July 6, 2026 - Deuteronomy 7 & Psalm 128

We connect Deuteronomy 7 and Psalm 128 to show how God’s covenant faithfulness produces real-world courage and a life of blessing. We trace the fear of the Lord across Scripture and talk candidly about praying through longing while choosing satisfaction in 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 Today’s Date

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Welcome to the Lamp and Light Byboarding 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, lead pastor of Compass South Valley. Today is Monday, July 6th, 2026.

Scripture Reading Deuteronomy 7

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Listen intently to God's written word, Deuteronomy 7. When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Gergesites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to take their sons, or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and chop down their ashram, and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him, he will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of the womb, and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, and the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock, and the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you, and you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eyes shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. If you say in your heart, These nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. The great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. You shall not be in a dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the beasts grow too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, to take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God, and you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house, and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

Scripture Reading Psalm 128

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Psalm one twenty eight. Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel.

Covenant Promises And Steadfast Love

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Now there's some great connections here today between Deuteronomy seven and Psalm 128. They both have themes of blessing and provision that God will provide to those who fear him, that God will provide to those who obey him. Now, starting in Deuteronomy 7, there's a reiteration of the covenant, and there's a mention of their forefathers. That's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So whenever you see that phrase or that word, forefathers, think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and think about the covenant that God made specifically with Abraham, that then got passed down to Isaac and to Jacob. And that covenant, if you remember, had three main components: land, seed, and blessing. And God reiterates that to his people. And he reiterates even the covenant that he makes with Moses. Of course, he makes with Israel. And he says that as they go into this promised land, they should not fear, even though the armies and the kings and the soldiers that they are up against and the kingdoms that they are up against, perhaps from our perspective, seem insurmountable. They seem unconquerable. You know, God says, I will be with you. He's going to give them the victory. And I love even just some of the details that we see here in Deuteronomy 7. It talks about how God is not going to give them victory over all of the nations and all of the kings and kingdoms all at once. For just even something simple and practical, like they would be overrun with the amount of cattle and livestock that they would be taking on into their herds because of their conquests. And so God says, no, I'm going to just slowly, methodically, and in a way that's manageable and in a way that's sort of bite-sized, allow you to conquer and sort of inch your way into the promised land that He has guaranteed. And so just down to the detail, down to just the very last iota and jot and tittle, God is in control. And I love even verse nine here. It says, Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. That's one of the things that really kind of is the glue for this passage. It's a reminder that God is God. And what kind of God is he? Well, he's a faithful God who keeps his covenant and his steadfast love. He keeps that with those who love him for a thousand generations. And those who would be against the people that love God, he says, and he repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful, he says to Israel, to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. And so again, there's just this great just encouragement. It's kind of this rallying battle cry almost that God gives directly to the nation of Israel. He says, I'm going to deliver your enemies into your hands. And I want you to keep in your mind and in your heart fixed the reality that I am faithful to my promises. Man, if I was on the cusp of battle, I mean, that's the kind of thing that I would want to hear directly from the Lord. The Lord is on my side, the Lord fights for me, the Lord is faithful, and his steadfast love endures for generations, thousands of generations. Come what may, the Lord is with me. Now we see some parallels here in Psalm 128. Even the title of this psalm, at least in the ESV, the heading is Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. And this psalm reflects in a pretty significant way the reality of those who fear the Lord and what kind of life that they live and what it looks like and the shape that it takes. Now I can't help but but think of uh just yesterday we talked about in Proverbs 1 where do we go to find the fear of the Lord? Of course, use that silly analogy of looking around the house for something that I seemingly can't find and looking in all the wrong places and I grow and grow and grow in frustration. But the scriptures say in no uncertain terms, and it's not confusing, it's it's exactly what we need to know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And so if we want true biblical wisdom, it starts and it ends with the fear of the Lord. I think of even uh Ecclesiastes. This is the end of the matter. Fear God, keep his commandments. Now, Psalm 128 kind of describes for us the lifestyle of someone who does just that, who fears the Lord. And it says in verse one, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. So what what's gonna happen for you today, on Monday, July 6th, when you think to yourself in your heart prayerfully before the Lord, I want to fear the Lord. What kind of life can you expect to have? Well, according to Psalm 128, you can expect to have a blessed life, or at least be a blessed person. I mean, that's what it says there. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. Even verse 2, you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Even something specific, like the fruit of children, which are a heritage from the Lord, we saw in Psalm 127. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Now, again, this is not saying that every Christian family ever is going to be guaranteed a children. Of course, we know that there are people uh who struggle with infertility, there are people who are for one reason or another uh unable to biologically have children. So this isn't saying that if you fear the Lord, there's some sort of promise or guarantee that that's exactly what's going to happen. That's not what it's saying. But in general, of course, even specifically to the nation of Israel. We see that in Deuteronomy 7. It talks about there would not be a barren womb among you. There's some specific promises to God's people. And I think this is one of those things that's reiterated here in Psalm 128 that connects well to Deuteronomy 7. But nevertheless, here's the reality of someone who fears the Lord. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. So if they are a heritage from the Lord, uh, as it says in Psalm 127, Psalm 128 tells us that it's the person who fears the Lord that is given this privilege, that's that's given this right, at least in this context, again, uh it's a to even have a have the blessing of offspring. So it goes on in verse 4. Behold, thus the man be blessed who fears the Lord. So we have a reiteration of verse 1. It's said in a different way. Verse 1 says, Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Verse 4 says, Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. And then it concludes in verse 5: The Lord bless you from Zion, or the verse 5 and 6. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life, may you see your children's children, peace be upon Israel.

