April 7, 2026 - Exodus 33 & Psalm 78:1-9

We read Exodus 33 and Psalm 78 and feel the weight of a question that won’t go away: do we want God’s gifts or God’s presence? We look at Moses’ bold dependence on Yahweh, then take Psalm 78 as a reminder to point the next generation to set their hope in God. 

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

Exodus 33 Reading

Psalm 78 Reading

Sanctification And Growing By The Word

Passing Faith To The Next Generation

Israel’s Stiff Necked Rebellion

The Tent Of Meeting

If You Don’t Go We Won’t

Show Me Your Glory

Closing Encouragement And Where To Learn More

SPEAKER_00 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 Tyler Sanborn, Student Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church South Valley. Today is Tuesday, April seventh, twenty twenty six. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus thirty three. The Lord said to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you've brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your offspring I will give it, I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people. When the people heard this disastrous word they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments, for the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you are a stiff necked people. If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you. Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting, and everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, Bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me, yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too this nation is your people, and he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here, for how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct? I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. Moses said, Please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Psalm seventy eight verses one through eight. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth and a parable, I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. As we learn and grow through reading and meditating on God's word and the way that he instructs and leads us and shapes our affections and our hearts and our minds towards him, we have this ongoing growth pattern through the work of the Holy Spirit. This is called our sanctification. And as I think about the many uh children at our church at Compass Bible Church South Valley, I think of all the opportunities that God has given all the parents and in uh in a certain sense with a partnership, all the leaders and teachers and uh the different opportunities to preach to these young ones. Uh I'm just so thankful. I'm I'm so thankful for all the volunteers and the people that have said yes to studying God's word and uh working to understand the the heart of the text and and what that means uh for our children. And Psalm 78 brings my attention to the importance of consistently, faithfully, lovingly, bringing the word of God to the minds and hearts of the young ones in our church. I love verse one, how Psalm 78 opens, give ear, O my people, to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I had a a youth pastor when I was in high school, as he would notice people kind of dozing off or daydreaming or being distracted by whatever it was, he would say in the middle of the sermon, to interrupt a sentence, even he would say, Look up, and then continue on preaching. And oftentimes we need to do that with uh with our our young ones in this church. Hey guys, look up. Remember, this is important for you to be listening to. Uh, these words that you might not fully understand now, in the future, they're gonna be more and more clear as you hear them again and again, and you're making connections. There are countless opportunities for us to help our our young ones uh in our church to hide God's word in their heart to help them to remember. And as I think about my upbringing, I in many ways would not want my children to make the same mistakes that I did. I would not want history to repeat itself. And our text in the Psalms today draws our attention to that the history, the upbringing, the promises of God and the law of God to his people, to Jacob, to Israel, and there's a charge for us. There's a charge for the people in our church to deliver this truth to the next generation. The word of God is mighty and powerful, and our students and young ones in our church have an amazing opportunity week after week after week to sit under teaching from God's word, whether that's in homes or on a Wednesday or on a Tuesday or a Thursday or a Sunday night. There's so many opportunities for our youth to be soaking up God's word. And as adults in our church, we have a great opportunity to say at the appropriate time, at the appropriate place. I just like to share how I wasn't obeying God, how I fell short, and just how God taught me, how he instructed me, how he corrected me. Um Psalm 78 is a strong charge for us to look at the mistakes that we've made, to look at uh the rebellion in our hearts as we reflect back on how kind and patient God has been, and just to think about the future, the disciple-making process, and how we are to uh steward God's word and not hide these truths in scriptures from our children, we're to to tell them. Verse 4 says, Tell the coming generations the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. And that's a great encouragement for us and a reminder for us to not uh to not sleep on all these opportunities that go by day after day after day. Like help us, God, what should be our prayer? Help us to be in the moment and to seize every opportunity to be speaking into the lives of our young ones in this church and um to point them to the commandments of God, to the works of God, and where they should ultimately set their hope and trust in this life. I'm just so thankful for this text for me as I think about my my kiddos at home and in the ways that I am directing their attention to their maker, the creator of all things, ultimately to the uh the God that can save them from their sin. As we turn to our text in Exodus 33, uh, we see the the God of Israel, we see Yahweh calling his people stiff-necked. They are rebellious. And I'm thinking about just a visual illustration of those stubborn dogs that are not trained properly, they're not trained well, or they're disobedient. You try to take them out on a leash and you try directing them, we're gonna be turning left, we're gonna be turning right here, and they are just fighting you all the way. Uh, they're if dogs have trap muscles, trapezius