July 4, 2026 - Deuteronomy 6 & Psalm 127

We connect Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 127 to show how God’s word shapes a home and how lasting work depends on the Lord instead of anxious effort. We talk through teaching our children diligently, answering their “why” questions with God’s rescue, and trusting God to form the next generation for his glory. 

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

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bybreeding Plan, where 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, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Saturday, July 4th, 2026.

Deuteronomy 6 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Listen intently to God's written word. Deuteronomy six. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son, and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you arise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear, him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you, for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes which which he has commanded you, and you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers, by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised. When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes, and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.

Psalm 127 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Psalm one twenty seven.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

The Shema And Generational Faith

SPEAKER_00 4:11

The psalm and our reading of Deuteronomy today actually go really well together, Tyler, because in Deuteronomy six there is a focus, beginning in verse four, of listening and really obeying the great commandment. The Lord our God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you shall be on your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. So there's this sense of the commands of the Lord were to be central in the life of every Israelite, and not just for them as individuals or as parents or adults, but even they were to pass that on generationally to their children. And so there was this command given to hear that the Lord is their God, He is the only God, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And there's a command to love him, to pursue him, to fear him. That's even one of the consistent words and phrases that we're seeing here, even in verse 2, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son. And even later on, when it says, when your son eventually asks you, Why are you obeying all these commands? What is the meaning of all of these commands and statutes and precepts? What's the answer that they were to give? God rescued us from Egypt. God is our savior, God is our Lord, uh, he is one, he is the great I am. And so, because of that, we are to love him, we are to obey him, and we are to teach our children and our children's children to diligently follow him. I mean, that's verse seven. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. So the whole point of this is whether you're working in the home or even just living in the home and sleeping in the home, resting, or whether you're out in the field or at the gates or working outside, whether you you are working or resting, the whole idea is you are to be thinking about, meditating on, and even teaching the commands of God. Um, and this is famous chapter here in Deuteronomy 6 is uh what it is what's often referred to as, specifically in verse 4, the Shema. So the word Shema in Hebrew simply just means hear or listen, and that's what it begins with there in verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So this was something that they would repeat often. It was something that they were well acquainted with and well accustomed with in uh ancient Israel. It was something that was very meaningful for them. And again, this was a command, uh, the the greatest command, as it's called, to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. But then also they were to teach that diligently to their children. So again, we have this idea of fathers and mothers working tirelessly and intentionally to pass on the truth of who God is and what he has done to future generations. And that's something I know that we try to talk about here often at Compass Bible Church South Valley. We want that to be a focus that we have. We want our families to build legacies of faithfulness by doing just this, by living out Deuteronomy 6, by teaching our children diligently. Even we just had our first child dedication service just a few weeks ago. And I referenced this verse, teaching all that God has commanded to our children diligently. That's the whole idea. And so we we want to do that. We want to have legacies of faithfulness, lies of holiness, where we're seeking to grow in the fear of the Lord, and we're seeking to teach our children who God is and what he has done, such that one day when they ask us this question, mom and dad, why do we go to church? Why do we do the things that the way that we do them? We can say, because of what God has done for us in Christ, because of the salvation that he has provided, because great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And that's kind of what we see here laid out in Deuteronomy chapter six. Yeah, amen.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

And

Unless The Lord Builds The House

SPEAKER_01 8:23

uh, as as we were preparing to record uh today, you and I were talking, PJ, and I I told you this psalm today kind of reads like a proverb. And uh, if you're familiar with the author of the proverb, it's King Solomon. And here in Psalm 127, it's a song of ascents of Solomon. And something that uh I pulled from the the text today is uh just the idea that um it was not David that was able to build the temple of the Lord, it was his son Solomon, and it's Solomon here that is talking about the building of a house, and this is something that we pray often on Sunday mornings before we set up anything. Uh PJ, you pray with the group of men that are setting up uh at church. You you ask the Lord to establish the work of our hands. That's something that you continually do, and I'm just reminded of that as we read our Psalm today, 127. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives uh his beloved sleep. It's the Lord that does it, it's the Lord that is going to be the action and the efforts. He's gone going to be the one who makes the change in our minds and in our hearts, and um is going to be the fuel that gives us the ability to do that we would want to do to please him. So I'm just encouraged today, as we see in our psalm, a great reminder for us, Lord, help me to do this. Lord, let your will be done in this. I don't want to get in the way of what you are going to accomplish here. Help me be in line with what um you would want to happen in the pursuit of making disciples, in the pursuit of putting on a worship service on a Sunday morning uh or a Sunday evening. Uh, we can make our plans, we can strategize, and we can create all these formulas to uh to make a good uh effort and a good go at whatever it is that we're trying to accomplish. But if the Lord's not in it, it's going to fail. And that's something that I'm pulling away from Psalm 127 today. What do you

