July 8, 2026 - Deuteronomy 9 & Psalm 130

We read Deuteronomy 9 and Psalm 130 and face the uncomfortable truth that God’s provisions are not wages for our righteousness. We put pride to death, name our sin honestly, and cling to the forgiveness and redemption God provides through Jesus 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 Reading Plan Focus

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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 Sandborn, Student Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church South Valley. Today is Wednesday, july eighth, twenty twenty six. Listen intently to God's written

Deuteronomy 9 Read Aloud

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word. Deuteronomy nine. Hear, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it, said, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you, so you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you. Do not say in your heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, it is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land, whereas it is because of the wickedness of the nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember, and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness, from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebellious against the Lord. Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, and the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly, they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made themselves a metal image. Furthermore, the Lord said to me, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands, and I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God, you had made yourselves a golden calf, you had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay prostrate before the Lord, as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all the sin that you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger, for I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also, and the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust, and I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain, at Taborah also, and at Massa and at Kibrath Hatava, you provoked the Lord to wrath. And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnia, saying, Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord, O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness, for they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

Psalm 130 Read Aloud

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Psalm one thirty. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Not Because Of Righteousness

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As I look to Deuteronomy chapter nine this morning, my eyes are drawn to the title above, the superscript above the chapter, and my Bible says, not because of righteousness. And as we look to the laundry list of Israel's shortcomings and rebellion and wickedness and grumbling and complaining and uh lack of faith, uh, as they were delivered out of the and uh out of the land of Egypt, we see uh the rapsheet of their uh wrongs. We see many of the ways and a recap in a certain sense of all the ways that Israel did not obey and were rebellious. Now uh it's a quick reminder for Israel here uh to remember you are not righteous, the Lord is this people that we are going to drive out in a certain sense. You're not much better than them, though they are more wicked than you. Uh there is a clear evidence of that in our chapter today. Um, this land that God has promised, he will surely deliver to his people, and he is going to go before them and thrust and drive out the people that are currently inhabiting this land of Canaan. And this chapter is a strong reminder for Israel not to have a puffed ego or a big head or a puffed up chest to enter this land and say, It's ours because we deserve it, it's ours because we are a moral and upright and righteous people. No, this this chapter is showing the people of Israel and reminding them this is God's promise to you, this is God's grace and his faithfulness and his love towards you on full display. You do not deserve this land. But nevertheless, God is gracious, God is a loving God and a faithful God who keeps his promises, and because he is, because Yahweh is a God that is faithful to his people, he will deliver them and follow through with his promises, despite the golden calf worship, despite uh the um, despite the rebellion, despite failed leadership in Aaron and the different ways that this stubborn people has rebelled against God. And there's imagery of uh oxen not submitting to the the yoke that is placed on them, and that is a uh some imagery that is coming to mind as I think about the people of Israel and their lack of submission to the Lord who is leading them to the promised land. So as the people will inherit this land, because God is going to follow through on his promises, this is a reminder to the people of Israel to rem to be a humble people, to be a people that is not proud or puffed up or self-deceived in their their own hearts. God is faithful, Israel is clearly not. Nevertheless, God is gracious and is merciful and is going to provide the security, provide the um the force to drive out a people so that the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would come true in due time. As

From Sin Ledger To Redemption

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we move over to our psalm today, in Psalm chapter 130, my eyes are drawn to a ledger, the ledger of my own sins. And if you're looking at verse number three, and you're looking at your own life and in your own heart, you feel as small as a grain of sand. Verse three reads, If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? None of us are able to stand faultless or guiltless to stand in our own righteousness before a perfect and holy God. And we are a people that would, like the psalmist, cry out for mercy, cry out to the Lord for forgiveness. Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord, hear my voice. And we can agree that we need forgiveness, we need God's steadfast love, we need his mercy, uh, and we need the cross of Jesus Christ to forgive us. We need God's perfect sacrifice. And the psalmist here in a in a certain sense is waiting for God to save him. Uh, his soul is waiting for God's promises to come true and waiting in obedience. His soul waits for the Lord in the imagery of a watchman longing for the sun to rise up over the horizon more than the watchman for the morning is the psalmist's desire for the Lord to act. The psalmist is waiting for God to follow through with his promises. And this psalmist so encouraging as as it concludes, O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And we will redeem Israel, he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities, and that is dependent on God to act, dependent on his mercy, his wrath being satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the the sin that he bore on our behalf. We have a an eternal and living hope because Christ is alive and is reigning, and his defeat of sin and death alleviates and delivers us from the penalties of our sin. And in a certain sense, the psalmist is crying out in dependence for God's love, for God's mercy, for God's grace, for his provision. And if we are in Christ, we have done exactly that. We have called out on the name of the Lord, the only name who can save, and that is Jesus Christ for salvation. So a great encouragement for us today as we reflect on this psalm and make a certain connection to the rap sheet that we see in Deuteronomy 9. Oh Lord, if if there is a ledger, a list of my wrongdoings, there for in any man on planet earth, any woman on planet earth would would be able to stand before the Lord, there is not one, but there is one perfect and eternal sacrifice, the eternal Son of God, Jesus, the Savior, the King of Kings, who is mighty to save and is full of forgiveness. And anyone that would bend the knee and submit their life, submit their uh their heart to the Lord and ask him for forgiveness and to turn and repent of their sins, he is faithful and just. He is faithful to forgive uh iniquities, and we can stand in that. We can stand before the Lord only because of the love and the great work that Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross. That is the only way that anyone can stand before the Lord.

Imputed Righteousness And Closing

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Well, I hope this was an encouragement to you today as we look to Deuteronomy and the Psalms to be encouraged and to remember we are not a righteous people, but we do have, because of what God has done, we have the imputed righteousness. We have Christ's righteousness that he accomplished credited to our accounts through faith, and through that, we can stand forgiven and faultless before God. Thanks so much for joining us on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv dot org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.