muscles, they're the most dominant and strong of all the muscles in their body. Um, I don't know if that's accurate. All you dog people out there, you can correct me. I'm not super sharp with um canine anatomy and physiology, but uh, you get the picture here. We we're looking at a people that have seen God's mighty works in Egypt. We've seen him deliver them through the Red Sea and provide miraculously in the desert, and God is He's writing them the law, how you are to be set apart, Israel. I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you. And before the law can make its way down the mountain, down Mount Sinai, the golden calf happened. We see them offering up worship. The Lord is saying, but I'm not gonna go amongst you in your midst, because um, if if I were essentially, it might not go well for you. If you if you disobey again, I might just snatch you up and end your life on the spot. It's on site. And I think uh that that's a kindness from the Lord and a way that He is disciplining and correcting, instructing His people. Your decisions have strong consequences when you when you lift up worship to anything or anyone but me. And as we continue on in the text here, the tenta meeting that we spoke about last week, we see this tenta meeting and what's going on as Moses goes to meet with the Lord. The people are standing outside of their tents and they are worshiping. We see this cloud descending, uh, though we just spoke about God's presence not being with them, though when Moses goes out, there is this reminder of like God is still with us, God is still choosing to um to lead us via Moses, and Moses is meeting God face to face, and it says, as a man speaks to his friend, and though God is spirit, the father does not have a face, this is an anthropomorphism giving humanly uh uh characteristics to to an eternal God. Um this is a great encouragement for the people of Israel to see, no, God is still faithful, God is still working, God is still leading, and and Moses, he he's the guy that God has chosen to do this. And there's this nod again to Joshua. Seems like there is this raising up of a leader, there's an assistant of sorts, this young man that Moses is interacting with. He's serving Moses and providing maybe for his needs as he is going back and forth and meeting with the Lord. Now, the the heart of the the text in Exodus 33 draws our attention to the sincere interaction with Moses and Yahweh, and and Moses is saying, essentially, if you're not leading us, God, we're not going. If you're not gonna go with us, how are how are we set apart? How are we your people if you don't go with us? And um he Yahweh just assures Moses, I'm gonna be with you, my presence will go with you, and I'm gonna give you rest. And Moses is looking for essentially another another guy. Like, who are you gonna send me this time? It was it was Aaron for Pharaoh, but is there is there a new man? Is there a new avenger that's gonna come by my side to um to go with me as we march on to the promised land? And and God says, I'm gonna be with you. Um, and and Moses is pleading, if your presence is not with us, don't bring us out of here. I don't want to go without you. I'm not gonna take another step unless you are by my side. And and what a sweet picture into the heart of Moses as he's seeking God and asking him to uh to show him his glory. Um I I was listening to a professor not too long ago that would that would take this question that Moses um proposes to God and says, My glory, uh, my glory, what do you mean? Show show me your glory. Were you not were you not watching what was going down in Egypt? Were you not watching these miracles that I was per performing right before your eyes? And and this there's this there's this tenderness and this eagerness to to pursue the Lord and to seek the Lord. Um, and and God does, and He does in a in a unique way, a specific way that's kind to Moses, that that's not gonna leave him dead. We don't have any super clear illustrations as to how or what that glory looked like visually to Moses, but we do understand that this is kind of one of those moments where not much is said afterwards, and maybe it was because there was this a lack of words to describe um just how amazing this interaction was between God and Moses. So we we can look here and see the eager heart, the desire uh and this this fullness of of sincerity that Moses has as he's depending on God to go with him, depending on God and his promises. Uh, he's even reflecting back. Uh remember, we're yours. Remember the promises you made to our forefathers, and and and God, if if you're not with us, we don't want to go. Moses is saying, this whole set apart thing, we are yours, and um, and you're calling us your own people. If that's not true, if you're not going with us, how can we be set apart? I'm thinking about this interaction, and I I'm looking to verse 19, and I'm looking at the text that says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And uh, for every believer that is in Christ that has a spirit dwelling within them, they can truly say, God has been so gracious to me, his mercy is new to me every day, and I'm so thankful for that. And God's goodness has never left me. God, though life has been hard sometimes, life is in in seasons is excruciating, and earthly comfort and and peace don't satisfy, but God, you do. God, you satisfy, you bring me comfort, you bring me peace in my suffering. And God, we we want to be like the people that are standing at the tent doors as as Moses goes to meet with Yahweh. We want to be people that are regularly worshiping the Lord from hearts that that remember his faithfulness, from hearts that remember his power and his might to save and to deliver us from our sins and uh the promise that we have life in him everlasting as a result of his kindness is is what we reflect on when we think about texts like Psalm 78. We think about all the many people that were so carefully utilized to bring the gospel to our ears and to our eyes. And for that, we're so thankful for that. We're we're excited to see, um, even though we do fall short, and sometimes we are stubborn, we are a bit stiff-necked if we're all honest with ourselves, but we we have a mighty Savior who is patient. We have a mighty Savior who is not quitting or giving up on us even when we fail. So let's go today and just be encouraged and think about the the grace and the mercy that that God gives to us, and let's think about this day that we will see our Maker face to face and what a glorious day that will be. 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 back.