June 25, 2026 - Numbers 34 & Psalm 119:169-176

We celebrate an encouraging community cookout night and pray for the conversations and seeds planted in Kuna. We also wrap up Psalm 119 by tracing its repeated cry for understanding and deliverance according to God’s Word, and we connect that to why the Bible stays central in our church and in our daily walk with Christ. 

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 Purpose

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Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bybreeding Plan. We are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word letting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, Lee Pastor of Compassela Valley. Today is Thursday, June 25th, 2026.

Numbers 34 Land Boundaries

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Here's a quick summary of Numbers 34. Numbers 34 details the boundaries of the land that Israel was set to inherit upon crossing the Jordan River. So there is some specific geographical areas and borders, of course, that is included in the promised land that God had included in the covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant to his people Israel. And so those borders are specifically designated here when they cross the Jordan River for them to understand where they are to inherit and what God has promised. And then the chapter ends by listing the tribal chiefs, just a reiteration of the lineages and the people of Israel that are in covenant with God.

Psalm 119 Read Aloud

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For the last time in Psalm 119, please listen intently to God's written word. Psalm 119, 169 through 176. Let my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. Let my plea come before you. Deliver me according to your word. My lips will pour forth praise. For you teach me your statutes. My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right. Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live and praise you. Let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.

Community Cookout Encouragement

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Now at the time of recording this, it is the end of the evening, just after we hosted a community cookout here in Cuna. And man, it was such an encouraging evening. Encouraging on so many levels, seeing our church just excitedly come and serve, or just excitingly, excitedly come and be a part, be present in this great evening was so encouraging. There was so much work behind the scenes by so many people to make this evening happen. I want to highlight particularly our staff, Morgan, Kristen, and Tyler. They uh went above and beyond to make sure that the community cookout was everything that it needed to be. And uh it was quite stressful just with everything going on with Chem Compass, but they really banded together and they did such a great job. And of course, there was other volunteers, a part of that. I think of Sadie, who was heading up Compass Catering, just did such an incredible job, was so organized, and the food was great, and her team did such a great job. Uh so thank you to everyone that came tonight to serve. Thank you to everyone that was intentional uh to get into conversations with people that are not part of our church. And there was probably four or five conversations that I myself was able to get into, uh, talk to a couple Mormon families, talk to uh some people that are not necessarily a part of a church, uh, was able to pass out some uh specific invites that people actually requested in the in the conversation that I was having with them about our church. So just be praying, um, just be praying for those conversations for those people, pray that the Lord would bring people to our church as a result of just even this event or the intentional conversations or just even the act of service that we were seeking to do uh in our community to give people just a free meal and a fun evening uh with them and their family. Uh so some great conversations, and I heard of some other great conversations uh with people again that maybe don't have churches, or um, there was some gospel conversations I know that were going on. So please pray for the Lord to use uh this evening that we just finished and concluded, the community cookout here in Cuna, uh, just to grow his church, uh to make disciples, and that there'd just be great opportunities for follow-up. Uh, we recognize um that really the work isn't accomplished and just having a fun, free evening like a cookout. We we want to make disciples. We want to teach all that Christ commanded, we want to share the gospel with the lost. So this is just one aspect, one step uh in that direction. And we want to be faithful as the Lord puts people in front of us, as the Lord allows us to develop relationships in this community to be so intentional and to share the good news and the hope that is within us. Now,

Why God’s Word Stays Central

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one of the things I want to just highlight as we conclude Psalm 119 is just the consistent refrain in this last section of God's word. Give me understanding, 169 says, according to your word. Deliver me according to your word. That's verse 170. 172, my tongue will sing of your word. And so Psalm 119 just focuses again and again and again on the word of God, and it has different words, different phrases that it uses to reference that it uses the word word, it also uses the word precepts, it uses the word law, uh, and and the whole point, commandments, even verse 176. I've gone astray like a sheep, seek your servant, come after me, Lord, for I do not forget your commandments. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Even rules is in reference to the word of God. And so Psalm 119 has just been a rich study. I hope it's been an encouragement to you just to think about the supremacy of God's word and its role that it should have in our lives as Christians, uh, particularly if you're thinking about Hebrews 4.12, that God's word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrows, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Psalm 119 really is a giant exposition, if you will, of Hebrews 4.12, the reality of the potency of God's word and the primacy it it's supposed to have in the life of a believer. And even here we see what it yields or it should yield, what it should lead us to, verse 171 my lips will pour forth praise, for you teach me your statutes. My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right, they are good. So Psalm 119 has just been a masterclass, of course, of the centrality of the scriptures. And I would even go as far as to say that our first distinctive at Compass finds a lot of its footing and grounding right here in Psalm 119. Our first distinctive is that the Bible is central. And if you walk away from Psalm 119 with anything, walk away with the reality that whoever wrote this, again, some people think it's David, there's just some debate about that. But the psalmist who wrote this, one of the things that's just so incredibly clear is the love for God's word, the valuing of God's word. And so we need to have that reality, not just something that we say on our website or that's printed on the back of our bulletins, but this is central. The Bible is central. So, what do we want to do on Sunday mornings? We want to teach the Bible. What do you want to do with the kids in kids' ministry or in life group kids? We want to teach the Bible. Why do Morgan and I write children's books that parallel our sermon series on Sunday morning? Because we want to teach the Bible, because we believe the Bible is central. We believe what Hebrews 4.12 says, that it's living and active, that it's not some dead archaic book, archaic book on the shelf somewhere, but that it's relevant, it's timely, it's profitable, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3. And as a result of that, it should again have this place of centrality in our lives. And that's really what we've seen in Psalm 119. And we've seen responses of worship, we've seen responses of encouragement, we've seen prayers that are fueled because of the word, we've seen longing for a salvation, verse 174. All of these responses, all of this reality uh centered on the word of God, it is so central to our walk with Christ. And of course, as I even mentioned on Sunday, God gave us a book and he expects us to read it. And that's really what Psalm 119 is all about. So as we just again, I know it's a shorter episode this evening, but it's been a long day and uh kind of even just recovering from uh the cookout, but just be praying for the conversations that happened, for the seeds that were planted. Pray that the Lord would do far more abundantly than we can ever ask or imagine with something so simple as just a community cookout, seeking to serve those uh who came and uh even just the good conversations, the relationships that uh were even able to be formed and shorthanded and short-formed uh tonight. Uh, I pray that I hope that you would pray that the Lord would be honored in our efforts and that he would establish the work of our hands and all the effort that went into seeing tonight

Prayer And Closing Charge

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happen. 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.