March 21, 2026 - Exodus 19 & Psalm 65

We read Exodus 19 and Psalm 65 and see God’s kindness and power alongside a holiness that sets real boundaries for sinful people. We leave encouraged that the same God who thunders on Sinai also provides atonement and brings us near, ultimately through Jesus.

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 Podcast Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bibleing 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, March 21st, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus 19. On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day, do not go near a woman. On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in the thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, Go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Tracing God's Character Through Genesis

SPEAKER_01 3:35

O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the forest seas, the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might, who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. The water it furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty, your wagon tracks overflow with abundance, the pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Why Sinai Highlights God's Holiness

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Tyler, I want you to think back beginning in Genesis, all the way to of course where we are now in Exodus 19, and think about all of the things that we have seen revealed about God and his character. I would say, largely speaking, the things that we have seen that have been either said explicitly or implied by God's actions and his works are that God is powerful. That's one of the first things that we see in Genesis 1. He creates the heavens and the earth with a word. So that's very clear. He is a powerful God. We also see that he is faithful, we see his steadfast love. We see uh Jacob talk about that, we see uh Isaac talk about that, Abraham talk about that, his steadfast love, his faithfulness, we see his, in a lot of ways, his patience with the nation of Israel. But even before the Exodus, where God delivered Israel out of slavery to the Egyptians, we see kind of the idea of his nearness. He hears their cries, he says, I will be with you. There's a sense in which, even he says that to Jacob all the way back in Genesis, I will be with you, I will be your God. So there's a sense of God being near, God hearing, God listening, God caring. What does Jacob say about God at the end of his life? That he has been a shepherd to him all of his days. So there's this sense of tenderness, steadfast love, faithfulness, nearness. And that has been kind of a repeated frame from scripture. But now we're seeing a different side, not a different in terms of God's perspective, but from our vantage point, we're learning something. We're seeing something that is differing in kind from what I just said. Of course, God is all that he is all the time. He is not uh a composite of his parts, right? He's not a sum of his attributes. Uh, but nevertheless, we're learning something and we're seeing something revealed at this point progressively in scripture, and that is is basically how holy God is and how set apart and how other God is. That's coming into focus in a unique way. And so up until this point, again, I think it's been about his nearness, how he is for his people, he's with his people, he his steadfast love, his faithfulness, his power, his might. Of course, his power is on display with the the plagues of the uh you know of the Exodus events against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. But now, beginning in Exodus 19 and onward, we're gonna see the holiness of God. And that's expressed perhaps most clearly with Mount Sinai, with the lightning, the thunder, the cloud of smoke, the the commands to not come too close, the commands to clean your garments, to wash yourself, to consecrate yourself, this whole idea of there there is a big separation. Though God is near, there is nevertheless, in terms of holiness, a huge separation, a huge chasm between God and people and humanity. And that becomes so clear through the Mosaic covenant, which is talked about here in Exodus 19, and the law that's about to be instituted by God. So Mount Sinai really represents kind of a turning point where the holiness of God comes into focus. And this chapter in Exodus 19 really shows us how holy God actually is, because he's saying if you come too close, if you touch the mountain, you're gonna die. And the last time that kind of language was used, it was against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, that kind of harshness, if you will. But now he's saying that about his own people, the people that he just rescued and delivered and loved. And now he's saying, You, you guys, nation of Israel, my covenant people, if you get too close, if you don't consecrate yourselves, if you don't watch out, if you uh are not understanding how holy I am and how set apart and how uh perfect I am, you you're gonna uh you're gonna die, you're gonna lose your life.