise when uh the twins were in the womb, Jacob and Esau, there'd be two nations, and the older would serve the younger. And we see kind of the the first fruits of the division, of course, between Jacob and Esau, and that that whole story of Jacob being a trickster and a swindler and stealing his birthright and his blessing and and all those things. But here we see the descendants of Esau, specifically. Uh Amalek is the son of Eliphaz and his concubine Timnah. We see that in Genesis 36, verse 12. Uh, but the the uh you know Amalek ultimately is the father of the Amalekites, uh, whom we read about often in the Old Testament, who are enemies of Israel, and there's no question about that. And of course, we see that here where Amalek and his people are warring against Israel. And this is the first battle that they face after they are rescued from slavery to the Egyptians. So they've had some other temp temptations and they they've had some other tests with food and provisions and water, but but this is really the first test of battle, and ultimately they prevail. We see God's uh hands of favor upon them, and of course, Moses lifts his hand up, uh, both of his arms up, and when his hands are in the in the air with his staff, they prevail, and when they come down, uh they are losing, but ultimately they do prevail over the um, you know, Amalek and his armies. Um, and so that's how it kind of ends in verse 16 that a hand upon the throne of the Lord, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. So there's this cry of victory and confidence in the victory that God provides. But again, this is connected all the way back to the genealogies that we see of Esau from Genesis 36 12, and Amalek becomes the father of the Amalekites, and so we need to make sure that we're following and tracking where where all of this is kind of coming from and and where it's leading up to. Um, so I wanted to just point that out.

Food, Water, And Jesus Who Satisfies

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Thanks, PJ. And I I find it interesting that our our text in the Exodus has to do with wanting and needing water, and as we look over to our our psalm today, Psalm 63, um, verse one has this this imagery of thirsting, having uh a thirst for God, having uh a desire and an earnest pursuit of God. Uh and I think in a in a sense, Israel was not. Israel was not relying, depending, needing, pursuing all the time God, and and they are uh grumbling and complaining. And here uh we see David, a psalm of David, he's crying out to God once again, you are my God, I'm gonna pursue earnestly with all that I have, sincerely, faithfully, I'm gonna go after you. Um my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, I'm dependent for you in every way. My every need is is satisfied in you, and there's some imagery here as in a dry and weary land where there is no water, and we're thinking, like, well, that's surely where uh Israel is in uh chapter 17 uh of Exodus, and you know, whether you live in an arid climate in a desert or not, you might have uh rivers running right through your um your hometown or through a valley, and still, nonetheless, no matter where you are, our souls do depend on God's provision in every way, both physically and spiritually. And this is a great reminder for us to continue to to look to God, look to his faithfulness, and to remember what are we doing? It's it's the thing that we come back to. That's the the song, the song book of of Israel, the Psalms, and and there's a common theme of continue to pursue God, continue to look to him. He is your rock, he is where you find satisfaction.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, and I want you to notice this theme of even in Exodus, Exodus chapter 16, what is God providing for uh food? And then in chapter 17, what is he providing? He's providing water. I mean, those are two of the most basic necessities for life. And here in Psalm 63, uh David is saying he is hungering and thirsting for God. Uh oh you, uh God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary, rear weary land when there is no water. Verse 5, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. So we have food and water. And I think it's no mistake that in Jesus' earthly ministry, one of the main miracles that he does is the feeding of the five thousand. We actually had a couple, you know, feeding of the four thousand in the Gospel of Mark and feeding of the five thousand. Um, but there is this theme of food, water, food, water, uh, that Jesus ultimately, even in his earthly ministry, the main miracle again, one of the main miracles being the feeding of lots of people. And that becomes an analogy that in John chapter six, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, whoever uh drinks will never thirst. So uh all throughout the scriptures, we have in Exodus them hungering and thirsting, God providing. Uh, in the Psalms, David hungering and thirsting and finding satisfaction in the Lord, in the New Testament, in the gospels. The crowds are hungering and thirsting, and God, uh, Jesus provides, right? By multiplying that the fish and the loaves and the various miraculous ways that he does that. But then he ultimately says all of that points to me. Your soul hungers and thirsts for something that can only find satisfaction in Jesus. So this is a huge biblical theme that we're seeing uh traces of in Genesis or in Exodus in the Psalms and the New Testament. Jesus is the bread of life. Whoever comes to him will never hunger, he truly satisfies whoever drinks of the living water will never thirst again. And uh that is just all of these connections that you can see throughout the entire Bible.

Living Water, Assurance, And Going To Work

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, some imagery that I'm thinking of in the New Testament is the woman at the well, and Jesus is speaking to her, speaking truths about her that there's no possible way that anyone could know uh about who her husband is. Uh, and and Jesus is speaking to her in a way like you're you're drawing water, child, like you're gonna thirst after you finish this water, but the water that I provide you, the living water, uh, when you taste and drink of that, you will never thirst again. And there's a um there's a confidence that we have in God because of his faithfulness, because of the ways that he has made provision for us to to live eternally, to have spiritual satisfaction um in him. And we don't have to to wander and worry, like wandering in our own minds about where our our eternity lies. We know we have a satisfaction that we can rest and know that he is God and we are his. That we if if Christ has um paid the debt for your sin, you belong to him. He's purchased you with his blood, and and there is an eternal rest that we have in that. Um, but now like what let's go. There's work to do. There's this this living water that satisfies is is empowering you. God is empowering you to work and live out your salvation and and go. Um, so there is this this uh this illustration of we have all that we need in Christ. He provides lavishly, richly, as we look here uh in Psalm 63. And uh, you might not have a ton of material and earthly goods here in this life, but if you have Christ, you are eternally rich. Um, and we have all that we need to to live in this life uh and and please him in the way that we uh we conduct ourselves.

Wrap Up And Keep Reading

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah, and we see this theme with Joseph, right? He there's a there's a famine, there's uh lack, there's emptiness, and God through Joseph provides, he makes them full. We see Ruth and Boaz, it's in the midst of a famine, and Ruth and Naomi head back to uh Bethlehem, uh their their hometown, where or at least Naomi's hometown, to be among the people of God once again, so that they could in the middle of the barley harvest. They could they come there empty-handed, they're hungry, it's in the middle of a famine, and they are because of Boaz's generosity, they are made full, they are provided for. So it's all throughout the scripture. You'll see this whole idea of come to Jesus, he will satisfy, he will provide, whether he's feeding 5,000, whether he's talking explicitly in John chapter six, or he's showing that by way of even kind of um typologically here in Exodus chapter 17 of food and water, God provides our most basic necessities, and in Christ our souls find true satisfaction, and our hunger is quenched and our thirst is quenched in Christ and in Christ alone. So we hope that's an encouragement for you today. Well, thank you so much 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.