Children As Arrows And Heritage

SPEAKER_01 10:31

have?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah, and as we connect Psalm 127 to Deuteronomy 6, I mean the the latter half of this psalm begins even in verse 3. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb of reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. So I think of Psalm 127 as sort of the fast-forward button in the Deuteronomy 6 command of teaching your children diligently. What's something that you're aiming for? What will what will Lord willing that become one day? Well, I think it'll become Psalm 127, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. You recognize that the children that you've been given are a heritage from the Lord. And so you steward that responsibility and that heritage and that gift and that blessing, as it's said here in Psalm 127, and you obey the command to teach them diligently to fear the Lord. And if you are to do that and labor in that prayerfully and consistently, the hope one day is that they would be like arrows in the hand of a warrior, that you get to sort of fire off for the glory of God, where they accomplish uh the same thing where they have families of their own, they teach their own children to fear the Lord, uh, and the process continues and the generations continue uh to be shaped and transformed by the word of God. Um, so even verse five, blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. And so we ought to have just this perspective for those of us who have children, that children first and foremost are a blessing from the Lord, their heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is said to be a reward. And we're aiming in our pursuit of obeying Deuteronomy 6 to teach our children diligently about God. Uh, we want to see them be fashioned and forged like arrows that we get to launch into any number of uh opportunities and contexts to teach others and to really spread the glory of God to the ends of the earth. And so I think this is just a great connection between Psalm 127 and what happens to those who diligently seek to raise their children in the Lord prayerfully. We're asking that the Lord uh would make them arrows that uh have sharp tips and that hit the targets that they are aimed at.

Parenting Challenges And Steady Grace

SPEAKER_01 12:46

And this doesn't come all easy breezy without speed bumps or challenges in the way. If you're a parent, you're thinking, like, yeah, this is this is what I should do. This is good for me, but it's not easy. Here's an encouragement for you. In the process of raising up your children and the fear and instruction, the discipline of the Lord, uh, it's gonna come with with challenges. You're gonna have uh children who are disobedient, who might lie to you, who might rebel against you, who might uh delay in obedience or test the limits of your of your authority and your leadership. Um, just continue uh in the in the grace that God provides uh to love them, to to show them the airs of their of their mind, of their hearts, and uh and to continually point them back to the law of the Lord, point them back continually with discipline. Oftentimes we require discipline. I was speaking to a a father uh today about just reflecting on our own lives and how we can be uh just seeing uh seeing our own selves and our own mistakes and our own past and our children. And at times uh we can be we can be frustrated, but it's always a great practice to remember uh the patience that God had with us, the grace that God poured out and the mercy that he displayed on us to not just um crush us in our disobedience, but no, God is God is faithful and kind to uh to discipline the ones that he loves and to continually guide and and care for and comfort parents and uh and children alike in this process of uh becoming disciples and becoming uh more like Christ. And something that we need encouragement in. So whether you are a parent or a spiritual parent, if you're a single and you are just investing faithfully into lives of other people in our church, keep going. Keep going on. Uh we're praying for you. Um I'm hoping that we're just praying for each other as a church as we uh reflect on the child dedication Sunday, not too far in the in the past. We need to be uh reminded to continue praying for each other, for each other's children and and the the believers that we have right here in our midst. So that's uh uh an encouragement from us to you. Uh keep going, keep depending on the Lord, keep uh relying on his strength and and the grace that he provides for you today.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

And certainly by God's grace, we will see our children and future generations be like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Uh and we want to be blessed, like we see here in Psalm 127. Bless is the man who fills his quiver with them. Well,

Closing Encouragement And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 15:12

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.