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Yeah, I love how verse five says it. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And God's people, if they're if they're going to be uh like him, holy, they're called to follow in a way that is pleasing to God, they too will be different. They will be set apart in a way that is different than every other nation around them. Uh, God has chosen his people, they are his, and they belong, they belong to God. He went out and said, uh, not Egypt, not uh not Philistia, not Edom, no Israel. You are my people, I am your God, and there's a way that we go about living. If you're uh if you're God's possession, uh the the maker determines the the function of the creation and for the people that have um been secured in Christ, for people that are God's possession, we are to live according to his design.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah, well, we begin to see so clearly in Exodus 19, again, the the holiness of God, that he is, as it says in Isaiah, holy, holy, holy. And this holiness, uh, when compared to the sinfulness and the corruption of man from our perspective is dangerous, right? That's what he says, even to end the chapter. And the Lord said to him, Go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you, but did not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them, lest they lose their life, if they don't understand how separated and other God is because of his perfection and his holiness. And Exodus 19 draws our attention to that reality. Of course, he is near, of course, his steadfast love and faithfulness endure forever. Of course, he's powerful. He's demonstrated that from the beginning in creation and preserving his promise and protecting his people through the plagues of Exodus. He even talks about how his power is intended really to show that he is the Lord. But now, here for his people, he's saying, I am holy, and you as a nation, as my people, as my nation, you will also be holy. You'll be set apart. Of course, in a different way, uh, they are sinful and corrupt, and they're gonna worship golden calves and do all kinds of stuff. But they are intended, and the Mosaic law uh, in a large part is intended to set the nation of Israel apart from the other nations. They are to live in a uniquely bound way by God as a way on earth to show the heavenly reality of God's holiness, his otherness, that he is set apart, that there is no one like him, that he exists in a category of his own, right? There is no category of God. There just is God, right? Like he just is, and there's no one like him, no one before him, none after him, not one, he says. He knows not one. So Exodus 19 kind of gets us going towards the holiness of God. And progressively we're beginning to get a clearer, fuller picture of the character of God. Now, of course, as New Testament, New Covenant believers, we have the whole canon of scripture, so we know that. Uh, but I'm just saying if you if you track this progressively from where we've been in Genesis to now where we are in Exodus, you're kind of seeing this unfold. And this has not been something that has been as obvious or as clearly revealed up until this point. And this is, I think, intentional by God. He's showing him who who he is, he's showing the nation of Israel who he is, his character, that he is a shepherd to them, that he cares for them, that he's going to provide for them, that he loves them. But now he's going to show them really their condition and their plight. Because his holiness, similar to Isaiah 6, his response is, Woe to me, I'm a man of unclean lips, I am undone. And now here, Israel at the mountain, at Mount Sinai, the mountain of the Lord, we see them kind of coming to grips with the reality of their condition before this holy God, such that they can't get too close, they can't touch the mountain, they can't uh do these things because they are unclean. And God uh is anything but that. He is holy, holy, holy. And so Exodus 19, again, Mosaic covenants kind of bound up in all this. That's where we get the law, and we'll talk more about that as we continue with the Ten Commandments uh in Exodus 20 and onward. Uh, but just take Exodus 19 as the chapter that really kind of kicks off in progressive revelation the idea of God's holiness that'll become a huge, huge theme for the rest of Scripture as a whole.

