July 3, 2026 - Deuteronomy 5 & Psalm 126

We read Deuteronomy 5 and Psalm 126, then connect covenant obedience with God’s protecting love as Israel prepares to enter the promised land. We also trace how God’s judgment and restoration expose modern idolatry, and while we are not ethnic Israel, the Scriptures remind us that the Lord disciplines those he loves.

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 Purpose

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Welcome to the Lamp and Light Byputing 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 Friday, July 3rd, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word.

Deuteronomy 5 Read Aloud

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Deuteronomy 5. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, and you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice, and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said, Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it. And the Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it may go well with them and with their descendants for ever. Go and say to them, Return to your tents, but you stand here by me, and I will tell you the whole commandment, and the statutes, and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess. You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Psalm 126 Read Aloud

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Psalm one twenty six.

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When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Why Moses Restates The Covenant

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Deuteronomy five is another reiteration of the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. Now, why is there this reiteration? Why is there this restating of the covenant? Well, because the wilderness generation that wandered for 40 years and their bodies fell in the wilderness has passed away. And now the next generation that will in fact enter into the promised land is about to enter into the promised land. And so there needs to be this renewal, this remembering of the covenant that God made with Mount with Israel on Mount Sinai. And so that's exactly what we see. We see the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words as they are often described as. We see just kind of a recasting of uh Moses and Mount Sinai and just remembering all that happened, the fire, the smoke, the seriousness of it, the weightiness of it. And we see the response of Israel to want to actually obey and to do all that God commanded. And even we see um verse 29, oh, that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever. So the Lord responds to Israel wanting to obey and wanting to follow the Ten Commandments by saying, Oh, if they would only continue to do this, that it may go well with them. So this is an important chapter because again, we're we're preparing to enter into the promised land. And so the first generation fell away, their bodies fell into the wilderness because of their disobedience, because they did not regard God as holy. And now there is an urging and a pleading from Moses to the people of Israel to remember the covenant. Of course, that even started back in chapter four, where Moses commands them to listen, to keep their soul, uh, to watch themselves very carefully. And of course, that takes the shape more specifically in chapter five with the reiteration of the Mosaic Covenant. So a very important chapter, very pivotal in the story of Deuteronomy specifically, but even the shape of the story that we uh started all the way back in Genesis, if you remember, Jacob becomes Israel, Israel becomes the father, Jacob becomes the father of this great nation that now is very large and has undergone slavery for 40 years in Egypt and Exodus, and then we see the tabernacle being constructed in in the book of Exodus, and then we've got all the specific stipulations for the tabernacle and the sacrifices in Leviticus, and then we've got uh even more of that reiterated in numbers and seeing just all that has happened to get us up until this point in Deuteronomy. So just keep all that in mind as you read Deuteronomy chapter five, and as you look at just a reiteration and a restating of the covenant that God originally made uh with Israel.

Judgment And God’s Faithful Restoration

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Now, PJ, as we look over to our psalm today, you and I were speaking before we press the record button here. Uh, there's the relationship between um God's judgment and the consequences for sin, as Israel would ultimately in the future uh would rebel and and worship false gods and be scattered just to be brought back again, because the Lord God of Israel is a faithful God. He's a steadfast God that that shows his his love and kindness to generations. We see the uh a snapshot here of a people that are being brought back to uh to their to their land, back to the fortunes uh of Zion. We see that in verse one here in in Psalm 126. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. And there's this comparison between um uh laughter and and that which would be going on as people are in exile, as they are scattered, they're longing to be back home, they're longing to worship uh in in the temple, worship in Jerusalem. And the the nations are aware that God is bringing his people back. And this is another song of ascent as the uh people of Israel would sing this aloud as they're making their way back to Jerusalem to worship uh God. There are some imagery here that would draw our attention to the the effects of those who would be scattered because of their uh worship of false gods. And uh, PJ, maybe you can give us some um some deeper insights here as we look to um a psalm that is shorter, uh just a verse longer than a pocket psalm. But uh maybe you can help us uh today understand just the some more of the context here uh in Psalm 126.

Streams In The Negeb Explained

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Well, I think what's going on is they're reflecting on some sort of scattering, some sort of exile, whether it was the Assyrian or the Babylonian, we don't know. Um but we we see this reflection, and uh clearly God has regathered them when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. We were like those who dreamed, and there's this great celebration. Um, so just it's a reminder of the faithfulness of God, even amidst judgment. Now, in verse six, it talks about the seed for sowing. Uh, famine was often associated with God's judgment and God's removal of his good hand of blessing from the nation of Israel. So they're praying, they're recounting this. Remember, they're making their ascent up to Jerusalem, uh, and they're remembering, they're recalling God's faithfulness to restore uh the sort of prosperity you could say and the blessing to Israel. And they're just praying that the Lord would continue to do that, that He would continue to provide, um, restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the streams in the Negab. So they're they're just asking that the Lord would continue to do that. He would protect them, He would preserve them, He would provide for them, He would bless them. And so that's really what's going on here in Psalm 126. So think of it again. In Deuteronomy, we see God even say in chapter four that if they don't listen, if they don't obey, he's gonna scatter them. There's gonna be uh basically what what they are going to do to the nations in Canaan, God is going to do to them. And that those nations are gonna be, I forget the exact words, but it's like a hook in their eye or something like that. They're gonna be just a thorn in their flesh uh because of their disobedience and their idolatry. And ultimately, of course, we know that that's exactly what Israel does. And so God comes through with his promise that he would scatter them, and he does that on several occasions throughout the Old Testament that we've already kind of talked about in the Psalms and that we'll read about eventually as we get there. Uh the uh the Assyrian uh captivity, the Babylonian captivity, these exiles where God's people are scattered, where they're enslaved, where they're captured, and then ultimately where they're regathered and rejoined. And so this is one of those prayers where they're reflecting on that, they're praising the Lord for that reality, and they're asking essentially that God would continue to do that and even preserve them uh from ultimately falling away again, which we know, of course, they

Modern Idolatry And Loving Discipline

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do.

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And what a reminder for us that the the gods or the idols or the things in our life that we would seek after to provide joy for us will ultimately result in in tears, will ultimately result in our lives of uh of a suffering as we're not worshiping the one true God, we're seeking to find fulfillment. If if we're not finding that in the God of the scriptures, we're worshiping in in various ways. That could be worshiping a job or worshiping a certain status that you have or a certain position. Um there's a lot of different ways to to pursue idolatry um in the year 2026. It's not a totem pole with carved images, but we can do that in a variety of different ways. And um, a good reminder for us today as we look at Psalm 126 that if we continue the path of disobedience and in idle worship and not obeying and following after the one true God, uh, there are some things that will go um not so well for us as we are just not worshiping God.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Discipline we will experience. Hebrews talks about that God disciplines those whom he loves. And so we're not exempt from that. Of course, there's not the same sort of scattering, scattering. We're not an ethnic nation like Israel. We're of every tribe, tongue, and nation. But nevertheless, we can still experience discipline from the Lord. And so that's something that we can certainly take away here from Psalm 126, and just pray that the Lord uh would protect us, that we he would deliver us from evil, uh, that even we would have victory over temptation, that we would believe that God is faithful and that he would provide a way of escape. And that's something that we can certainly see here and learn and take away from Psalm 126.

Closing Charge And Church Link

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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.