Praying Through Longing And Contentment

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Now we need we need to remember, these are prayers. These are sort of uh melodic song prayers, where they're making their ascent up to Jerusalem, psalms of ascent, songs of ascent. So these are these are sort of the heart cry of the people of Israel. They desire this, they want this, they want to be people that fear the Lord, they want to be blessed, and they want some of even the practical things that we see here. And so they are essentially taking the verbiage of Deuteronomy 7 that God uh we just read about, where God's talking to the nation of Israel, and they're converting it into a prayer and they're making it specific to their lives. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine. Again, it talks about they go into the land, no, there will be no barren womb among you. Uh your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Uh so this is something I would even say, if if you are uh kind of in the boat of desiring and and longing to have biological children, and for one weak reason or another, the Lord has not granted that prayer. I think Psalm 128 is for you. I think this is language for you to be able to pray and just kind of lay your soul bare before the Lord. Lord, you say in your word that blesses everyone who fears you. I want to fear you. And here's the kicker. This was this was something that I've often struggled with when I have a great desire, even a good desire. I always want to pray. Lord, help me to be satisfied in Christ far more, far more meaningfully than anything that I'm seeking satisfaction in in this life. Maybe even something that's good, and maybe even something that's biblical. God help me to first and foremost find my ultimate, my deepest, my greatest satisfaction in Christ. And so those priorities are where they ought to be. I think Psalm 128, for those who are in that boat of just desiring children, wrestling with the reality of that, the hurt of that. That's something that McKinsey and I uh know personally. Won't get into that, you know, the details of that now, but that's something that we know personally. So I think Psalm 128 is just such a great encouragement where we can just pray to the Lord. We can have this kind of language we just say back to the Lord, Lord, you have said in your word in Psalm 127, Psalm 128, children are heritage from you. Lord, you bless us. Would you bless us with that? And I think Psalm 128 is again just a prayer and a kind of kind of rally cry for people that desire to fear the Lord. And what kind of person is that? Well, they're the blessed person. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Of course, as we talked about on Sunday, yesterday, Proverbs 1 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is the end of the matter. Ecclesiastes says, Fear God, keep his commandments. Job talks about the fear of the Lord is wisdom. I mean, it's just all over the scriptures. So some great connections that we see textually between Deuteronomy 7 and Psalm 128. And ultimately, uh, we we need to just cling to the character of God, uh, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of uh what we do or do not have, or what God has or has not given. Um, and we need to continue to seek to fear the Lord and trust that we will be blessed. Blesses everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his

Closing Encouragement And Next Steps

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ways. 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.