Learning Reverence And True Worship

Atonement And Nearness Through Jesus

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Awesome. Thanks for that great explanation, Pastor Josiah. And as we see uh in Exodus, and as we look over to our passage in Psalm today, God makes it clear how to approach him, makes it clear how to uh show reverence and respect to him. You're gonna do these things, you're gonna uh bring your garments and wash them. You're going to um you're gonna consecrate yourselves, and there's there's a way that you are gonna go about approaching. I'm gonna give you clear directions and clear instructions. And I, as we think back to last Sunday, we we need those instructions. We need clear explanations on how to go about pleasing God. If we were to left to our own devices, how do we please God? We wouldn't know. Uh we're not like God. We don't know, we don't know anything about God unless he reveals himself to us. So as we we think about that, we think about uh the things that he has done, the great power he has shown, the wonders that he has um done in Egypt, and as he's continuing to lead his people uh to Mount Sinai, to the mountain of God, uh we think about worship. It's a it's a place of worship, it's a place where God's going to display and explain to his people this is how you worship me with your life, this is how you are to live, how you are to conduct yourselves as my people, as a people set apart, a people that is holy. And uh as we hear the the the psalm of David here in Psalm 65, our God is worthy of praise. Uh, he is in Zion. And we're going to see in in the following chapters what to do, what not to do, how do we go about praying, how do we go about worshiping and sacrificing to this God? How shall these these vows be performed to a perfect and holy God? And we think about the the way that God chooses to reveal himself. It's a kindness of the Lord that he would explain how to please him, how to follow him, how to worship him. Uh and it's it's a thing that is satisfying for us. It's good for us to know how to worship God. It's it's we're not left for us to kind of trial and error figure it out. That would not go well for us to bring uh unworthy praise and unworthy worship that is not uh pleasing to the Lord. Uh we we don't we don't have to think about uh I think Cain, uh Cain and Abel. There's there's a a proper way to bring worship to the Lord. We weren't given the explicit details, but one way was pleasing and and one way was not. And it and it boils down to I think a lot of the attitude of our hearts and following in the instructions and guidelines that God has set out for us.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, and here even in verse 3, it says when iniquity, when iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. We have the idea of atonement that, of course, is linked to the Mosaic covenant, the Levitical law, the Levitical priesthood, the Iranic priesthood that is from the tribe of Levi. And so we see when iniquities prevail against me, when sin overtakes me, essentially is what David is saying. You atone for our transgressions. It is God who pursues the sinful, even though he is holy. And he goes on to even talk about the holiness of God in verse 4. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. God dwells in holiness. He is holy, he is holy, holy, holy. Um, and though that is true, he is also loving, he is also merciful, he is also gracious, and so though he is holy, set apart, completely separate from sinful man, he provides a way to atone for the transgressions of mankind. And of course, we know crystal clear, uh the New Testament is crystal clear that Jesus is the way in which we can experience atonement for our sins. He he is the the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the means by which sinful man can then be reconciled to holy, to a holy God. Even in Ephesians 1, Paul talks about that God predestined to adopt us to make us holy and blameless before him. And so there's a reality that in Christ, God makes us what only he is, so that we can dwell with him forever. We see that here in Psalm 65. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house. We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, as David says elsewhere in Psalm 23, the holiness of your temple. It's the means of salvation that God provides through the atoning work and sacrifice of his son, the ultimate land of God, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Joy In God's Provision In Creation

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah, and I love this salvation imagery here. By the awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation in verse 5. The hope of all the ends of the earth and of the the pharisees. God is the one who is providing, the one who is drawing near to his people, the one who is welcoming people into a covenantal relationship with him. And for that, we have great reason to worship. We have a great reason to be to be glad. And uh by by the strength of his power, he has made a way for us to be saved. And the the signs that he has shown over the course of history, as we look through the book of Genesis, and now we're into the book of Exodus, we see that God's faithfulness is ever present, and for that we can sing for joy. I love this imagery here also in verse 8. You make the going out of the morning in the evening to shout for joy. I'm just imagining people that lived void of electricity, they are often waiting for the sunlight to creep over a mountain or over the horizon. There, there's an excitement of a new day, a new life, a new joy to have. And also the the evening, uh, the evening time and the heat of the day, we're we're longing for that coolness, cool weather. And we were out with my family and the kiddos the other the other day, and it was hot. Uh the weather is starting to pick up uh in the afternoons. And my favorite time of the day of this time of year is when uh the sun is is dipping down and it there's a lot of shadows cast, and there's a coolness, but there's still light. So um this evening, uh this evening light that is um this so enjoyable, uh so so fulfilling. Uh I find a lot of excitement just praising God for the changing of seasons, for his faithfulness. And I as we we're waiting for this water to start flowing into the valley out of the reservoirs. We were talking about this the other day, Pastor Pastor Josiah. It's God that provides um the means for things to grow. It's God that provides the water and the rains for for uh for the crop to thrive and to flourish. It's God that brings the showers, that brings the growth. Um, it's God that brings an abundance to the pastures. It's God that brings the overflow and the abundance. And this is this is what we get to see, this excitement in spring where things are coming alive, things are waking up. I'm just so excited to just remember that day after day as we see things starting to blossom. We see uh the fruit trees and the magnolia trees, and my favorite of all the blossoming trees is the dogwood. They're so so vivid and bright and just a great reminder of God's love for us.

Closing And Church Info

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah. So be encouraged today from Exodus 19 in Psalm 65 by the reality that though God asserts his holiness and his otherness and makes clear through that assertion the depravity of man, the fallenness of man, he nevertheless here in Psalm 65, and of course in the New Testament, shows us that he pursues and makes a way for sinful man to be reconciled to holy God. And so that is such a great encouragement. Hopefully you're encouraged by that 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 compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.